# Epiphanies on your coffee journey



## vintagecigarman (Aug 10, 2009)

I wonder if others would like to share the absolutely crucial discoveries that they made on their coffee journeys - the pivotal moments of enlightenment that changed their perception of coffee.

Just off-hand I can think of two:

1. That grinding fresh beans was absolutely key to making fresh coffee.

2. Discovering, on receiving my first delivery of lightly roasted beans, that beans didn't have to look like black oily rabbit droppings to produce great espresso!

I'm sure I'll think of more.

What's yours?


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

God... so many every day







Realising each of the folliwing took me in a new direction:

- stopping the shot at blonding, not at 2oz

- stopping the shot at a certain weight rather than at blonding (i.e. Espresso brew ratios)

- WDT

- the rate of pour makes all the difference with latte art ... although this is less so with a commercial machine

- just when you think you've had an epiphany and cracked it, actually you haven't. Tough but valuable lesson









- there are facts, popular opinions and bullshit. I thought it would be more clear cut

- pourover... Everyone I've seen does it wrong... BUT is there really a 'right'?

- pourover... you need a pouring kettle

- Italians do it differently


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## vintagecigarman (Aug 10, 2009)

MikeHag said:


> - Italians do it differently


So damned true. Invent something, then laugh at the rest of the world getting a fixation about improving it. I think, as far as they're concerned, that things actually are clear cut! I'm off over there for a couple of weeks of sanity at the end of the month. Can't come soon enough.

Thanks, Mike, I know where you're coming from on all of those, especially when you think you've got it cracked, but soon realise you haven't.


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Where are you off to? I've been to Northern Italy a few times and afraid I've never related to it. But that was before my coffee journey started. Friends in Rome have invited us over in Nov/Dec and I'm excited at the thought of a Roma espresso crawl


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## hashluck (Jan 11, 2011)

I can highly recommend the Piedmonte area of Italy. Great wine, food and espresso! My epiphany so far was realising I had a much better machine than I realised but my grinder was rubbish as are/were supermarket beans. New grinder (Eureka Mignon), better beans = great espresso from a 14 year old Krups (since replaced by a Fracion Piccino almost for the hell of it). Sooo much more to learn. Oh, and not related to better espresso as such but the process, but why did I not buy a tamping stand and knock box sooner!


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## vintagecigarman (Aug 10, 2009)

Sorry, getting off topic (as usual for me). Our love affair with Italy started in the early eighties, and it was there that I discovered espresso for the first time - came home and bought my first Gaggia machine within days. We've since travelled most of it, though have got to say that I've never really got away with the South of the country, so we usually go to the North. We try to get there twice a year, and I need a fairly regular fix of Venice.

This time we're staying for a few days with friends in Central Milan, then off further north to meet friends in Trento. Then (if I survive Trento - our friend is a sommelier in a restaurant there) we have an apartment booked in Stresa on Lake Maggiore. Never been to Maggiore before, but understand there is a stunning train journey from there into Switzerland.

Mike, I can tell you from experience that Rome in November and December is magical - particularly if you've got friends who live there and know their way around the local bars and restaurants. I'd be grabbing that opportunity with open arms in your position.


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

I trialled something today which blew my mind...WBC style

I used a brush to brush the 18g of grinds coming out of my Mazzer Mini-E's shoot prior to falling down the funnel into the portafilter. The pile was neat, fluffy and a perfect mound. A gentle tap down on the counter settled the pile.

i then tamped as normal .

The result was the best pour I have seen yet from my Expobar!

No WDT

No levelling

Easy peasy!


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## vintagecigarman (Aug 10, 2009)

What completely escaped me when I wrote the original post - probably because I now take it as an absolute given, is the realisation of the sheer amount that your technique can improve as a result of a few hours one to one instruction from a talented barista trainer.

In my case, a half day with Stuart at Pumphreys was a total epiphany!

Sent via Tapatalk from my HTC Desire HD.


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## jimrobo (Aug 5, 2011)

gary do you mind elaborating a little bit. I don;t quite get exactly what you mean?

JR


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## RolandG (Jul 25, 2010)

Good thread









Lots for me, but a couple would be:

1) A) First time I drank coffee with obvious, distinctive flavour beyond "coffee" - Finca Vista Hermosa, and it was all dried fruit and marzipan - christmas cake in a mug.

1) B) And then the first time I drank a coffee with a totally different, entirely "non-coffee" flavour - the Indonesian Sidikalang (over-ripe Bananas)

2) Tasting really good espresso (in a shop) and realising why people could fave about it.

3) Similar to what Mike mentions - realising how much what is presented as fact is actually opinion/theory, and is open to debate.

4) Drinking great coffee away from home. After drinking undeniably well extracted filter coffee in shops/away from home/other places, it really brought home how much of the coffee tasting experience is psychological/aromatic and other elements that are not part of the extraction itself.


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

> it really brought home how much of the coffee tasting experience is psychological/aromatic and other elements that are not part of the extraction itself.


What a great point. So often we make the case "as long as it tastes good", but the pleasure experience can be (a) MULTI-sensory, and (b) less about imbibing the drink and more about the way 'it' makes you feel.


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## seeq (Jul 9, 2011)

So true. Heston Blumenthal among others is fantastic at multi-sensory experience. If you take a coffee shop for an example, the music and sounds, the smell, and the over all atmosphere can impact the taste. It's not just in the flavour as such.

My biggest realisation is that there is so much you could learn and so many variables. From where the beans grow to the calcium carbonate content of the water. Even what time of year the cows produce the milk to the extra half second extraction make all the difference. That and the fact nobody can tell you what is the best option for all of those variables, you can only be given the general preference, you have to truly experiment for what works best for you.


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

jimrobo said:


> gary do you mind elaborating a little bit. I don;t quite get exactly what you mean?
> 
> JR


Ill post a video of the technique its hard to explain


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## Mr8ean (May 8, 2011)

Sorry what is this WDC that a few people have referred to?


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## seeq (Jul 9, 2011)

WDT? It stands for Weiss Distribution Technique. It stops your coffee clumping in the basket, evenly distributes it and prevents channeling. Look for videos of it on YouTube and all shall become apparent


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