Well, he designed wonderful flying disc, which broke many distance records and he started producing them under the name Aerobie. It’s a great thing to have loads of fun with outdoors. What this have in common with coffee? Well Alan Adler made another ground breaking invention 20 years later. And it is a plastic coffee maker which can also be easily used outdoors. And coffee lovers around the world get absolutely mad about it. Here’s why.

Aeropress is a plastic plunging tube with a cap where you can place filter. It’s simplicity combined with countless possibilities of brewing is the key of its success. You can brew the coffee for a minute and then press it slowly through the filter. You can brew it for 4 minutes and press it fast. You can have almost infinite control over it. It is made of plastic so it won’t smash in your backpack when going for a hike. It doesn’t take much space either. You can clean it pretty well without using water. It really makes pretty darn good cuppa joe.

It has three parts only. Tube with plunger and a cap with holes in it. You put paper filter into the cap, screw it to the tube, add coffee, pour some water and press it through the filter with plunger. That’s it really. Simple, right? Let’s go deeper then. Usually in filter coffee methods time of extraction of coffee depends on grind size of coffee. Not here. You can Keep grounds in a brew for as long as you like really, then press it when you want to. Therefore, you can have long extraction of coarse coffee or very quick fine coffee. You can press it slowly or really fast too. Thanks to these two factors you can also play a lot with ratio of coffee to water too. These are most important aspects of making coffee. Ratio, contact time and temperature. Aeropress gives all possibilities of brewing. You can try to mimic espresso brew or get delicate sweet brew too.

Pimp up your coffee

I love to pack my Aeropress with me whenever I go hiking or meeting friends in a park. Water in thermo flask, ground coffee (or I take my hand grinder if I am in a mood for some biceps workout). Cup or serving jug and I am ready to rock. Jealous people walking by, dreaming of their own freshly brewed coffee in a park is a bonus.

Diversity of this device, it’s portability and brew quality made this one of the most popular brew methods of all the time. There are also World Aeropress Championships every year. I had a pleasure to won Irish edition of this contest in 2015 and I went to Seattle representing country on international stage! Rules are also super simple and everyone can start! In a group of three people, you got 8 minutes to prepare your best brew. Then panel of judges in a blind tasting picks their favourite coffee. In finals are same rules but there is one on one match! Oh, everyone have to use same beans. Just a little catch. That also gives a good idea of how amazing this thing is. You can get totally different outcome if using different recipe!

How to do it?

What was my winning recipe?

It’s a secret!

Well, alright, here you go!

• Measure 18g of coarse ground coffee – it should be roughly three tablespoons. I would recommend MEastelo medium roast for this. You can order it ground coarse in our shop!
• Heat the water – I used water at precisely 88 degrees. It would be about 5 minutes after boiling with a lid of kettle open.
• Place paper filter in a filter cap and pour some water over it to prewet it. White paper filter might have that paper bleach aftertaste. They also might be bit dusty. It’s a good practice to prewet it.
• Set your Aeropress in inverted position. Place plunger in a tube but just at the beginning of it, so you have open chamber where we could put coffee. Place it on a table on the plunger. Classic position would be if you would place cap with filter on the tube and put it on the vessel, then just add plunger at the end of the process.
• Get the coffee in the Aeropress and reset your timer! 
• Pour some water over the coffee. Don’t feel it to the top yet. Just enough to cover all the grounds. Start your timer. 
• Let it “bloom” for about 30 seconds. “Blooming” is a process of degassing coffee, it will reduce sour notes in your brew.
• Fill it up to the top, stir it three times and put the cap with a filter on. 
• When timer show 1 minute turn Aeropress around and place it on a vessel, it can be a mug or a jug. Press slowly. Ideally just with a weight of your arms. You want to press all liquid through when timer show 2 minutes point. Don’t press it to the very end. When you will hear hiss of air it’s enough. You really don’t want to squeeze all water from the grounds, it would make it very bitter.
• Enjoy your Best Meastelo Coffee, brewed like a champ!

This is the 2015 Irish Aeropress Championships winning recipe but go for it and change it!

Get more coffee in it. Get hotter coffee. Don’t “bloom” it. Or “bloom” it for a minute! Or even go crazy and stir it five times!

Only one tip, try not exceeding 4 minutes of a brew, this really makes coffee harsh.

We have Aeropress for sale in our shop too. It comes with a carrying sack, stirring paddle and 350 filters! Yeah, 350. It should last for a month or two, right?

You can find our coffee in couple of places in Dublin, including Golt Food stores on Tallaght or Finglas. Just ask for Meastelo!

Stay safe!

The post The heck is Aeropress? appeared first on Meastelo.

The post Arabica or Robusta? appeared first on Meastelo.

There is few methods of having your morning caffeine cold, but today I’d like to tell you about probably easiest one and definitely most interesting method to make yourself iced coffee at home. Overnight.

Cold brew is a very popular drink in US, in Ireland every year it has more new dedicated drinkers. Why it is so different? Well, first of all we do not need hot water to brew it. Simplest cold brew is just a ground coffee immersed in ice cold water and left overnight in a fridge. So instead of heat we use time to get rich flavour.  Also because of that, final product is way less acidic than traditionally brewed coffee, so it is healthier for people with digestive problems and for all those who not really appreciate sourness in their coffee. This method also won’t extract bitterness into the drink. So after all we get pretty intense, however naturally sweet cold coffee we don’t need to dilute with ice, as we’d have to with for example iced americano. Therefore there is no need to sweeten up cold brew as much as regular coffee which makes it healthier.

As we won’t use hot water for it it is more than likely cold brew will contain more antioxidants than a normal one and even more, it definitely contain more caffeine (due to longer brewing time) so it helps you burn fat, just have a glass of it after workout!

And let’s not forget… it looks like whiskey!

So how to do it?

You can use your good old coffee press most of us have at home. Use your favourite Meastelo coffee. Just ask for French Press ground coffee (it will be just perfect) or if you use your own grinder, try to match coarse sea salt size. As always most important are proportions! Golden ratio is 60g of coffee per liter of water. Downsize it when needed, so if you have only half liter press use 30g of coffee. That would be roughly 4 table spoons. Place coffee in your press, cover it with cold water. Don’t place plunger just yet! We will need it for the morning! Cover vessel with a cling film and leave in a fridge overnight! That’s it! Well, almost. In the morning you just need to place plunger in a place and very slowly filter grounds from the drink. It should be as easy as coffee should already fall down to the bottom. Try not to disturb them. Decant the drink to another vessel and it’s ready to go. You can store cold brew in your fridge for minimum a week!

Enjoy it on the rocks, on its own or with a dash of milk. Add some sirup, or maybe some vanilla ice cream? You are the creator and cold brew tastes great in every way.

Just be careful. It taste so fresh and funky but it is still coffee and it still contains caffeine. Remember about it! Drink responsibly.

Enjoy!

The post Cold brew coffee appeared first on Meastelo.

The post Green coffee roasted at home? Your perfect coffee taste! appeared first on Meastelo.

Storage is integral part of maintaining your coffee’s freshness and flavour. It is important to keep it away from excessive air, moisture, heat, and light – in that order – to preserve its fresh-roasted flavour as long as possible. Coffee beans are decorative and beautiful to look at but you will compromise the taste of your coffee if you store your beans in ornamental, glass canisters on your kitchen counter top. Doing so will cause them to stale and quickly lose its fresh flavour.

STORING YOUR COFFEE FOR A DAILY USE

It is important to remember to refrigerate or freeze your daily supply of coffee because contact with moisture will cause loss of its aroma and essence. Thus, it is advisable to store coffee in air-tight glass or ceramic containers and keep it in a convenient, but dark and cool location. Bear in mind that a cabinet near the oven is often too warm, as is a cabinet on an outside wall of your kitchen if it receives heat from a strong afternoon or summer sun. Coffee containers in which you purchase your coffee are generally not appropriate for long-term storage. Appropriate coffee storage bins or vessels with an airtight seal would be a good investment.

RIGHT PURCHASE

It is wise to purchase coffee in amounts depending on how quickly it will be used. Coffee begins to lose its freshness and aroma almost immediately after roasting so it is much better to buy it in smaller quantities. That is why better option is to buy freshly roasted coffee more frequently and buy only the quantity you will be able to use within 1 or 2 weeks. Another important factor to remember is that exposure to air affects your coffee negatively so it is a good idea to divide your coffee supply into several smaller portions, keeping the larger, unused portion in an air-tight container.

STORING LARGER QUANTITIES OF COFFEE

If you’ve purchased a larger quantity of coffee that you are not able to use quickly, small portions, wrapped in airtight bags, can be stored for up to a month in the freezer. However, if you have removed them from the freezer, you cannot put them back. Instead, move them to an air-tight container and store in a cool, dry place.

The post How to store coffee? appeared first on Meastelo.

What should you know about roasting coffee?

Light roast

Coffee has a cinnamon hue and sour flavour, it’s light and mild, its flavour quickly disappears from the palate. Roasting process is stopped at around 205 Celsius degrees so a part of sugars is not caramelised. African coffees are suitable to be roasted this way (Ethiopian Sidamo), so they would preserve their complex, fruity and vinegar aroma.

Medium roast

Most popular roast, stopped at 215 Celsius degrees giving less acidity but strongly developed aroma with impression of full flavour. Part of sugars is already caramelised, the flavour sustains on the palate for quite some time. Most coffees show their best qualities roasted this way (Brazilian Santos, Indian Malabar).

Dark roast

Moment of roasting is stopped between 225-235 Celsius degrees. Coffee is moist, oily and has a dark brown colour. At this stage acidity disappears, aroma is full, thick and smoky. Coffee has often gentle chocolate aroma, most caramelized sugars introduce sweet flavour.

Something for inquisitive…

It’s good to know that coffee roasted in production process generally lack in aroma high qualities. If you are a true coffee enthusiast, you should reach for coffee ground in a traditional method, called the master method. This method is supervised by a master, who observes the colour of the roasted beans. Roasting small amount of beans in temperature 230 Celsius degrees for at least 15 minutes extracts all the flavour and it’s intended to high quality coffee.

Industrial process of roasting coffee takes tons of coffee at once – most popular are chamber roast, assembly roast and continuous roast. Coffee is roasted in high temperature and quite shortly – in many cases no longer than 2 minutes. Industrial methods of roasting are simply insufficient to extract deep flavours and are never used with high quality beans.

The post What is roasting and how does it affect the taste? appeared first on Meastelo.

How to prepare a coffee?

Turkish coffee

It is the oldest way of brewing coffee, however not the same as we typically make at home.

Preparation: to a brass pot with a long handle (ibrik) add fine coffee, sugar and cold water. Heat it up until it boils. Then take it off the fire and drip cold water over it so coffee grounds start to sink. Repeat it three times. Now you can pour coffee to small cups and enjoy its strong aroma.

Proportions: two tea spoons per cup and tea spoon of sugar if desired.

Coffee from the pot

It is also one of the oldest brewing method, known to our grandmothers.

Preparation: grind beans to medium coarse and put to a preheated pot. Add 1/3 of boiling water. Heat it so coffee grounds float. Now you can add the rest of boiling water and take it of the stove. Let it rest for a while.

Cafetiere

Coffee brewed this way, without oxygen, keeps its original flavour, aroma and is very strong. It’s an alternative for those who value deep aroma and don’t own coffee machine.

Preparation: Fill the bottom part with water, place filter with fine coffee and replace lid. Steam from heated water is thrust through filter and coffee grounds and liquefies in the upper part of cafetiere. The whole process takes about 5 minutes.

Coffee machine

Automatic machine to make coffee called coffee maker, is the most convenient way to make coffee. The whole idea is narrowed down to placing filter, adding water and coffee. Brewing time and water temperature is determined by machine. After few minutes you will have a clear liquid with little amount of coffee grounds. Modern coffee machines are equipped with electronic panels which allow you to brew a tasty, aromatic coffee just by pressing one button.

Remember to clean your machine after 40-50 brewings, otherwise coffee dregs will affect the taste and coffee will become unpalatable.

How to properly grind coffee?

The post How to prepare a delicious cup of coffee? appeared first on Meastelo.