One of the interesting issues for me when taking come coffee from the café is how well it translates into home use. Can I get good results from the stuff, as good as I tasted at the café? (...that would be the café with the professional barista on the $20,000 machine.) Hmmm. Maybe not. But what my home equipment lacks in comparison to the café machine, and what I lack as a relative noob compared to the pro barista, can sometimes be more than made up by the flexibility of the DIY factor. The café may be great, but at home I can tweak things the way I want, and bring out the parts of the equation that suit my personal taste. That is something no café can do, although in some cases their idea of what's best may be identical to mine. Anyway, the fun for me is making the stuff at home, so...

So, having spent a few days on the west coast (Vancouver), I've come home with a few treasures. Now I'm going to see how they translate into my home cafe.

First up is Artigiano's Private Reserve Blend from Intelligentsia. Arti's may have used 49th Parallel in the past, but recently switched to Intelligentsia , and Intelli's come up with a private label blend for them. In the café it tasted really good, especially notable to me for its balance between darker notes and citrus. In the café, the body was thick and almost creamy, with a dark colour. Great flavors of chocolate and fruit. At home? Body not as great, which is pretty typical of my results vs. the pro equipment in a café. Body never seems as big. Nonetheless, it translates well overall. Still has that nice balance of fruit and nut/chocolate. Also found this to be a very forgiving blend. I've tried low temps in the 196-198 range, and no hint of sourness at all. It does seem to do better at a high brew ratio. Makes a great ristretto. And certainly I would rank it as my favorite (right now) among the current Intelli roasts. Temp 198, dose 18g, time 28 s, ratio 75%.

I've found Artigiano's blend to be extremely forgiving as well. Although, (for me at least) I tend to find that "forgiving" seems to go hand in hand with "boring". It's not necessarily a bad thing though as I've found the reverse to be true as well. Sometimes I don't feel like going through a pound of finicky beans only to be rewarded with a few fantastic shots. Those that know more about the components of blends could probably shed some light on the beans that are contributing to the safety factor. Robusta?

What else did you pick up while in town?

I wouldn't call it boring, although not spectacular. Did you try it recently, as in the Intelli rather than the 49th Parallel version?

Others I brought back are Phil and Sebastian (Ethopian SO) and Herkimer (blend). I have not as yet tried them at home.

Yeah I know "boring" is too harsh. Just meant to illustrate that there seems to be an inverse relationship between "nuance" and "forgivability"

nixter wrote:Yeah I know "boring" is too harsh. Just meant to illustrate that there seems to be an inverse relationship between "nuance" and "forgivability"

How did you pull the shots? Results were good when I nearly choked the machine and took 28-30 seconds to pull 23 g of liquid. Really nice shots, definitely not boring.

Hmmm.

innermusic wrote:Others I brought back are Phil and Sebastian (Ethopian SO) and Herkimer (blend). I have not as yet tried them at home.

Where did you pick those up?

Where did you pick those up?

Got the P&C from Revolver and the Herkimer from Kafka.

Today tried pulling the Herkimer. This mysterious blend tasted amazing in the cafe (Kafka) on the Synesso. I have to say here that I was excited to get this stuff home and see how it translated on my home gear. Sadly, for now at any rate, it did not compare to what I had at Kafka's. Their shot was intense with cherries, big and round with a lip smacking finish. My stuff was smaller, and the cherries - while present - were nowhere near as intense. All of this, though, may have a lot to do with the roast date - Dec 4. Only 6 days may not be enough to bring out the flavors.

I started pulling shots today at 202F, but found a bitter finish, so progressively reduced the temp, finally down to 198. That fixed the problem, but also gave me a bit of "afterburn" acidity. Also started dosing at 19g, and increased that as well. Ended today's experiment with 198F, dosed at 21g, 21 seconds, and a brew ratio of 80%.

Don't get me wrong, this was good espresso, just not nearly as great as Kafka's.

Next up: Phil & Sebastian Ethopian Sidama from Suke Quto Farm. The cafe comparison is Revolver in Vancouver, where Chris pulled some excellent shots when I was there last week. This bag of coffee was roasted Nov 28, so it's 13 days old... should be getting good. It's a wet processed organic coffee, and at Revolver it came out quite fruity, which I like.

Results: Translated very well indeed. In fact, actually better in my home cafe! I started with naked PF and LM basket, then moved to full PF with VST basket. Even after I thought I had dialed in this coffee, I was able to bring out even more flavor. The best shot I had was 202F, 20.5g, 26 seconds, ratio 77%. This is a wonderful espresso. It's very complex, plenty of citrus, chocolate, and also other flavors I can't identify... but a kind of a walnut or sweet wood thing. No bitterness. Plenty of body.

So far, the sweet spot as above. (Higher ratio it seemed to lose some of the inferences.)