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Ebb And Flow Rate: A Reusable U.S.-Grown Fabric Filter Hits The Market

Sun, 23 Sep 2018 09:50:40 -0600

For those who think about the sustainability of what’s in their cup, the next step is the sustainability of the brew method. That’s where the Ebb filter comes in, a new reusable coffee filter made from U.S.-grown organic cotton.

Geana Sieburger didn’t set out to get into the coffee industry, but as a product designer interested in sustainable textiles, that’s where her path eventually led. Around 2014, Sieburger launched her Oakland-based business GDS Cloth Goods, a workshop and studio focused on sustainable production, and often, with a connection to food (the company’s first product was aprons). For the last year, she has been working to develop a pour-over filter that’s not only developed to brew excellent coffee, but that’s also ethically produced.

While Sieburger enjoys coffee, her main driving interest is in textiles. The idea for GDS Cloth Goods came after working almost a decade as a textile buyer at Britex Fabrics, “getting a realistic picture of what the industry looks like in this country.” As she worked and her interest in sustainability increased, her research led her to organizations like Fibershed and the realization that when it comes to fashion, “what a huge difference fiber choice can make.”

But while textiles are often equated with fashion, Sieburger is quick to point out that they extend far beyond that. “I’ve never seen myself as a fashion designer,” says Sieburger. “I see myself as a product designer using textiles… All of the things I make come from a very real place and a very real need in my own life.”

Interested in producing a reusable coffee filter, she came across an organic cotton that worked well for the first rendition of the filter. But she wanted to go further, and partnered with Benjamin C. Brewer, Director of Quality Control at Blue Bottle Coffee. “My standard was always ‘does it work for specialty coffee?’” says Sieburger. They found their way to the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative which pointed them in the direction of a mill in South Carolina. Together with a textile developer, they worked their way through many iterations. The new version, which launched a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter in February, is the result of “almost a year of me going back and forth between the mill and baristas,” says Sieburger. The Kickstarter campaign—now fully funded, ending March 30th—will allow the company to add another filter size to the lineup.

Sourcing fiber from the Texas Cotton Marketing Cooperative allows Sieburger to not only ensure the agricultural sustainability of the product, but also the social sustainability. “Even though there is definitely exploitation of labor happening in this country, it’s less likely with all the regulations in place,” says Sieburger. Pointing out that for her this is “the number one reason” for choosing to source fiber in the U.S. The result is a product where ethics and quality go hand in hand.

“Ebb filters are quite possibly the most luxurious filter medium for brewing. The cloth transforms and transmits silken layers and autumnal textures to the cup,” says Brewer. “These filters have the potential to truly elevate a coffee. It is obvious that a great deal of thought and care have gone into this product.”

Born in Brazil, Sieburger notes that her path to coffee comes with personal meaning. “[It] has allowed me to connect with my grandmother in a way that I hadn’t expected,” Sieburger says, noting that during the development process of the Ebb Filter, “my mother said to me, ‘that’s how your grandmother used to make coffee, with a cotton filter.’”

According to James Freeman, Founder and CEO of Blue Bottle Coffee, her grandmother was on to something. “There is something wonderfully ineffable about coffee filtered with a flannel cloth. The technique is quite different than filtering through paper, and, in my opinion, a little trickier, but the result, especially in the texture of the finished product, has a luminosity which shines brighter and deeper than a well made paper-filtered coffee,” says Freeman.

The Ebb filter isn’t the first reusable filter to hit the market. Sieburger points out two products she respects, Coffee Sock and the Kone Coffee Filter by Able Brewing. For Sieburger, she sees her work as not just offering the consumer a reusable product, but also highlighting the crossover between coffee and textiles. While they experience different difficulties, “coffee is an industry in crisis just like fashion and textiles,” says Sieburger.

She hopes that the new filter can be not just a tool to making great coffee, but also a conversation starter. “These things that we wear and use and consume and eat, they come from people and they come from the land,” says Sieburger. “Creating products that create awareness about that has such a far reach, and has such a powerful education value.”

Anna Brones (@annabrones) is a Sprudge.com staff writer based in the American Pacific Northwest, the founder of Foodie Underground, and the co-author of Fika: The Art Of The Swedish Coffee Break. Read more Anna Brones on Sprudge.

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How to make better coffee at home, plus the best makers for the job

Fri, 21 Sep 2018 08:46:21 -0600

Chicago Tribune --

It's remarkable that a simple seed can contain such depth and breadth of flavor. Like the coffee bean, Jessica Easto’s book "Craft Coffee: A Manual" (Agate Publishing, $19.95) dives deep and reaches wide as it teaches consumers how to improve their daily cup.

Coffee, the drink, is made up of but two ingredients: water and beans. But there's much to learn about choosing equipment, buying beans and heating water. Even the way you pour water over grounds affects your cup of joe.

Today, thanks to farmers, importers, roasters and baristas, coffee quality is high. It’s realizing that quality in your home-brewed cup that can seem out of reach. But with a bit more time and money, better is possible, Easto says.

Easto, herself, came to coffee enlightenment via "a circuitous road paved with ignorance." In high school, she ordered her first cup of coffee black because she didn't realize people expect plain coffee to be bad and dump in sugar and cream to make it palatable. In graduate school, she bought a pour-over device, only because a machine seemed extravagant for her single morning cup.

Enter her friend Andres, who noticed her manual coffeemaker. A barista, himself, he showed her a couple of ways to improve her brew. She learned that coffee, when brewed manually, can be manipulated for best results. Revelation! She married Andreas and was on her way to coffee nirvana.

Easto writes as a home coffee brewer living with a professional. (Andreas is now a technical specialist for an espresso machine company.) Her book offers comprehensive knowledge, some of which the casual home brewer may want to skip, such as "Rwandan flavor notes include raisin and other dried fruits." Instead, latch on to her practical advice.

The equipment

Start with equipment, since your brewing method affects everything else. The first question is manual devices versus automatic coffee makers. Easto focuses on manual because decent automatic machines are so pricey. "Manual methods allow anyone to make cafe quality coffee at home," she writes.

(If you do want automatic, check out the Specialty Coffee Association's list of certified machines.)

Manual devices fall into two categories: immersion and pour-over. Prices don’t include disposable filters. The former includes:

French press. Good for beginners. Versatile, since you can also make cold brew or cafe au lait in it. $17 to $70, depending on design and material.

Aeropress Coffee and Espresso Maker. "There isn't a faster brewing time with such tasty results," Easto says. Works well with various grind sizes, brewing times and water temperatures. Finer grinds produce less acidic coffee. About $30.

Abid Clever Coffee Dripper. User-friendly. Uses a paper filter, which produces a cleaner taste. About $22.

Pour-over manual devices require a steady hand with the hot water. (The amount of time that water is in contact with grounds affects how flavor molecules dissolve.) A slow, controlled pour produces better results. Pour-over devices include:

Melitta: Good for beginners. Affordable. "The first that allowed me to taste different flavors in coffee," Easto says. $4 to $30.

Bee House Coffee Dripper: Affordable. Compatible with grocery-store filters. Fits most coffee cups, allowing you to pour-over right into your cup. $19 to $33.

Walkure: This Dutch device, which Easto says is “easy on the eyes and easy to use,” is pricier than most pour-overs or drippers. Doesn't require a paper filter but produces a cleaner brew than other paperless devices. $89.

The method

Choose one device, and learn to use it, so you can focus on other variables, such as grind, water and beans. Grinding whole beans just before you brew is best, but ditch the blade-style grinders. That spinning blade results in uneven grind sizes, which means uneven flavor extraction. A burr grinder, electric or manual, is more even and lets you control the size.

If you don’t want to buy a burr grinder, ask your coffee shop to grind a week’s worth of beans for you. This results in a trade-off in freshness, but beans ground to the optimum size for your device beats fresher beans mangled by a blade grinder, Easto says.

Your tap water is likely fine; a simple carbon-filter water pitcher may improve it. Don't use distilled water or mineral water, which makes coffee acidic or dull. And reverse-osmosis water filter system? Unnecessary, in Easto's opinion.

Use water that's just off the boil, not boiling. Boiling water dissolves too many compounds too fast, resulting in bitter coffee.

The most important variable is beans. "No matter how carefully you make coffee, you can't create quality," Easto says. "It must be there to begin with."

Do

Skip the grocery store. Most have a limited selection of quality beans. Find a roaster in town or online.

Ask questions. Where did the coffee come from? What's it taste like? Staff should be able to steer you to a coffee you'll like.

Buy fresh, buy often. Look for a roast date on the bag. Coffee goes stale quickly. Buy only what you'll use in a week.

Don't

Buy in cans. Craft coffee is sold in bags, usually with a valve in front that helps keep it fresh. That one-way valve allows air to go out without letting air in. In bags, you can squeeze air out to reduce oxidation. “You can’t squeeze air out of a can,” Easto says.
Buy flavored coffee. Craft coffee has inherent flavors. It doesn't have flavor added to it.
Also, beware of words like bold, full-bodied, dark, or French or Italian roasts. Craft coffee producers are unlikely to use those terms.
Once you've scored a bag of quality beans, store it as you would a spice, in an airtight container in a cool, dark, dry space. Keeping it in the original bag is fine (squeeze that air out between uses). Keep the bag away from water and steam. Don't put it in the fridge, where it can absorb odors. Experts debate whether storing in the freezer helps, but it likely won't negatively impact your beans.
Buy quality beans, and handle them right, Easto urges, and you’re well on your way to a better cup at home. "Coffee is a fickle beast. It's swayed by external factors, from the weather to the water to your eager hand."
Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy is a freelance writer.
Making cold-press coffee can be as simple as putting freshly ground coffee beans into a jar and adding cold water, then letting the mixture steep for 12 hours. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune; Shannon Kinsella / food styling)

Cold brew in a jar
Prep: 5 minutes
Steep: 12 hours
Adapted from "Craft Coffee: A Manual" by Jessica Easto.
1 cup fresh whole coffee beans
1 quart-size glass jar with lid, plus another larger jar with lid
Paper or cloth coffee filter, or cheesecloth

1 Grind coffee to a medium-coarse size using a manual or electric burr grinder.
2 Place ground coffee in jar, gently shake to level. Add 20 ounces cold water. If some grounds float, stir until they sink. You want all the grounds submerged. Cover and refrigerate, 12 hours.
3 Remove from refrigerator.
3 Gently pour coffee through a filter into a second, larger jar, leaving grounds behind. To the strained coffee in the second jar, add an equal amount of cold water. Taste and add more cold water if necessary. The resulting cold brew will keep, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for two weeks. Serve over ice, if you like.

Other uses for cold brew
Freeze in ice cube trays for ice that won't dilute your drink.
When making chocolate cake, replace the water called for with cold brew, to punch up the chocolate flavor.
Make a coffee tonic with 1 part cold brew to 1 part tonic water, serve over ice, and garnish with a strip of lemon or orange peel.

Try a coffee Manhattan: combine 2 ounces cold brew, 2 ounces bourbon, ½ ounce simple syrup and 3 dashes orange bitters in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well, and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Goes great with that chocolate cake!

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Specialty Cold Brew: Finally Coming Into Its Own (Part 1)

Fri, 21 Sep 2018 08:09:42 -0600

Matt Bushman | September 20, 2018

All photos courtesy of Matt Bushman / Alto Cold Brew.

Cold brew draws a mixed reaction in the world of specialty coffee. Some people praise it for its simplicity, natural sweetness and low acidity. Others point out that the lack of heat, unrinsed paper filters and long storage times contribute to a bland flavor profile. Regardless of how you have thought about cold brew in the past, one thing that cannot be denied is its explosion in popularity.

Why Now?

Cold brew has been around for centuries, with origin stories ranging from Japan, South America and Dutch trading ships. It has also been common in American coffee shops for decades, but always relegated to a forgotten corner of the menu, often with grounds roasted for other uses, and traditional methods such as paper and cotton. So why now? What changed?

The explosion of interest in cold brew is tied to its transition to a specialty beverage. This follows a pattern in the beverage business — something new (craft, specialty) evolves when people making generic/traditional drinks begin to form a new community focused on process, experimentation, innovation, promotion and competition. From specialty coffee to craft beer, this transition towards specialty is accompanied by increased interest, variety, quality, and profitability.

The Evolution of Craft

We have seen this unfold in traditional hot coffee over the past century. Prior to From a beverage standpoint, coffee was treated merely as a commodity. In today’s coffee market, we see the results of evolution — the move from commodity to quality, and from quality to specialty. Once brewing, sourcing, and roasting improved, the quality and care for the coffee did, as well. In the specialty market, this has generally led to higher prices throughout the supply chain and an expanded sphere of influence.

Each group — farmers, importers, roasters, and cafes — worked together to better understand each other’s needs and cooperate to command the higher prices associated with higher quality products. There were also competitions introduced between many of these groups — from green coffee scoring to roasting and barista competitions to demonstrate value and elevate quality.

The winners were promoted within the industry, leaving others to adapt to the new best practices or be left behind. Over time, the specialty coffee community’s focus on process, experimentation, innovation, promotion and competition created the entirely new category distinct from traditional coffee: specialty coffee.

We have seen craft beer experience a similar explosion in interest, variety, quality, and profitability over the past few decades, following most of these same principles. Commodity ingredients were once commonplace in traditional American beer, but microbrewers began to experiment with higher quality, non-commodity ingredients (especially hops).

They developed innovative new takes on older recipes, accentuated different aspects of the beer resulting in the widespread popularity of varieties such as IPAs, sours and stouts, to name a few. Brewers participated in festivals and competitions to promote these unique new beers and winners were promoted accordingly. This transition from traditional, mass-produced lagers to craft beers of every variety has also led to increased popularity and profitability among craft brewers and suppliers.

The Future of Cold Brew is Specialty
We are witnessing the transition of traditional cold brew towards specialty and the interest is growing proportionally. If specialty cold brew can follow the path laid out by specialty coffee and learn from the successes of craft beer, it too can expect exponential growth in interest, variety, quality, and profitability.
Traditional beverages will always be around. It is still easy to get inexpensive, commodity grade, dark-roasted coffee, and grocery stores will continue to stock cheap, mass-produced lagers. In the same way, traditional cold brew will not cease to exist. Some shops will keep making and serving it the same old way.
There will however be an entirely new category created, called specialty cold brew, that is built on process, experimentation, innovation, promotion and competition. As long as specialty cold brew can follow the paths forged by specialty coffee and craft beer, it will continue to grow in interest, variety, quality and profitability. Cold brew is finally starting to come into its own, and this recent growth is just the beginning.
Matt Bushman
Matt Bushman is the Co-Founder of Alto Cold Brew, a specialty cold brewing company on a mission to elevate the craft of cold brew. Matt has spoken at industry trade shows on cold brew and written the Ultimate Guide to Specialty Cold Brew. He lives in Southern California with his wife, a six year old daughter and two year old boy-girl twins.

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