March is upon us.
Warm weather is so close you can almost taste the cold brew.
What you may not know, is that March is Caffeine Awareness Month (who decides these things?).
Most of us are aware of caffeine. We are aware it exists. We are aware that it is in coffee.
But what is it?
And why should we be concerned about it? Or should we?
]]>Warm weather is so close you can almost taste the cold brew.
What you may not know, is that March is Caffeine Awareness Month (who decides these things?).
Most of us are aware of caffeine. We are aware it exists. We are aware that it is in coffee.
But what is it?
And why should we be concerned about it? Or should we?
Caffeine is a naturally occurring compound that can be found within the leaves, seeds and fruit of over 60 varieties of plants, including coffee and tea. Its purpose in nature is to act as a pesticide, its bitter flavor warning hungry insects of the threat of toxicity.
Caffeine – both natural and synthetic – is added to a variety of beverages, both contributing to flavor profiles, and adding the energetic boost most of us associate with caffeine.
Whether natural of artificial, caffeine is caffeine and the physiological effects are the same.
- Tea has been consumed in China since as early 2737 BC.
- Coffee was discovered toward the end of the 6th century in Ethiopia and was used for it’s caffeinated properties, typically by brewing or eating the leaves, or emulsifying the seeds in animal fat and consuming.
- Coffee has been consumed as a beverage since the 11th century in the Arabian peninsula.
- Today, over 85% of Americans consume caffeine every day.
You may have heard conflicting reports on the safety of caffeine consumption.
Does it stunt your growth?
Does it cause ADD?
We aren’t doctors, and we aren’t here to give you medical advice, but from a friend to friend we will say this: caffeine is safe.
At least, when it comes to coffee.
This study from the International Life Sciences Institute concluded that a daily intake of around 400mg of caffeine was “not associated with overt, adverse effects,” for adults (another study noted an inverse association between coffee consumption and mortality including those drinking all the way up to 8 cups per day!). This study is the largest of its kind to date and analyzed the results of over 700 previous independent studies.
To put this number in context, the average amount of caffeine in an 8 oz serving of black coffee is 95mg, although depending on a variety of factors, this number can range from around 15mg – 165mg, while the average decaffeinated coffee contains about 2mg per serving.
A 2014 study published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, which studied potential adverse effects of caffeine, found that the average American consumes about 165mg of caffeine per day.
This number is well below the aforementioned safe daily intake, however, in the 2017 National Coffee Data Trends report from the National Coffee Association, 66% of coffee drinkers limit their daily caffeine intake due to health concerns.
Another important fact to remember is that when it comes to health and coffee – the conversation extends far beyond simple caffeine content.
Coffee is associated with a variety of health benefits applying to longevity, cancer prevention, diabetes, stroke, liver and kidney health, and more.
For those that do avoid for caffeine, don’t despair!
Many of these benefits apply to decaffeinated coffee as well.
Coffee is delicious, caffeine - in relation to coffee consumption – is safe, and drinking coffee seems to provide a variety of potential health benefits.
Here’s to a caffeinated month of March!
https://foodinsight.org/caffeine/what-is-caffeine/
]]>On this episode of KLLR Creatives, we speak with Tommy Miller, a former Air Force firefighter turned beer-brewer and is based out of the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
During his time in the Air Force, Tommy fell in love with beer as he was exposed to brews from around the world and eventually, learning to brew himself while living in Japan. After leaving the Air Force, Tommy became an Aircraft Rescue Firefighter as a contractor for the Department of Defense spending time in Afghanistan, Iraq, and an extended stay in Kuwait - all the while, continuing to spend his off-time exploring new cultures - and new beers.
After some more globe-trotting and turning down a highly-classified position at Area 51, Tommy decided to dive into the world of beer professionally. Starting off cleaning and delivering kegs, Tommy quickly rose to the top of the Dallas brewing scene, most recently helping launch Rollertown Beerworks in Celina, TX.
]]>
In our last Espresso @ Home clip, we laid out the steps to pulling a shot of espresso.
This time, we're going to show you how to make sure it actually tastes good.
]]>In our last Espresso @ Home clip, we laid out the steps to pulling a shot of espresso.
This time, we're going to show you how to make sure it actually tastes good.
Join us as we get on our grind with our Breville gear and explain how to "dial in" an espresso - ie. make it taste good!
Enjoy the clip and be sure to stay turned for the next Espresso @ Home video post which will see us breaking out the milk pitchers and getting our Cappuccino on!
Are there any?
What if everything we thought we knew was wrong?
Join us as we look at some evolving ideas within the world of coffee.
]]>Gravity.
The sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening.
The Earth is a sphere (well… most of us agree on that one).
Similarly, there are some things when it comes to preparing coffee that have been drilled into our heads so many times that we often take these “facts” for granted.
Brew water temperature matters.
Coffee tastes best within a couple of weeks of roasting.
Fines migrate within a portafilter.
But what if everything we thought we knew was wrong?
If you were to discover that, say for instance, that perhaps fines DO NOT migrate; that your water temperature does NOT have to be 200F, or maybe even that you could pop open that two-month-old bag of beans without a worry in the world, would those revelations blow your fragile coffee, soaked mind?
Well, in the apt words of legendary Jurassic Park Chief Engineer, Ray Arnold:
“Hold on to your butts,”
because it’s time for some Coffee & Controversy.
Controversial Take 1 – “Brew temperature… has little impact on the sensory profile of drip brew coffee.”
Anyone who has been through a coffee brewing training in the last decade plus has likely been told that the ideal temperature range for brewing coffee is 195F – 205F. That, we have been told, is the range at which water is the most effective solvent to the sweet, tasty solute that is our coffee and that which will yield the most delicious cup.
Well, nerds, an October 2020 study published in Scientific Reports, titled “Brew temperature, at a fixed brew strength and extraction, has little impact on the sensory profile of drip brew coffee,” concludes that brew temperature at a fixed brew strength and extraction, has little impact on the sensory profile of drip brew coffee. Wild.
According to the study, when professional sensory experts were presented with samples of coffees brewed to pre-determined strength and extraction yield parameters – but with different temperatures – the judges were unable to detect flavor differences in samples brewed at different temperatures.
To achieve the same strength and extraction figures across samples brewed at different temperatures other variables were manipulated such as brew time and grind size.
Controversial Take 2 – “Either fines [don’t] migrate, or their migration [doesn’t] cause an issue.”
Think back to barista training once more.
Espresso Day this time.
Do you remember learning to grind, dose, and tamp?
You may have been told that one purpose of distributing and tamping well was to prevent fines (ultra-fine ground coffee particles) from “migrating” to the bottom of the portafilter and, thus, leading to channeling, flow-rate issues, or other problems.
This idea has been challenged recently by several different experiments that all seem to indicate something different.
In a Socratic Coffee experiment, they sifted coffee grounds, layered doses in layers of varying particle sizes in portafilters, and then examined the layers after pulling the shots.
Barista Hustle approached their experiment by tapping each portafilter 100 times before tamping and pulling shots, the thought being that while tapping, finer particles would work their way downward.
Towards Data Science set up an experiment where they layered fine chalk shavings on top of espresso doses to examine their rate of migration.
In each experiment, either no migration was observed or no discernible difference in channeling or shot quality were observed.
Controversial Take 3 – “A coffee that was of good quality when it was fresh will probably still be quite drinkable when it's a bit long in the tooth.”
“Coffee is a produce and has such has a finite period of freshness. We recommend consuming coffee within two weeks of being roasted…
TWO WEEKS OFF ROAST!!”
We’ve probably all been told this. It’s become all but a governing law of the Specialty Coffee universe but according to Sprudge interviews with three Specialty Coffee pros, perhaps it has attained that status undeservingly.
Let’s examine these three perspectives.
Myth: “Fresh is Best No Matter What”
Myth-Buster: Esther Shaw, of Coptic Light Coffee
Shaw’s is perhaps the least radical of these three perspectives, acknowledging that coffee requires a period to de-gas (expel gases built up inside the roasted coffee beans during the roasting process) before being brewed, while noting that this window may be longer than many believe it to be.
Perhaps the most interesting idea put forth by Shaw in the piece is the idea that the expansion of this “freshness window” might not be something new but rather an ongoing trend.
“’Interestingly, the recommended amount of rest time has changed since I started working in coffee,” says Shaw.’ When I first started close to 10 years ago, the standard seemed to be brew within 2-4 days and pull for espresso in 5-7 days after roast for the optimal taste experience. These days it seems to be closer to 10 days for brewing and anything from 14-28 days for espresso—sometimes even longer.’”
Myth: “Coffee Expires”
Myth-Buster: Sam Sabori, of Intelligentsia & Klaus Thomsen, of Coffee Collective
To be honest, this isn’t that much different than the first myth (what is a “best by” or “expiration” date but a freshness recommendation?) but let’s roll with it.
While it’s unlikely that many in the Speicalty Coffee industry think of a coffee “expiration date” in the same terms which they would products like dairy or meat which can make someone quite sick if consumed past the recommended dates.
Most think of it more like the “Best Before” date you see on a package of cereal.
Will it make you sick if you consume it past it’s date?
In most cases, unlikely.
But will it taste good?
That may be unlikely as well. But maybe it could taste fine?
The point at which coffee is “no good” may seem subjective but Sam Sabori, of Intelligentsia, and Klaus Thomsen, of Coffee Collective, told Sprudge that their companies have put in the work to try to make this process as objective – and as meangingful – as possible.
“’When we started the company we did a series of experiments because we wanted to see what is freshness and how does it affect the actual quality of the cup,’ says Thomsen. ‘We would store samples and take them out over time, and we were really interested in ‘what is the peak window of the coffee and how does it change?' We figured out that the degassing really does happen over quite a long time. It's very rapid in the beginning and then it slows down,” he continued. “We felt like for filter coffees it was best if we waited about a week, it would really peak, and we found that we actually had a really long window—you could wait two months and it would still taste fantastic,” says Thomsen. “After that you could still lose freshness, but if you ground fresh, we found that it's really nice up to about three months. After three months you are starting to lose quite a lot of freshness of flavor, so we didn't want retailers to have the bag and sell it on.’”
Myth: “All Coffee Packaging is Created Equal”
Myth-Buster: Klaus Thomsen of Coffee Collective
With the variety of coffee packaging observable on the market – ranging from the classic, stamped, brown, kraft paper bags of yesteryear to fancy, custom printed packaging that stand on their own as works of art - it would stand to reason that all of these products must perform well – or at least similarly… right?
Well, like in most things, let’s not go making any assumptions.
Coffee packaging actually plays a huge role in how fresh coffee stays both before and after you’ve opened the packaging and many roasting companies (not excluding KLLR) put a lot of time and energy into sourcing packaging that is both aestetically pleasing and able to maintain the freshness of the coffee.
Many roasters have come to different conclusions on what is ultimately the best packaging for roasted coffee, some even taking extra steps to those ends. According to Klaus Thomsen, nitrogen-flushing is the path Coffee Collective ultimately chose to pursue, stating:
“’Our experiments figured out that the best thing is to remove the oxygen, so we flushed with nitrogen, straight from the beginning, so there's none of that oxidation happening. So that means that your degassing can sort of happen on its own.’”
Controversial Take 4 – “Microwave Your Coffee”
We’ve got grinders that sell for thousands of dollars marketed on their ability to remain cool.
We’ve got grinders marketed on their ability to equilibrate their temperature.
We’ve read research papers declaring that frozen coffee beans grind most consistently.
And now we’ve got OG Specialty Coffee talking head telling to microwave our coffee.
Wut?
To clarify, we don’t mean the ol’ “my coffee is cold so I’m going to give it a zap to heat it back up,” trip.
Hoffman suggests that by microwaving the unground coffee beans before grinding, we can achieve a finer average grind particle size, and higher extractions.
Check out the video on his YouTube page, grab your portafilters, wipe the splattered queso off the roof of your microwave, and get ready to go.
The Takeaway
Let’s start by defining what the takeaway is not.
Don’t go taking any of these anecdotes as facts, don’t radically alter your café’s operating procedures, and don’t cop a snobby attitude when correcting your “less-educated” barista buddies.
The takeaway is that the rules are always changing.
Maybe there are no rules.
At the end of the day, we think it’s cool that people are trying new things and telling other’s about it.
Tried something new lately? Let us know about it!
]]>
Check it out on Simplecast or Spotify!
]]>Stephen is a former strategy consultant and current serial entrepreneur. After excelling in the corporate world, he was head of sales for a healthcare analytics software company that was eventually acquired.
That experience led him toward his own entrepreneurial journey to build companies by himself, with others, and for others.
Check out www.stephenolmon.com to see what all Stephen is up to.
Like booze?
Join us in celebrating National Irish Coffee Day with this recipe for a KLLR Irish Coffee!
]]>
Surely, you are nodding in agreement while reading this we don’t need to tell you just why today is so momentous, but we will anyway.
Today is National Irish Coffee Day.
Irish Coffee is a cocktail that hardly needs any introduction.
The combination of the body-warming fresh brewed coffee, soul-warming Irish Whiskey, balancing sweetness of brown sugar, and indulgent whipped cream create a comforting experience sure to conjure fond winter memories for many reading.
TLDR; the Irish Coffee is the OG coffee cocktail.
Like many iconic culinary innovations, the exact origin story of Irish Coffee is slightly ambiguous.
According to a popular account, the beverage was created in the winter of 1943 by a man named Joe Sheridan who was chef at a port near Limerick, Ireland called Foynes Port, which was a popular base for transatlantic flights, many carrying people of note such as politicians and Hollywood stars.
As the legend has it, one cold, blustery night, a flight of passengers making it’s stop halfway through its journey was informed that due to severe weather, it had to turn around.
Feeling bad for the delayed passengers, Sheridan decided to attempt a special treat to ease their spirits and provide some warmth.
The rest, as they say, is history (maybe).
By now, you’re probably craving an Irish Coffee and, hey… by the time you’re reading this it’s at least approaching lunchtime and, anyway, coffee is the main ingredient here by volume, so if you want to start your celebrations early, no judgement from us!
In fact, we will even help you get started with this recipe for a KLLR Irish Coffee.
8 oz. KLLR Coffee Single Origin Central America (currently Guatemala Los Dos Socios)
2 oz. Irish Whiskey (we love Redbreast 12yr)
1 Tbsp brown sugar
Whipped Cream– as much as you want!
Pro-Tip: forget the pressurized can from the grocery store in lieu of whipping up some fresh whipped cream!
- Fill your favorite mug with hot water while brewing your coffee to pre-heat (many recipes call for cocktail glasses for this beverage, but we find the glass to be unpleasant when paired with the temperature of this beverage).
- Brew your coffee using your favorite method! For this beverage, we recommend a brew with some body – an Aeropress will work great!
- Discard the water from your mug and fill around ¾ full of coffee.
- Add brown sugar and stir until dissolved completely
- Stir in Irish Whiskey
- Top with a generous dollop of whipped cream
]]>
Making espresso at home but unsure if you're doing it right?
Check out our video, Steps to Pulling an Espresso Shot to learn the proper order of operations!
]]>This time, we're going to show you just what to do with those tools.
Enjoy the clip and watch out for the next Espresso @ Home video post which will help you find out why your shots aren't quite pulling right - and what to do about it.
]]>Which ones come to mind first?
Coffee? Water? Time? Temperature? Perhaps the brewing device?
One important factor probably gets less consideration than it deserves: the coffee filter.
Coffee filters are often considered no further than within the context of a specific brewing device. A Chemex uses a Chemex filter, a V60 uses a V60 filter, and so on – and that’s that.
Right?
Not exactly.
Beyond simply separating the ground coffee material from the brew, the particular attributes of a coffee filter have a huge impact on the sensory experience of a brewed coffee beverage, from the color to the mouthfeel, to the balance of sweetness and acidity. This is because the design, material, and shape of your filter are determining what is and is not making it into your final brew.
In some ways, our coffee filters are the gatekeepers of tasty flavors.
If you like tasty flavors too and you brew coffee at home using coffee filters – listen up.
May we present: the KLLR Coffee Guide to Coffee Filters.
The Basics
First thing’s first, what is a coffee filter?
A coffee filter is a device used for separating ground coffee material from the liquid coffee brew.
Most filters are made to fit a particular type of brewing device – i.e., made to fit the brew-baskets for specific automated brewing equipment, or designed to be compatible with particular pour-over drippers.
Choosing the appropriate type and size of filter is critical for brewing coffee properly.
Similar to how pour-over drippers are constructed out of a variety of materials, so are coffee filters. The most common materials coffee filters are made out of are paper, metal, and cloth.
How do these different materials affect the functionality of filtering coffee?
Paper Filters
Paper filters hit the scene around the turn of the 20th century when Melitta Bentz, a housewife from Dresden, Germany, got fed up with constantly dealing with coffee grounds in her morning cup.
In desperation, she attempted using a variety of materials to filter the grounds from the brew.
Ultimately, she cut a piece from her son’s blotter paper, shaped it over her brewer, and – eureka! – the paper filter came to be.
On July 8, 1908, the paper coffee filter and accompanying brew cone were patented as a “Filter Top Device lined with Filter Paper.”
Today, paper coffee filters are the most commonly available type of coffee filter, available at essentially any grocery store and even many gas stations and are used for both automated brewing equipment and manual pour-over brewing applications.
To Bleach or Not to Bleach
The great debate within coffee filers is whether bleached or unbleached filters are preferable.
Many filter brands feature both (Melitta, for example, offers their filters in bleached, natural brown, and bamboo).
When thinking of paper, many of us picture white paper, such as printer paper or perhaps notebook paper. The fact is, whether a coffee filter or the page of a notebook, paper is naturally brown and most of it is subsequently bleached white using either chlorine or oxygen-based processes.
Bleached filters are often recommended and often the choice of cafes thanks to the fact that they contribute substantially less “paper” flavor to the brew. Oftentimes with some brown, or natural, filters – even with a rinse - the brew ends up featuring a paper flavor as a result of paper particulates from the filter media passing into the brew.
That said, natural filters had their own edge in that they are more environmentally friendly.
A 2012 study published in “Environmental Engineering and Management Journal,” found that discharge from chlorine-bleaching was “the most significant environmental issue” in pulp and paper mills.
Oxygen-bleaching, in contrast, requires less processing and, as a result, is better for the environment.
Most major filter manufacturers list what method of bleaching was used for their filters on the packaging.
Whether bleached or natural, it is advised to give your paper filters a rinse with hot brewing water before brewing your coffee.
This serves two purposes in that 1) it rinses the filter, reducing the likelihood of paper flavor and 2) it pre-heats your brewing device, reducing the amount of heat it may absorb from your brew slurry.
Steps to Rinsing a Paper Coffee Filter
Note: Not all paper filters are created equally. A high-quality natural filter may contribute less paper flavor to your brew than a low-quality bleached filter.
If, after rinsing, you still taste paper in your brew, try rinsing twice. If you rinse twice and still taste paper: try a different brand of filter.
Fun Fact: Paper filters can be composed right along with your coffee grounds. They decompose relatively quickly, especially when buried within the grounds rather than left at the top to dry out.
Shape
Paper filters can come in different shapes to accommodate different styles of brewing equipment.
The two most common shapes are flat-bottomed filters with accordioned edges, and cone shaped filters.
Flat-Bottom Filters are designed with the theory that a bed of coffee that is more even in depth will allow for roughly equal quantities of water to evenly pass through all of the grounds, thus, extracting more evening.
Most flat-bottomed brewing devices drain through several small holes at a relatively slow rate and require a coarser grind than many conical brewers.
Cone shaped brewers are designed with the idea that as brewing water passes down through the bed of coffee, it increasingly contains more content as it flows downward, or a decreasing concentration gradient (the difference in concentration of coffee compounds within the grounds vs. within the brew water), thus causing the water to extract less from coffee grounds lower in the bed. The cone shape ensures that more water flows through the coffee toward the bottom of the cone than toward the top to compensate for this change in concentration gradient.
Neither of these designs is inherently better or worse. Like many things in coffee, it ultimately comes down to preference.
What is known, however, is that the difference between these two design styles is perceptible in brewed coffee.
Sensory scientists at UC Davis Coffee Center recently partnered with Breville, whose Precision Brewer is capable of brewing with either a cone shaped or flat-bottomed filter basket and filter and found that their panel of professional tasters were able to taste distinct differences in coffees brewed with cone shaped baskets vs. flat bottomed ones.
Researchers understand that changes in filter shape will influence the way that water flows through the coffee grounds, thus, affecting how the coffee compounds are extracted from the coffee grounds and manipulated by the brew water. The details of this process, however, and how they lead to these impacts in flavor, are still being investigated.
Brewer-Specific Paper Filters
Many brewing devices have their own proprietary filters that they are intended to be paired with (with most having off-brand substitutions as well). These filters are often quite different from one another and can lead to additional differences in the characteristics between different brew methods.
Let’s use Chemex filters vs. Hario V60 filters as an example.
Chemex Filters
Filters for the Chemex brewer are cone shaped. They are up to 30% heavier than other brands. This means that they remove much finer ground coffee particles and more fats and oils than many other paper filters on the market.
This is why the Chemex produces a particularly clean cup.
V60 Filters
Hario V60 filters are also cone shaped. They’ve been known to be on the thinner side, resulting in a more full body than some other paper-filtered brews. More recently, these filters have changed, becoming slightly thicker and reducing the body that so many have come to appreciate from V60 brews.
There are off-brand filters that will more closely replicate the old profile.
Size
When shopping for filters, you may notice that many of them come in different sizes. These filter sizes correspond to the various sizes the pour-over drippers are offered in.
Be sure to know the size of your pour-over dripper when selecting filters.
Moving on…
Paper filters are the most prominent filters you’ll likely encounter so they got the lion’s share of this blog, but they aren’t the only type of coffee filter out there.
Metal Filters
The best-known metal filters can be found in French presses and espresso portafilters (we often think of espresso as unfiltered but think about it, a portafilter basket really meets all the qualifications of a filter) but metal filters are available for the Aeropress, Chemex, and a wide variety of automated brewers.
Brews made using metal filters will feature a totally different cup profile than those created using paper filters. Metal filters have larger pores and therefore do not block as much of the coffee’s fats, oils, and ultra-fine ground coffee particles.
Maybe people that prefer their coffee “strong” prefer metal filters because of the resulting heavy mouthfeel that they can provide.
Metal filters, unlike paper filters, can be used over and over again, however, they do need to be cleaned with care. Immediately after each brew, they should be rinsed free of grounds, thoroughly rinsed and dried. Once a week, clean the filter, French press, etc. with a coffee cleaner such as Urnex Cafiza.
Cloth Filters
Perhaps the world’s oldest method of filtering brewed coffee is filtering with cloth. Like paper, cloth filters are very effective at keeping your brew free of grounds but similar to a metal filter, they let through more of the remaining fats and oils and so have a heavier body than you may expect from coffee brewed using a paper filter.
Cloth filters, like metal filters, can be used multiple times, although, they do have limits (after a couple dozen brews, they may begin to contribute unwanted flavors to your brew, but they can be used safely for much longer), and they require much more care. Between each brew, cloth filters must be thoroughly cleaned with brew-temperature water and then, if used frequently, the filters should be kept wet while storing for best results (i.e., a mason jar of water with several drops of bleach – rinse thoroughly before using).
Try Them All!
Like most aspects of brewing coffee, the best way to really learn the differences between the different types of coffee filters discussed in this blog is to try them for yourself. If you have the opportunity, try a variety of the different filters available for your favorite brewing methods and see how it changes the characteristics of your brews to determine what you like best!
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In this edition of Espresso @ Home, we give a brief over-view of the gear you'll need to make great espresso at home and cover the basic functionality of home espresso equipment.
]]>Without the right tools and the right know-how, however, home espresso can be less than pleasant.
Buying the wrong gear can cost you money in the long run.
Neglecting your cleaning routine can affect your coffee and your equipment.
Improper tools and under-education can make amazing espresso all but impossible.
But never fear.
We're hoping that we can save you, your tastebuds, and your wallet some pain with our new series: Espresso @ Home.
In these short videos, we've brought out our Breville home espresso gear, to share a few tips and tricks to help you spro like a pro at home.
Check out the clip below for Part 1: The Gear.
In this edition of Espresso @ Home, we give a brief over-view of the gear you'll need to make great espresso at home and cover the basic functionality of home espresso equipment.
]]>
Kristian Donaldson is a Dallas based comic book artist and illustrator, focusing on digital and 3d rendering techniques to tell stories.
Recently published graphic novel "The Dark" available on Comixology.
In addition to that, Kristian is a proud papa, Lego fanatic, and DFW metroplex playground aficionado.
]]>In this episode we sit down with comic book and graphic novel illustrator, Kristian Donaldson to discuss the comic industry, working in isolation, digital illustration, comic conventions, galactic bounty hunters, and more!
Kristian Donaldson is a Dallas based comic book artist and illustrator, focusing on digital and 3d rendering techniques to tell stories.
Recently published graphic novel "The Dark" available on Comixology.
In addition to that, Kristian is a proud papa, Lego fanatic, and DFW metroplex playground aficionado.
]]>If you can’t tell from the oddly specific scenario, we have.
Baristas who work in Specialty coffee should be experts in their fields, sure, but there is a subtle art to discerning just who actually wants to hear that information.
Making a point to make sure every customer you serve knows EXACTLY how deep your coffee knowledge runs, is not education; it’s annoying.
We’ve heard from plenty of folks on the customer side of the counter who have been completely turned off from Specialty coffee because of what they perceived to be esoteric, unwelcoming, almost intentionally exclusionary service scenarios that they had experienced in “third-wave” shops.
This blog, however, isn’t about customer service, nor is its purpose to shame the industry - many shops do a great job with their service and the industry in general has seen a substantial focus on hospitality over the last 5-10 years.
The point of the blog is that a lot of terminology you may hear thrown around in the cafes you frequent isn’t as hard to understand as you may imagine and, furthermore, understanding some of the basics will making selecting the best coffee offerings for you much easier.
Before we get into our vocab lesson, here are a few things we will not be discussing in this piece: variety, elevation, certifications. Variety and elevation are listed on many Specialty coffee roaster’s bags – some getting quite precise in the name of “transparency” - but we tend to feel they don’t convey relevant information to the vast majority of consumers and, as for certifications, we will expand on our thoughts on those in an upcoming piece.
Now for a few terms we will address that will keep your coffee lexicon as rich as your morning brew.
One thing you will want to look out for when purchasing retail coffee is the roast date. There is a finite span of time during which coffee performs at its best potential and after which, the flavor can slowly deteriorate.
We recommend brewing coffee within a month of being roasted.
Pro-Tip: Not all coffees age equally – some coffees may be delicious months off roast, while some may develop unpleasant flavors after 4 or 5 weeks. Whether or not the bag has been opened and how the coffee was stored can have major impacts on how long the coffee tastes fresh.
If you’re looking at a bag of coffee and there is no roast date listed, that’s likely by design and the coffee in your hands is more than likely quite old.
Various factors such as climate, soil chemistry, altitude, etc. can affect how a coffee tastes.
These affects that the location where the coffee grows can have on the coffee is known as terroir.
There aren’t hard and fast rules for what coffee from a particular origin or region is going to taste like, however, there are some very general characteristics of coffees in certain regions which you may find to be more common than others.
Generally, you can expect that African coffees will feature brighter, more acid forward flavors along with lots of floral and fruity flavors. Coffees from South America tend to have classic “coffee” profiles with notes of chocolate, caramel, and nuts, while coffees from Central America tend to be a bit cleaner and fruitier, with more acidity than their South American counterparts, although they often maintain a chocolate profile as well.
Within these regions, specific countries, regions, or even specific areas of farms, may have their own common traits, for example, coffees from Kenya tend to be feature high acidity with black currant and cranberry-like characteristics.
“Processing” refers to how the coffee seeds (what we typically call beans) are removed from the fruit which they grow within and is one of the largest contributing factors to a coffee’s flavor profile.
The two most prominent processing methods are known as the natural process and the washed processes.
Natural process coffees are dried with the fruit still on and will generally have very fruity, berry-forward flavors.
Washed coffees have are de-pulped, meaning the seed is removed from the fruit, and rinsed with clean water (washed) before drying and will tend to be cleaner and present more acidity.
If you drink coffee frequently, you may discover that there are particular producers, mills, or farms that you prefer over others. While the coffee may not taste exactly the same every year, it does share common characteristics, and regardless of type of coffee or year, you’ve come to identify this producer as producing products of excellence.
To make a wine analogy, changes in soil chemistry or differences in climate may cause wines from a particular vineyard to taste different year to year but there are certainly vineyards and winemakers known for their ability to create products that are consistently great.
Whether or not this is a purchasing metric for you, at the very least it is an opportunity to learn.
If you see a producer, farm, or mill listed on a bag of KLLR Coffee and want to learn more, visit our website and click the corresponding coffee bag.
]]>In our last blog we touched on New Year’s Resolutions and why you shouldn’t feel the need to swear off the bean juice in 2021.
That said, goals are great to have and we even left you with a possible goal at the end of that blog: drink better coffee.
There’s one caveat here: to drink better coffee, we’ve got to be able to brew better coffee.
Not overly confident in your home-barista skill sets?
We got you!
]]>That said, goals are great to have and we even left you with a possible goal at the end of that blog: drink better coffee.
There’s one caveat here: to drink better coffee, we’ve got to be able to brew better coffee.
Not overly confident in your home-barista skill sets?
Has it been a while since you’ve brewed at home – opting to dish out the extra cash to swing by your favorite café on the way to work – and now you need a crash course to brush up?
We got you.
Here are 21 tips to help you enter the new year brewing your best.
Despite the fact that the average cup of (properly brewed) coffee is over 98% water, the quality of water used for brewing at home is often overlooked. Home filtration systems can be complicated and expensive but there are a couple of things you can keep in mind to avoid some easy mistakes.
- Stay away from distilled. Coffee requires some solid material within the brew water for compounds within the coffee to latch on to, whereas distilled water has no solid material in at all.
- Avoid tap water. Depending on where you live and what sort of water service you have, tap water can have a variety of negative impacts on brewing coffee from flavor (if the water tastes bad on its own, you’ll taste it in the coffee) to being overly hard or soft (especially of concern if using espresso equipment).
- Don’t boil. It’s not that it’s too hot (coffee is roasted at much higher temperatures than water boils) but that when you boil water, you alter the chemistry of the water and can make water that was previously ideal for brewing coffee not so ideal as a result.
Whether you’re geeking out with your favorite manual brewing device or letting your automated brewer carry the workload, the same truth applies that not all gear is created equal.
- Research before you buy. Ask a friend or a barista at a local shop what they use and prefer and why.
- Check the specs. If you are looking into home coffee brewing or espresso equipment, research the specs. Can it achieve an appropriate water temperature to brew? Can it maintain that temperature consistently?
- Profile. Different brewing methods have different flavor profiles. If you have an espresso, a batch-brew, a pour-over, and a French press, all prepared using the same coffee, you will find four very different flavor profiles. Play around at home, try different things at shops, read reviews online, and decide what gear best suits your preferences.
Your gear – whether automated or manual and regardless of bells and whistles – is only effective to the extent that you understand it.
Whatever brewing device or methodology you settle on, make sure you learn and understand what it is you’re doing.
Why does this brewer use this filter?
Why is it shaped this way?
What is the intended brew time for this method?
For many brewing methods, you can find some tips we’ve picked up over the years for a variety of coffee brewing methods here…
Not every coffee is a good fit for every coffee drinker. Some folks are drawn to the musty, earthy flavors of a wet-hulled Sumatran. Some crave the crisp acidity of a washed Kenyan. Some people want a nutty, smooth Central American coffee.
Some folks like the thick, gritty body of a French press and some prefer the thin, clean characteristics of a Chemex brew.
Understanding what you do and don’t like is an important first step toward getting the most out of the coffee you brew.
If you’re a retail consumer, it can be easy to shy away from “third-wave” coffee culture (trust us, we get it), but coffee-nerd esoterica aside, knowing a couple of things to look for on the bags of coffee that you’re buying – namely, region and processing method – can make finding the ideal coffee for you much easier.
This information would be a blog on it’s on but here are a couple quick tips:
- Processing. “Processing” refers to how the coffee seeds (what we call beans) are removed from the fruit which they grow within. The two most prominent processing methods are known as the natural and washed processes.
Natural process coffees are dried with the fruit still on and will generally have very fruity, berry-forward flavors. Washed coffees will tend to be cleaner and present more acidity.
- Origin. Various factors such as climate, soil chemistry, altitude, etc. can affect how a coffee tastes. These affects that the location where the coffee grows can have on the coffee is known as terroir.
There aren’t hard and fast rules for what coffee from a particular origin or region is going to taste like, but generally you can expect that African coffees will feature brighter, more acid forward flavors along with lots of floral and fruity flavors. Coffees from South America tend to have classic “coffee” profiles with notes of chocolate, caramel, and nuts, while coffees from Central America tend to be a bit cleaner and fruitier, with more acidity than their South American counterparts, although they often maintain a chocolate profile as well.
If you don’t taste coffee for a living, you may not be able to pick out some of the intricate flavor notes described on the bags of coffee you purchase. You don’t have to be a Cup Taster’s champion to enjoy a good cup and discern some basic characteristics of different coffees.
Maybe, while researching coffee terms, you read about some really tasty sounding flavors that you haven’t experienced in coffee before.
Never had a fruity coffee but think it sounds great? Have you ever had a naturally processed Ethiopian coffee? Who knows! Seek one out and see what you think.
Over time you will be able to determine what origin countries, processing methods, etc. are your favorite. Don’t be scared to take notes!
Pre-ground coffee is convenient to be sure – not to mention that decent home grinders are a $100+ investment – but, in this case, you really get out what you put in. The little extra effort in grinding your coffee as close to when it is going to be brewed as possible will net you huge results in terms of flavor.
Whole bean coffee will stay fresh longer and provide tastier results as well.
Grinding a bunch of coffee at once may seem like a time-saver but think back to why we are using whole bean coffee in the first place – we want to preserve as much flavor as possible.
Grinding your coffee as close as possible to when you are going to brew – within 15 minutes max – will result in a much more flavorful cup.
Nerd Alert: Coffee can lose up to 50% of its volatile aromatic compounds (the components which give the coffee it’s aroma and flavor) within 15-20 minutes after grinding.
Your grinder is the most important piece of equipment in your brewing arsenal.
The quality of the grind (how precisely it can achieve the desired size and how consistent the ground coffee particles are in size and shape) is going to determine to what extent all of the other variables we are discussing are able to be effective.
If you’ve got a blade-grinder you got at the department store for $15 – toss it. Trust us.
A decent burr grinder is an investment – at least $100 – but one that is definitely worth making if you want to achieve café quality coffee at home.
In our opinion, the Baratza Encore is the best value in home grinders that can be found. At just over $100, it can best just about anything you can find for less than triple its price.
Many people think of coffee like they would other pantry items – generally shelf stable and generally unchanging. Instead, think of coffee more like you would a produce item, having a finite lifespan.
We recommend enjoying KLLR coffees within four weeks after the roast date. After this point, coffees may begin to lose their flavor, and eventually will develop unpleasant, stale flavors.
Now that you’ve gone through the trouble of tracking down these freshly roasted beans of your favorite origin and processing method, be sure to keep them tasting their best as you store them at home. Coffee can easily stale and/or develop unpleasant flavors when exposed to oxygen, moisture, or other aromatic food products like spices.
The best option is to keep the coffee in the packaging it was purchased in (most bags have some method of re-sealing such as a tin-tie or a zip-lock) and kept in a cool, dry environment like a pantry or counter-top.
Pro-Tip: A common practice for many is to store coffee beans in the freezer to preserve their flavor. It’s true that storing coffee in the freezer can slow the staling process, however, if you’re opening and closing the freezer frequently to get food in and out, moisture introduced into the freezer each time can actually deteriorate your coffee so this really only makes sense if the coffee needs to be stored long-term and fairly undisturbed, such as if you were on vacation and, let’s face it, in 2020 most of us are not.
One of the easiest ways to instantly improve the flavor of your coffee is to ensure that you are using a proper ratio of water and coffee. Many home coffee brewers have been conditioned to treat coffee like a seasoning while cooking – if you want stronger flavor, add more.
Unfortunately, with coffee, that’s not quite the case.
The amount of water used in relation to a given dose of ground coffee not only effects the strength of the brew, it effects how efficiently the water is able to extract material from the coffee.
For coffee to extract to an extent that is going to taste good and at an appropriate strength, a proper ratio of water and coffee must be used.
We recommend a 16:1 ratio, or 55-60 grams of coffee per liter of water (about 1.7 grams of coffee per ounce of water).
For a pour-over, we like 25 grams of coffee to 400 grams of brew water.
In order to determine that we’ve got the accurate dose of coffee for the size of batch that we are brewing, we’ve got to be able to accurately measure our coffee and our water.
Scoops and measuring cups aren’t going to get you quite where you need to be here; we recommend grabbing a decent digital scale.
The CJ4000 is a good option to get started but for any techies out there or barista-folk that want to dig deep into the data, the Acaia Pearl allows for recording and comparing brews and more via an accompanying app.
Now that you have this fancy burr grinder, let’s put it to use.
The grind size is going to change how the coffee extracts by changing metrics like ground coffee particle surface area, radius, etc., but it’s also going to change how quickly or slowly the coffee brews.
For dripper-style brews (coffee pots, pour-overs) you can generalize it this way:
Finer grind – longer brew.
Coarser grind – faster brew.
The best way to determine whether the grind size that you’re using is correct is to measure the time of your brew. To do this you’ll need a digital timer like this one:
Or simple use your phone.
We recommend grinding such that your brew time is around 4:00 minutes.
Pro-Tip: When we talk about brew-times, brew time starts when water first contacts the ground coffee and ends when the stream of coffee exiting the bottom of the filter basket or pour-over dripper becomes a faint drip).
The type of filters you use can impact the flavor of your brew.
For example, let's say that we are brewing a Chemex. Unbleached coffee filters tend to contribute more papery flavor to a brew than their bleached counterparts, and a metal filter will have a different profile altogether.
Another example; folks that used to love V60 filters for how thin they were and the body that would subsequently result were disappointed when production changed factories and the new, much thicker, filters changed the classic V60 profile to a degree. They may be more satisfied with these CAFEC filters which are closer to the old V60 filters.
The take away: play around with different filters for your favorite brewing method and see what works best for you!
Paper filters revolutionized the way we brew coffee – and made it a lot less messy. They can, however, impart a papery flavor on your coffee.
To prevent this, position the filter on your brewing device while empty and rinse it with hot water from your kettle before adding the ground coffee and brewing. A thorough rinse will ensure your coffee doesn’t taste papery and will also pre-heat your brewing device allowing for a more temperature stable brew.
Pro-Tip: Don’t forget to discard the rinse water before brewing your coffee!
When brewing a pour-over, especially with coffee less than a week after being roasted, it’s helpful to allow the gases within the coffee grounds (bult up during the roasting process) to escape from the grounds and allowing the grounds to become fully saturated. This is the point at which they are ready to release their flavor.
Skipping this step can reduce the level of extraction you are able to achieve.
Pro-Tip: Use approximately twice the mass of your ground coffee dose in water for your bloom. Example: If you are brewing with 25 grams of coffee, use about 50 grams of water for your bloom.
Water is more or less effective of a solvent at different temperatures. The range we want to brew coffee in is generally around 200F.
We like to brew with our kettles and coffee brewers set to 205F and our espresso machines set to 201F.
What’s really important is that you are able to get at or over that 200F mark. Historically, many home brewers have not been able to achieve the required temperatures to brew really well, however, many are on the market today.
We dig the Breville Precision Brewer, or for a more minimalist, classic approach, anything from the Technivorm Moccamaster line.
As far as kettles go, what's really important for pour-over brewing is that you have a gooseneck kettle to be able to carefully control your pour (not necessary if you are brewing French press). Electric kettles like the Fellow Stagg EKG can even automatically heat to a perfect brewing temperature and hold it.
This is especially true for espresso machines but is certainly true for coffee brewers as well – and even pour-over drippers, French press, etc
Keep your equipment clean.
The oils in coffee can become rancid when exposed to oxygen and if cleaning your gear isn’t kept up with after each brew, you can end up with some funky smelling, stained, dirty tasting brewing equipment.
We love Urnex products for cleaning our gear.
This list has been comprised of tips for how to brew coffee better at home because, if you’re going to put in the work to brew, why not expect the best
That said, the point of coffee is to enjoy it and to enjoy yourself.
Have fun, break the rules, do what you like, and definitely don’t get frustrated. The information provided here are just the guidelines that have proven themselves to us.
At the end of the day, the best way to brew coffee is the way you like it.
Have a favorite way to brew coffee? Document it and tag us on Instagram @kllrcoffee!
]]>As the new year looms over the horizon, some folks may be considering potential New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps you want to eat healthier? Read more? Save some money?
If you’re considering adding “drink less caffeine” to that list, we’re here to give you a piece of advice: it’s all good.
At least, when it comes to coffee.
]]>As the new year looms over the horizon, some folks may be considering potential New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps you want to eat healthier? Read more? Save some money?
If you’re considering adding “drink less caffeine” to that list, we’re here to give you a piece of advice: it’s all good.
At least, when it comes to coffee.
This study from the International Life Sciences Institute concluded that a daily intake of around 400mg of caffeine was “not associated with overt, adverse effects,” for adults (another study noted an inverse association between coffee consumption and mortality including those drinking all the way up to 8 cups per day!). This study is the largest of its kind to date and analyzed the results of over 700 previous independent studies.
To put this number in context, the average amount of caffeine in an 8 oz serving of black coffee is 95mg, although depending on a variety of factors, this number can range from around 15mg – 165mg, while the average decaffeinated coffee contains about 2mg per serving.
A 2014 study published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, which studied potential adverse effects of caffeine, found that the average American consumes about 165mg of caffeine per day.
This number is well below the aforementioned safe daily intake, however, in the 2017 National Coffee Data Trends report from the National Coffee Association, 66% of coffee drinkers limit their daily caffeine intake due to health concerns.
Another important fact to remember is that when it comes to health and coffee – the conversation extends far beyond simple caffeine content.
Coffee is associated with a variety of health benefits applying to longevity, cancer prevention, diabetes, stroke, liver and kidney health, and more.
For those that do avoid for caffeine, don’t despair!
Many of these benefits apply to decaffeinated coffee as well.
The moral of the story: wake up January 1st, 2021 and brew up a cup of your favorite coffee and move into the new year guilt-free – and caffeinated enough to tackle those other resolutions.
And if you still feel the need to make a coffee resolution, maybe make it this one: drink BETTER coffee.
]]>Christmas is right around the corner and everyone has at least one coffee nerd friend. Wouldn’t they love some new piece of coffee gear to geek out over while cooped up at home this winter?
Our bet: they would.
We’ve compiled a list of gear to fit a variety of budgets and experience levels – gear that we’ve put to the test and stand behind – that’s all sure to earn you a few lovingly crafted drinks from your favorite home barista in appreciation.
]]>Our bet: they would.
Now comes the hard part: you don’t know anything about coffee.
How do you make sure that you’re giving your favorite coffee cousin, co-worker, or barista something that will elicit excitement, not the dreaded forced smile and “thank you” that’ll accompany the plastic pour-over dripper you found in the coffee isle at the grocery store?
Never fear.
We’ve compiled a list of gear to fit a variety of budgets and experience levels – gear that we’ve put to the test and stand behind – that’s all sure to earn you a few lovingly crafted drinks from your favorite home barista in appreciation.
You did it!
And don’t forget – the gear doesn’t do much good without coffee to accompany, so be sure to drop by our KLLR online shop and grab a bag of beans or recurring subscription.
This one is for your patient friends, the ones that take the time to craft each cup by hand as a pour-over. The Stagg Pour-Over Kettle is undoubtedly the most aesthetically appealing pour-over kettle on the market, but it’s not form at the detriment of function, it’s a fantastic pour-over kettle by all metrics. The ergonomics are on point, making it easy to control your pour and pulses, plus, thee handle is counterbalanced toward your hand, making controlling flow-rate simple. The integrated thermometer is a nice touch for a non-electric kettle and is implemented tastefully
For even more convenience, there’s also an electronic version, the Stagg EKG.
For those needing to brew more than one cup, or simply not caring to invest the time and energy into brewing pour-overs, the Breville Precision Coffee Maker is your best bet for getting the most out of your pot of coffee. This brewer provides precision control like no other home brewing device with adjustable bloom time, flow-rate, and brewing temperature as well as pre-set modes for hot coffee, iced coffee, cold brew, and more. What’s more, is with an adaptor it can brew using your favorite pour-over device as well.
For your camper friends who don’t want to settle for instant coffee, the Handground hand-operated coffee grinder is a great choice for a hand-grinder. The hopper can hold up to 100 grams of coffee (hope your arm muscles are ready!) so brewing for groups is possible and the hopper is graduated with markers that represent ~10 grams so no scale, no problem. Additionally, the side-mounted handle allows for a much more comfortable motion while grinding as opposed to hand-grinders with top-mounted handles.
The Baratza Encore is an “entry-level” grinder that performs way out of its league. In our opinion, this grinder is the best bang-for-your-buck value in home grinders. With 40 grinds settings, there are plenty of options for grind-size ranging from french press to even espresso (admittedly not the easiest to use for espresso but a grinder under $150 to have that range and execute it with reasonable quality is insane).
The Baratza Sette 270Wi, while not cheap, still packs in value far above its price-point. This grinder is the first grind-by-weight home grinder capable of dosing by weight directly into a portafilter or into a grinds bin, by incorporating Acaia scale technology. The 270Wi is an “intelligent” grinder – making rapid calculations and self-adjustments to keep up with changes in grind-size and can sync to the Acaia Sette Updater app via Bluetooth to ensure any software updates are kept up with automatically.
Home espresso is expensive. If you want actual espresso of reasonable quality at home, you’ve gotta pay for it. That’s just the way it is. That said, the new Bambino model from Breville, is making great espresso at home a lot easier. A commercial-style 54mm brew group, powerful steam wand, and patented Thermojet heating system allowing it to be operable in 3 seconds, this machine is capable of truly tasty espresso and latte-art quality milk at under $300, which is unheard of.
We believe this to be the best manual espresso machine on the market under $5,000, easily beating anything else in that range in terms of features, quality, and value. The Dual Boiler is PID controlled, providing precise and programmable brew water temperatures, and has separate heating systems for extracting espresso and steaming milk so full beverages can be cranked out in less than a minute. And, seriously: a well-dialed in espresso on this machine is truly impressive.
For those willing and able to make a more substantial investment in their home-espresso-loving-acquaintance (yourself, perhaps?), the Oracle is a great option that is about as intuitive as it gets. A self-contained grinding system automates grinding, dosing, and tamping and there’s even automated milk-texturing as well. To find this combination of features and quality anywhere else, expect to pay twice as much.
And, remember: when all else fails, a bottle of whiskey is a coffee-friendly treat in the perfect size for a stocking, just saying...
]]>
In thee first episode of our new podcast, KLLR Creatives, we sit down with Dallas/Fort Worth based photographer/videographer Paul Golangco, owner-operator of Paul Go Images.
Paul believes that every person has a story that has value and worth. It is that intrinsic worth that has driven Paul Golangco to be a visual storyteller as Paul Go Images since 2008.
Paul Go Images strives to tell stories of beauty, joy, and hope regardless of if it's in the bush of east Africa, the hospital rooms of east Dallas, or in a commercial office building in between.
Enjoy our chat and learn more about Paul and his work at www.paulgoimages.com!
]]>If you're initial reaction to this news is something along the lines of "ANOTHER coffee podcast? Do we need this in our lives?" - trust us, we don't blame you.
Luckily for you, we will leave the coffee podcasting to the seemingly thousands of folks who already have that covered.
KLLR Creatives is about people.
Over the years, we've found that we've provided coffee to some pretty dang creative people.
We've chatted with brewers using the coffee in their beers.
We've chatted with designers who use coffee as fuel for their work.
We've talked to all manner of entrepreneur, barista, and home enthusiast, and we've found that we've always walked away from these conversations having learned something neat.
KLLR Creative's is an opportunity for us to share the stories of these creative individuals with you all.
In this first episode, we sit down with Dallas/Fort Worth based photographer/videographer Paul Golangco, owner-operator of Paul Go Images.
Paul believes that every person has a story that has value and worth. It is that intrinsic worth that has driven Paul Golangco to be a visual storyteller as Paul Go Images since 2008.
Paul Go Images strives to tell stories of beauty, joy, and hope regardless of if it's in the bush of east Africa, the hospital rooms of east Dallas, or in a commercial office building in between.
Enjoy our chat and learn more about Paul and his work at www.paulgoimages.com!
]]>
As it turns out, innovation and technology have had a couple of impacts on the world of coffee brewing over the last several centuries, so let’s take our seats and crack the book for
Coffee History 201: Coffee Brewing & Espresso.
]]>And we kind of just left it at that because that blog wasn’t about the history of coffee brewing and espresso.
But this one is.
As it turns out, innovation and technology have had a couple of impacts on the world of coffee brewing over the last several centuries, so let’s take our seats and crack the book for
Coffee History 201: Coffee Brewing & Espresso.
Coffee, native to Ethiopia and first cultivated there and in Yemen, was first intentionally cultivated by the 15th century, although likely earlier. By the 17th it had spread throughout the Western world and by the early 1700s, folks were looking to up their brewing games.
Around this time, French cooks isolated the solid beans within the liquid by enclosing the grounds in a cloth bag, essentially a sock, thus, filtering the coffee and producing a clean, less gritty beverage as a result.
This innovation brought with it several advancements in the process of brewing coffee.
In 1780 the first commercial coffee maker was released: the “Mr. Biggin”. These brewers attempted to solve some of the issues of brewing with these “socks” – such as drainage difficulties and would brew by pouring water through a bed of coffee beneath which was a tin or cloth filter. The major flaw of this brewer was that due to primitive grinding technologies at the time, controlling flowrate was next to impossible.
Baby steps.
Throughout the early 19th century, the French patented several designs for coffee-brewing related equipment, including a metal plate which would distribute water more evenly over grounds in a drip-brewer in 1802 and a drip-pot that could filter coffee with water below the boiling point in 1806, both important steps toward more efficient brewing and filtration.
By the 1830s, a patent had been filed in Berlin for a siphon-brewer design, the first becoming commercially available in the 1840s. Several patents occurred throughout Europe and the United States at this time for percolator brewing devices as well.
While they may seem more primitive, brewing devices similar to a “French Press” design didn’t begin to hit the market until the mid 19th century and did so in Italy and France at about the same time. A design that more closely resembles what we still use today, the Chambord, was patented by a Swiss-Italian man named Faliero Bondanini in 1958 and produced in France.
In 1908, came one of the most important innovations to brewing technology that is still widely utilized to this day: the paper filter.
Frustrated housewife, Melitta Bentz, as the story goes, was tired of cleaning the residual grounds from her coffee maker and used a page of blotter paper with some holes poked through it to the line the bottom of the pot. Within a year, her filters were in production she was on her way toward developing and marketing the first modern commercial pour-over device, the Melitta dripper, which are still available today (check the coffee aisle of your local supermarket).
What about espresso?
In 1884 Angelo Moriondo of Turin, Italy was granted a patent for a
“new steam machinery for the economic and instantaneous confection of coffee beverage.”
This bulk brewer, created for the Turin General Exposition, used hot water and steam at a pressure of ~1.5 atmospheres. There are no photographs of this machine or surviving models and to a large extent any other info about Angelo Moriondo has been lost to history.
The first breakthrough in Italian espresso machines came in 1901 when an Italian engineer named Luigi Bezzera filed a patent for a coffee machine in the shape of a tall column constructed of brass and copper. The machine consisted of a water boiler that was heated over an open flame and had 1-4 brewing groups with insertable filter baskets available to produce several cups of coffee at a time. It utilized hot water and steam pressurized at about 1.5 atmospheres to brew coffee. The major breakthrough this machine provided was the ability to brew several coffees quickly and many believe this machine to be the first iteration of caffe espresso (fast coffee).
Due to lack of money to expand or any idea how to market the machine, Bezzera sold the patent to Desideria Pavoni, founder of La Pavoni espresso machines in 1903. Pavoni began producing the machines, which were large, copper and bronze vertical cylinders topped with eagles, in 1905.
A notable addition to the design of this machine was the first pressure release valve, which prevented hot coffee from splashing the barista when preparing coffee due to the sudden release of pressure.
Another iconic innovation of this machine - perhaps you’ve heard of the steam wand?
Bezzera and Pavoni worked together to perfect this machine, called the Ideale, which they introduced to the world at the 1906 Milan Fair.
Pavoni had no shortage of competitors, one of the most prominent being Pier Teresio Arduino, who was determined to find a method of brewing espresso that did not rely exclusively on steam. He came up with many ideas including incorporating screw pistons and air pumps but was never successful in bringing any of these ideas to fruition.
He did end up influencing the history of espresso in other ways, mainly in the area of spreading awareness and increasing popularity. One such contribution: he commissioned graphic designer Leonetto Cappiello to create the espresso poster below, which has become world famous.
Due to the fact that in the 1920s Arduino had a much larger workshop than Pavoni’s in Milan (and much greater production capabilities as a result) as well as greater marketing savvy, he became largely responsible for exporting machines out of Milan and spreading espresso across Europe.
World War I interrupted the production of espresso machines, however, by 1920 nearly a dozen companies were producing these machines and the espresso drinks they produced were becoming exceptionally popular in Italy as well as beginning to spread throughout Europe and to the United States. These early machines could produce up to 1,000 cups an hour and were not yet very similar to espresso machines of today.
Leveraging Technology
Shortly before World War II, a Milanese inventor by the name of Cremonesi introduced another breakthrough in the history of espresso machines with his invention of a lever-piston driven machine that created pressurized brewing water without the use of steam. This resulted in a considerably less burnt-tasting coffee.
He adapted this style of group to a machine in use at a bar owned by a man named Achilla Gaggia. The outbreak of war again halted production of the machines and unfortunately Cremonesi died before the war ended.
After the war, Gaggia resumed Cremonesi’s project and in 1946 began production of a piston-lever machine capable of producing 10 atmospheres of pressure, a giant leap forward for espresso machines.
KLLR Trivia: The act of pulling the lever on these new machines is where the term “pulling a shot” of espresso originated.
This machine not only allowed for much greater control of temperature and pressure during brewing but marked the first extractions of the intensely flavored, rich, buttery coffee foam, or crema, that has become synonymous with great espresso. Since these machines brewed with a set amount of water (the volume of the brew chamber with the lever lowered), they also helped to standardize the size of an espresso to some degree.
By 1948, Gaggia was in production manufacturing machines in this style. Other manufacturers quickly adopted the lever design and the popularity of espresso worldwide increased dramatically.
In many ways, the espresso made from these Gaggia machines marks the birth of contemporary espresso.
Crema Legend
A historical anecdote claims that early consumers were dubious of this “scum” floating on their coffee until Gaggia began referring to it as “caffe crème” suggesting that the coffee was of such quality that it produced its own cream.
Faema the Famed
In the 1950s Ernesto Carlo Valente, who ran a Milanese espresso machine manufacturing company called Faema, produced one of the most famous espresso machines ever created: the E61 (it was named after a solar eclipse that occurred that year).
This machine made a couple monumental advancements.
First of all, rather than using a lever system it used an electric pump to maintain a fixed pressure during brewing and secondly, rather than pull potentially “stale” water out of the steam boiler to brew with, it pumped a small quantity of water through heated tubes called heat exchangers.
This machine was more consistent, faster and less laborious to use.
More Boilers = More Better
Another advancement in espresso machine design was produced by the Bambi brothers at La Marzocco and came in the form of a machine with two boilers, one for steam and one for brewing coffee. The result was a machine significantly more temperature stable than the heat-exchange style machines.
Horizontal boilers, which allow for the compacted espresso machine design were another La Marzocco development around this time.
Automatic for the People
By the 1970s many companies were producing “automatic” espresso machines, which would dose the desired amount of water and shut off automatically. These initially used timers and then moved on to increased accuracy with the implementation of volumetric flow meters.
We contend that these machines, now known as “auto-volumetric” machines are the best choice for any traditional espresso application.
United States of Milk Beverages
Not all espresso machine innovation has originated in Europe. One way that the North American market has changed the design of espresso machines over the last couple decades is the dominance of the steam boiler. Huge steam boilers with large heating elements have been implemented to accommodate the large quantities of steam required to produce “Seattle Style” milk-based drinks that are often up to four times the size of the cappuccinos enjoys in Italy.
Starting in the 1970s, several Swiss companies began to pursue the creation of a “super-automatic” espresso machine, or one that would grind, dose, tamp and extract the coffee to set parameters all at the touch of a single button. These machines are pretty much the standard in Switzerland and have become increasingly popular in the United States and around the world thanks in large part to their adoption by Starbucks.
We’ve posted before about our relationship with Eversys, a brand whose super-automatic machines have really blown us away and we feel will be an integral part of the future of the industry.
Where will the future of espresso and brewing systems take us?
This brief history hasn’t even brought us to within several decades of where are at right now, and it seems like with each year’s trade-show season (hopefully something that exists again sometime soon) we’re introduced to a new cast of machines with the latest bells, whistles, gimmicks, and engineering innovations. Some of which will stand the test of time, and some which will not.
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Cleaning, in the context of café life, isn’t confined to some “to-do” item points on the nightly closing list. Adhering to a simple, regular cleaning regimen is an easy and essential way to ensure great tasting coffee, maintain a clean and cared-for environment and maximize the lifespan of equipment (it ain’t cheap, after all!).
Check out this post for everything you need to keep your work-space looking clean.
]]>One thing, however, that is commonly (although increasingly less so these days in our experience) overlooked, is work area cleanliness.
There’s no bigger red-flag for us than when we enter a café and see baristas trudging through a swampland of espresso grounds, spilled milk, and syrups, preparing drinks on crusty counter-tops, all the while their towels are in place, at the ready, thirsty for action.
A dirty café presents a poor image by calling into question the quality, sanitation, and safety of the product - and even the staff - of the offending cafe. No one wants to enjoy (or in this case, perhaps attempt to enjoy) their coffee in an environment they feel uncomfortable, much less unsafe, in.
Cleaning, in the context of café life, isn’t confined to some “to-do” item points on the nightly closing list. Adhering to a simple, regular cleaning regimen is an easy way to ensure great tasting coffee, maintain a clean workspace and maximize the lifespan of equipment (it ain’t cheap, after all!).
Most cafes serve a majority of their drinks from an espresso machine, be it in the form of espressos, Americanos or milk-based beverages. The espresso machine is also typically the most expensive piece of equipment in a shop – or office.
Shops depend on their espresso machines to be properly operating. More than that, however, espresso machine manufacturers are paying more attention to the aesthetics of their equipment and these machines are often centerpieces in cafes, grabbing the attention of guests with their sleek designs.
It seems clear enough why we’d want to keep these machines clean and running smoothly – but how do we do it?
Devoting a few seconds between drinks, a few minutes between shifts, and ~20 minutes at the end of the day to cleaning the espresso machine is all it takes to keep your espresso machine properly cleaned.
You will need the following items for efficient and effective cleaning:
...now let’s get to work.
Some cleaning procedures are required after every drink
After Every Shift
5. Backflush group heads with clean water. Insert portafilter equipped with backflushing disk into the group and initiate brew cycle. Let the water run for about 10 seconds, stop the cycle and let rest for about 5 seconds. Repeat this process several times on each group head. With the blind filter inserted the water is forced back up through the group head loosening old coffee grounds and oils and flushing out the drainage tubes.
6. Brush off dispersion screens and around gaskets with nylon brush.
7. Remove baskets from portafilters, rinse baskets and portafilters with clean water and scrub off with a Scotch pad. This will remove oils and other coffee residues.
8. Wipe down all external surfaces of the espresso machine (front and back) with a clean, damp towel followed by a clean, dry towel to keep the machine appearing clean and preserve the finish.
Back-flush the machine with espresso machine detergent using the following steps.
Clean the remainder of the espresso machine using the following steps.
Some cleaning procedures for your espresso grinders will need to be addressed every day.
For daily cleaning, use the following steps.
Running grinder cleaning products through the grinder (literally grinding it as if it were coffee) cleans the burrs by dislodging ground coffee deposits and absorbing oils. If oily coffees are not being used and regular cleaning is performed, however, this should not be necessary.
Note: While this section focused on espresso grinders, the process is the same for bulk coffee grinders but all steps above may simply not apply.
At the end of the day clean coffee brewing equipment using the following steps.
Once a week, perform the following cleaning procedures on your brewing equipment.
We started with the bad news in our last blog, ripping the band-aid off by revealing what we felt were five of the worst trends in coffee in the last five years.
This time, it’s time to brighten the mood a bit.
Here are five of our favorite trends in coffee in the last five years.
]]>We started with the bad news in our last blog, ripping the band-aid off by revealing what we felt were five of the worst trends in coffee in the last five years.
This time, it’s time to brighten the mood a bit.
A great thing about the coffee industry is that it is filled with talented, passionate individuals that are always seeking out ways to innovate and do better whether that means brewing tastier coffee, providing better hospitality to guests, caring better for employees in roasteries and cafes, etc. These new ideas disseminate throughout the industry as trends, some fleeting and some graduating out of trend-hood into industry standards.
So, let’s dive in, here are five of our favorite trends in coffee in the last 5 years.
1. COVID-19 Pivots
Coffee as an industry is always changing and evolving. Typically, large-scale changes occur slowly. Someone tries something, they wait and see the results, they refine their methodologies, others view what they’re doing and try it themselves, rinse, repeat.
2020 has been anything but typical. The COVID-19 pandemic is unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes, disrupting seemingly every aspect of our lives, and uprooting “business as usual” across every industry the world over. Including coffee.
As a result, many of the changes we’ve seen across the industry this year have occurred at unprecedented rates. We’ve seen operators truly embody the entrepreneurial spirit in their efforts to pivot their businesses in order to be able to more effectively continue to serve their customers safely and conveniently in light of the current crisis. If you ask us, it’s been pretty inspiring.
Some “Covid Pivots” that have struck us as particularly impressive:
Delivery – whether hot coffee beverages, pastries, booze and other food when applicable, retail bags, or even merch, many shops that traditionally operate in classic brick-and-mortar coffee shop format have taken their operations behind the wheel and taken their goods directly to their house-bound clientele.
New Products – Some shops have gotten creative with their menus throughout the pandemic, particularly during the spring months of mass quarantine. From toilet paper, to eggs, to raw meat, to hand-sanitizer, to fresh produce, we’ve seen many cafes step up and offer their customers many goods they were able to get through their restaurant suppliers which were otherwise quite difficult for households to obtain at traditional grocery outlets. Now that’s service!
To-Go Format – Many cafes historically focusing primarily on the dine-in format of their service were pushed to re-consider how to offer their goods in a take-out context throughout 2020. For some, this simply meant allowing guests to visit the counter and wait for their take-away coffee as per the usual, but some have pushed this concept further by implementing parking lot DIY “drive-thrus”, physically altering their buildings by adding drive-thru or walk-up windows, or even by creating totally hand’s free service.
E-Commerce – We’ve seen many cafes shift much of their energy online over the spring and summer, offering up fresh-roasted retail bags, coffee subscriptions, merch, and brewing gear online to keep their sales up despite lower levels of traffic at their storefronts. We hope this change remains in play long after COVID is a thing of the past.
2. Higher Prices
The fact that many producers work hard to create the best coffee they can muster only to then sell it for prices that may provide but a meager livelihood, if not merely to break-even or, worst case scenario, come in at a loss, is no secret. Conversations on the topic have been resonating throughout the industry for about as far back as memory reaches and over the last decade have increasing become relevant to consumers and their purchasing practices. It’s taken a long time for these conversations to develop to the point of identifying what paths toward meaningful action may exist but in the last several years, even in 2020 despite huge market uncertainties, the first steps toward actionable solutions have begun to manifest.
The coffee supply chain is huge and complex, but one thing is simple enough: for producers to receive more for their coffee, people throughout the supply chain must pay more for their coffee. While this can – and should – take place simultaneously at various points in the global supply chain, one of the most important places for this change to start is at the retail/café level. For coffee to command more value comprehensively, end-users must learn to value it more and to expect to pay more for it.
For operators, this can be a daunting task. Raising one’s prices often results in a consumer response of “I can just get it cheaper over here…” Scary.
Surprisingly enough, as the price tags on retail bags, cups of coffee, and lattes have gone up, and as concepts such as the “bottomless cup” have increasingly become things of the past, consumers have more often than not been on board, especially when these changes are made transparently and with the motivations behind them clearly articulated. It’s exciting to think that we are very likely seeing the conversations of better lives for producers transitioning from “what can we do?” to “this is what we are doing.”
3. Automated Pour-Overs
We love a good pour-over. Who doesn’t? We’ve all got our favorite recipes, brewer-types, filter media, etc. that lend themselves to our favorite profiles for our favorite beans. That said, ordering a pour-over at a busy café can be risky business.
Is the barista in a hurry due to high business levels in their café? Are they distracted? Are they really giving their full attention to the pattern of their pour, the numbers on their timers and scales, and the variety of other considerations that go into a great brew? Did they purge their grinder? Did they remember to set it to the correct grind setting?
There are many other questions we could add to this list and a slip up on just one of them can result in a coffee that fails to live up to what is often an elevated price-tag.
We’ve visited a lot of cafes and in even some of the most renowned and respected shops we’ve found ourselves thinking “maybe I should have just got a cup of batch-brewed coffee…”
This is why one of our favorite trends of the last five years is the increasing prevalence of automated-pour-over equipment from brands like Wilbur Curtis, Modbar, and Pour-Steady (check out our blog on our favorite of them all, the Wilbur Curtis Gold Cup). These machines, aside from their labor advantages, allow baristas to consistently execute cup after cup precisely by programming parameters such as water temperature, water volume, and pulse-pouring via digital interface.
While some may turn their nose up at the misguided notion that barista work is being outsourced to robots, we feel the truth is in the cup and hope that more operators continue to see the advantages of increasing both cup-consistency as well as barista’s capacity to focus on the customer, which is a perfect segue into the next trend on our list.
4. Hospitality Focus
Since time immemorial, baristas have had to fight against the stereotype of the too-cool-for-school, grouchy, hipster barista. The problem was, the stereotype was often correct.
Over the last several years we’ve loved seeing being nice become cool, with an industry-wide focus on hospitality and customer service.
From SCA classes on customer service, to the popularity of books like Danny Meyer’s “Setting the Table,” to podcast upon podcast of hospitality focused content, the tides have definitely turned and more often than not these days, the hospitality we have come to expect in cafes, even the most boutique among them, has been vastly elevated from what we’d come to expect just five years ago.
It’s likely no coincidence that over the same time-period we’ve seen the market share of the specialty segment of the coffee industry continue to rise exponentially with more and more customers visiting better cafes more frequently – and returning to them again and again.
Baristas often like to analogize their role within the industry to that of sommeliers in wine. It’s great to see them finally beginning to act like it.
5. Better Decaf
We’ve all heard the trite, yet delightfully alliterative, phrase “death to decaf.” What better way to alienate a segment of those trying to support us in our endeavors to serve our customers well and support our families doing what we love?
In our opinion, the predominant reason this phrase even came to be was because so many roasters were unwilling to put in the same attention to detail and focus on quality to their decaf coffees as to their caffeinated offerings. Decaf is more expensive due to the extra processing and it generally doesn't sell as quick as it's caffeinated siblings, which makes it less profitable for the roaster.
We’ve even seen many a roaster leave their decaf coffees off the table during QC cuppings!
Luckily for us all, this is one of many cringey barista aptitudes that has been dropped in favor of truly trying to serve our customers the best we can (see trend 4).
We’ve seen an increase in roasters taking pride in making their decaf coffees delicious, some even going so far as to release special edition decaf coffees, boxed sets of multiple decaf offerings, and we’ve continued to see more quality-focused decaffeination methods, such as Ethyl Acetate, gain more notoriety.
Whether for health reasons, late-in-the-day-cravings, or a menagerie of potential reasons that at the end of the day are none-of-our-business, we are happy to see more people putting more energy into ensuring that more coffees are as delicious as they possibly can be.
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To say that Specialty Coffee is a trend-driven industry is far from a controversial statement. From equipment, to brewing to techniques, to shop build-outs, motifs and ideas have a tendency to spread – and often change – rapidly.
In the first entry of this two-part series we examine what we view as the five worst trends in coffee of the last five years.
]]>That’s not to say that this is a bad thing; if you think about it, any standard procedure of today started as a trend at one point.
That’s also not to say it’s always good. Hasty decisions and form without function can be problematic as well and homogeneity can dilute the creativity inherent within the industry
Yin. Yang.
We find these ever-evolving trends fascinating and we’ve got opinions on them.
So, let’s get to the point. In this two-part series, we examine what we feel are the top five best, and top five worst trends we’ve seen in Specialty Coffee in the last five years.
Popularized by Aussie-coffee-wunderkind and the object of much barista fan-boying/girling, Matt Perger, espressos prepared using an EK43 grinder aren’t inherently bad, however, their implementation in cafes has been mostly awful.
“EK-shots” as they’re often known within the industry have proven to be able to provide a higher extraction-yield than many traditional espresso grinders – and can be very tasty – but most of them that we have had in cafes have ranged from thin, sour, and acrid, to “meh.”
Many cafes have used the addition of EK-shots to their menus as a means toward the end of offering a huge variety of espresso options. Keeping up with dialing in a couple of espressos and keeping up with the changes inherent to espresso production is a tall enough task on its own without complicating matters by trying to see how vast an espresso menu can be.
Lastly, for cafes doing anything even approaching high-volume, EK-shots simply aren’t conducive to quick and efficient service – particularly without adding after-market gadgets and do-dads. Additional steps like pre-weighing doses and purging between coffees outweigh the advantages.
EK-shots, in the context of café service have largely seemed to be a case study in “if you don’t fully understand why it is better, just don’t do it.” Or maybe just leave it for the lab.
For much of the Specialty Coffee world the cultivar Gesha was introduced in 2004 by way of Panama’s Hacienda La Esmerelda’s submission to the Best of Panama competition, however, Gesha was originally discovered growing in Ethiopia’s Gori Gesha forest.
Today, Gesha coffees are highly sought after, extremely expensive, and seemingly everywhere.
Our beef isn’t with the cultivar itself, but rather some of the effects of its proliferation throughout the industry.
Achieving higher prices for coffee is a good thing (as you'll see in our next blog) both for green coffee, as well as roasted coffee, but the marketing around Gesha coffees has often been uninformed, and at times even disingenuous.
Wanting to capitalize on the buzzword, many roasters and cafes have sold sub-par coffees at high price points essentially just because they can. Whether these coffees were grown at too low of elevation, or not properly profiled (the cost of the coffee has at times caused some roasters to spend less time on r&d and profiling for fear of wasting money), it’s problematic in that it’s actually counter-productive to the mission of conveying the value to consumers that leads to higher prices.
If we are going to ask consumers to pay more for a product and build elevated expectations surrounding unique coffees, the quality needs to be there in the cup to assure them that the experience was worth it.
And that’s not to mention what has happened within coffee competition circuits such as World Brewer’s Cup, where scarcely any competition finalists are NOT brewing a Gesha, but that’s inside baseball and a topic for another time.
Perhaps this isn’t necessarily a new trend. If asked to imagine a “90’s coffee shop” most people’s minds conjure images of couches, large mugs, and grungy-yet-comfy aesthetics. To an extent, these sorts of trends are merely symptoms of their place and time
That said, when we can fairly accurately assume what a trendy new café is going to look like before walking in, it can get old.
If asked to imagine a 2010’s café, we see subway tiles, Edison bulbs, re-purposed science equipment like beakers, denim aprons, minimalist bordering on sterile design, and on and on, and when we have visited cafes over the last half-decade we have, in fact, seen these things. We’ve seen them over and over again.
What's lost in this land of carbon copy cafes is the capacity of brands to express their unique identities, opting instead to play it safe and redundantly cater to an image of "what a coffee shop should look like."
As we move into the 2020s, we hope we see brands express their unique identities visually through their spaces and bank a little less on the idea that a Specialty Coffee shop has to look a certain way.
More than ever, consumers are driven to purchase products that align with their social values. For example: organic food sales continue to see substantial growth year over year and as an industry segment is worth over $50B.
Coffee consumers are more likely to be considering factors like environmental impact and the economic stability of producers than they have been in years past and – while most aren’t going to put in the effort of hours upon hours of research – the number one place they are going to be obtaining the information to rate coffees on these metrics is on the coffee bags themselves.
Roasting companies have caught onto this and have increasing affixed various labels and certifications to their bags like so many pieces of flair on Jennifer Anniston’s Chotchkies apron in Office Space.
The problem with these certifications is that the reality behind them often does not reflect what consumers are led to believe.
The “Fair Trade” certification, for example, issued by Fair Trade International, claims to generate a more economically advantageous position for producers. Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, the actual results of this put in the practice are ambiguous at best, with many accusing the organization of operating off of a self-beneficial profit motive and many studies showing the results for producers to be negligible.
Another good example is the Organic certification. Plenty of coffee on the market is produced organically but cannot be labeled as such due to the expenses inherent within the process of achieving certification. Additionally, many steps involved in the certification process are to a large extent only possible for larger-scale, more industrialized farms. While the certification itself may not be untrue, it certainly doesn’t speak to quality and potentially puts smaller scale producers at a market disadvantage.
Perhaps the most nefarious of the commonly abused labels isn’t an official certification at all – “Direct Trade.” Again, at face value, direct trade sounds great, typically referring to a direct relationship between a roasting company and a producer. In theory, cutting out the middlemen (brokers, importing companies, etc.) allows the roaster to obtain coffee at the same, or even a cheaper, price while simultaneously enabling the producer to achieve a higher price.
Without any standardization defining this term, different companies use the phrase with wildly differing definitions. For some companies it means that they’re regularly visiting farms, monitoring, and perhaps helping to improve, quality, participating in community initiatives at origin, and ensuring fair payment of producers and their workers. For others it may mean they visit a farm once and snap some photos of their staff with locals to use for marketing materials, amounting to little more than poverty porn. For some, it may simply mean they got an email address and placed an order from their laptop.
In all of these cases, the situation is essentially the same: companies are taking advantage of consumer trends to line their own pockets, while diluting the value that others are genuine adding as a result of actual effort to do better business.
A lot of folks take their health serious these days with new blogs, books, and fad diets appearing seemingly daily. At times, coffee has been roped into the dietary trends with – often dubious – claims made about how doing this or that to coffee will provide an array of health benefits.
Most notably, Bulletproof coffee generated high levels of attention when it hit the scene several years ago. Bulletproof coffee is a “Keto coffee” concoction of coffee, MCT oil (marketed by the Bulletproof brand as “Brain Octane Oil”), and ghee (sometimes substituted with grass-fed dairy butter). Allegedly, Bulletproof coffee catalyzes ketosis, burns fat, inhibits food cravings, and provides mental clarity. All while making your coffee gross!
Another recent health-coffee trend is “mold free coffee” which is allegedly free of mycotoxins, tiny fungi which can grow on some crops in certain conditions. While it is true that the mycotoxins which may relate to coffee, aflatoxin B1 and ochratoxin A, are known to be possible weak carcinogens, at the levels that can occur within the context of coffee consumptions, they are easily neutralized by the liver. Brands like Bulletproof (there they are again!) claim that mycotoxins also cause lethargy and reduce brain function – and that they make coffee bitter (wrong). Luckily, Bulletproof is here to save the day by offering coffees that under-go a top-secret process to rid them of these pesky mycotoxins (note: they are not the only brand marketing similar products).
Some mycotoxin facts: levels present in food products are regulated by over 100 countries, the washed process greatly reduces them, the roasting process eliminates more than 90% of them, and a Spanish study discovered that individuals consuming 4 cups of coffee a day were receiving 2% of what is considered a safe level.
This isn’t a judgment call on the dietary preferences of anyone but of companies like Bulletproof capitalizing on the growing tendency for individuals to care better for themselves by perpetuating bogus health information so that they can charge huge premiums for mediocre coffee.
Ok, we’ll stop complaining now.
This wasn’t meant to be a critique as much as a self-reflection on where we are at as an industry. Within all of these trends lie positives for the industry as well – but that wasn’t the focus of this blog!
Luckily, for all the glass-half-full-types, our next piece will examine what we view as five of the BEST trends in coffee over the last five years.
]]>It’s true. There did indeed exist a time before coffee. Yuck. (No wonder the average life-expectancy was 25 years...)
Luckily for everyone, once it had been discovered, it spread across the globe relatively quickly. While some of the details of this journey remain shrouded in mystery, there are some facts we know about it, and some suppositions to fill in some of the remaining blanks.
All that said, welcome one and all to Coffee History 101 – class is in session!
The most common legend regarding man’s discovery of coffee centers around an Arabian goat-herder named Kaldi. As the legend has it, when Kaldi was shepherding goats on the Arabian Peninsula one day, his flock did not return when he called for them as they normally would. The concerned Kaldi went searching for them and when he found them, they were jumping about and playing excitedly while eating berries off a strange green shrub.
Kaldi did the thing any sensible man would do; he ate some of the cherry-like fruit off the mystery bush. When he tried the fruit himself, he experienced a burst of energy and felt rejuvenated. He then took the fruit to a local monastery where it was brewed and, thus, the human tradition of coffee consumption was born.
Today we know that this story is most likely not true. The true history of coffee’s discovery by man, in fact, remains fairly ambiguous, however, there are a few things we do know.
We know that coffee originated in Ethiopia and was spread around the world from there by humans.
The first evidence of coffee being roasted, ground and infused in water is found to be from around the 14th century in or around Yemen, however, it is likely that the leaves and fruit pulp of the plant were brewed like a tea before this time and some scholars believe the leaves were chewed for their energy-boosting properties for possibly 1,000 years by this point as well.
In fact, legend has it that Ethiopian warriors would mix coffee seeds within animal fat and let the mixture congeal into solid material they would subsequently eat for a boost of energy during battle. The world’s first power-bars?
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KLLR Trivia
The word coffee entered the English language in 1582 via the Dutch word Koffie, from the Turkish Kahva, from
Arabic Kahwa, a truncation of qahwat-al-bun (or “wine of the bean”).
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The first place we know coffee to have been cultivated intentionally by people was in Yemen by at least the 16th century. The original method of brewing coffee, popularly known today as the “Turkish” method remains a popular way to brew coffee today in parts of the Middle East and Mediterranean. This process involves combining finely ground coffee and sugar with water, boiling repeatedly and decanting into small cups.
By the 1600s there were coffeehouses called Qahveh Khanehs, around the Arab world, the first of them located in Cairo and Mecca. These coffee houses were colloquially known as “schools of the wise” and were popular hubs of social activity where people would debate, listen to music, watch performers, play games, learn of current events and more. These coffeehouses would often become hubs of political activity and were for this reason were sometimes shut down or heavily taxed.
With thousands of pilgrims visiting the Holy City of Mecca each year, word of the “wine of Arabia” spread quickly and Arabians, wishing to maintain their monopoly on the product, closely guarded their secrets of production, even outlawing the fertile seeds from being taken out of the country.
During the 17th century coffee began to spread across Europe as well. There is a story that while liberating Vienna from the second Turkish siege in 1683, soldiers of the Polish-Hamburg army found a number of sacks of beans, which they suspected to be camel feed and planned to burn. John III Sobieski, the Polish king, granted the sacks, deemed to be worthless, to Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki, one of his officers who offered to take them away.
As the story goes, Kulczycki, who had spent 2 years in Ottoman captivity, had seen the coffee ritual and knew what the beans were and used them to start the first Viennese coffee house (likely the first in Europe), at which the Viennese tradition of adding milk and sugar to the coffee is also believed to have been born.
To what extent this account is accurate remains unknown, however, many Viennese coffeehouses continue to hang pictures of Kulczycki in their window in recognition of his contributions to Viennese coffee culture.
Initially, as coffee spread across Europe it was often viewed with suspicion, earning nicknames such as “the bitter invention of Satan” and even being condemned by Venetian Clergy upon its arrival to that city in 1615.
The controversy was so great, in fact, that Pope Clement VIII was called upon to make a decision regarding it. Before making his decision, he decided to taste the beverage. When he did, he enjoyed it so much that rather than condemn it he actually gave it his Papal approval.
In many countries, coffee began to flourish with less - or in spite of the - controversy and coffeehouses quickly became centers of social activity and exchange of information in major cities throughout England, France, Germany and Holland.
In England, these coffeehouses earned the nickname “Penny Universities” because the cost of a cup was a penny and one could stick around engaging in stimulating conversations about science, politics, philosophy and more.
In some major port cities, coffeehouses were even the spots where sailors or other transient businessmen would receive their letters. The same went for news: reporters called “runners” would go around to the coffeehouses reporting the latest news. In a society that placed such an importance on class, coffeehouses were a unique opportunity for people from all levels of society to interact with one another.
By the mid 17th century London was home to more than 300 coffeehouses, which attracted all sorts of patrons including merchants, shippers, brokers and artisans.
Dutch Colonies/Europe
Despite Arab efforts to maintain their coffee monopoly, over the latter half of the 17th century the Dutch succeeded in obtaining coffee seedlings. They initially attempted to grow the coffee at Malabar in India, which was mostly unsuccessful, however, in 1699 they succeeded in growing coffee in Batavia on the island of Java in what is now Indonesia.
The coffee plant thrived here and soon the Dutch had a successful and quickly growing coffee trade, which they soon expanded to the islands of Sumatra and Celebes. It only took a few years for the Dutch Colonies to become the primary suppliers of coffee to Europe, where Venetian traders had first brought it in 1615.
In 1714, the mayor of Amsterdam presented King Louis XIV of France with the gift of a coffee plant. The king had this young shrub planted in the Royal Botanical Garden, Jardin des Plantes. By 1718 the Dutch had brought coffee to South America via their colony of Sirinam.
Another fun story of dubious authenticity is the legend of a young naval officer named Gabriel de Clieu. In 1723, de Clieu obtained a seedling from this same plant and travelled with it to Martinique.
As legend has it, after initially requesting clippings from the tree from the king but being denied, de Clieu carried out a night-time raid of the garden, hopping the wall, steeling a seedling and getting away successfully.
De Clieu’s voyage to Martinique is said to have included a terrible storm that nearly sunk the ship, a saboteur who attempted to destroy the seedling and a Tunisian pirate attack. Potable water also became incredibly scarce during this journey and was rationed among the passengers, De Clieu splitting his ration with his precious seedling.
The seedling made it safely to Martinique where it thrived and is credited with spreading over 18 million coffee trees across the island over the next 50 years.
Brazil
The story of coffee’s arrival to Brazil in particular is interesting. It is alleged that the emperor sent a man named Lt. Col. Francisco de Mello Palheta to French Guiana on the pretense of resolving a border dispute but really on a mission to obtain coffee seedlings.
Palheta was initially unsuccessful as the French were unwilling to assist him, however, it is said that Palheta’s good looks and charm captivated the French governor’s wife and that she gave him a large bouquet of flowers as a going away gift. Inside were the coffee seeds that were taken back to the Brazilian state of Para to begin what is now a multi-billion-dollar industry in that country.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, Brazil’s elite started fazendas, or sugar plantations, throughout the country. In the 1820s sugar prices began to weaken and much capital and labor that had previously been devoted to these endeavors was refocused on coffee growing, especially in the Paraiba Valley where it had been introduced in 1774. By the 1830s Brazil was the largest coffee producer in the world and remains as such to this day.
The New World
In the mid 17th century coffee was brought to New Amsterdam, or what is known today as New York. Though coffeehouses quickly began to appear in the colonies, tea remained the beverage of choice in the colonies until 1773 when the colonists revolted against a heavy new tea tax imposed by King George of England. This revolt, the famous Boston Tea Party (which was actually planned in a coffeehouse called the Green Dragon), would forever change the American preference from tea to coffee.
The rapid growth of world coffee production, particularly in Brazil and Java during the 18th and early 19th centuries led to a significant decline in world coffee prices. These price drops hit their lowest point in the 1840s and then began a strong upward trend that peaked during the 1890s. Growth of Brazilian production was slowing during this period due to lack of resources such as land, labor and inland transportation. Higher prices at this time encouraged growth of coffee production in countries such as Guatemala, Colombia and El Salvador.
Coffee had been introduced in Colombia by the Jesuits as early as 1723 but civil strife in the country and inaccessibility to the countries best coffee growing regions caused the growth of production here to happen very slowly. After the end of the “Thousand Days War” (1899-1903) Colombians began to put an increased focus on production.
The 20th century saw an essentially continuous rise in demand for coffee. Following WW2 many newly independent nations in Africa found themselves dependent on coffee in varying degrees including Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi.
Today the world’s top coffee producers are Brazil (at nearly 3 million tons annually), Vietnam and Colombia.
Today, coffee enjoys status as the second most consumed beverage in the world after tea, is grown in more than 90 countries, and shows no signs of slowing down.
Next time you brew up a cup of your favorite KLLR Coffee, pour some out for the homies of history that made it possible.
…Just kidding, don’t waste any of the good stuff, just be glad you didn’t live in the time before coffee.
]]>For home baristas the menagerie of contraptions can be a fun way to dig deeper down the rabbit hole of specialty coffee but for cafes, the question remains: is it worth it?
Let us turn to the age-old method of determining this quandary: pros vs. cons.
The “Pros”
Theater – Probably the biggest benefit of offering pour-overs in a café is the inherent spectacle. For consumers who exist outside of the realm of specialty coffee esoterica, simply seeing a barista painstakingly pouring water over the coffee in the dripper is a marketing campaign for that product. Even for those who have had them before there is often an association with higher-quality due over machine-brewed coffee due to the added “craft” element.
Variety – Brewing by the cup can enable a café to offer a greater variety of filtered coffees at a single time. When using batch-brewers that often struggle to brew less than half a gallon at a reasonable level of quality, brewing pots of several different coffees at a time simply doesn’t make sense for the vast majority of cafes, as much of the coffee, aka café dollars, will just end up going down the drain if not ordered. Single-serving brews can enable a café to brew their staple offering in large batches and offer additional coffees to order.
Customization – Compared to some, mostly older, automated coffee brewers, pour-over brewing can be more customizable. You can set your temperature to the exact temperature you want. You can pour in whatever increments you desire. There is no programming involved in manipulating these variables as you see fit. This can slightly improve the ease of “dialing in” the coffees
The “Cons”
Inconsistency – Let’s face it, automated brewers, like most machines, tend to be better in at least one area than their human counterparts: repeating the same task consistently time and time again. Even the best baristas make mistakes. They have bad days. They get distracted. They get busy. A machine, geared towards one task and free from the occupational and emotional distractions so often plaguing sentient beings, know nothing but the task at hand. Unless you’re much luckier than us, you’ve likely had an underwhelming pour-over in even one of the highest-end specialty cafes before (admittedly, this could be true of a batch-brew as well, though ultimately that would fall on the baristas charged with dialing in the coffee).
Training – Handmade pour-overs add one additional layer of complexity to onboarding and training new baristas. What is the correct pattern to pour in? How many grams of water for each pulse? How exact does the final water volume need to be? Is there a difference recipe for each coffee? There are a myriad of things to consider when brewing a pour-over that, once set for a recipe, barely need to be considered when pressing the “brew” button on an automated brewer, allowing managers and operators to focus more energy on training their staff to pull great shots and provide excellent hospitality.
Labor – We saved the best for last. Brewing a pour-over is quite an all-consuming endeavor. You better have your eyes on the scale. You better have your eyes on the timer. You better not venture too far from your brewing station. Don’t let that customer distract you. During high-volume periods brewing pour-overs manually in a café essentially requires an extra set of barista boots on the ground as, once engaged, this person can hardly spare attention for any other tasks. We’ve observed many coffee programs and spoke with plenty of operators and with few exceptions, the consensus is fairly clear – brewing pour-overs in a high-volume coffee shop is all but impossible.
So maybe the “cons” make sense but the “pros” are still enticing you. Is there a solution?
Why, we’re glad you asked.
Let us introduce you to the Wilbur Curtis Gold Cup Brewer, an automatic single-serve brewer that, aside from brewing excellent scups – one at a time - with its own, unique filter basket, is even compatible with most of your favorite pour-over drippers.
V60? Check.
Kalita Wave? Check.
Chemex? Check.
How does it work?
The Gold Cup brewer allows users to create highly customizable recipes via an intuitive digital interface. Variables like temperature, number of pulses, the quantity of water dispensed during these pulses, and the amount of time between them, are easily programmed and multiple recipes, unique to different coffee offerings, can be programmed and saved, allowing for a pour-over menu offering a variety of coffees all available with the push of a button. It will even pre-rinse your filter.
Aside from just creating consistent cups of coffee, these machines enable baristas to simply grind the coffee, dump it in the filter, and then get back to focusing on the customer, back to pulling shots, back to stamping sleeves, whatever else may be needed at the moment in a busy café.
Swap the filter basket out for a range server with a V60 perched atop of it and you scarcely even lose the visual element that drives the curiosity of many consumers toward wanting to order these coffees.
Labor = Saved.
Consistency = Improved.
Perception of Value = Retained.
Hospitality = Enhanced.
Not only are these brewers a great addition behind the bar in specialty cafes, they’re great for restaurants and even office settings. In fact, while the classic CGC model features two brew-heads capable of simultaneously brewing single-serving cups, the subsequent CGC1 model, featuring one brew-head, is capable of brewing a single-serving up to a half-gallon batch, making it perfect for an office setting.
As with most things in coffee, the proof will speak to your pallet. If you have any doubts that these automated pour-over brewers can get the job done, drop us a line and we will tell you where you can go to see for yourself.
Or just take our word for it: they’re kllr.
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Aside from the obviously disingenuous nature greenwashing can entail, the real bummer about these practices is the fact that these behaviors can lead to a sort of boy-who-cried-wolf exhaustion among consumers, numbing them from any capacity to actually celebrate the companies that are really leading the industry forward in terms of sustainability and impact consciousness.
At KLLR Coffee, we pride ourselves on being unapologetically discerning in other brands we partner with. We’ve posted before about some of the reasons we love working with Minor Figures, and now we are back to sing their praises again as they walk-the-walk, stepping one step ahead of other oat-milk producers by becoming 100% carbon neutral, leaving other dairy-alternative manufacturers like:
What does carbon neutral even mean?
Through various processes involved in manufacturing and transporting goods, carbon is emitted into the environment. When gases such as carbon are emitted, they spread out and act as a sort of barrier preventing solar energy which would otherwise radiate into space from doing so and keeping it within the Earth’s atmosphere which, when scaled in terms of businesses around the globe, can lead to higher temperatures worldwide.
Many businesses, hoping to reduce their overall environmental impact, have committed to implementing or investing in measures that reduce carbon emissions. Being carbon neutral doesn’t mean that the businesses themselves are no longer emitting any carbon; it means that on net, they are doing as much (or more) to reduce emissions than they are doing to create them.
Minor Figures are well aware of the dynamics of these sorts of claims and they are prepared to back them up. In their own words:
“Long gone are the days when good intention and trendy marketing lingo could dress up as progress. Words are cheap, action is everything.
We want you to hold us accountable and demand more from us. By being the kind of business that works in this way, hopefully we can inspire others to do more, too.”
So how are they doing it?
The first step was determining their actual carbon emission impact. To do this, they partnered with climate action advisory, Ecofye, to get a comprehensive view of their emissions created throughout all aspects of their company from roasting, to manufacturing, to shipping, to keeping the lights on in their factories and offices.
Once Minor Figure’s emissions had been determined, they worked with Climate Partners, an environmental consulting firm that assists companies in developing carbon offset projects. After looking into various projects to contribute two, Minor Figures opted to split their offset efforts between two Gold Standard Carbon Projects operating at a grassroots level in communities themselves affected by the results of carbon emissions: Biogas, which produces small plants creating clean energy for households in Vietnam, and Clean Cookstoves, providing clean-energy cooking stoves to families in Peru who would be otherwise reliant on cooking over open flame.
What now?
Minor Figures isn’t planning to stop here. For them, it’s more than a phrase to slap on their cartons of Oat Milk. The brand is already working towards identifying ways they can further offset emissions and increase the level of environmental sustainability throughout their supply chain.
It’s clear to see that Minor Figure’s level of passion for doing business the right way is anything but minor. The next time you’re in your favorite café ordering a KLLR Coffee beverage, maybe ask for it with Minor Figures Oat Milk.
]]>Celina is a rapidly growing town 40 miles north of Dallas. When it began, it was actually several miles away from where it is now and all of the town’s structures were moved to where they currently reside using large steam-engines, hence, the nickname – “Rollertown”. Why did they do this? Who knows! It’s a fun story though
The brewery was started in part by local radio hosts, Ben Rogers and Jeff “Skin” Wade whose popular show “Ben & Skin” has enjoyed time on ESPN Radio, The Fan, and now has a prime-time slot on 97.1 The Eagle.
For their brewing talent, they brought in local craft-beer hotshot Tommy Miller, who began his fascination with beer home-brewing with buddies while in the military stationed in Japan. While traveling the world with the Air Fore and as a Department of Defense contractor, Miller became infatuated with the different beer styles and cultures he experienced visiting breweries in each country he passed through. In the subsequent years he has brewed for reputable Dallas breweries including Deep Ellum Brewing, Lakewood Brewing, and Noble Rey.
Over the subsequent years, Miller’s love for what he does has only grown
“Brewing is a job that changes daily,” he explains. “You can create something new and modern or brew your best version of classic styles. I love the entire process of creating a recipe and seeing it poured fresh for our customers weeks later and getting their feedback and then doing it all over again.”
That enthusiasm stretches beyond the walls of his own brewery, as well
“The industry is packed full of amazing people from the hop/grain/fruit farmers to the people working the tap rooms,” Miller says. “The craft beer industry is a massive ecosystem so get to work with people from all over the world. From events, festivals, to craft beer conferences you are always learning and meeting new people, all while drinking great craft beer. It's hard to complain about this industry.”
For us at KLLR Coffee, those sentiments definitely ring true in regard to our own industry which is largely why we are so excited to partner with talented, like-minded folks like the crew at Rollertown.
Miller, a coffee enthusiast himself, agrees.
“I love coffee,” he exclaims. “I first started getting into coffee while working for a contractor in Afghanistan. I worked with a guy that was obsessed and would order amazing coffee from all over the world. We would do tastings and he taught me how to make a proper cup and I've been a huge fan ever since.”
For the KLLR Coffee X Rollertown Beerworks collaborative effort, War Daddy -named after the term the Dallas Cowboys’ Owner and General Manager, Jerry Jones, endearingly uses to refer to the pass-rushers on his defensive line- we’ve paired KLLR Coffee’s Guatemala Huehuetenango Waykan with a big 10% ABV stout from Rollertown, packed with loads of flaked and malted oats. This beer has got a thick, syrupy mouthfeel with notes of coffee, chocolate, vanilla, dried fruit, and just a hint of bitterness.
Why this coffee for this beer?
“I didn't want anything bitter,” explains Miller. “We get that from the hops. The Guatemala blend has string flavors of smooth chocolate and berries. The combination of chocolate malt, Cocoa nibs, and the KLLR Guatemala coffee pairs extremely well.”
Currently, the beer is available for consumption on the patio or in cans for takeaway. As a result of the COVID-19 bar shutdowns, the brewery has yet to hold its official grand-opening celebrations and, in fact, have had to cancel two taproom opening dates, the second one just 1-hour before the scheduled opening time.
Despite the setbacks, the local community has rallied around the new brewery, which sold-out its supplies each weekend for weeks in a row. In fact, the brewery is already expanding, adding six new horizontal tanks that will double their capacity and allow them to focus on expanding the variety of lager styles they brew, which is what they love the most.
And if you’re wondering how the customers have responded to a big, high-ABV stout – often reserved as a winter-time seasonal – in the middle of a hot Texas summer…
“People love it,” says Miller. “I don't think there is a wrong time of the year to drink a big chocolatey vanilla and coffee stout.”
Check out the clip below to see KLLR and Rollertown enjoying the fruits of this collaboration together and if you find yourself in North Texas, swing by Rollertown and ask for the War Daddy!
In one of our more recent blog posts, we discussed seasonal coffee beverages in the context of coffee shops and how creative, seasonally-focused rotating menus can be a fun way to engage both baristas as well as those they serve.
What about at home?
Check out this blog to learn how to make a delicious seasonal beverage in your own home kitchen: the KLLR Cascara Soda!
But what about at home?
With the COVID-19 crisis many more of us are working from home and generally just spending more time in our homes that we may previously have been spending at restaurants, sporting events, concert venues, theaters, etc.
This means more meals at our own tables and – likely – more coffee that we have prepared ourselves.
This does not mean, however, that you too cannot enjoy delicious seasonal beverages!
In our KLLR Home Kitchen series we will be offering tips and tricks for coffee, espresso, and other beverages – all from the comfort of your own home.
The first recipe we are featuring uses our limited-run of KLLR Cascara along with a few ingredients that can be easily found at your local grocery store – sugar, lime, sparkling mineral water, and mint.
The resulting beverage, the KLLR Cascara Soda, is a crisp, refreshing drink, perfect for savoring the remaining warmth of the summer as we transition into autumn.
Check out this clip and learn how to make the KLLR Cascara Soda at home!
Add your own twist and tag us on Instagram using the tag #KLLRCoffee to let our followers see what you’ve created!
]]>At KLLR Coffee, we love seeing the fun ways our clients embrace seasonality and the creativity of their baristas. In fact, each quarter we are distributing a collection of syrup and beverage recipes for our shops to use, riff-on, or get inspired by.
For the purpose of this blog, we are featuring one of our current recipes: The Maple Pecan Iced Latte, a sweet- treat for those wanting to drink cool even when it’s cold out.
]]>Green coffee, processed well, can last up to about a year before the flavor is negatively impacted much. Roasted coffee can remain at peak performance for around a month after roasting. This means that we don’t see the complete absence from the market that we see with some fruits and other produce.
That said, “seasonality” is more than just a buzzword in coffee and it doesn’t have to just apply to the specific single-origin offerings in your café, offering rotating, seasonally-inspired beverages to your menu can be a fun way to keep customers engaged and your baristas learning new things, as well!
Here are a few tips from the KLLR Coffee team on how to set your seasonal beverage program up for success:
At KLLR Coffee, we love seeing the fun ways our clients embrace seasonality and the creativity of their baristas. In fact, each quarter we are distributing a collection of syrup and beverage recipes for our shops to use, riff-on, or get inspired by.
For the purpose of this blog, we are featuring one of our current recipes: The Maple Pecan Iced Latte, a sweet- treat for those wanting to drink cool even when it’s cold out.
Ingredients
Procedure
Pro-Tip: To create as a frappe, blend with your usual dose of your favorite frappe powder.
Here are the syrup recipes for the Maple Pecan Iced Latte. Add your own twist to the ingredients and have fun!
- Bring 8 oz. water to a boil and stir in 8 oz. sugar until dissolved
- Add 4 oz. pecan pieces, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes
- Remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and strain
- Bring 8 oz. water to a boil and stir in 8 oz. maple syrup
- Add 10 cardamom pods, 10 all-spice berries, 6 cinnamon sticks, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes
- Remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and strain
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If getting freshly roasted coffee from your favorite roasters delivered straight to your home or office sounds up your alley, you’re going to want to check out Beanz.com, a new initiative from Breville with the goal of helping kitchen-coffee-connoisseurs step up their game.
Founded in Sydney, Australia in 1932, they’ve been a leading purveyor of kitchen appliances for over 80 years, distributing to over 70 countries world-wide. When it comes to coffee, Breville is no stranger, as they’ve been a leading innovator within the home-coffee space with machines like the Barista Pro, offering programmable doses of espresso with the touch of a button via its self-contained grinder, and the Double Boiler which is, in our opinion, the best value for a traditional-style home espresso machine on the market.
With the innovation and research the brand has conducted to develop these products, the logical next step was putting this knowledge to use for their consumers by assisting them in obtaining the best beans they can for their home brewing purposes – and the knowledge of how to do it well. This is where the idea for Beanz.com was born.
Beanz.com is an online platform for purchasing coffee from leading roasters from across the United States to be delivered right to your doorstep, allowing you to access café-quality coffee from the comfort of your home.
Beanz.com shoppers can search coffees based on roast level or desired flavor profile. If you’re unsure of what you want, take the coffee quiz, which will collect some data - your brewing method, flavor preferences, any additives you may be accustomed to adding to your cup, and whether you prefer caffeinated coffee or decaf – and use it to direct you to a coffee that will fit your needs.
In addition to one-time-purchases, subscriptions are available as well, enabling customers to streamline their coffee sourcing – no more forgetting to order a bag when you’re running low, the service will help you determine your consumption patterns and point you towards a subscription level that will keep your bags arriving just on time.
The site even provides an opportunity to learn a bit about coffee by providing tidbits of educational information about sourcing, the science behind the flavor of coffee, and how to store and brew your coffee for best results.
KLLR is proud to have been selected as one of a handful of industry-leading roasting brands such as Verve, Equator, Klatch, and Onyx Coffee Labs to help launch this new initiative alongside our long-time partners at Breville.
In celebration of this program we will be launching a series of home espresso guides exploring how to get the most out of your Breville home espresso equipment.
Stay tuned!
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Dialing-In: Industry lingo for adjusting and controlling variables such as water quality and temperature, grind-size, water contact time, and coffee: water ratio to achieve the desired flavor profile for a particular coffee.
Even with automated equipment that can control many – or most – of these variables for us, it’s important that we not get complacent and that we stay on top of keeping our coffee tasting great and our customers coming back for more.
For baristas and operators new to the craft, wrapping one’s head around all of these variables can seem a daunting task, but it can easily be put into perspective by analogizing it to a simple concept we all learned about in high-school science: The Scientific Method.
The Oxford Dictionary defines the scientific method as follows
“a method of procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.”
More simply stated, the scientific method is the process of making a guess about what will happen, observing what happens, and adjusting as needed.
When we are dialing in new coffees, or even a tried-and-true espresso at the beginning of the day, this is exactly what we are doing.
For example, with our KLLR Espresso blend, we recommend a starting point of:
When we show up to dial-in the coffee at the beginning of the day, we will probably start with the grinder and espresso machine settings wherever they were set at the end of the previous day. With thee general goal of our desired flavor-profile in mind (our hypothesis), we dose, tamp, brew, and observe.
Did the appropriate amount of espresso brew?
Did that brew occur in the appropriate amount of time?
And most importantly (and most often overlooked – sorry data-lovers): Does it taste right?
KLLR Espresso, when dialed-in well, should have a smooth, silky mouthfeel with a sweet, milk-chocolate base nuanced by notes of lemon acidity, florals, and subtle baking spice. Tasty!
When NOT dialed-in well the flavor-profile may present with sharper, sour flavors, or bitter, palate-drying astringency…. Less tasty.
So, when we have the misfortune of starting our days with the “less tasty” shots… what do we do now?
When we have failed to pull the appropriate quantities of flavor compounds out of the ground coffee, the resulting beverage will taste “under-extracted.” At a basic level this means the resulting brew will be thin, sour, and/or salty.
To correct this, we will likely want to either use more brew-water, enabling it to do more work to extract from the ground coffee, or grind the coffee finer, providing more surface area for the water to dissolve from and also leading to a longer contact-time between the coffee and the water (to continue with our KLLR Espresso example, assuming you’ve got the ratio right, the latter will be the way to go probably every time).
Pro-Tip: Only adjust ONE variable of your coffee at a time. Say you decide to adjust your grind finer, but you also suspect that you may need to adjust water volume, pre-infusion, or some other variable – have patience. When adjusting more than one variable at a time, whether the resulting brew is better or worse, you won’t know exactly what led to the changes you are tasting.
When we have removed a greater quantity of material from our ground coffee than intended, the resulting brew will be “over-extracted,” presenting with bitter, astringent, or harsh/woody flavors. To correct this, we will typically want to grind more coarsely, reducing the surface area of ground coffee and decreasing the contact time between the coffee and water.
An easy way to remember which way to adjust your grinder is to use the analogy of a large funnel filled with either boulders or sand. When the funnel is filled with large boulders they would pack together very loosely. If we were to dump a bucket of water over the top of them, the water would quickly gush through. Now imagine we replaced those boulders with fine particles of sand, tightly packed together. The water from the same bucket would trickle through much more slowly, fighting to push its way through the limited space between particles of sand.
This is essentially the same thing we will see from our coffee or espresso.
Over-extracted = too slow of a flow-rate = grind more coarsely (toward the boulders).
Under-extracted = too rapid a flow-rate = grind more finely (toward the sand).
There are, of course, a variety of factors affecting the flavor of your brews: the freshness of your coffee, the equipment you are using, the quality of your water, and more. That said, by keeping things simple – and scientific – more often than not we can unlock the best potential flavors of our beans.
Our hypothesis: using these tips will help new baristas brew tasting coffee more easily whether behind the bar, or in their home-kitchens.
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