Hario's stainless steel water kettle, the V60 Buono, has been spotted popping up in coffee houses and the kitchens of baristas for some time now. A detailed search on the web will reveal, for the moment at least, that the Buono seems to be widely accepted as the most useful pouring kettle available. What makes this kettle so popular amongst pour-over enthusiasts? Several reasons stand out.
First, the thin pouring spout enables greater pouring precision as well as a slower, more consistent and controlled rate of pour, both of which are very helpful in achieving a precise, prolonged extraction.
Second, the stainless steel construction and large 1 liter capacity contribute toward keeping up the brew temperature for the duration of the entire brew cycle.
Third, the ergonomics involved in the design of the kettle help to make using it much easier. This may not seem like much, but if you're brewing large batches of coffee and pouring for three or more minutes per batch, doing several batches of coffee will quickly become a chore if your kettle doesn't cooperate with you.
Combine all of these facets with the fact that the Buono is manufactured by Hario, a very popular name in the coffee-brewing community, and the kettle's popularity is easily understood. For best results, combine the Buono with a
V60 Dripper or
Chemex to get a truly exceptional cup of coffee.
Simple.
It's because I get paid to do that. And I'm darn good at it, too!
BX Pollishing Thread
Here's the link to that BX polishing thread. I don't know why you make me do all the work around here, John ;)
polishing?
For anyone who is wondering (like I was earlier today), polishing a puck is buffering the top of the puck to make it smooth by rotating the tamper right before you remove it from the portafilter. That is my very basic understanding, but if anyone wants to correct me or add to that, feel free.
Tampax
Please keep in mind that my opinions on this matter are based on pure research and no real world experience. Maybe one day I'll get out of Starbucks and become a real boy.
I think that the tamper base is a potentially vital piece of equipment and, in some situations, can make or break your shot. If you're going to use a flat base, you need to make sure that it fits perfectly into your basket as tightly at possible and/or use a tapered basket in order to avoid the "doghnut effect" during beading and overextraction around the outside edge. It you're using a straight basket, it's probably best to use a convex base to pack your coffee to the edge. So, best practice is to match a flat tamper base with a tapered basket and a convex tamper base with a straight basket.
Beyond that simple practical situation, I think it's a matter of barista preference. I've heard that increasing the water contact surface area can cause the shot to extract more evenly and result in sweeter shots, so it would make sense to use a convex or even c-ripple to achieve the greatest puck surface area but it seems just as likely that a barista who knows what he/she is doing could achieve or negate these results with grind or dosing adjustments and not rely on such a small variable. Reg Barber has stated that the c-ripple is only aesthetic but I've talked with baristas who swear by this surface area doctrine and say that it makes a difference.
John, I also read something recently on puck polishing but I don't think it was on Slayer's blog. I've got some digging to do as well, it seems. from what I remember, though, some baristas are finding that pucks that are not polished weigh significantly less and unpolished shots show more complexity than polished. This seems to indicate that the water is pulling more insolubles from unpolished pucks shots.
Ugh, this is why I need en espresso machine!
Ok, I'm at my family-in-law's house and should be schmoozing and not being a coffee dork. There's so much more to talk about here and I can't wait until I can get back and talk crazy. I think we can probably work some talk about distribution into the thread, huh? ;)
FYI, the reading can be found
FYI, the reading can be found in a thread on Barista Exchange.
A link to it would be helpful, wouldn't it? ;)
There was an interesting
There was an interesting question posed by one of the Slayer guys on polishing vs. not polishing. I don't remember what he said, and I don't remember exactly where it was posted. Some help I am, right?
I'll try to be a little more helpful and find it...
So I don't have any insight
So I don't have any insight about what tamper I enjoy using behind the bar, but I was hoping you (or anyone else) might enlighten those of us who don't know about the conceptual benefits to the different tamper types.