Curtis Coffee Makers

If you own or run a cafe that brews specialty coffee, you probably pay alot of attention to your brewing methods. There are several dominating makes of coffee brewers. These include Curtis, Bunn, Aquabrew, Bloomfield, Mr. Coffee and many many more. One of these brewers stands above the rest. Curtis has been advancing coffee brewing technology for many years. Furthermore, they embrace the standards as set for in the SCAA Golden Cup brewing guidelines.

The Curtis brewer features the option of a much larger basket to hold your filter of ground coffee. This basket is called the gourmet basket, and it is designed to hold more ground coffee than the average basket. This is because in order to properly brew coffee, the ratio of ground coffee to water must be perfect. Most brewers allow for 2.75 ounces of ground coffee, which is typically used to brew 64 ounces of coffee. However, the guidelines as set forth by the SCAA require approximately 3.75 ounces of ground coffee to brew 64 ounces of the fine beverage. When tasting both methods, the difference is very clear.

The Curtis line of specialty brewers allow the brewmaster to program ‘brew profiles‘ to find the perfect, magical point at which any given coffee is at its peak flavour. A far cry from brewers of the past that allowed you to put ground coffee in a filter, press a button and have a hot beverage in a few minutes. Further features include pulse brewing, which allows the ground coffee to have an initial soaking in order to begin swelling and become prepared to release all of those great essential oils locked inside the bean.

After using the Curtis brewers for well over a year now, I would be hard pressed to turn around and begin using one of the outdated, and frankly, behind the times brewers for my roasts of specialty coffee.

You can find more information about Curtis specialty coffee brewers and their other fine cafe products at: Wilbur Curtis Co.

I’ve been working with one of our head baristas here to create a new blend for our espresso. The previous blend has become a little pale, probably only because the blend hasn’t changed in the last couple of years, and I need something new to liven things up. Its a daunting task though! First, searching to find the perfect base coffee, and adding more beans to enhance and modify the shot into true beauty.

Finding The Perfect Espresso Base

So we begin with a base. This requires the tedious method of tasting many many roasts in the form of a single shot of espresso. With the number of coffees we roast, thats a heck of a lot of shots, and a many very shaky, strung out days. I’ve found that you don’t want a very complex base for your espresso blend. What you are really looking for here is an all around tasty bean that creates a shot that is very balanced, and maybe even subtle enough that it leaves you craving something a little more.

Enhancing The Perfect Espresso Blend

Once you’ve found your base coffee, its time to enhance and modify it a little bit. You do that through adding other coffee beans that could be of the same origin, but a different roast, or they could be entirely different coffees altogether. Remember all of those espresso shots you tasted in the last week or so? Look back on your notes from those for key aspects of what you tasted when you were sampling. Ask yourself: “Self, what does this base coffee need to be even better?” Does it need a little more sweetness? How about a richer, creamier body? Maybe it’s lacking in acidity. Whatever it may need, you should be able to locate in your notes from previous cuppings and espresso sampling.

That second step could involve adding many varieties and roasts of coffee beans. I’ve had espresso blends that were comprised of 6 or 8 varieties of beans. I’ve also had straight, single origin shots of coffee that were equal in quality and flavour. The fun though, is really in blending for espresso and allowing yourself the freedom to create something special, intriguing, and a personal reflection of how YOUR coffee tastes.