Today's
video is a little bit more of a casual coffee chat.
I wanted to just sit down and chat about what I've learned over the course
of this one year.
Taking up this hobby and this is really coffee as a hobby.
If you're watching this channel, you're probably in that same camp.
And what a journey it has been.
Indeed, I've gained so much more respect for baristas.
First of all, hands down, understanding the cost of coffee,
understanding the intricacies of coffee, how difficult it is.
And this is just in our homes.
I'm not running a shop
during rush hour and lots of people coming in with different orders.
You know, cleaning it is humbling,
especially if you're going for the light roasts like every open natural,
which is what I like with delicate, juicy, fruity flavors.
And of course, I go
for the more difficult one, and that's the one that I like the most.
Comment below if you are one of those people as well
below with your favorite coffee.
Also, let me know if you like this format of this casual chat down
below in the comments.
Getting all that yummy, yummy news out of the coffee can be quite difficult.
Sometimes you'll take two steps forward and one step back.
At some point that will soften and we'll stabilize.
But you're constantly having to look up videos that troubleshoot Rettig
on whatever discord or community form that you're on finding different articles.
There's just a lot of resources out there, thankfully, though,
and that's kind of like the fun of it can kind of be the frustration,
especially at the beginning where it's never ending.
The learning is continue with the upgraded
title is very prominent, and you're going to constantly
want to upgrade, especially when you see what
other people have on their bar equipment and a different tool that you discover.
I mean, unless you're not into that and you're very happy with the method
that you have, the coffee that you have, you're
just going to stick with the same stuff that's also great to each their own.
And sometimes you have to like go back to the basics because you forget.
And one thing that I found that was really helpful is I have my own little notebook
where I put in all my different notes
for coffee, really understanding the science of coffee,
which you can find on different articles, but they don't always
necessarily go into it.
But the really nerdy ones definitely do.
And that I found to be very helpful and just understanding what is going on.
So not just connecting dots of it sours.
I need to grind finer understanding.
Well, it's sour and therefore it means it's under extracted.
What does that mean?
Under extracted means the water is not touching
enough coffee and extracting enough soluble.
Therefore, it's understanding that and therefore,
in order to do that, to compensate, you would grind finer.
You don't have to.
But I found for me, understanding
what's happening with all the coffee made everything much easier.
And it is coffee is science, which is actually kind of a cool thing
if you're really into the nerdy stuff.
I wrote down all my notes here in terms of temperature, light rose, dark
rose, general information, just things I've accumulated over time, brew
temperatures, body and clarity being on a on a balance between each other.
I keep adding to it.
Found these like cool curved and stuff that I was able to write down
different information and able to really hone in and understand.
I haven't had to reference this as much lately
just because I'm a little bit better at going off of tease and I just
have troubleshooting so many times that it's a lot clearer for me.
Also, in some ways I've become maybe a little bit less picky in trying to get
that perfect extraction, like good enough for now it comes and goes.
That's something that I found very useful to have your own little notebook, quick
reference guy that you can go to and keep writing it, rewriting it, cleaning it up,
and then that's a very easy thing to just grab, you know, physically.
I mean, you could do it on your computer if you want.
I just like having it handwritten.
Practice makes perfect that you're going to keep practicing over and over and over
don't give up. It's going to happen.
I mean, some point, you just have to troubleshoot
and go one variable at a time until you've figured it out.
Good luck, because you got to do it all over again
and you're probably not
going to get the exact same extraction because not your coffee is a bit older.
You're temping with slightly different with espresso.
So many things can go wrong.
Like it's a challenge that when you do get it
right, you're rewarded you're so greatly rewarded.
Keep refining your techniques, something you have to go back to the basics.
You think you figured it out, but no. Yeah, did it.
You started slipping day by day before you know it.
I'll send you like my coffee just as in days. Right?
I went through an entire buy once
before dialing it in, and it was something as ridiculous as I kept grinding finer.
But there is actually such a thing,
a point of no return, where if you grind too fine, it actually gets way too funky
because you would think, Oh, it's just, like, sour.
I got to just keep grinding finer. But no, I have this little graph right here.
If you grind to find it just get super weird.
And so you going to find that balance point.
So sometimes it's not what you think it is.
And my God, for espresso, definitely one thing that's the most important that
sometimes you can overlook because you're just rushing through things,
really spend that time to prep your puck, give it some love, give it some time,
give it some attention and it'll reward you in delicious coffee.
But other tips that I've learned
is that knowing your machine inside it out is so key.
Finding people online on forums on videos that have the exact
same machine as you can be very helpful when that you can have certain tips on it.
Like I have the dual boiler.
I know Lance Hendrick on YouTube has that as well.
It's a wonderful machine.
I mean, it's not pretty to look at personally.
I find it's a bit bulky and you know, it's not the most refined, but
in terms of feature, in terms of price, in terms of value, I love it.
It's great.
It's going to grow with me and you can do a lot on it,
especially if you do the flow profiling mod, which I haven't done.
I'm not sure if I'm going to do right now.
I'm playing with manual long
pre and fusion but anyway, that's another video for another time,
understanding what your machine can and cannot do and its limitations
and then pushing it. Definitely great.
Seeing if you can find accessories specific to your machine.
In this case, for the double boiler, it's not a 61 group head.
The portal filters for it if you want to get aftermarket
unless you get eight an official one, you're going to have to look a little bit.
And I do have a video of a bottomless Porterfield
So I keep looking at my bubble dull boy like I'm like I'm talking to it
getting the right tools are super helpful now.
It's not everything.
And a great barista could probably make do
with pretty much anything because they're a great barista.
Having the right tools, especially at the beginning, is very helpful.
Learn with the basics, don't necessarily upgrade and get the best right away.
Yeah, you can if you want if you're not in a budget,
you can also do it in increments, which is what I did.
If you look at some of the videos, budget, special video to where
I'm at right now, I've actually upgraded a few of those items.
One of the big items I did upgrade was the temper, which I also did
a review for a link everything, a description that's really useful.
Also understanding once again, your portafilter the basket size, everything.
If you have a caliper that would be best.
But like getting the right tamper that fits really, really tightly
on your port of filter and your basket is important and understanding yourself.
I really wanted to make it as repeatable and as brainless as possible
because it's the mornings.
I want to enjoy my coffee routine, but like I also want to just exist
and try to wake up and not focus so hard
on the tamping part, which is probably arguably the most.
Well, it is pretty important.
It's part of the part so I got myself a great temper.
I love my temper and it's definitely changed
the extraction, the process, the routine in everything from buy fresh coffees, buy
in person, buy from your local roasters, get third wave and fourth wave
so we can keep the coffee community alive and ethically sourced
and have roasters that give back to the farms in some way.
Research develop and adjust to the constant change in climate of flux.
But a lot of the really good things that we're going to have right now
is kind of affected by climate change because they're all very climate
dependent, like wine,
truffles, coffee, like all the things that are really nice in life.
So it's really good to be able to buy something that you give back
in multiple layers and multiple ways and then have fun with it though.
But be patient, be patient.
It's not going to be something in a pickup overnight.
It's going to take a little bit of time.
You know, it's one of those things
that it's enjoy the journey, not the destination,
although the destination is pretty fun too.
But if you're doing coffee as a hobby, there's no destination
because there's continuous learning turbo shot with a more recent thing, play
and tweak the different things of the nine bar being the only way to track coffee.
That's constantly evolving and there's constantly things to try and do.
Coffee is something that you are extracting and you are doing
and you have control over, which is pretty cool thing.
That's pretty satisfying. It's kind of meditative too, as well.
You and yourself, you have to be very focused
if you want to be able to make good coffee,
if you kind of just start wandering off and one
5 minutes, just 5 minutes to yourself, it's kind of nice.
You wander off, might not make such a good coffee.
I realized with time that, Oh my God, coffee is kind of my personality trait.
One of many.
All my friends are constantly sending me coffee, beans and coffee things.
Now enjoy the coffee, how you like it.
You saw that
I put a couple of squirts of maple sirup in there and I have it with milk
for like a flat white, depending on how good my microphone is doing that day.
But I don't care. That's how I like my coffee.
Some people are really into being, like, purist and ooh,
you drink your coffee, you can sugar.
Yeah, it's my life is my taste palate.
Don't get persuaded by people online.
Gatekeeping to the coffee community.
There has been some of that.
I've experienced a little bit of that on Reddit,
but I found the YouTube community to be super positive and super friendly
and happy and just appreciate of having this knowledge online.
Speaking of the YouTube community, leave your comments down below.
Let me know what your special journey
is, what you've learned in that time and where you're at right now.
Just to have a discussion.
This is just a video for fun casual coffee chats.
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