The New Twist Press from Barista & Co

Twist Press

This innovative new coffee maker – The Twist Press – is a great product for coffee on the go – it is compact, easy to use, and includes a coffee storage section under the silicone lid.

Twist Press Parts
Twist Press Parts

To use, you place the lower handle on top of a mug add a paper filter, attach the coffee making chamber – then water and coffee grounds and stir. Position the upper plunger handle and allow to brew for a minute.

Then TWIST !

Pull the handles together and let the coffee come through under pressure to the mug below. You should find a clean, strong, black coffee which you can enjoy espresso style or as a base for any coffee.

The device is easy to clean and (top shelf) dishwasher safe.

See the Twist Press online at artistrycoffee.co.uk or at our Duck Farm Court location in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

Twist Press
Twist Press Stacked

 

The Hario V60 Ceramic set a PourOver standard

Hario V60 Ceramic Dripper

To be fair, most of our products are favourite in some way or other – we love handbrew coffee techniques and like to keep trying all the different methods we can get our hands on.

One of the simple, relaxing, first ways that we embraced handbrew coffee was with the Hario V60 – it’s a ceramic conical device that sits atop a mug or jug. Into it you place a paper filter (which you can wet to remove any paper taste that you might otherwise detect). Into the paper filter you place ground coffee to a medium coarse grind.

Simply pour a small amount (perhaps 40g) of hot water onto the coffee grounds and let them swell, or ‘bloom’ for half a minute or so. This gives the coffee grounds the chance to wet through and ensures more coffee flavour is extracted.

Then in slow swirls continue pouring water onto the coffee and allow it to drip through to the mug or vessel below – take your time in this and enjoy the process.

You’ll achieve a more delicate flavour of coffee and slow down a little while you’re at it!

V60 from Hariohttp://www.artistrycoffee.co.uk/shop/proddetail.php?prod=D0021 is synonymous with handbrew coffee making and this simple well-designed piece of coffee making kit is a standard – literally setting the standard against which other pour-over devices have to measure up to gain worthy credentials.

Water Temperature Experiments for Coffee (4):…

Buono Kettle with Thermometer

I started out looking at the temperature that boiled water reaches when it is left to cool – to think about having some guide for coffee making when just getting on with it rather than trying to measure every element, every time.

I quickly realized that it wasn’t as simple as that, and the water temperature depends on lots of things that can go on from the point of boiling.

So being in semi-scientific mode (a real scientist could probably tear my methods apart), I went off on an exploration of water temperature with some kitchen table experiments.

Having had a fairly simple start – by simply pouring boiling water into a jug and recording temperatures for 10 minutes. I then figured I needed to think about much more:

  1. If the water is held in vessels of different material
  2. If there is a smaller surface area, especially smaller top of the water, from which the water may lose heat.
  3. What happens when the water is not transferred from the water boiler (kettle).
  4. With those, I tried measurements in a ceramic mug rather than plastic jug which sort of covered 1 and 2 above. Nothing much to report there though.

    Measuring the water in the kettle itself was dramatically different (upto 15 degrees Celsius different at the same time since boiling in my observations).

    But still more to think about: The way I usually make coffee is either to pour first into a Buono kettle and then pour onto the coffee (either in one go into an AeroPress or over time as a drip filter). So I needed some other answers

  5. What happens to the water temperature in the Buono kettle?
  6. And perhaps most importantly, what is the temperature of the water as it actually hits the coffee?

To answer question 4 was relatively simple – simply pour the water straight from the kettle into the Buono and take the temperature readings from there. Answering 5 is a lot more complicated (that’s for next time).

The observations showed that there’s a cooling that goes very quickly, reducing the temperature by around 3 or 4 degrees Celcius, when the water is first poured into the Buono vessel – and that this temperature difference is then roughly maintained for the duration of the observations.

Darker line: observed temperature in boiling device (electric kettle), Lighter line: temperature in Buono Kettle (poured into from electric kettle)
Darker line: observed temperature in boiling device (electric kettle), Lighter line: temperature in Buono Kettle (poured into from electric kettle)

The observed temperatures from the Bouno kettle is the lower (lighter) line on the chart and you can see it approximately holds the relationship with the line above (the observed temperatures from the boiling kettle).

So this is logical, and in line with my first thoughts – that the initial pour into another vessel cools the water by a few degrees from boiling point (whether it be pouring into the plastic jug, the ceramic mug, or the Buono kettle). But the Buono clearly holds the temperature in slower rate of decine than an open topped vessel (this is science of some sort, but not really rocket science! Or perhaps it is!!!).

So I feel that this has all been helpful in coming to some greater understanding of what happens to the temperature of the boiled water, before it is poured onto coffee – but doesn’t get us to the answer of what is happening as the hot water it hits the coffee grounds (so that will be looked at next time….).

please note: boiling and hot water can be dangerous if not handled with care!
(despite the haphazardness of some of my approaches above, I did take some care and would suggest anyone else does the same: and children should be accompanied by an adult)

One scoop or two…..

A scoop to measure coffee

Of course soon enough in time on the coffee journey you come across a cafetiere to make coffee with (or French Press as some like to call it). This is a simple yet clever device, with the mesh disc to push the ground coffee down in the coffee maker and keep them (mainly) separate from the coffee that will be drunk.

There are lots of things that can be said about making coffee this way – and I’m sure we’ll come to them one day – but the biggest thing that puzzled me was how much coffee to use. And it’s not like I did the sensible thing and work it out then remember it: so every time I make coffee this way was like starting afresh.

It actually gets complicated by the fact that making coffee in different homes, with different coffees, and different size cafetieres means that even if you get the amount of coffee right one time, the next coffee you make with a different blend may need a different amount. And what about the 1 cup vs the 4 cup, 6 cup, 8 cup vessels?

How can anyone ever get it right?

And how do you judge the right amount of water each time?

In fact here we are at the heart of the brew recipe: a phrase which at first (for coffee) seems bizarre, yet is increasingly used by coffee fans to record how they made their latest coffee.

In simple terms something like – 2 scoops of ground coffee to one mug of water. [In reality a brew recipe will potentially record all sorts of things, but that’s for another time].

At its simplest remembering the proportion of water and ground coffee that you use is a first key step to getting a consistent approach to coffee making. And a first simple brew recipe.

A lot of it is about proportions – so you can then double the numbers for 2 mugs, quadruple for 4 etc. Maybe a bit more complex than that, but not far off.

If you use the same type of coffee all the time, you will no doubt hit on proportions of coffee and water that you prefer: and it is worth experimenting with this as it can affect the enjoyment you get from your mug. Also try with different lengths of time after the kettle has boiled, as the temperature of the water can be an important factor. And different timing before you push the plunger down.
Write down what makes the best cup for you, along with the blend of coffee that you made it with.

Once you start weighing the coffee for more precision you know you’re taking it seriously !

So learning the cafetiere is not quite as complex as learning a musical instrument, but maybe a bit similar – you can pick it up and get some coffee out of it: but if you play it well, the notes the coffee delivers will change and become more melodic perhaps. And just like music, I’ve hinted that timing is important too: but that’s also for another time!