makumaro.net

Contemplative

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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

Coffee Notes

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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.

Coffee At Every Corner

Stopped using my knockbox to get rid of coffee pucks due to the warm weather. The coffee pucks (as a very fertile environment) become mouldy pretty quickly, so I resorted to just knocking them out on my tamping mat. I then started stacking them up to make space for more coffee pucks when I made coffee.

Getting the consistent 55 to 60ml from a double shot these days. I don’t drink nearly enough to practise my shots consistently to improve my skills. 500gm of beans can last me a good two weeks, serving just myself and Vyanne plus the occasional guest.

* * *

Was at St Ali yesterday evening, seeing a latte art sort of smackdown. The barista community in Melbourne seems pretty close knit, and I recognised a few faces in the crowd as they were from the cafes I frequent. It was a pretty chill environment, and you start hearing people tossing technical coffee jargon around.

The amount of control you need to pour a triple rosetta into a cup requires surgical precision, meaning no jittery hands. The cup was poured by a Japanese barista from St Ali called Toshi, and he’s been there for quite a while now.

* * *

Heh, this is definitely not my average rate of posting. It’s just that I’ve been tweaking my blog lately, so I’m more inclined to write stuff these days. A few more things to fix up and I’ll probably not touch it again until after my CPA paper.