RIP Brian Whipp

It's not often I'm saddened when someone dies, especially as it comes to us all, as sure as we are all born. I just read that Brian Whipp has died. He was an eminent  physiologist who played a huge role in developing the understanding of oxygen uptake kinetics we have today.

Although I always struggled to understand his papers his acquisition of knowledge in this area has probably taught me more about exercise intensity, and indirectly training prescription, than anyone else. I never actually met the guy but once saw him at Physoc and it was more exciting than when I met Kevin Keegan.

Scientists like Prof. Whipp are the real superstars of the world!

Has Bean Rwandan Kigoma Review

I must be getting really say but I was very excited to have a new coffee to try this week.

It was the Has Bean Rwandan Kigoma fully washed red bourbon. 

I've not got a grinder at work so bought it ground for french press. Hopefully Santa will bring a nice Japanese Porlex grinder. Immediately on opening the bag, a sweet aromatic juicy coffee smell filled the office.

It tasted even better than the smell once the water temperature had dropped over a few minutes! Sweetness like I've never tasted in a coffee.....figgy syrup (like I put in my porridge) Sooth, rich and balanced, hitting all the right notes. Acidic zing on the tip of the tongue but sheer richness further back in the mouth. Has Bean mentioned lemons and limes but I only got the limes!

This is simply the best french press cup I've ever tasted! I love this coffee! 98 outta 100!

North Tea Power: My Favorite Cafe

Manchester.... a coffee desert or is it?

It’s well over a year since I developed a passion for coffee. The seed was planted by my old mucka Amy, who is now back in her native New Zealand. I’ve always enjoyed a good cup of coffee and fancied a machine; initially I was going to go for a Rancilio Silvia but Ames convinced me to go for a La Pavoni.  I curse her some mornings as it’s probably one of the toughest machines out there to achieve consistency with. Still, it looks amazing, with real care and attention I can get decent results as long as I buy good beans. Some may say it's not a machine for the beginner but hard lessons are usually the best. Who ever learnt about coffee using a bean-to-cup after all? 

An espresso from my La Pavoni

One of my initial problems was that I didn’t really understand what exceptional coffee tasted like and I didn’t know of anywhere in Manchester to find out. Luckily I’m up in Edinburgh quite a bit and had heard that Wellington Coffee in George Street was good! Wow....my first visit was amazing; they use Square Mile Beans and the guy that pulled my shot was supposedly a top barista. I didn't take notes at the time but remember a fruity sweet explosion of taste and me being excited for ages afterwards. The experience was similar to the time the Dutch cheesemonger in  Canterbury unwrapped his gouda  from a linen cloth with real pride to give me a taste of the most wonderful sweet, slightly acidic cheese I've ever tasted.... anyway I digress

Then I went to Artisan and tasted and found that their coffee was quite different, richer darker roast, Andronicus in Harrods where the barista was rubbish but the beans exceptional, Monmouth was OK but you can't judge quality with one cup.... but nothing in Manchester!! Well that was until I saw the North Tea Power sign. Call me a fool, but I wouldn't normally link a cafe with tea in its name with great coffee. 

Yeah but there is an oasis!

My first visit to NTP back in August was cool. Simply, I got a warm welcome and the coffee was miles better than anything I’ve had in Manchester before. From memory I think they were using Has Bean Jailbreak which was pretty good. Since then I’ve gone about once a week and really enjoy my visit. It’s run by Wayne and Jane who are cool and they’ve got pretty good staff too.... in fact big Al did the best V60 I’ve tasted.

The staff

 Wayne makes the place for me as he always has a chat and he’s so passionate about the quality of his coffee. A few months ago he was going through the process of getting Steve at Has Bean to do an NTP blend and it was great to be asked what I thought. I loved the 1^st blend iteration which was light fruity and slightly acidic but maybe not the best choice for the general coffee drinking population of Manchester. The current NTP blend is really good but I’d need to confirm what was in it. 

An NTP espresso

In my line of work, I’ve come across my fair share of high achievers and one common theme with them is that they all have OCD to a lesser or greater degree. It’s almost a prerequisite to achieve exceptional results in most fields and I think Wayne’s attention to detail could get him up there.  One day my espresso was far from perfect, I even tried another one just to make sure......something was wrong! I said to Wayne that something was up....he looked sad. The following week he confirmed that he thought so too and had gone through everything and only after stripping down the Mazzer had he found the problem. Back to having really good espresso.

Wayne

The next step

Since getting into my coffee, espresso has always been my tipple of choice. That was until Steve Leighton from Has Bean came to NTP to do a talk and tasting. He was serving 3 ways the El Salvador Finca Argentina beans grown by Alejandro Martinez in the Apaneca-Ilamatepec Mountain range.

Steve Leighton

Steve is my kinda guy. He really cares and is passionate about his product and the growers that he trades with. Quality is everything and he travels round the world to get the best. His hands gesticulating to extenuate points, especially when describing different flavours or tastes.... (some people say I do the same....yeah yeah) I think Steve should replace the Olly the wine buff on Saturday Kitchen. Coffee is much less pretentious than wine and far cheaper. Yeah, popping a cork is easy, but the path of least resistance rarely results in the most pleasure....good coffee is like that.

So time to talk about coffee, all from the same Finca Argentina bourbon bean but processed differently to produce quite different tastes:

1.  The washed bean, filtered by the Has Bean's roaster. This was a nice coffee...I got a real liquorice taste, with a maple syrup sweetness and a tad of acidity on the tip of the tongue. It was really good but lacked a slight amount of body.....it was refreshing though and may even be nice when iced.

2.    The pulped natural bean which was most people's favourite. It had a more treacly feel in the mouth, it was very sweet, just a hint of acidity/citrus orange. I often struggle with pour over or filter coffee because it can lack body when compared with espresso but the pulped natural was different... it was deep, rich and a few described as earthy. Steve mentioned "strawberries covered in dung but in a nice way". This was exceptional coffee!

3.       The natural somehow excited me more than the 1st two. It was very acidic/metallic and had a slight feel of alcohol to it. I described it as tasting like a 90% chocolate and it really got my mouth reacting in the same way as when I had an IPA beer from the USA earlier in the evening. Yeah coffee number two was probably better but this one seemed to provoke more of an emotional response from me.

We then tasted a cascara which is a fruity infusion made from the normally discarded part of the coffee plant...Steve warned us that it had a particularly high caffeine content, which I'm fealt 3 hours later... poor night of sleep for me. I think I liked it but maybe it's place isn't during a coffee bean tasting. Still, I'd happily pay a few quid for a bag.

A cascara brewing

Why is this the next step you may ask! Well, this evening at NTP opened my eyes to not only drinking espresso. I’m getting well into V60 now. It’s a far more subtle way to make coffee but in most instances it also opens up far more taste sensations. My last blog or my blip here says more.

A Final Word

The start of a V60

I would love my own cafe. I’ve learnt loads on what it takes to have a really good cafe from NTP....love of the product, attention to detail and putting the customer first. If ever you’re in Manchester, this should be your 1st port of call.


 Sponsored Link:http://www.casaespresso.co.uk
Nice coffee machines here!

A Day Trip to Liverpool

Coffee First Thing

I was excited this morning as I had a new bag of single estate Nicaragua Finca Los Miligros beans to try! They were only roasted a few days ago so I may well have been better off waiting another few but it was all I had!

Having a day away from the office was great as I could relax and pay attention to every detail, letting my Pavoni get up to temperature, measuring exactly 16g, tamping evenly.... My first pull of the lever felt good straight away; just the right resistance. Wow....I could see the crema building up only as it does with young beans; slightly too light with not quite enough tigering  but spot on 30ml.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating though, or drinking in this case. I think Steve at Has Bean's taste buds are similar to mine. I wrote down buttery caramel before I looked at his description but his of butterscotch is possibly more succinct. I also tasted supermarket plums, you know... the ones that never quite get ripe enough, sweet(ish) and a nice balance of acidity. My 2nd , as always with the Pavoni, was at a higher temperature....I had tamped a little harder and added a few more degrees of fineness on my grinder to little effect. There was a real tobacco after taste which I quite liked though.

Overall, I love this bean! For some reason I prefer single estate to blends for my espresso and I think I have found the perfect one to keep me happy for a few months.

To Liverpool

I always enjoy a day trip to Liverpool, especially Tate Modern. Today had added incentive as I was dying to try out Bold Street Coffee and their new pop up shop in Duke Street. Wayne at NTP had recommended them and I'd seen good reviews. I had also joined their Facebook page and bike club and was feeling a bit of a fraud having never been.

As ever, Liverpool was freezing and grey but at least it was dry. I had my camera and was determined to keep it in manual all day which I did. This couple were interesting so I took a quick snap.

27 Duke Street

As it was freezing I was dying on a coffee to warm me up so headed off to Duke Street first. Ohhh No! It was empty but I wasn't going to let that stop me. They had 3 El Salvador coffee's on V60 but I chose the San Rafael Bourbon. By the time it was served another few people had come in so it felt more comfortable.

The coffee was of a very high standard but maybe not  my favourite style. It was rich and nutty....getting sweeter as the temperature went down and with quite low acidity. I do prefer lighter, fruitier and more acidic coffee so its no reflection on the barista's skill that it wasn't my fav. I chatted away for a wee bit with the Barista who runs transition espresso; she was really nice and we talked about various coffees and cafe's in London and Edinburgh. They also has Aeropress coffee makers and Porlex ceramic grinders for sale which were very tempting but I'm hoping one or the other may fall down my chimney in a few weeks so I resisted. Overall, I really liked this cafe and would certainly go back.

I'm All Shook Up!!!

Tate Modern

Off then to Albert Dock and Tate Modern. Did Elvis the Pelvis once go to Liverpool? I played about trying to get a nice pic of the statue in the docks and the one on the right is about my best one. My fingers where white with cold at this stage.

The Christmas Alice in Wonderland exhibition looked good, that was until I was thrown out for not buying a ticket. I wandered round for a bit and decided that I must do a photo project to copy the style of the Gillian Wearing prints that I really love. I played around with taking pics of the sculpture below that was in the Philip Treacy exhibition; this is one of the best but I've used another one for my blip.  I think this looks nicer than the one in the catalogue too!!

Don Brown : Yoko VIII

Bold Street Coffee
I was excited about coming here as it's already built the reputation of serving the best coffee in Liverpool. It was really busy when I got there and I just managed to get a seat.

I ordered a the Sumatran Takengon Gayon fully washed V60 as it was too late in the day for an espresso and they didn't have the Ethiopia Shakiso that I fancied. Again, it wasn't quite to my taste but it would make a great Christmas coffee with the deep tobacco and spice taste. I love what Steve does at Has Bean but just cant't help preferring Square Mile. Maybe because it's double the price and I've not discovered my fav Has Bean coffee yet.

I can't fault a cafe with a bike on the wall though and the carrot cake was excellent. It was just a wee bit busy to be a relaxed experience so when I visit again it won't be at peak time on a Friday.

The Walk to the Station
On the way back to Lime Street I wandered into this strange place full of weirdo shops. I took a picture of this old boy in a ganja pipe shop. He just kept on reading his paper. As I was taking the pic, a drunk said hello to me then asked "are you American?" to which I replied "no, I'm Scottish" to which he replied "I fucking hate Scottish people" and he walked away laughing!!! Ha ha!!

Anyway, that's all from my day.....just a selection of my fav pics below!

Shall we Dance? Think Yul Brinner.......

Sorry!!

Splosh

Weird Place

Can I feel a draft?

I've lost my head! Is it here?

Just a nice pic

A beginners guide to making coffee

I've been making espresso for about a year now but the quest to make a consistently excellent  cup of coffee is only a wee bit closer; I'm not sure if the quest for the Holy Grail would be more simple. How so? Well.....there are so many variables that need to be just right, but very few of these are constants......gahhh!

A good shot!

So.... what's involved?

A Brief Introduction


Espresso is an Italian word with a number of meanings but in the context of coffee it is fast or rapid. Espresso coffee is produced by passing water through coffee grinds at a high pressure. Other methods of producing a cup coffee such as using a cafetiere or stove top pot are quite forgiving and the quality of the bean is not as important. I'll use these methods if I need to buy beans locally; I've yet to find a good source in the Manchester area !!!

The espresso method results in a highly concentrated flavour which will pick out complex notes such as citrus or chocolate depending on the bean. Coffee is quite a volatile commodity though, affected considerably by how it is stored and any slight imperfection in bean quality or espresso brewing method will also concentrate flavours that are less desirable.

Coffee is a seed which comes from the berry of the shrub Rubiaceae of the genus Coffea, which grows in cool mountainous areas in the equatorial belt.  There are two main species: arabica and robusta which are used with the former being of higher quality but the latter having a higher caffeine content and adding important flavours to some espresso blends.

My Machine

My machine is the very stylish La Pavoni, Stradivarius. Beautiful Italian design, mainly chrome with the base the shape of the famous violin and the lever the shape of the bow. In a world of modernity this machine is way behind.... a simple boiler, thermostat, pressure controlled by hand and very little else. Nothing much to go wrong, which is good, because its engineered in Italy (the cool green thermostat light has gone wrong). 

I love this machine.....it feels great in the hand, it looks good and it occasionally produces a wonderful cup of coffee, and about 80% of the time, pretty good stuff, that is after the first shot which is invariably not hot enough and the first 10 ml tends to be watery.

My Pavoni

On balance, compared with a Rancillo, the Pavoni is way behind......but to get some semblance of consistency with it takes an understanding of process that isn't required with a semi- or automatic machine. The process is nearly as important for me....and it looks brill!!!!

The Taste

What many people don't realise is that coffee is a commodity and producing an excellent cup of espresso is equally as complex as making fine wine. Its quality depending on bean type, growing area and conditions, storage, transport etc... and thats even before the roasting process. At the bottom of the taste scale we have our Nescafe freezedried instants made from poor quality robusta beans up to single estate Jamaican Blue Mountain, grown high up in the mountains in a cool and wet climate. Fortunately, the best coffee is much cheaper than fine wine, but the best Blue Mountain is about £140.00 a kg (I go through about 300 g of coffee a week) so its not always a bargain. 

If you're not familiar with what good coffee tastes like, I suggest you have a wee road trip and find the nearest Kiwi cafe..... After a  trip to Tuscany, and specifically Lucca which is famous for its espresso, I was so underwhelmed....overly roasted, slightly bitter and bog standard beans with poor storage methods! Rather, two places in Edinburgh stand out:

Artisan Roast in Broughton Street: Rather than describe this place in detail, have a look at their website : http://artisanroast.co.uk/. Artisans indeed and people with a true appreciation of fine coffee. Whenever I'm in my home city, I'll buy a kg of their beans..... with a roasted on date, which is essential for a decent cup. Pretty strong, kick-ass acidic espresso with a lovely deep crema.

Inside Artisan courtesy of Amy Taylor 

Wellington Coffee in George Street: although they don't roast their own (they use square mile roasters in London: http://shop.squaremilecoffee.com/), they make slightly smoother lighter espresso than Artisan, great acidity, good crema and when you get a good shot, it'll be close to the best in the UK ( I once had a very average shot though). Great latte too.

Wellington Coffee courtesy of Amy Taylor

Now, once you've habituated your taste-buds, I dare you to go to Starbucks!! I'm probably being a snob, but I find it funny seeing the typical customer, slightly trendy, a tad bohemian and quite frankly deluded! Quality product?? Maybe 10 years ago but now...??? I've been told they use approx 8g of coffee per shot, 50% below optimal. I don't know if this is true but taste would suggest that this is the case: usually scorched and somewhat bitter. They sell such a high volume so its impossible to keep machinery immaculate....old bitter grinds are caught up with the new shot. In my experience, an average independent coffee shop will almost always be better. Of course, I'm a slightly leftie foodie with disdain for large multi-nationals chains so maybe I'm slightly bias. Anyway, after trying proper coffee, I'd be surprised if you used such a den of disaster again!

The Bean

This is not some Kirkland euphemism! The selection of an appropriate bean is critical to the end outcome. If you are using a cafetiere or a stove top then bean selection is less important because the less impurities are extracted in the brewing process. Also, most semi - or automatics are more forgiving but the Pavoni seems to highlight any imperfection in bean/blend/roast quality.

Mass produced beans can be ok but generally they may have been roasted many months in advance and loose their flavour. They also cater for the mass market i.e. ordinary inoffensive taste. Good quality beans will cost about double the price of the average bag on the supermarket shelf but it is far more likely that it has been ethically produced.

Artisan's Jansoon bean blend is the best I have managed to purchase so far. It's quite a light roast: very important in my eyes as it produces a richer acidic less bitter taste. It'll also cope with a widish range of water temperature as its difficult to keep the Pavoni within around +/- 1.5 degrees C of optimal temperature. I think it may be more recognised in Oz or NZ that darker roasted coffees produce a much less subtle taste, which many of us in the UK associate with strength, This isn't the case though. If you wanna taste for yourself, compare something like Magnus Maximus Coffee or Grumpy Mule with Jansoon and you'll notice a real difference. Saying that, you may prefer a more "kick ass" taste and the two former beans are produced by good ethical roasters.

Beans from Artisan

One of the best things about Artisan is that they roast their beans very regularly and date all their bags. The best shot will be pulled about 7 days after roasting and thereafter the quality of the bean will deteriorate. The best way to store coffee is in some type of vacuum as this deterioration occurs through oxidation. Better still, just use the coffee up within a week. Contrary to popular belief, the freezer isn't the best place for storage as moisture will impact on quality.

Making a Shot

I used the example of making the perfect shot of coffee in my Ph.D. viva to demonstrate how I understood the research process. There are no short cuts: you need to develop a good understanding of the underpinning principles, learn how to use the equipment reliably and then use an iterative process to work out what works best. As you become more experienced, dealing with different types of beans or a new machine becomes easier.

• Grinding- Buying pre-ground coffee is a no no! The whole grind is exposed to O2 for a prolonged duration, even if it's stored in a fancy bag. Flavour deteriorates  after a few minutes exposed to air so grinding should be done just before pulling a shot.  A good burr grinder is important to ensure a good even consistent grind. Cheaper grinders produce an uneven grind which results in a much poorer taste. I use an Ascaso.....maybe not the best but good enough for the Pavoni. The size of grind is very important, depending on the bean type and atmospheric pressure. Even if you get this spot on and subsequently get the tamping pressure wrong you may end up with a crappy coffee,

      

Ascaso I-MINI Coffee Grinder 

• Dosing- depending on the bean, about 13-15g of coffee is required. Its worth measuring with digital scales until you get the hang of this.
• Tamping- or compressing the coffee in the portafilter is the next stage of the process. If your tamp pressure is too low, the coffee water will flow through the coffee too quickly and the taste will be shallow and weak; conversely, if it is too great you will need biceps of steel to pull a shot and the end product will end up bitter and syrupy. Tamp pressure needs to be even as the water will take the path of least resistance when pulling a shot and if one side of the portafilter is less compressed than the other, all the water will flow through the coffee only at one side.

www.chrisking.com

• Pulling the shot- Coffee is impacted on by the temperature of the water and its pretty difficult to maintain a good consistent temperature with the Pavoni. Its just a case of trial and error here. For some reason, the temp is always too low on the first shot leading to wasted coffee. No way round this I'm afraid. The Pavoni is a lever machine so the user must apply the appropraite pressure here. Best results result from a pull of around 20-25 seconds which will only occur if temperature, tamp pressure and grind are spot on. This should result in 30 ml of lovely coffee with a decent crema. Easy peasy!

So there we go. A very brief overview of making good espresso the Kirkland way!