Coffee – Coffee Geek

Posted on 1 March 202020 January 2022 by Thomas Garcia — 28 Comments

Learn to use a La Pavoni, step by step

Although very busy for several months, I decided to take over my blog on coffee. Today, I offer a detailed tutorial, on all the steps that allow me to make a success of my coffees with a levered La Pavoni.

You should know that the levered La Pavoni are very “sensitive” machines. That is to say that the slightest “mistake” has consequences that are immediately felt in the cup. Therefore, when you start with a La Pavoni, the first coffees are very often missed. But do not be discouraged, with practice, you manage to find your technique and implement your protocol to make all your coffees successful.

Old photo of me extracting coffee with a La Pavoni. I changed the portafilter and filter (I switched to the IMS filters and the same for the shower). I really like the colors we have in this flowing coffee.

Posted on 2 August 20197 November 2020 by Thomas Garcia — 1 Comment

How to use a Moka pot ?

Moka pot are created at a time when espresso machines were very expensive. They allowed the general public to access, at home, coffee close to espresso. It is actually possible with espresso maker moka pot to have a mousse very close to the cream of an espresso. To get there, you have to use some coffees and have some technique.

Let’s see how to make a coffee with an Italian espresso maker moka pot.

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Posted on 29 July 201928 July 2019 by Thomas Garcia — Leave a comment

Roaster coffee VS supermarket coffee

Making good coffees is expensive. You may have had to ask yourself, too, “Why buy coffee beans from a coffee roaster while there are some in supermarkets?” This is a question I will try to answer in my article.

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Posted on 15 November 201810 January 2019 by Thomas Garcia — Leave a comment

Coffee producing countries: Central America and the West Indies

After introducing you to the coffee producing countries in Africa, I will talk to Central America and the West Indies.

Coffee was brought to America in 1720 by Europeans and is considered a founding economic activity in the history of Central America. This commodity has played a very important role in the political, monetary and social evolution of the continent. The coffees that are produced there are famous for their bodies as well as their aromas.

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Posted on 11 November 201810 January 2019 by Thomas Garcia — 4 Comments

Coffee-producing countries: Africa

In Africa and elsewhere, when coffee did not grow naturally in the colonies, their crops were strongly encouraged. In this way, a very large part of the coffee produced in West Africa (which consisted of the French Empire) is Robusta.

Because of its ancient conquests, in France we still drink a lot of robustas coffee while the British colonies at the end of the nineteenth century and after the First World War concentrated mainly in a region producing in Arabica: East Africa. The coffee mainly consumed in England was then Arabica.

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Posted on 7 February 20181 February 2019 by Thomas Garcia — 4 Comments

The ecological aberration of capsules (pods) machines

Even before they were marketed, the coffee pods system was already an aberration. Capsules make coffee less good than Italian espresso machines, make coffee more expensive, give less freedom in the choice of coffee and above all, this process is far from ecological.

I propose today to look at what their impacts are, the promises of the companies that market the pods and finally, I propose to you to determine what alternatives to the polluting pods can be.

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Posted on 5 February 201810 January 2019 by Thomas Garcia — Leave a comment

Coffee recipe: Pork loin in coffee

For my small weekly coffee recipe, I decided to offer you this time the recipe of a main dish where you can find coffee. This will change desserts and cupcakes that I usually present. Behind this recipe, we find a partnership between Illy cafes and cook David Toutain. The realization of this dish is of a difficulty level “easy”. Little tip: To help you, watch the short video of the cook David Toutain. He gives advice and guidance to help you.

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Posted on 2 February 201810 January 2019 by Thomas Garcia — Leave a comment

Ecology Coffee: Opening a series of articles

I decided to open a series of articles that will talk about some environmental problems that are associated with the misuse of coffee. You will discover that trivial practices of everyday life can have a much more serious impact than we think. The subjects will not necessarily talk about coffee as such. For example, we will find topics on cardboard cups that take up to 150 years to decompose, capsules…

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Posted on 1 February 20189 January 2019 by Thomas Garcia — Leave a comment

The problem of disposable cups

One does not necessarily realize this, but the use of disposable cups has a real ecological impact. There are so many people who use it (and especially not recycle them) that the problem is real. Continue reading The problem of disposable cups

Posted on 30 January 20189 January 2019 by Thomas Garcia — Leave a comment

Making the perfect espresso

Making a good espresso coffee is a real science. And the latter is a real pleasure. Every coffee we make is slightly different and we try to understand the small detail that influenced his coffee, why we found it better. We test different settings of mills, different quantities of coffee, a more or less long prebrewing…

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