Mentness.... Coffee and Espresso Musings

Latte Art Post

2007-05-05T13:31:00.000Z

As I’ve learnt so much from people posting videos on the internet I thought I'd do my bit and add some of mine. Hopefully someone will see them and it will help them on their way to producing excellent coffee.

My main thrust is to get as many people as I can to show the coffee they work with to its potential and not to let all the other people before them in the coffee chain down.

It’s been hammered into me from a young age tottering round the roasting rooms that we are very privileged to have a product that so many people have worked so hard to produce. I was made to pick up every singe bean I dropped at that age, and I still do it now. My uncle used to scare the sh*t out of me at that age. ‘Do you realise how far that bean has come’. ‘Do you realise how hard people have worked to get that bean here, and you’ve dropped it just before you put it in a bag!’

So really it’s all of our duties to make sure it gets shown off to its potential and do everyone justice.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and Video

Cheers

Stu

Pumphreys Photo Shoot

2007-03-19T10:19:00.000Z

Me in the Warehouse

Malcolm with a fresh roast

Me with the display bins in the new showroom

I'm Going to the Pole as Cold Beef

2007-02-28T19:33:00.000Z

The Polar Challenge is a competitive 350 Mile team polar race in the artic to the 1996 location of the magnetic North Pole and beyond. The race takes place in during April and May each year. It takes teams approximately 4 weeks to complete including acclimatization. The training for this challenge has already started and will continue over the next year taking us to Wales, Austria, Canada and then finally the artic. The conditions during the race are said to be one of the harshest environments on the planet with temperatures as low as -50ºC. Each team of three will race on skis, pulling 120lb pulks (sledges) and navigating themselves to 3 manned checkpoints.

Please Donate Now

In 2008 Stuart Lee Archer, Jamie Wood and Dan Robinson all from the Alnwick area will be taking part in this great challenge as a team. The preparation for this challenge will be as hard as the race its self as each one off us needs to raise £16,000 each to take part, so all your help and sponsorship will be greatly appreciated (please see bar staff for sponsor money box donations). The race is televised by TransWord Sport, Sky Sports and is featured in local and National Newspapers Worldwide.

Please make Cheques Payable to Cold Beef

Stuart Lee Archer

c/o Pumphreys Coffee

Bridge Street

Blaydon on Tyne

Tyne and wear

NE21 4JJ

We intend to raise a substantial amount of money for the Great North Air Ambulance. As we all hail from rural Northumberland we hold this cause close to our hearts as a vital service for ourselves, piers and community.
If you would like to contact us please don’t hesitate.

Jamie Wood 07832 146773 jamiewood66@hotmail.co.uk
Stuart Archer 07904 252620 mailto:mentness@hotmail.com
Dan Robinson 07816 285073 dan@com-vert.com

Please leave your name and E-mail Address in the comments to receive updates on our training, sponsorship and the many events to follow.

I thought this might ring true for a few of us

2007-01-22T18:48:00.000Z

Taken from I need coffee

Give it a visit

Playing around with Etching

2007-01-22T10:10:00.000Z

I had quite a good week this week, I did a presentation to some college kids, had James Hoffman pop in and managed to squeeze in some fun messing around with ethching.

Etching has always been one of those subjects which I have probably skirted arround for too long. I had never actually tried anything like this as my mind has been totally focused on coffee for as long as I can remember. I thought it was time to bite the bullet and have a bit of a play. Now that I have and served some of the etched drinks I am a bit of a convert. Just seeing peoples faces when you serve this sort of drink gives you reason enough to try and improve drink on drink. Probably the same look you get when you serve a rosetta to someone who has never seen one before.

The tools required over and above the usual setup for this are, chocolate sauce, a stright edge(I'll explain) some kind of squeezable bottle with a small almost pinprick head (greezy spoop ketchup bottle is ideal) and a tool to etch with. I used the pointed end of a thermometer, but anything will do as long as it is food safe.
As you can see the effect of this is quite spectacular and I can't believe it will not add value to your drinks. People will come back to your cafe if they get drink that look like that, even if they don't taste as good as they should. As they say presentation is everything!

I first saw this drink on a flickr set I watch from a guy called Steve in Chicago.

Visit his blog bellow
http://spnakr007.blogspot.com/
This Guy is an etching Legend.

First foam your milk, Microfoam please its not that hard, then pull your shot/s.
Pour the microfoam on the espresso, be sure to pour very close so that all the foam is on the surfeace if possible.
Take your straight edge and almost cover all the drink leaving a 3rd of the drink uncovered
Sprinkle chocolate over the exposed area of drink
Romove the straight edge and turn the drink around.
Repeat the process so that you have a large white oblong in the centre of your cup defined by the chocolate sprinkles.
Take you chocolate sauce in a bottle and carefully squeese some out onto the drink following the defined line you created.
Repeat that for the other side and add as many lines as you want beteen that and your ready to start etching.

This is where the fun starts, you can do just about what you want. Have fun and make people smile thats the main thing.

I dragged my etching tool across all of my lines on several occasions to create the image bellow. I think you'll agree quite pretty.

I have some ideas to try this week so i'll post the results here

Stu

Nice Roasting Footage I Took Yesterday

2007-01-10T10:58:00.000Z

Just thought I'd share with you some footage I'm using in a presentation I'm making to some local school kids next week. I think it looks quite nice for the video from a camera.

Don't get too exited about the beans. The blend is 50% robusta.

If you would Like to see some other footage, leave a comment bellow and I'll see what I can do.

More Tampers

2007-01-05T20:15:00.000Z

My Trusted Tamper

2007-01-05T19:21:00.000Z

Is it just me or do we all get a little too attached to our tampers

Here is my favorite at the moment!

My better half picked it up for me in Karshule in Germany for my Birthday....good girl. I can't seem to put it down. Heavy and comfortably. I have no idea what make it is, or which shop it came from. All I know is that it feels better to work with than my Reg Barber.

Does everyone else get like this over tampers or is it just me?

Messing around with oil and Crema

2007-01-04T11:02:00.000Z

Hi, again apologies for the gap between posts.
A very good Christmas was had by all and I hope you can say the same!

Having always been told, and read, that the Crema on an espresso was emulsified oils and that the difference between Arabica and Robusta (Crema property wise) was the amount of coffee oils in the bean, reading one of James Hoffman's articles on foam and crema came as a bit of a bolt of lightning to me.

I had always known that oils dispersed foam ever since one of my drinking buddies stole a sip of my beer after eating a particularly oily lamb chop resulting in an almost instantaneous loss of head. Since then a game of 'put the oily finger in the pint' became part of our weekly attempt to sabotage each others drinking.
So I thought to myself.
What happens when you add oil to the crema of an espresso shot?
Does it disperse quicker?

The Photos bellow tell this story!
(Oil of choice Olive)

Normal Shot
(Bad exposure not under extracted)
A normal crema head

Normal shot from above
Slightly short but just the way I like it

Normal shot with olive oil added
Entry point of the oil

Shot with olive oil under crema
Quite a nice image shame about the dirty shot glass

Olive oil mixed in with crema
The oil seems to have surrounded the crema and given it a certain rigidity. The crema is still there at almost the same level after 20 mins. Very oily to taste.

Oil mixed with crema slightly closer

Shot made from olive oil mixed with coffee grounds
(what a mess it made of the machine, excessive cleaning required before the next shot)
Very strange brew came out of the machine here, white liquid with a bright white crema and an underlying layer of oil. The oil mix probably stopped the coffee being extrated properly. Very thick in consistency, horrible to taste!

Top of the same shot from above
Crema is lighter with a blob of oil in the middle. Still lasted a long time, no noticeable speeding up of the dissipation.

Next, mixing the oil with the whole beans
Ahh what fun, making the oiliest beans imaginable

Espresso poured from the mix above
There seems to be no effect on the crema although extaction was took a little longer and the grinder needs a good clean.
Pretty nomal looking shot

Has anyone else done such a madcap 'experiment'?
(I use the word experiment in the mildest possible way)

Can anyone else shed any light on any of this?

All the best and happy coffee drinking

Stu

This mornings Latte
(Not quite on form with the pour but what the hey)

Whoops

2006-11-23T19:14:00.000Z

Whoops

Latte pour 20.11.06

2006-11-21T21:15:00.000Z

Had a play with the camera yesterday and I thought I'd share it

Hello again, I'm back in the world of the living

2006-11-16T15:38:00.000Z

Hello everyone, sorry its been such a long time between posts. I've been building and organising with my family our new shop/showroom/mini cafe (see bellow)

Think I'm about to colapse. I have lost a load more of my hair, dropped about a stone and have thouroghly battered my feet. Its all in the cause of coffee and espresso so i'm not going to feel that sorry for myself.

The shop is aimed at startup and existing cafes as well as the home user. Hopefully we should have just about everything a cafe could need and want to serve quality coffee, tea and add ons.

Although we've only been open a few days now it seems to be hitting the right note, which is a hell of a relief.

Enough about that, its not the Pumphreys Coffee Blog, its my blog.

I've recently had the opportunity to have a lot more time playing with machinary and boy have I had some fun. I've just about mastered a simple rosetta for my lattes and I've cupped a good few coffees through the espresso machine, all of which has fired my enthusiasm even more.

I'm hopefully meeting up with the James Hoffman in the new year which will really get the juices flowing. Maybe I can steal some latte art tips and pick his brain on some issuses going round in my head on how the brew temperature of espresso machines effects extraction and how to blend with that information.

See you soon

Now i'm back into it I might post again tonight!

Cheesy Photo Finish

Some Fun Dialing in a Superautomatic

2006-09-01T12:06:00.000Z

Just thought I'd speak about super automatic machines.

Much as the guys on Too Much Coffee will put these sort of machines down I have a few good words to say about them. Don't take this as a crusade though.

The one thing that machines are good at, any type of machine, is replicating things exactly the same over and over again. In coffee terms it means that you will get consistency over and over again from a super automatic machine. That may mean the same bad cup of coffee over and over again but at least you know where you stand.

I'm a fan of super automatics, not because of the cup quality which comes out of them but for the awareness and buzz they have created in the business. A lot more people are asking about espresso and the process of extraction than ever before. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the super automatic. 5 years ago how many people would have a cup where the coffee had been ground seconds before they receive it. I'm guessing very few indeed.

So much as these machines are not liked thay have helped the cause of the aficionados by helping spread the fresh coffee word.

Anyway, the reason for this post is that I'm going to do a tasting during organic fortnight with one of my friends at his deli in Jesmond, Newcastle. I want to serve Espresso Latte and Cappuccino samples with organic coffee.

I have a Simonelli microbar which I can use which is Tanked and perfect for the location. So I set about it with my Bag of Mexican organic beans the manual and an enthusiastic manner to see what results I could get.

The first espresso I pulled was thin with no crema and exited in a stupidly fast 4 seconds. This was due to the factory setting I presumed. Looking at the cake in the disposal bin I could see the puck with huge grounds and a great change in colour through it and a bit damp.

So.. An extra second on the grinder giving me more coffee and a fiddle with the grind brought the extraction time to 12 seconds with the start of some crema on the shot. Woohoo I thought , I'm getting somewhere.

A few more tweaks and I had the extraction time at 18 seconds with a pretty good crema although quite blond.

Two of the additions the new Microbar has is a pre infusion system which I had not played with untill now and a tamping system. I introduced a tamp and a pre infusion and I had a shot of 20 seconds with an extraction which only started to blond right at the end. Hurrah.

A little play with its steam wand and I was rolling some microfoam and botching some latte art like the amateur I am.
See under... yuk.

Thoroughly impressed with the machine - for a super automatic.

So now I'm all set to wow his customers next friday with my 'modern' Latte art next friday.

I need to spend some time on a machine, god i'm gettig rusty

All the best

Lots of Work Ahead for a Long Time - I Can't Wait

2006-08-23T15:09:00.000Z

Recently I have been looking at myself and my coffee knowledge and have spotted that I am sady lacking in most areas and have decided to do somthing about it.

Most of my working career in coffee so far has been filled with the mundane but neccesary work that every family buisness needs to get done. Covering absentees, packing urgent coffee orders for valuble customers, fixing machines, delivering all sorts of things, looking after customers and just generally filling in where requred. I think the term is 'dogsbody'. Anway I wouldn't change that for the world. It has given me a buzz and obsession for coffee and all the aspects that surround it, a hunger for knowledge. Now that I'm in more of a position to do somthing constructive I'm very excited.

My limited skills have been picked up from several sources:-

My Uncle - a seasoned Coffee roasted and tea taster without whom we'd be stuck.
My Dad - running the day to day of a buisness and making sure everyone gets paid and we make the most of the opportunities that we get.
Various Coffee Machine Engineers - teaching me the logic behind all types of coffee machines
Machine suppliers - Simonelli, Spaziale, Stentofield.
Coffee Discussion Groups - Too Much Coffee, CoffeeGeek.
Coffee Podcasts. - CoffeeGeek, Portafilter. Opened my mind to espresso.
All the customers we've had - for the how to's and the how not to's of running cafe's and dealing with people
All those nice Baristi and coffee People who blog.
Every bad barista. - who has served me a stewed, or under extracted coffee with burnt milk.

Having picked up all those things and still feeling pretty inadiquate in the coffee world I have decided to make a Coffee Personal Development Actionlist

I will post that in the next few days

2006-08-16T15:07:00.000Z

I have just become aware of a new site which gets my latte art juices flowing

Check it out and add your pieces of latte art for a bit of fun

http://www.ratemyrosetta.com

Bloom on French Press Java Header

2006-08-06T18:31:00.000Z

Bloom on French Press Java Header
Originally uploaded by Mentness.

A new batch of headers for the blog which I may or may not use.
to see the header batch go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/37946528@N00/sets/72157594219897932/

Coffee Tasting Wheel

2006-08-04T13:22:00.000Z

Coffee Tasting Wheel
Originally uploaded by American Barista & Coffee School.

This is agreat resource for anyone trying to start cupping or even to just learn a little more about the flavours thay are or arn't tasting.

2006-08-02T15:17:00.000Z

Thought I'd post this comment I made on Jimseven.com as it may be of iterest here too please feel free to comment.

Comment went as follows:

Hi James hope all is well and you are enjoying the rain.

Something that has been getting under my skin at the moment is trying to design a device for getting a consistently square manual tamp for relative newbies (I hate that term).It randomly popped into my head the other day whilst doing something completely different. I have some thoughts for you on the subject.

The current problem that any establishment will have is their very slightly different tamping style each barista will use. Some will roll the tamper in the group and compress one side slightly more unbeknown to them and others may roll the other way. This will inevitably create inconsistencies in the drink production.

This is a little inspired by the spaziale group which has a smaller radius and deeper basket. With a longer group and also a thicker headed tamper, say 3cm rather that 1cm, there would be less margin for error. A similar theory to that of a shot gun versus a sawn off shot gun. The normal shot gun with the longer barrel will fire straighter and more accurately whereas the sawn off shot gun will spray everything within a shot radius.

So, longer groups and thicker, correctly measured tamper heads.

I dare say this may involve some manipulation of the espresso machine but that’s always fun.

Any thoughts
Stu (Mentness)

Pouring Latte Art - Rosetta.

2006-07-31T09:45:00.000Z


What can you do in 20 seconds? A quick Latte art Pour to keep everyones whistles wet, Thank you to spinnaker007 a barista from Chicago : Illinois for this one from google video http://spnakr007.blogspot.com/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/spinnaker007/

2006-07-21T15:41:00.000Z

Apologies for the Lateness of this post: so much to tell you guys not enough time.

Anyway I wanted to talk/rant about a new machine which has drawn my attention and also a lot of others in recent week and the benefits it brings to small/medium roasters like ourselves

The Clover Machine.

It's a single brew 'filter' machine, which will enable cafe's to serve quality specialty coffee (and by that I mean single origin and not mocha choca latte) quickly and correctly.

The Clover has parameters which the barista can change for each specific coffee thus creating easy to use extraction profile. I have seen a lot of comment on blogs and news article praising its versicitility. Having not played with it myself I will have to reserve judgment until early 2007 , the expected time of a UK release. I can't wait. The prospect of a large amount of people tasting the subtle flavors that we see in the cupping room is an exiting one. The Idea of someone stepping into their local cafe and have a constant, fantastic cup of coffee that's not stewed or badly made really gets my juices going as an trainee roaster. Hopefully it will change the 'instant coffee' culture that we see around us and force retailers to up their quality train their staff properly.

The pessimist inside me brings me back to my favorite pet hate. Operator laziness. I can spot holes for the operators to slide through. I like to think of these so called 'baristi' like water, they will always take the route of least resistance. I'm sure lots, if not most will neglect to change the profile for each coffee, just as they will forget to backflush there espresso machine for 10 days. So its still down to each individual operator to get things right.

A good example of something similar to this is when Malcolm (my uncle) and I were in Seattle being taken on a tour of the city by Dietrich coffee Roasters and were taken to Costco. They had recently purchased a roaster from them and were roasting in store. Gushing at the prospect of showing us his profile roaster at work with a form filled packaging machine in tow we were shown the controls and the process from start to finish. He then revieled to us at the end of the demo that the monkey who had been operating the machine had set the wrong roast profile for the coffee they were supposed to be roasting.

Although this was a little daunting at first, seeing someone produce well roasted coffee from a shop floor with little or no experience, that comment made me feel a little more at ease. The roasters craft is safe for a few years yet.

As a part time barista the clover makes me feel good about coffee and what we can offer to the public.

So, the clover is a development in the tools of a barista, not replacement of them. Just as the profile roasting system was for the roaster.

Viva La Barista