Austin’s specialty coffee coffee scene has moved beyond up-and-coming status and is deserving of attention as a worthy destination in its own right. There is way too much to see or taste in one trip. Here are some generalizations to help you prioritize where you would like to visit: Out-of-town baristas go to: Fleet Coffee
UPDATE: Because we don’t have room for an in-line water treatment system, I’m all in on by-the-gallon coffee water solutions. Since late-2016, I’ve been using Third Wave Water for all my coffee and espresso water needs, both at home and on the road. To manage the costs, I am buying in bulk. I backed the
Some lucky visitor to the CoffeeBOS shop on Etsy is going to go home with a mint-condition Cona vacuum coffee maker. This is a chrome-plated 1.1-liter model (Size D). I had to cut the original seals on the interior packaging in order to takes photos of this brewer. It is 100% complete and has never
Vintage wooden coffee grinders speak to me, especially European models manufactured in the 1930s through the 1950s. These are interesting objects from an industrial design perspective. The materials—mostly beech wood, but also cherry wood and walnut—also appeal to me. And, best of all, quality grinders built during this period have good manufacturing tolerances, and often have useful life left in
A rubber funnel seal will last for decades. However, a siphon only works well if it is able to pull a vacuum. So I decided to replace the funnel seal on a 38-year-old vacuum coffee maker—whether it needed it or not—as directed by the vendor’s service department. Step 1: Place the funnel face down on a non-slippery flat surface. Use
Cupping is an industry standard process used to evaluate coffees. Just add hot water to ground coffee at a set ratio. After waiting a few minutes, break the crust, skim the oils off the surface and start slurping. Polished immersion brewing follows these same basic step, then adds a “polishing step,” during which the coffee is decanted
The Cona brew board listings on the CoffeeBOS shop on Etsy use a Model C brewer as a frame of reference. That’s because the Model C/D brewers, which are still in production today, share a common base. While vintage Model A or B brewers have a smaller base, all four models share the same spirit lamp. So the diameter of
When I started riffing on the SolarBOS name, I did let the founder of the company know. It appears that one good homage to balance of system (BOS) components inspired another.
Coffee cherry soda is a perfect pick me up on a hot afternoon. Cascara is the dried fruit of the coffee cherry. To make coffee cherry soda, you simply brew up a cascara concentrate for the fridge, which you can mix with sparkling water on demand for a delicious and refreshing spritzer. Coffee cherry tea tastes vaguely like
In May 2013, I experimented with a polished immersion brewing process that I referred to as the “ad hoc Clever Coffee Dripper.” Fast-forward to February 2015, and Sarah Anderson, representing Intelligentsia Coffee, is the 2015 US Brewer’s Cup Champion. In the regional rounds of the competition, Anderson won the Southwest Brewers Cup Championship by brewing Intelly’s Kenya Ngaita using a similar