What a summer it’s been, eh? The last few weeks have been crazy hot here in Amsterdam, making it almost unnecessary to go on holidays anywhere. People have been swimming in the canals and going on long bike rides out into the countryside.

It’s precisely the kind of summer that we all wanted. I hope you’ve also had a chance to spend lots of time outdoors wherever you are.

As I type this, I am still sitting in my warehouse, glad that the August ’20 Coffeevine box just got picked up and all of my lovely coffee boxes are now on their way to my wonderful customers all over the world.

If you also want to enjoy some of the most delicious and exotic coffees from a box at your door every month, just sign up for your own coffee subscription. You’ll fall in love in no time.

Now, let’s get into the yummy coffees from Fiorelli, Triple Co. Roast and Schot Koffie that I just sent away. As always, I’ve put together a little brew guide to help you get the best flavour out of those coffees and added a recipe of my own for the good old Clever Dripper. Ready? Let’s brew.

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
• The Kruve Sifter (not required but handy to filter out fines)
• Your favourite brew method (Kalita Wave, V60, AeroPress etc)
• A clean vessel for brewing and decanting
• Water for brewing, ideally mixed at home.
• A pouring kettle but a regular kettle will also do, however, it requires more precision
• For this recipe, I made ice cubes from my own water that I mix using a recipe from Barista Hustle

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.

There are some really handy guides on how to mix your own water for brewing on Barista Hustle. We will soon also post our own recipe for you to use.

My recipe for filter:

Clever Dripper: I love this coffee maker. It’s a full immersion brewer that makes a bigger cup than the Aeropress but has the same basic extraction method of a V60, gravity.

I used a recipe that took into consideration some learnings that I acquired from my friend Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood who recommended to use a very coarse grind and a long extraction to get more flavour out. You can see his presentation that he gave during the most recent instalment of Virtual Coffee Festival here.

Take 20g of coffee and grind it very coarse. Somewhere between Chemex and French Press. Take 300g of water at 100ºC – it’ll cool enough by the time it hits the coffee to not burn it – and fill the Clever Dripper in one go. Put the lid on and let steep.

After 1:3o minutes, give it a good stir and put the lid back on. At 3:00 minutes start decanting. It’ll be done by around 5:00 minutes. Serve and enjoy.

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Fiorilli’s recipe for filter:

Aeropress inverted: 17g of coffee ground medium. Pre infusion with 50g of water at 90° – stir 4 times clockwise then a little turn anti clockwise to stop the movement- wait 30” and add 170g of water, stir again and wait for 1’30’.

Fiorilli’s recipe for espresso: