A Better Coffee # 1

Featuring 107 Roasters, Hario Pour over, and Airflow Management

Welcome to A Better Coffee! In this edition, we're exploring a unique coffee shop in McKinney, TX, sharing some home brewing techniques, and diving into the art of coffee roasting. Whether you're a casual coffee drinker or an aspiring roaster, there's something here for everyone. Let's get brewing!

Getting to Know the Coffee Community. One Cup at a Time.

107 Roasters Formerly TexaKona Coffee

McKinney, TX

107 Roasters, formerly known as TexaKona Coffee, is the perfect blend of good sounds and great coffee. From the moment we slid the door open to their shop we were transported into a coffee roasters paradise wrapped with sounds from Eric Clapton’s Cocaine to System of a Down’s Chop Suey. This fusion of coffee and music sets up a funky vibe that only they could pull off.

It is abundantly clear that 107 Roasters roasts their own coffee as an entire side of the building is filled with roasting equipment. The open concept of a coffee shop combined roastery submerges you into the whole process that goes into coffee.

We placed our order and began chatting with Dave the head roaster. Knowing that coffee roasting has many variables I attempted to nail him down on the one factor that he looks for when roasting coffee. Color was his number one and he began to demonstrate how to measure color. This far exceeded my expectations from such an impromptu visit.

Of all the coffee shops I have been to 107 Roasters takes the prize in offering a deep dive into coffee. They frequently offer roasting tours to educate customers about the coffee roasting process and serve of some tasty coffee. Even though my visit was not during a scheduled tour, Dave was more than happy to lend some detailed roasting knowledge.

Be sure to visit them next time you are in Mckinney, TX. You will be in for a treat. Check out their website and Facebook page to learn more about them.

Home Brewing Techniques

I am currently experimenting with the Hario Pour over Coffee Starter Set in the mornings. This set is an affordable way to get into Pour Over coffee with a starting price around $23.80 on Amazon and it comes with everything to get your Pour Over started (except the coffee and the water kettle). I opted for the plastic dripper because its low thermal mass maintains brewing temperature without the need of preheating the dripper.

Watch the YouTube video below for a nice tutorial to make Pour Over coffee. Although the Hario isn’t used in this video here, this technique can be used with any pour over brewer.

Here is a quick summary of the video.

• Heat up water in kettle to 190-200 degrees F.

• Prewet filter.

• Pour in 20g of medium ground coffee. Adjust grind to coarser or finer texture to get future brews to your liking.

• Pour 60g of water, gently swirl water in dripper, and lightly mix ground with spoon.

• Pour 230g of water, let drip.

• Pour 130g of water, let drip and enjoy.

This method has been producing some tasty results for me!

Coffee Roasting: What I’ve Learned

I just finished up The Online Roasting Class hosted by Scott Rao, and I can honestly say that this course has helped with my coffee roasting. I read both of Scott’s books Coffee Roasting Best Practices and The Coffee Roasters Companion before the course, but the online class helped explain some fundamentals I was missing.

Airflow management was my biggest takeaway from the class. Getting the airflow dialed in on my roaster allowed me to lower gas settings which resulted in a less roasty tasting coffee.

The cigarette lighter trick is a simple and effective way to get the airflow set on your machine. Mill City Roasters provides a useful video, see below, showing how to set the airflow on your machine. Two pieces of advice. Set the airflow during the middle of a roast and don’t be afraid you are setting the airflow too low. The cigarette lighter flame is a good indicator of proper airflow.

This newsletter publication is brought to you by Go West Coffee Company. Small batch roasting at its finest. Use code ABETTERCOFFEE for free shipping on your first order.

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West

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