On the 19th of February last year I had the pleasure of meeting Katelyn Thomson and Jase Harvey. I first came to know Katelyn by following her on Instagram and it was awesome to finally meet her and her partner Jase. First impressions - Katelyn and Jase are such cool people (the type of people you'd love to be friends with) and I'm not just saying that! I felt as though we could have chatted for hours and hours about coffee. The interaction was super casual yet knowledgeable and they gave me some insight into their upcoming coffee venture "Common". They only had two days in Melbourne before moving onto Adelaide but if they had stayed a little longer I could have easily seen us meeting up again. I gave the guys a little tour of the Padre Coffee roastery in Brunswick East and then they attended a Padre Coffee workshop that runs every Monday afternoon. A little bag of Colombian Padre goodness and that was it. A short and sweet visit and I was really excited about what was around the corner for both of them!
On the 12th of April, Common Coffee launched at the London Coffee Festival, with a vision of simplicity by showcasing four roasts - Strong, Bright, Sweet and Complex. It may sound simple and just reading it you've probably hovered towards one or two words already, yet there's so much more to it than that. Some people can be confused by the tasting notes found on bags of coffee (why would I want to taste black tea in coffee?) or be overwhelmed with coffee jargon (this coffee was grown at an altitude of what???) when you're simply after a delicious bag of coffee. I'm all for education but let's get people excited first! Let's bring Specialty Coffee to a place where your everyday coffee consumer can understand and taste something extraordinary without all that jargon. Let's excite the palate that leads to the mind, that then opens the door of curiosity to discover more about the coffee in your cup. After meeting the guys and drinking their coffee, I feel like this is part of the vision Common has for everyone. It's tasty, it's educational and it creates opportunities for people to come together and appreciate a good brew.
I've been fortunate enough to have been sipping on two of these beautiful roasts, The Sweet Roast - sounds a lot like me, Charlie Wade - the sweet one! Writing poems, opening doors, lighting candles... annnd back to reality! 😂 This coffee reminded me of my childhood when I used to demolish bars of Raisin milk chocolate, chewy toffee that would mould like a mouthguard around my teeth and picking ripe red plums off my ouma's tree in the summertime! This coffee offered me so much but I won't go into to much detail, you'll see it on my next coffee conversation with the legend Vaughan Joseph Allison.
Ahh the Bright Roast, if you’ve tasted this coffee before then you probably know all too well what I’m about to talk about! Flavour, flavour, flavour! When I opened this bag of coffee all I smelt was sugar, beautiful sugarcane, and probably my favourite part of brewing this drop was the super sweet smell that went from sugar to this insane smell of nectarine! Straight nectarine juice, syrupy and delicious and the more I smelt it the more I started to salivate, Homer Simpson drooling face for nectarine juice!!! This made it extremely hard to wait for the brew to cool down before drinking it, however, I did really enjoy taking in the aroma of warm peaches. My taste buds were blowing up with that same sweet nectarine, a vibrant cranberry acidity, and finished on this floral honey taste. I recently discovered subtle secondary flavours in honey, like toffee and floral notes and it was awesome to see my palate and brain making those new discoveries visible on my palate when analysing coffee.
The cool down on this drop was subtle mandarin, that floral honey developed to an earl grey vibe and that cranberry just got sweeter. I’ve got this thing that I’ve always got to smell the last sip in my cup, and if you’ve ever poached peaches, you’ll know exactly what I was smelling. What a beautiful way to finish the brew, super complex and simply delicious. This bag of coffee packed a bright punch for sure, and it made me happy to see what they’ve done in the short time I’ve known and followed them.
At Common, they say “The Bright Roast - The sun, the stars, the future, Hawaiian shirts, and now, your coffee.” I guess it’s time to get my first Hawaiian shirt!
WASHED ETHIOPIAN WOLICHU WACHU
Hey Honey, can I get another glass of that sweet nectarine juice?
2 Cup V60 Serving - Contributes to your daily intake of two fruits.
Dose - 24g Yield - 400g Time - 3:30 min Ratio - 1:16.6 Temp - 98 degrees Grind - 30 clicks on the Comandante Bloom - 50g, 30 seconds
Preparation
Fold the V60 paper filter along the seam line to make placing it into your pour over easier, we want it sitting snug along the sides.
Place the pour over on top of your server and rinse the paper filter with hot water. This will rinse the filter from any papery taste and heat the server at the same time!
Discard the water from the server and tare your scale off to zero.
Add the ground coffee to your v60 giving it a gentle shake to level the grounds and tare once again. You're ready to make magic!
Method
00:00
Start your timer, pour 50 grams of water onto your bed of coffee, ensuring all the dry grounds are completely saturated. You can achieve this by either spinning the saturated grounds in a circular motion or using a bamboo paddle to achieve the same effect. Be careful to not over agitate, remember we only want to saturate the dry coffee. This part of the brew is called the "bloom" and it prepares your coffee for the rest of the brewing process.
00:30
In a slow circular motion pour 150 grams of water slowly until you reach the one minute mark, concentrating your pour in the middle of your v60.
01:20
In a slow circular motion pour another 100 grams of water until you reach 300 grams.
02:00
In a slow circular motion pour the remaining 100 grams of water until you reach 400 grams. I aim to pour this last action over the next thirty seconds.
03:15
Remove the V60 from the scale and gently tap the V60 and carafe on the bench - this aids in settling the brew slurry.
03:30
Once the brew reduces down to a drip, remove and discard the filter. Swirl it around and smell the warm peach aroma!
Note:
If you find your time is noticeably slower it's a good indication that your grind size is too fine. If you brew time is really fast, it's a good indication your grind size is too coarse and it means you need to adjust your grind size finer to find the suitable size for this recipe.
Swirl it, smell it, pour it, enjoy it! 👌🏽
For more on this Fresh drop check out iiCOMMON COFFEE ROASTERS! ✌🏽