Alex Head, of Head Wines, visited yesterday. For those of you who don't know him, Alex is completely straight up and has a fine palate. He wanted to discuss extraction profile options to increase viscosity in his espresso shots from the Fellow ES1 coffee machine which he recently purchased from us...
There were a number of highlights from the VERY long conversation which Alex and I had over many espresso shots.
The most interesting one for me was that Alex told me that he cannot blend his top vineyard parcels. Head Wines contracts grapes from some of the best sites in the Barossa and the very best parcels display nuance, finesse and individual character which become totally lost in a blend. I found this very reassuring as I'd recently failed repeatedly at building ultra premium versions of our best selling blends using rarefied green beans. I too found that all of the character of these incredible single origin beans was lost amidst the blend. I'm glad to know that it's likely not a me issue! Alex felt that we had really maxed out the Croydon Blend in terms of flavour, balance, and texture which was great to hear.
Alex really enjoyed sampling the Croydon Blend dialled in at different grind settings as well as on two different grinders, the Kafatek Monolith Flat, an end game large flat burr grinder, as well as the Fellow Opus Gen 2, a much lower priced small conical burr grinder. He could taste the flavour separation coming from the flat burrs as well as sense the viscosity and texture differences arising from the conical burrs. I'm still amazed that the Fellow grinder, which is one twentieth the price of the Kafatek, gets so close in terms of in the cup espresso quality. Fellow Opus Gen 2 grinder review next week.
Finally, Alex's favourite espresso shot of the day was an off the wall recipe which produced an incredibly concentrated, syrupy and intense shot. 20 g of ground coffee in the portafilter producing 13 g of espresso in the cup. It was quite the experience!
Our two best selling blends are available at the following links:
To understand the hygroscopic nature of coffee grounds click here
To read about the roaster exhaust fan click here