Understand the Process

Process is important. “Understand the process,” I say. But what does that entail? Is “process” simply a set of steps you follow to accomplish a task correctly – In this case brewing coffee?

Yes.

So, we're done then?

No, we're not. Because as straightforward as it should be, to everyone's dismay (not really) there are few professionals who get it right. What are they not doing right and WHY are they not doing it right?

Let's start with: What is the process?

In a nutshell: Start with properly roasted, quality, fresh, (whole) coffee beans. Understand correct dosing (coffee:water ratio) and particle size. Use correct dosing for chosen brewing method. Grind fresh with a good, adjustable burr grinder. Use water within (generally) specific TDS parameters. And brew! Then taste and adjust until it's just right. All of these steps are taken in order to produce a specific result – excellent coffee.

Now let's work through these “simple” things and see where the problems are.

Quality coffee – Now there are cupping scores and tasting notes in respect to the green coffee. So, as a coffee roaster it's simple to get your hands on quality beans. And I would suppose that most coffee shops who are making a claim of craft, artisanal, or “Third Wave” coffee are, in fact, sourcing quality green.

Properly roasted – Here is where we need to take a closer look. Because as I have often said, the higher the quality of your green, the more complexity within that specific lot, the more skill it takes to roast it.

So, what does “highly skilled” as a roaster mean? Is it about experience and dedication? Is it about talent?

I think if I had to list these factors it would be: talent, dedication, and experience. And when I talk about dedication, I think you can use the word “dedication” as a more serious sounding replacement for the word “passion”. You can't be dedicated to a thing without loving or enjoying that thing. And the dedication isn't simply to the craft. It's a dedication to the result of the craft, which is excellent coffee. With dedication and experience, you can always be above average to really, really good. But in my experience, without some inherent skill, aptitude or talent for the craft, you will never be exceptional.

So the first weakening of the process is with the roasting? What is the talent level of your roaster? How many hours of work have they put in? How many varietals from how many regions have they roasted? And how many years have they been doing it? Whether YOU are the roaster or your shop does the roasting, or you bring in your beans from somewhere – in which case you have to ask all these questions about their roaster – the likelihood is perhaps your coffee program isn't on as solid a ground as you were led to believe or that you are leading others to believe.

Now, I could really stop there, because the roasting of the coffee is probably the most important step in the coffee making process.

But let's assume the roasting is spot on.

Correct dosing is a known thing, so there's really no excuse for getting that wrong Look up “Gold Cup” standards or SCA brewing standards. Coffee science doesn't change.

Grind size is a generally known thing that you specifically tune to your coffee and your taste.

The same can be said for water chemistry.

Brewing technique? That takes a bit of skill. It takes some practice. And of course the goal again... excellent coffee.

So the reasons for not executing excellent coffee?

Either you don't know how. Or you don't care to know how. Often it's both.

If you care about the prestige of sourcing excellent coffees, but don't take the time to make sure you have a highly experienced roaster who can create sweetness and dynamic complexity and balance and mouthfeel in your coffee – then what?

Well, what happens is if the fundamentals of your coffee program are not rock solid, the smaller details, like brewing parameters or water chemistry are going to be an afterthought as well.

Or do you try to unknowingly take short cuts? You have a refractometer of some sort, you measure TDS to perfection... you dial in temperatures precisely, and what you do is end up chasing numbers instead of following flavor.

Great coffee, excellent coffee, exceptional coffee is not the result of following a set of numbers.

Exceptional coffee is the result of understanding the process with the end goal of a delicious cup of coffee. This means fundamentals of brewing and this means following the flavor.

It's really simple. Everyone should be able to do it.

You should be able to do it. So why aren't you?

John talks coffee #10 - espresso, coffee, and roasting.

Take one part of your craft and use it as a base of knowledge to make other aspects shine.

John talks coffee #9 - The value add (Arthur's question)

I address they mysteries of pricing your product. How do you add value to what you are doing?

John talks coffee #8 What are you hiding

Are you hiding flavors with your brewing method?

John talks coffee #7 Yes to Flavor, No to Cold Brew

Why we don't do cold brew. Fact.

John talks coffee #6 - espresso texture starts with roasting !

Espresso is about mouthfeel, texture, and flavor. And it should be delicious!

John talks coffee #5 - espresso building insights

Know your craft!

John talks coffee #4 - Tasting - Understand Why

The reason you taste and adjust, is not simply to make it better. It's to understand why the new version tastes different than the old version. Don't just ask why, know why!

John talks coffee #3 - Knowledge of Craft

Understand the coffees that you are using, understand how they work at various roast levels and different profiles. The more you understand how the depth and breadth of your coffee, the more you will understand - and create a great espresso.

John talks coffee #2 - Light Roasting and Lemons

Light roasting is about developing sweetness and structure. to support the flavors.

Espresso Blending: Insights and Innovation

Coffee is roasted. Coffee has an initial “de-gassing” and then coffee is ready to consume. That's the basics in layman's terms.

Here are some thoughts I have been exploring:

Different coffees are ready after a different amount of days, and furthermore, different coffees (in terms of realized flavor extraction) age differently. That being the case, it would make sense to construct your espresso blends to reflect this. So if you have a Sumatran coffee that takes 5 days to degas and a Guatemalan that takes 2 days, and an Ethiopian that takes 1 day, then if you roasted the Sumatra on Sunday, you would roast the Guatemala on Wednesday, and the Ethiopia on Thursday. By doing this, all the coffees are “ready” at the same time.

The second factor would be the longevity of said coffees flavor nuances. Now we know about coffee being good for X days from roasting, but in terms of realized flavor extraction of various beans at different roast profiles there is a window of useability for espresso that may or may not correlate with the specifics we find for brewed coffee. Yes, it may be a plus or minus shift of a day or two, so it is worth considering.

This is not detailed by any means, but it's something to get you to think a little bit. As a practice, it's certainly not a a simplistic one. You need to consider other factors, like: Does the flavor intensify over the useable time, and then drop off like a Dry Processed Ethiopian or does it peak from days 6-10 like a Central American coffee? What about percentages in a blend? How does roast level affect flavor nuance and stability? Then you correlate those factors to the initial degassing time and come up with a new set of variables. This is a simplistic look at some of the little discussed factors involved with maximizing the flavor potential in your espresso, and it is something I would suggest thinking about if you want to improve your craft. 

If you think about these kinds of things when you are roasting and blending, and would like to have a discussion, share your thoughts with me @ caffedbolla AT Yahoo DOT com.

Happy roasting!

Single Origin Espresso: How to create a multidimensional experience

Crafting a great single origin espresso should be approached the same was as you would in creating any other delicious espresso. Separate roasts. Separate profiles. Separate flavors. And then a wonderful espresso.

  

Espresso is not a tiny cup of coffee. It should not feel like a “tiny cup of coffee”when you drink it. Espresso has a density, intensity, and viscosity (mouthfeel). Whether it's floral and light stone fruit or dense chocolate and dark berry, espresso should still have a definite mouthfeel and density. Properly roasted and executed espresso has a density that supports and balances the clarity. Creating density enhances the clarity, it does not take away from it. Espresso that is thin and bright without the proper amount of sweetness and texture is simply an unbalanced espresso. Bracing flavor notes are not progressive, they are merely a sign of an underdeveloped or improperly developed roast.

Every coffee (probably) can be used in espresso, but not every coffee can be used as espresso. Sometimes the flavors developed in a particular coffee are too intense as an espresso. But those same notes will often be a wonderful supporting note or highlight if the proper balance is achieved in a simple two or three bean blend.

Ok. That's all fine and dandy, but how does one properly execute a single origin espresso?

There are a handful of coffees that are amazing out of the gate single origin, single roast espresso. Many of these can be improved by profile layering, but it's really not necessary. That being said, the issues are rarely with the coffee, rather they are a result of poor execution of said coffee as a single origin espresso.

When a coffee has great flavors at City, City+, Full City, and Full City+, why ignore that potential complexity by utilizing a single roast? Multiple layers of flavor and an unmistakeable textural mouthfeel are what makes an espresso come alive.

It's not always about choosing light and medium or light and dark. Sometimes, it is about small differences within a certain darkness (City+ for example) of roast, but differing profiles. One roast might be more nut forward, one more fruit forward, and one more balanced. Not only should you think like a skilled chef or a world-class mixologist and weave layers within layers, you should take the same time to develop your craft as they did to develop theirs.

You can choose simplicity or complexity, but even within simplicity, there are supporting areas of sweet, savory or umami that give dimension to the espresso. To truly understand the flavor potential you need to explore the range of possibilities at your fingertips. There are as many ways to construct your espresso with a single bean as there are with two or three. Simplicity is not about taking shortcuts, simplicity is a focused exploration of what's in front of you.

caffe d'bolla is twelve - Thank You!

Twelve years ago, Yiching and I officially opened our doors at caffe d'bolla. As all new businesses, we used a combination of determination and ingenuity to get everything off the ground. From traveling to trade shows, listening to as many presentations as we could, and taking furious notes to filling a trailer with all of our equipment – including a full size commercial refrigerator we squeezed through a hole in the drywall that would be a future door, turned on its side and rolled it on pipes before setting it in place, to working into the wee hours of the night so we could get everything right.

We spent every day in our shop together, taking turns running errands or having something to eat. We learned about the continuous discovery that is espresso, and latte art (which Yiching has always been better at), and I learned the craft of roasting so I could share something wonderful with our customers.

 Over the years, our hours have changed a little, and we have done a couple of remodels to the store, but one thing that has never changed is how much we love our shop and seeing smiles on customer's faces as they take their first sip. And although you may not see Yiching in the shop [much these days], she continues to bake our treats daily - from muffins to her perfect brownies, and she maintains our online presence (especially all the good pictures), and coordinates our overseas ordering and imports. This is all because more than two and a half years ago, our son Alex was born, and after an early introduction to coffee and espresso, he is now busy at home with Yiching learning all the things a curious and energetic boy should.


As the years go by, I know that Alex will learn how to pull the perfect espresso and brew siphon coffee to our standards. Maybe it will be you (yes, YOU) who tastes his first drink. Stay tuned for our celebratory "Thank You!" It's going to be another fantastic year!

The Americano: the barometer for judging any coffee shop or espresso bar

An artisan coffee shop or espresso bar should be able execute an exceptional Americano.  And if not, can they execute anything properly?

You think it would just be all about the espresso, and it is -- to a point. I've known top-notch places that have great espresso, and fail miserably when it comes time to make an Americano. A failed Americano is the result of either improperly roasted espresso, under or over-extracted espresso, bad drink building basics, non-caring barista (it's not a sexy drink), non-caring ownership, or all the above. The Americano is a foundation drink. There are no excuses for poor execution.

The Americano, the quicker, fresher alternative to batch-brewed coffee is a drink that should be easy to execute, and reveals what standards a coffee shop or espresso bar actually has as compared to those that they claim to have. The recipe is simple: espresso brewed directly into the hot water, which is already residing in the cup.

“What about espresso first, and then add water?” No.

“Or maybe pull shots into shot glasses or some funky pitcher looking thingamajig and then pour over the water?” Again, that would be a “No.”

But for the Americano to work, your water should never be hotter than your espresso. Water temperature, relative to brew temperature, altitude, etc. should be as low as 170 F (77 C) or less (ours is at 162  F) for the best results. Once the espresso exits the group head, it has already dropped several degrees by the time it hits the water. Another thing is -  your espresso, and the resultant Americano needs to have body and texture. The proper amount of lipids and oils are necessary for good crema density, texture, and mouthfeel. Without them, result is the same as a weakly brewed cup of coffee. A thin, watery, espresso-like concoction is not an Americano. It's just a bad drink.

There are many new places that have come about in recent years - both in our fair city, and across the globe, and the Americano, much like the Emperor's new clothes, reveals all -- and it isn't pretty.

So for all you current and prospective shop owners, barista, and coffee-beverage lovers of all types – If you can't make a tasty Americano, an honest to goodness “That's good!” Americano, then you might want to examine everything you are doing. Yep, it's that important.

caffe d'bolla. Gesha. Siphon.

After brewing somewhere north of ten thousand cups of coffee on the siphon, it's rare that I come across a coffee that separates itself so far from the others that the words “excellent,” “outstanding,” or “superb” simply do not communicate the brilliance of the coffee. This is one such coffee.

This is a Gesha from Acatenango in Guatemala. It is one of the two most complex coffees I have ever tasted. The other, a Gesha from the heralded Finca Esmeralda in Panama. Both are coffees that I roasted. These are two iterations of the same magical cultivar with differences arising from terroir and microclimate. With the Panama, and now, some five thousand or so cups later with the Guatemala, all I can say is “wow!”

Let me start by saying that this is not about experiencing one sensational coffee. It's like experiencing three distinctly different sensational coffees in one cup.

Once your coffee is poured, you will want to wait a good nine minutes to begin your journey. The first part of the cup greets you with complex floral notes from hibiscus, jasmine, rose, and lavender. A touch of peach blossom tea makes an appearance, and all the floral notes are interspersed with flavors of pomelo, pink grapefruit, and mandarin. A different set of flavor combinations in every sip, with a buttery mouthfeel elevating the experience.

A great siphon coffee, especially the Gesha, is about pacing. After an additional five to eight minutes of cooling, a juicy fruit punch and ripe berry note emerges for a few sips, with a silky essence caressing your tongue like an passionate lover, and leaving you with a warm, satisfied smile.

After another five minutes to eight minutes -- being wiser to opt for the latter, sweet cream and berries linger on your palate with a touch of assam tea and a hint of lemon-honey. And a hint of cocoa lingers on your palate if you wait for it. A little more patience, and you will be rewarded with the comforting essence of warm butterscotch sweetness in the final sips.

This is a journey worth savoring, and should take you thirty-five to forty-five minutes once the coffee touches your cup. Use your time well, and you will be rewarded.

The Acatenango Gesha will be offered on siphon starting on April 12^th for about two weeks. We will offer an additional run before the end of May.

Espresso: Building a Foundation

Roasting as a professional is a craft I do my best to approach in a thoughtful manner. There are too few coffee roasters who approach from the perspective of:  skill+knowledge+time = craft development. Most roasters seem to approach from the perspective of : green coffee+heat+time = brown coffee. brown coffee = "I am a roaster!" This distorted perception is not a reality, and is one of the most deceptive practices perpetuated throughout our industry.

I've been roasting for ten years now, and although we are a small roaster, we roast 40 or more different espresso every year, all consisting of usually 2-3 coffees, and we never repeat a blend. This is in conjunction with roasting about 50-60 strictly SO coffees throughout the year for whole bean and siphon coffee at our shop.

Many customers have said there is something unique to our espresso that they don't experience anywhere else, and I think that's true for every roaster who has found their voice and wants to communicate something to their customers. Espresso has a language of its own, it speaks to your senses and it speaks to your heart, but it has to start somewhere.

What coffees? What percentages? What profiles?

Those are all good questions.

The higher quality your green, the greater ability you have to construct a great espresso blend from a few components. I personally like blends more than SO espresso for two reasons, 1) not every coffee works as an espresso and 2) you will run out of said coffee too fast. As I mentioned before, I prefer using two or three component coffees for our espresso, more coffees than that and they start to get lost in the mix.

We do not use filler or commodity coffees for our espresso. All coffee we roast is above Specialty Grade, so as components they each have a wealth of complexity to draw on. I start with two different premises, one is a base component with highlights or accent notes from one or two other coffees. And the other is from a synergestic perspective of the component beans coming together to create a flavor (or flavors) greater than those of the individual beans.

Having a base coffee does not necessarily mean that will be the highest percentage in a blend, but it does mean that particular coffee will have the most dominant flavor. The greater familiarity you have with each coffee and how their flavors manifest in the espresso extraction process, the greater chance you have of creating a wonderful espresso blend.

This is how I would advise a new roaster to begin the active process of creating a great espresso blend: Start with five, ten, or twenty coffees. Roast, brew as coffee, and taste. Take notes. Now brew each coffee as an espresso and compare the differences in specific flavors to those from your coffee notes, paying close attention to which flavors have intensified from the espresso extraction method. This way you can understand how the extraction process changes, highlights, and reveals those unique characteristics. This is a starting point. Repeat the process for those same coffees with a different profile. Do this again and again and again until you have a feel for how each new coffee will act as an espresso.

Always roast components separately.

You will want to understand the tendencies of different bean densities and how they work together. What about SHB, maybe soft beans or Pacamara or Margogype, or peaberry? How does an Ethiopian peaberry roast compared to a Central American peaberry, and how do each work as a component of espresso? Continue building your knowledge base, know what profiles work best with what coffees, know how profiles should change for a Central American paired with a Brazilian vs one paired with a dry-processed Ethiopian.

Begin blending those coffees. If you started with twenty coffees, that will give you 380 two bean blend permutations and 6,840 three bean blend combinations. And quite a bit more once you factor in the varying percentage possibilities. That's a lot of tasting!

Do this for the next twenty coffees, and so on and so forth. Again. And again. And. Again.
After thousands of tastings, notes, profiles, and blend possibilities you will have a firm grasp of the basics. Now, with a solid foundation, you are ready to begin.

With each new roast, I seek to learn something new, and develop my craft. I hope you will do the same.

Happy roasting!

Ideas shared, nurtured, and cultivated grow into dreams realized

It was an early summer evening in 2001, Yiching called me and said, "I think we should start our own (coffee/tea) business."

I was making the bulk of my income delivering pizza at the time, "Let me run some numbers," I replied. I spent the next several hours driving around, furiously jotting down notes and figures on a stack of napkins, until I eventually called her back.

"We can do it." I said. The napkin never lies.

And at that moment, we forever changed our lives.

From an early feature on caffe d'bolla

A seminar or two from the Small Business Development Center. Determining how to best fund our venture. Two years of traveling to CoffeeFest, and the SCAA with each of us taking different sets of classes with reams of notes, and figuring out by the following year what was and was not relevant to us. This was followed by months of hitting numerous coffee shops and espresso bars locally, in the Pacific Northwest, and overseas, where we quickly developed an understanding of why that first sip is so important.

We also sought out those owners who were doing something special and did our best to pick their brains with what limited understanding we had at that time. Sprinkled in the midst of it all was an on-going search for wares and ceramics, as well as eighteen months of location searching and lease negotiations until we found the right spot. Design decisions, planning, re-drawing, and more planning. Menu development, espresso testing, and a whole host of other decisions made on the fly, which was only possible because of our extensive research and planning.  And that barely scratched the surface of what happened.


The beginning comes and goes so fast that you barely have time to appreciate it. There were many relationships being built behind the scenes, most which we still maintain today. It was a time of discovery and a time of challenges, but soon a greater challenge loomed ahead. There came a day for both of us, in the early summer of 2004, when we said goodbye to the our former lives, unlocked our doors and pulled the string on the OPEN sign for the first time.

caffe d'bolla first year store front

When I look back to how this all started as an idea some fourteen years ago, just a few short months after we were married. I am most proud of the support and belief we had in each other so early in our lives to know that together, we could accomplish anything.

Best of State 2015, our third straight.

And as soon as Alex learns how to pull shots, we can think about our next adventure.

Alex, Yiching, and me. Kansai, Japan 2015.

Coffee and Inspiration

We have hundreds of amazing customers who come for our espresso and coffee, and each one is met with a cheerful, "Hello" from my wife, Yiching. She knows most everyone by name, and always remembers their drinks. 

She catches the eyes and stomachs of many who come in with her cakes, brownies, muffins, and cookies, which she bakes daily. 

She helps me identify flavors in all of our espresso. She takes the simple and makes it beautiful, whether it's with an addition to our china and ceramics or her latte art. She consistently makes the best cappuccino around, and always gets a smile when she tells our customers it's because she makes them "with love".

So every time you taste an espresso, enjoy a siphon, or wonder why the coffee you take home is so good, thank Yiching. She is the reason I am inspired to create something wonderful.

Teacher. Leader. Friend.

nuki, a photo by caffe d'bolla on Flickr.

Masterful disguise
Buddha wrapped in a fur cloak
Your new path begins.

A new model for new expectations in coffee

For me, it's always been about "the coffee", and that's a great way to go, but it's not just about the customer coming and getting coffee, it's about them having the time to appreciate and understand what they are getting. We're in a hectic world, and as coffee professionals we should change our business model(s) to cultivate an atmosphere that will entice customers to slow down and enjoy.

But how do we convince them that we have something worth taking time for?
How do we approach this idea?

Gone should be the long queues of impatient people wanting to grab their coffee and go. Excellence needs patience. More owners should make the move to focus on the experience of their in house customers rather than focusing on numbers through the door. As long as we cater to impatience, we will never adequately convey what coffee has to offer.

In terms of design, do away with the tacky "coffeeshop" look. No more Starbuckian browns and tans, nor should we be too avant garde with bright neon walls. Simple colors. Clean lines. Refined and/or casual. When the customer opens the door they should know that a different experience awaits them.

It's not just about the customer slowing down and enjoying the coffee, it's about the barista slowing down and enjoying the process of making it. It goes without saying that all drinks, whether coffee or espresso, should be made by the cup.

Think of coffee as a dish, not as merely a beverage. In fact, it's the main dish, and everything that accompanies it is a side item. As such, guests should be seated and put at ease, simple one-sided menus given, options quickly explained, and after a few minutes, orders taken. A lot can change with customer behavior and customer expectations when the standard chalkboard menus and extended queues are a thing of the past.

We need to be cautious about service. Unobtrusive and casual, but providing support and answering questions when necessary. In order to elevate the experience and have the opportunity for the customers to see and appreciate what is happening, this is the direction we need to move.