Brewing Basics: The Bee House Dripper

Since I am giving away a Bee House, I thought I would give you a tutorial on how to brew coffee on a Bee-House.

First off, a Bee-House is a type of brewing device called a "pour-over". I am giving away a Bee-House from PT's Coffee Roasting Co. Here is what their site has to say about it.

Necessary Tools:

• A Bee-House
• #2 Paper Cone Filters from a local grocery store
• A kettle to boil water in
• A scale
• Coffee beans (24g to 26g)
• A grinder
• A timer

 

How-To Make the Pour-Over:

1. Start the kettle of water on the stove.
2. Weigh 24g to 26g of coffee depending on the type of coffee.
3. Grind coffee to a ground somewhere between french press and drip coffee.
4. Fold the #2 Filter at both ends and place in Bee House.
5. Place Bee House on a cup or something that can hold 12 oz of liquid.
6. When the water comes to a boil, take the kettle off and rinse the filter with the hot water. [This also brings the Bee House and mug to a higher temperature.]
7. Dump hot water.
8. Place cup and Bee House on scale.
9. Put coffee grounds in Bee House.
10. Zero the Scale. And changer to oz.
11. You want the water to be at a little over 200 degrees Fahrenheit, so it is okay to let it sit on the stove for about 30 seconds before actually letting it touch the coffee.
12. Pour water in the Bee House just enough to wet the grounds.
13. Start Timer!
14. Let "bloom" or sit for 30 seconds to 1 minute. [This depends on the age of the coffee. The closer the roast date the shorter the "bloom", generally speaking.]
15. Pour water at a steady pace in a figure 8 motion until the water reached about 1.5 centimeters from the top.
16. Finish pouring very slowing to maintain the height of the water in the middle of the Bee House until you have 13.6 ounces of water.
17. Let the water finish dripping. It should take between 2.5 and 3 minutes.
18. Enjoy your cup of coffee from your Bee House.

 Keep in mind this is how I make my coffee in my Bee House. There are many other ways to make it out there as well. Some Baristas suggest different ratios or pouring techniques. Experiment. Make it your own.

Here is a good video on making a Bee House from Topeca. He uses a slightly different technique than what I shared, but if you are a visual learner this might help:

 If you want to win your own Bee House Dripper, get your friends to follow my blog! Enter my give-away!

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From Seed to Cup: A Tulsa Experience

So today for Adjusting the Grind, I am going to do a coffee shop review for you. This weekend, I did a quick trip to Tulsa, OK, to visit Travis's momma. While I was there, I took the opportunity to check out Topeca, a coffee shop two Baristas suggested I check out.

http://www.topecacoffee.com/

Topeca is located in downtown Tulsa, OK, in an interesting hotel building. The decor is fabulous--very inviting, cozy, and Latin-inspired. It serves a full food menu along with coffee.

The menus are hanging chalkboards behind the bar. My favorite part is how they list each size for the coffee drinks, and next to cappecino it says, "Only the perfect size". Love how they turned what can sometimes be negative (only serving the traditional 6oz or 8oz cappecino) into something special.

The coffee of the day was Santa Ana, a blend of coffee grown in the highest elevations of Finca Manzano. They describe it having a lime fragrance, and it is a fully-washed coffee. However, I ordered a cappecino for there, and a bag of beans of Santa Ana to take home with me.

My cappecino was very good, a little too foamy for my liking, but overall a great drink. I gave the Barista working a lot of grace, though, because the place was packed on a Sunday afternoon. It was evident this was an unusual amount of people on a Sunday afternoon because there was only one Barista and one chef on duty.

Travis's mom ordered a Turkey and Swiss Panini, which she let me try. It was delicious, and so was the side salad with some sort of raspberry dressing.

However, what makes Topeca stand out in my mind is not the atmosphere, the coffee, or the food, (even though all of those things are excellent) but how they source their coffee. The coffee farm, roaster, and cafe is all owned by the same people. This is called a "Seed to Cup" method. Their farms are all in El Salvador and have been around since the 19th Century when the founder brought coffee trees from Colombia to El Salvador. Now, six generations later the legacy lives on through their shop and roaster.

This process allows them to control the quality and create meaningful relationships between farmers and Baristas and roasters. All of the people involved are intrinsically connected on a deeper level. I like that.

They also are able to give back to the communities they grow coffee through an El Salvador non-profit called "Libras de Amor".

I greatly enjoyed my experience at the shop yesterday and my cup of coffee in my El Salvador mug this morning. If you are ever in Tulsa, you should check Topeca Coffee out!

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Train Ride Across America

10) I want to leave room to DREAM.

So I have been thinking a lot about adventures I want to take over the last couple of months. For much of my life, I have been focused on getting out of America--seeing the WORLD. I love other cultures and languages and traditions. I have always fast forward through American history classes and over-studied zealously for World history classes. I take culture classes like it was my major or something (it is not). 

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Anyway, I got to thinking the other day how as much as I want to see the world, I really haven't see much of my own backyard, which is a shame. I have been to Chicago, Colorado, Ohio, Texas, and I am told that I went to New York as a baby (which doesn't count).

America is such a melting pot, and I have neglected to consider all the rich culture I could find in it.

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New Possible Plan: 1)Take my last General Education course, Geography. 2)See America. 3)Tour and volunteer at non-profits  and drink good coffee in that city.

In other words, I am considering visiting some close friends across the States, staying with them for a week or so, setting up a volunteer gig at a local non-profit, and visiting the local coffee shops.

For example, my beau's mom lives in Tulsa, OK. I have thought about visiting her for a week or so, volunteering at the Hispanic library (because they have a large Hispanic population) and frequenting a shop like Topeca to learn more about their coffee process. 

I want this to involve a train as a side note.

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My American Bucket List:

1) Visit Travis' mom in Tulsa, OK and volunteer at the Hispanic library and go to Topeca.

2) Visit Robbie and Katie Britt in Seattle, WA. Possibly tour World Vision Headquarters and visit as many coffee shops as possible.

3) Visit my current roommate Mallory Roth and former co-worker Jon Freihofer in Portland, OR. Drink LOTS of coffee.

4) Visit my friends, Jay and Amber, in Pittsburgh, PA. They are doing some great work with Americorp, and I know their is a lot of coffee and history there.

5) Visit my friend Lizzy in St. Louie, hang out with the Kaldi's coffee crew, and possibly work with Three Avocados, a non-profit coffee company.

6) Visit my Aunt Pam in Nashville, Tennessee. She is a PR professor at Belmont University.

7) Visit my former RA, Megan Eubanks, in Chicago, IL, check out World Vision, and Intelligentsia. 

8) Go home to Cape Girardeau, MO to be a part of the re-opening of my mom's cafe, and possibly work with Room for One More, an adoption awareness non-profit.

9) Visit my cousin, Christy, in California. Period.

10) Tour Compassion International in Colorado Springs, CO.

11) Visit my Aunt Sue in Indiana.

12) See a Broadway show in New York...for no apparent reason. :)

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OK, so there is my new idea. I definitely want to complete one of these bucket list items this year, but I think I can do more.

Thoughts? Comments? Ideas? 

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I am a Barista

Pic by Koni

I am a Barista at a local coffee shop in Springfield, MO called The Coffee Ethic and have been for one year now. However, I have been a Barista for 4 years starting at my mom's cafe: Grace Cafe. Unfortunately her shop closed down two years ago, because Cape Girardeau wasn't ready for her coffee. She was ahead of her time.

Pic by Liz Church

Now, I am going to school in Springfield and work at the most EPIC coffee shop in the world: The Coffee Ethic. A year before I moved to Springfield, I lived in Bolivar and use to drive 45 minutes just to get a cup of coffee from this place. I really am living a dream come true!

Pic by Koni

Sometimes I am just in awe of coffee, the process it has to go under before it gets to a customer-- especially, espresso. It is just beautiful sometimes. The rich color takes my breath away.

Pic by Me

 I always joke that I do my best Barista work in my skinny jeans. You know just reinforcing the third wave stereotypes, but I don't have any tattoos or facial hair so I am already an oddball. ;)

 

Pic by Koni

My favorite part of being a Barista is the people. I have met so many great people in the Springfield community and from all over the world. In fact, today, I met a guy who rooms with a Barista in Dayton, Ohio and was told he had to try our Clover. Also, two Baristas from a Tulsa, Oklahoma shop called Topeca came in, and we had some great conversations.

Pic by Koni

The sense of community created in a coffee shop is incredible, and I love what I do. Pin It