Category Archives: Coffee

You Haven't Lived Until You've Sipped These 6 Must-Try Cocktails in Central Edmonton!

Coffee, Food

Will definitely have to add these to my list 🙂

  1. Bar Bricco – The Negroni Sbagliato (the Mistaken Negroni)
    Campari, Cocchi Rosso Vermouth, Ruggeri Giall’Oro Prosecco, orange
  2. Woodwork – Woodwork House Sour
    Buffalo Trace Bourbon, lemon, egg white, lapsang-honey cordial, 151 Flambé
  3. Three Boars – The Brew-vardier
    Bouron, Campari, Vermouth, Farrow’s Cold Brew Coffee
  4. North 53 – Smoke and Oak Fashioned
    Oaken Gin, smoked maple syrup, orange oil, bitters
  5. Rostizado – No Su Pepita
    Mezcal, Tequila Blanco, Amaro, strawberry shrub, fresh grapefruit juice, smoked black salt, chile oil
  6. Have Mercy – Have Mercy Old Fashioned
    Buffalo Trace Bourbon, honey-cherry syrup, Angostura bitters, orange bitters

The Proctor Team’s picks for six sip-worthy cocktails in Central Edmonton.

Source: You Haven’t Lived Until You’ve Sipped These 6 Must-Try Cocktails in Central Edmonton!

More Espresso machine maintenance

Coffee

Well, I finally got around to getting a replacement control box, and a new pump.  For just over 6 months I’ve been making pour-overs (and enjoying them) – while my espresso machine sat idle.  The control box was behaving erratically, I suspect because of excessive heat within the machine.  Then the vibe pump failed around New Years.
So, I replaced the control box with another Giemme RLO 1E/1S/3C/F, and the pump I ended up replacing with a different one – an MG 071 Fluidotech Oscillating Pump.  This pump is a 70W pump, vs. the 52W Ulka vibe pump – should fill a little more quickly, resulting is shorter cycle times, and hopefully, last longer.  Another really pleasing feature, is that it’s SUBSTANTIALLY quieter!
new-pump
Everything was easily swapped out – and after getting the boiler refilled, everything is working great once again!
I think I might tear it down again though in the not too distant future, and see about rewiring the machine so that I can tidy up the wiring, and relocate the control box in the space where the water reservoir was (I have the machine plumbed in, so no water reservoir is required).
I also found a place where I might be able to get the old control box repaired – would be nice to have a backup that didn’t cost so much!

New Pour-over :)

Coffee

Taylor found this pot at Chapters yesterday – I had to go pick it up!
It reminded me of one of my favourite Bugs Bunny cartoons 🙂

instant-human instant-martians
Just have to be careful when pouring – the glass is very thin and very hot!

My 10 Step Pour-over Routine

Coffee

 
Well, after having made a dozen coffees over the past few days (only 3 using the new Brewista scale), I’m starting to get into a 10 Step routine – which is a good thing for good, consistent coffee.
Thermos Travel MugBefore getting started, I placed my empty thermos mug on my scale, then tare (zero’d) it.  I added water to the fill mark of the mug, and determined that my [amazon text=16oz thermos mug&asin=B002PY7AYS] holds 470 grams of water.  (BTW, this is an awesome thermos – I’ve made coffee and forgotten the thermos at home – and returned home 7-8 hours later to a mug of coffee that is still hot! Additionally, you can fill it up, close the lid, and turn the mug upside down without a single drop leaking out! It also fits perfectly into the cup holders of my Jeep.)
Step 1
Fill up the kettle – about 2 inches from the top.  Put on induction stove, Boost mode.
Step 2
Get out scale, place small cup on it, and tare the scale.  Measure out 28 grams of beans.
Step 3
Pour beans into grinder (set to 15), and start grinder. This takes about 10 seconds, and then empty doser back into the cup. Continue reading My 10 Step Pour-over Routine →

Pour-over coffee gear

Coffee

Hario V60 Drip Decanter
Have been buying fresh roasted beans from Rogue Wave Coffee for the past few weeks, and just before Christmas, I tried a cup of coffee prepared using their pour-over technique – very tasty!
So, being the both feet kinda guy that I am, a few days later I’m on Amazon.ca, ordering some stuff:

  • a Hario V60 Drip decanter,
  • a Hario pour-over kettle and
  • a package of filters

A couple days later I have the goods, and I’m weighing out beans, and adjusting my La Cimbali Jr. grinder that I had set really fine for espresso’s.  The one downside with this grinder is that you need to spin the adjustment a lot of times switch between a fine espresso grind and the coarser grind necessary for pour overs.  My grinder setting was at 3.5 – I ended up with a setting of 15 that I find pretty good.

When pouring, I was previously using a Starfrit scale my daughter bought. It’s great for measuring the beans, but kept shutting off when I was doing the pour – and there is no way to disable that function. It was a bit annoying, so off to Google land, in search of a more suitable scale.
I ended up ordering a scale from 49thcoffee.com (49th Parallel) – the Brewista Smart Scale.  With this scale, you can set the auto shut-off to 60, 120, or 180 seconds, or you can disable it.  It has a built in timer, and has 6 different modes, 4 for espresso, and 2 for manual pour.
pour-over-kit-750
The Brewista also has a special coating that makes it water resistant – you can even wash it off under running water without destroying it!

Right now I’m just using the 6th mode, all manual – I need to read up more on the automatic taring and timer modes – I tried the 5th mode, and found that the auto taring seemed out of place with the pour-over technique I’ve been doing.  Maybe I’ve been doing it wrong – but the coffee is good!