Can we just take a moment to appreciate how awesome Paris is? I don’t know what made me think for so many years that the city of love was just one giant tourist trap. A broken heart maybe? Last weekend, I got to thoroughly enjoy the French capital and all of its charme, cycling along the river Seine, eating in cute little restaurants, drinking incredible coffee and stumbling upon the Eiffel Tower on my third day and thinking ‘my goodness, I totally forgot about this.’

Though I have to say, when it comes to locally roasted coffee, the French coffee scene still has a bit of ground to cover. At the Paris Coffee Festival I was served various coffees that were burned to a crisp while being sold to me as floral and delicate. Sorry hun, you can’t polish a turd.

Anyway, let’s get down to business with this month’s brew guide so you can enjoy the delicious coffees from the recently shipped May 2023 Coffeevine box featuring Odd Kin, Ineffable and Five Ways. Ready, steady, gooooooooo!

Basic Setup

As in any good kitchen or bar, you want to be sure to have a few key items at your disposal that will aid you in preparing a delicious cup of coffee.

These include:

• • Scales (with or without a timer – you can use your phone or your watch)
  • A good quality burr grinder such as the Comandante Grinder
  • Your favourite brew method (Origami, Kalita Wave, V60, AeroPress etc)
  • A clean vessel for brewing and decanting
  • A ladle or stirrer for agitating the grounds
  • Water for brewing
  • A pouring kettle but a regular kettle will also do, however, it requires more precision

Feel free to take a look around our shop to see if there are things that you might like. We have a nice selection of items from Timemore and other brands to help you brew delicious coffees.

It’s very important to always freshly grind your coffee just before preparation because coffee is very volatile and quickly loses its full aroma in a matter of minutes.

You can also vacuum pack your coffee in portions, name and number each batch and then keep it in a dry cool place or put it in the freezer. More information about freshness and how to rest your coffees can be found in this article.

For espresso, I use my home espresso machine, a Profitec Pro600 espresso machine and a Profitec ProT64 grinder.

My recipe for the Origami Dripper 1 cup:

I know I offered a recipe for this brew in last month’s brew guide but I just love this brewer so much! This time, I made a smaller brew though because believe it or not, you will taste a big difference in the coffee depending on how you brew it. The ratio is 1:16.

12g of coffee ground fairly fine. Boil your water and then load your coffee into the filter, making sure you prewet it first. Then, start with a short bloom of 25-30 seconds using around 63g of water. You want to repeat the brewing process with two more pours of 63g each until you reach around 190g. Then lift up the Origami dripper and give it a gentle swirl to release any coffee ground that might be stuck to the sides.

Total brew time will be around 2:30 minutes. Leave to cool for 5 minutes and then enjoy!

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Odd Kin’s recipe for filter:

V60 or Kalita Wave: 19g of coffee ground medium-fine with 240ml of water and a 4min extraction.

Odd Kin’s recipe for espresso:

6 bar pressure. 15g in and 36g out. 40 – 46 seconds extraction.

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Ineffable’s recipe for filter:

Kalita Wave. Ratio: 1:15. Temperature: 92º. 20g of coffee ground medium-fine with 300g of water.

Pouring: 4 pours in total. Start with 45 seconds bloom with 40g, then to 160g, after 20 seconds go up to 230g and then one final time up to 300g. No stirring or swirling. Water 135ppm. TDS: 1.57 – 20%.

Ineffable’s recipe for espresso:

Basket: 22g. VST Notes: BH WDT, OCD distribution, Push Tamper (Flat, 100% level). Best resting time: over 2 weeks. Temperature: 94º. Water 135 ppm.

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Five Ways’ recipe for filter:

V60: Ratio of 67.5 grams per Liter. We are enjoying this coffee at this ratio.

Five Ways’ recipe for espresso:

19g with an total extraction of around 28 – 30 seconds. 6 – 8 seconds pre infusion if possible.

What did you think of these recipes and the coffees from the May 2023 Coffeevine box? Let me know in the comments down below and make sure you subscribe in time for the upcoming June 2023 Coffeevine box or browse our shop for some super cool accessories and other items you might love.