Zach Beauvais

Kickstarting Home Espresso: ZPM Nocturn

Kickstarting Home Espresso: ZPM Nocturn

Update ZPM's espresso machine Kickstarter project failed to produce the machine. What follows is the original interview, published back in March, 2013: ZPM's Gleb Polyakov and Igor Zamlinsky introduced me to Kickstarter through their Nocturn espresso machine. I'm...

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Guest Post: What is Specialty Coffee?

Guest Post: What is Specialty Coffee?

Guest post by Stephen Leighton from Has Bean coffee about specialty coffee So who am I? My name is Stephen Leighton and I'm the owner and head roaster at Has Bean Coffee based in Stafford. Has Bean is an online retailer, roasting and selling fine specialty coffees...

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what is the point of decaff?

Clearly, the point, is for people who are negatively affected by caffeine to be able to enjoy the taste of coffee or tea.

Decaffeination leaches much of the flavour from tea or coffee, though, leaving it tasting washed out and watery. Decaff tea, to me, tastes papery and flat. Decaff coffee loses many of the higher and lower notes to the flavour, and ends up tasting somewhat bandwidth-limited. (That is, acids and sugars which, to me, taste high and low are reduced, leaving some general “coffee” flavours, but without much in the way of nuance.)

The temptation, with decaff coffee, is to brew it longer or with more grounds. This might help with the feeling of weakness or watery characteristics, but it also gives it an overextracted flavour, leaving it bitter and harsh.

To me, there is not much point. I don’t want to drink overextracted, watery coffee or papery tea, so if I don’t want caffeine, I tend not to drink either.

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over-engineering disappointment

over-engineering disappointment

Fool's Gold As a child in Colorado, I have a distant memory of finding a nugget of pure gold, bigger than the tip of my thumb. I instantly became the richest kid in America! I thought I could buy a husky (with a sled) and a Tama Starclassic Birch studio set with a...

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British Coffee: The British Imported Coffee Culture

British Coffee: The British Imported Coffee Culture

UPDATE: Since originally writing this, I've been astounded by the quality of British Coffee. I was also being arrogant and trying to sound clever. Coffee roasters like Has Bean, Union, and Monmouth were already roasting world-class beans. British baristas were winning...

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Why do I want more coffee gadgets?

Gizmodo is a techblog with loads of interesting products. They have a complete set of Coffee-tagged products, all of which I want to own. I have no idea why, but I’ve got this thing for coffee gadgets. Every part of the kit appeals to me. I love coffee They’re gadgets...

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