Guest: Jared Hales
Role: CoFounder/Green Buyer at Hacea Coffee Source
Buy Green Coffee Online: https://haceacoffee.com/collections/green-coffee
Coffees available from Hacea now:
Costa Rica from Hacienda Sonora
Mexico from Finca Nuevo Mexico
Ethiopia including Yirgacheffe Aricha Adorsi G1 Washed and Guji Shakiso Gigesa G1 Natural
Gesha Village They are now taking pre-orders for rare gesha coffees from Gesha Village in Ethiopia! Only a few more 30kg boxes are available for pre-order.
EDITOR’S NOTE: After a short (and yet too long hiatus), Coffee Smarter is back! We tested out having two education pods (Coffee Smarter and CS Pro), but we’re bringing it back into one thread. It turns out our pro listeners still liked hearing what advice was going out on having a better coffee experience, and our at-home listeners were interested in the inner workings of hospitality.
It’s a win-win for us all as we have a more well-rounded understanding of how others engage with the industry. We’ll be airing more regular Coffee Smarter content in bite-sized increments to encourage listeners to go further down the rabbit hole.
Follow Coffee Smarter on your preferred podcast platform, like, perhaps, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Our guest this week is Jared Hales of Hacea Coffee Source. He has long been a resource for this podcast. I’ll note that I don’t pay him to appear. He does it because he enjoys sharing the experience he’s gleaned over a decade plus buying and selling green coffee. He’s a coffee nerd in the best way.
I have this problem where I live in a Southern Cali apartment built over a garage that wasn’t built square (or to code, for that matter). Every surface tilts a little bit at different angles. The wall my coffee setup is on dips toward the sunrise in the east.
I asked Jared how important it was to have a level surface on which to brew my morning coffee. The concern is that the water will seek out the path of least resistance through the coffee bed, perhaps, missing some of the coffee, leading to an uneven extraction with some beans over and some under-extracted.
An uneven extraction can lead to a muddy or even sour taste at the extreme. If your counter or the place you’re brewing is close to level (but not perfect), you may not notice much difference. If you live in a formerly illegal guest house built over a garage on the sly, you may want to put a little more effort into leveling out your brewing space. I took a short level to my Simply Good Brewer and added some D.I.Y. levelers underneath, i.e., torn-off bits of a cardboard box.
Do you want to start a fight in a coffee shop? Ask a group of baristas the best way to pour water into their v60s. You’ll receive a litany of answers, which are probably all right and all wrong, depending on the person, the goal, and the coffee.
Scientists have tested extractions, and other podcasters (shout out Filter Stories with James Harper*) have explored this topic in serious depth. I don’t see a lot of consensus other than you can find someone who’ll justify whichever position you take. I am trying not to take myself too seriously as an at-home barista. For now, I’m sticking with my tried and true, pour into the middle first and then move into a rotational pour after the bloom. If I’m feeling a bit wild, I’ll switch between clockwise and counterclockwise pours.
Clicking these scale links IS NOT part of any affiliate marketing effort.
Finally, the scale. For 10 bucks, you can get a simple kitchen scale that measures down to the gram. That’s probably good enough for most of you. I use a Greater Goods coffee scale that was about $35 on sale. If you’re deep down in the rabbit hole, you’ll start to look at scales that measure to the tenth or even hundredth of a gram, and your price point will jump to that $50 minimum range. The Hario v60 Drip Scale is a good example. With precision and more features, the price can go much higher. The Acaia Lunar scale will set you back about $250.
It may be worth it if you’re engaging in a coffee career or enjoying experimenting with the science of coffee. Some coffee scales come with built-in timers, which is a cool add-on. I’m always looking for my phone to use the stopwatch, but the most important feature to me is water resistance, if not outright waterproof. I’m a spiller. The more I try not to spill, the more our kitchen turns into the Little League field after a hard rain. Just puddles everywhere.
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The next Hacea Coffee Source class (and the first up in Portland) is coming up fast. Spots are limited. Makes for a great date if you’re with a coffee-loving partner—just saying. Click the photo for more details.
This video is a vibe…
ROAST! INDUSTRY PARTNERS
A huge, on-going thank you to all of this show’s industry partners.
Click these links!
Roastar • Zumbar Coffee & Tea • Steady State Roasting • Mostra Coffee • Coffee Cycle • Camp Coffee Company • Ignite Coffee Company • Ascend Coffee Roasters • Marea Coffee • Cape Horn Green Coffee • Hacea Coffee Source • Crossings Coffee • Acento Coffee Roasters • Sivitz Roasting Machines • Craft 42 Roasters • Me and My Uncle Coffee Roasters
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