The Recipe
I am not selling my coffee to sell coffee. Yes, I am selling bags of coffee but the bag is not what I'm intending to exchange, it's the experience of incredible coffee.
I am deeply vested in my clients tasting this coffee exactly as I mean for them to. I want you to taste it as if I made you a cup myself, perhaps right there in Costa Rica.
Now it is up to you— coffee cosmonaut—to decide if you're going to go along for this ride! Exploration means adventure, and that will involve leaving the Shire in search of a new world— the world of single-origin specialty Costa Rica coffee.
This recipe below will produce what I consider to be an ideal Troubardour cup. Please note, if you have any questions about this, write to me or reach out via any social channel.
I want to make speciality coffee brewing easy, accessible and enjoyable to everyone that comes in my world. Do not get intimidated by the equipment, the lingo, or the process. Life is about learning new skills. Learning to make specialty coffee will give you the power to bring joy to yourself and the people whom you decide to share your coffee with. I commit to helping you discover this world.
The ingredients
Troubardour Coffee (but of course)
Water (tap works, but spring water is preferred)
Water Kettle with Thermometer (essential)
Coffee Brewer (i.e. the Troubardour Tico Dripper)
Grinder (Burr grinder preferred)
A cup you love
The Recipe
Grind: Medium/Fine
Coffee to water ratio: 1:15
Water temperature: 200 Fahrenheit/ 93 Celcius
Preferred method: Pour over with the Tico Dripper
The Process
To read our detailed Tico Dripper brew guide click here.
Notes
Grind: It's important to pay attention to the grind size for Troubardour coffee because if it's too coarse the water will pass too quickly and leave a lot of the incredible flavor notes behind and if it’s too fine the water will clog up and not filter through.
For pour-over on a Tico Dripper I recommend Medium-Fine grind.
Water temperature: 200 Fahrenheit or 93 Celsius.
I find that our medium-roast arabica beans are fragile and may burn if you're using temperatures above 205. It's important to have an accurate thermometer. The easiest solution is to get a kettle with a built-in thermometer.
Coffee kettle with built in thermometer.
Ratio: The golden ratio I prefer for Troubardour is 1:15
What this means is simply that the ratio is 1 part coffee to 15 parts of water.
Since 1 gram is equal to 1ml in weight, you can simply multiply the number of grams of coffee you are brewing by 15 and get the exact amount of water you need for that pour.
1:15
For example, say that you want to brew one cup (10oz) . To do that you need to brew 20 grams of coffee with precisely 300 ml of water (20 x 15 = 300).
This is perhaps the most important part of the recipe because this is a very delicate curve. Not being accurate and winging it will result in your coffee sometimes being watered down and sometimes being too concentrated which is not the idea here.
A great relationship with coffee is about consistency and always giving yourself the comfort of a great cup, it should always be amazing, and to be amazing, it always needs to be accurate. Being accurate however, doesn't mean that it needs to be a hard process, there are many tricks we will talk about in due time that will make the process of brewing a cup easy until the entire process becomes instinctual.
You can experiment and fiddle by going from 1:15 to 1:18 and still be in the range of the golden ratio.
You should be able to notice subtle difference in these brackets. Find the one that most tickles your senses. A 1:17 might be less concentrated than a 1:15 but the beans will use this extra 'space' of more liquid to better express their taste notes. Follow your senses. Play.
Timing: Take your time. If you are using the Tico Dripper it should take around 3 to 3 1/2 minutes to brew the coffee.
Feel free to try different methods, recipes, expand, simplify, change. I've brewed Troubardour coffee in all the various methods, from the V60 to French press and even as an expresso using a mocha pot. My personal preference is the Tico Dripper. It's Costa Rican coffee and it's the Costa Rican way, I just think it's a perfect pair, not just because it can technically get a barista quality speciality cup, but because it's fun, easy and experiential. Each brew method will take the coffee in a different direction, so treat it as an exploration of possibilities.
