There seem to be many different opinions on how to brew coffee in a french press. As a reference, see the Howto on Coffeegeek, which I find great, albeit my opinion now differs from what Mark recommends. So, here's how I brew lately. Prerequisites:

• a clean french press. I mostly use a Bodum 2-cup French press
• the best and freshest coffee beans you can get your hands on. No, supermarket beans won't do, Tchb and the like are not really much better
• a good grinder. Really. It's more important than anything else. Freshly ground coffee compared to coffee ground yesterday makes the difference between a cup that you'll remember for long, and a cup that you would have gotten at the bakery next to you.
• not boiling water. If the water is anywhere near the boiling point, you'll get bitter coffee with much oomph, but it won't really taste good. Try to stop boiling it before the boiling point, and wait a bit before pouring

Put around 2 measuring spoons of ground coffee into the french press, and immediatly pour the hot water over it. Begin to count the seconds or stop the time as the water reaches the coffee! Right after adding the water, put the press together. After around 45 seconds, push the press down a bit and pull it up again, so that the grinds float around. After around 1 minute, push it down. Serve immediatly. And that's it.

I was using the pour-water-then-stir-wait-3-minutes-press-down method before, and found it to be quite good. But at the stand of the London School of Coffee in Bern I was shown this method, and the result blew me away. The taste of the coffee gets more pronounced, you get a bit less body, a bit less coffee-oomph, but way more of the bean qualities in the cup: If you tasted "this bean is a bit fruity" before, you'll now taste more of "hmmm, that's fruity. Maybe peach?" in it. I absolutely love this!

Of course, this is not a scientific method, and the results will vary from each try to another (you can't really control the water temperature, only guess, and you'll not always count the seconds, and you'll not always use the same amount of coffee, and coffee taste and behaviour changes as it gets older and and and and), but for me, this guideline paid out pretty well.

In Bern, I collected 4 kilos of green Ethiopian Yirgacheffe (2006 crop), which Steve thankfully brought there for me. Also, I collected a new roaster, which is pretty much the same as this one, only without evil stinking coating on it so that it is actually possible to roast coffee within. And man, it's great and makes fun. And it's considerably easier, because cranking is a lot less exhausting as stirring like mad.

So, these two goods combined, I roasted a batch of Yirgacheffe yesterday (as Steve suggests, just into second crack, took about 15 minutes) and tasted it a few minutes ago, in the frech press. And wow, it's easily the pretty best coffee I ever had in my little french press so far! The first sip was what I expected it to be: a pretty good ethiopian YIrgacheffe. But as the coffee cooled down, the taste got more and more complex, fruity, with more oomph every minute. I love this coffee!

I'm so glad that I've got nearly 4 kilos left of it! Trying it out as an espresso should also be fun. Finally, I'm a full blown home roaster! Yay!

I'm currently sitting at a PC within the backpackers were I stay, and trying to just handle what happened the last few days.

Arrived at the World of Coffee yesterday, at around 10am, just a few minutes before Eric Wolf (german Champion) had his heat. And a few things made the experience a bit crazy:

Did you hear about the Clover? I did. While listening to the portafilter.net podcasts, while reading some blogs of some american coffee addicts. The first thing happened when we arrived was that I saw a machine that I somehow recognized. At the very moment I asked myself what it actually was, a thought crossed my head: Oh my God. It's the Clover. It's the $9000 single cup brewing Clover I heard so many professionals raving about. And it was just standing in front of my eyes. I really didn't believe it at first.

The next thing, when we entered the competition room was like a stab in the face to me: a shiney brand new La Marzocco GS3 sitting there, waiting to be taking home from me ... oh, I seem to be dreaming. It's just a price for the master himself, the next World Barista Champion.

Then there was this voice that I recognized, but couldn't associate a face with. No wonder, well, it was Nick Cho from the portafilter.net podcast fame. I never saw him or met him personally, but just heard im on the 'net.

Amazing.

I haven't even talked about the competing champions from all around the world. Eric, who did a pretty great show, and took 8 seconds overtime because the judges forgot to tell him. Klaus from Denmark, who did a performance that made me shivering. It was astounding. He was so calm, so passionate, so professional. And with every word he said, every move he made, you knew that he just lives coffee and damn knows what he's actually talking about.

It was great to see Steve, Jim, James, Gary, Joey and Marcy from toomuchcoffee.com - getting faces to the nicknames, talking in the real world, having a beer and much fun in general. I wished the Mocca Club was not that far away (Vienna ... hhhmm), and I wished that Stafford was just around the corner. I sure would be a regular at the Mocca Club and also watching over Steve's shoulder while he roasts, and trying to catch up with cupping and things.

And Bern. I fell in love with this city the moment we arrived. It's just plain beautiful. I like the style here, the people are pretty nice. Yesterday, I've been to two random restaurants, and I got pretty darn good food at both (ok, ok, ok, admitted, it was expensive. But Good! Man!). Do that in germany and chances are high that you get some pretty average to bad food.

I like the architecture here. And the feeling and look when driving over the Kornhausbruecke into the city is just divine.

All in all, it's really a great and inspiring experience being here. The best thing is: there's still one day to go. Tomorrow are the World Barista Championship finals, to which Jim is attending. Unfortunatly, Eric didn't make it. From the people I saw, he definitly should have been there, but I just saw a few. Ah, and tomorrow I can sip one more coffee made by the clover - the bolivian number one Cup of Excellence maybe? Ah, it's fun. And there's so much more to say, but I'll stop raving now. Back to Germany tomorrow, and we'll sure be having fun at the Leineweber market in Bielefeld in the Store!

Update: I added some links to give you some background infos on what I'm actually talking about :)

I'm just starting packing up things for the Bern Show. And still can't believe that I'm really going to get there to see the World Barista Championship, meet some fellow TMC'ers and all that stuff. Amazing! Really amazing.

Just finished roasting a batch of Ethiopian Harrar Longberry in a big cooking pot. A bit more uneven than I wanted it to be, but as Steve suggests, I took it into second crack and watched out for the oils. Total roasting time was 23 minutes. Tasting notes to follow on the weekend! And as I'm awaiting guests for friday, I have to go on for another batch of the Kenya Peaberry blend.

Update: Hmm, after drinking a bit of this I think that it's a little bit on the light side. Or maybe it just has such a high acidicy that it's not thaaat drinkable as a single origin ... who nows? Next time I'll try to lower the roast time a bit by rising the heat, and taking it a little bit darker. Fun thing!

Another update: hm. The cup is now cooled down ... like hand-warm ... and there's no acidity left? Strange!

The last update: Above tasting notes are for the Kenyan Rukira, not for the Harrar, in case anyone wonders. D'oh, need more caffeeine today.

I think I can never again use my small Gaggia MDF grinder and enjoy it like I did before. Really.

When I first got the big commercial grinder, I was astounded what a difference the quality of the grind made in the actual cup of espresso. It was the same day-and-night difference feeling that I got from changing the burrs in my MDF.

Since then, I used the big grinder for Espresso and the MDF for french press/Vacpot coffee. Yesterday night I tried the big one for french press, too, and the result was amazing! I never before got such a clarity and so few grounds in the cup at home. The taste was much more pronounced than what I usually get, not very different from what I expected, just sooo much more distinct, quality-wise.

I love these totally mind-boggling experiences, when you have a stupid idea, do it at 10pm knowing that you won't be able to sleep for a while but are just too curious, and this surprise after the first sip. Went to bed with a smile yesterday ;)

In other news, I recently began to roast in a big cooking pot. With the high borders, the risk of beans flying around in the kitchen is dramatically reduced. And when stirring like a total idiot for twenty minutes, the roast even gets pretty even! On the picture is the rest of what I roasted on Sunday.

Jetzt hab ich schon wieder nen neues Blog. Der Code ist zu finden im Subversion Repository und basiert auf Django's nun offiziellem "Magic Removal" Zweig. Kann ein bissl mehr, der Feed sollte funktionieren wie vorher. Jetzt muss ich nur noch die alten Einträge konvertieren :)

I'm just drinking a cup of coffee from St. Helena, a small island in the south atlantic. When I was in Hamburg last week, I bought 125g of this excellent coffee, which was roasted just the morning I bought it. The first cup of it on the next morning was great, although not very ... pronounced. The beans (and the grind!) are smelling like, how should I say ... beaf stock. A very intense spicy, meaty smell. I felt lucky when I didn't taste that flavour in the cup. But now, 6 days after the coffee was roasted, it is even more dominant - and comes through pretty tasty in the cup, and I'm really happy about it. The coffee is very bright, which makes it seem light, and yet it has a very spicy and earthy aftertaste. Steve says somehwere there is also grapefruit, but I can't identify that. He describes the St. Helena peaberry, though, and I don't think that these are peaberries I have here, so that could be part of the reason. One of the more interesting things is that the more the coffee cools down, the sweeter and at the same time sourer (more acidity?) the taste gets.

Wow, this is a great coffee.

(ps: no, I don't intend to go to bed early this night)

This is not really remarkable, but nevertheless, one my first successfull attempts at pouring a decent figure into the cappuccino. It at least doesn't look like an atomic bomb anymore.

I need way more practise!