Tag Archives: Melitta

How to use a Clever Dripper Properly.

Posted on by
Reply

 

The Clever Dripper is a piece of coffee brewing equipment that makes coffee via the immersion method. What that means is that the grounds of coffee are immersed in water for a given amount of time, then transferred to cup. The method of getting the water to the cup is what makes this “clever”. There is a plunger on the bottom that is pushed up (as opposed to down which is what you normally do with plungers) that allows the coffee to drain out into your cup. This method of brewing coffee is inexpensive and can produce a cup of coffee tailored to your tastes in a relatively short period of time. If you want a superbly good cup of coffee and don’t want to spend a fortune, this is the way to go. So you need a Clever Dripper. I bought mine from Buona Caffe. Sweet Maria’s is the main source for them I believe.

In addition you will need filters. There really is no replacement for Melitta filters, not that I have seen yet. You will need a Melitta #4. You can find these at your local grocery store in the “coffee” aisle. Yes there is a reason I used coffee in quotes. I have yet to meet a main line grocery store that sells whole bean freshly roasted coffee. They just don’t exist.

I won’t go into coffee here. Coffee beans are a subject all to themselves and have been covered ad nauseam elsewhere in this blog. But, grind up your favorite freshly roasted coffee beans. Oh snap, did I not go over grinders? Well there are two main types of grinders, burr and blade. Burr grinders are definitely preferred and tend to turn out more uniformly ground coffee. Uniform grind equals better extraction from the coffee which makes for a better cup of coffee. I don’t have a burr grinder yet but from what I hear Baratza produces a fine one. For their prices they should. Pat and John Curry owners and operators of Buona Caffe use some Cuisinarts that they swear by as perfectly decent. Since I have had their coffee and have seen their grind, I believe them. For myself I use the bladed Mr. Coffee that you can buy for between $20 and $25 just about anywhere you go. Now I never use very much coffee in it I keep the batches small. My grinder has a selection for Fine, Medium and Coarse and a timer functionality built in for how many cups of coffee you want to brew. I set it for fine and select 12 cups. Note, I weigh my coffee prior to putting in the grinder so their measurement for cups is really inconsequential. But if I use the 12 cup timer and set it to fine then I seem to get a good even grind out of it.

Once you have that you need a scale. This is important. Without the proper weight measurements nothing is going to go well. The scale you buy needs to be able to measure in grams and preferably have a tare function; unless of course you are a math nerd and like doing quick math in your head, then of course have at it. You can measure by weight or volume. Weight is far more accurate and the preferred method by far. Here is a scale that should more than suffice. With it you can measure in grams and use the tare function. This certainly makes it easier for me. You can get it at Target (which is where the link takes you) and you should not have a problem with that. Also as a side note, you will be able to get more accurate in your cooking or baking recipes. Besides, Alton Brown measures by weight so it should be good enough for the rest of us.

With that said weight needs to follow according to your taste and that will take some refinement. I started out with the recommended weights of 24 grams coffee to 384 grams water. For my own tastes this produced a watering unsatisfactory cup of coffee. So I went to the other side of the spectrum and did 240 grams water and 40 or 45 grams coffee. Okay, I don’t like coffee syrup. But I was narrowing it down. Eventually I wound up with 35g coffee to 340 to 350 grams water. This produces a cup of coffee I enjoy. Your measurements will vary based on what you like. I think the important part is for you to experiment and find that. Bear in mind folks, this will vary based on the type of coffee you are brewing. Different types of coffee have different flavor profiles that you can accentuate by altering the water and coffee ratio.

Now you have a Clever Dripper, coffee filters, water (filtered please, not purified), and coffee. Now you are armed and dangerous! Ok your coffee is not ground yet, good. Don’t grind just yet. Get your measuring vessel of choice out for your water, pop it on your scale (which is set for grams) and use the Tare function to zero it out, now measure out water and start it heating. How do you heat your water? I nuke it, otherwise your choice. Water should ideally be between 190 and 205 degrees fahrenheit. I find that if I heat up my chosen amount of water for four minutes it comes to a near boil which is about the right temperature range, not exact but about as close as I can get with my equipment. So now while my water is heating, I bust out the filter get it in the Clever and I get my coffee weighed out. I measure my coffee beans and grind. Once ground get it into the filtered Clever. There are a number of options at this point. You could prewet the top of the coffee to sort of form a tiny crust. The point of this is simple, you want to slow down the penetration of the coffee through the body of the coffee to allow the water time to fully saturate and immerse (see, an immersion brewing method!) itself in the coffee.

So my water is done, now I add it to the coffee, not all at once not in a rush. This is where you have to have some patience, but be aware grasshopper, your patience will be rewarded! Take your time, it should take you 45 seconds to a minute to get the water in. Once it is in, put the lid on top of the Clever (provided it came with a lid, earlier models did not, if you have one of these use a sandwich plate) and walk away, that’s right, leave. Set your egg timer (or if you have an iphone your pour over app, hope they have one for android) for two minutes, leave it alone till then. Once your timer goes off set timer for another two minutes. Ok now use a small whisk, NOT A FORK, and stir at the upper and mid levels for a few seconds then lid it, and walk away. Once your timer goes off again, place the clever on top of your preferred coffee drinking vessel and wait. This takes a minute or two for it to drain completely. If you are making coffee for yourself and your honey then watch closely so you don’t over do it and give them more coffee than you get!

It is that simple folks, that is a lot of words to describe a simple process. Over all it is about ten minutes to make a cup of coffee that makes the big coffee chains jealous and envious. With the varying regions of coffee and their associated flavor profiles, you can make yourself endless combinations. The bottom line is literally below.

Explore, experiment, enjoy.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Pre Brew Excitement

Posted on by
Reply

 

clever girls

Image by confusedbee via Flickr

So I got myself a Clever Dripper from Buona Caffe (pronounced Bona) at the Augusta Market on the River today. I have been wanting one of these for a while now. See here is the concept of the Clever Dripper, you can brew one cup of coffee at a minimum and let it steep for the right amount of time before pouring into coffee cup. With traditional drip coffee machines it gets tough to try to make a single cup of coffee, or VERY expensive for those Keurig machines. There is the single cup maker you can get from Melitta, I own one, but it does not steep, the coffee races through and you need to stand stirring it and micromanage water flow.

So the Clever Dripper’s beauty is the pressure plate at the bottom. Once the coffee has steeped for the per-requisite four minutes, just put it on a cup and coffee comes out. Really, how easy do you want it?

coffee filter

Image via Wikipedia

Ok second component Melitta’s #4 ( I know the picture is wrong) size filter cone, white. I know I hear you now white filters were bleached! Well not so quick. If you recall in a previous entry “What is the difference a filter makes?” we talked about that. Premium modern filters are no longer bleached, oxygen is used to whiten them. Some have stated that these are preferable as the brown filters can leave a cardboard smell or taste (cannot say I have ever eaten cardboard, though my attempts at baking may beg to differ) but you see what I am saying? Melitta is also a sponsor of American Forests organization. This seems to be a good outfit, we need to protect our forest because they don’t belong to just us. But I digress. Back to the coffee at hand…

Nicaraguan Maragalpa Selva Negra Estate from Buona (roasted day before I bought it, super fresh coffee!). I have reviewed this coffee previously in my article Fresh Roasted Goodness and I was not disappointed then though I had noted that I got the earthy tasted but not much else. As I opened the bag I got a good aromatic flood. I am trying to identify the smell but a descriptor is escaping me at the moment. Needless to say, it is wonderful. I am looking forward this later. When I was at the river market earlier I had a 16oz cup of it, I know that is a bit on the large side but my head was throbbing as I had no coffee yet in the day (it was approaching 9:30am and if you follow my twitter feed you will have seen I was up at 6am today). It was good, wonderful coffee. Well if I was going to brew this in my shiny new Clever Dripper then I needed to go get a scale.

my old analog food scale & new digital food scale

Image by Newbirth35 via Flickr

After shopping around a bit I did find a scale. I did not want to pay too much, I do have a budget afterall. I got a scale for not too much, it has a tare function and can weigh in grams. So later this afternoon after I have gently washed the Clever I will give it a whirl. I will post a review of the results!

Enhanced by Zemanta

What is the difference a filter makes?

Posted on by
Reply

I don’t know about you but I had no idea there was such a variety of filters for coffee before I started to “get into coffee”. You know what, they can make a difference too. Paper, plastic, glass, metal and cloth filters will keep you brewing. But what does it all mean?

The purpose of the filter is to keep the grounds out of the coffee you are drinking. Depending on the filter you choose not only will they do that but they will also keep aromatics and essential oils out of the coffee. So filters have a dark side and more important to the cup of coffee you brew.

Paper filters

Let us start with the most common filter out there, paper. Who knew this but this morning I saw some information about bamboo filters. What? Bamboo? Well think about it. You can make a paper out of bamboo as it is a plant material and it is probably the fastest growing plant in the world and one of the fastest growing organism on earth. It would take very little effort to regrow the bamboo. Cudos to Melitta.

directly scanned filterpaper

Image via Wikipedia

 

Paper filters are recyclable 100% of the time, great composting material with the grounds, nothing goes to waste. Paper filters come in different shapes and thicknesses to accommodate different brewing methods. Paper filters usually come in a white or brown. The white filters used to be bleached to achieve the color but are mostly processed using oxygen to get the color without the bleach. The natural brown unbleached filters are just that natural. It has been stated that the unbleached filters can impart a wet cardboard flavor on the coffee. Paper filters are probably the most notorious for keeping out essential oils and aromatics and will typically produce coffee with less body.

Cloth filters

Cloth filters, they can last you months with proper cleaning and care. Any guess as to why they are not popular? Yep, you guessed it cleaning and care. Cloth will let through more of the essential oils resulting in a better cup of coffee however.

Plastic filters

I think these most commonly come with French Press coffee makers. Many of these come with a nylon filter. When searching on the web I have seen pictures of plastic cone filters for that style of coffee makers. This is just not good. It won’t stop oils or aromatics but, personally I would be afraid of it melting. Just don’t trust it, and we need less plastic in this world, not more. We are talking about the filter, I looked up plastic coffee filters and I saw a pictures of pour over coffee cone holders. Those are fine as long as you understand their limitations (why the clever dripper is so vastly superior to them). These pour overs are not filters. Not much can be said about plastic that bears repeating when it comes to coffee filters and drip machines. If you bought a drip coffee machine that comes with a reusable plastic filter as a feature, return immediately. That being said I haven’t seen one in a store, they are always the paper filter, most commonly the basket as opposed to the cone (the next drip machine I buy will be a cone).

Metal and Glass filters

Metal and glass filters are quite specific to their coffee makers. Glass filters are typically used with vacuum pots and metal with a more broad category. You will not run across glass filters very often. I saw a video not long ago from Intelligentsia that showed vacuum brewing, it was awesome. It certainly made me want to experience this method of brewing.

Metal filters can run the gamut from very specialized applications like moka pots to more generic mesh filters for drips or french press machines. With metal filters, they should not ever go bad if you take care of them, they let in the essential oils and aromatics and if in specialized cases particulates. The particulates come in with French press makers. Don’t be afraid of a little particulate matter now. It can be lovelier than you believe!

Its this a definitive listing? No, probably not but I wanted to open eyes to the fact that there is more out there. Thanks to Scott Rothstein for sharing so much information out there for us. The man is a coffee encylopedia.

Related articles

Enhanced by Zemanta