Coffee Break #7

In this episode of Coffee Break with Joe and Rio, they discuss different equipment options for brewing coffee at home. They compare the pros and cons of glass, stainless steel, and plastic French presses, concluding that stainless steel is the best option for heat retention, durability, and flavor. They also mention the importance of using a burr grinder instead of a whirly blade grinder to ensure a better tasting coffee. Additionally, they touch on the idea of being your own barista at home and the potential for creating high-quality coffee without the need for expensive equipment. Welcome back everybody to another episode of Coffee Break with Joe and Rio. We have Joe here with us today. I'd ask how she's doing, but she doesn't look like she's doing too well everybody, so let's see if we can pick up her spirit. So this is also one of the interesting shows where we don't really have a topic to go over today. But we're going to talk about some things. Yeah, I think so. Important things in the kitchen when you want to be your own barista at home. Yeah, when you feel like you want to put on the barista apron or whatever the heck they do. Yeah, that's right. Anyway, one of the interesting things that I think is worth going over is some of these pieces of equipment that is out there that doesn't really work too well. For instance, in the way that I brew coffee, as everybody might know by now, it's through a French press. There's three different types of French presses. There's a glass French press, there's a stainless steel, and there's a plastic. Which one do you think is the best? Well, you have the double-walled stainless steel, so I would say that would be the best for heat retention. It's the best for heat retention, it's the best for durability, and it's also the best for overall flavor that you get from it. Because what do you think you get out of plastic? Well, they have different kinds of plastic now, so you're not picking up so much of a plastic taste, but if you get a cheap plastic one, you're not guaranteed that you're not going to pick up some type of plastic flavor in your coffee. Doesn't that sound lovely? Who wouldn't like a plastic cup of coffee? Plastic du jour. Yeah. Isn't that flavor of the day? Something like that. Yeah. Do you ever offer that at Mojo Roast? No. We do everything the way that it's supposed to be done, in double-walled stainless steel. And if it's supposed to taste like coffee, it tastes like coffee. Because nobody wants, and there's a reason why no flavor syrup has come up with plastic flavoring. Nobody wants it. That's right. So, what you're saying, though, is there are other options that somebody can use if they want plastic. Why would somebody want plastic to begin with? Well, plastic is durable. It doesn't crack. It's lightweight. Basically, those are... It leads to reproductive issues. Yeah. Well, turkeys didn't even like plastic when they created margarine. You're going to have to elaborate a little bit here. Well, it's like one molecule away from plastic, right? And that's how margarine was born, but it was supposed to feed the turkeys, and they wouldn't eat it. We're taking a massive segue here. We go talking about French presses and plastic to margarine and turkeys. You bring stuff. I didn't bring that one up. Okay. Back on track. So, yeah, that's why they would pick plastics, and I've had actually, for example, the plastic that we use for our cold brew, the one-quart plastic jar for the cold brew. That's completely different, though, because our cold brew is exactly that. It's cold. Yeah. Now we're talking about taking a hot water and adding that into a press, where you're going to end up with quite a bit of leaching particles because of the heat exposure. Yeah, I would say so. So overall, plastic is not a good option. No, but... Is it because it's cheap? Well, it's cheap. It's more durable. Yeah, less breaking. But it's not as durable as stainless steel. It's lighter weight. I don't know. That stainless steel one I got is pretty light. Not as light as those quart plastic cold brew jars we have. No. And it's better for shipping purposes overall. But for a consumer standpoint. If you can't lift off a two-pound stainless steel French press, you've got to be doing something else to be able to get that strength. Yeah, right. Yeah. So, stainless steel press is the best way to go, I would say. And with glass, there's nothing wrong with glass. No. But the only issue that I can really think of is soiling. Glass is not a terrible option. No, it's not. It's just the fact that it can break easily. It can break easily, yep. So now that we've gotten that out of the way... There's a lot of different brewing methods that people use. There is, but there's also a lot of different methods within those methods. Yep. And I think we should underline which ones are the best ones. Which one would you pick other than French press? As far as how to brew coffee? Yeah. I mean, you have an espresso machine, and if I've got to use it, I'll use it. Yep. And within that espresso machine, I'm sure there's several different types. And yours is a DeLonghi, is that it? Yep. And those work well. What is it, 15 years old, that one? No, it can't be that old. Oh yeah. And I've only ever had one problem, sent it into Colorado, guy fixed it pretty reasonably, and I got it back, and it's a workhorse. I love that machine. But for at-home baristas, which is the topic of this, the most important things to have would be your cold brew. Number one, the freshest, best quality coffee you can find. And for anybody looking for that, Shop Mojo roasts. I agree. And so then, the best methods for it would be either your espresso, if you have an espresso machine, or what's that other thing? AeroPress? Yes. Yeah, well we have some exciting things that are going to be happening once we get our YouTube page up for the tutorial of how to be your own barista. The BYOB. That's an interesting name. Be Your Own Barista. Do you think about that one all on your own? I did, BYOB. No, but we will take out all of the hocus pocus about making coffee and show how simple it is, and everybody will get into it. Well, everything seems challenging until you do it. That's right. Yep. And understand it. And even if you do it once and you struggle, yeah, that's kind of the point. You're going to struggle the first time you try to do something. That's right. And you're going to get distracted if you keep showing up every day and you keep trying, and then eventually, who knows, maybe you could be making a better than your local whatever. Yeah. Coffee shop or your chain or what have you. And you're making it for a lot cheaper too. I can promise you that part. That's right. And as a coffee consultant, when I go out and train coffee shops on how to prepare the drinks and all of the verbiage that goes along with preparing those drinks, it takes a lot of the confusion and complication out of it. Within about five, ten minutes, I have people doing everything like they were a pro. Yeah, you guys have some real fancy words for real simple things. Yep. As we've discovered earlier, your Americano, a shot of espresso or two in hot water. Yeah. To your lattes. You know, it all sounds daunting and it seems like it's a big task ahead of people, but it's really something simple. Yep. And I think that that's something that this channel will evolve into more. There's two things that I can think of that we should cover in this. Number one would be grinders, at home grinders. People usually have the little whirly blade because it's very cheap at the stores. You can get them at Target and Walmart, Amazon for under 20 bucks. The little whirly blade where you put your product in the top of the piece of machinery and then put the lid on, push it down and it just flips that coffee around and creates friction and heat and then it puts a nasty taste on the coffee. Those we don't recommend at all. I think if you want to really impress your audience or yourself, you should use a burr grinder and they have conical burr grinders which are kind of cone shaped. You pour your coffee in a hopper and turn on the burrs and then they fall down into that conical, the little cone shaped grinders and it passes through, the coffee passes through at one time. It doesn't keep getting whipped around and goes down into a little catch container. That's the best way. Any kind of burr grinder would work and they have them very reasonable for people to use at home too. And that goes back to the whole thing that I was talking about earlier. There's multiple different ways to get the same thing. Yeah. You know, between your French presses, your plastic, your stainless steel or your glass. To somebody who's looking to have a French press, it doesn't matter which one's cheaper, right? Yeah. But to the avid French press user, they know which one's better. Yeah. And same thing goes with coffee grinders. You know, somebody looks at this one, the conical burr grinder versus the other option, they're going to be like, okay, this is obviously a front runner and a lot better off to be able to get a better tasting product at the end because that's where it all starts too. Yeah. After the beans, it goes to the grinder. The grinder's important because if you have too much heat and friction, you end up with a damaged product. Yeah. And if you're able to have it grind smoothly and you don't have as much heat and friction, you're able to have a better cup of coffee at the end. Yeah. And you get a more symmetrical grind too. Say you have it set for your auto drip coffee pot, for example, you're going to get a pretty consistent grind when that coffee's going through those burrs. You're not going to get a big mishmash of grind like you would whipping it around in a Whirley blade. And in a coffee pot, that might not matter so much? But if you're talking about an espresso machine, it's really going to matter in that because they will get choked up if you don't have the right grind. Yeah. They won't work at all. Not work properly at least, that's for sure. And then another thing that people don't understand, they think if they want to get like a sweet cream foam for their coffee. Oh, did you see that International Delight or one of them other companies now, they make a sweet cream? Yeah, I did. Yeah. Yeah. What do you think about that? What's getting in on that whole trend too is the whole be your own barista at home. Yeah. I don't think Coffee Mate could have ever predicted such a windfall on their products that they carry, but they followed suit with like people like vanilla lattes, people like caramel. They have just about every flavor under the sun. Almond Joy, caramel, you know, the list goes on, they got something for everything. Yeah. It's like a reborn again company, you know, where they can, they have the opportunity to think outside the box and capture a whole new caveat. Well, somebody can look at the coffee world in the same aspect of, you can go back 20 years ago, there were not a lot of coffee companies. No. Roasteries that is. Yeah. Sure, there was a lot of local. Commercial. Well, commercial or your local mom and pop shops. Yeah. Nobody could have expected the roasting side to go the way that it has. Yeah, I agree. Or everybody and their cousins gotten into this business. Well, there's some people too that they have little at home roasters on their counters. Yeah, we know some people that do. Yeah, yeah. We sell quite a bit of green coffee to them. And to that, yeah, that's a good way to do it too if you want the freshest coffee, but you better know what you're doing. Better know what you're getting. Mm-hmm. And if it starts on your first purchase, where do those beans come from? Well, if you got good beans, and by good beans, I mean specialty grade. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Then as long as you have that and you're taking it upon yourself to roast your own coffee, it doesn't get any easier, or it gets a lot easier by having somebody else do it for you. Yeah, I agree. It doesn't get any better. I agree with that, yeah. But back to like the sweet cream foam, and people think they can just use their hand mixer to create, like take some cream, pour a little bit of vanilla or whatever in it, and then whip it up, or they think they can put it in their blender and whip it up. It doesn't work like that. You need this, it's a little stick blender, and it has a round whisk on the bottom of it for sweet cream foam, and you put that in your cup and whip the cream that way, and it whips up a volume of air in there that you're looking to get. Not making like a thick whipped cream type thing, you want to whip that volume of air to get it nice and soft and light. And I want to talk about beans again for a second. Yeah. Have you ever heard of like, they call them white, it's an undercooked coffee is what it is. Yeah, they call it white coffee. Yeah. Why? Well, sometimes it's just a new word of the day, but in the Arab world, they do a lot of green coffee. They drink a lot of green coffee, and it's just unroasted coffee beans, or some of it could be very lightly roasted. Well, it'd have to be lightly roasted, because I don't know how you're getting that into a grinder. Unroasted coffee is like rocks. Yeah. And it's not, unroasted coffee isn't that sanitary if you think about it, because it's laying out on patios or on raised beds. It depends on what country it comes from, how they process, do the drying process on. Yeah. Whereas when you roast it, you heat it up to about 440 degrees, 450 degrees over the course of 15 minutes. Yeah. Obviously, you start off lower than that, and then you have to build your way up. So you're also sanitizing the bean as you roast it. That's right. And is there anything else that you can think of to add back to your side of things as far as the coffee mates, or the international delights, or the syrups that people can use at home? Creamer? Yeah, creamer. I'd call it a creamer. I would say, for me, because I'm more of a purist when it comes to what I put in my family's bodies, so instead of buying, like, say an Almond Joy, for example, creamer, I would make my own. And there are a lot of companies out there that have natural syrup flavors, so you could buy a natural coconut flavor, you could buy an authentic chocolate, and you could mix that in with your heavy whipping cream, and you could make your own that way. Or if you want to take the easy way, I'm not sure of all the ingredients that Coffee Mate has in it. If there's... It's a lot of sugar, I can tell you that, because for, like, a tablespoon, it's 50 calories. Yeah. You have a lot more control when you make your own things. Well, you also have the autonomy to either add as much or as little of that sweetener as you want. Yeah, that's right. Yep. Because, well, it kind of reminds me of when I was a kid. My brother and I, we would take these little cups, they're like the cups you find at convenience stores, gas stations, whatever. Oh, the ones we used to use for trade shows? Yep. Yep. And we would just drink them. Yeah. No coffee, no nothing added. We would just drink those. Now, looking back at it, I have no idea how we did that. I don't either. Those are nasty little cups. They were delicious as a kid. Yeah. Nice to have all that sugar in them. Yeah. But, yeah, there's a lot of ways that you can make coffee, and I think the evolution of this channel is what I was trying to get at earlier, will be us being able to show people how it's made and the behind the scenes of the whole operation. Yeah, we've got some really amazing things coming up down the pike for a YouTube channel as far as the videos. We've got the espresso machines, the De'Longhi that I have and really like, and you don't have to have them plumbed in, per se. Mine has a water tank on the back, and most of the at-home espresso machines have that water container on the back of it. And then we have the AeroPress, and it's a really cool version of it. The AeroPress is just a non-mechanical little press that you can get an espresso-type drink out of, and I've got a single one, and then I've also got a double one, where, like, if you're camping or you're, you know, out somewhere on vacation, you can take that little AeroPress out and just have hot water at the ready and pour it over it and have your own fresh cup of coffee. And then I also have the frothing wand, and was there another item I'm thinking I might have in there in my bag of tricks, the French press? Well, people will come to find out. Yeah, they will. They'll tune in. Yeah. Well, we've got to apologize for not having an episode last week. It's just the fact that time kind of got away from us, and we kind of spaced it out, but we're back this week. Yes. I should have said that earlier, but let's go ahead and go into, where can people find you? Well, they can find us at sales at mojorose.com, shopnd.com. They can reach out, ask any kind of questions. If they want answers to how they're doing things, they can hit us up at Mojo Roaster on Facebook or on Instagram, we're also Mojo Roaster, and what is it, X Mojo Roaster. It's all Mojo Roaster. It is all Mojo Roaster. You may get in. Yeah, I try to, but there, you know, we can reach out and answer any questions. We'll reach back to you, respond very quickly, and hopefully take any turmoil in your mind out about this world of coffee that we're so passionate about. Yeah, so there's some interesting things coming down the pike, and we look forward to being able to share it all with you guys. Very much so, and we look forward to the Q&A if you guys want to serve it up. That's always awesome for us, too. We want to make you the best at what you do, and that's what counts. Yes, so any questions, feel free, whether you think that it's a, throw some hard ones at us, throw some easy ones at us, throw it all at us. Caramel macchiato, frappuccinos, iced coffees, all of that stuff that has an allure and it seems so complicated and confusing, we can take it all out for you. Yeah. And if you own a coffee shop, or you know somebody that owns a coffee shop that you think might want to bump up their coffee program, give us a shout out, we really would appreciate that, and we will go in and give that person another avenue for revenue. That's my goal, to make them as successful as possible. Way to plug yourself. I know. I did pretty good at that. Yeah. So I think on that note, we'll go ahead and conclude another episode of Coffee Break with Rio and Joe. Joe and Rio. Doesn't matter. Nope. Until next time, thanks everybody.