There are many ways to make coffee: You can use a Chemex, a Siphon or vacuum pot, a percolator, and other devices — the list is almost endless. But before getting confused with exotic choices, let’s get it right with the two most common (and straighforward) solutions: The French Press (also called Plunger Pot or Cafe Press) and the Filter method (also called Drip).

French Press / Plunger Pot / Cafe Press

Using a French Press is a beautiful way to make your coffee and produces a thick, bold and flavorful cup. The beans are ground fairly coarse (individual small chunks are clearly visible) and put into a pot that features a press-down strainer. Before the strainer is put on, add hot water (just below boiling, ideally 90 degrees Celsius or 194 Fahrenheit) and let it sit for 4 minutes. Some people like stirring a bit after a while, which increases the intensity of flavor — but be careful: Stirring it hard makes the coffee more sour because pressure releases more acids within the coffee grounds into the water.

After 4 minutes, slowly press down the strainer to filter the grounds out of the water. The slower the better — again, because pressure changes the flavor of your brew. Serve it as soon as possible, since the hot water keeps brewing the grounds below the strainer until the coffee has been poured into a cup. Even after pouring, sediments that cannot be filtered out continue to change the taste of the coffee. While these sediments give French Press coffee its thick texture, they also cause it to go sour more quickly.

The French Press works particularly well with beans that have a low level of acidity and a rather mellow flavor, such as Indonesia Sumatra Mandheling and other beans from East Asia. Of course, feel free to try any bean in a French Press — but those with a naturally bright flavor like beans from Latin America will turn out more acidic. There’s no right or wrong here: It’s all a matter of personal taste.

Filter / Drip

The filter or drip method uses a filter, most commonly made of paper, to separate the water from the grounds after brewing. After grinding coffee beans to a medium level (chunks should be similar to sand), they are placed in a cone-shaped filter before hot water is poured over. Again, the water temparature should be just below boiling, ideally 90 degrees Celsius or 194 Fahrenheit. For better flavor, first pour a little bit of water to moisten the grounds and wait 30 seconds to give the beans some time to “bloom”. The term refers to the coffee grounds “bubbling up” after hot water has been poured onto them. Blooming is caused by the gas that is released by recently roasted and ground coffee — it’s a reliable indicator of how fresh your beans really are.

How quickly the water runs through the coffee grounds depends on two factors: The shape and fineness of the strainer (or thickness if it’s paper), and the fineness of the ground beans. The finer the beans have been ground, the faster the flavors will be extracted, thus the faster the water should run through. The same is true the other way around: The slower the water runs through the filter, the more coarse the beans should be ground. Coffee connoisseurs recommend that it should take about two and a half minutes until all water has run through the coffee grounds, but in practice it really depends on what kind of strainer is used and, consequently, how fine the coffee has been ground.

The disadvantage of using an automatic drip machine is obvious: There is no control over how quickly the water is poured over the coffee grounds, and there is no control of how hot the water is. Due to how these machines work, the water is usually boiling when it hits the coffee, which leads to a more bitter taste. That’s why the drip method is best done manually.

Whether you’re on the manual or the automatic track, paper filters are very thorough in removing the sediments and create a delicate and relatively bright coffee flavor. Therefore, the filter method works particularly well with beans from Latin America — but mild beans from China (Yunnan Baoshan, for examaple) also turn out well.

Try and experiment

Although understanding the basics of coffee preparation will help make great coffee, it’s not about rules — it’s about pleasure and fun! Just like in photography and music, rules are there to break them: If you like soaking your whole beans in cold water before chewing them with milk, don’t let anyone stop you! But if you’re curious to find out how your breakfast brew can become even more flavorful, play with the grinder, try some plunging and some dripping, and let us know what you end up with.

The first roast in this series is our new Christmas Blend for a Cause, a festive combination of African beans made to complement cookies and other sweet holiday treats! For each box that is sold, 20 yuan go to BEAN — a great group that’s bringing together volunteers for a variety of wonderful projects. Sheila Seiler, president of BEAN Shanghai, explains who benefits from their work:

“BEAN Shanghai supports orphanages, migrant schools and community centers, centers for the disabled and the elderly, animals, and the environment with regular volunteer programs and resources to bring their organizations to the next level.  We focus on working with charitable groups that are open to volunteers of any language or skill level and that can host us on the weekend.  The reason for this twofold focus is that part of our mission is to give back to the community around us and the other part is to provide a platform through which as many people in Shanghai can get involved as possible.”

As an example of what BEAN is doing in Shanghai, Sheila points out a project that helps disadvantaged children improve their English skills:

“We’re really excited about hosting the weekly Reading Buddies program at a migrant community center in Minhang.  It’s not the “flashiest” event, but it’s the one with the greatest potential for long-term impact on a population.  These children will probably never go to high school, let alone university, so their only way out of poverty is through learning English.  Perhaps they’ll learn English and be able to get a job waiting tables at a restaurant, then work their way up to management — avenues like this open when people speak English.  It’s our first program where we track the students to measure progress, keep thorough running records with the partnering organization, and have goals that we can objectively measure.  It’s been challenging to find a partnering organization that can work with us in this and provide us this level of support and transparency and we’re thrilled with it now.”

To find out more about what BEAN does and how you can join, please visit shanghai.beanonline.org.

Another charity that deserves attention is Helena’s House of Hope, a small foundation that helps adult orphans in China. YOMO has been supporting them by co-sponsoring a Christmas Party aiming to raise funds for the foundation.

Whichever organization you choose, and whatever project you join, we thank you for your support. While great coffee can save our day, it takes love and compassion to save our world. And that’s what we wish for during these holidays and into the new year.

The party starts at 4pm at Twocities Gallery and will include holiday treats, carols, a jewelry workshop, gifts, lucky draws (with freshly roasted YOMO coffee!) and more. The entry fee is 150 rmb (75 rmb for students), food and drinks are included. Please RSVP to contact@infinity-club.net for a great evening!

For more information, please click here to take a look at the full invitation.

Twocities Gallery is located at:
50 Moganshan Road
Building 0, Floor 2.
Phone: 021-52521518

If you’re in Puxi, stop by at their store at 508 Jiashan Road (shop 1-103A) and grab a bottle of red or white wine as well as a bag of freshly roasted coffee.

Cellar Door Wines has a fine selection of YOMO coffees in stock, additionally to their great wine selection which includes Merlot, Shiraz, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling, and a lot more. For the complete range of fresh coffee, please order online as usual.

If you enjoy great jazz music, great coffee and good wine at no cover charge, please stop by! This educational concert will be presented by American pianist Steve Sweeting and guest musicians.

Date: Friday, October 21, 2011
Time: Starts at 7.30pm, suggested arrival at 7pm
Location: Twocities Gallery, 50 Moganshan Road, Building 0, 2nd Floor
For information about other exhibitions and events , please visit twocitiesgallery.com

Fired up to get you wired up

When Morris Nelson of Yomo Artisan Coffee Roasters shows me his operation, the romantic in me is a tad disappointed. I had envisioned a rustic warehouse – cracked stucco and exposed brick, stacks of bulging burlap sacks, copper cauldrons and perhaps even a few pack mules tethered out back.

What can I say? The word ‘artisan’ does funny things to my imagination. Instead I am taken to the second floor of Nelson’s Jinqiao storefront. A desk, two stainless steel washbasins and a few shelves stocked with zipper bags of unroasted pea green coffee beans – nothing special. In the corner I notice a steel drum hooked up to a propane tank. “So this is where it all happens?” I ask. “That dinosaur?” he says. “No. Don’t even photograph that thing. This is what I want to show you.”

He points to a gleaming steel and glass machine. “I just got this last week. This is the future of coffee roasting,” Nelson beams, “the fluid bed roaster. The beans are cooked by a continuous jet of hot air and the temperature is computer-controlled!” Apparently ‘artisan’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘luddite.’

Nelson pours in a small amount of raw beans, presses a few buttons, flips a switch and the machine issues a whirring hum like an industrial strength hairdryer. After a few minutes, I can hear a distinct cracking sound and the sweet, grassy fragrance of alfalfa fills the air.

“In the beginning I didn’t even have a facility.
I was roasting coffee on the balcony of my apartment”

“You’re witnessing the first crack,” Nelson explains. “The heat is releasing all of the moisture in the beans.” The beans gradually turn tan and release their chaff as they expand. Soon, a second round of pops and the air is heavy with the fragrance of toasted bread. “Second crack,” he says. “Out come all the sugars.”

Minutes later, he shuts off the roaster and pours out a hot batch of beans, covered in an appealing oily sheen. “This is how I do it,” he says. “Someone orders from me, I roast it fresh and I send it off.” He pours me a cup of Ethiopia Harrar and explains how he got into this business.

“My original career was in IT,” he says. “Coffee was just a hobby. My first roaster was a popcorn machine. I could roast just enough to brew a pot. My job took me to China a lot and when I was here, I could never find a good cup of coffee. So I just brought my own. Pretty soon, I was bringing pounds of coffee for my friends and colleagues here, too.”

That got Nelson thinking. He did a little market research and before long he had left his job and started roasting specialty coffees and selling them online in Shanghai. “In the beginning I didn’t even have a facility,” he laughs. “I was roasting coffee on the balcony of my apartment.”

So what exactly does ‘artisan coffee’ mean? According to Nelson, it’s a sense of place, what winemakers would call terroir. “What makes coffee really great is climate and soil,” he explains. Such variations throughout the globe will be reflected in your cup. This is why Nelson places such an emphasis on the origins of his coffees. Not only are many of them designated with country of origin, most indicate particular regions, even specific plantations. And, yes. There is a difference.

“Most people don’t realize just
how perishable roasted coffee actually is.”

But why does he roast his own coffee? Those familiar corporate caffeination stations on every Shanghai street corner certainly don’t roast theirs on the premises and it seems okay, right? “Wrong,” says Nelson. “Most people don’t realize just how perishable roasted coffee actually is.” In Nelson’s mind, when you get your coffee in a chain store it’s less than fresh. “In my experience,” he says. “It takes about two months to get a shipment of roasted beans here. And by then, they’re way past their prime.”

On the other hand, raw beans can keep for years in the right conditions. “I’ve got [raw] beans here that are five years old,” he says. “And when I roast them, the coffee will still be terrific.”

At the moment Nelson’s primary focus is Shanghai’s foreign population, those who come from countries with established coffee cultures as well as retailers and cafes that dwell in the shadow of the corporate chains. “But if you want a successful business here,” he says, “eventually you have to target the local population.”

Nelson has no illusions. Selling whole coffee beans to a nation of tea drinkers isn’t going to be easy. And while coffee is gaining in popularity, most locals who drink it probably don’t think much about what goes into making it. “I once had a customer complain that he put his coffee in hot water and nothing was happening,” he explains. “It turns out he just tried to steep the whole beans. It just goes to show you that you can’t assume too much about this market.”

Sounds good to you? Check out our single origin coffees, fine blends and limited specialties!
We deliver to your door for free, and promise you’ll be amazed.

Since grinding comes first, let’s start with how you can maximize the flavor of your beans and get them ready for the perfect cup!

There are five different types of grinders: blade, conical burr, flat wheel burr, roller, and the traditional mortar and pestle. Most of these options are available in manual and electric versions.

Blade grinder

This type of grinder uses a set of rotating blades, moving like a propeller to chop the beans into pieces. Blade grinders are cheap, widely available and popular because they are easy to use.

However, they have some disadvantages: Firstly, the only way to control how coarse or fine the beans are ground is to grind for a longer or shorter time. The longer the blades are rotating, the more fine the beans will be.

The problem here is that some beans will get chopped much more finely than others, and what comes out is a mix of coffee dust and chunks. To maximize the flavor when brewing your coffee, it’s important that the size of all coffee particles is as even as possible — otherwise smaller chunks will be over-extracted (making the coffee sour), while bigger chunks remain under-extracted (making the coffee watery and bland).

The second issue with blade grinders is heat. Because the propeller gets hot, it triggers a chemical reaction in the beans that can change the flavor before the brewing has even started.

Conical burr grinder

Burr grinders don’t use blades. Instead, a stationary and a moving burr crushes the beans in the space between them. In conical burr grinders, the two burrs have a conical shape that lets gravity pull the beans into the mill.

This mechanism has significant advantages: Unlike with blade grinders, every bean runs through the mill only once and is crushed into evenly sized pieces. Moreover, the burrs stay much cooler than blades, so the flavor of the beans remains unaltered. Conical burr grinders come in electric and manual versions. Manual burr grinders are ideal for office use and travel, because they are compact and fairly light. Electric burr grinders are more convenient, but a bit more expensive and often noisy.

If you like the idea of grinding your beans by hand classic-style on a calm Saturday morning, a manual grinder may be the perfect choice. For those of us who are struggling to keep their eyes open after rolling out of bed, the ease of an electric burr grinder easily justifies the higher price.

Flat wheel burr grinder

Instead of a conical shape, flat burr grinders use two flat burrs to crush the beans.

Advantages are an extremely even grind; however, the flat shape also means that ground beans get stuck more easily and have to be thoroughly cleaned more often.

Again, both manual and electric versions are available, with the same strengths and weaknesses as mentioned above.

Mortar and Pestle

For the ultimate manual-only experience, this method takes you back to the basics. Needless to say, using a mortar and pestle to evenly grind your coffee is a challenge, and it requires considerable skill and patience.

But besides the aesthetic pleasure of preparing your coffee in the most classic way, the extremely fine grind level is this method’s big advantage. If you love a preparation style like Turkish coffee — where the hot water is poured directly on grounds as fine as powder — a mortar and pestle may be the grinding tool of choice for you.

(However, make sure you have a dedicated mortar that’s only used for coffee; using the same mortar and pestle for spices and beans will immediately taint the flavor.)

Roller grinding

In a roller grinder, the beans are ground between pairs of corrugated rollers. This mechanism produces a very even grind. Although, you’re not likely to use it at home: Due to their high cost and size, roller grinders are mostly used by commercial and industrial coffee producers.

Summary

Even though there are plenty of options to grind coffee beans, most people will be served well with one of the two most popular solutions: A blade grinder that is affordable to buy and works well despite some disadvantages, or a conical burr grinder that is more expensive (if electric) but very convenient and consistent.

If price is an issue, a manual conical burr grinder is the better choice over a cheap electric blade grinder. Manually grinding the beans for a couple cups of coffee takes only a few minutes, and a more even grind is well worth the labour. Take a look at the options we have on offer and give it a try!

If you are currently buying pre-ground beans, either option will significantly improve the flavor of your coffee — really, you will be amazed!

Of course, there was plenty of free specialty coffee to try: We were serving freshly roasted Organic Ethopia Yirgacheffe and gave away samples to make at home. Special thanks to Taylor Mork of Crop To Cup Coffee who initiated this project and pulled it all together. Well done!

(Photos by Stephanie Feng)