Better brews
While I’m waiting for the long-awaited unveiling of foodcoffeelife.com (not hyperlinked because there’s nothing there yet), I thought I’d share my thoughts on “quality-driven” coffee, and some options I hope to evangelize throughout southcentral Kentucky. Below, you’ll find brief explanations on why every home should have a French press and a burr grinder — and why you really should consider putting a vacpot on your Christmas list, despite the fact that you’ve never heard of it until now.
The Bodum Chambord French press, after I'd poured my first cup.
FRENCH PRESS: The French press was invented about 150 years ago, and later redesigned somewhat by the Italians. It’s a really affordable piece of equipment — we sell a simple version for $25 and a more ornate version for $40, coffee included — and really simple to use. You just put in the ground coffee, pour in freshly boiled (but not still boiling) water, stir and cover. Four or five minutes later, you press the plunger down (trapping the grounds at the bottom of the carafe) and pour. It really is simple.
That simplicity, however, belies the complexity of flavors you’ll taste when brewing in this way as opposed to in a drip brewer. There’s no paper filter to soak up those tasty oils; in fact, they float lazily to the top of the brew, making for a romantic look and delicious aroma. What’s more, a bit of dusty sediment will find its way into your cup; it’s not gritty or bitter, but simply adds a magical kind of texture to an already great experience.
This Chambord is equipped with a coffee coat: keeping it warmer, longer.
The only real drawbacks to the French press are that the coffee tends to get cool pretty quick — though insulated versions are available, as are “coffee coats” (at least for the Bodum lines that we sell) — and that unless you’re willing to spend a lot of money, you won’t find one that makes more than about 8 cups (which is really about 2.5 actual cups). It’s also slightly tougher to clean that simply washing out the “coffee pot” on a drip brewer — but, then again, most people don’t realize they need to clean the rest of the drip brewer too, and over the course of months and years the quality of their drip coffee is plummeting down. This is why coffee always tastes better right after you’ve purchased a new drip maker… the one you were using before was probably full of gunk!
More and more people are using French presses, and you can even find them at big-box stores like Target. Unfortunately, you won’t find anything resembling great coffee in those stores, which makes the elegant simplicity of the French press a relative waste.
This is a quality coffee grinder...
GRINDER: First, let me give you a harsh truth: If you have a device in your home that contains two blades, which you turn on and soon after turn off in order to make coffee beans into coffee grounds, you have been bamboozled. What you have is not a coffee grinder, it is a food processor. A really poor food processor. A cheap chopper, period. So clean it up and shove some carrots in that thing, because it doesn’t deserve to be graced by anything other than Millstone coffee. (Yuck!)
If, however, you’d like your coffee grounds to actually be ground, you’ll need to procure a proper coffee grinder, otherwise known as a burr grinder. Without getting too complicated, it contains two cylindrical burrs that spin in opposite directions. These have precisely designed teeth, which catch the coffee beans and don’t let go until the pieces have been ground into an exact size. It then spits them out, and when you’re finished you’ve got a container filled with grounds that are all within microns of the same size.
...as opposed to a food processor.
The reason this all matters? First of all, a roasted coffee bean loses most of its flavor within a few minutes of being ground; that’s why a quality coffee grinder is the single most effective way to take your home coffee from tepid to tasty. Of course, it helps if you buy coffee that’s been roasted in the past few days — NOT months — and of a decent quality… but we’re taking baby steps here, so I’ll leave that alone (for now). The chopper, meanwhile, cannot produce grounds of equal size and shape, no matter how hard you try.
A decent grinder with fineness adjustment (you want semi-fine grounds for a drip brewer, coarse grounds for a French press) and portion control (set it for four cups, it grinds up four cups’ worth) can be had for as little as $50, if you’re willing to look around. I have a Krups model that’s small and relatively easy to clean, which I found on sale online more than two years ago; we use it at least once a day, and it’s still singing. We’ll be selling these too, soon, though I suggest you don’t wait on me to make this important investment.
The author stirs the beginnings of a brew in this traditional vacpot.
VACPOT: Now we’re getting into the esoteric, the vacpot, the best kept secret in coffee. Despite the huge growth in speciality (that means “good) coffee over the past couple decades, the vacpot is still seen as a novelty item, if it’s even seen at all. That’s unfortunate, because the vacpot is widely regarded as the absolute best way to brew a cup of coffee. And what’s more, it’s a relatively easy thing to use; however, it does take a bit more time and a bit more cleaning than a French press.
The short version: Heated water in a lower chamber rises up through a glass tube, and into an upper chamber filled with coffee grounds. (There’s a filtering mechanism in between; the Bodum version I sell does this without cloth or paper, which is preferable.) Once the heating is done and removed, the brewed coffee in the top chamber is sucked back down into the bottom chamber; the chambers are then separated, with the grounds remaining in the top and your delicious coffee in the bottom.
The Bodum Santos is a more functional vacpot, for use on any stovetop.
The major difference between this and the French press is that the vacpot (also known as a vacuum brewer or siphon brewer) brews the coffee quickly, just like in a drip system, except instead of through drips, it all sort of happens at once. All the coffee is brewed at once, as opposed to the drip system, and the intense heat used to do this happens to help keep the coffee warmer than in the traditional French press. The flavor, meanwhile, is clean and crisp like a drip brewer, but much more potent (not necessarily “bolder”).
The auxiliary benefits are also worth noting: It looks way cooler than any other brewer — some are amazingly ornate and perfect for setting in the middle of a coffee table, a spectacle during the brewing process for those who’ve never seen it in action. It feels more organic and old-world (despite that it’s only about 100 years old). It does take up more space than a French press, and cleaning isn’t simple. But invest in one of these and you’ve got an instant conversation starter, and your coffee cred will go up substantially.
And seriously: It tastes amazing. If you don’t believe me, come by the shop and I’ll fire one up… then, after you’ve had a few sips of the result, I’ll happily sell you a wonderful Bodum version that’ll work right on your stovetop.
Tags: Artisan caffeination, Bodum? Damn near killed 'em!
This entry was posted on Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at 11.57 am and is filed under coffee. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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October 31st, 2009 at 9.16 pm
Nice article! I have got to come in and try some vacpot! Looks tasty! The Bodum sleeves are interesting! I have not seen those. I have the 8 cup bodum chambord and love it! Though, I did break the first beaker and had to buy another. I’m pretty religious about not letting mine steep past 4 minutes. I pour immediately into a carafe to maintain heat but keeps from further steeping. I’ve also played with a finer grind and shorter steep (3 min) with good results. Have you heard of this guy, he is a one stop shop for brewing knowledge http://tiny.cc/tfbHy
November 2nd, 2009 at 9.46 am
Don’t get me wrong, I am a purist when it comes to food and drink. I think there is a “right” way to prepare things and while that can be modified, it should be honored and acknowledged. Coffee is no different. Personally I love the French Press (The vac pot is a bit too esoteric for me) and wish I had a burr grinder so I could enjoy it more often.
Here is the rub for me. I don’t understand the hatred of blade “grinders.” Obviously because of the difference in size, you can’t do french press, but for me, I would rather spend my money on good beans than a grinder that is 10x more expensive. If you are doing drip coffee is there an advantage to uniform ground sizes or is this just purist influence gone crazy.
Help me out here Justin.
-bk
November 2nd, 2009 at 9.52 am
Justin:
Can you give me a couple of options for a burr grinder? I have been wanting to buy one for a long time. We have a two-blade grinder.
I have also been wanting to buy a moka-maker, such as the one that Bialetti produces. Sounds very similar to the vacpot, at least the brikka model. When I lived in Italy, that’s what most people had in their houses – moka-makers.
http://www.bialettishop.com/EspressoMakerMainPageAluminum.htm
Thank you for the article! Very nice.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11.41 am
BEN: Think about how a French press works for a minute. You’re using coarser grounds because of the longer brew time; it takes longer for the water to get all the way through a thick “grind” than it would if it were finer. This holds true for any brewing method, so the larger portions of your coffee are not getting as extracted by the drip brewer as are the finer ones. Moreover, go too fine and those portions will be OVER extracted. Underextraction breeds watery, flavorless results; overextraction pulls out bitterness and more acidity than should be there. Also, you’re presenting things in a strange light: It’s not an either/or proposition: buy good beans or buy a grinder. Rather, it’s both, and honestly you aren’t saving any money with that blade grinder. It’s not precise, you’re probably wasting quite a bit of coffee, and I’d guess you’re using “more” coffee than you really need to, since some of your grounds are probably being underextracted. Seriously, spend the $50 — or get one for Christmas — and you’ll never look back.
Yura: The standard Krups (link below) can be had on Amazon for less than $60. This thing is small but well-made; like I mentioned above, I’ve had one for nearly three years now and it is still going strong. Now about moka pots: I’m not really a proponent of these. I have one, and use it very rarely; it’s not bad for ghetto lattes.
It’s not making “true” espresso, though it does make a pretty thick little cup of coffee. You’ll need a burr grinder if you want to use one, since the coffee needs to be ground very fine.
http://www.amazon.com/Krups-GVX2-12-Grinder-Black-Silver/dp/B0001I9R8W/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1257183765&sr=8-3
November 2nd, 2009 at 12.54 pm
I am curious why you are not a proponent of moka pots? Which disadvantages have you found?
November 2nd, 2009 at 12.55 pm
Thank you for the reply. I am trying to decide what to buy. I definitely want a burr grinder. I have wanted one for a couple of years and just never got to it. I am trying to decide between moka pot and a french press. I guess I can get both. Vacpot is probably something I will re-consider in the future.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1.07 pm
I sent Lauren the link to this blog post and she sent me back two words “vac pot” with three exclamation points. I am not sure if it should be one or two words, but i think the sentiment is clear.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1.11 pm
I think you’ll find much more enjoyment out of the French press than the moka pot… not saying you shouldn’t have a moka pot, but it’s sort of a novelty… you can find them at T.J. Maxx for dirt cheap, if you decide you want one. I think I got mine for about $6.
If you DO decide to buy a vacpot, I’d be happy to sell you the Bodum Santos that I sell at the shop. $80, plus a pound of coffee. Or a half-pound and free shipping, you decide.
We’ll talk.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1.31 pm
Deal. How much is shipping?
November 2nd, 2009 at 9.33 pm
Let me put it differently…
It is not that I am saying its either a burr grinder or good beans. Rather, I am thinking very specifically about my own situation.
I can very easily tell the difference between fresh beans and stale beans. Likewise, it is easy to discern fresh ground beans vs. pre-ground beans. I prefer a pot of french-roast coffee and lament my inability to produce the grounds for it in-house (we often pick up a ground half pound bag from you and try to go through it no more than 2-3 days).
That being said, while I don’t doubt a very sophisticated palate can discern blade vs. burr grinder, in my book there is no way it would register anywhere close to the difference good beans make. As such, I can’t justify spending the money equivalent to 5 pounds of good coffee for a difference I doubt I will notice.