Aura

i haven't touched my french presses for 4-5 months now and have been meaning to try out the Hoffman French Press method. happened to have some crap beans this week that i ordered from amazon (meant to only clean my grinder out after i use some capsules) and i tried pour over with them yesterday... utterly terribly. well a decent finish but still pretty bad. so i went with this 'unpressed' french press style for the same beans this morning and it definitely turned out better! very acceptable. better balance and some nuttiness. on par or slightly-better with any basic drip i'd get from a good cafe and that is a great result considering the beans i'm using. and ironically it's easier to clean out the press afterward because the filter needs a 5 second rinse rather than a full cleaning out of residue and oil.

^yep i did like evpatoria as well, been a long time since i played through their stuff. Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts V: Together and Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts VI: Locusts

Do Make Say Think - Stubborn Persistent Illusions legitimate contender for the best post rock ever

Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way not sure if this is actually their "best" album but it's my favorite

Preston Reed - Ladies Night

had no idea this album was out. Agnes Obel - Myopia

The Radio Dept. - Clinging to a Scheme

Love my Lido 3 but small it is not. Proper Head Case solution for you is something like a Comandante C40 or Kinu M47.

many many things today as i'm trying to keep my head above water... this is current The War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding

I think the Yemen is the very first single origin on the product page? https://www.levercraft.com/decent-espresso-club/single-origin-yemen-haraaz

^my next coffee order will go to him. just got in a couple bags from Heart Roasters so not immediately, hopefully it will still be available.

So far my favorites are Reanimator in Philly and Heart Roasters in Portland.

working through a few today Tame Impala - The Slow Rush Beck - Hyperspace Grimes - Miss Anthropocene

hell yeah. i've been reading up on comparisons for drop coffee between niche and lido 3. largely ethiopian and kenyan. honestly i think i prefer south american coffee. the extra acidity from african is tough to balance... i guess it's probably not suppose to in some sense. you want fruit, you gotta have light roast with tons of acidity.

this week i've made a few changes for my pour-over... the first change is a recipe adjustment to start using the '40-60 method' on my hario. the basic premise is to slow the brewing process a bit, segment out into smaller pours with more even extraction. it feels like i have more overall control. the end result so far is a more balanced coffee that isn't overwhelmed with acidic bitterness (which i'm finding hard to dial in on these light roast beans, specifically those from Africa). it also seems to be deeper underlying flavors like earthy and nutty. the second change is trying out third wave water packets. i really don't care enough about brewing with my own DIY water and this is already so pretentious to be mixing with distilled gallons, but i'll admit it does taste different. the coffee is softer and i think the acidity has more clarity. but it doesn't fundamentally change the taste compared to my own tap water. you get 12 gallons' worth for $15, not terrible, but i'll probably utilize it on occasion rather than all the time or perhaps with beans that are particularly expensive or good.

some new(ish) stuff that's been on repeat for me: Mizmor - Cairn Chrch - Light Will Consume Us All Vanum - Ageless Fire Vukari - Aevum Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race general theme of the first four is a great sense of atmosphere. i'd find it hard to categorize any of them in a specific subgenre (well i guess mizmor and chrch are pretty solidly doom). blood incantation is just incredible. best pure death metal going right now.

Life is fleeting as fuck. Kobe was the ultimate competitor, i'm thankful he was able to show how successful he could be in life after sports. RIP.

the v60 rocks. just about done with this Ethiopian after getting mixed results on aeropress. make one brew with this hario and it is significantly better from start to finish. i think the aeropress will be reserved for experimental purposes. used James Hoffman method, very easy and seems like a good base recipe to adjust off of for new bags. also i love getting two reasonable cups from one brew.

^queue'd up here too, sounding pretty great

well i'd really intended to get a kalita for pour-over instead of a hario v60 but i came across the v60 drip decanter and it looks about perfect... uses a plastic size 02 so i can make two cups for Mrs and me and save time. plus Prima restocked the untabbed 02 filters which are (apparently) hard to come by now so i ordered a bunch with the decanter. pour over come at me bro.

i think it's the one thing they don't change out on the menu. pretty fun, the helium only messed up my voice for a few minutes ?

anniversary dinner last night at Alinea. every single bite was great. and a few in particular were absolutely epic (the halibut/fennel/apple and rabbit/beans/sassafras).

wait that's not how you test for correct coarseness?

fuck yeah it's coffee time got the lido today, everything i read online is pretty much on point. adjusted the dials twice and brewed a medium-dark Kenya AA, very well rounded cup when it got a few ticks above room temp. most interesting is my yield was noticeably better with this lido compared to the hario. my bypass/water addition was like a third of what i'd been adding before. i think this made the cup a bit heftier overall. afterwards i did adjust the grind to a little less fine for my brew tomorrow morning, a little more coarse should dial this in. fun stuff, also got some Ethiopian in from Heart Coffee in Portland so i need to rush through the remainder of this Kenyan which should be easy since i'm drinking twice my normal amount since i got the aeropress.

supposedly taubman's punishment effectively equals a permanent ban but the same should have been applied to other folks or they should have taken many more picks away. NBA took away like 5+ years of picks from minnesota for something way less damaging. feels closer to a slap on the wrist. not surprised.