Kostverlorenvaart

In this rapidly changing world, in a time when many of the old values are suddenly losing their meaning and very few people are able to make sense of the moral dilemmas that surround us, the one question that's increasingly on our minds is: "What is the relationship between the temperature on a given spot on the outside of an E61 brew group and the temperature inside the coffee puck during the extraction of an espresso?" That is why, instead of going out on a Saturday night to drink and dance in a state of ecstatic frenzy, more and more people are staying home to take out their temperature probes and stare at their espresso machines, searching for a pattern which might reveal us what it is all about. I for one am no exception in this new rage. Laptop with Artisan software, Amprobe logger, probe on E61 group en SCACE device Portafilter basket with K-type thermocouple on a German book about home roasting  Thermocouple embedded in coffee puck   Extracti...

Roemer and I tasted some delicious espresso today from Wouter Strietman's ES3 which is almost in production now. A number of custom parts is currently in serial production with the man who is also doing metal work for Kees van der Westen and when they arrive, it will not take long for the first customers to get this latest version of the Strietman range. On our way home, Roemer edited some of the footage we (mostly he) shot during the visit: What struck me is how open and communicative Strietman is about many details of his design and the learning curve he has been going through since desiging and selling his first Espresso Strietman model. He seems to fit very well in the world of young coffee entrepeneurs, where very few people hold their cards to their chest. Sometimes he wished he'd had 20 years of experience in the development of prototypes already but luckily he knows people who have and he learns from them. For instance, one senior sharing the huge workshop full...

My Fracino Roastilino has two metal tubes into the roasting jug so I can insert the probe from the PID temperature controller plus a probe for the Amprobe logger to track and log the roast with the free-for-all Artisan software . Of course one wants both probes to agree on the temperature even though they are inserted in two different spots. I found a way for them to agree by insering one a little more than the other, but sometimes one or the other probe would move a little and there would be a discrepancy of up to 10ºC. Now, the people at TC Direct made me a duplex thermocouple in a single probe so both are feeling the temperature in the same spot. I have tested the setup and around 20ºC they disagree about 2-3ºC but as the temperature rises they agree more and they are practically identical above 200ºC which is just fine. I can tweak the offset of one probe in the PID settings a little but that's not necessary. Here is a short series of pictures documenting the modific...

Adriaan sent me a mix of beans to roast. They're a wildly varied bunch! The top row of the picture below didn't get to play along but the bottom row was still all over the place, from peaberries to giants. Floaters, peaberries, giants and hollw ears  Still they turned out well, visually: Can't wait to try them sometime next week, or later  Of the roasted ones, a bunch didn't make the cut, like the ones outside the bag here: The roast profile, recorded my Artisan, the free software for coffee roasters:

Entering the Pussy Galore café we meet Jane Caldwell who is preparing tea and as we introduce ourselves and explain we're looking for Kees Kraakman , the master himself comes walking in from his roasting studio. He is about to have a guest of his taste a new coffee he's roasted and while he has little time to chat right away, he promptly takes two extra cups, ginds some more beans and makes us two cups as well. He weighs the grinds, carefully puts a dose in each glass cup and lets it sit for a while. Then he comes back and with a sharp tap on the counter makes the wet coffee grinds sink to the bottom se we can taste the bright coffee, diluted like tea and very expressive in its aromas. Ground coffee in cups As the coffee cools off a bit, Dutch readers of this blog can take some time to read a blog that Kees published last year about marketing and his ambivalent position towards promotion. Does great quality needs promoting or should it be possible to make a living with...