Super Simple Holiday Gift Guide (2023)

2023 Gift Guide for your favorite coffee geek:

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1.     A Bag of Seven Syllables Coffee – This is the easiest gift to give, but that doesn’t mean it’s not at the top of every coffee lover’s list!

2.     A box of Perfect Coffee Water – This one always makes our lists. The best thing you can do for brewing better coffee is to use better water. Perfect Coffee Water makes it so easy, it’s a no brainer gift!

3.     Normcore WDT tool – If your home barista makes espresso at home, using a distribution tool helps break up the clumps and create a more even extraction.

4.     Ember Mug – This one is a must for WFH people, especially if you take a while to drink your morning cup.

5.     Normcore Single Dose Coffee Bean Storage – Consider these dosing tins like meal prepping, but for your coffee doses. Pre-dose every Sunday night, and the rest of the week will be a breeze making coffee in the morning. They’re air tight so there’s not worries that the coffee will stale.

6.     The Maximalist – Specialty Coffee Filter Holder – It’s almost inevitable that every coffee connoisseur will end up with multiple brewers. This filter holder helps keep multiple sized filters neat and organized.

7.     Aeropress Organizer Stand – The AeroPress is still one of my most used brewers. Having an organizer stand keeps everything neat and dry, without taking up too much space.

8.     Kalita Wave – who doesn’t love a new brewer? Especially if you’re like me and have broken multiple glass and ceramic brewers. Kalita Wave continues to be a part of my arsenal, I prefer the metal version for durability.

9.     Hario Coffee Scale – This is such a simple upgrade, but well worth it if your budding barista isn’t already using a scale. In fact, I’ve been using a $10 scale I got from Target…so maybe I’ll be picking this scale up soon!

10.  Hario Cold Brew Bottle – Personal preference is a beautiful thing, and for some that means cold brew over pour overs…especially first thing in the morning when you’re rushing off to start your day. We love the Hario Cold brew Bottle, and definitely recommend it as a gift.

That’s our super simple gift guide for this year, I hope it helps!

3 ways to make iced coffee

Fall season is just around the corner, which for many people means it’s time to break out the flannels and start layering up. But it doesn’t feel much like fall here in Southern California, especially with the recent heatwave hitting upwards of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and a weekend in the 90’s dead ahead. Personally, I drink hot coffee all year round but I just couldn’t take the heat this week, so I’ve been enjoying iced coffee a few different ways. Here are my favorites:

1. Japanese-style iced coffee

I like this method because you can use your existing set-up without buying new equipment. I recommend using a scale that weighs in grams to get your ratios correct. I’ve been using a ratio of 26g of coffee to 150g ice, and 250g of water. The most important part is to make sure your ice is made with clean filtered water (ideally the same water you use to brew your coffee)

2. Hario Cold Brew Bottle

Cold brewed coffee provides a different texture and flavor profile than hot brewed coffee. Using the Hario Cold Brew Bottle makes it incredibly easy to brew your own cold brew at home. I personally use a ratio of 50g of coffee to 650g of water, brewed for 24 hours. This yields a concentrated brew that you can dilute with water if you enjoy your iced coffee black, and can take cream without being too watery.

3. Coldwave Beverage Chiller

This brewer is similar to the Japanese iced coffee method but instead of brewing over ice, you brew your pour-over like normal. Then you use the chiller to rapidly cool the coffee, without diluting. This does mean you’ll need to sacrifice some space in the freezer to store the coldwave chiller, but if you prefer the flavor of pour-over coffee this is the best way to enjoy it over ice.

If you try one of these methods this week, post it on Instagram and tag us @sevensyllablescoffee!

Tasting notes for the culture

Our latest offering comes from the Cusco reigion of Peru. On the cupping table, we taste date syrup, chocolate, and bayabas. Wait…bayabas? WTF is that? In tagalog, bayabas means guava. I had always referred to the tree in my backyard as a bayabas tree, and never thought twice about other names for the fruit. It wasn’t until much later that I realized that it was a tagalog word.

Tasting notes have always been a point of contention between baristas and consumers. I remember as a consumer buying a bag of coffee labeled “chocolate raspberry” thinking it’d be chocolatey and sweet, only to find it was just a dark roasted coffee with oils that slightly smelled like expired halloween candy. It tasted even worse.

This is partly why I feel people misunderstand the tasting notes written on the labels of todays specialty coffee bags. The era of Hawaiian Hazelnut and Chocolate Raspberry flavored coffee is over, but these new tasting notes are rarely explained by the barista or cashier.

In short, coffee naturally contains over 1,000 organic compounds that can contribute to the flavor of a coffee. When we evaluate a coffee, we consider things like acidity, body, and sweetness. The buildup of some of these organic compounds leads to natural flavors that can remind us of different foods, and depending on our culture and experience can mean many different things.

Which leads me to the point of this post - using tasting notes from our personal databank of food is important to expanding the way we describe coffee. Let me explain:

Our taste buds are an incredible part of our anatomy. They’re capable of remembering thousands of different foods, sometimes so powerfully that even the description of a vibrant, freshly picked cara cara orange can invoke the memory of how it tastes and smells without having to hold one in your hands.

So when we taste coffee, evaluating the flavor intentionally can lead to subtle flavors that bring forth memories of past meals. For me, when I tasted our Peru for the first time, I first noticed the sweetness was intense, like medjool dates. This was followed by an acidity that reminded me of the fragrant, floral, tropical fruit that fell to the dirt in my mom’s backyard.

And while much of the world would call it guava, I’ve chosen to use a word from the filipino culture in hopes that it would spark interest, and encourage more people to use tasting notes that carry meaning for them. Yes, I realize that it may not be well received by everyone, but if it piques interest in our heritage, then we’ve truly connected people to our culture, for the culture.

In a future post, we’ll dive deeper into how to taste coffee, and evaluate things like acidity, body, sweetness, finish, and defects or negative flavors.

Ditch the French Press in 2023

The first month of 2023 is coming to an end and this time of year we usually reflect on a new habit that we’ve implemented into our lives, and begin making the decision to either keep up with it or leave it behind. For a lot of people, that new habit is a daily pour over coffee routine.

Manually brewing coffee rather than using an auto drip brewer can be a great way to start the morning off slowly, giving yourself space to mentally prepare for the day.  But sometimes the steps in pour over coffee can be a little too involved for those of us looking to simplify our morning routine.

This is why I believe the French Press remains one of the most popular brewers for people, despite being one of the oldest documented methods of brewing coffee. It was one of the first brewers I ever bought for myself when I started my journey into coffee, and remains on my shelf as a backup. Despite the nostalgia, I do not think anyone should be buying a French press in 2023.

Why I Do Not recommend a French Press in 2023:

1.     Dirty/sludgy cups

This is a deal breaker for me. My ideal cup of coffee is clean and sweet, with balanced acidity and sweetness. Most french presses I’ve had will leave some sediment in the bottom of the cup, which can contribute to lack of clarity and an unpleasant sandy mouthfeel. This is especially a problem when you don’t have a good quality grinder.

2.     Plunger screens wear out over time and leads to worse and worse brewer performance.

This can also contribute to reason number one. A worn down screen will allow more particles to get into your cup, leading to worse tasting coffee. You could possibly replace the parts, but the money spent would best be used for better coffee or a different brewer.

3.     Glass carafe breaks and is no longer useable.

I can’t tell you how many carafes I’ve broken. At one point I had a graveyard of French Press parts simply because I no longer wanted to buy replacement beakers. No matter how careful you are, having a fragile brewer to mess with first thing in the morning will inevitably lead to broken glass, and undercaffeination.

What I recommend instead:

CLEVER Dripper

 Just like the French Press, the Clever dripper is what’s called a full immersion brewer, which means that the coffee grounds steep in the water for the entire brewing process before being strained. This is in contrast to percolation (we like to just say filter coffee…it’s easier and doesn’t sound so much like

1.     Use of a paper filter makes a clean cup. Melitta #4 filters are readily available at any grocery store.

2.     Clean up is simple because the grounds are retained in the filter, and a simple rinse with warm soapy water is all it needs.

3.     Strong plastic so it won’t break as easily as glass brewers.

4.     Release valve holds up better than the French Press plunger.

METHODS FOR CLEVER

 

Fill & Forget

1.     Add filter to the brewer and rinse with hot water. This will help preheat the brewer and remove any papery taste from the filter. Make sure to dump the rinse water.

2.     Add 25g of coffee or about 3 heaping tablespoons. Add 375g of water or about 13 oz of 200 F water. Set a timer for 3 minutes.

3.     Place the Clever on your carafe or mug and enjoy!

Hybrid

1.     Add filter to the brewer and rinse with hot water. This will help preheat the brewer and remove any papery taste from the filter. Make sure to dump the rinse water.

2.     Add 25g of coffee or about 3 heaping tablespoons. Start your timer and add 75g of 200 F water. Stir gently with a spoon.

3.     After 45 seconds has passed, place the Clever on your mug or carafe. Add remaining 300g of water, pouring gently. You should finish pouring by 1:30 seconds and the total drip time should be about 3:00 minutes.

Fast Flow

1.     This method is directly from Workshop Coffee in London. We use a typical 1:16 ratio of coffee to water, at 25g coffee and 400g of water. Start by adding and pre-rinsing the filter.

2.     Dump the rinse-water and add 400g of water at 210 F.

3.     Start your stopwatch. Add medium fine grounds and stir gently with a spoon.

4.     Wait 2:30 seconds and then gently stir to break up the crust that’s formed on top of the slurry.

5. Place the brewer onto the carafe or mug. Drawdown time should take and additional 45 to 60 seconds for a total elapsed brew time of 3:15-3:30 seconds.

This method seems to work the best out of the 3 methods at providing an even extraction without clogging the filter. While it seems like kind of a side step from using a French Press, it’s an easy way to 10x your coffee quality without having to buy that fancy matte black kettle on everyones Instagram feed.

I prefer a grind closer to something medium fine like I would for a kalita or auto drip. This usually gives me better acidity and sweetness than I would get from a coarser, french press grind.

If you want to try the Clever Dripper, click here or on the image below. Please let me know if you like it! And if you’ve already got a Clever and have a recipe that you love, leave a comment for me to try it myself.

Happy Brewing!