Category Archives: Coffee

Perfecting Stuff

★ Posted on at 09:35 pm ★

20101107-0001

Best rosetta to date that I’ve made on a cup of coffee. My coffee is still inconsistent, but only because I don’t want to waste anything, so even if it’s not as good as it can be, I just drink 98% of the shots I pull.

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by the river

Tried out my new neutral density filter. I just wanted to get the mirror image of the river flowing. Diffraction is horribly visible at f11, which this was shot at, but I can’t even get a 1s exposure at that without the filter. So it’s definitely better than nothing.

I’m starting to feel that if you want better image quality that you need to migrate to a full frame camera. Better wide angle lenses compared to the crop factor, no diffraction until f16, giving you more options for getting sharp landscapes. High ISO may not be a great factor at the moment but the better dynamic range of FF sensors definitely help produce a better quality image. Heh, none of this is substitute for having a good eye to capture these images though.

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Did some late night cooking just about an hour ago. Marinated some chicken winglets and drumlets with lots of honey and soy, with a little Thai chilli flakes for some spiciness. I let those sit for about 20 minutes before baking them in the oven. I’ve been tweaking my cooking time and temperature for these over the last few tries and I think I’ve got a method which I think produces pretty good baked chicken. You need it to be hot enough so that the sugars caramelise and cook the meat through, without burning the outer skin and leaving the flesh inside all dried out.

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It’s just the way I like to learn things, from trial and error. It sticks with me better when I can analyse the outcome from what I’ve done and I feel proud when I achieve what I’ve set out to do.

Contemplative

★ Posted on at 06:46 pm ★

coffee - 5 months later

After 5 months of owning the coffee machine, I’m better at estimating when a shot pours whether it will taste good or not. There’s no scientific experiments, just subjective observations on what would taste better. I can get nice silky milk, but haven’t figured out how to get the really nice rosettas into a cup. Heh, will need to do another round of reading and experimentation when I’m up to the task.

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There are days I’m more upbeat, reminding myself to be happy and be happy for the things I have around me. It’s amazing how saying a little prayer gives me the energy to drag that lazy ass of mine out of bed on some mornings. Been running and swimming quite a bit of late, and trying to eat healthily to replenish the system, but some days I just wake up feeling a little sluggish. It’s okay to feel your body aching all over, some days it’s when the brain is feeling lethargic, it’s almost paralyzing and you have fear gripping over you. There are days like those, I just need an overriding smack on the cheek (figuratively) to knock some sense into me to get me going again. It’s ok if you can’t run the whole way, you just need to not stop and complete the journey you have set yourself out on.

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There are also days where I don’t say the nicest things (not rude, but not really right for the subject matter). Sometimes maybe I’m too focused on myself that I am not entirely tactful. I never mean to be inconsiderate. I just feel I rub people the wrong way at times. I don’t apologise directly, but do try to make up for it in other ways.

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Heh, it’s good to have time to reflect, but it’s time to study.

Coffee Notes

★ Posted on at 09:41 am ★

cappucino

It will be a long while before I can achieve coffee art this good. It is all to do with texturing the milk to the right consistency. I find that the milk has to be a certain viscosity for you to pour latte art, so like they say, it should probably look like swirling paint.

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The thing I love about Melbourne, is that you can go to so many places to try food and have new experiences. Was at Proud Mary in Collingwood just to try out the coffee. You walk in and the first thing you’d notice is the 6 group Synesso espresso machine facing the entrance. It’s massive and it would just make any coffee snob drool.

Coffee there’s pretty good, where the milk drinks are all based on a double shot espresso (so they say). Not quite sure what beans were in mine, but the flavour was smooth and clean, with caramel and dark chocolate notes.

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Woke up this morning to make crappy coffee, as the drip from the group head seemed constipated. I was doing everything exactly the same but somehow the coffee didn’t cooperate. Was chatting with my friend online and he was having the same problem, and had made his grind coarser. Did the same and the coffee flowed out nicely, achieving that nice syrupy look when it flows into your cup.

The difference I guess was the humidity. It’s been raining the past couple of days, and I suppose the added moisture makes the coffee grinds a little denser, so keeping it at the grind settings I was using meant that it was a little too fine for the water to push through.

Also experimenting with the milk texturing again. Let the milk coast at the surface a little less and found that the milk, while silky, wasn’t viscous enough to pour art. Previously it was too viscous, so I need to practice a little more to get the right consistency. Heh, I guess the fascination is in the learning and discovering the reasons why. It’s such a fine line between decent coffee and bland extractions.