Wiles of the Wile

February 9, 2015, 7:47 am

≫ Next: Sunny stroll around Bad Kohlgrub

≪ Previous: Mount Hörnle: hike up, cable down

In my recent blog about moisture meters, I described purchasing one on Alibaba.

Today a friend came by, visiting me in my vacation "home away from home" in Bad Kohlgrub and he brought along his Wile55 moisture meter which he purchased directly from the manufacturer in Finland.

We were excited to compare the two.

My Asian "Wile65" seems to be a clone rather than an original as produced for the Finnish company of the brand and indeed there is no logo and "Wile" name on it as there is on the Wile55 directly from the source.

The original Wile55 is almost perfectly identical to the clone. The top metal parts are chromed (mine isn't) and thus more shiny. The display of the 55 has no backlight which the "65" has and the LCD displays are also a bit different. The Wile55 is specifically calibrated for coffee and cocoa, the "65" has a long list of grains it measures with coffee at the end of it.

We each measured a number of green bean batches, some moist and some very dry. It turns out that my clone is consistent with the original in measuring beans around 11% moisture, but only after I calibrated my instrument to take 4.1% off the initial measurement.

It seems that in my instrument, there was another grain name at the bottom of the list and someone maybe replaced it with the word "coffee" without also changing the implied scale calculation on the standard measurement.

I assume this because even after this manual calibration, if we took an older bean with low moisture value, my instrument measured a significantly higher value (an Amaro Gayo bean measuring 8.5 on the Wile measured 10.1 on mine).

With beans around 11%, both instruments could be convinced to measure the same values consistently, especially if they got exactly the same cup of beans in turn.

To be able to use my device with some meaningful reliability I would need to take a series of measurements in the higher and lower moisture regions, map these in a spreadsheet and then see if any of the other grain settings in the menu us closer to the results on the original device.

Then I would need to draw up a table to compensate the reading to get a reliable result.

For me that's too much hassle so I will book the expense under "interesting device, nice price but no dice"!

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Sunny stroll around Bad Kohlgrub

February 10, 2015, 5:31 am

≫ Next: Coffee Night at the Torpedo Kitchen

≪ Previous: Wiles of the Wile

When the sun shines over the snowy hills it does so with almost blinding intensity. Some tracks indicated by my little Garmin Oregon GPS were illustrated around me by animal footprints, confirming that under the deep snow there was some kind of path.

Altitude

Animal tracks leading the way

Landscape art

Temperature

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Coffee Night at the Torpedo Kitchen

February 17, 2015, 1:22 am

≫ Next: Waterspel / Playful Water

≪ Previous: Sunny stroll around Bad Kohlgrub

Yesterday night, Foodtube's Ronald Hoeben hosted a discussion about coffee in the miniature Torpedo Theater in Amsterdam.

His guests were Edward Beumer and Erik Oosterhuis from specialty coffee place "Trakteren" in the J.P. Heijestraat and Tewis Simons, who founded Bocca coffee roasters with his brother.

Most of the recent history and basics in specialty coffee were discussed.

Tewis told how a coffee farmer they work with has innovated to be able to offer his customers any of his five varieties of coffee beans processed in any way they prefer. And to inspire other farmers as well, they arranged for a coffee farmer from Ethiopia to travel to this farm in Colombia so both farmers can compare methods an share new ideas.

Edward explained how the success of chains like Starbucks, and on a small Dutch scale the Coffee Company have tremendously helped to open the market for smaller more specialized and dedicated entrepreneurs who bring a higher quality of coffee to the public. Every time someone enters their shop to taste real specialty coffee for the very first time is a very rewarding experience and it shows that there is still a world to win.

For the major old family owned brands who provide practically all coffee to supermarkets and most cafe's, the newcomers in the roasting business are not a threat, just a very marginal noise on their screens. Nevertheless you see the big brands changing their image and packaging to also include "single origin" beans, and differentiating roast colors. At the same time, the huge companies are not a real threat for the micro roasters as the Illy's of the world can never logistically manage to get the freshest coffee to the customers at the same speed as local roasters can serve their local customers.

On the other hand, the current trend to roast ever lighter profiles might put off some part of the public with the acidity it brings to the cup.

Ten years ago, as Bocca just started, they were laughed at by some potential customers. "If I buy your beans, who will buy me my espresso machine and grinders?" one cafe owner asked them. This is one reason why Edward and Erik always bought their own equipment, so they can be independent of any supplier and buy only the coffee that they like themselves, just as the Bocca brothers only roast and sell beans that they personally find delicious.

All three guests at the table had stories about top rate restaurants, even with Michelin stars, who can't handle their beautiful espresso machines well enough to serve a decent cup of coffee at the end of an exquisite dinner, even though Bocca customers can send their unlimited staff to Bocca barista training for free.

Tewis Simons and his brother were even invited by the owners of such a star restaurant to demonstrate their way of preparing exceptional coffee drinks. There was surprise at the ease with which they could produce these, but at the end the conclusion was that "our guests are not ready for this excellent taste, it's too special for them."

Edward Beumer, Erik Oosterhuis, Ronald Hoeben

Tewis Simons, Edward Beumer

Erik Oosterhuis, Ronald Hoeben

Erik Oosterhuis

Tewis Simons, Edward Beumer

Edward Beumer

Tewis Simons, Edward Beumer

Edward Beumer

Intermission: filter coffee preparation

Erik Oosterhuis

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Waterspel / Playful Water

February 19, 2015, 6:15 am

≫ Next: When to change the Brita cartridge?

≪ Previous: Coffee Night at the Torpedo Kitchen

(English translation below the video)

Buiten de vrije natuur zie je maar zelden water dat nog werkelijk weet wat “spelen” is. Het meeste douche- en badwater is vandaag de dag levenloos, het spuit of klotst wel maar afgezien van spetters op de vloer speelt het weinig klaar.

Ook in de keuken gedraagt het water zich slaafs, al zie je soms, wanneer een kleuter in de afwasbak mag spelen, dat het water enkele ogenblikken wordt verleid tot een vrolijkheid die je in moderne stedelijke gebieden vrijwel niet meer aantreft.

Toen ik vanochtend even werd weggeroepen van de afwas, betrapte ik bij terugkeer het water in een vrolijk spel met een koffiekopje. Wanneer water zo druk en beweeglijk is, merkt het een mens niet op zolang die zich langzaam beweegt. Zo slaagde ik er wonderwel in het waterspel tot zeer nabij te benaderen en wist ik enige unieke beelden te maken van dit blijkbaar toch maar zeer ten dele gedomesticeerde water.

Het is kleinschaliger dan de beroemde fontein van de Saoedische Koning Fahd maar je ziet dezelfde opwaartse drang en misschien, als ik het zo vrij zeggen mag, meer gratie in de wijze waarop het water na een zweefmoment de neerwaartse energie weet te pakken, waarbij grote druppels, voor even los gekomen van de rest, vliegensvlug weer een nieuwe samenhang zoeken.

Ja je maakt wat mee.

English:

A rare glimpse into the hidden life of water.

In our modern city conglomerate one rarely sees water that still knows how to "play." Most of our bath and shower water is lifeless. You encounter it as a steady spray from the shower head or you feel it sloshing sullenly around you in the bath, but apart from a rare splash on the floor mat it doesn't do much at all anymore.

Present day water in a kitchen seems to have no will of its own either. It is a rather slavish fluid, although on a very rare occasion, for instance when a toddler is allowed to play in the basin, one can observe, for a brief moment, a certain frivolousness in the water which is virtually nonexistent in postmillennium H2O in urban space.

So I was more than surprised this morning after I had been called away to the door to accept a parcel. On my return to the kitchen, where I had been doing the dishes, I caught water in a playful game with a coffee cup.

When water is very agile it does not notice the presence of a human as long as one moves ever so slowly. Thus, I managed to approach the water, coming miraculously close and I succeeded in catching some unique footage of this water that turns out to be, after all, much less domesticated than we all have come to consider it.

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When to change the Brita cartridge?

February 21, 2015, 8:26 am

≫ Next: Israeli coffee site featuring my "on the road" setup

≪ Previous: Waterspel / Playful Water

100% to 0%
The Rocket Giotto espresso machine at my girl friend's place uses water from a Brita filter. This filter has a timer that counts down from "100%" to zero over a number of weeks but that time span is totally unrelated to the actual use of the filter so it's useless as a reminder to change the filter cartridge for a fresh one.

Unpredictable
I reset the timer a few times before replacing the filter but then I mostly forget how often I have reset it and I take out a new cartridge when I start to feel worried about the water hardness, which is subjective and unpredictable.

Brita themselves suggest replacing it every two months or after every 40 gallons of water taken from the pitcher although local water hardness may vary greatly and thus influence the life span of a filter cartridge. So that's not a great help either.

It would be nice if Brita supplied a test kit to see when the water quality delivered by the filter is deteriorating.

Test kits
This morning after coffee I took out a few test kits that I have:

HM Digital EC/TDS/TEMP COM-100 water quality tester
Velleman digital pH meter
"Raw Water Hardness Reagent" measuring TH from Advantage Chemicals
Tetra Test GH drop test
Tetra Test KH drop test

Water samples
I filled three bowls with water:

Water from the tap, unfiltered
Water from a used Brita filter
Water from a brand new Brita filter

All three samples were 16ºC:

test set up

These were the results:

I was a bit surprised that the TH droplet measurements seemed more in proportion to the GH results than parallel the measured KH values.

I did the KH test twice to be sure, the second time using 10ml instead of 5ml so 1ºdH difference was then indicated by two drops of reagent.

Conclusions
Apparently, in these tests at least, a filter that has been used for a while can still be effective in lowering the KH substantially even though the GH (drastically lower at the onset) is already increasing.

The TH droplet technique is equally helpful as the GH to check the current effectiveness of the filter cartridge.

70-140 ppm is said to be "medium hard water" and fine for the espresso machine, so the "old" filter that I just replaced could have been used longer.

Quick and easy test?
The electronic ppm meter is useful and convenient as it shows a significant difference between unfiltered water and a brand new or used-but-okay filter. For instance, if I decide to replace the filter if it reads a ppm above 325, it would still be a long way from the unfiltered water quality.

The Velleman digital pH merely measures a marginal difference between samples and does not separate an old (but still good) filter from tap water, so it is not useful for this cartridge testing.

Also, if I want to take the time to set up a droplet test, just one type of droplet test, either the TH or the GH, would tell me enough.

The GH droplet test is the cheapest. I paid about 6 Euros for it, whereas the digital ppm meter was around 80 Euros (plus I bought special calibration fluid to ensure it is working perfectly in the range that I was testing).

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Israeli coffee site featuring my "on the road" setup

February 24, 2015, 12:55 am

≫ Next: Getting a Bestmax Premium water filter

≪ Previous: When to change the Brita cartridge?

http://www.htcafe.co.il/vt226368.html

The current, expanded version of the rig is better ;-)

↧

Getting a Bestmax Premium water filter

February 24, 2015, 8:51 am

≫ Next: Tamper Base: Flat or Convex best?

≪ Previous: Israeli coffee site featuring my "on the road" setup

Last week a friend brought me a BWT Bestmax water to replace the DV8 that I had. The advantage of this new filter was that it has a built in bypass so some amount of Ca minerals that the resin in a DV8 and Bestmax replaces with Na / sodium can be mixed back in for a better coffee extraction.

Then I read that the newer "Premium" version of the Bestmax filter uses Mg(Magnesium) ions instead of Na which further enhances the water taste and subsequent coffee extraction.

Online, BWT are very brief about what exactly sets this filter apart from the rest. I find that generally, water filter manufacturers are terse in explaining the exact workings and most text has words like rich, full taste, particle-free and pleasant.

I assume manufacturers keep the text vague for two reasons: first, the competition is not to be made any wiser and second, consumers may be taken aback by technical specifics. Anything beyond the absolute necessary, like mention of Calcium ('scales up your machine'), Sodium ('harmless') and Magnesium ('rich') would leave the impression that there's something chemical about the device and one does not want that, even though the best of coffee brews is of course teeming with delicious molecules with complicated names if you get to know them better.

Anyway I decided to get one and try it out.

At first it seemed quite difficult to find a dealer of this "Premium" version. The Dutch BWT office referred me to a store in Amsterdam but when I visited the shop, the sales lady knew precious little about coffee equipment or water treatment.

Her colleague who is the local expert in this field was in their other shop across the street and when I emailed him with my questions I got no reply so I tried finding the filter from the Dutch BWT office.

They did not have these special products in stock themselves as they are distributed from the Belgian office but they referred me to Danny van der Kuijlen, their national representative for coffee professionals. He told me that Van Pommeren, the store in Utrecht specializing in kitchenware, espresso machines and their own roasted coffee brand, has enough of the "Premium" filters in stock so I headed there, got one and installed it at home.

Bestmax Premium ready to unpack

Some info from their website

Unpacked ready to install

A little more tech data

Ready to go make coffee!

In the first test of filtered and unfiltered water my friend who brought me the original Bestmax filter nor I could clearly distinguish the taste.

Over the coming days I plan to do some measurements with the pH and ppm meters as well as with hardness droplet test methods and add those findings here.

The espresso (see below) came out delicious but that may have been equally fine with the water I had before the swap. They are lovely Colombian beans that I roasted almost a week ago.

BWT is developing a Reverse Osmosis system which will might be the next best thing. The water will be filtered to first be so pure as to be impossible to extract coffee with and in the next steps the minerals needed for the optimal coffee extraction will be added in the right proportions. Some specialty coffee places like Stooker in Amsterdam have a large version of this procedure, but BWT will produce a compact version, about the size of a pc box.

Before I will try that, the current filter will be able to supply about 3,500 liters of water to make coffee with. More than enough and lots of time to wonder if it makes a difference.

At least it will not scale up my machine.

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Tamper Base: Flat or Convex best?

March 3, 2015, 3:51 am

≫ Next: Steam Poached Egg using an Espresso Machine

≪ Previous: Getting a Bestmax Premium water filter

In august last year I posted a blog about the difference, if any, between flat based tampers an convex based tampers:

http://kostverlorenvaart.blogspot.nl/2014/08/tamper-base-flat-or-convex.html

My conclusion then was that I could not detect a significant difference.

I do like my little effective Londinium Button tamper but I mostly use it to tamp a puck absolutely flat in order to measure the roast color with the Tonino device. For extractions I mostly use the Intelligentsia Black Cat convex. I have ordered the latest Londinium button tamper which allows 'nutating' of the coffee puck so I can't wait to test that.

This morning I noticed a tweet by R. Justin Sheperd reporting a dramatic "mind blowing' difference between flat and convex tampers:

I had not thought to test the difference with a refractometer and I have the VSTlabs TDS meter at hand so I set out to see if I can replicate the Sheperd results.

Shepard did not specify his method, what refractometer / app used, what baskets if any different, et cetera.

In my tests, using the LONDINIUM I machine, three different origins were used: Sumatra Mandheling, Peru and Colombia, roasted Tonino # 107, # 116 and # 103 respectively, so all in the "light roast" spectrum, roasted 23 and 26 February.

Each time 18g of beans were ground on the motorized HG One with 83mm burrs, in the same grind setting for both tampers and into the IMS filter basket with size codes B68 2Th16.5 E.

The same naked portafilter used every time.

Preinfusion: 7 seconds every time.

I monitored the extraction time, flow and weight with the Acaia scale.

Mandheling and 27mm spanner

For every shot I used a freshly unwrapped syringe and I used three different filters for the measurements, frequently comparing the same extraction through another type syringe filter to make sure the filter was not causing a significant difference. No difference was seen, just the flow from the original VST filters is much better and they do not easily break under pressure like the cheaper filters do.

Distilled water was used to calibrate the refractometer between each set of measurements.

Test setup

The Sumatra Mandheling had a slow flow, 35g out in 28s with 10.7 TDS yielding a 21.6% extraction for the flat base, 34g out in 48s and 10.7 TDS -> 20.9 % EXT, which is practically identical.

Peru, flat: 35g in 31s, TDS 9.5 -> 19.1% EXT

Peru, convex: 35g in 24s, TDS 9.0 -> 18.1% EXT

Colombia, flat: 36g in 37s, TDS 8.7 -> 18% EXT

Colombia, convex: 37g in 36s, TDS 9.3 -> 19.8% EXT

In the 'flat Colombia' extraction, my distribution was probably a little sloppy as some early 'thin' drops appeared in one spot on the bottom of the filter basket but luckily during the pre-infusion this channel closed. Still a little lower % EXT which I think was caused ore by the early dripping than by the tamper.

My conclusion is that once more I cannot see any significant difference in the results between the two tamper bases.

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Steam Poached Egg using an Espresso Machine

March 5, 2015, 7:27 am

≫ Next: A New Model Button Tamper from Londinium

≪ Previous: Tamper Base: Flat or Convex best?

[A big thankyou to the editors of Daily Coffee News for writing a feature about this blog: http://dailycoffeenews.com/2015/03/05/could-steam-poaching-be-the-next-big-thing-in-eggspresso-perfection/]

One for the series 'Hey I Did Not Know You Could Do THAT With An Espresso Machine'...

Sometimes I use a small heat proof plastic container to quickly make myself apple sauce from sliced apple, or I warm up a small Asian meal in it by inserting the espresso machine steam wand through a hole in the lid.

Now I found that it is very easy to prepare an absolutely delicious 'steam poached' egg in the same way. An egg poached in water can taste a bit watery but this way the egg keeps its own clean quality. A sprinkle of salt and pepper help to enhance the pure simple joyful treat.

Small speciality coffee places could easily offer this lunch bite without the need for any kitchen equipment.

I use the powerful LONDINIUM I home lever but any other professional machine should be able to do this just as easily.

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A New Model Button Tamper from Londinium

March 5, 2015, 1:00 pm

≫ Next: Culling Roasting and Tasting Sumatra Mandheling

≪ Previous: Steam Poached Egg using an Espresso Machine

It has been in the making since last summer and was announced months ago. A new style tamper which allows 'nutating' better and deeper than most tampers. Straight walled tampers help you to tamp straight down but nutating, the soft rolling around of the tamper base to get a better leveled puck, is not so easy with the straight walls.

With this new tamper you need to watch carefully and make sure your tamp is level als when it is, the extraction can be delightful (of course also depending on beans, grind and timing).

Below are some photos of the unpacking and a first espresso:

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Culling Roasting and Tasting Sumatra Mandheling

March 10, 2015, 2:36 pm

≫ Next: Cup & Refract with your Roaster: Jeremy Challender video

≪ Previous: A New Model Button Tamper from Londinium

A friend brought me a few kilograms of green beans. Mandheling from Sumatra.

Indonesian beans are not for everyone but I am fascinated by the tones that people call 'earthy'. This origin, if harvested and processed well, reminds me of the spice tea aroma that I delighted in at the Seattle Pike Place Market in 1976 (It may or may not smell like that there today, probably different). Plus something of licorice and bay leaves.

The beans that I received needed a lot of sorting though. A good number of them had been cracked and dented by the washing mills that take the fruit pulp off the coffee cherries, others had dark and broken ends, some were tiny as pin heads, had minuscule dark holes bored by insects or pale spots from moisture.

Unsorted beans

Sorting through these beans again and again is time consuming but very pleasant once one has let go of the notion that time is money. I thought of the women workers who usually do this in the countries of origin, sorting through a large pile which will be sorted again by another, and another. So much time invested to make the crop more consistent and valuable.

It is a great time to dream, to remember, to make plans.

Beans sorted once on the left, first set of rejects on the right

The reward for me is hopefully a delicious cup, untainted by the wounded beans that would have given the coffee an awful taste.

Next, the roasting. Immediately after roasting, as soon as the beans have cooled to around 37ºC, I take out 11g to grind, smell, and then measure the color using a Tonino. If the grinds seem to be asleep still, not releasing much aroma, this is a warning that my roast profile may be lacking. Then when both color and aroma are promising, it's a few days waiting before an espresso will reveal if I did the beans justice.

The first batch that seemed good had a dry after taste so I made sure the next roast had a more articulate rate of rise in the temperature during the last part of the roast while still not roasting too hot in order to retain the specific Indonesian aromas, not toppling into the boring realm of simply "dark coffee".

The next batch turned out better. I love this coffee. Still, part of that may be caused by my own effort, hoping it will turn out well and wishing it so that I overlook any faults in the tasting. I invited the friend who brought me the beans. He likes the extraction as well and next I have taken a bag to my friends at the Trakteren specialty coffee shop, hoping to hear their verdict soon.

17g of Sumatra Mandheling, ground on HG One, extracted on LONDINIUM I, 32g in 32s

PS a reply from Edward & Eric at Trakteren (Dutch original below): "Frans! Just tasted that Mandheling... wonderfully thick and sweet... delicious mouthfeel... just what you want as espresso aficionado... roast is also spot on with regard to acidity... especially for this Indo."

They went on to point out, though, that far in the aftertaste they still sense a hint dryness like I have had before in my roasts. Before they assumed this had to do with the stocking of the beans but they suggest I work on the roast profile a bit more.

PS 2 The friend who originally bought the large bag of Mandheling does not like the sorting as much as I do. He sent my photos to his importer and he's getting a refund! I think the sorting is well worth the result in the cup. And while sorting, I can listen to the Coffee Awesome podcast!

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Cup & Refract with your Roaster: Jeremy Challender video

March 17, 2015, 6:07 am

≫ Next: Who Triggered Varoufakis

≪ Previous: Culling Roasting and Tasting Sumatra Mandheling

I found it very revealing to watch the video (see below) of Jeremy Challender telling the story of him and his colleagues struggling for years to begin to understand how their roasters influence the taste and extraction rate of their coffee.

He explains how the VSTlabs refractometer enabled them to measure the extraction rate and this possibility pushed them on a course to see how a different water quality could improve their extractions. Then they moved to bigger burr grinders to see how much that would help get better coffee in the cup. And they tried all sorts of fashionable tamper shapes. Still, their coffee proved to be under extracted, time and time again.

They tried, as many have done years ago, updosing, up to a triple dose for a single espresso to get that boost in taste at the cost of even more severely under extracted coffee. Today, no one at the 'cutting edge' of specialty coffee plays with these high doses anymore.

Eventually they figured out that some roasts work better. Very dark beans may give a "desired" value of extraction when measuring the Total Dissolved Solids but in most current specialty coffee places baristas avoid these roasty, smoky ash aromas associated with very dark roasts.

Many baristas today look at the Nordic Approach in coffee, a Scandinavian tradition of using light roasts that are still fully developed.

Challender found a way to use cupping to evaluate coffees offered by their favorite roasters, with a free app called CuppingLab on his iPhone to grade the coffees and decide which coffee source works best for the desired taste and extraction in their business.

It gradually became clear to him that there is a measurable variance in the roast profile of roasters. The "same" beans will behave different on a new shipment and it was noticeable when the head roaster of a roasting company went on vacation and someone else took over.

To me, it was a surprise to see how even highly experienced baristas know very little about roasting and when the coffee in the cup disappoints them, they first look at the "magic" of their espresso machine (temperature profiles, pressure profiles), the water conditioning system, the grinder, their recipe, possible distribution errors revealed by using a naked portafilter.

For most baristas the roaster and his roastery remain a mystery.

Challender explained a few things he knows about roasting but that was little more than the difference between baked and roasted, and how beans somehow 'pop' and grow twice as big (it's actually more like 40-45% gain in size, with 10-15% loss in weight).

Challender says that many baristas will profit from knowing more about roasting, cupping and using the refractometer.

He does not mention a helpful device like the Tonino to check roast color. He also does not specify how different water conditioning systems or different grinders affected taste and extraction but I'm grateful for him being so open, giving the audience a look inside the mindset of a barista.

Challender mentioned the Q-Grader course a few times, an excellent way to become a certified expert at cupping. At 2000 UK Pounds it is an expensive course, though, and probably too expensive for baristas who typically make little money. Those who take the course can move on to become green coffee buyers and travel the world.

He provides a very useful way for baristas to communicate in an efficient manner with their roasters, providing feedback to them so they will know which roast profile of what day has worked best for a specific customer. His hints for a simple consistent cupping routine using the new app also empower baristas to make it easier for them to select which coffees to buy.

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Who Triggered Varoufakis

March 18, 2015, 7:18 am

≫ Next: Sweet Lupin Coffee Roasting (hold your burrs)

≪ Previous: Cup & Refract with your Roaster: Jeremy Challender video

A friend of mine, a psychiatrist, writes me:

The new psychobabble word I hear is "trigger." I suppose it may have some genuine use in PTSD where intrusive thoughts are instigated by particular sensory inputs, smells often or sounds, and these "triggers" are reproducible. I think they should probably be called false reminders.
The treatment of course is to seek out more and more of these triggers and learn how to not be reactive.
However I hear the word trigger now from patients to mean "something else, not I, made me feel this way." Someone who had many affairs told me today when he is out with his wife he "gets triggered" in a restaurant where he met a woman he has slept with. Or his latest lover works at the same place, just the shift after him so he sees her still, and certainly is a "trigger" he needs to "work on." I think he means he gets reminded or feels guilty or horny or gets a hard-on. But "trigger" sounds like a symptom so how can you be mad at the poor guy?
Parents say "school triggers his bad behavior." Huh?? That's like saying potable water triggers bad behavior or air does or being born does. I will mark this word as one I will never utter to a patient or professional.
"Act out" is another one I never use. People use it when they mean "act up.""Act out" has a specific psychoanalytic meaning during a long term psychoanalysis. There's no other time to use it and no one gets that treatment anymore.
"School triggers our darling boy to act out." Sheesh!

Two words I hear & read a lot these days are “amazing” and “bizarre”. In social media people need to be brief about an experience or a video they want to share with others and it has to be amazing and/or bizarre or else no one will pay attention. So everyone seems to meet the most amazing people in bizarre circumstances.

“Bizar” is also a Dutch word and even our prime minister uses it often. Just in the past weeks: the possible exit of Greece from the Euro zone is "bizarre", an armed man entering a tv studio was "bizarre" and again Greece is "bizarre" in considering opening their borders to loads of fugitives.

http://www.nu.nl/economie/3970373/rutte-noemt-mogelijke-grexit-bizar.html

http://www.nu.nl/politiek/3983051/rutte-noemt-incident-bij-nos-ernstig-en-bizar.html

http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/4504/Economie/article/detail/3908188/2015/03/16/Rutte-noemt-migrantendreigement-Athene-bizar-en-onzinnig.dhtml

I wonder what is left to say when something happens that is truly bizarre.

In a speech, the Greek Finance minister Varoufakis said he would like to “stick the finger to Germany” and he held up “the finger”. When he was asked about this during a recent interview with Günther Jauch, Varoufakis flatly denied it, claimed the video was manipulated and he even posted a link to the “real” interview on his twitter account. But in that same link, one can see him “stick the finger” and saying that quote literally.

"stick the finger to Germany"

In that same clip, at 44:44 the camera shows a huge poster hanging on the back wall of the auditorium, a poster about the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, with the text “never sorry” and… a fist with “the finger”:

Ai Weiwei and "the finger"

Maybe Varoufakis had been staring too long at the poster across the hall from him, and trying to impress the boy and girl students he felt prompted to make the same gesture.

Varoufakis could claim "It wasn't me, but Ai Weiwei who triggered my hand making that vulgar sign."

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Sweet Lupin Coffee Roasting (hold your burrs)

March 27, 2015, 4:47 am

≫ Next: Coffee Roasting Corner

≪ Previous: Who Triggered Varoufakis

Thanks to the editorial staff of Daily Coffee News for featuring this item on their news site!

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Roasted lupin seed, photo by http://www.lupinfood.eu

Food Design
Two young product & food designers, Johanna Lundberg (SWE) en Lydeke Bosch (NL) visited me to roast sweet lupin seeds for 'coffee' preparation. Their thesis project for the HKU University of the Arts in Utrecht, The Netherlands is an exploration of the many possibilities for sweet lupin seed in the food industry.

They posted a blog about this visit on their own new website.

Not Poisonous
Most lupin flowers that we find in gardens and parks carry poisonous seeds and the few people that have consumed lupin seeds only know them as pickled snacks that have been soaking in salted water for days to remove the bitter taste.

The sweet lupin variety however is quite edible and can be used as a major ingredient to bake a cake, make a salad or prepare soup.

Roast Profile
I had found some basic numbers about roast temperatures for lupin and we used my Fracino Roastilino roaster with the programmable controller connected to the computer running Artisan software, to try out several roast profiles.

Roast profile, recorded by Artisan

The above profile seemed most successful. The tiny beans did not noticeably expand in size but inside the hard husk the bean had darkened much like a coffee bean. Inside it's even two halves just like coffee beans mostly are.

Roasted lupin bean inside husk

Two halves of roasted lupin bean

Tasting
Back at the University, Johanna and Lydeke organized a tasting session with fellow students to see which roast and what preparation most students would appreciate. The light roast smelled and tasted like peanut butter but the darkest roast was found sweet and pleasant. The Aeropress was the most convenient method.

Impression of lupin coffee tasting session layout, photo by http://www.lupinfood.eu

Links at the bottom of this blog lead to several articles about lupin farming.

Fair Trade Local
One advantage of lupin coffee is that it is easier to do "fair trade" or even "direct trade" and it is not hard to travel the world to actually visit the farms (an exotic destination for traditional coffee traders), because they are often just an hour's drive away. One can look around on the farm, make selfies with kind hearted farmers in the background, maybe even visit the local school to make a donation and still be back home for dinner!

Bust my Burrs
At my place we also tried to prepare espresso. Johanna and Lydeke had brought a little electric grinder with rotating blades but I wanted to impress my guests and demonstrate how much better a big conical grinder would do the job. I started the motor of my HG One, fed just a few of the beans into the 83mm conicals and when that seemed to go well I poured in a handful. The burrs seemed to manage the hard shells well enough but there were probably too many fines because the espresso machine blocked completely once I started a flow of hot water in the brew group. We had to let that rest.

Right after this fun visit though, the grinder failed to deliver coffee grinds that gave me a normal extraction. I got the impression that grinding the lupin husks had maybe been not such a good idea of mine and I now understand better why some grinder manufacturers explicitly state that their grinder should only be used to grind roasted coffee beans.

I ordered new burrs which were delivered three days later and in the picture below you can see the difference. Before drawing any final conclusion, I would need to see similar photos of burrs that have been grinding coffee beans for two years and are stil doing an excellent job. They might show a very similar wear, or much less of it.

Well seasoned burr or ruined? Close up of inner burr.

Jagged details of cutting egde on inner burr.

New burrs arrived (top and left, outer / inner burr).

Detail of new inner burr cutting edges.

A friend who bought his HG One grinder at the same time as I did, made pictures of his burrs which look better. They are also still sharp along the entire cutting edge despite some minor use damage: https://plus.google.com/photos/103891203427503601922/albums/6131236781421165713

To end with some last visual candy by Johanna and Lydeke, a dish of unroasted lupin beans in their husks:

PS
My friend John points out that in the past, lupins were much sought after and in fact, there is one historic scene saved on video that shows how a villain on horseback holds up a coach on gunpoint and steals all the lupins aboard:

Links:

Dartelstal voor lupinevarkens (Dutch)
Lupine, een gezond alternatief (PDF, Dutch)
Lupine in de veenkoloniën (Dutch, incl video)

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Coffee Roasting Corner

April 4, 2015, 2:09 am

≫ Next: Checking the La Pavoni pressure gauge

≪ Previous: Sweet Lupin Coffee Roasting (hold your burrs)

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Checking the La Pavoni pressure gauge

April 9, 2015, 12:54 pm

≫ Next: Fun and cheap scale

≪ Previous: Coffee Roasting Corner

Using a pneumatic pressure calibration device, AKA a cheap bicycle pump:

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Fun and cheap scale

April 16, 2015, 3:53 am

≫ Next: Measure the Moisture, Glean the Bean [part 2]

≪ Previous: Checking the La Pavoni pressure gauge

The new fantastic Lunar scale by Acaia is not available yet but there's another little scale that looks great I think. It's most likely not as water proof but it promises to endure some rough treatment. And it's very cheap: mine was just € 13,50 (ex shipping) from one of the online stores specializing in home growing of plants. Good for coffee too!

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Measure the Moisture, Glean the Bean [part 2]

April 17, 2015, 8:46 am

≫ Next: Tasting a Roast Without 'Cupping'

≪ Previous: Fun and cheap scale

After first trying out a fun Chinese copy (which was not very accurate) I got the Real Wile Thing now:

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Tasting a Roast Without 'Cupping'

April 18, 2015, 3:25 am

≫ Next: Helium, Thermals and Tea Leaves Showing What Can't Be Seen

≪ Previous: Measure the Moisture, Glean the Bean [part 2]

Reading about cupping and attending a few cuppings with experts hasn't given me the confidence to do any of it myself. In a cupping company I am primarily concerned about avoiding someone else's mucus on my spoon.

Still it would be handy if I could do something like it to taste my own roasts right after roasting.

Presently I take 10g of beans right after cooling down from the roaster, grind it (always the same grind setting on the same grinder) and measure it using the Tonino. It gives me a number that tells me how much darker / lighter this roast is than another one in similar circumstances.

The grinds then sit on the table for a few hours before I throw them out. Sometimes they yield a mesmerizing coffee perfume and sometimes hardly any smell comes off. This also helps predict how the espresso will be a week later, especially if I save three different samples of roasts done in quick succession. If one seems dead to my nose, the other sends out plain 'coffee' aroma and the third practically sings a song to the senses, I can tell that this third will probably be the most expressive one in the cup a week later.

Still it would be nice to be able to tell more a little sooner.

To try this, I dusted off a french press that I have had in a closet for about 6 years:

I used the 10g of grinds, added 200ml of water at 85ºC, waited 3 minutes, pushed and poured 100ml of coffee in a cappuccino cup.

The coffee tasted soft and sweet (Costa Rica, FC @ 200ºC, development 21%, weight loss 15%, volume gain 40%, drop temp 218ºC, Tonino#93).

Next week I will know if this correlates in any way to the espresso result and I can do the same procedure every time after I've tested 10g of grinds, maybe changing the procedure a little, one variable at a time, to figure out what will make the grinds speak to me most about their taste in the near future.

Marko, a friend, writes me:

I would respect the protocol and wait before any tasting at least one full day and then still let the ground coffee sit for a defined period degassing (at least 1h). I found the CO2 of too fresh beans would disturb my taste buds too much. (I think your 85C are way too cool and you should use water closer to 91-93C) and, for another, ensure that the roast is developed enough. An underdeveloped roast should disclose itself in being unable to reach 19-20% extraction with any brew parameters.

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Helium, Thermals and Tea Leaves Showing What Can't Be Seen

April 30, 2015, 2:35 am

≫ Next: A Secret Coffee Club: Discovering "Toast" by Charles Stross

≪ Previous: Tasting a Roast Without 'Cupping'

One of the frequent participants of international TeX conferences is Alan Braslau, an American researcher in physics. The first time I met him, he presented a project he had worked on, mapping and analyzing patterns of usage of electric energy by households in France, most of the energy coming from nuclear plants.

Alan Braslau (center) during a coffee break at BachoTeX2015

One detail that stuck with me was that he predicted years ago how old fashioned light bulbs would be banned in favor of "environmental friendly" lamps to save energy. He explained that old fashioned lamps "lose" energy by giving off heat but for most households in moderate European climates this is useful because when the lights are on, it's usually dark and cool outside. Today, the warmth that the cheap old light bulbs used to give us has to be generated by heaters so part of the energy saved by the expensive high tech lamps is indeed not really 'saved' but just lost in a different way.

During his first presentation he also told us about something he has been working on whenever he found enough time and funding. Very close to the temperature of zero Kelvin, when everything is frozen, the helium we know as a very light gas has gone from fluid state into a beautiful crystaline form. Very few people have seen this as it is hard to create this extreme "hell freezes over" cold inside a container with helium. You can't look at it very well either because any light shining on the crystal also raises the temperature, if only fractionally.

There is one puzzling aspect of this solid state of helium. The sides of a crystal are usually hard because of the very regular build. The molecules are lined up perfectly and the outside of the crystal is stiff, the edges sharp. This ultra cooled helium however can behave like a fluid even though it is in a crystal state. If you bump it, this sends a shiver over the helium skin and a ripple flows through the surface.

I met Alan again at breakfast today. Last year when I asked him about any progress in Helium observation he told me that no research had been possible at all and the idea seemed something of the past that he did not enjoy to be reminded of, just as one does not like to be asked about a lover who has moved out years ago.

Still I asked him once more and now I hit a gold strain: he is presently in a team studying turbulence in Helium at 2 degrees above the absolute zero Kelvin temperature. Knowing more about the very dynamic turbulence in the fluid will help understanding many other processes of similar energy dissipation. This is a schematic version of the vessel used for the study:

It's hard to "look" at the fluid Helium though because it's in a closed tank and pioneer work is being done to find out what's the most effective way to get a 'picture' of the inside events. Putting up the tiniest of pitot tubes is one method, also looking into the fluid with a high speed camera. For the camera to see the turbulence, minuscule 'snow flakes' are created, mixing deuterium with hydrogen in the right density (enough snow flakes to see some action, not so many as to occlude the view).

Below is a picture of the experimental setup in the research lab. Notice how small the scientists are in comparison:

This story reminded me of Niels Tieland, a friend on the soaring airfield who years ago studied fluid turbulence to be able to predict where thermals are developing in the air. Often you can tell where you need to fly to catch a thermal by looking at the clouds but in a blue sky you're helpless unless you have learned to find these thermals anyway. Stirring with a stick in a massive pot of oil, Niels has spent many hours watching the swirl of the oil and the effect it has on the fluid further away from it. Niels amazed me by 'blindly' telling me where to turn and hit a thermal. Time and time again, he would tell me things like "turn to our three o'clock and we will be in the next thermal at 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and..." sure enough, the audio signal indicating a sudden upwards thrust of energy would sound and we'd be swirling upwards along with the circular airflow into the blue sky.

Today, Willi Egger gave a presentation about his internship with a violin maker in Poznan.

Willi Egger at an earlier conference

Originaly, Willi was a veterinary doctor in Switzerland before moving to The Netherlands and working as a consultant for the pharmaceutical industry, advising farmers in Asia. Later he moved on to carpentry, he learned to be a master book binder and he became proficient at digital typesetting of books. Building a violin requires the ultimate practice of a combination of fine carpentry techniques -- if you can accomplish that, there are many ways to go.

Willi told us many details of the traditional process of building his first violin. He has worked on it for three months and it will take another couple of months before it is ready but a large part of the body work has been done. His teacher does not speak much English and Willi knows just a few words of Polish but in a way this is a great advantage. Few words are wasted and all is taught in detail by watching and doing, stopping, watching the corrections and doing again.

The front and back blades are practically ready. To test a blade and find out if on any spot the blade needs a minute amount to be carefully scraped off using a piece of sharp glass, a master violin maker holds the blade in his hands and flexes it a little, again and again, sensing the tiniest stiffness to know where on the wood to scrape and test again. For more than four decades the master has trained to feel where the sound of the instrument will encounter resistence and to remove it.

Willi, at 60, does not have the time to train that long so he uses a more modern technique that makes the audible visible.

A tone generator and amplifier are connected to a speaker and a tone of a specific wave length is sent through the blade. On top of the blade, dry tea leaves are sprinkled and when the blade trembles, the leaves move away to the parts where the wood is still. This way, any stiffness in the wrong spots is indicated and any irregularity in the sound pattern will show.

Perpendicular resonance tea leaves test

Longitudinal resonance tea leaves test

I find the "moustache" of tea leaves highly artistic, revealing the finesse of wood work and I admire the craftsmen who take very good care with whatever they do, because nothing can be undone.

And in a way, the violin maker is finding his way blindfolded just like the scientist feeling for patterns in helium vortexes and the soaring pilot sensing his thermal swirls.

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