Thursday, February 09, 2006


fresh fresh fresh

terry p's doma ethiopian organic harrar is so fresh i shoulda slapped it. seriously.

i tried this morning to brew up this 3-day-old coffee in my 2-cup cafetiére. and i used my usual amount of coffee, ground just seconds before in my saeco 2002.

i had poured in about 3 oz. of the water, when the coffee bloomed instantly over the top of the press. massive overflow.

freshly roasted coffee gives off carbon dioxide. the precursors to this gas are natural in the bean, and roasting creates it in the interior of the coffee, if i may oversimplify.

so when you grind the coffee, it starts to burst out. when you add water, the carbon dioxide rushing out of the coffee is what causes the bloom, or foam, you see in your french press.

the gas gradually seeps out of the roasted coffee over time anyway -- the more carbon dioxide you see is an indication of how freshly the coffee was roasted. so stale or old coffee will have very little, if any, bloom in a press.

in this case with terry's coffee, the co2 was so strongly present in the fresh coffee, the gas just bloomed the water and much of the ground coffee right over the press' side. and of course, it prevented the coffee from brewing properly -- with all the gas gushing out, the water couldn't get in.

the majority of those grounds that didn't go over the side were suspended in the bloom, not really making contact with the water.

so i looked at the mess on my counter-top with mixed feelings. thank goodness i didn't try to make it in my vac pot!

tomorrow, i'll trying making up a half-pot in one of my largest presses, to give me a measure of safety! thanks, terry, for a high-quality and ultra-fresh product!

i appreciate it! while this tale may sound like an amusing mishap, to a coffee lover, it's the right sign.

posted by fortune | 8:13 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments