I recently visited Hobart on holiday... what a beautiful city!
Whilst there, a few of us went to the Lark Distillery cellar door. You'll likely be aware that Tasmania is the source of many of Australia's greatest whiskies. I sampled one of the whisky flights. All of the whiskies were lovely, nuanced, balanced... however, the element which stood out to me most in the tasting was the quality of the aroma and taste which clearly emanated from the structure of the glasses which were used for the tasting flight.
I've long held that my favourite whisky glass was not designed for whisky at all! That glass is the Zalto Sauternes glass, designed for delicious and decadent dessert wines. Well, the Lark whisky glasses eclipsed even the Zalto and, as you can see, I've added these glasses to our collection.
The uplift in flavour got me to thinking about what I think are the most critical equipment choices when making great tasting coffee at home. In my opinion, the two most important components are, firstly, finding high quality roasted coffee beans which align with your own taste preferences and, secondly, using a very high quality coffee grinder which produces even and consistent grounds which allow your coffee machine to perform magic.
Given that you are reading this Garage Roasters newsletter, I'm sincerely hoping that you have solved the first part of the equation! We are also equipped to help you deal with the second part. We supply the lastest versions of the Turin DF54 (version 4) and DF83 (version 2) grinders which we believe are the best value top shelf quality grinders on the market. They allow for ultra consistent coffee routines as they are designed as single dosing grinders (you know exactly how much ground coffee will be in your portafilter because you determine how much coffee goes through the grinder in the first place). They use well-aligned flat burrs producing consistent and highly uniform grounds which deliver a wonderful taste profile. I still remember what a huge difference I experienced moving from the grinder built into our first combination machine (a cheap machine which combined both a grinder and coffee extraction capability in the one housing) to a separate, purpose built flat burr grinder. The texture and flavour profile improved enormously, despite the fact that the coffee machine itself was mediocre at best.
Purchase the Turin DF54 V4 here
Purchase the Turin DF83 V2 here
To read about flat whites and extract chilling click here
To read about the Hario Skerton Pro hand grinder click here
To read about new portafilter baskets and beans click here
Purchase Garage Roasters coffee here