January 6, 2015

Shukan Flavor No. 154 Playing with the Wave Dripper/週刊フレーバー No. 154 ウエーブドリッパーで遊ぶ

Shukan Flavor No. 154 Playing with the Wave Dripper/週刊フレーバー No. 154 ウエーブドリッパーで遊ぶ

English only. Japanese version omitted.

0:50 Nakagawa starts by talking about how he cleaned the superheated steam generator.
3:00 Starts talking about today's topic: Wave Filter rather than the Wave Dripper.
Shows a big Wave Dripper. For those who don't have such a big one but want to make a large amount of coffee, he considers a unique way.
4:00 Shows a big 2-liter container. places a metal sieve, followed by a 27 cm diameter wave filter. 5:20 Shows a small Wave Dripper.
5:50 Shows a paper cup, and says you can use it instead of a Wave Dripper.
The female assistant (licensed Q grader) says he has dealt with this topic before.
6:50 He changes his mind and says he will use a tea strainer instead.

Note: Nakagawa usually does this show without rehearsal, and he often makes mistakes, makes stupid remarks, changes his mind, and does other funny things during the show. This episode is no exception.

7:10 He starts demonstrating how to brew a large amount of coffee using a sieve, a wave filter, etc.
He says he will brew using a "dote" (lit. embankment).

Note: The "dote" technique is one of his preferred methods, and it's brewing by pouring water only at and around the center of the bed of ground coffee, avoiding pouring water in the area 1-cm inward from the edge of the bed (thereby making an embankment).

100 g coffee, grind level of 3 on his commercial grinder (fine)

9:40 He shows another gadget from Kalita, Wave Style, and says he will also use it today.

13:09 He finally starts pouring water for blooming, in much the same way as the Matsuya method.
14:50 Starts pouring water for extraction, again in much the same way as the Matsuya method.
See how he avoids pouring water near the edge, making a "dote" (embankment) around the edge. Notice also that he has to stop pouring occasionally to avoid breaking the dote.
19:50 He lifts the sieve to check if water runs through the side, and confirms that most of the water runs down through the center.
20:00 He finishes brewing 500 cc (ml) of coffee. He then dilutes it with (an equal amount?) of water, again in much the way way as the Matsuya method.
22:05 Nakagawa and Nagaya (assistant) taste the coffee. They agree that it has a clear taste, although Nagaya says it's a little strong.

The next attempt is brewing with a tea strainer.
25:00 He says that the 6.3 mm diameter tea strainer comes with a Kalita drip pot.
27:20 He proves that the Wave Filter 155 has a diameter of 155 mm.

To be continued.

30:00 He asks Nagaya to grind 20 g of coffee at a grind level of 3 (fine).
32:55 He starts pouring water for blooming.
32:47 He starts pouring water for extraction. He pours a small amount of water at the center of the coffee grounds, stops pouring, and starts pouring again. He repeats the steps. Note that he uses the "dote" technique again.
37:50 He dilutes the strong coffee with water.
38:25 He tastes the coffee, and then dilutes it again with some more water.
38:30 The two agree that the coffee is less tasty than the first.
40:50 Nakagawa decides to brew coffee with a paper cup.
10 g coffee
42:30 He makes a hole at the center of the bottom of the cup. He decides to make four others.
43:53 He makes another hole on the side of the cup, as an air vent.
45:05 He makes yet another hole on the side, as an air vent.
47:55 He starts pouring water for blooming. He then brews coffee in the same way as he does for the second brew, using the "dote" technique.
51:27 He dilutes the coffee with water. He tastes it, and says it's good. Nagaya says that it's somewhere between the first and second brews.

To be continued.

53:00 Nakagawa goes on to the next topic: thinking of brewing coffee outdoors for Mr. Kim (one of the frequent viewers). Nagaya keeps telling him that his past similar attempts have ended in failure.
10 g coffee
1:03:24 After all is said and one, he decides to adopt Kim's idea: using toothpicks with the lower paper cup. He first uses four toothpicks and then two of them.
1:06:15 He makes a hole at the center of the bottom of the upper paper cup.
1:06:55 He pours a small amount of water into the upper cup.
1:07:45 He pours more water.
1:09:18 He pours a large amount of water, in an attempt to see if the air vent is effective. (Coffee comes out of the air vent, and seems not effective.)
1:12:19 He tastes the coffee, and says, "It's bad, isn't?" He asks, "It's the worst, isn't it?" Nagaya says yes.
Nagaya says that Nakagawa has poured a large amount of water at once (for the third time), suggesting that that's the reason why the coffee tastes so bad. Nakagawa agrees, saying that even if you brew outdoors, you have to pour water carefully.
1:13:57 He says that if you are to use a toothpick, you should just place it between the server (carafe) and the lower paper cup, like this, so that the air can be released from the server.
1:14:21 He says it's past ten o'clock, shows the Wave Style again, and says he can't try it today and will do so some day.

End of the video



7 comments:

Dexter Shaw said...

Awesome Hiroyuki ...Thanks for taking the time to translate ...Whenever time permits please do translate some Nakagawa-san videos which you find informative..like a semi weekly/monthly post ..Your writing style is very lucid and easy to understand. This is my humble suggestion :-)

So from what you say ...looks like the paper cup dripper with 10grams coffee is better than tea strainer aka wave dripper ...Does it have to do with bed depth ?

Hiroyuki said...

Dexter: Well, these three experiments do not prove anything. The thing is that Nakagawa encourages us viewers to make experiments on their own and make their own conclusions.

As you point out, bed depth is one factor, the flatness of the dripper is another.

Dexter Shaw said...

Thx Hiroyuki for taking the time to respond ...I did my experiments at home and to my taste buds the conical dripper like hario or matsuya tasted much better than a flat bottom one...The flat bottom dripper was not offensive but was very weak...maybe in larger volumes the flat dripper may promote uniform brewing but for smaller volumes like 250ml, I prefer the cone. Here in the US, coffee dripper maufacturer "BUNN" always uses a flat bottom filters in their machines and always encourage brewing a big pot for a better flavor ..Now I know why :-)

Kiki said...

Hiroyuki, may I asked you a question not about coffee brewing, but something else?
I am invited to the house of a japanese friend of mine, a party with life music, dinner and afterwards Karaoke.. Concerning the dinner, it is a party where everyone has to bring something to eat. And it has to be a japanese dish (most of the guests are japanese). I am going to prepare some karaage or maybe chicken wings but would like to bring some nice vegetable dish too. What would you recommend?

Hiroyuki said...

Kiki: Vegetable dish? That could be anything. How about another deep-fried food, french fries? Or, niku jaga (meat potato stew), an all-time Japanese favorite nimono, or Japanese potato salad (with some German touch).

Hiroyuki said...

Kiki: Now I remember! Tsukemono! Why not impress your friends with your pickles?

Kiki said...

Tsukemono, good idea. I will prepare some. Thank you!