Crew Review: Full Circle Single-Cup Brewer Cleaning and Descaling Liquid
Single cup brewers need love, too. Your capsule espresso or coffee machine is so convenient to use, you may be tempted to overlook its regular care and feeding. But don’t! Alas, your coffee will taste better and your machine will live longer if you run a regular cleaning cycle using a descaling and detergent solution.
Watch Gail show us Full Circle’s answer to this cleaning quandary in this review and demonstration video.
Vertical Coffee Tasting: Velton’s Brazil Condado Estate
One of the benefits of choosing a single origin bean is consistency. Especially when pulling shots of espresso where you’re utilizing a relatively small amount of coffee grounds in your brew, a single origin ensures you’re getting the same grinds every time. With a blend, on the other hand, you have the potential for a unknown ratio to end up in your portafilter, and that can cause a little bit of havoc if you have a deep commitment to consistency.
One of the drawbacks, however, is that single origins can be difficult to source. While a blend is devised with a target flavor profile in mind and the sourcing and selection of beans will change every year depending on the coffee crop, a single origin is, well, a single coffee bean. If you fall in love with one from a specific estate or farm and they experience issues the following year, you’re kind of out of luck. But maybe that’s also something you can love about them — the potential for their rarity.
In this video, we play around with a few different preparations of a single origin from Velton’s Coffee, the Brazil Condado Estate. We featured this guy because it is a great espresso single origin and also produces a delicious cup via pour over, AeroPress and drip. Watch the ladies prep it up and give their thoughts on the coffee’s flavor profile.
Crew Review: Saeco Poemia Class and Burr Grinder Package
The Class is a two-toned version of the saucy Poemia espresso machine by Saeco and, like its stainless steel counterpart, it features a simple to use interface, small single boiler and a panarello wand for easy milk steaming. When you pair it with the Saeco burr grinder, you have an awesome starter setup with a relatively small footprint.
Watch as we walk through these two pieces of equipment, including features, specs and functionality, then demonstrate performance by making a cappuccino.
AeroPress Vertical Tasting of Velton’s Brazil Condado Estate
The flexibility and creativity that surrounds the AeroPress knows no bounds. Seriously: For as many AeroPress lovers there are out there in the world, there’s an equal amount of preferred preps.
So we put the question out to the class: What is your favorite AeroPress prep? And then we recreated these sometimes meticulously crafted brews, tasted them and discussed how they compared in the cup. Using Velton’s Brazil Condado Estate, we were able to experience several different dimensions of this luscious single origin coffee. So that was pretty tight.
How Much Time to Make 4 Lattes on the Breville Infuser?
In the next episode of our series on how long it takes to whip up four lattes for your friends and family, Bunny demonstrates the process on the Breville Infuser. Find out how quickly she can craft four delicious drinks in this riveting video.
Crew Reviews: Curtis D1000GT & Single Cup Brewers
In the world of commercial coffee beverage service, Curtis offers a variety of models in all shapes, sizes and formats. Old school carafe, thermal airports and even a gourmet single cup brewer are on offer, and in today’s blog, we’re going to cover two of them: the D1000GT Twin Airpot and the G4 Single Cup.
Watch Gail’s provide a feature overview, functionality tour and brew demonstration on each of these coffee makers.
Curtis D1000 GT Twin Airpot Brewer
Curtis G4 CGC Single Cup Brewer
Crew Review: Capresso FrothTec
If texturing milk is not your jam or you want to easily whip up a batch of frothy hot cocoa at the touch of a button, a stand alone milk frother like the FrothTec from Capresso could be the answer to your prayers. With a glass carafe and dishwasher safe components (except the base, love!), it easily produces hot or cold frothed milk while you tend to other endeavors, like finally completing that needlepoint lighthouse you’ve been working on since 1996.
Watch as Gail takes us through the FrothTec’s features and specs, then demonstrates whipping up a batch of dry cappuccino-quality foam.
Crew Review: Jura GIGA 5 Automatic Coffee Center
When we asked Sam and Shiami what we should write about Jura’s super-fancy GIGA 5, they replied, ‘well, it’s pretty balla.’
When we think of ‘balla,’ we think of the Notorious B.I.G.’s seminal debut single, Juicy, in which he paints a dreamscape of how he envisions his life before and after making it as a rapper. Written and recorded before he actually did make it, rhymes like ‘Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, when I was dead broke, man, I couldn’t picture this’ and ‘Birthdays was the worst days, now we sip champagne when we thirsty,’ provide insight into what he considered to be hallmarks of financial success. And if the GIGA 5 had existed back in the early 90′s, we’re fairly certain it would have merited a shout out because it is just that awesome.
Not convinced? Watch Gail’s walkthrough of its features and specs, including a demo of its interface and one-touch cappuccino functionality. If that doesn’t convince you that you should be rocking this bad boy on your countertop, well … maybe you’re just not ready for it, baby. But don’t worry — you’ll get there. We believe in you.
Crew Review: Izzo Alex Duetto III
It’s been a long evolution for Alex Duetto. When we first met, he wasn’t the prettiest boy to look at; while function was quite lovely, form left a lot to be desired. Over the next few years, he got a nip here, a tuck there and he even had some structural work done (!!), but finally, he emerged as a beautiful swan.
Now it’s time to watch Gail show him off! Check out the Duetto III’s features, specs and performance. In this video, she talks us through all the goods and then whips up a drink on this powerful dual boiler espresso machine.
Crew Review: Jura Impressa S9 One-Touch Cappuccino
It was hard for us to believe that we’d never cornered Gail on the Impressa S9 by Jura — it’s been around for a few years, after all, and working it out high and tight as a store demo that entire time. Somehow it slipped through the cracks, so it was time to break it down for you.
Watch Gail talk to us about the features and specs of this easy-to-use superautomatic espresso machine that features one-touch cappuccino functionality. Then she demonstrates making a delicious beverage that we can all enjoy.