For me some of the things that Ive learned about coffee in the last year are: 1 Short pours are still a 'thing' Cant for the life of me imagine why anyone would only want to put 22ml of coffee in a cup, but, apparently this is still a 'thing' and taste tests at numerous ventures would seem to bear this out. Ok, I can understand in theory at least the idea behind setting up a 'tasting culture' in a coffee venue, where its possible to try a variety of coffees say a flat white, and an espresso, and a pour over, in which case I suppose it makes sense to cut the pours short so as not to max out the caffeine, and to encourage repeat sales. But to me this is just tantamount to dumbing down the palate, and if I wanted a coffee with the taste, strength, and consistency of dishwater, there are any number of places who provide this option already, so Im not sold on the need to 'showcase' it 2 Fine grind and down dosing I mean I know its supposed to work for lighter roasted blends and single origins, and I can see how this could be the case, but some baristas insist on applying this same maxim across the board for all coffees that they make (I mean if you're only putting 22ml in the cup does it even matter how much coffee that you're using?) - but it doesnt work with dark(er) roasts or in hot climates when the oils are starting to come to the surface of the bean more quickly that their 'cooler' counterparts - slowing the whole shebang down to draw out the extraction may work with lighter roasts in cool or air conditioned climates, but its not as effective (IMHO) for darker roasts, and by darker I don't necessarily mean that you've hit second crack already, just that its got more colour on it than some of the grape coloured beans that pass for roast coffee in some places (but I digress). Slowing down the extraction to concentrate the flavours then cutting the pout short just seems counterintuitive and like double handling to me 3 Timed and weighted shots are not a substitute for flavour Whilst I agree that these are important diagnostic tools to me they work best to help identify the 'sweet spot' of how and where a coffee is pouring at its best, this sweet spot then provides a reference spot for the coffee to revolve around, with only minor adjustments necessary to improve pouring times, and their impact on flavour etc Sometimes keeping an eye on the diagnostics, however, seems to takes precedence over tasting the coffee itself, and when that happens the result in the cup can suffer 4 Coffee roasted just past green Melbourne seems to have gotten over this some time ago by temperature dropping at the end of first crack, and the 'coasting' to increase the flavour development of the bean without necessarily having to go too much darker in the roast, but other regional areas seem to have been a bit slow on the uptake, as sour fruit and overly 'biscuit' like flavours still seem to be the norm - cant say Im a big fan 5 Its nice to be surprised sometimes As a bit of a coffee snob Im prone to being quite judgmental when it comes to coffee out, but hey, sometimes when you need a cup of Joe, what are you going to do? A few times recently Ive been very pleasantly surprised by places where Ive had great coffee which would usually slip beneath my coffee radar - so its good to go out on a limb sometimes and this is where magic can happen 6 I still like to roast my own Usually I get it right, sometimes it goes terribly wrong, but sometimes I get a really exceptional result, and when this happens I log it and try to repeat it 7 Knowledge is king And finally I dont for a moment imagine that I know it all if anything its far from it - and its through tasting and testing, trial and error, and through informative discussion boards like this one that my knowledge increases incrementally each day! What do others think? Any new revelations in the last 12 months? Pat
