Bloc 11 & Diesel Cafe

Every time I leave something, I realize how hard it is to come back. Whether it is a blog or a place or a person, there is something about leaving and coming back that makes me face something inside myself.

Right now, I am in Gent, Belgium where I have been for the past week and I know that when I return to Somerville, I await something that I cannot know.

Gent is one of the larger cities in Belgium, known for being a hub of bicycle racing, which is one of the reasons that I am here.  On Sunday, I watched professional bike racers race by cheered on as though they were baseball or football players in the US.  The streets were lined with enthusiastic fans and local bars were broadcasting commercial-free coverage of the Tour of Flanders.

In addition to watching bike racing, I have found myself eating, drinking, walking, and running through the cobble-lined streets.  Water runs through the city everywhere and the only way that I have managed to not get lost while running, has been to follow the water. 

While I have been enjoying the array of delicious beverages that Belgium has to offer (mostly beer), I have also been in pursuit of coffee and cafes.  There is an abundance of cafes many equipped with outdoor seating and ashtrays.  Right now, I am sipping a coffee that I ordered from the hotel bar made by the receptionist working the front desk.

Coffee in Belgium is nothing like coffee in the states.  It is all made one cup at a time and served like an americano (water and espresso mixed together).  While the coffee itself has not been anything spectacular, what caught my attention is how different cafe culture is here in Belgium.  No one, no one, walks around with a paper cup in hand.  If you order a coffee, they serve it to you in a matching cup and saucer, cream, sugar, and a chocolate or a wafer.  And it is at least $3 a cup.  People sit to drink their coffees.  There are no laptops in sight, there are people smoking cigarettes outside, and no one seems to be rushing anywhere.

For the time being, I am enjoying the quieter pace and appreciating the opportunity to slow down in the midst of a beautiful city.

Winter is a time of dormancy, but for coffee, it is a great time of year.  This fall, we saw a surge of vibrant African coffees from Rwanda, Ethiopia and Kenya.  And now we have coffees from the Pacific Region and in the past few weeks, we are seeing a wide array of Latin American Coffees from Peru and Columbia.  This week, we received samples of these two coffees from Columbia, both are new direct trade coffees from Intelligentsia.  Receiving samples, opening the box, removing the excess packaging, and revealing little red bags of new beans is like Christmas.  It is certainly a treat and a gift.

Tonight, we brewed the El Mirador and the Heliconias side by side to taste.  Aside from the beautiful names that roll off the tongue and the amazing fact that these two coffee varietals are from the same farm, what struck me as we gathered around to taste these coffees, was the smell.

Coffee has a certain aroma.  Even non-coffee drinkers can probably appreciate or at least recall waking up some morning and walking into a kitchen somewhere to the scent of freshly brewed coffee.  And while the smell of coffee is an important component to the enjoyment of a cup, it is usually just a part of the act, and the drinking of coffee is the emphasis of the experience.  Drinking coffee for me is a lot of things: ritual, caffeine, complement to food, pleasure, enjoyment, source of water, and part of my job.  I always smell coffee before I drink it.  Because it is a way that I enjoy the coffee and because my nose is in close proximity to the cup as I drink from it.

Scent and the relationship to taste is simple: in order to taste, we must be able to smell.  And in any scenario where we are trained to smell before we taste, we do.  But how often do we actually sniff something before we eat or drink it?  Tonight, as I took in the scent of these incredible coffees, something clicked.  That while I enjoyed tasting these coffees, I actually enjoyed the fragrance of them even more because the amazing smell reflected the quality of the coffee bean and the balance of a well-brewed cup.

Flowers, especially Heliconias, are like that.  Often in their stunning visual display, we are cued to appreciate what we see, but sometimes fail to get close enough to breath in their scent.

Coffee and cafe culture have lots of names and words, that have lost meaning.  As someone who works in a cafe, frequents lot of cafes, pays attention to what customers ask and say, I have noticed a trend toward language that does not communicate much.  "Small or large", "Light or dark", "House or dark", "Tall, Grande, Venti", none of these mean anything, mostly because every single cafe uses different standards. 

Tucker, my business partner and one of my best friends, often tells me that I am honest to the point of being rude.  While I am working on learning tact and different ways to get my point across, I hate saying things that I do not mean or things that don't seem to communicate anything.  I tend to be blunt and a little abrupt.  I am working on it…..And while I know that how we communicate about coffee will not change the world, my hope is that if we can communicate better, in general, we will all be a little closer to getting what we want. 

So, if you want to know what to look for in a cup, read on….
Here are a few important terms to consider when you want to know what your coffee will actually taste like:

Roast Level:
Cinnamon (Light)—>City (Light)—>Full City (Medium)—>Vienna (Medium)—>Italian (Dark)—>French (Dark)
Even this spectrum of roast levels is somewhat debated,  but the main point to know here is that how dark the coffee has been roasted will indicate a certain flavor profile.  Dark roasts are great because they offer a heavy body and richness, but will often lack the depth of a lighter roast.  What you taste in a dark roast is always the roast, not the bean itself.  After a certain point in the roasting process, you lose the acidity and gain body and flavors that come from the caramelization of the bean.  Lighter roasted coffees will allow for a deeper and wider range of flavors and bodies and allow for the acidity (the fruity high notes) of the bean to shine through.  The lighter roasted coffee can quickly highlight an imbalance, but it is only in a lighter roast that one can have that perfect balance of acidity,the sparkly tones, and the body.  Both are great and I like to start my morning with a lighter roast and end the day with a nice dark roast. 

Origin:
Where the coffee comes from is also an important indicator of how the coffee will taste.  All of our single origin coffees are roasted to a light or medium roast so that you can really taste the coffee.  We don't want to tell you what you will taste, but guaranteed, the range of flavors in a lighter roasted coffee will be greater than a dark roast.  Currently, between our two stores, we are fortunate to have coffee from Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Sumatra, Nicaragua and Honduras.  Come test your taste buds!

Blend:
While a really great single origin coffee does not need anything to enhance it, sometimes, combining great coffees can really deepen or intensify the flavor profile of a coffee.  Sometimes, it can really balance a coffee in a way that might make it more palatable or approachable.  Intelligentsia's Celebration Blend, for example, combines two of my favorite coffees: Ethiopia and Nicaragua to create a sweet, spicy, earthy fruity cup that is sooo easy to drink.

Brewing Method:
The biggest question is filtered or unfiltered?  Examples of unfiltered coffees are espresso, americanos, and french press.  The characteristics of these coffees are a very full body and a rich mouth feel.  Filtered coffees are coffees that have been brewed with the usage of a paper filter, which helps to keep the coffee particles out of your cup.  Filtered coffee tends to feel less dense and "cleaner".  Most cafes use some form of automated brewing of filtered coffee. 

There is no right or wrong answer here, but perhaps, we have peaked your interest to try something different?

 



The Chemex has been used to brew coffee for decades.  Locally manufactured in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, they are beautiful beaker-shaped glass carafes often seen with a wood collar and leather tie or with a glass handle like the one in the photos above. (The images are from our one year anniversary event at Bloc 11.) 

To me, the beauty of the Chemex comes in its simplicity, versatility, and end cup.  You only need hot water, filters, coffee, and a spoon.  Ideally, you would have a cup that you would pour the brewed coffee into, but that is more a luxury than a necessity.  The Chemex allows you to make a single cup of clean, filtered coffee consistently and without the bells and whistles of rivaling systems like the Clover.  Don't worry, though, Starbucks went ahead and bought the company so that no one else could buy a Clover.  I wonder if they would still be closing 600 stores if they focused on competing without monopolozing. 

So that you may actually learn something, here are some simple instructions for brewing a great cup of coffee. 
1.  First, you have to start with great coffee.  Come buy some from Diesel or Bloc 11!!!
2.  The grind is CRUCIAL for great coffee.  You can experiment with different particle sizes for your machine/brewing method.  Come talk to us and we can help you find the right grind setting.
3.  Consistency in your grind is important as well, so make sure that your grinder is in good shape or have your coffee ground at your local coffeeshop.  If you come to our cafes, we replace the burrs on our grinders very frequently!!!

So, here are some steps to follow for brewing a Chemex pot:

1.  Preheat Chemex pitcher if not already warm
2.  Wet square filter with water and place in Chemex with the three-fold side over spout.
3.  Measure six heaping tablespoons of beans or 1.8 oz. of ground coffee.  Again, make sure that the grind is right.
4.  Measure 8 oz of boiling water in a measuring cup and pour over grounds.  Watch the coffee "bloom" or puff up and agitate the grounds until the water has gone through the coffee.
5.  Pour the remaining 10 oz of hot water over the grounds, making sure to "scrape" the grounds down the side to match the lowered water level.
6.  Remove filter and serve in a preheated mug.  (Look at your filter and check to see if the grounds are nice and level in the filter.  You don't want to have coffee stuck on the sides of the filter)
7.  Drink and enjoy!!!!