Spilling the coffee beans

When you have been in an industry a long time, you have seen many things that make you shake your head and wonder why.

Guy Griffith-Jones, who has owned C4 Coffee for nearly 14 years, has those moments when he sees people spend large amounts of money on home espresso machines and then not use them properly.

"Simple things, such as not cleaning the machine or using the wrong type of grind, will all affect the taste of your coffee," he says.

Inspired to help his customers get the most from both the coffee-making equipment and the beans they buy from C4 Coffee's Lichfield St cafe and roastery, Griffith-Jones has teamed up with film- maker and new media specialist Justin Heaney, of Influx, to create a series of "how to" videos.

The four videos follow the process of making a coffee, from the size of the grind, the anatomy of each apparatus, how to fill it, how to work out the timing to bring it to the right express point and "how to ride the flame on the hob to get the right steam point for perfect silky, velvet milk", says Heaney.

For Griffith-Jones, the videos are an online teaching tool to show his customers how to get the same taste, look and richness to the brew as you would at a good-quality coffee cafe. "Even if you are out camping," he says.

Coffee enthusiasts can choose between videos showing how to use La Sorrentina, Otto or Bellman stovetop espresso makers and the Bellman coffee siphon.

Heaney has already produced a range of videos aimed at teaching baristas more technical skills for C4, so Griffith-Jones says it was a natural step to produce a series for the home market.

"You want to be able to flick open a laptop, click onto the site and follow the step-by-step instructions all the way from what the grind should look like, how to prepare the equipment, what the extraction process sounds like and even how to create the trademark textured fern that tops a well-made flat white.

"It's about the quest for espresso perfection," says Griffith-Jones.

"A good coffee is one that is consistently good. Which means you actually don't do exactly the same thing all the time. With more practice, you'll learn to adjust the process slightly to suit the beans you have, the weather or the equipment you are using."

Each video is about 2 1/2 minutes long.

"It's short bursts of information," says Heaney. "Simple to follow and easy to remember and from different viewpoints. Usually a big machine blocks your view of what the barista is doing. Now you can look and learn."

Griffith-Jones says part of the skill of learning to make a good coffee comes from recognising the importance of the grind. The grind is the particle size of the coffee and the size you choose often depends on the weather.

"You can use the most expensive machine, but if the grind is bad, your coffee will be bad."

C4 is one of New Zealand's leading coffee roasters and wholesalers. Griffith-Jones says demand has grown steadily since it opened in 1996 and has been boosted with an online shopping facility.

"We have loyal customers who order regularly from the United States and Thailand. We also send frequent orders to Antarctica in the summer."

* The videos go live on www.c4coffee.co.nz/videos 

- © Fairfax NZ News