1:3 — Salt, blooms and sieves

Edition No. 42

1 Fun Thing

Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest salt flat located in Bolivia. It is over 10,000 sq km in area and is located at 3656m above sea level. It formed as the result of the transformations of several prehistoric lakes around forty thousand years ago but had all evaporated!

3 Coffee Facts

1. Coffee sieves, like the Kruve sifter help you separate ground coffee by particle sizes ranging from 200 - 1600 microns. Though unlikely to make a big difference to the average coffee drinker, sieves help eliminate very small and very large particles that could affect extraction. Remember though, even with sifting, you need to use the same technique each time to produce replicable results.

2. 30 - 45 second blooms are common, with most recipes recommending them but have you tried waiting longer? 1 - 2 min blooms with coarsely ground coffee can reduce astringency without too much compromise on extraction.

3. Potato Taste Defect, or PTD — virtually impossible to detect through visual inspection, it occurs in coffees from Rwanda, Western Uganda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. However much you love potatoes, it’s unlikely you want your coffee tasting of it and that’s exactly what this defect does!