Posted by Mr Coolerer on 14 Jul 2010 | Tagged as: Technique
Recently I’ve been trailing a new technique for getting your latte art spot on. I call it cutting the crema. To cut the crema you pour a small amount of milk into your espresso shot just after it has finished pouring and as you pour you move your jug around the cup so to create [...]
Posted by Mr Coolerer on 15 May 2010 | Tagged as: News
Yours truly (me) entered a Barista Competition on Thursday (13th May) and performed much better than I expected. With a total score of 83.5 out of a total of 90, I finished in second place with the winner scoring 84/90, but not before I was tied for first. The scores after the tie-breaker put my [...]
Posted by Mr Coolerer on 25 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Technique
Making Coffee at home is not only cheaper, but fun too. The enjoyment I get watching my shots come out perfect time after time. I really like pouring an amazing Rosetta and tulips, then watching the look on the faces of my family as I present them with a coffee that is 30-40 times better [...]
Posted by Mr Coolerer on 06 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Information, Reviews
by Don Holly There is a definitive clue as to the level of skill and knowledge of the barista preparing an espresso beveragehow he or she tamps the coffee. Tamping is the compacting of the ground coffee in the portafilter prior to brewing. How a barista tamps will be a major determinant to the quality [...]
Posted by Mr Coolerer on 04 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Information
The commercial coffee roasting equipments only started to appear in the late 19th century. Before then, all coffee drinkers generally had to roast their own. The goal of the pioneering coffee roasters was to roast a better quality coffee than the home roasters could. With the basic home coffee roasting equipment available during that time [...]
Posted by Mr Coolerer on 29 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Information, Reviews
John Raleigh Brown Says: When Magimix first introduced their food processors about 30 years ago, they came in strong, providing home owners in Burgundy, France, a feel of professional kitchen but in a smaller scale. It is no happenstance as well that such introduction was in the area where gastronomy was noted to be glooming [...]
Posted by Mr Coolerer on 28 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Reviews
In the world of home espresso machines, few features are more prominently recognizable than the saucer-shaped E61 grouphead. Its expansive chrome surface certainly offers plenty of eye candy, but the popularity of espresso machines based on this design owes as much to its well-deserved reputation for “forgiving” minor errors in barista technique as to good [...]
Posted by Mr Coolerer on 23 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Information
There are two basic categories into which all species of coffee trees can be sorted. Although there are several varieties of each—each variety having its own character—this division into two large categories is useful for understanding the difference between a gourmet cup of coffee and an ordinary cup.
Posted by Mr Coolerer on 21 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Information
In the book that sits on my lap, the author claims that, Coffee is second only to oil in terms of dollars traded worldwide. While this isn’t likely to be true, it does make a point; coffee is big business to many countries. The countries that produce most of the world coffee (70%) are largely [...]
Posted by Mr Coolerer on 20 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Technique
A coffee grinder is another often overlooked aspect of coffee making, however it has a massive impact on the quality and taste of your brew, be it espresso or any other method. A grinder is just that, it takes in your whole roast coffee beans and turns them into a powder, some being very coarse, [...]