Seattle Coffee Gear: Blog

Introducing Brown Bean

In our tireless efforts to provide balanced and practical information for anyone interested in making delicious espresso at home, we've decided to launch a resource-centered website, Brown Bean.

The first stage in developing this new community website is to transition our blog to blog.brownbean.com. We've been posting over there in tandem with our posts here as we finalized the transition, but we're taking the final step and will be only posting over there from here on out.

Please update your bookmarks and RSS feeds to the new blog! We'll be expanding the Brown Bean community to include more articles, forums and reviews in the months to come.

See you there!

Hot Blog on Blog Action: Coffee Nomad

Coffee Nomad records the experiments, excursions and experiences of one coffee-lovin' Phoenician!

Chock full of reviews for coffee shops in the Phoenix area and some thoughts on different caffeine-included products that are on the market (including one hilarious record of using the terrifying substance known as 5-Hour Energy -- a.k.a. Trucker Crack), this blog is fun, casual and worth a regular check in.

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!

Recipe: Diva Tofu-Chino Parfaits

We all try to cut caloric corners every now and again, and this dessert has the potential to deliver on the flavor without taking a toll at our waistline!

Diva Tofu-Chino Parfaits
vegan, makes 4-8 servings, depending on cup serving size.

Cinnamon Vanilla Mousse

• 1 box vegan vanilla pudding mix
• 1/4 cup organic evaporated cane juice sugar
• 1 3/4 cups soy milk
• 8 oz. firm tofu (1/2 pack of tofu)
• 2 Tbsp Veganaise
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp Arrowroot Powder (my substitute for cornstarch)

Spicy Chocolate Mousse

• 1 box chocolate pudding mix
• 1 1/2 cups soy milk
• 8 oz. firm tofu (1/2 pack of tofu)
• 2 Tbsp tofu
• 1 Tbsp Veganaise
• 4 Tbsp sweetened high quality cocoa
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cayenne
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp Arrowroot Powder (my substitute for cornstarch)

(for a richer chocolate flavor melt 1/2 cup of vegan chocolate chips into the pan when heating pudding mixture)

Other:

• 2 shots espresso
• 1/2 cup crushed almonds
• 1 cup crushed organic graham crackers or vanilla cookies

Equipment: blender, lidded pan, cappuccino or parfait serving cups.

To make:

1. Add add vanilla ingredients, except tofu to a blender.
2. Blend until smooth.
3. Add in tofu and blend again until smooth.
4. Add blender contents to pan.
5. Turn stove on med-high.
6. Stir constantly until mixture begins to bubble.
7. Continue heating on medium and stirring until mixture thickens a bit and large bubbles break through.
8. Heat can be turned to medium-low if you are worried about burning the pudding.
9. When pudding has thickened, remove from heat and pour back into blender.
10. Re-blend until smooth.
11. Be careful, make sure to vent blender and a heated blender can easily build up pressure to explode. Be careful. Never point blender towards face.
12. Repeat entire process with chocolate pudding.
13. Set puddings aside, but no need to refrigerate yet. A thin, still-warm pour will be better for presentation anyways.
14. Prepare 2 shots of espresso.
15. Crush the almonds and crust crackers.

Assembly of cups:

1. Fill serving cups with a 1/2 inch layer of 'crust'. (crushed cookie or cracker.)
2. Pour in a nice layer of chocolate pudding.
3. Add a thin layer of almonds.
4. Add 1 Tbsp of espresso to each cup. Use more or less depending on your tastes.
5. You can even substitute de-caf, coffee or chai tea instead of espresso.
6. Add a layer of vanilla pudding.
7. You can add more chocolate than vanilla or more vanilla than chocolate. Or equal amounts of both. It looks more like a cappuccino if you use more vanilla as top layer.
8. pouring the pudding while it is still warm will allow for a more even line-pretty presentation. Cooled pudding can clump more.
9. The top garnish layer is a sprinkle of cinnamon and a tsp of espresso. A few almonds also looks nice. You can garnish with whatever filling you decide to use.

Filling subs: If you don't eat nuts, or would like a different center layer, try these: peanut butter, dried blueberries, fresh fruit, goji berries, more crushed crackers/cookies, soy cream, sponge cake, pan fried bananas, another type of crushed nut.

Notes: Chill cups until firm before serving. Adding more tofu will make a thicker, milder pudding. I actually like this with a bit more tofu-the thicker the better to my taste.If you do not have Veganaise, you can sub with a Tbsp of white or apple cider vinegar.

Hot Blog on Blog Action: Spronomy

We just ran across this blog, launched in late March by a barista in Pennsylvania, and got lost in the tales and photos of his recent trip to a Guatamalan coffee plantation with which his cafe directly partners in trade.

In addition to a detailed discussion of the coffee process, Spronomy also talks about mod'ing his cafe's Mazzer grinder to work around that annoying left tick the grounds seem to take and examines the success/failure of smaller cafes in the Pittsburgh area. While this blog is just getting started, we will definitely be keeping our bookmark on it and checking in regularly!

Recipe: Coffee & Cardamom White Chocolate Biscotti

This recipe sounds absolutely delicious! The creator states they're a little on the cardamom-side, so if you dig that, you're going to love these -- and they taste great dipped in coffee. This recipe yields about 50 small cookies.

Ingredients
2 eggs
200 g sugar
1 tbsp cardamom, freshly ground in a mortar and pestle
1 tbsp ground espresso beans
1 tsp salt
4-500 ml flour, spelt is fine if you've got it or use regular all-purpose
1 tsp baking powder
100 g white chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions
Heat the oven to 180°C. Mix the eggs, sugar, cardamom, coffee and salt. Add 300 ml of flour, and the baking powder. Add the chocolate. Gradually add more flour if the dough is too sticky to handle - don't use so much that it gets crumbly, but it needs to be firm enough to be shaped.

Form ropes, about 2-3 cm, and place on a lined baking sheet.

Bake at 180°C for about 20 minutes. Remove the sheet, and when the ropes are cool enough to handle, cut them diagonally into biscotti and place them back in the oven at 100°C for about 20-25 minutes to dry out.

Zombie-Proof Film Developing

It's important for all of us to take a step back, assess our particular activities in life and try to plan around how to handle them in the midst of a zombie attack. You might think we're joking, but we're not.

First on our list is to make sure that, should said zombie attack take place, we'll still be able to develop the film from our trusty 35mm SLR camera. After all, how else will we be able to fondly look back at fighting off zombies and putting our loved ones out of their crazed misery if we don't have any snapshots that document the experience? Sure, most of you might use digital cameras these days, but we have a special throwback love for SLRs that will probably never die -- zombie infestation or not.

So you can imagine our glee upon reading about the chemical reaction qualities of instant coffee and vitamin C and how they can be used to develop film. Sure, we generally leave instant coffee related items off this blog because they're comparatively gauche, but we have to admit that any aforementioned zombie attacks may separate us from our beloved espresso machine(s) and we might have to rough it a bit. Thankfully, now we have a handy guide to refer to whilst developing our bloodcurdling film.

For Those That Are About to Rock, We Salute You

Infuse your espresso with a little heavy metal! After an incredibly creative and customized development cycle, the Slayer professional espresso machine will be introduced to the specialty coffee world at this April's SCAA exhibition in Atlanta.

The brainchild of Seattle-based Slayer, this uniquely designed and conceived machine is an extension of Slayer's enthusiastic mission to positively impact the coffee industry -- and the world. They accentuate the art inherent in espresso, and this little baby's design speaks volumes about their singular approach to aesthetic form and function.

We can't wait for this machine to hit the market and, hopefully, a cafe near us so we can check it out. And we almost made it through this whole post without making references to buttrock and mullets, but clearly our restraint is limited and easily overcome.

Recipe: Meyer Lemon Pie with Chocolate Espresso Ganache

We love lemon curd but don't really love meringue; there is a strange hollowness to the flavor that we've never been able to truly embrace. Whilst poking around for a yummy lemon pie recipe sans meringue, we ran across this gem that not only banishes the meringue from the picture, it includes espresso! A perfect fit for our favorite coffee related blog.

The recipe is broken down into four components:

Pie Crust
Espresso Chocolate Ganache
Meyer Lemon Curd
Candied Meyer Lemon Slices

And you can read about the full process of developing the pie here. Enjoy!

Coffee, From Dusk 'til Dawn

One of the aspects of coffee that we dig the most is the interconnectedness across cultures and nations. As the second highest traded commodity, the buying and selling of this little bean is serious business for both farmers and connoisseurs -- and being on the consuming end of the spectrum, learning about the life and experiences of the folks who grow coffee has definitely deepened our appreciation for the brew.

To that end, we found Zach Dyer's Java Enabled: Portrait of a Coffee Farmer very illuminating. Zach spent time working on a Mexican coffee farm and randomly found beans from that specific field in a DC coffee shop about a year later. The discovery inspired rumination on his experiences working with Braulia Lopez, a coffee farmer who supplements her income by driving a taxi in town. It's a wonderful snapshot of the life of a coffee farmer and a great read for java lovers everywhere.