our friends rob & ellen recently sent us a gift box from intelligentsia with a bag of fresh roasted coffee and two mugs! we had never tried intelligentsia before, at least that we are aware of, so we were excited. it was a very tasty, smooth cup of coffee, especially brewed with our chemex. we were quite impressed!

on a related note, we’ve upgraded our coffee brewing setup over the last few months. our electric tea kettle was on the fritz, so we got the new variable temperature kettle from bonavita. it’s the perfect companion for pour-over coffee brewers and tea lovers alike. it has a gooseneck spout for easy pouring and the kettle offers complete temperature control for ideal brewing settings. there is also a hold feature to keep your water hot throughout the brewing process, or if you plan on having another cup of tea. basically, it’s pretty awesome!

for christmas we also upgraded our grinder, which was on its last legs as well. we went with a conical burr style from capresso. it actually grinds the beans instead of chopping them, preserving aroma and flavor. the grinder is also extremely quite and super easy! you just set the fineness (from coarse to turkish fine), turn the knob to the amount of cups you want and it does the rest. for our chemex setup, we stick with a coarse grind, which you can see in the below photo.

– ryan

the 2012 batdorf & bronson holiday blend is now available at dancing goats! it’s a great dark, spicy coffee for those cold winter mornings.

– ryan

dancing goats coffee bar

419 west ponce de leon ave
decatur, ga 30030
404-687-1100

happy thanksgiving! we decided to stay in atlanta and spend our first thanksgiving with just the four of us at home this year. this also meant we had to come up with a thanksgiving meal! to make things a little easier, we ordered an oven-roased turkey from the mercantile, which was amazing! mercantile is a local sandwich/prepared meal spot right down the road. our friends were super generous and made tasty sides for us (and delivered them). we made our own gravy and mashed potatoes, but other than that, we just enjoyed a fun day with grey and clem. we were definitely pampered!

we started the day with some coffee, our traditional breakfast casserole and the macys day parade! we thought it was pretty cool to see a maces commissioned kaws float in the parade! coincidentally, both of our families have been making the same breakfast casserole on holidays since we were kids. clementine was a big fan as well!

happy holidays!

– ryan & gub

the mercantile

1660 deKalb avenue northeast #150
atlanta, ga 30307
404-378-0096

breakfast casserole recipe:

ingredients:
6-8 slices bread
1 lb sausage (ground or link)
8 oz shredded cheese
6 eggs beaten
2 cups milk (or half ‘n half)

directions:
– preheat oven to 350 and grease 9″ x 13″ baking dish
– break up bread (remove crust if desired) and spread throughout baking dish
– brown sausage, drain well and spoon over bread slices
– spread shredded cheese over sausage & bread
– combine eggs & milk, mix well and pour over cheese
– cover and chill over night
– remove from fridge 15 minutes before baking
– bake uncovered @350 for 45 minutes or until golden brown
– serves eight

starbucks recently introduced their new line of light roasted coffees called blonde. this is something many smaller roasters have been offering for awhile, so i was intrigued to see how starbucks would compete.

basically, there are certain coffee beans that reach their ideal flavor at a shorter and/or cooler roasting time, hence the term light roasted. the result is a lighter bodied coffee that tastes crisp and clean with a bit milder flavor. it’s easier to over-roast coffee beans though, to ensure potential bad flavors are burnt out, so most companies roast everything really dark. it’s also not as cost-effective to separate the ripe beans for a lighter roast, so you don’t see many options outside of specialty coffee shops.

light roasted coffee often gets a bad wrap for not being very strong or being too mellow, however this is definitely not the case. most people don’t realize that a light roasted coffee actually has more caffeine than a dark roast. beans lose their caffeine the more they are roasted, so a light roast packs more punch then a dark one. it makes sense, but you always hear people requesting a dark cup of coffee when they need to stay awake.

light roasted coffees are also very flavorful, especially when brewed through a chemex or a french press. they are just more subtle when compared to a dark coffee like a french roast. you will still pick up fruity, nutty or even chocolaty notes in your coffee though.

so far starbucks has a willow blend and a veranda blend in the blonde line-up. i’ve tried both and really enjoyed them! i don’t think i’ll switch from my locally-roasted batdorf & bronson when buying nice coffee, but i’ll grab some more if it goes on sale again.

did you know you get a free cup of coffee at starbucks when you bring in your empty starbucks coffee bag? sounds like a pretty good recycling program to me! i noticed the offer on the bottom of the blonde coffee i purchased.

– ryan

after my recent tour of the batdorf & bronson roastery, i went on a quest to brew a better cup of coffee. i learned on the tour that there are many factors that go into a good cup of joe. these range from the quality and freshness of the coffee, to using the proper ratio of grounds/water, to hitting the ideal brewing temperature of 205°. the problem is most consumer coffeemakers never reach such high temperatures. for that, you need a hand-brewed method where you are in full control and as much as i love my french press, it sounded like a pour over coffeepot was the way to go.

after a little research, i decided on the stylish chemex coffeepot. it’s both a great coffeemaker and a beautiful piece of design, even 70+ years after its creation. plus it only set me back $31.95 at dancing goats in decatur. i did have to buy special chemex filters for it, but they were just $5.95 for a 100 pack, which wasn’t that bad.

for my inaugural pot, i picked up some nice costa rica la minita del sol coffee. the description on the bag was “full bodied & sparkling sweet, maple, almond & orange juice,” which sounded interesting. the beans were 100% sun dried instead of fully washed, like most central american beans, so it’s supposed to be fairly unique.

the brewing process was pretty easy to follow. i put a chemex filter into the top of the coffeepot and added a tbsp of freshly ground coffee for each 5 oz cup, 8 tbsp for a full pot. i boiled 40 oz of water and removed it from heat for roughly 20 seconds until it reached ~205°. i then wet the grounds with 4 oz of water and let “bloom” for 30-40 seconds. from there i added the rest of the water, making sure not to overflow, and composted the spent grounds. voilà, the perfect cup of coffee!

the results were definitely worth the effort! the coffee had that fresh, strong taste you get from a french press, but seemed cleaner and less-bitter since the oils and sediment were filtered out. it was a nice, crisp cup of coffee where I could actually distinguish some of the descriptive characteristics. i wouldn’t say i sensed the orange juice, but i picked up some sweet and nutty elements, especially when sampled next to a cup of french roast. it was some of the better coffee i’ve made at home!

on top of that, the actual coffeepot is gorgeous and looks great on the countertop! it’s on permanent display at moma and was featured in the modern by design exhibit at the high museum of art, further proving its elegance.

for more thorough brewing instructions, or to check out some great mid-century illustrations, head to the chemex website. there are also some slightly different brewing instructions offered from dancing goat, although i tried this method and didn’t care for it. it used almost twice the coffee and was a little strong for my taste.

enjoy!

– ryan

dancing goats coffee bar

419 west ponce de leon ave
decatur, ga 30030
404-687-1100

my brother and i went on a great scoutmob tour of the batdorf & bronson roastery. i learned quite a bit about brewing & roasting coffee, its history, and by the end of the tour i could actually taste the difference between a sumatra and a costa rican cup of coffee. talk about a fun tour!

i’m a big fan of dancing goats, which is batdorf & bronson’s coffee shop in decatur, so i enjoyed getting a behind-the-scenes look at atlanta’s best roaster. it was definitely a smaller production than i pictured. they only have three people who do the roasting and they still bag and label all of their coffee by hand.

the tour also included a mug, freshly roasted coffee, and a slice of mocha pie from the pie shop. the pie was made with cacao atlanta chocolate & batdorf coffee and was pretty much the best thing ever!

a cool side note, batdorf takes donations for their used burlap coffee bags. the money goes directly to the coffee farmers and the bags, which have great designs, can be re-used for all sorts of fun projects. it’s a win-win for everyone involved! i picked up an el indio bag, see the photo below.

– ryan

dancing goats coffee bar

419 west ponce de leon ave
decatur, ga 30030
404-687-1100