Jane Bredius

JaB's Coffee Adventures #24: A fairly obvious reaction to Kopi Lowak ... when you think it through!

If I had a Euro for every time I have been told to try Kopi Lowak… I would be rolling in it! When my friends caught wind of my coffee adventuring, they sent me heaps of emails with tips, information and links. Pretty much all of them leading back to Kopi.

I have to admit to having harbored a mild fascination. What is this strange substance which doth come out of a cat’s botty? What exquisite…

JaB's Coffee Adventures #23: How Starbucks gets you coming back for more.

Starbucks, bless them, are masters in the art of customer loyalty.

If you thought that they are in business to sell good coffee, rest assured that there’s more to it than meets the lips. Their main raison d’être, as far as I can fathom, is to get us to buy again and again, and their methods are slick and sly.

They aren’t alone in this. Of course not. All the coffee corporates are doing it. I just…

JaB's Coffee Adventures #22: On becoming a coffee disciple

You might have noticed that I have been out of the air for a while. That’s because I got involved in a project in Kenya and I have been rather busy with that. Actually, I am still busy with it.

Oh, and then there was the little business of a new world opening up to me, engulfing me, pulling my head under the waves and then finally spitting me back out onto the shore, sodden but smiling…

This…

JaBsCoffeeAdventures #21: What the hell is Extraction?

You’ve probably heard the term “extraction” before. You might even have wheeled it out yourself in an attempt to appear knowledgeable about coffee. In order to “keep up appearances” in various workshops populated by people who visited, seemingly not to learn but rather to demonstrate what they already knew, I felt some pressure to chuck in a clever word or two, without really understanding…

"SPLAT! A very short film about coffee." by JaB

Jab's Coffee Adentures: Amsterdam Coffee Festival field report

I’m a little late with this. I have to admit that this little adventure rather took it out of me. Phew! I have bushwhacked across Burundi and inched through the jungles of Indonesia, but neither of those adventures were anywhere near as exhausting as being swamped by several thousand coffee fans in a warehouse in Amsterdam!

I lead a quiet life. Adventurous yes, but quiet with it. The ACF was not…

JaB's Coffee Adventures #20: Coffee with or without.... COMPANY?

Both, please. But with different types of coffee. More on that in a moment.

About 30% of the population is introverted. Roughly 70% of the population is extroverted, or veer towards extroversion but need a significant amount of “down-time” (psychobabble for a spot of P&Q).

The results of my questionnairealso bore roughly the same statistical spread: substantially more respondents drink coffee as…

JaB's Coffee Aventures #19: Coffee with or without ... MILK?

I’d like a cappuccino, please…”

“But without the milk.”

My friend clearly didn’t know much about coffee and, after giving me a perplexed look to which I responded by shrugging my shoulders, our waitress toddled off and brought back a cup of black coffee, as ordered.

At the time I just thought that my friend was rather simple. No wait, I still think that, but now that I have learnt more about…

JaB's Coffee Adventures #18: Coffee with or without.... SUGAR?

This is such a non-issue. I mean, who cares if you put sugar in your coffee – what does it matter?

But wait, it does matter! For two reasons.

For one thing sugar sabotages your barista’s ability to make you a good cup of coffee! You see, most people add sugar to their brew to deaden the bitterness. If your coffee is so bitter that sugar is necessary, then there’s a good chance that it’s been over…

JaB's Coffee Adventures #17: Is your fortune in the cup?

I am wondering when I might get back to the subject of making coffee. But, if I’m honest, I think that there is so much related to coffee that is just more interesting to talk about. When you take a good look at anything in this world, you come to understand that there are worlds within worlds and that each aspect of our lives contains a universe of knowledge that we can scarcely imagine. I…

JaB's Coffee Adventures #16: Middle-aged Coffee - where IS it?

I spend a lot of my time flicking through coffee sites on google, checking out what people are doing and learning about the fun and ingenious ways people have found to earn a living by selling their coffee-related services.

It’s an exploding market! Loads of hipsters are streaming towards big cities to set up emporiums of coffee cool and erecting all kinds of strange and wonderful activities…

JaB's Coffee Adventures #15: Coffee is a warm, wet metaphor for life.

Friends are a vital ingredient in a sane life. It’s not always easy to make friends, though. People pull together in herds and that makes it difficult for the outsider to ease herself in. In order to ease in, you often have to be uneasy with yourself.

I have learnt an international language, and got my paws on a passport which allows me to travel in space and time and have found out that there…

JaB's Coffee Adventures #14: JaB reporting live from Tanzania about Project Waterfall.

I’m reporting to you live from Sub Saharan Africa: Tanzania, the Mongo waa mono village in the Mbulu district, to be exact. I’m visiting a village who work together to grow coffee beans, a mixed bag of self-seeded Arabica’s. 

These people work hard, I can tell you. I have spent the past few days with them working the dusty soil and clearing forest to make way for new plants. It’s pretty tough…

JaB's Coffee Adventures #12: What's with the bicycle?

What is it with bicycles and coffee? I keep tripping over bicycles when I go to purchase a cup of coffee. Really, what’s the big deal?

I can understand bicycle repair shops flogging a bit of decent coffee to waiting customers. That’s just considerate good manners and canny business sense. What I don’t get are the cafes where I am offered the opportunity of buying a bike when all I popped in for…

JaB's Coffee Adventures # 11: Why do we drink so much coffee? Especially the Scandinavians...

Last week I sent out a request for help in answering this question. I didn’t get any help, so I’ve had to answer it myself. Since I am not an expert in the science of coffee consumption, I have had to exploit both my immense intelligence and my illuminated imagination to come up with a plausible (sounding) answer… please bear with me.

Actually, I did have one starting reference for this…

JaB's Coffee Adventures #10: What in the world is...an AEROPRESS?

Enough pontificating already! It’s time to get down to the business of making a good cup of coffee. As promised, today I am going to introduce you to the AeroPress. It’s a great gadget which makes making an espresso fun (and easy).

I first came across mention of an AeroPress on a blog about Small Street Espresso in Bristol, U.K.. Small Streetspecialize, as the name implies, in the espresso and,…