Home Espresso & Brian Setzer

Let’s start off with a few tips for home espresso machines. In my experience these are the golden rules if you seriously want to have a cafe standard espresso experience at home:

1. Purchase an espresso machine that has a proper heat exchange boiler. Brands such as Isomac, Expobar &  ECM are where it’s at for home use. Prices start from about $2,000.
2. Purchase as a minimum standard a grind-on-demand adjustable conical blade grinder such as Isomac Professionale where prices start from $260.
3. Get some basic barista training by doing a course where you will learn about grinding, dosing, tamping, extraction etc and will then understand what’s going on and how to adjust for it. Learn also how to steam milk properly and then practice, practice, practice!
4. Purchase locally roasted coffee and make sure it’s at least 7 days old before you use it for espresso. Too fresh can be as bad as too stale.
5. Use your coffee within 14 days unless it’s properly sealed & stored in a cool, dry place.
6. CLEAN YOUR MACHINE & GROUP HANDLES every few days using a good quality detergent such as Cafetto Espresso Clean. Also regularly back-flush throughout the day using a blind filter.
7. Just because you only make a few coffees a day does not mean you do not need to clean regularly, in fact quite the opposite! Do not leave handles sitting in the group head with old spent coffee grounds in it for hours, and even days!
8. Always run some water through the boiler before you put the handle on and start the new extraction. Heat exchange units build up heat if they have not been used for a few minutes, especially if the handle is left on. Running some water will bring the temp down closer to the correct level (about 92C).
9. Repeat: Work hard on your milk steaming skills.
10. Practice, practice and practice again!

Brian Setzer

One of my favourite rock guitarists in terms of skill level is Brain Setzer, best known as front man of 80’s rockabilly outfit The Stray Cats and later the Brian Setzer Orchestra. He is an excellent exponent of rock and roll/blues/rockabilly/jazz guitar and has influenced many of today’s rock guitarists most notably Chris Cheney from Australia band The Living End (who incidentally started off as a Stray Cats covers band called Runaway Boys after a Stray Cats hit!)

Brian pretty much exclusively plays Gretch hollow-bodied electric guitars and has an impressive collection as can be seen here.

Born in New York, Brian formed the Stray Cats in January 1980. In an unusual move singer and lead guitarist Setzer, drummer ‘Slim Jim’ Phantom (born James McDonnell) and bassist Lee Rocker (born Leon Drucker) decided in June 1980 to go to London, England where they believed people would better appreciate their sound and style.

To get the money for their plane tickets, Brian, Lee and Jim went to Sam Ash Music on 48th Street to sell their instruments and gear to the store, and rather than negotiating simply sold all of their equipment for just enough money for three one-way plane tickets. Upon their arrival, they decided to call themselves the “Stray Cats”, a name suggested by Rocker because of their status as ‘strays’. After performing for only a few months they drew the attention of British producer Dave Edmunds and released a series of successful singles in the UK, which countered the already-entrenched punk scene in London with the simpler, stripped down rockabilly sound, which immediately caught on with the youth.

After releasing several singles and two albums in England, the Stray Cats finally caught America’s attention with the 1982 album Built for Speed, which included the two Top Ten hits, “Rock This Town” (#9) and “Stray Cat Strut” (#3). This album was basically a re-release of many of the songs from the two previous albums: the self-titled “Stray Cats” and “Gonna Ball” (they have never been released in America). Their follow-up 1983 album Rant ‘N Rave with the Stray Cats included the two successful singles: “(She’s) Sexy + 17″ (#5), and “I Won’t Stand In Your Way” (#35).[i]

My personal favourites are the very English punk-centric Rumble in Brighton (note excellent 1981 live version here, also hair and tatts – well before they were fashionable) and Runaway Boys. The Stray Cats lasted just 4 years and split in 1984.

In the mid-1990s Setzer once again resurrected an older form of youth-oriented music, swing and jump blues music, when he formed The Brian Setzer Orchestra, an ambitious 17-piece ensemble project, which released four studio albums, a Christmas disc and several live releases between 1994 and 2002. His group’s biggest success (and Setzer’s outside the Stray Cats) came in 1998 with the release of the album The Dirty Boogie which cracked the top ten on the US album charts and featured a hit single, a cover of Louis Prima‘s “Jump, Jive and Wail“.

Now I’m not a big rock ‘n roll or even rockabilly music fan by any means, I do however admire the guitar skills of this genre and genuinely wish I could play the guitar solos they do with any skill level. It’s old-fashioned but warms the heart when it’s played well….

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[i] Source: Wikipedia

Everything Old is New Again

Latest Coffee Trend (Just Rewind The Clock)

Siphon or Vacuum brewing is undergoing an amazing renaissance. Early last century, long before the advent of modern espresso machines, vacuum brewing was very common worldwide. Today it is has remained popular in SE Asia. In countries such as Taiwan, Korea, Thailand and Japan you will find vacuum coffee bars with rows of vacuum machines in constant service. Try a cup of siphon coffee and you will immediately see why: for coffee lovers and connoisseurs the siphon brewer offers a cup of coffee of unparalleled flavour. It displays a clean crisp, sediment free brew that showcases the full range of flavours in the coffee.

Siphon Method

The beauty of the vacuum process is that the coffee is brewed by extended contact with water at exactly the right brewing temperature, the temperature is maintained throughout the process, and then the coffee is immediately separated from the grounds. Not only does it produce perfect coffee at the perfect temperature vacuum brewing is a joy to watch and coffee can be brewed right at the table.

Interested in trying/buying one? Visit our web site here.

Classic Weller

I am a massive Paul Weller fan. The Modfather, to me, can do no wrong musically-speaking (well maybe late Style Council, but we’ll pretend that never happened…..) As a guitarist & song writer he is a massive influence and I admire how he has evolved into his own skin both as a writer and as a man. In his youth he shamelessly wore his influences on his sleeve and many early Jam songs could have been written by Ray Davies, Pete Townsend etc. After The Jam came to abrupt but ultimately timely end in 1982 while at the top of their game, he formed The Style Council with Mick Talbot – a modern master of the Hammond B3 organ. Together they pushed the boundaries of modern cool and Our Favourite Shop is a masterpiece of song-writing for Weller which also tested and pushed his vocal abilities to new heights. Unfortunately towards the end of the 80’s Weller hit a massive song-writing rut and instead of laying low he produced Confessions of a Pop Group with the Council, a disaster that sealed their fate and may have contributed to his marriage breakup with D.C. Lee.

After a few years in the wilderness bands such as Oasis and Ocean Colour Scene turned to Weller as a mod inspiration and he reinvented himself as an elder statesman of Brit/Mod Pop – and with Paul only in his early 30s by this stage. His comeback solo album Paul Weller was a classic and the rest as they say is history.

One of the happiest moments of my life was seeing Weller perform in Newport, Wales two years ago. It was a small warm-up gig for Glastonbury where he played several Jam songs and it was a very intimate gig. The way he connects with the 35+ generation is awesome and the Poms certainly know how to sing along! A Town Called Malice went right off! A year later Weller finally toured Sydney 25 years after he came with The Style Council so I unexpectedly got a repeat dose of joy!

Paul Weller

Weller in the UK is a go-to man when the British music press want a controversial statement or two (much like Paul Keating in political media here). In 2006 Paul Weller reluctantly accepted a Lifetime Achievement award at the Brit Awards. Uncut Magazine asked him to comment on previous winners of this award and his responses were as expected – pure gold. I would like to share his comments completely unedited (beware those who are squeamish with bad language) for your reading pleasure below:

“I’ve Got You Sussed!” – Weller’s verdict on previous Brit lifetime award winners.

Bob Geldof (2005)

“What’d he win it for? Can’t be for his music, man. I mean, if it’s for his charity work in Africa you can’t knock it, but The Boomtown Rats? Fuck off.”

Tom Jones (2003)

“Tom’s cool man. I’d sooner see Tom win it than Bob fucking Geldof. Or Sir Bob, should I say.”

Sting (2002) The Police (1986)

“Fucking horrible, man. Not my cup of tea at all, Fucking rubbish. No edge, no attitude, no nothing. Wankers.”

U2 (2001)

“No. Never liked them. The whole thing of Bono becoming the Pope, what the fuck’s that all about? Pseudo-American rubbish.”

Fleetwood Mac (1998)

“I’ve got ‘Albatross’ on my jukebox, but that was a different fucking band. I ain’t having fucking Tusk and all that bollocks – that’s what punk was against.”

The Bee Gees (1997)

“Good songwriters. But grown men on helium, it’s not good.”

David Bowie (1996)

No. Wrong! I like about three records of his. Low, Hunky Dory, Can’t Help Thinking About Me. The rest is pish.”

Van Morrison (1994)

“Well, y’know, Van’s a top boy, isn’t he?”

Rod Stewart (1993)

“Never been a fan, mate. I like some of The Faces stuff. I prefer Ronny Lane’s songs…. always more soulful.”

Freddie Mercury (1992) Queen (1990)

“ Nah (laughs). Wrong! He said he wanted to bring opera to the working classes. What a c***.”

Status Quo (1991)

“I’ve got a lot of time for the Quo. Straight-haired, no bollocks….”

Eric Clapton (1987)

“Not for me, mate. Bluesbreakers is good, but I prefer BB King, y’know…. Buddy Guy. I prefer the source. He’s too bland for me….

“So is that it? That’s the list? Reads like the fucking kiss of death. See, I’m having second thoughts already!”

As I said, pure gold, my friends…… until next time! Dave

STOP PRESS!! As I write this Paul Weller announces new touring dates for Australia in October!

The Third Wave

New roasting companies in the coffee industry are always looking for a point of difference to get the media and public interested in their product. In the last couple of years we have had the revival of “old brewing” technology such as filter and syphon technologies. These technologies are nothing new, but have been “re-discovered”, by astute roasters with impressive media marketing skills.

The latest, and most exciting development, is the so-called 3^rd Wave of coffee roasters appearing in Melbourne and Sydney right now. The 2^nd wave of roasters such as ourselves, Toby’s, Campos etc started the evolution and now these guys are taking what we started in the late 90’s to the next level. So what are they doing?

We’ll I guess typically of Gen Y’s they have first of all embraced the latest cutting-edge espresso machine technology and cost appears is no object. Using several Synesso, Slayer or Mistral espresso machines (some costing well over $20,000 each) and equally top notch conical grinders they offer consumers single origin beans which are often directly sourced from farms. There is also the trend now to roast quite lightly so customers can truly experience the characteristic of the variety being brewed.

Now don’t get me wrong. I think this is fantastic for the industry and will once again raise the bar just as we did ten years ago. The other positive is that this new espresso machine technology will eventually start to become standard and just like other new technology the cost will fall as competition increases. Direct Trade will also start to make the whole Fair Trade issue fairly redundant if enough roasters world-wide support this. However it will come at a cost to the end user. You can’t have fair prices without a flow down cost the end-user. Will consumers baulk with their consciousness when retail high-end roasted coffee prices start to approach $100/kg?

The other issue I see is that most consumers will have trouble appreciating many of the single origin coffees presented to them especially when made as espresso without a developed palate. There is a reason why we study blending and vary our roasting levels. Blending gives balance to a coffee for espresso. Plunger or filter in my opinion is much closer to cupping for truly appreciate a coffee’s individual characteristics at different roast levels.

Over the last three days I just visited Melbourne and went to many of the roasters I know and admire down there and also visited many of the new 3^rd Wave roasters such as St Ali, Market Lane, Seven Seeds, and the East Brunswick Project. Without fail all the 3^rd Wave roasters fell into the trap of using beans that were too freshly roasted for espresso (often one or two days old). The brightness was very sharp and while I could appreciate the characteristics of the origins presented I would feel that many punters would not. However the atmosphere and hip buzz of these places seems to cloud people’s objective judgments and the “keeping up with the hip crowd” effect surely kicks in.

Another thing is that these espresso machines need very experienced baristas to operate them well as they are actually very manual, and while they give you great control and you need to really understand what you are doing. More often than not in a busy cafe situation they will be slow and laborious or just produce very average espresso. They seem to me to be better suited to a lab situation than a pumping cafe at this stage where consistency is the key.

So which was my favourite coffee roaster in Melbourne? Once again, it was an old favourite of mine, Atomica Caffe in Brunswick St, Fitzroy. To me this is my version of a perfectly roasted and balanced espresso coffee, beautifully made and quickly delivered to our table.

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Speaking of the 3^rd Wave Johnny Marr continues to amaze me with his versatility and staying power as a modern-day rock guitarist. I was just 14 when I first heard The Smiths and a 20 year old Marr with his amazing guitar work on tracks such as This Charming Man, How Soon is Now? and Queen is Dead. Now playing with The Cribs he continues to delight with his touch and while he is playing with much younger guys in the band he always seems to fit right in and contribute to the band’s success.

Since The Smiths he has played with Electronic, The The, The Pretenders, Neil Finn’s Seven Worlds Collide projects, his own great band and my personal favourite The Healers (which showed his vocal ability as well)  - also note Zac Starkey (Ringo’s son on drums in the linked film clip), Modest Mouse and now The Cribs. I’m sure I may have missed one or two bands but while he may seem like a “gun for hire” he is always actually part of the band and without fail part of their success.

He inspired my guitar playing without doubt, but while I lack his skill I did learn the power of overlaying riffs to create an amazing aural experience. In an early interview I remember seeing a chain-smoking and anxious looking Marr talking about how he never went anywhere without his 4-track cassette recorder. When the riff came into his mind he overlaid it then and there and created many of The Smiths songs in this manner. You will notice in most Smiths live concert footage that there is always a second guitarist playing the overlaying riffs to try and get close to the recorded version – they never however in my opinion managed it that well live (see 3. below).

My favourite Johnny Marr guitar moments are:

The Smiths (songs):

1. How Soon is Now?
2. Queen is Dead
3. What Difference Does it Make?
4. Big Mouth Strikes Again
5. This Charming Man

The The – Mind Bomb (album) (1989)

Johnny Marr and The Healers – Boomslang (album)(2003)

Want to know or see more: http://johnny-marr.com/index.php

So Who Am I to Judge?

For the last two days I have been locked away in a room at the RAS Showgrounds in Sydney judging the Espresso Class for the Fine Food Sydney Coffee Competition for 2010 with my fellow judges.  Its an honour to be asked once again and to be in the same room as some coffee industry legends, no one Joe Public would probably have heard of, but specialists who really know their stuff and have been tasting coffees for generations as importers and merchants.

I will post my tasting/judging experiences here next week (although I cannot tell you any of the winners until its officially announced under fear of certain death)  Today, however, I thought it may be interesting to try and demystify the world of “cupping” coffee and try to explain what we look for when we do sample a coffee.

Let’s start with the tongue map.  When we say something is sweet, bitter, sour or astringent its obvious isn’t it?   Maybe it is as if we are tasting sugar, salt or a lemon.   What about coffee and tea, is it so obvious to judge acidity, body and bitterness?    Are any of these features in singularity necessarily a bad thing?   Remember its about balance.  Chefs often use opposing flavours to balance a dish (acidity with sweetness etc)  It’s also about understanding the origin of the coffee and appreciating its unique offering and respecting that.

Tongue Map

What about when we describe hints of vanilla, blueberry etc etc…. are we just being coffee wankers?   The funny thing is though when you read the description on a wine label or a coffee label you often go “hey, you know there is a vanilla taste about it”.  The thing is while we can easily recognise flavours when prompted it takes a a lot of practice for your brain to instantly recognise and label subtle flavour profiles without prompting.  You need to train your brain, so to speak, and this comes with time, patience, mentoring and to an extent, some degree of natural ability.

So what is the tongue map?  Today scientists have found that the textbook tongue maps are misleading.  Although they generally indicate where we perceive sweet, sour, salt, and bitter, the maps are not conclusive.  In fact, we can perceive flavours all over our tongue and each persons tongue is different.

Understanding your tongue is relatively simple.  This might sound a bit weird but this is the way I was taught.  Get some sugar, citric acid, salt, and tonic water.  Dilute each sample and paint your tongue in small sections with these solutions using a small tipped paintbrush.  Start with the regions other than those indicated on the textbook tongue maps.  For instance, determine where on the tongue you can perceive the sugar solution other than the tip of your tongue.  The tip of the tongue will be the most sensitive region, but you may be able to perceive aspects of sugar in other places.  Next, experiment with various concentrations and compare your results with other people.  It is essential to obtain an understanding of your perception ability.

Once you are able to identify each of the components you have effectively mapped your tongue and trained yourself to be able to approach much more complex systems such as coffee.  By using the maps you create for your tongue, understanding your perception ability, and understanding how flavours interact you are more apt to describe coffee accurately.

So lets start with acidity in coffee.  Is it a good thing, or is it a bad thing in coffee?

Coffee acidity is typically a highly valued quality especially in Central American and some East African coffee.  Sourness, however, is an extreme form of acidity and can be considered a coffee defect.  Acidity has been correlated with coffees grown at very high altitudes and in mineral rich volcanic soils.  The perceived acidity of washed coffees is also significantly higher than the acidity found in naturally (dry) processed coffee.  This is likely due to an increase in the body of naturally processed coffees relative to wet processed coffees since body masks the acidity in coffee.  The coffee acid content in a brew is also greatly dependent upon the coffee roasting degree, type of roaster, and brewing method.

Our Roaster’s Reserve coffee is an excellent example of taking the naturally high acidity of a high grown Kenyan coffee and balancing it out with the sweetness of an estate grown Brazil coffee.

I would certainly be interested to hear from people in other industries and haring how they went about learning to train their palates in order to refine their tasting skills for their particular food or beverage.

So no music talk today but don’t worry I have plenty of ideas

Currently I am in the early stage of setting up my new musical project for 2010.  Not sure if I can pull it off though as its a planned recording of re-interpretations of David Sylvian songs, a musician I greatly admire and respect for his constant ability to have challenged himself across many different musical genres over the last 30 years.  Any song suggestions or musicians wanting to collaborate are most welcome to get in touch with me via this post!

But for now its Ciao from me…..

Dave

Welcome to Coffee and Strings

Welcome one and all to my first BLOG! So, why the name “Coffee & Strings”? Well oddly enough coffee and music are the two great passions in my life, and remarkably I think that they are not such strange bedfellows! In fact, I believe that coffee and music go quite hand in hand. The name of the BLOG is inspired by one of my favourite moves Coffee & Cigarettes by Jim Jarmusch. One particular scene where Tom Waits & Iggy Pop “talk the talk” over some lousy looking coffee has always stuck in my memory!

So, what can you expect from this BLOG? OK. On the coffee side I will talk about coffee origins and crops, discuss roasting techniques and cupping analysis of new coffee origins and blends. I will also occasionally go off on tangents and talk about the countries of origin, fair trade issues and sustainability.

On the music side I will probably focus on my favourite guitarists as the guitar is my instrument of choice.  We will discuss some of my favourite guitar riffs, songs, albums and have fun discussing our High Fives of various categories (High Fidelity anyone J)! Any suggested topics will be more than welcome and the idea is to generate discussion amongst like minded individuals!

So who am I?

Gosh, if only I really knew…. Well I started Bay Coffee as a small independent coffee roaster in 1997 in Sydney’s Neutral Bay. Our objective, then as it still is now, was to provide high quality hand-roasted coffees to the good people of Sydney and beyond and open their palates to new and exciting coffee origins and blends. Other coffee brands have come after us and grown into monster coffee brands pushing this same ethos. We have stayed true to our ethics and focused on small hand-batch roasting and have always delivered the best possible product to our retail customers and small stable of wholesale customers too. And by the way, were always looking for new cafe operators to “spread the Bay Coffee love”!

Musically I see myself primarily as a guitarist these days but in the late 80s & 90s played in bands in and around Sydney as a singer/guitarist and song writer. I don’t perform a great deal these days – only for friends and family due to the rigours of running a business and having a young family as well. Also the lack of interest in live music in Sydney is tragic and I’m long over playing to 6 mates in a pub – might as well do that at home – no lugging gear all over the place that way!

I have a 1976 Gibson Explorer and a 1986 Fender Telecaster (Standard American). I also recently bought a new Maton CW80 acoustic which I just adore – I tried about 10 guitars before it and I know this was the one – it has such a special tone that suits my style of playing. I still use my ever reliable Boss ME5 effects units and a Peavey Bandit 50 watt amp. I also have an 8-track Tascam digital recorder. Oh, and my Hammond organ is the centrepiece  of my music studio here at home!

My favourite guitarists are Johnny Marr, The Edge, Carlos Alomar, Porl Thompson and Ed O’Brien. Fellow guitarists will see a pattern there. They are all masters of effects driven guitar-playing, riff-layering and innovation in pushing the boundaries of sound with guitars and technology.

Over the coming weeks we’ll have fun talking about coffee and music and I hope to generate discussion, some debate and hopefully prove my theory that coffee and music are inextricably linked! Stay tuned!

Dave

baycoffee.com.au

linkedin.com/in/davidmrosa

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