One of the reoccurring phenomenon within the coffee realm is the shift in popularity between brewing methods. Cafes attempt to set themselves apart by offering a different flavor profile by changing their brewing method without changing their brewing parameters. We see a rotation between different brewing methods based on what is fashionable within the industry and not necessarily the most suitable method for an individual café.
Three years ago the Clover had captured the imagination of industry professionals who were willing to pay the hefty price tag in order to be able to brew individual coffees quickly. Many, including myself, were sold on the potential of the Clover to solve waste and freshness issues that occur in every café. Starbucks saw the potential as well and bought the Clover design diminishing the hopes of any future improvement upon the technology. Clover quickly lost it’s cool faster than auto- tune after those Bud Light commercials.
Some cafes have remained Clovercentric and others have sought to make better coffee using other methods. This is mildly reminiscent of the current trend away from expensive fine dining towards great tasting food at affordable prices. The concerns over freshness and waste have directed some cafes towards more manual, labor- intensive approaches to brewing individual cups of coffee. The problem with this approach is that baristas make mistakes and consistency is dependent on the training and execution of the person preparing your coffee. Enter the Extract MoJo.
In 2008, Vince Fedele introduced his first version of a device that would aim to accurately measure the brew strength of coffee. The MoJo is a combination of a refractometer specifically designed for coffee that works in conjunction with a software application for the iPhone. The refractometer pushes light through a small sample of coffee and determines brew strength based on the sample’s refractive index. Pretty cool.
Being able to accurately measure brew strength is a huge step towards improving the quality of coffee everywhere. It is a perfect training tool that allows us to better understand extraction and monitor mistakes that can be made during preparation. It allows me to monitor commercial grind settings so that each coffee is ground correctly and make sure that coffee brewers are running correctly. I used to hate the inconsistent results that I would obtain brewing coffee on a standard flat-bottom brewer, not realizing that my own error was to blame for the inconsistent results.
Drip coffee that is brewed correctly is delicious and not as volatile as I once thought. I find that the flavor of a properly brewed batch changes and improves as it ages (up to a certain point). Batches that are brewed improperly inevitably taste worse as they age because their bad flavor is accentuated as the coffee matures. Brewed coffee offers a compromise between the body of a French Press with the brew clarity of the Clover and the best part is… MOST coffee shops serve coffee from a brewer. The hardware is already in place, we just need the right software to utilize it.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
The concept is a good one and I respect the inventors’ intentions and reputations. Past such devices have failed because coffee is either an unstable product or the devices couldn’t adjust to temperature changes as coffee cools. Also, different coffees brewed identically gave different results meaning the gauge needed to be calibrated for a given coffee. These challenges aside, I’m in support of a good portable device to measure brew strength, as well as skeptical of the desire to measure “something” even if it is not the right thing. Let’s hope they’ve finally got it right. Most coffee, at home or in public, is not properly brewed. The right device is needed if the average person is to ever taste the best coffee has to offer.
The Reichert meters are calibrated to compensate for temperature as long as the sample is between 20 and 30 C… so you have to cool the coffee before you take a reading. It’s measuring dissolved solids, so any notions of “stability” don’t really apply. You will have some evaporation, resulting in a slightly higher reading, but cooling quickly will minimize that effect.
Last, if you’re getting massively different extraction results from different coffees, holding the rest of your variables (water temp, ground coffee dose, brew time, water weight) then the problem is the consistency of your roasting, and substantially different roast levels.
The MoJo technology will only get better as well. We had the first version which doesn’t even compare to version 2 that we use now. I’m sure that version 3 will outperform it’s predecessor as well