Ange manages communications and media at Seven Seeds. She walks us through her morning coffee routine and how it’s become an integral ritual whilst she works from home.
Speaking with Yu, she explains how she is “grateful to be working for a company that believes in the future of coffee. A couple of years ago Seven Seeds made the pledge (amongst other leading coffee roasters around the world) to be transparent with what we paid for each coffee and I endeavour to communicate why this is so important.”
“Unfortunately, the coffee industry is no different from the fashion industry,” she furthers. “It’s an industry made of mass production, astronomically low wages and poor working conditions. Some coffees may be fair trade but that’s just minimum wage in these countries which again isn’t much. We’re trying to shake up the industry and get others to follow suit.”
There’s a misconception that good coffee is hard and expensive to replicate at home. In reality with the right tools and good quality coffee, it’s really easy. “When it comes to profile and notes, coffee isn’t too different from wine,” she says. “If the quality of the coffee is great (great practice in production and roasting) you can get some incredible aromatics, complex notes and you’ll start to taste the difference in origin. Pour over coffee is a great method to really explore this and will be the method I’ll be demonstrating today.”
Ange enjoys her coffee black and light. In her words, pour over is one of the most cost effective and simplest ways to brew coffee; plus she likes the theatratics behind brewing it. Here she lets us inside her home, and shows us how she brews her coffee.
What you need:
- Coffee: I recommend using a light or filter roast coffee for this particular brew. I’m grinding my coffee manually but you can also get the coffee pre-ground when purchasing.
- V60 cone ($11)
- V60 paper filter ($4.50, 40pack)
- Scale
- Teaspoon
- Stopwatch (I just use my iPhone)
- Kettle: I’m using a gooseneck kettle but a standard kettle does the trick!
- I’m using a glass decanter here but you can brew straight into the cup.
Coffee is personal. Black or with milk. You’re either a purist or you add caramel syrup to your mocha. But there is nothing more personal than meeting the people that grow and farm your beans. “Every year (although it’s been different this year), Matt (roaster), Ryan (roaster) and Mark (founder) will travel to origin countries, meet the producers, see their farms, taste their coffees and purchase lots directly,” Yu tells me.
“It’s great for me because I’ll ask about the coffees, what it’s like, how it’s produced and I get told about the producers and what they’re like personally. In my line of work it’s really special to be able to share these stories - it makes the product personal.”
Method:
- Open the paper filter up and pop it into the cone. Pour some hot water through the filter and cone to pre-head and wet the brewer.
- Place brewer on mug and then tare them on your scales. Add your freshly ground coffee to the brewer, 20g is great for 1 mug. Tare the scales again.
- Grab your kettle and slowly pour until the scale read 50g. Start your stopwatch, grab your teaspoon and give the coffee slurry a gentle stir to get all the coffee nice and wet, 10 seconds should do it.
- When your watch reads 30 seconds, you can add another 135g of water from the kettle. Be gentle with the pouring, aiming for the centre of the coffee.
- When your watch reads 60 seconds, add 135g of water and finish with another gentle, circular stir, for 3 seconds.
- Your coffee should take 3 to 4 minutes to drip through.
“I’m not saying we’re perfect but we’re trying our absolute best to give back to these producers and communities. Evidently, we’re merely championing what the producers yield which in return strives them to do better and creating a long term working relationship,” Yu explains.
Seven Seeds deliver nationwide and their coffee subscription is the best way to try their seasonal coffees. For yourself, at home.
