BOTZ BREWS
You have Botz coffee, and now you want to know how to get the best tasting cup possible. Along the way, our Botz have learned that coffee means different things to different people. Some cherish their vintage diner coffee pots. Some use a scale to measure their grinds, but don’t care about TDS (total dissolved solids) or extraction percentages. And lastly, some measure to the .01g, calculate flow, mix minerals to create the perfect water, and buy specially shaped cups to enhance the acidity or sweetness of a brew… Regardless of your level of coffee intensity, to Botz, you’re perfect. Just as you are.
In a way, brewing resembles the evolution of characters in your favorite childhood video games or choose-your-own-adventure novels. You’re in control of your destiny. You may decide to take a straightforward path, befriend gnomes, and avoid skirmishes. Or may push yourself to evolve, gaining tools, skills, and powers in pursuit of your quest. Whatever techniques you use and time you invest in brewing, we want to be your robot companion and guide.
Enter the three Botz brewing levels – Mini-Bot, Big-Bot, and Mega-Bot.
Mini-bot
Some might call you a “beginner”, but here at Botz, we prefer to think of you as a highly efficient and practical traditionalist. You’d rather not buy a scale, as you use your trusty spoon to measure your coffee in the morning, and most of your brewing happens in a drip coffee maker. Although you don’t measure with exactness, you take pride in your ability to craft a cup that meets your standards and gets the occasional “Wow, this is something else,” from your friends and family.
If you meet this description, here are a couple of Botz tips –
● (Maybe most importantly) Please ensure your machine is clean. Wipe out any old grounds, and when you have spare time, run a couple of cycles with water only to clean it out.
● Use clean water…no floaties!
● For each cup of water, use 2 tablespoons of coffee (big scoops are okay).
● Use a grind that’s about 70% of your coarsest grind settings.
● If it tastes watery, please grind finer. If it tastes like bitter sludge, please grind coarser.
Big-bot
This represents the “intermediate” stage of coffee calculation - you have the tools and desire to achieve precision with your brew, but understandably, you also need to get to work on time. You probably have a nice burr grinder, you’ve bought the scale, and you try to match the best v60 brews from your local specialty coffee shop. Close ones may say you may take coffee too seriously, but you simply smirk as you taste your sweet, crisp, and balanced cup. Sound like you?
Here are a couple of Botz tips –
● We suggest a 1:16 ratio as a starting point. If you like your brews heavier, 1:15 is suitable.
● Try using Third Wave Water. It’s a nice solution for solid brewing water. We use it to evaluate our coffees.
● For percolation brews (v60/Kalita Wave), we suggest a contact time range of 3:00-3:30 minutes with a 30-45 sec bloom. We pour in two stages at Botz for these methods using 20-26g of coffee in the brewer.
● For immersion brews (French Press), you may use a 1:16 ratio, but please ensure if you use this ratio that you grind fine. Immersion methods are less efficient than percolation (the water keeps getting “dirtier” with more coffee, making it harder for the coffee to give more of itself to the brew). Grinding fine will help you reach a suitable extraction percentage. We suggest treating your French Press like a cupping exercise and decanting slowly until you see fines start to creep into your cup.
Mega-bot
You’re an “advanced” coffee aficionado, laser-focused on calibrating the perfect cup. Your impatient, caffeine-thirsty peers may call you a mad scientist, but Botz thinks you’re a holographic champion. You have an extensive collection of gizmos and gadgets that make your coffee experience outstanding on a daily basis. An EK-43 sits on your kitchen counter, you may sieve your grounds, and you often ponder about how you could make established pour-over devices even better and more efficient. You’re a wizard, so no need to provide you with information you already know.
Just some Botz protocol –
● Botz breaks at 4:00 passing through the cup 3 times while hitting the bottom of the bowl. 1:17 ratio. 5.5 EK-43. Third Wave Water Classic.
● Filter coffee extraction range 20-21%, TDS 1.38-1.44%.