
My Coffee Setup - holograham
http://holograham.com/2013/11/29/my-coffee-setup/
======
gabemart
Does anyone know of any double-blind taste-tests for enthusiast setups like
this? Not limited to coffee but I'd also be very curious about tea, wine and
much of the accepted wisdom of both classic and modern cooking.

I don't mean this to be snide. I'm totally open to this kind of setup
producing a far superior cup of coffee. But if we accept the premise that at
least a portion of the experience, however slight, is psychological, I'd be
very interested to know how big that portion is.

Somewhere on my depressingly long list of project ideas is a kickstarter for a
video series that does exactly this - very rigorous double-blind tests for
coffee, tea, wine, beer, food preparation techniques etc.

~~~
oskarth
The problem is that the premise is flawed, in that sense that it's the wrong
setting for enjoying things like for example wine.

A big part of enjoying things like wine, coffee, tea, beer, whiskey, chocolate
etc is in the setup, experience and anticipation of it. Good company and a
nice mood makes wine taste better.

By blind-testing it that dimension is lost. It doesn't produce a more "pure"
or "objective" result, because the metric is wrong - the setup is artificial
to begin with.

That being said, there's nothing wrong with just enjoying a cup of coffee and
that being it. Coffee snobs and the likes who insists on their metric being
the only right ones are annoying (not implying that the author is of that
variety).

~~~
gabemart
> By blind-testing it that dimension is lost. It doesn't produce any more
> "pure" result, because the setup is artificial to begin with.

I agree that the results of a properly controlled blind tasting are not more
"valid" than the results of enjoying a coffee in a casual setting. However,
they are helpful in indicating how much of that casual experience of a coffee
is due to the contextual and psychological elements of the experience and how
much is a result of the intrinsic qualities of the cup of coffee itself. I
think this is interesting in its own terms.

I don't think the premise is flawed, because the premise is not "a double-
blind taste test will establish whether subjective taste is true or false",
but rather "a double-blind taste test will indicate to what degree subjective
taste is determined strictly by the substance being tasted".

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edoloughlin
_Baratza Vario Coffee Grinder – Simply the best home grinder on the market.
440 distinct grind settings. Ceramic burrs for low heat transfer and long
life_

I can't help wondering if the grinder uses solid core or braided wire
internally. If it's braided, he'd better ensure that there's some opposing
winding in there to prevent any heat transfer from stray EM fields.

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girvo
I read that as "My Coffee Startup". I need to go to bed, and possibly read HN
less.

~~~
eksith
Both are equally acceptable (Startup/Setup, not going to bed or reading HN
less).

~~~
r-s
I thought it was going to be about coffeescript.

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bndw
Although I can agree with the pourover method (the resulting cup of coffee is
by far my favorite), I've found that it simply takes more time than I'm
willing to invest during the week. For a weekend morning, absolutely, but I
find myself getting impatient during the week.

If you find yourself in a similar dilemma, I'd recommend* an AeroPress. They
take < 1 minute and essentially leave you with a double espresso, to which you
can add water and have an Americano. A year ago I would have said French
Press, but I grew tired of the 'silt' at the bottom of the cup.

*I'm a bit of a coffee aficionado myself (Seattle) and have more than 5 coffee-making-devices at home.

~~~
pimeys
Aeropress rocks. Really.

My morning cup goes like this:

* Lightly roasted beans

* Hario mini for grinding, with click number five

* Grind 14 grams of coffee and mix it with 230 grams of water

* Let it brew for 3.5-4 minutes

All of this with the inverse method. Easy, quite fast and a really cheap way
of getting an excellent cup of coffee. All my equipment was around 50 euros
and the most expensive part is to get proper and fresh beans.

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mililani
$18/lb??? What a rip off. If anyone is wanting to get into great coffee
without spending an arm and a leg, please look into roasting your own coffee
beans. There is a place called Sweet Maria's in Oakland that can ship it to
you; however, I often find shipping kills the deal. I found a really cool
local roaster that is willing to sell me any of their green beans for $7/lb.
After roasting, you lose some weight so that it comes out closer to $8/lb.
And, it's really fresh. The freshest anyone can get.

~~~
saryant
Fresh isn't always what you want. Many African varietals need two days rest
before they really get good, though Latin American beans typically need just
one day.

One of the best shots of espresso I've ever had was a Rwandan roast pulled at
fourteen days. Incredible.

~~~
adt2bt
Just curious, do you know of a good reason for this effect? Do roasted beans
ferment after time?

~~~
dljsjr
Roasted beans give off CO2, which is displaced by oxygen during the off-
gassing process. Fresh roasted beans are full of CO2, which mask the
aromatics/lipids. The first day or two, most of the off-gassing is all CO2.
After the first day or two, the aromatics themselves start to off-gas, taking
flavor with them.

It's basically oxidation and enzymatic breakdown after that. So they don't
ferment, they just oxidize (a lot of the flavor in coffee comes from aromatics
and oils/lipids, so it's similar to butter getting bland if it oxidizes for a
while).

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saryant
I use a similar setup. I swap the V60 for a Chemex (better for larger
quantities), a Bonavita instead of a Buono and I don't bother with
Intelligentsia's overpriced roasts.

Frankly, I think Intelli's golden days are behind them and they're partly
riding on their reputation at this point. Better roasts at lower prices are
available from other roasters.

~~~
minimax
I live in Chicago where Intelligentsia was started and has several locations.
Intelligentsia is good coffee but it's not the best in town by any means.
Other strong (Chicago based) competitors:

[http://www.halfwitcoffee.com/](http://www.halfwitcoffee.com/)

[http://www.bigshoulderscoffee.com/](http://www.bigshoulderscoffee.com/)

[http://gaslightcoffeeroasters.com/](http://gaslightcoffeeroasters.com/)

[http://www.lacolombe.com/](http://www.lacolombe.com/)

[http://www.darkmattercoffee.com/](http://www.darkmattercoffee.com/)

~~~
saryant
I haven't been to any of their Chicago locations, just Venice and Silver Lake
in LA. I was also at a cafe in Tokyo a few weeks ago that imports
Intelligentsia, which personally seems like overkill.

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pandemicsyn
For what its worth. I just upgraded from an old Delonghi and an Aeropress to a
Crossland CC1 w/ a Vario grinder (a refurb from Baratza), love this setup so
far. Having a good grinder definitely helps a lot at least as far as
consistency goes.

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marquis
Intelligentsia coffee is great, there is also an artisan bean subscription
service, out of SF I think: [https://tonx.org](https://tonx.org)

~~~
holograham
I've tried Tonx -- wasnt a huge fan. Perhaps I should give it another go.

~~~
nbauman
You should! :)

Send me a note if you want me to kick out another sample your way.

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imjared
Thanks for this post. Was never really into coffee until I moved into a
workspace that valued good coffee over Starbucks and K-cups (we drank MADCAP:
[http://madcapcoffee.com/](http://madcapcoffee.com/)).

I've been toying with the idea of getting my own setup but wasn't sure where
to start. This definitely clarified that it's pretty expensive to get started
so I may just stick with the artisan coffee shops in town.

~~~
sliverstorm
Consider an aeropress or french press. I like a french press @ home and an
aeropress @ work (the aeropress is a bit cleaner to use).

Then, if you're willing to throw in some manual labor, you can get a nice burr
grinder like the Hario Ceramic Coffee Mill.

All told, $50-75

90% of the benefit to your coffee is switching away from a regular drip
machine and to some kind of press, and away from preground beans and to
freshly burr-ground beans.

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eliteraspberrie
If you enjoy a dark roast like I do, make sure the beans are a little oily
when you buy them, they should have a shiny surface. That means they are
fresh.

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philip1209
I've been experimenting with a portable coffee setup. It's currently an
Aeropress, a Porlex Mini Stainless Steel grinder, a thermometer, and a small
scale. I'm experimenting to decide on the ideal type of filter - currently
comparing paper vs. a couple different metal filters.

~~~
WiseWeasel
If portability is valued, why bother with a scale?

I love this Able stainless steel filter for Aeropress:
[http://ablebrewing.com/products/disk-coffee-
filter](http://ablebrewing.com/products/disk-coffee-filter)

The difference in flavor from a paper filter is very noticeable and hugely
appreciated.

~~~
philip1209
One of the fundamentals of good coffee is a proper ratio. I think it's worth
the extra space.

I just received that filter - I liked it, but I had to drastically change my
grind size, and the resulting coffee didn't have the body that I associate
with Aeropresses.

I talked to the Able Brewing folks, and now I have one of the Disk Fine
filters inbound that supposedly behaves more like a paper filter.

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sarhus
In italy you'll find a mocha pot in every house. Any expert in coffee could
tell me the difference in taste if you'd use the mocha (using hot water under
pressure) or the drip method?

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ilija139
Don't drink coffee, it's poison!

~~~
rprime
Why do you say that? Care to explain?

