The Reading Room

Steaming milk is one of the real challenges most new baristas have when they are first trying to learn to make great espresso drinks.   People want to make latte art and wonder why they cannot pour it after watching a...

My favorite technique is what I’ve dubbed the modified tap nutation.  It combines two simple techniques to get a quick easy and reliable distribution.  I expect that it will not work well with cheap grinders, but it works very well...

Espresso extraction is controlled by 6 variables: dose, grind size, distribution, tamp, water temperature, and brew ratio. Changing one variable while holding others constant is how you diagnose and fix any shot problem. This guide covers what each variable does, the correct target range, and the order to adjust them when shots taste off.

I thought it would be fun to riff on a currently popular blog topic and talk about what’s on my radar screen as far as coffees go. It’s as good an excuse as any to discuss my own coffee “sweet...

When pressure comes up against an immovable force, something has to give. Barista and barista trainer, Erin Meister, met that immovable force while making coffee and recently shared her experience with readers. It’s all because of those fines, those dastardly...

The BeginningI first started drinking coffee at Dunkin Donuts. And I am not sure if that is good, bad or ugly but it was what it was. I drank their coffee and liked it. Though I loaded it up with...

Ethiopian coffee is the origin of all arabica coffee and the most genetically diverse coffee-growing country in the world. Five distinct regions , Yirgacheffe, Sidama, Harrar, Kaffa, and Limu , each produce a cup that no other origin replicates. This guide covers what makes Ethiopian coffee unique and what each region delivers.

What I am drinking now Vivace Dolce.  This is a great espresso.  It is not as subtle or fruit forward as many of the newer trendy espressos that are popular today.  It is, however, easy to enjoy.  I did not...

Since this came up in a comment for my last blog entry I thought I'd talk about dosing tools... Dosing tools, these can also help, but they can be costly or home made. The next distribution technique I wanted to...

Fair Trade USA is a non-profit certifier of Fair Trade products in the US, dealing with products from flowers to coffee. They just announced that they are reducing fees in order to increase their coffees’ attractiveness to roasters. They’re also...

This variant on the stockfleths move is (very close to) the one developed by Dan Kehn on home-barista.com that he calls the Stockfleths for dummies.  His original description is located at http://www.home-barista.com/tips/stockfleths-move-for-dummies-t4594.html There is also a video there or directly...

/files/u2252/AT_Brevetti_8.jpg" align="right" height="400" width="227" />From what I gather reading on forums and from my own experience the Tre Spade brand of burrs is pretty high quality.  The company is not exactly a household name even though the company's products have...

Thanks to another coffee lover's desire to upgrade a while back, a La Pavoni PBC Conical Burr Espresso Grinder became available. I had been saving for a Preciso but almost picked up a demo La Pavoni like this one that...

If you have a favorite coffee drink, a favorite coffee shop, or a favorite name in coffee brands, do you know why you chose that particular drink, shop or brand? What prompts a consumer to make his choices and settle...

This is one in a series of posts on how best to distribute coffee in a portafiliter.  The technique is called the  Stockleths distribution technique- or perhaps more aplty the vaunted Stockfleths distribution technique. This is a video that nearly...

Light roast coffee is roasted to an internal bean temperature of 356 to 401°F , stopping before the second crack. The result preserves origin flavors: fruit, floral, and bright acid notes that disappear in darker roasts. Light roast also has slightly more caffeine than dark roast. This guide covers what light roast coffee actually is, how it compares to dark roast, the caffeine facts, and how to brew it correctly.

One strategy that works surprisingly well, but is not very widely used is what I like to call the “shake and bake.”  It isn’t as good as some of the methods that take more practice (or the WDT that takes...

I have had a chance to play around with Burundi bwayi that I bought a while ago ( bought 10 pounds of green two years actually!!). I roasted it to a variety of roast level from very light city roast...

From building Harleys to designing coffee roasters might seem like a big jump, but to electrical engineer Marty Curtis, it was a natural thing to do. He took his hot rod engineering skills and applied them to the needs of...

Leveling off – it can be done better. As I have written about the importance of dose in espresso, I realized that I have forgotten about some of the issues that I had at first with it.  The exact number...

For the past few day, I have been using the Aeropress exclusively with coffee that are coursely ground. The grind consistency is almost as course as for French press, but a tad finer. On my Capresso Infinity grinder which I...