Coffee - Brewing Coffee - Your How-To Guide

Along with cooking, baking and music, another of my passions is coffee. I have built up an impressive collection of ways to brew coffee in the home. And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. 

Recently, I loaned a Chemex, Sowden, and some other brewing devices and grinders to a friend who is just starting to take her coffee making to the next level. While putting together some favorite instructional videos for her, I decided it might be fun to create a blog with links to some of these.

Rule of Thumb. I weigh my coffee (medium grind, ground with a burr grinder...blade grinders are okay for spices but not for coffee...in the Chemex video below he is grinding with the Baratza, the same one that I used as my default grinder for many years,  a Baratza Virtuoso Plus until I switched to a Fellow Ode 2 in 2023) and start out with the SCAA recommendation of a ratio of 16:1, essentially 6 grams of coffee per 100 ml of water, or, 60 grams per liter, 30 grams per 500 ml (I use a very accurate digital scale, the Pearl by Acaia, that I treated myself to a few years ago). I boil my water in a Saki Baristan electric kettle that I bought from Amazon. Gooseneck type spout design. You can set the temperature that you want it to stop at.

Water for coffee. Good water is critical to great tasting pour over coffee. You need the right concentration of magnesium, calcium and sodium to make a "slippery" water to extract all the flavor. I often make my own water using formulas from the web. There are lots of recipes there but you need epsom salts, baking soda, distilled water and calcium carbonate and a very good digital scale. But there are some other ways to have better water for your drip coffee. For pour over coffee, Kalita, V60, Chemex, etc. a good mineral profile results in more flavorful coffee. The Specialty Coffee Association has researched and published recommendations for recommended magnesium, calcium, sodium, to aid with extraction and the final flavor profile. There are ways to achieve this. At its simplest, a 50/50 of filtered Houston tap water and distilled water is good. Next up is to add to distilled water a premixed mineral pack such as Third Wave, available from Amazon and other sources. Alternatively, Barista Hustle website has recipes for creating concentrates that can then be added to distilled water. Several bottled waters are acceptable for coffee. But we are now talking plastic and cost. Smart Water is a good one. 

Crystal Geyser, from their California source, not their Arkansas source, is a good one. It comes in 1 gallon sizes and is cost effective once one gets over the guilt of that plastic. You can buy it at the Daiso Japanese stores.

Here is how to test a digital scale that you may be considering. A dollar bill weighs 1 gram. If your scale accurately reads out 1 gram when you drop a dollar bill on it, it's a good one. 

To Join: Join the Pour Over Coffee Lovers Group on Facebook and scroll through the discussions.

If you want an easier method for making good coffee (but still want more control over your coffee making), consider the immersion method and a Clever coffeemaker. It has a valve that won't release the coffee until you set it on top of your cup or carafe. This allows you to steep your coffee for four minutes before extraction. Currently, I recommend the James Hoffmann YouTube video for the Clever. I am currently just using the Clever myself, even though I have many gadgets for pour over in my collection. 

Brewing with the Clever Dripper

More Instructional Information:

Improving Your Pour Over Coffee Technique

Pour Over Pour Instructions

One of the most popular pour over units is the Hario V60. Personally, my first choice is the Gabi Master A,  followed by the standard Kalita, followed by the Chemex. 

James Hoffman's Technique for the Hario V60 (Recommended)

The Scott Rao Hario V-60 - The "Rao Spin" (Read This First)
Hario V-60 Instructions and the Rao Spin

(Chemex Video : Baratza setting 18.      24 grams of coffee.    400 ml water)

Seattle Coffee's Guide to Pour Over Methods

Seattle Coffee - Chemex

Stumptown Coffee - Chemex

Kalita versus Hario versus Chemex

My Kitchen in my Home:

My new, beloved, Acaia digital scale (awesome). Bluetooth. Programmable. iPhone app. 

My current electric kettle, though, is a Saki Baristan from Amazon. Recommended.

The Hario product line (V60), et. al. I go to 2nd hand stores a lot and recently found a V60 carafe and filter at the Goodwill on 20th for only $8! You never know where you will find something good!

(More coffee making photos for your viewing pleasure)

I own a lot of coffee making equipment.

Vogs Coffeeshop - A Turkish Themed Coffeeshop Out Katy Way

Man oh man, is this ever a great place.

Vogs Coffee. Damn fine Basque cheesecake.

A successful purchase of a pour over coffee unit brought me back to Katy today to pick it up at Nellis Auction. 

And I use this as an opportunity to try Vogs Coffee at 10610 Gaston Road. 

Turkish, pour over, espresso, Basque cheesecake. Coffee suppliers Mid Century, and Geva, both excellent excellent coffee roasters.

The Turkish coffee is made with an OKKA coffee maker. A water container is filled. The finely powdered coffee goes into a special chamber along with sugar to taste. And the machine makes a classic Turkish coffee.

Highly recommended.

Bahel - A Chimney Rock Ethiopian Restaurant Worth Its Weight in Berbere

 On a recent food group, two Ethiopian restaurants showed up, that I was unfamiliar with. Knowing this would be a great option for a vegetarian friend of mine (note: there ARE plenty of meat dishes), as many Ethiopian vegetarian options really shine.

What a surprise. Bahel is in the building once housed by another Ethiopian place. And back in the day, excepting Lucy and Blue Nile, most Ethiopian places were dark and usually empty during the day if one went for lunch for example (Ethiopians are a late night crowd I believe).

Walking into Bahel one is first greet by a display cabinet of traditional musical instruments and garb. To the right is a wonderful grocery store with spices and cookware ( I picked up a pound of green Ethiopian coffee beans to roast at home). Walking into the dining area, beautifully decorated walls and thick wood tables and chairs. Teff flour in the corner. Berbere chili spice refrigerated to preserve its shelf life (as it should be). Behind the cashier, trimmed goat meats ready for stewing. 

For the two of us, we ordered the $26 12 item vegan sampler. It would have been sufficient for 3-4 people imho, as, we both took a lot home to have for breakfast or snacking later. I held a quarter out in the photo so you could get an idea of just how big this sampler plate is.

The Ethiopian coffee ceremony presentation is available here. You should do it at least once. Coffee tends to be over roasted, thus, not a favorite of mine, being a coffee aficionado.

Highly recommended.

Un Caffé on Milam at Elgin

 From Roastery Magazine. A review that is better than I could do myself so, here goes:

"A new roastery and coffee bar in Midtown Houston called Un Caffè is giving guests a taste of Italian-style coffee with a distinct focus on craft and performance. 

Un Caffè Founder, Roaster and Barista Soonkack Kook also embraces the Italian cultural practice of greeting each guest at the bar. 

“They can watch every [drink-making] performance,” Kook recently told Daily Coffee News. “I give them surprise drinks. I ask them how their day is going.”Kook, who initially moved to the United States from Korea for college 20 years ago, spent the past 14 months renovating a 1,900-square-foot space inside Un Caffè’s 90-year-old building. The result is a modern roastery and retail bar awash in shades of red, green and white, reflecting Kook’s reverence for the birthplace of espresso, Italy.

“Espresso is an Italian culture,” said Kook. “I get it, light roasting is the trend now, but I wanted to know Italian roasting, too. When my coffee journey began I wanted to learn trendy light roasting, but at the same time I wanted to offer dark roasting to my customers.”

A certified Q Grader and authorized Specialty Coffee Association trainer (AST), Kook is already an expert in coffee, but he credits 2016 Espresso Italiano Champion Daehoon Park with helping him develop his methods for Italian-style coffee. 

For lighter roasts, Kook said he embraces a technique known as Environmental Temperature Response Roasting (ETeRR), as developed by Joo Sunghyun, winner of the 2017 Korea Coffee Roasting Championship.

“With green beans having 12-14% moisture at the beginning, as you roast, the water in beans will evaporate,” Kook said of the technique. “The amount of the heat should be adjusted depending on how much water is left in the beans, which can be estimated by looking at the environmental ROR [rate of rise].”

At the back of the shop, Kook uses an Ikawa Pro100 sample roaster prior to loading small batches into an Arc 800 roaster or larger production batches in a Probat P12.

Those roast support classic espresso options prepared through a Slayer Steam espresso machine, or drip and cold coffees made with a Ground Control brewing system. The Einspänner, a Viennese drink consisting of espresso topped with a small amount of whipped cream, is another European import by way of Korea.

“Einspänner is a popular drink in Korea, and you don’t see the drink here,” said Kook. “Unfortunately my whipping machine broke on the second day, so I quickly changed that to an affogato, but it is coming back once I receive my brand new whipping machine.”

A one-person operation on most days, Un Caffè is not pursuing wholesale accounts, although the capacity is there. For now, Kook said he wants Un Caffè to be a friendly coffee resource for the community while he continues to develop his own skills.  

“I feel the love from the community and I want to keep this vibe,” said Kook. “I want my shop to be a place for all my present and future friends and community.”

Coffee - Summer Drinks - The Greek Frappé Iced Coffee

Summer Drinks: Greek Frappe

The story that I heard while living in Greece was that, in 1957, Nestle's was marketing an instant chocolate milk drink to the Greek market and giving away free cocktail shakers. This gave one of their Greek executives an idea on how to penetrate the Greek market with Nestle's instant coffee: Ice, water, sugar and instant coffee, shaken not stirred. 1957, at the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair in Greece, the representative of the Nestlé company in Greece, Yannis Dritsas, was present to display a new instant chocolate drink for children, which was ready by mixing it in a shaker with milk.

Dritsas’ assistant and subordinate, Dimitrios Vakondios, looking for a way to make instant coffee on his break, coffee he usually drank every day, found no hot water anywhere. He then decided, also using a shaker, to prepare it by mixing it with cold water.

By shaking coffee, sugar and water in this way, he obtained the first frappé coffee in history.

They had a hit. It's the national drink of Greece, some say. 

I've found two excellent substitutes, readily available at Fiesta and other fine grocery stores catering to the Latin American market, for the Greek Nescafe.

Look for Nestle's Dolca or Nestle's Clasico instant coffees. Dolca is preferred as it contains caramelized sugar and has a richer taste. 

BUT....

If you want to be truly "authentic", Phoenicia carries the Greek Nescafe at both of their locations!

Here's the recipe (you can use a cocktail shaker, a milk frother or a blender....I prefer the blender):

2 tablespoons Nestle's Dolca (or to taste)
1 cup cold water
10 ice cubes
1/2 cup sugar (or to taste)

Shake or whip the until you get a thick foam. Pour into a glass and watch as the coffee slowly separates from the foam. The colors, man, the colors!

O gafes enai kalos! Oraio to frappe!

Food Geek Trivia: When Nestle' started marketing Nescafe in Latin America, they had a bit of a glitch at first as Nescafe sounds a lot like "no es cafe" (it isn't coffee). 

Heinrich Hall wrote in 2015: "There is also some frappé folklore. For example, some websites list colloquial terms for badly-made frappés, like “petimezi” (“grape molasses“), if it’s too sweet, “dynamitis” (“dynamite“) if it’s too strong, or “nerozoumi” (“water-brew“) if it’s too weak. Admittedly, I have never heard any of them used – but I have come across the occasional frappé variation, including additional ingredients such as ice cream, various alcoholic drinks or chocolate. To my mind, they spoil the simplicity. "

“ Few can turn down a frothy frappé on a hot summer’s day. The iconic iced-coffee drink was accidentally invented in 1957 at the Thessaloniki International Fair, when Nestlé representative Giannis Dritsas found himself without hot water for his usual coffee break. Instead, he put the coffee with cold water and ice in a shaker. The rest, as they say, is history, with the frappé reigning supreme until the advent of the freddo espresso and freddo cappuccino. Enjoy this piece of Thessaloniki history at one of the city’s many cafes – the most per capita of any European city, it’s said. Top coffee spots include minimalist Ypsilon and the more traditional Loux, overlooking the Roman forum.”

Bagels - Golden Bagels and Coffee

Golden Bagels and Coffee is a new venue, having opened in January of 2018 on White Oak Boulevard in the Heights. The bagels are excellent and are highly recommended. Living near the Heights it has already become one of my favorite destinations, when the urge for a freshly made bagel hits me.

Bagels are an interesting creature. There is a bit of complexity to them in that you are going to be creating a bread dough, then shaping the bread into the standard bagel shape, dipping it in a solution of baking soda or lye (similar to what one does for a pretzel), BOILING the dough, and then proceeding with the baking process. That boiling phase does some interesting things to the yeast risen dough, changing the internal structure to a dense, chewy bread.

Here is a link to an article on bagels:
Slate Magazine : A Short History on the Bagel