okay okay....

so i'm starting to get this whole "skimming" thing. i think.
so after my last visit to heart, and the acknowledgement of myself by randy as "difficult and stubborn", i decided to do some un-scientifically formulated experiments relating to temperature of water and skimming of espresso on americanos with a sumatran coffee that we had in the "guest" grinder's hopper. this wasnt roasted for espresso, but we used it anyway. why not?
when grinding, i smelt the very distinct herbacious aroma of the sumatran mandheling, which, to be honest, i'm not a huge fan of on the cupping table or brewed in any way from pourover to clover to press to drip. uh uh. i've never been a fan. but i put my inclination to not like it in the back of my mind as i updosed to about 21 grams in a double la marzocco basket. i extracted my first shot into an 8 oz cup with water at about 105 degrees. i then skimmed the crema off of the top. firstly, the temperature was optimal for the proper flavor to be processed by my taste buds. skimming the crema gave the coffee an oddly grapefruit juice like acidity and flavor, which transformed to a tingly herbacious ( sage and thyme) quality towards the bottom of the cup. and the coffee had a really nice soft and plush body that i found akin to an el salvador that i had had from verve coffee this past spring. very enjoyable. my co-workers who tasted the drink couldn't tell me that what they were drinking was sumatra. they were very surprised when i told them.
next, i contrasted the previous cup with an 8 oz 200 degree not skimmed americano. very different. the coffee had that same soft body but it still was very reminiscent of what the mandheling would be as a drip coffee.
and thirdly, we tried it as a 5.5 oz 105 degree skimmed americano, which in my opinion was not as good as the 8 oz. the coffee was still bright but the grapefruit juice flavor was overcome by the herbacious flavors in the smaller cup. one person said it tasted like sumatra that was run through the clover.

i also tasted some straight shots that were skimmed. the most common flavors were dark chocolate and cloves with a little orange zest thrown in for good measure. very surprising.
i also tried a skimmed shot in a capp, in which the flavors of the straight skimmed shot were lost. definitely more pronounced in a macch.

so this is the lesson:
Skimming, though i dont like to admit it, can help to take a coffee that has one set of qualities and lead it to have a whole other set of qualities ranging from body, texture, flavor, acidity. skimming could potentially revolutionize the way that a barista presents espresso to the consumer.
when any person enters a conversation, they enter that convo with their own pre-concieved notions about a subject of a thing because of their own previous life experience associated with the thing at hand. if you say to the consumer, " hey, you want to try the S.O. sumatran espresso in you macchiato?", that consumer may have a preconcieved notion of how it will taste and may say "no" because they have a negative feeling about indonesian coffees as a whole, as many people do. but to skim offer skimming as a way to open up new flavors of the coffee to the consumer, it has the possiblity of changing how that one consumer views a particular coffee or growing region as well as espresso as a whole.

i know i have had some strong opinions against skimming but i think that i had to experiment on my own to really understand why it's so good.
on the other hand, i dont believe that skimming a shot made from an espresso blend would be beneficial. for one, most espresso blends are formulated not only for flavor but also for the persistence of crema in a shot. for so long, crema has been the gold standard for proper extraction and companies have built their brands around the espresso blend that they formulate that have great crema.
secondly, to skim the crema off of a "blended" shot, may take away an integral part of the espresso itself, a flavor that helps to keep that shot of coffee tasting balanced versus "roasty" or "burnt".

i suppose skimming espresso is much like scraping the head off of a high quality beer. bartenders have been doing it for years at microbreweries, as a way to stop the creamy foam on top from interrupting your palate while drinking a highly complex micro-brew. perhaps if you do not scrape off the head, you may not get the subtle apricot flavor from a hoppy winter ale that the brewmaster had every intention of you tasting.

ah rant over.
happy thanksgiving.

coffeesnob OLY

i know it's been too long and really i have no excuse besides the total upheaval of my life and starting anew on the left coast.
Olympia, washington is my new home and i love it here. right now, darkness reigns supreme but coffee is her lady in waiting.
I'm now working for Batdorf & Bronson coffee roasters, being a barista, working my way up the ranks, absorbing as much training as i possibly can. so far, i've done roasting workshops, latte art workshops, espresso training, more espresso training. you get the point.
you may be wondering what my reasons were for leaving pittsburgh after such a long time of working at Tazza D'oro. Well, i had felt that i had reached the highest level of training and ability that i could have achieved while working there.there were more opportunities available but they were not really for me. it really was my time to move on to seek a new challenge and a way to grow as a coffee professional. i wish all the folks at tazza and pittsburgh the best in their own personal and professional growth.

living in the pacific northwest, good coffee is super easy peasy to find. i have it timed to drive perfectly from portland back to olympia perfectly where i get an americano at Heart (http://heartroasters.com/) at 7am and get back to olympia at 8:50, just in time to hop in the shower and get a second americano at caffe vita on my walk to work.
Heart is definitely my favorite coffee place in the PacNW. so far. the environment that they have created in their cafe is awesome. there are turntables playing records, interesting taxonomy prints on the walls, a synesso AND a la marzocco, siphon brewing, friendly baristas and a GIANT probat roaster sitting it the middle of it all. i feel very much at home when i stop in every friday morning. they skim their espresso there though, which i have some strong opinions on. the first americano i got there, some weeks ago, was made with sumatran 'spro and was creamy in texture and had a fabulous jasminey aroma. the next one that i got was made with guatemalan spro, upon which after the barista poured it began to skim off the crema, which then became a discussion, in which i stated some very strong opinions about the whole matter and now i'm known as "the-friend-of-ryan-who-hates-the-idea-of-skimming-and-lets-everyone-know-about-it".
whoops.
but i still go there. i give them all my money for delicious drinks. and you should too. whenever you are in portland.
i have stopped in to many places and have discovered so many great things about my new region.
a short list:
cellar door coffee roasters
cascadia rising gluten-free bakery and cafe ( dude, HEMP MILK MOCHA!!!!!)
dalo's ethiopian kitchen (they serve ethiopian coffee exclusively)
little red bike cafe
all of portland's many yarn stores
potato champion food cart
olympia free herbal clinic ( a great resource for a broke barista to get some treatment for coffee-induced injuries {willow bark and jamaican dogwood are my new friends})
pay what you can yoga
fresh fish!

Long story short, i love my new home and cannot wait to write more about all the great things that i'm getting to do in my new job.
till next time.