Penny University
Saturday 22nd May 2010 saw the much anticipated Square Mile Coffee retail presence arrive in London, in the form of Penny University.
Penny University – situated in Redchurch St, just off Shoreditch High St in the suddenly fashionable East End of London – introduces a new concept in the UK.
With the focus on brewed coffee there is a noticeable absence of milk and sugar, and whilst this may not be to everyones taste, it lets the coffee do the talking and relies on the barista to extract the best out of each bean served.
Penny University is a cosy shop with seating for 6 in front of the preparation area, formed from 150 year old reclaimed pine and adorned by an Uber Boiler.
(there is an outdoor bench seat if you prefer to enjoy your coffee al-fresco)
The minimalist (yet stylish) interior design lends itself to focussing on the coffee preparation, of which you are made to feel part of.
Each drink is lovingly crafted in front of you, and your barista is on hand throughout the process to answer any questions you may have, and should you request, he or she will regale the history of the bean and reaffirm its provenance.
On opening day there were 3 brewing methods available;
Pourover – using a Hario V60 1cup dripper
Siphon
Woodneck – through a cloth filter
The coffee’s on offer can be enjoyed on their own or as a tasting package (minimum 2 people), giving you the opportunity to sample 3 unique tastes
Water is served in a funky, delicate, individual water pitcher.
Coffee is available for purchase and an extensive range of Hario and Eva Solo products can be acquired, to allow you to enjoy these coffees at home.
There is an eye catching and enticing display of brewing products that you cannot fail to miss as you walk through the door.
Make a point of visiting Penny University when you are in London – you’ll be glad you did!
Bath Coffee Festival
The first ever Bath Coffee Festival started yesterday at the Recreation Ground in Bath.
This two day event is the first of its kind in the UK. The advance publicity had been taken care of by festival organisers Geometry PR, a Bristol based PR Consultancy, ably assisted by the exhibitors, local businesses displaying blackboards referring people to the event and with the support of interested parties such as the SCAE and Coffee Forums UK
Greeted with a goodie bag (containing samples from a number of exhibitors) I made my way into the cavernous marquee. Arriving shortly after the 1000 opening time there were already a good number of visitors inside, enjoying a variety of coffee based beverages and food, with the first demonstrations in the demonstration marquee already underway.
My first stop was the Roy Ireland Espresso Services stand, where Rory and his brother were pulling shots and creating macchiatos and piccolos using the Drury roasted Caffe Cuidado Rainforest Alliance Certified™ espresso blend, a nutty spicy blend which worked well as a macchiato.
The next stand I visited was the Beach House Bakery stand to admire their cupcakes. It was hard to resist the free samples but somehow I managed. Filled cupcakes get my vote and there was an extensive menu (and therefore possibly too much choice) with descriptives to make the mouth water…
Moving on to the Lahloo Teas stand I was treated to a Matcha, prepared in accordance to a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. The bright green liquid smelled and tasted a little like seaweed and was a great palate cleanser. Hard to resist having more. I admired the packaging and enjoyed speaking to the knowledgeable sales team.
The Gillards of Bath coffee stand caught my eye and I made my way over to it. A fragrant aroma was filling the air as a filter of Kenya Peaberry was being prepared. I chatted with the owner and found out about their shop which has been in Bath for over 100 years. The Peaberry was not like other Kenya Peaberry’s I had tasted. I loved the intense aroma and savoured the nutty, slightly acidic brew.
Coffee Kids – a charity helping coffee-farming families to improve their quality of life – had a stand, introducing the public to their charity and the work they do. Elisa, the face of Coffee Kids in the UK was a pleasure to talk to and her enthusiasm for the cause was infectious with knowledge being shared freely and a range of pamplets available to take away and digest. Perhaps missing a trick, I didn’t see a donation box… If like me, you missed it, then you can donate here.
Time for another coffee, so I joined the queue for the Origin Coffee stand, where Ed and Phil were making espresso based drinks as well as offering filter coffee via their brew-bar. I enjoyed their Bolivia Familia Montano so much as a pourover that I just had to buy a bag. This is what I will be enjoying this week in my Chemex. Some great questions were being asked by the public and Ed and Phil were on fine form, adding a buzz to their coffee and making everyone feel loved.
Just a few steps away, past an organic ice-cream stand was Jose Melim, a semi-finalist for the UKBC 2010, who was launching his new business, Lazy Jose Coffee, to an appreciative public. Jose and Zoe had a large crowd around their stand, with samples available to purchase (wholebean or ground) of their attractively packaged coffees. Jose was giving a masterclass on Aeropress extraction which perfectly highlighted the Sweet Siesta blends’ lime flavours, giving a citrus zing and resulting in a stunning clarity in the cup. This morning I have enjoyed an espresso of the ‘We are 3′ espresso blend, and purchased the sample packs of his current crops to enjoy over the next couple of weeks. I wish Jose well for his new venture, he can make a dazzlingly good cup of coffee.
Reluctantly leaving Jose’s stand I ventured over to the One Hundred Days project, where a colouring in contest was taking place. There were some inspiring images created by tots as young as 3. The One Hundred Days project can be viewed online and is the brainchild of artist Angela Fernihough.
I managed to sneak in a quick conversation with Daisy Rollo from Coffea Arabica shortly after she came off stage. I had been hoping to meet Daisy for sometime and her stand was attractive. with a place to site and relax for a few minutes, to enjoy a macchiato, before navigating the last third of the show.
Eager to tick off the last item on my list I sought out John from Taylerson’s Malmesbury Syrups, who produces syrups for use in coffee and milk based drinks in both bottles and also single-serve sachets.
Last visit of the day was to the San Remo stand, where there were a number of SCAE representatives in attendance, familiar faces and judges from the UKBC. I didn’t realise that the Cezve Ibrik UK Champs were being held in London next week, to decide who will represent the UK in the World Cezve Ibrik Champs at the WBC in June.
So in summary, as you can see from the above I greatly enjoyed myself, meeting a number of interesting people, new suppliers, and soaking up the atmosphere inside the marquee. But thats not the end of the story, there was a whole other world outside the marquee too, with jazz, samba classes, ice-creams, plenty of sunshine, loads of smiling happy faces, and there there was Bath to explore as well.
I really hope that this event is repeated either in Bath or elsewhere in the country and that the momentum continues to build. Lets get behind the exhibitors and organisers, support them in any way that you can and encourage the event to be brought to a town near you.
Using the right tamper for your basket brings results
Using the right tamper for your basket brings results
This week I took delivery of a new 53mm tamper, to be used with my mypressi TWISTTM
A common gripe amongst domestic coffee machine owners is that the plastic tamper provided in the box is not fit for purpose, and sadly the mypressi ships with one of these too.
Fundamentally, plastic tampers are flawed
Fundamentally, plastic tampers are flawed, often ill fitting, flexible and any attempt to apply pressure renders the tamper useless.
53mm Tamper
An opportunity appeared to purchase a 53mm tamper with all the attributes I was looking for (heavy, flat base, short black handle) for a bargain price so I snapped it up.
Eager to ‘taste the difference’ I fired up the jug, hand ground 18g of coffee, pre-heated the mypressi, dosed and tamped with the plastic tamper.
A very acceptable double was poured, although slightly quicker than I was hoping for, taking just over 21 seconds to extract.
Repeating the grind and dosing process, this time I used the new, well fitting metal based tamper. Almost effortlessly the puck was formed, compressed with gravity and a nudge (vs brute force with the plastic tamper). A twist sealed the puck and the reservoir locked into place.
26 seconds later a gorgeous double shot had been extracted.
Brewed naked, there was less blonding and a more even extraction, resulting in a slightly sweeter cup with a noticeably better body.
Measuring extraction
The extraction % (measured using the MoJoToGo iPhone App) was improved from 18.2% to 19.6%, with 3 subsequent extractions over the next 20 minutes reading 19.7%, 19.5% and 19.6% respectively.
Eager to see if the original extraction readings were flawed in any way I tried again with the plastic tamper and the result was 18.2% so fairly consistent with the first reading taken.
My conclusion, the additional pressure leveraged from using the metal tamper improved the extraction, and noticeably affected the taste too.
I’m now keen to try this theory with other ‘ill fitting tampers’ to see what the impact is.
However, my new tamper is not likely to see use in the next week as I will be working on improving my Aeropress technique. Suggestions and brewing methods gratefully accepted. Better still, if you have any stored recipes on your MoJoToGo that you would like to share then email me (shootme at 5mcoffee.com)
Restaurant Coffee Menus
When was the last time you visited a restaurant and had a great coffee experience?
Last week, last month, last year – or are you struggling to remember?
The perception of ‘restaurant coffee‘ is not as good as it could be, and many restaurants appear to include coffee as part of a dessert menu with little or no focus on offering a premium quality coffee that is a course in it’s own right.
Coffee and other hot beverages often have attractive profit margins attached to them, therefore even small increases in sales creates a noticeable contribution to the bottom line.
Coffee Menu
Introducing a standalone coffee menu adds additional sales opportunites and can enhance your customers dining experience
An often overlooked part of the dining experience is the period between finishing dessert and paying the bill. More often than not your customers would prefer to linger and finalise a deal, or to finish catching up with friends. The coffee could be the last thing your customer remembers as they relax and will stay in their memories.
What should your coffee menu look like?
There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution and a number of factors will be taken into consideration when making recommendations.
We touched on the ‘course’ concept which as a restauranter or bar owner will be well understood, and considerable time and effort would have been invested into designing and implementing, using fresh, seasonal ingredients, and lashings of inspiration from themed or local influences.
This concept will be carried through to your coffee menu and local influences explored to design a fresh and exciting offering for your customers to savour, long after they have finished their meals.
Alternative Brewing Methods
Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting ‘alternative brewing methods’, including Chemex, Filter, Dripper (Pourover) and Aeropress
To be kept in the loop subscribe to our feed or register your interest for a consultation by contacting us.
Cupping – Best of Panama 2010
The 2010 Best of Panama awards were due to take place this weekend and in advance of the awards and auction on May 25th 2010 the sample coffees were sent to a number of juror’s worldwide.
This is a twist from the normal cupping / grading and auction process where jurys are traditionally flown to origin to taste and evaluate the coffee before the awards are given and the top coffees announced for the year and then made available for auction.
A number of UK and European Coffee Roasters have taken the concept a step further and invited the public to taste some of the coffee on offer for this years auction.
24 samples were sent out and the cuppers/roasters who formed part of the jury roasted and cupped each sample before submitting their scores to the organising body.
I was fortunate to book a space at the Square Mile Coffee public cupping event on Saturday and shared the experience with the SQM staff and 11 other coffee enthusiasts and industry professionals. For many attendees it was their first cupping experience and we were treated to wildly differing tastes in the cup from all 8 of the coffees we tasted.
Anette from Square Mile, a former World Cupping Champion, did a fantastic job of clearly identifying what attributes to look out for and walked everyone through the Cupping Scoresheet which we all had the chance to fill in and use for reference when discussing the coffee towards the end.
Firstly the dry, ground coffee was evaluated for aroma and to pick up the nuances of each cup, before hot water was added and the cup allowed to steep, before the crust was broken and the cups re-evaluated. The process lasted for approx an hour with each cup being evaluated across the full temperature range to see how it reacted and changed over time as it cooled.
The final step was a comparison, with each cupper able to feedback their thoughts on each cup, compare notes and discuss the merits of each coffee.
The farm, varietal and processing method for each coffee is kept a secret, even from the jurors so as not to influence their scoring, and only Lot numbers for each coffee are known.
I’ll be following the auction process with interest to see how each lot number fares and whether international jurors scored the coffees as I did.
Interestingly, nearly all cuppers present scored 1 particular coffee above all others, and I am expecting that this lot, if scored well by other jurors around the world too, will fetch a high price per pound.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend Bank Holiday Saturday and thanks to the Square Mile team for giving up their time to share the experience with others.
Kopi Luwak not crap at all
We’ve all heard of Kopi Luwak coffee. It is as (in)famous as Jamaican Blue Mountain but still regarded by some as a novelty.
I had tried the high street version in the past and was less than impressed, but now understand the reasons why this was the case. Like anything in life, you get out what you put in to it, and in this case it was likely to have been roasted without too much care and attention, as it was being packaged and distributed commercially in fairly sizeable quantities, with the end consumer being more amused than judging of the coffee itself.
Fast forward a few years and an opportunity arises to taste this coffee again, but this time I understand more about coffee, the roasting process and this particular roaster’s products, as well as having tasted many other coffees from the region of the world the beans originate from.
Sumatran coffees that I have had in the past have been fairly acidic, heavy and moody in nature, kind of like a grumpy old man, with a bit of a kick to them. But these beans were different, a wee bit subdued, but more complex, with good sharpness, intriguing lively mid-tones and a long finish.
As an espresso this was quite drinkable enjoyable but also worked well in small quantities of milk (I have enjoyed this as a base for a Piccolo and Flat White so far). I’m not sure that drowning this in milk for a latte or cappuccino would do anything for the taste and at a shade over £53 per 250g bag wouldn’t represent value for money.
For each of the shots so far I have found that a fairly fine grind is required. On each occasion I used roughly 18g for a double shot (in the mypressi TWISTTM , a Gaggia Classic, and an Alex Duetto) and a firm but not hard tamp
I’m glad I have tasted well roasted ‘cat poo coffee’ *1 as it has now given me another reference point when tasting. I will even miss the taste when the bag runs out, but will be sharing this with a few coffee lovers over the next few days so that they can taste something they may not otherwise get the chance to experience.
Tasting Notes: Earthy, forest floor (decay), nutty, intrigue, spice (sandalwood), toasted cereal
Roaster: Londinium Espresso
*1 the ripest coffee cherries have gone right through an Asian Palm Civet Cat who has enjoyed the fleshy mucilage and left a deposit which has been washed, processed, shipped and roasted, before ending up in my cup
A night at Grindsmith
I’ve just got back home from Manchester where I had the pleasure of spending a few hours last night with Ben and Neil from Grindsmith, a new Syphon Coffee Bar and Art Gallery at 6 Hilton St, in the Northern Quarter (check out the review on Beanhunter)
I took along the refractometer and the recently downloaded MoJoToGoTM Coffee app for the iPhone (see previous post) and we spent over an hour playing with dose weights and checking extraction of Square Mile Coffee’s La Linda. This was the first time I had tried the La Linda and thoroughly enjoyed tasting the various extractions. Each dose weight was completely different in texture, mouthfeel, aroma and displayed dramatically different taste attributes.
We compared 4 different dose weights, all brewed with the same water, temperature and time measurements. It’s amazing how much difference 2g can make to the way a coffee tastes. Brighter notes were amplified (for shorter periods) with less coffee used and were slightly subdued but with more body and developing complexity during the middle 2 grind weights and flattened out for the final grind weight (the largest dose)
Agitation was of great importance and when an invigorating middle stir was added the coffee really came alive in the cup.
I’m sure we could have spent a lot longer making tweaks and changes and I look forward to visiting again and checking out variables on other coffees.
I took along the mypressi TwistTM and made (possibly) the first espresso in the cafe!
However, I for one am glad to visit a syphon/pourover only venue and am already looking forward to my next visit to see what coffee is on offer.
A couple of photos from the evening can be found here
If you’re in Manchester make sure you take the time to visit Grindsmith, kick back with a syphon, admire the art and support a unique cafe.
MoJo goes Mobile
We were really excited to discover that ExtractMojoTM has stepped up a gear and is being taken to the next level by the developers who have acquired the rights from George Howell Coffee Company (GHCC) and now trade under the name MoJoToGoTM
We initially purchased a Coffee Refractometer and the SCAE bundled ExtractMojoTM software after completing the SCAE Gold Cup Brewmaster course last year. Since then we have been using it to evaluate filter coffee / chemex, and other brewing methods to identify and fix faults and improve the quality of the coffee we drink.
Previously a second refractometer and software licence was required to calculate espresso extraction parameters. However, thanks to the new MoJoToGoTM iPhone App a single refractometer used in its native ND mode can be used for calculations. (a saving of over $300, thanks MoJoToGo team!)
We have upgraded to v2.0 the Full Coffee & Espresso software version and will be spending the next few weeks getting to grips with the new features
The MoJoToGo team are also on Twitter @mojotogo. Follow them for updates.
Having spoken to the lead developer yesterday I sensed his excitement about where they are headed and am sure the product will continue to be enhanced over the coming months
We will post a ‘user perspective’ review in a few weeks time
All trademarks for products mentioned above belong to their respective owners
Gold Cup Accreditation
In October 2009 Glenn Watson obtained the SCAE Brewmaster (level1) qualification following a mind-opening theory and practical day at the SCAE HQ in Essex.
The SCAE Gold Cup Programme is a Europe-wide initiative to improve the standard of filter coffee served in cafes, restaurants and venues.
The Gold Cup programme is based on measurable brewing principles, focussing on the key elements of grind, dose, temperature and time, with consistency and repeatability as the key objectives.
To ensure consistency and accuracy in measuring the variables we have invested in a Coffee Refractometer and ExtractMoJoTM software. This has enabled us to chart the extraction of brewed coffee, and have spent the past 6 months learning about the variables, identifying and learning to fix faults and honing our brewed coffee skills.
We are now keen to put our skills to the test and work with interested parties to achieve SCAE Gold Cup accreditation for your cafe, restaurant or venue.
Filter coffee is an often overlooked brewing method, with very little investment or training being put into producing one of your most profitable beverages.
The only(*1) pre-requisite of obtaining Gold Cup accreditation is a desire to serve great coffee to your clients.
We will work with you to understand and control the variables and produce a consistent filter coffee that meets the Gold Cup standard.
What’s in it for you?
To find out more contact Glenn or visit our Gold Cup page
(*1) certain standard equipment such as a filter coffee brewer, a grinder and scales must be available (or can be purchased for a relatively minor outlay)
The ExtractMoJo trademark belongs to George Howell Coffee Company
Using available media options to remain visible in a crowded marketplace
I was prompted to review the visibility of the 5M Coffee Blog in light of recent changes we have made to the site structure and it occurred to me that we had not ‘claimed’ the blog on a number of search media services such as Technorati, thus slipping under the radar of searchers who look for coffee information, training or consultancy.
Since claiming the blog (using a token, eg R4RXBXNGBWF4) we have seen an increase in targeted traffic, with lower bounce rates which leads to great conversion.
Ensure you regularly test your RSS feed is working by creating a Tumblr or Flavors.me account and ensure your content is being distributed.
We have also added more visible buttons to help you spread the word (see directly below)
We regularly click these after replying to comments on other companies’ blogs as more exposure for an author often leads to more motivation to provide content on topics we are interested in.
