Doing away with drip>>.

[Greg Suekoff]

The retail cafes where I work are going to get rid of the drip coffee program. We currently offer several custom brew methods alongside the drip, but since none of our staff drinks drip, or supports drip extraction as an accurate brewing method, we shouldn't expect our customers to either... Our strongest choice for replacing these brewers is currently french press. I was wondering if anyone had logistical advice for this preparation. We will prepare several large presses, pour the coffee into shuttles, and distribute the coffee from there. Is sediment an issue? would it make sense to filter the press coffee with a cone? How about heat retention? This is an attempt to make a major improvement to our coffee program and I (QC is one of my departments) want to make sure we make this change smoothly. Any Hints?

[Cedric]

It almost defeats the purpose of doing a french press if you still run it through a filter. The only thing that i'm concerned about is if you use a french press and the grounds are still in there, eventually it will change the taste of the coffee in due time. I've had excellent coffee from drip, especially single drip methods. Can your drip machine pulse brew and do bypasses?

[Denise Smith]

No drip in our place would kill us! I expect most of our customers to order drip. We will be educating folks around here about espresso and real quality coffee. We will sell french presses as retail items.
(opening soon)

[Jesse -D->]

You could filter through a gold milleta(sp) without affecting the coffee very much, but a paper filter would negativly affect flavor. As far as drip vs. FP killing your business, I don't think you could be more wrong. It sells the same, you don't have to make a fresh one for every customer, just make 4-6 large presses (for each type of coffee being served) every 45min-1hr, and serve from airpots, cambros, whatever. If you do this people will have the same transaction at the counter and recieve a better cup of coffee for thier money.

[Greg Suekoff]

Let me clarify... I would filter the coffee through a gold cone, not paper. The pressed coffee would immediately (after steep of 4 min) be transferred into a pre heated thermal server... I am concerned about sediment, (for drinking enjoyment, as well as a concern that the sediment is ground coffee that is still bring extracted, potentially marring flavor)... As for current brewer, it is a fetco 2042ee with all the brewing parameter bells and whistles. As for not having drip killing your business, I disagree. ANY change is going to make some people grumble, however, if the cup quality improves with no inconvenience to the customer, response will be positive. Just explain to the customers why the change was made. Keep in mind it is important to brew presses properly, as pressing pots increases the likelyhood of operator error. Enough talk, I have made a big pot of house blend using drip and one using press, let taste!

[Zech]

Under my management, Hot Corner in Athens, GA went this route. The response was generally positive. Funnily enough, most of the grumbling came from staff.

Things I found that helped:

SOAKING unbleached paper filters [previously used for auto drip] with scalding water and then running finished FP coffee through the filters. Had I had access to a gold cone, I'd probably have gone that route.

Right now, the shop I work at is brewing everything by the cup. We offer chemex pour overs and french presses. Even though waiting has been brought up, the customer base seems to have had a positive response and most return for more.

[Jesse -D->]

We always have someone grumbling about somthing, but I don't think that is the same as killing your business. I think that if you do the full research and have well trained passionate baristas then you can definatly pull it off. I believe Stumptown does this and they are obviously doing ok.

[Jesse -D->]

Also, what is your method for FP? I know there are a few different respected methods.

[Greg Suekoff]

I steep coarse ground coffee in 203-205 degree water for about 4 minutes, press and pour immediately. I would love to brew every cup to order, which we offer with a Clover (for now) or a pour over. Our cafes are in Annapolis, which isn't a densely populated area, so we need to have some ready NOW coffee to offer the areas suburbanites, some (still) that feel 5 minutes is WAY too long to wait for a cup, even if it is a cup of knock your socks off, just roasted right here 4 days ago coffee...

[Jesse -D->]

At what point do you stir? What is your dose? Do you skim?

I think that if you brew properly, remove the liquid from the press and store it properly, the quality loss over 45min is nearly inperceivable, so brewing per cup is IMHO not that advantageous. Especially for the crowd that can't wait 5min for a world class beverage.

Greg Suekoff said:

I steep coarse ground coffee in 203-205 degree water for about 4 minutes, press and pour immediately. I would love to brew every cup to order, which we offer with a Clover (for now) or a pour over. Our cafes are in Annapolis, which isn't a densely populated area, so we need to have some ready NOW coffee to offer the areas suburbanites, some (still) that feel 5 minutes is WAY too long to wait for a cup, even if it is a cup of knock your socks off, just roasted right here 4 days ago coffee...

[M]

we're still running drip coffees, but we also have french presses and chemex available. we've also been toying with the idea of cutting down on the drip coffee program and upping the availability of our chemex menu because it's so effin good.

[John P]

To remove most of the sediment from the Press coffee...strain through a tea strainer or other fine mesh when pouring into thermal carafe/airpot.

[Zech]

A mesh tea filter! Brilliant!



John P said:

To remove most of the sediment from the Press coffee...strain through a tea strainer or other fine mesh when pouring into thermal carafe/airpot.