The Vancouver Indy Coffee Scene

Roasted coffee with burn marks caused by roasting it too hot. Scorched beans may look completely roasted, but are likely to have soury uneven flavour.

Is the most likely kind of coffee you drink when you follow the instructions to “add hot water and stir”. Discovered in Africa, robusta beans come from the Robusta trees and are more “robust” and are less susceptible to insect infestation and disease.

In contrast to the Arabica bean, the Robusta is relatively new to the coffee industry but its role is significant. It is a hardy bean with high yield and has the ability to grow at lower altitudes. These attributes make it cheaper to produce. This makes them ideal for blending with aracbicas and for use in instant coffee. For those who crave caffeine more then flavour, robustas have twice the kick of arabicas.

This aroma descriptor includes terms associated with odours reminiscent of deterioration and oxidation.  Rancid is the main indicator of fat oxidation and mainly refers to rancid nuts.

Author’s note:
I have also found that if machines are not cleaned properly, or ever, then you can have a rancid flavour to even the most basic cup of coffee regardless the roast.

Four shots of espresso in one serving.

Manual cone-filter brewing has many advantages over the common automatic drip coffee machine. With the pour-over method, you decide how much hot water is enough and decide how fine a grind you want to use.

Author’s note:
I have found it best for single-serving cups of coffee. It is also one of the cheapest forms of coffee making available with the cone selling for under five dollars in a variety of sizes to meet your needs.

Pour over coffee brewer with bleached paper filter

A plastic handled metal basket that holds a filter basket. The two-part unit then clamps in to the group of the espresso machine. A bottomless, or naked, portafilter is similar to a regular portafilter but with the bottom removed to expose the screened basket.

Portafilter in Doser

A coffee estate is a coffee plantation and vise versa.

Author’s note:
There is no difference in quality between an estate and a plantation in my opinion.

Happy Holidays to all of you in the world of coffee. I apologize for the lack of new posts, it’s been a wacky winter to say the least.

Two recent events, one in coffee, the other not, have lead me to put a short pause to any more cafe reviews. It has become harder to keep a large number of cafes updated. If I stop by and if things have changed, for better or worse I’d like to update the blog post, but yet right now that is hard to do.

But you should follow me on twitter @coffeevancouver So where making a change and you should see a CoffeeVancouver V.3 Sometime in the new year!

Minimalist Latte Art by Tessa

A bottomless, or naked, porta-filter is similar to a regular porta-filter but with the bottom removed to expose the screened basket.

A large quantity of particles from the grinds suspended in the beverage.

Author’s note:
This usually results from using a grind that is too fine for the filter type. While a paper filter will usually hold what ever grind you use. Metal filters that are perforated will not hold a improper sized grind, which will result in muddy taste.