By Isabella Vitaliano, Lab & Education Coordinator Edwin Noreña is an agro-industrial engineer, biotechnologist, and coffee producer based in Colombia. It’s an impressive list of attributes and the coffees he produces follow suit. His strict academic background is contrasted with his...
Blending Water Some Important Math to Help You Mix Waters of Different TDS Tasting Room Director Sandra Elisa Loofbourow and I recently ran into a difficult problem to solve at the Crown, and wanted to share some of the work it took to figure out how to mix two different waters to achieve a...
Comparing Common Coffee Brewers - Part II By Nate Lumpkin, Crown Barista As you all know, everything’s closed down for a little while to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, and the Crown is doing its part by staying closed. In the meantime, I have a lot of time on my hands. I’ve been curious...
How To: Brewing Coffee at Home Without A Scale By Bolor Erdenebat, Crown Barista As a barista working at a well equipped café, I can’t imagine myself brewing or pulling an espresso shot without a scale. It tells us exactly how much water and coffee we are using, and it enables us to be consistent...
Making Iced Coffee At Home By Nate Lumpkin, Crown Barista The good news is that cold coffee is extremely easy to make, even if you have limited tools and equipment. Here are a couple methods you can use to make cheap, delicious, and easy cold coffee at home. FRENCH PRESS Of all the kinds of...
By Nate Lumpkin, The Crown Barista As you all know, everything’s closed down for a little while to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, and the Crown is doing its part by staying closed. In the meantime, I have a lot of time on my hands. I’ve been curious about all the different drippers and...
The Problem with Plastic (and single use cups) Part I: Our Plastic Reality I am lucky enough to know some real, sweat-and-blood environmental activists, or environmental warriors. These are people who live zero-waste and plastic-free lifestyles, who organize beach clean-ups, protest for water...
Editors note: A version of this article first appeared as a two-part series in Barista Magazine Online on September 15 and September 18, 2018. By Sandra Elisa Loofbourow Lately, I’ve been writing about how people dress up their coffee in various parts of the world, as well as how people consumed...
Editors note: A version of this article first appeared as a two-part series in Barista Magazine Online on September 15 and September 18, 2018. By Chris Kornman & Sandra Elisa Loofbourow Part I - Green Coffee Extract was the First Wave By Chris Kornman In Yemen’s port of Aden around the middle...
There is a wealth of diversity in the way people prepare and consume coffee around the world. The cultural exchange that comes out of international interaction, and especially out of colonization, creates new traditions like Café de Olla, a Mexican beverage I’ve written about previously. These new...
Editors note: A version of this article first appeared as a two-part series in Barista Magazine Online on August 7 and August 14, 2018. For a limited time, you can enjoy our version of this beverage at The Crown: Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room Café de Olla: Native to Mestizo Mexico In many...
Last month I spent a few weeks playing with the rate of extraction, and came up with some interesting findings. Notably, I learned that the majority of extraction happens within the first 90 seconds of brewing; by that point most of the solids that are going to wash out of the coffee bean and into...
Hang up your hats and tie up those high horses, the great caffeine debate can be put to rest. All roasts are created equal. That's right. Under normal circumstances an 8oz cup of light roast has about the same amount of caffeine as the same serving of dark roast. Ready to dive down the rabbit...
What really happens during extraction? There are some things we know, and some things that are still a little muddled. This week I did a few experiments in hopes of tightening up our understanding of how extraction works. What we know about extraction: We know that water is an excellent solvent....
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in Daily Coffee News on June 26, 2017. In many cases, a roaster will make choices about heat application based on final, intended use. An espresso roast will differ significantly from a drip roast based on known effects on the final flavor profile....
