Baci's Life Blog » Coffee

Sightglass Coffee in San Francisco

bacigirl — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:27:29 +0000

I have been ordering Coffee from Blue Bottle Coffee for the past 2 years. They provide an excellent aromatic coffee, freshly roasted within 24 hours of shipping. However, I recently discovered Sightglass Coffeethat is also located in San Francisco. They have an excellent customer service team. I ordered the Ethiopia, Gedeo, YCFCU Single Origin Espresso. The aroma of the fresh coffee was amazing when we received the package. The coffee was very flavorful and well balanced. Will definitely be ordering again.

TASTE NOTES

Ethiopia’s Yirga Cheffe region is known for producing coffees with refined fruit-like brightness and delicate floral aromatics. The Gedeo lives up to it’s namesake, offering kaffir lime and jasmine floral aromatics. These floral attributes show in the cup beside flavors of watermelon, bergamot, and crisp cucumber.

DETAILS

This is a washed processed coffee from the Yirga Cheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union. YCFCU farmer members tend to small plots of land at high altitudes ranging from 1700-2200 meters above sea level. These small plots are in Ethiopia’s Yirga Cheffe region, specically the Gedeo zone, an area known for producing coffees with refined fruit-like brightness and delicate floral aromatics. The Gedeo opens with kaffir lime and jasmine aromatics, leading to flavors of watermelon, bergamot, and crisp cucumber.

Review: Nespresso Latissima

bacigirl — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:56:00 +0000

This is a great machine–very easy to use and practical. The best part is that the milk container that comes with the machine can be placed in the refrigerator and then when you want to make a coffee you just put it back onto the machine. The quality of the Espresso and Cappuccino are excellent. And at roughly 52 cents for each coffee it is much cheaper than Starbucks. The quality is also much better.

It has a compact design. Single press button cleans milk container. Machine is an easy clean up: pods mean no messy coffee grounds.

Brewing the Perfect Cup of Coffee

bacigirl — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:37:00 +0000

Ruling the Roast

It all starts with the freshest coffee you can find — and by that, we mean freshly roasted beans. Coffee begins to lose flavor soon after it leaves the roaster, so that sack or can of pre-packaged supermarket grind stuffed in your cupboard is operating at minimum taste wattage. Find the nearest local coffee roaster, or an online source, and buy just what you need for the week.

The Daily Grind

Now that you’ve got the beans, it’s time to get grinding. You can either ask the nice folks at the store to grind them to your maker’s specifications (automatic drip, paper cone, French press, etc.), or invest in a grinder ($18 – $75). Blade grinders tend to be less expensive, but don’t offer the consistent chopping of burr grinders. Once you’ve made your selection, read the manual to determine how long to grind.

If you don’t have time to do this every day, figure out how much coffee you’ll need for the week, and grind it all at once.

Airtight & Outta Sight

Whether you’re grinding ahead of time or fresh every day, it’s key to keep that flavor safe. Air and light are the enemy of coffee freshness. Store it in a dry, dark, cool (but not cold – the fridge and freezer are BIG no-nos) place, either in a cupboard or an opaque container. If you’re storing it in a bag, make sure to force the air out before sealing it. Coffee, once ground, loses its maximum flavor after about a week, even under ideal conditions.

Proportionally Speaking

The ideal coffee-to-water ratio for the perfect cup is?

Well, that’s up to your personal taste. A good starting point is 1 heaping tablespoon per 8 oz of coffee you want to end up with. Note – that’s coffee coming out, not water going in. Experiment with your coffee maker to determine how much liquid gets lost in the brewing process, and add more or less coffee to suit your palate. This will also vary depending on the roast and grind, so have fun experimenting!

The French Connnection

Your best bet for major flavor is an inexpensive French press (a.k.a. press pot). Just measure your ground coffee into the carafe, bring water to a boil on the stove, remove it from the heat, and let it sit for a few seconds to bring it down a few degrees. Pour it over the coffee, not letting the water level rise above the press’s metal band. Place the plunger top on the top, but don’t press it down. Wait five minutes, stir with a plastic or wooden spoon, and then press all the way down. Presto! You’ve got a great pot of coffee. If your household has varied wake-up times, keep it hot in a thermos or air pot.

On a Different Note: Robusta v. Arabica Coffee

bacigirl — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:22:00 +0000

There are two major types of commercial coffee beans — arabica and robusta.

Robusta (Coffea canephora) is the bean that’s found in the majority of grocery store coffee blends. It’s generally grown at low altitudes on massive coffee plantations, mainly in Vietnam, Brazil, and Indonesia. As it’s grown in such large quantities, and the plant matures to harvesting age more quickly than arabica, robusta beans are much cheaper. They’ve got twice the caffeine of arabica, but produce a less flavorful brew.

Arabica (Coffea Arabica) tends be shade grown on mountainsides, and hand-harvested by families of farmers. These beans have been cultivated in Ethiopia for over a thousand years, and now thrive in Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil, Kenya, and other nations around the globe. Coffee connoisseurs tend to favor the less bitter flavor of these beans.

The “beans” of both arabica and robusta are actually the seeds of the coffee fruit, or “cherry”. Once they’re harvested from the bush, the cherries are either air processed in the sun, or pulped with a water technique to separate the green beans from the outer fruit. Once they’re dried, they’re ready to be shipped and roasted.

Recommendations: Indonesia Sumatra, Mexican Altura, Kenya AA, Costa Rica Organiz