I’ve been a caffeine addict since the 6th grade, when I had my first frozen coffee treat, that had me bouncing off the walls. Literally.

Since then, I’ve calmed down a bit from the wall jumping, but increased my consumption 10 fold. I went from the dessert-ish frozen calorie-full chocolate-laced drinks, to double-tall soy lattes.

What I’ve never been, however, is a fan of coffee without any cream or milk in it. Americano? No. Drip coffee? No way. Not unless it was flooded with epic amounts of soy milk.

However, time changes everything, and this Saturday was no different.

I was checking out twitter one morning when fate found me. I stumbled across a tweet from @RickNakama, about checking out the new café in downtown. I was planning on heading into the office anyway, so it was perfect timing. I jumped in on their convo and met them at Beach Bum Café, in the executive center.

I'll admit, while I was waiting for everyone to show up, I thought about ordering a latte. Once everyone was there, however, I hesitantly agreed to trying out one of their coffees, Red Caturra…straight up. Peer pressure! Hehe.

It was actually pretty fascinating. This wasn’t your everyday coffee shop. They make their coffee by the cup, weighing out both the water and the coffee, to get the perfect ratio. (The ipad looking device is actually a scale) They also offer four different variations of brewing: French press, chemex, sock pot, and siphon.

We thought it would be fun to try the same cup of coffee, brewed in ALL four ways.

Let the magic begin!

After measuring everything out, they even go so far as to time the entire steeping process, so it’s not steeped too long. Left to right: chemex, sock pot and french press. 

They grind the coffee beans right there before your eyes, one cup at a time. The first brewing method we tried was the french press.  Since I'm the farthest thing from a coffee snob, I had to google everything to get an idea of what each brewing method had to offer.

The french press allows the coffee grinds to sit in the water and brew for a select amount of time, to filter out the grinds, you push the plunger down and a mesh captures the grinds at the bottom of the beaker. Because the grinds remain in direct contact with the water, and are filtered through mesh instead of paper, this method captures more of the coffee's flavor and essential oils.

Next was the chemex (left) and the sock pot (right).  This was your standard filter and pour water over deal, but our friendly barista (who's name I forget, sorry!) let us know that the type of filter and the different shape of the bottles make a difference.

The chemex, introduced in 1941 by Peter Schlumbohm has an hourglass shape and utilizes a paper filter made of natural 36 lb weight paper. He rinsed the filter by pouring hot water over it before emptying the flask and adding the coffee grounds. 

The sock pot uses a somewhat standard looking pot, but with a reusable cotton strainer instead of a paper strainer.

Finally, the most fun to watch, the siphon.  It’s like 10th grade chemistry all over again. Okay, no Bunsen burner, but it gets pretty close.

First, water is added to the bottom portion of the siphon, and the heat source is turned on.

An open beaker with a tube, filter and a rubber "plug" is placed loosely on the pot.

Once the water starts boiling, the beaker is pushed into place, creating a vacuum seal. The pressure builds until the water is forced into the open beaker.

Coffee grounds are added, and brewed for a set time period (Note the timer on the towel). Once the time period has elapsed, the heat source is turned off and as the pressure decreases, the coffee streams back through the filter (catching the grounds) and into the lower pot.

Magic!

It was really interesting how different brewing methods resulted in different tasting coffee. Also, the taste of the coffee changed as the coffee cooled, especially with the siphon method.

Overall, for this coffee, I enjoyed the taste of the french press the most. I'd love to go into more detail about the taste, but I think it's one of those places that you just need to try for yourself!  Just know that, as someone that has NEVER enjoyed drinking black coffee, I was sold! I even went back during the week to try out another blend.

The wait for your coffee here is not much different from a Starbucks line at rush hour, except you're waiting for the coffee rather than the line to move. It's also a nice perk that the place is quiet and you can strike up a conversation with Dennis (the owner) about different coffees he's expecting to get, or which roast you should try. 

Much thanks to @RickNakama, @hnlmark, and @konaish for setting up this shindig! 

Beach Bum Cafe
1088 Bishop Street, Suite 101
(Around the corner from Longs)
808-521-6699
info@beachbumcafe.com
http://beachbumcafe.com

Monday - Friday: 7am - 7pm
Saturday: 7am - 1pm