A tissue please? — After a comparison between my Decent Espresso (DE) machine and the Kim Express, where the Kim won handily, I started wondering what about the Kim made the machine so unique. The main parameter is water temperature, but there is something else in the machine design that is giving a clue.

Do I prefer the water I’m accustomed to or is it better water? — The first time I used Third Wave Water (TWW), I used a general recipe, not the one specific to espresso. I decided to try the espresso blend, and Taylor from TWW sent over a sample. I looked at a set of paired shots across multiple roasts, and I found a…

Third Wave Water Tasting — Third Wave Water sent me some water packets for testing, so I started with a coffee tasting. I wanted to know if different concentrations change taste. I normally need more salt added to my food, so I thought maybe more concentrated water solution could be more appealing. However, I didn’t…

Another view on robusta — I was first introduced to espresso in Europe, and the biggest draw was the mouthfeel. I suspect most of that mouthfeel came from the robusta coffee in the blend. However, upon returning to the US, I discovered coffee generally sucked. Specialty coffee was just getting rolling. By the time I…

Kim is the Reigning Champ — I bought a Decent Espresso (DE) in January, and I worked through making the best profile I could. I bought the DE1Pro model. I thought it was time to do a head to head comparison with my beloved Kim Express. The Kim didn’t just win; the Kim destroyed. This made…

Reviewing a 30 year old paper — In discussing fines migration, all roads lead back to a single paper whose experiment is seen as the proof of the theory of fines migration. That paper is called “Espresso Coffee Brewing Dynamics: Development of Mathematical and Computational Models” by Petracco and Liverani [1]. I finally found a copy, and…

Natural, Honey, Wet, Carbonic Maceration, Sourdough Yeast, and Anaerobic — I have always been curious how the coffee cherry processing affects the taste of the roasted coffee. However, I didn’t think it would be possible to experiment without befriending coffee farmers. Luckily, I befriended Hiver van Geenhoven at Chromatic Coffee, and we started chatting. Hiver had been working with a…