New in today, as we continue our journey of discovery for new & interesting espresso flavours. Hope to start test roasting today (Tues 22 July).
New in today, as we continue our journey for new & interesting espresso flavours. Hope to start test roasting today (Tues 22 July).
Fri 25 July: we like this for its smoothness & low acidity. if we were to offer a criticism, perhaps it is a little bland for some tastes. nonetheless, it will have a broad spectrum appeal because the is nothing in the taste profile to polarise opinions. a ‘safe’ bet, if you will.
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/sku5279260/index.cfm?pkey=celtnew
Hey its late at night & we stumbled across this new coffee making contraption
It appears to be the classic Italian moka pot with some added functionality which allows it to froth your milk for a cappuccino at the same time
Sure, it’s not in line with our ‘come over to the dark side’ philosophy, but we enjoyed watching the video, nonetheless
Has anyone out there used one & have any comments to post on it?
Gimmick or groundbreaking?
Having couriered many samples between Milan & London, and many more telephone conversations, we finally took delivery of our classic Italian ‘thick wall’ coffee cups from Ancap today.
Available in espresso (60ml), cappuccino/tea (200ml) & large cappuccino (350ml) sizes. These Ancap cups have a high quality deep glaze, with no pitting in the glaze where the handle joins the base of the cup. Compare the quality with the cheaper offerings more readily available and we think you will be quite surprised.
Sold in boxed sets of 6, complete with saucers.
Londinium Espresso are proud to announce that we have found a machine and grinder that accurately reflects the Londinium philosophy; artisan methods of manufacture coupled with an obsession for quality and that all but lost ingredient in today’s modern age; ‘feel’.
What do we mean by ‘feel’? Well, the Olympia Cremina lever machine allows you to ‘feel’ very easily the hot water being forced through the ground coffee, including any channels that the water might find in the coffee (not a good look, but great to be able to detect if this is occurring during the espresso process), allowing it an easier path through the coffee and evidenced by a drop in resistance against the palm of your hand.
First class thermal stability in the group head is assured with a lot of chromed marine grade bronze, and a tiny footprint to assure it a place in the kitchens of London. Oh, and did we mention, no noisy irritating electric pump?
A high quality lever machine extracts a lot of subtle nuances from the coffee that an electric pump machine will not. If you have a coffee that is only ‘so-so’ then an electric pump machine is a good thing as the additional extraction that a lever machine brings tends to be unpleasant. However, with LondiniumEspresso it brings out a whole new layer of taste that was previously hidden in the cup.
The moment you take this machine from the box it becomes apparent what you have paid for. It is the perfect antidote to the throw-away consumerism ethos that defines our modern world. Many, many Olympia machines that are 30-40 years old are still in active service today, requiring only seal replacements every 3 or 4 years. Use bottled water with a dry residue value of less than 5omg/L and you should never need to descale your machine.
Note: These machines demand a first class grinder in order to function correctly, i.e. Mazzer/equivalent grade and above. Why is this? Well you grind very fine with these machines and tamp very lightly – danced on by pixies by way of metaphor – none of this fashionable 35psi to 50psi malarkey with a tamp weighing a couple of hundred grams!
Olympia Express – radically different since inception, just like Londinium Espresso.
Cooking Time
5 minutes
Ingredients (serves 4)
Method
1. Combine marsala, sugar and coffee in a jug. Stir until sugar dissolves.2. Divide the sponge slices between four 400ml-capacity whisky glasses. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the coffee mixture. Drizzle remaining coffee mixture over the sponge slices.3. Top with half the chocolate, and all the custard and cherries. Drizzle with the reserved coffee mixture. Sprinkle with the remaining chocolate and serve.
Notes & tips
Source
Super Food Ideas – September 2007 , Page 79
Recipe by Annette Forrest
Swiss water process
The Swiss Water Process is a method of decaffeinating coffee beans that was developed by the Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company. To decaffeinate the coffee bean by the Swiss Water method, a batch of green (unroasted) beans is soaked in hot water, releasing caffeine. This process is done until all the caffeine and coffee solids are released into the water. These beans are then discarded. Next, the water passes through a carbon filter which traps the caffeine molecules but allows the water and the coffee solids to pass through. The caffeine-free water which comes through, known as “flavor-charged” water by the company, is then put in a similar filtration device, and new coffee beans are added. However, since the flavor-charged water cannot remove any of the coffee solids from the new beans, only the caffeine is released. The process repeats, filtering out all the caffeine until the beans are 99.9% caffeine free. These beans are removed and dried, and thus retain most if not all of their flavour and smell.
Direct method
In the direct method the coffee beans are first steamed for 30 minutes and then repeatedly rinsed with either methylene chloride or ethyl acetate for about 10 hours. The solvent is then drained away and the beans steamed for an additional 10 hours to remove any residual solvent. Sometimes coffees which are decaffeinated using ethyl acetate are referred to as naturally processed because ethyl acetate can be derived from various fruits or vegetables. However, for the purpose of decaffeination, it is not generally possible to create such a large quantity of ethyl acetate, thus the chemical is synthetically derived.
Indirect method
In the indirect method beans are first soaked in hot water for several hours, essentially making a strong pot of coffee. Then the beans are removed and either methylene chloride or ethyl acetate is used to extract the caffeine from the waterâ as in other methods, the caffeine can then be separated from the organic solvent by simple evaporation. The same water is recycled through this two-step process with new batches of beans. An equilibrium is reached after several cycles, where the water and the beans have a similar composition except for the caffeine. After this point, the caffeine is the only material removed from the beans, so no coffee strength or other flavorings are lost. Because water is used in the initial phase of this process, sometimes indirect method decaffeination is referred to as “water processed” even though chemicals are used.
CO2/O2 process
This process is technically known as supercritical fluid extraction. With the CO2 process, pre-steamed beans are soaked in a liquid bath of carbon dioxide at 73 to 300 atmospheres. After a thorough soaking, the pressure is reduced allowing the CO2 to evaporate, or the pressurized CO2 is run through either water or charcoal filters to remove the caffeine. The carbon dioxide is then used on another batch of beans.[3] This same process can also be done with oxygen (O2). These liquids work better than water because they are kept in supercritical state near the transition from liquid to gas so that they have the high diffusion of gas and the high density of a liquid. This process has the advantage that it avoids the use of potentially toxic solvents.
Triglyceride process
Green coffee beans are soaked in a hot water/coffee solution to draw the caffeine to the surface of the beans. Next, the beans are transferred to another container and immersed in coffee oils that were obtained from spent coffee grounds.
After several hours of high temperatures, the triglycerides in the oils remove the caffeine – but not the flavor elements – from the beans. The beans are separated from the oils and dried. The caffeine is removed from the oils, which are reused to decaffeinate another batch of beans. This is a direct contact method of decaffeination.
Yes, we took delivery of this premium Swiss water process decaffeinated coffee today. Tomorrow we hope to run test roasts to profile this coffee. We will also try & post some more information on the Swiss water process of decaffeination and how it differs from CO2 (carbon dioxide) and MC (methyl chloride) decaffeination processes so you can appreciate the differences.
In response to customer requests, this week we expect to receive our Swiss water process decaffeinated coffee from Costa Rica. As soon as it arrives we will add it to our product collection for you.
Why choose Londinium Espresso for your coffee beans? Well, as a mail order coffee roaster the only opportunity we have to influence your opinion of us is through our product. We have no elaborate shop where the aromas of the world’s exotic coffees waft paste your nose as they are ground, no ornate brass ware to measure your beans out in front of your eyes, no attractive sales staff to make you feel as though you will join the social elite if you buy our product. You see, we very much stand or fall on the opinion you form about our product in the privacy of your own home or workplace, uninfluenced by what the ‘expert’ in the shop might be suggesting that you should be able to detect in the roast. And so, there is no room for us to employ puffery or indeed any other claim that is not going to measure up when you first taste our product. Londinium – you be the judge.
