Shake it shake it! New brewing method-French Shake?

Intro


As I mentioned in the previous entry, I had a Cafeor pourover maker just not too long ago. For some reason, the coffee from the Cafeor has more edges and more lively than I am used to. It has more acidicty than I would like. That made me miss the Frieling Ultimo French Press that I’ve sold to a fellow CG member. As an emerging innovative scientist (a pat on self ;P ), I’ve tried to gather the tools that I have in my house to replicate a French Press.


So here’s what I’ve found:


1) Vessel - Mason jar used to freeze my coffee

2) Filter - Cafeor pourover filter

3) Heat insulator - Microfiber cloth

Methods/Material


So, the next step is to develop a protocol. At that time, I suddenly thought about the newly introduced Bunn Trifecta that incorporates air into the coffee during the brewing process. This prompted me to think” Why don’t I incorporate some air using the Mason jar too?” If you have not heard before, some people do use Mason jar to froth milk. So it’s actually a good way of incorporating air into liquid.


Here’s the improvised protocol:


1) Microwave the mason jar with water in it until it boils. *This way, the brew temp is stable throughout the 4 min)

2) Cool the water down to about 200-205F by swirling the jar.

3) Add freshly ground coffee, don't agitate or anything at this point.

4) Seal the jar and start shaking. **Wear a mitten or wrap it with a towel, you don't wanna burn yourself

5) Shake it every 30 seconds or so for 3-4 minutes. **This part could use more experiment**

6) After 3:30 minute, pour the coffee over a fine mesh filter.

7) Voila!

Results/Observation:

The result is amazing!! To my undeveloped palate, it was much fuller body(probably due to the microfines), sweeter, stronger nuance flavors(they starts evaporating once in your mouth if you know what I mean, I don't get that that much in the other brewing methods). Definitely more balanced! And it's really waaaay sweeter than pourover and one without agitation(I did some crude side-by-side comparison). Somebody should try it and report back that it's not my illusion!!

Figure 1: From left to right: Cafeor pourover, French Shake, French Shake with little/no agitation. Note the muddiness.

The caveat is someone that likes a clean light cup of coffee like siphon might not like this very much. One could experiment with the agitation frequency to reduce the muddiness. But the nuances are definitely more amplified and much sweeter that I think it's totally worth it. It actually tastes more like coffee juice than brewed coffee with the extra sweetness and smoothness.

Conclusion:


If you have a Mason jar at home and also have a fine mesh filter, definitely try it and report back! It would be great if someone else could confirm and let everyone else enjoy this new coffee brewing method!


A side story:

The coffee is really really goood when made this way! I tried this yesterday night (the idea came at 11pm), the resulting coffee was sooo smooth, sweet and balanced! It’s actually not a stretch to call it coffee juice. It’s that good! I couldn’t bear throwing that away and I ended up drinking all of them. As a result, I had insomnia attack until 4am(and have a class at 9am).  It was time well spent anyway because I was working on my final thesis revision, and thus the idea of this blog entry. ;P