This week I finally got my hands on the Clever Coffee Dripper. Sweet Maria's has been going gaga over this thing. Nick Cho (of Murky Fame) is also apparently using the brewer.
So what's the big deal?
Well take a look at the picture to the right...
Do you notice anything "wrong"?
If you said the coffee should be pouring all over the counter you're right! The Clever is a neat little device that steeps the coffee until you place the whole dripper on a cup. The cup triggers a valve to open allowing the coffee to pour into the cup.
In theory it should have many of the benefits of french press coffee with a much cleaner cup! Does that make sense?
Ok I'll explain
The coffee steeps like a french press (coffee sits in hot water), and then is drained through a fine paper filter which will get all the silt and stuff!
In Practice: Yesterday we (Jim Saborio and I) brewed up some Kenya Kiambu Ndumberi Peaberry with the clever.
1)We pre-wet the filter in the clever
2) We ground 20g of coffee at a very course setting... near french press and added it to the filter
3) We poured 12oz of hot water over the grounds
4) We covered the filter with a plate (this step helps quite a bit) to keep in heat and stuff
5) We let it sit for 2 minute then fold coffee
6) we let coffee sit for another minute and a half (3:30 minutes of steeping total)
7) we put the dripper on a mug and let the coffee drain out (to stop flow you can just take the dripper back off! neato)
In the cup
I got a ton of lemon tones (expected) and tomato tones (not expected) and not too many other bright tones (I was looking forward to the strawberry and other berry tones it's "supposed to have")
The brightness seems muted and the coffee doesn't have a ton of body
For some reason the citric acid is coming through strongly, but the phosphoric acids which are notorious in Kenyans aren't coming through at all...
If anyone knows the answer to this riddle let me know!
All in all a fun toy, but I don't understand the hype yet... perhaps in time I will get all the parameters right!
UPDATE: THIS is a great way to make coffee. HERE ARE SOME PARAMETERS
UPDATE: THIS is a great way to make coffee. HERE ARE SOME PARAMETERS
(reposted from bX)
Questions and some tips:
1) how coarse? you should play with different grind sizes around the coarse range.
2) for 12 oz of water, you should be at between 21 and 24/25 grams
3) If the coffee is fresh (within 4-5 days off roast), add about an ounce or 1.5z of water at the beginning for about 20 seconds before adding ALL the water.
4) how's your water temp? those Kenyan qualities you're looking for really want good-temp (~200*F) water to wake up.
5) Use a scale! One of the great things about using a scale for coffee water is that at 200*F, 1.0 oz of water by weight = 1.0 fl.oz.
6) Fill up the pouring pitcher high. Don't portion out just the water you wanna use, cuz it'll cool down much faster. Pour it slowly and move it around to get some good turbulence going evenly throughout the coffee bed.
7) Do the phosphoric acid qualities come through from that coffee with other brewing techniques right now? Tomato is TOTALLY a Kenya/SL28-quality!
8) We've been starting the 'dump' at the 2:30 mark, with a target of 3:30 to pull the dripper off the cup.
That's been badass for us. Granted, we could play with more variables, but it works for us! Good luck!
How do you like it now? I'm picking a couple of these up (work and home). I noticed a new video by Tom showing a way to tone down "bright" coffees. Clever Coffee Dripper with a Twist on youtube.