Suggested as a split off from the cafe thread about their opening day, is a thread dedicated just to their coffees and brewing parameters, etc for folks to chatter about. I'm glad that Andrew is trying to do something quite different here in the bay area, and I could quite easily see many other notable 3rd wave cafe's taking careful notes and following his lead towards a different ( subjectively better) approach towards espresso. His espresso is one you walk up to the cafe wanting to drink, not approach with trepidation over a mouthful of lemon rind and belt grinder like acidity scraping your tongue, which unfortunately is common of many espressos available here in SF.

Andrew is bringing new and interesting coffees out and it's an interesting perspective finding someone so passionate about Brazilian coffees in particular. He's able to source some pretty amazing stuff from Brazil. His newest coffee, FAF 20 from Coconde, Sao Paulo is so clean, you'd swear it was a very meticulously processed washed coffee but it is in fact a pulp natural coffee. I brewed my first cup of it today, 5 days off roast and it's likely the sweetest coffee I've had in a long time. When cool, it's as sweet as a mouthful of sugary M&M's (tastes similar too), with a hint of toffee, mandarin and vanilla and a creamy mouthfeel. From what Tom and Ant, the barista's at Linea were saying, even Tom at Sweet Maria's was blown away by it's cleanness and sweet balanced cup, when cupping it at the sample roasting they did at Boot Coffee (and Tom isn't known for being a big fan of Brazilian coffee for the most part).

It's not a powerhouse by any means, but it's well integrated, sweet and very clean. I've only done a simple pour-over with the Kalita Wave, I haven't stuck a thermometer into my pouring kettle in a long time, so I'm not sure what temp it's pouring at when I fill it with 500cc of boiling water, but I'd bet its around 202 at most.

I visited a customer site today at Twin Peaks (a tower location near Sutro Tower) and took the opportunity to visit Linea Caffee afterwards for lunch before heading back to the South Bay. Their espresso was great, pulled by a skilled barista and friend, Tom Baker, and the kale salad with chicken was also first rate.





More on point for this thread, I picked up a pound of the Linea Caffe Espresso which Andrew Barnett had just brought over from being roasted today. He recommended at least five days rest, but I'll be hard pressed not to try some this weekend.

Just received a pound of that in the mail today from Tom C. Thank you Tom!!! Going to try it in the morning!
Seaweed for lunch!! Where's the beef, man!!!

Newbie here, folks. In fact, I think this is first post. Let me preface this by saying I've been lurking for several months, but decided to join specifically to participate in the Linea Caffe Espresso Group Buy.

First of all, TomC was very hospitable and welcoming as a newbie wanting to participate in the group buy. If he had declined my request because of my newness, I would have understood, as it's my own fault for not joining long ago. But Tom was very inviting and had excellent communication throughout the group buy. Really nice to be welcomed and allowed to participate as a brand new member.

Now to the coffee- I received my beans in the mail yesterday to my pleasant surprise. Obviously, I'm going to immediately pull some shots. The beans were 5 days off roast and seemed to be at a good place to start using.

I had another coffee enthusiast over and we pulled some shots. Now I am still very much a newbie at most if this, so I cannot describe the notes near as eloquently as others on this forum, so I'll refrain. Let me just say that these shots were smooth, sweet, and had a great feel as I drank it down. We then pulled a couple more shots and used for cappuccinos. The cappuccinos were fantastic with these beans, but I hated to mask the great flavor of the espresso with milk.

I had 2 more shots this morning and they were better than the shots yesterday. The shots are smooth, complex tasting, and fantastic. As I said, I won't try to go into the notes, someone with better experience can do that. But let me just say, this roaster -Linea Caffe really did a fantastic job in roasting these beans. I do have a Behmor and do some amateur roasting myself, but the roast on these beans was nice and on the lighter side, which I really do prefer and have been doing myself in my own roasts. Now don't get me wrong, mine are nowhere near this level on taste. But I really an enjoying the espresso and will be purchasing more from Linea in the near future.

From the comments Tom is making about their other roasts, I can't wait to give them a try as well.

Thanks again to Tom for letting me participate and for putting this group buy together.

Cheers,

Dan

Not too shabby for a first 'n00b' post, dan-the-man-the-coffee-man.

I'm starting to wonder if the name Dan has something to do with coffee, with seemingly so many Dans around here.

Tom. Thanks!

I pulled one espresso and one latte earlier today. Today is day 5 after the roasting. It say 10/22/13 on the bag. I don't think it is developed yet. I got 31g in 28 sec from 18g on a VST18 on the first trial. The pull became very foamy as the pull progressed. The taste was mild, I could definitely taste marzipan. no harsh or sharp notes. Some chocolate, a little bit of fruit. But over all it tasted not developed yet. I'll try again tomorrow. With the latte, (hey, I like that with my morning croissant. No judgment! lol) the coffee flavors almost disappeared, as I expected.

I should probably try to pull it more toward the ristretto next time, but I can't really tell because the beans are not yet developed and degassed. Mouthfeel was a little thin, but still OK. Overall, it was a very drinkable espresso.

I'd want to know what parameters they prefer to do in their shop. As a starting point.

Another Dan.

The coffee was roasted late Tuesday evening, so it hasn't even hit a full 5 days yet. I thought I'd pull a shot this evening and try it out, but I have others to play with so I might wait.

One thing that is a pleasant surprise with this coffee is how long its legs are, meaning it has a longer period of time that it tastes amazing. It doesn't fall off as quickly as other blends I've had.

From memory, Tom Baker their incredible barista there was pulling shots at 200.4-200.5, but the blend, like all commercial blends has to change slightly with bean availability. It's 90% identical with the two Brazilians, but they changed the 10% washed Ethiopian component. I imagine it cups the same and hits the notes that Andrew has worked hard to nail down, but I don't know if they had to tweak the temp to get the same result. It would make sense based on the 90% Brazilian that it would benefit from those lower temps however. I didn't ask dose parameters, my Strega wouldn't translate their dose anyway.

Americanos from this blend are heavenly. It really opens things up nicely and there's no milk fat and sugar burying the subtleties.

My Linea Coffee arrived on Friday but I was at a math conference Fri and Sat so didn't try the coffee until today: pulled two espressos and a cap in the AM and another espresso and cap in the PM.

Boy is this coffee smooth and sweet. To me the aroma after grinding is like honey buttermilk pancakes.

Like others mentioned, coffee flavor gets lost in the milk based drinks but, to me, this is fantastic. I'll probably put less milk tomorrow (~4oz instead of ~7oz) but I like this kind of espresso versus other espresso blends made for milk drinks. I'm impressed with the roasting quality since this seems really light (yay!) but lacking bright (yay?). Before the Linea showed up I was drinking a dark roast made for milk based drinks (raw cocoa/tobacco) and couldn't drink more than half the bag without tiring of this style. The sweetness of Linea, however, is comforting to me.

As single espresso, I didn't get it quite dialed in but all them were still sweet and tasty. I was pulling 16g in, 14g out. Lots of foamy crema but I'm sure this will go away after some more rest. I really like this coffee. Exited to see where it goes with more rest.

A huge THANK YOU to Tom--sine qua non! I especially like how he worked hard to include a bag for us since it looks great and now hangs proudly on display in my coffee corner:

I just got back to town late last night after a trip, and I found this coffee waiting for me. Thanks Tom! Here are my first impressions, pulling shots on the HG-One + MCAL, 6-days post roast:

As an espresso (14.5 g dose, 18 g output) I found this to be good but probably still in need of rest. The sweetness that others have described definitely came through strongly; for me, it was most reminiscent of moscato wine. At the other end of the spectrum, there were strong, slightly bitter cacao and roast notes. The shot was full bodied, especially for an MCAL shot, but the flavors felt slightly out of balance. The almond/marzipan notes that others have described did not come through for me. I think a bit more rest will help bring things into focus, and I also plan to play with temperature to see if I can find the "sweet" spot for this sweet coffee.

I also made a cortado out of it, and found that very pleasant. The cacao notes blend well with the milk's sweetness, the roasty notes stood up very well to 50mL of milk, and the grape note recedes into the background, making for a nice morning pick-me-up.

Excellent thread, even from the distance of observer. Thanks TomC!

Maybe this is an idea which will catch on with other members doing as Tom did.

Ok I'm going to play my newbie card even further. This is somewhat on and off topic. Training one's palate in the coffee/espresso arena, how/where can one read/learn/get training on doing do? I realize this is mainly cupping type skills, but I still wonder where to get this training/information. Again, if this needs to be in another forum or if there's somewhere on this site, can someone direct me please? I have watched all the Beginner Espresso videos and they were a fantastic start, but I'm wanting to take my knowledge quite a bit further.

I have been enjoying coffee for 10 years or so, I'm 42 yrs old, so I missed out on this outstanding beverage for 32 years. So I have to catch up. I took the route that seemed logical to me- First enjoying sweet, burnt, scorched milk based drinks at a place that I'm sure isn't looked at fondly here(Rhymes with Charbux) I don't know all the rules, so I don't want to break/offend. So after drinking sweetened sludge, I moved on to what I thought was REAL coffee- Dunkin-LOADED w/ Cream/Sugar( or is it a cup of sugar with a little cream and a tad bit of coffee). Then I got all fancy-smancy and got me a Gevalia home brewer(free with 4 lbs of coffee) and started drinking my own brewed coffee. That will show 'em- Charge me $6 for a coffee- I'll make my own .

Then about 2 years ago I ventured into a local roaster here in Jacksonville (Coffee Roasters) and started enjoying their delicious brews for an astounding $2 a large cup. They are only one location and run by 2 guys and do a fabulous job and I think are very comfortable with the business they do. So I drank their coffees, but I did get a blade grinder and a better brewer(Bunn) and I was getting better results. At this point, no more sweetener in coffee, but still enjoyed cream.

Then a year ago, I decided to get serious about coffee. I did get a Bonavita brewer and a Capresso Infinity grinder and stopped drinking cream in my coffee. And found that I really enjoy it black and appreciate the flavors.

6 months ago,is when I got real serious about coffee and have been ever since. I bought a Behmor roaster and started experimenting with roasting my own beans, and feel that I've had good luck as I'm enjoying the fruits of my labor. I also purchased a small Aeropress and have enjoyed using it for small cups when the need arises. I know i like most of my roasts, but don't have the training to describe them properly. I just know what I like and have been kind of using my personal tastes as a baseline.

I've also added a V60 pourover setup with the standard Bonavita kettle to my gear and really enjoy the pourover coffee even more than I had anticipated.

Which leads me to the espresso part of my journey. I figured I'd get as much machine as I could when I decided to purchase. So,I decided on the La Nuova Era Cuadra II. I use this in conjunction with a Red Super Jolly I snagged off The Bay which has been a great investment. I had not pulled a single shot of espresso prior to ordering my Cuadra. I did quite a bit of research and really am pleased with the purchase. I feel like I got,exactly what I needed and fits in well with my coffee gear. So I've been on an extreme learning curve as far as espresso goes and still very, very much a newbie, but willing to learn more for the enjoyment of it and also to become much more versed in educating myself and others.

I did attend a Beginner Espresso class at Counter Culture in Atlanta and will take an Intermediate Espresso and Milk Texturing class next week in hopes of taking their Barista Certification test(sometime later)and hopefully passing. So I'm dedicated to learning and being a student of coffee for the time-being.

That's pretty much it. This post went into way more than I had anticipated. I'm sure it belongs in another forum-just not sure where.

Folks have made me feel very welcome. I'm very aware of my newbie status and want to become much more educated and also more involved in the coffee community. Thank you all for welcoming me and I look forward to learning all I can and becoming more fluent in coffee talk. Please feel free to direct me to any resource that may be of assistance. I appreciate any/all information. And please don't forget my original question about training your palate if there is such a thing.

Cheers,

Dan