Free postage from RM80 in Peninsular Malaysia, and from RM150 to East Malaysia and Singapore. Roasted to order, posted within two working days.
Free postage from RM80 in Peninsular MalaysiaFree postage from RM150 to East Malaysia and Singapore
One ratio, one temperature, one time for each method. These are the numbers we use at eleven in the morning in Cheras. Change one thing at a time.
Paper filter
15 g coffee · 250 g water at 92 to 96 °C · medium-fine · 3 minutes
Bloom with 45 g of water and wait 40 seconds. Pour in slow circles to 150 g, pause, and finish at 250 g by the two-minute mark. The bed should drain flat and dry by about three minutes. Two cups: 22 g to 375 g.
The bloom is fresh coffee releasing gas. Roasted-to-order coffee blooms hard. Let it.
Pressure, under two minutes
15 g · 225 g at 90 °C · medium-fine · under 2 minutes
Paper filter rinsed. All the water in by 0:20. Stir three times. Plunger on at 0:30 to hold the heat. Press at 1:30, steadily, for about twenty seconds, and stop at the hiss.
The AeroPress extracts fast, so small changes land hard. One variable at a time.
Immersion
33 g · 500 g at 95 °C · coarse · 4 minutes, then a slow plunge
Warm the press and tip the water out. Coffee in, all the water at once, kettle rested half a minute off the boil. Four minutes. Plunge slowly and pour every cup at once; coffee left on the grounds keeps brewing. A 350 ml press takes 23 g; a litre takes 66 g.
The most forgiving brewer in the house, which is why it deserves better coffee than it usually gets.
Time instead of heat
100 g · 800 g cold water · coarse · 16 hours in the fridge
Strain through paper. Dilute one to one over ice. About six glasses, and the concentrate keeps a week.
The only method here that asks for no skill at all, only foresight.
Stovetop
7 g for a one-cup · 16 g for a three-cup · 25 g for a six-cup · medium-fine, level, never tamped
Hot water to the valve line, so the pot does not cook the coffee on the way up. Medium-low flame, lid open. When the column turns pale and starts to sputter, take it off the heat and pour. About 1:10 at the spout; add hot water afterwards for a longer cup.
Burnt or metallic means the flame was too high or the pot stayed on too long. Weak and watery means grind a touch finer, never tamp.
If it is sour or thin: grind finer, or water hotter. If it is bitter or drying: grind coarser, or water cooler. One change at a time, and taste again tomorrow.
The liberica
Long Banga Honey takes water at 96 °C, the hotter end of every method above. A medium roast from 500 metres in Sarawak, forgiving of a slightly coarse grind, tangerine first and brown sugar after.
Liberica does not taste like the coffee you know. Give it two mornings. It makes sense by the second.
Keeping it
Whole bean, ground when you need it: ground coffee begins to lose itself within the hour. Tin closed, cool, out of the light. The beans are at their best from a few days after roasting to about a month.
Noted. The card comes with the next Tuesday letter.
An occasional note on origin, roast, and the work behind the bag. Sent rarely. Read slowly.
