Field Trip: Hario USA – Edwin Demonstrates Pour Over Technique

In the next installment of our field trip to the Hario USA HQ in Bellingham, WA, Edwin demonstrates how to use the Hario pour overs to make a truly delicious cup of coffee.

21st Century Coffee Klatch

We can just hear it now: ‘Coffee? Anyone need some coffee? I really want to make coffee. Hey, you — coffee? Want some coffee? I can make you some. Coffee. Coffee, anyone? SOMEONE DRINK MY COFFEE.’

While Primula’s Speak n’ Brew isn’t teetering on the verge of insanity like a self-actualized toaster stuck aboard a mining ship adrift in deep space, it will offer you a little bit o’ chitchat along with your morning java. The newest kid on the coffee maker block provides some call and response, allowing you to set the time and brewing schedule by voice command and talking back to confirm your orders.

It’s a cool idea…though we can’t help but wish it was a little more flexible with its command lines: Groggily shouting ‘Coffee, hot!’ would give us that giddy feeling inherent in realizing adolescent dreams of living aboard the Star Trek Enterprise. Mm-hmm, you know the one.

Technivorm Temperature Testing

Technivorms have been hailed as the drip coffee maker, primarily because they have excellent temperature regulation and are set to extract at just the right heat to get a rich, full flavored coffee without the bitterness (burnt/overextracted) or sourness (too cold/underextracted) that you sometimes find with other coffee makers that aren’t heating up to the ideal temp.

One thing that people have asked us is how hot the coffee is after it’s brewed, and then how long it stays hot when in the thermal carafe. So this week we brewed up a pot and then tracked its temperature throughout the day, with the following results:

Ask the Experts: What’s Scale Build-Up?

We talk regularly about descaling a machine, but to what are we exactly referring? In this video, Gail shows us the dirty truth about scale build up.

Crew Review: Technivorm Moccamaster Thermo Coffee Brewer (KBT741)

The only drip coffee brewer recognized by the Specialty Coffee Association of America for brewing at the optimal temperature, Technivorm’s Moccamaster features an innovative shower head which delivers water more evenly across the coffee to improve flavor extraction. In this video, Gail talks about the Moccamaster’s features and brews us a cup of coffee.

Keep MacGyver Outta the Kitchen

The Australian version of the popular blog site Gizmodo features the mad cooking skillz of one MacGyver Chef in all his ‘glory.’ Now, we’re not recommending the Poached Chicken & Couscous made in a coffeemaker recipe outlined in the blog post, but it did give us a laugh.

Maybe we shouldn’t be so precious, eh? Who knows what lengths we might reach for if we were forced to cook out of a Super 8 motel room? Something tells us we’d probably just skip the chicken prep, though, and settle in for the night with a six pack instead.

Curvaceous Coffee

For lovers of eye-catching design and (possibly) great coffee, this concept design for a spherical coffee maker is on the horizon, if not quite yet available in stores.

The brainchild of University of West Bohemia Institute of Art and Design graduate Kamil Kurka, the coffee maker's industrial look is also reminiscent of a sliced apple. The example here is in silver and black, but the other concept renderings are multi-colored — and we think we're a fan of the red!

Cleancaf or Dezcal?

Lime, calcium and other trace minerals exist in nearly every water supply, leaving behind white scaly deposits when the water has evaporated. Removing this scale on a regular basis is an essential component of any coffee maker or espresso machine maintenance regimen — even if you have ’soft’ water, there will be trace amounts left over time that can build-up and hinder your machine’s performance.

Some folks suggest using filtered or distilled water from the get-go, so that you don’t risk pitting your boiler through repetitive use of the acid required to remove scale. That’s certainly one tack to take, but we’ve found that we prefer the taste of espresso made with water that has some mineral content to it. Because of that, we descale our machines about every three months to ensure that no deposits build up and ultimately burn out the boiler.

If you prefer minerals in your java as we do, there are a couple of products on the market that will help you keep your espresso machine or coffee maker in tip-top shape: Cleancaf or Dezcal. Which is better? Again, it depends on your preferences.

Billed as a cleaner and descaler, Cleancaf combines descaling acid with a detergent that will also break down the oils left behind by coffee beans. It also features a blue dye that helps with thorough rinsing.

Dezcal, on the other hand, is a straight-up descaler — and an incredibly powerful one at that. While it doesn’t have a detergent component, it’s a much stronger product and removes more scale; also, it doesn’t have a blue dye, which we think is a good thing.

Of the two, we recommend Dezcal over Cleancaf, but we carry both of them so you can determine which product is right for you.

Your Daily Coffee, Courtesy of HAL

Maybe we’ve painted ourselves into a corner with the whole time-is-of-the-essence ideology that seems to influence our focus on developing new and improved gadgets that will save us time, but one thing’s for sure: We can’t stop now.

Enter a Windows XP powered coffee maker that will allow you to program your favorite coffee, access it over the Internet and initiate the brew so you can walk right into the kitchen and pick it up. It’s almost worthy of the Jetson’s…but, unfortunately, it’s just a home modification at this point. At least we know it can be done — and that’s half the battle, right?

Brew Tip: Flood-Free Joe

We have read user reviews of the DeLonghi DCF210TTC and DCF212T drip coffee makers that have referenced issues with water on the counter top or coffee not brewing into the carafe mess-free. When a customer of ours came in the shop with a similar complaint, we decided to figure out what the cause of this issue is — and if there is any way to keep it from happening. After all, who wants a coffee pot that leaks all over the counter?

After experimenting a bit, we determined that it’s a carafe design issue: To ensure that the coffee brews directly into the pot, you need to make sure that the carafe is inserted with the spout lined up to the back of the machine. We have found that if the spout is off to the side, the carafe doesn’t trigger the water release correctly and ends up brewing outside of the pot and sometimes leaking water during the brew process.

A poor design issue? Possibly. But with a little bit of extra attention before each brew, it’s definitely easy to work around.