In Hawaii, Shawn Steiman is substantially a many determined of a coffee investiture as we can get. Nicknamed Dr. Coffee, Steiman has an tangible Ph.D. in coffee. He’s a author of dual books — “The Hawai‘i Coffee Book” and “The Little Coffee Know-It-All” — runs a coffee consulting business and operates Grok Coffee during a Kakaako FarmLovers Market on Saturdays (8 a.m. to noon), where he facilities opposite roasters by an array of coffees.
If there’s anything you’d like to know about coffee in general, or Hawaii coffee in particular, you’re expected to get an answer, or during slightest superintendence about where to get an answer, from this devotee, whose doctorate from a University of Hawaii is in Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, focused on coffee.
So while chatting during a new coffee trek around a city, Steiman suggested a startling truth about a clarification of “good” coffee. Since this is a man who can mangle down a anatomy of a coffee bean and plead a changes of a coffee’s impression as it roasts, his viewpoint is unexpected.
“A good crater of coffee is one we like,” Steiman settled simply. “Some people like it iced, some like cream and sugar, or microwaved — whatever. There are lots of ways to suffer a crater of coffee. The genuine tip is to know what it is we want.”
One arrives during that bargain by initial determining that is some-more appealing in a brewed coffee, a candid coffee ambience or “coffee and something else.”
“Do we like astringency or not? Roastiness or not? Complexity?” he said. “Acidity is not bitterness. It’s bright, lively, immature flavor. Acidity can be like an orange, that is appealing, or a lemon, that is sour. Geeks like astringency though others competence find an heated sourness bad.
“When coffee people speak or consider about good coffee, they meant a coffee with no defects — not bitter, burned, immature or moldy. Coffee freaks like coffee that has complex, nuanced flavors — ‘esoteric’ coffee that’s (appreciated) a same proceed booze is,” he said.
“The some-more things we taste, a some-more formidable it is.”
Relying on coffee experts to conclude good coffee is problematic, pronounced Steiman. While they consider coffee regulating a scoring system, in a end, scores are formed on biased assessments. Besides which, many of a criteria for good coffee exists within a area of enigmatic coffee.
“When we consider of a bell curve, many things occur in a hump. It’s where a normal is,” he said, observant that many coffee drinkers fit in that partial of a curve. “Experts splash off a tail finish of a curve. The scoring complement is good for them, though not for people who splash in a hump. It’s a mismatch — a 92-point coffee is too geeky for many people. If it were objectively good, everybody would like it.”
Steiman proposes that loyal coffee experts make a eminence between peculiarity and preference, means to conclude a sold coffee’s technical value even if it’s not something they wish to drink. He adds that a clarification of “good” shifts according to enlightenment and experiences.
He pronounced an consultant who understands this can assistance others find coffees they suffer by seeking them questions that exhibit their preferences.
However we get there, once we have an thought of what we like, it’s time to explore. A good proceed to start is by perplexing several coffees by one roaster. Steiman suggests a few internal roasters: Big Island Coffee Roasters, Downtown Coffee and ChadLou’s Coffee Roasters.
“Try things, and learn,” he said. “Spend a lot of time smelling and tasting — practice. And stop carrying expectations. Go in with an open mind and you’ll be improved means to brand flavors (you like).”
CRAWL ALONG WITH AN EXPERT
Shawn Steiman’s full list of favorite coffee shops is long, though he comparison these 4 to yield a operation of locations opposite Honolulu. A vast care was a spaces themselves, pivotal to what he calls “the coffee experience.”
“Coffee shops are a ‘third space,’ after a home and a office. A coffee emporium can be partial of your identity,” he said. “It’s a place where we can lay down and hang out though spending a lot of money.”
WorkPlay
814 Ilaniwai St., 457-1322
10 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays
You competence consider that Steiman’s egalitarian proceed to coffee is quite philosophical, though he proves his indicate during this fun space, that he comparison for it’s candid coffee. He’s adequate of a unchanging that a server said, “Hey, we consider we commend that guy. He comes in here kind of often.”
This spot, a vast room space divided into ornately flashy rooms, is famous as a night mark that serves cocktails rather than a coffee venue. Coffee is served usually on weekdays until 3 p.m., when things are quiet. And a coffee module is simple: espresso drinks and one season coffee.(A menu that includes essentially pupu-type offerings, dips, fries, sliders, tacos and a charcuterie board, is served from 10 a.m.)
Still, Steiman finds it worthwhile.
“It’s good coffee, not complex. They do coffee elementary though well,” he said. “You can splash it and conclude it, though we won’t get dreaming by it.”
That could be a good thing during WorkPlay, given folks who go for a coffee will expected have their collect of rooms. Do we wish to lay in a room with soothing orange lighting or a one with feathered lamps? On a cot by a blue wall and capricious candelabrum lights?
Wherever we confirm to settle in, if we suffer coffee that tastes simply like coffee, you’ll be in heaven.
Morning Glass
2955 E. Manoa Road, 673-0065
7 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays, 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays
“This place is a closest thing Hawaii has to a French cafe,” pronounced Steiman of this Manoa coffee shop-restaurant that exudes a loose vibe with a alfresco square space and spacious staff.
The cafeteria is a singular mark that mixes a critical coffee module with a plain menu of food, done from blemish with as many locally sourced mixture as possible. For breakfast, there’s oatmeal seasoned with spices, a mac-and-cheese pancake and more. For lunch, mouthwatering sandwiches underline marinated meats, fry turkey, portobello mushrooms and cheeses, including Gruyere and Muenster. These can be incited into salads for those who don’t eat carbs or gluten. On Friday nights, have cooking from 5 to 8 p.m. Enjoy an stretched breakfast menu on Saturdays until 12:30 p.m.
As to a coffee program, a preference is large, during seven, and Steiman likes that a cafeteria uses only one spit for all of them, that provides consistency. The menu includes a common brewed and espresso items, and specialties such as Vietnamese iced coffee, immature tea latte, housemade soda and more.
Besides all that food and drink, a attracts distortion in a towering view, and a fact that “it’s in Manoa, in a center of a city, though takes we out of a city,” he said.
BEAN ABOUT TOWN
3538 Waialae Ave., 673-8300
7 a.m.to 3 p.m. weekdays, 7 to 4 p.m. Saturdays, 7 to 2 p.m. Sundays
This teeny cafeteria tucked subsequent to a stairwell disproves that aged genuine estate mantra about a value of location, location, location.
The emporium is in fact precious — for a high-quality coffee (with beans roasted in-house), sublime preparations, tasty French pastries, preference of sandwiches and smoothies, and many of all, a comfortable and permitted clientele.
During an extended two-hour visit, Steiman was authorised behind a opposite to ready a tasty chocolatey, fruity coffee grown on Moloa‘a Bay Farms on Kauai. An unconstrained tide of business stopped in, from immature couples on their proceed to outside adventures to retirees resting selecting a ideal cup. Steiman chatted with a lady essay a book and ran into a friend.
“This place exhibits accurately what we wish a area coffee emporium to be,” he said. “People rivet with one another, and it’s not pretentious. Anyone can come in, either we know something about coffee or know nothing.”
KAI COFFEE
2490 Kalakaua Ave., 926-1131
6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Additional locations during a Hyatt Regency Waikiki and 207 S. King St.
In a box of this cafe, plcae is pivotal. While a sleek, complicated pattern inside is a draw, a shop, travel turn in a Alohilani Resort, is open along Kalakaua Avenue and sits directly opposite Waikiki Beach.
Part of a captivate is a view. But a rest of a interest is all about a coffee.
Tourists holding a mangle from a feverishness can hang out nearby a ocular roasting room, where beans are readied for expenditure 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. many days.
That means coffee that’s fresh. It’s no warn once we find out owners Sam Suiter comes from what Steiman calls a “local cafeteria legacy.” His father and brother, Ray and Ray Jr., once owned Honolulu Coffee Co. It’s where Sam cut his teeth.
“Kai Coffee tries to do unequivocally high-end, specialty, permitted coffees,” Steiman said.
The lineup includes beans from Kona, Kau and Maui alongside general selections. Customers can name a brewing method, such as flow over, AeroPress, French press and a 12-hour cold brew. There is also a menu of espresso drinks.
BREW IT BEST
“If it’s not about a setting, make your possess coffee during home,” pronounced consultant Shawn Steiman. Here is Steiman’s list of pivotal brewing points. Experiment with these parameters to arrive during a crater that’s ideal for you.
Select a brewing method: Full soak (ie: French press or Clever Coffee Dripper); or percolation, also called gravity-fed (ie: Chemex or flow over)
Water temperature: A good operation is 195 to 205 degrees. Steiman says a hotter a water, a faster it extracts season from a grinds.
Coffee-to-water ratio: The normal in coffee shops is about 1 gram of coffee to 16 grams of water, though Steiman likes 1:18. Ten grams of coffee to 180 grams of H2O would make roughly a 6-ounce cup. Tip: Use a scale to magnitude your coffee, and you’ll always have a unchanging cup.
Brewing time: For a full-immersion method, 4 to 6 minutes. For a flow over, about 3 mins of pouring H2O over a grinds.
Grind: Start with middle grub and adjust. The finer a grub (the smaller a particles), a faster a descent of flavor. So if your coffee is weak, use a finer grind. If it’s bitter, make it coarser.
Other factors to consider: Agitation, that increases extraction; filters (paper, cloth, metal); containers (glass, immaculate steel, plastic); H2O (Hawaii H2O is flattering good, or use filtered water)
BOOK SIGNING
Shawn Steiman will pointer copies of a extensively updated second book of “The Hawai‘i Coffee Book” (2019, Watermark Publishing)
Where: Barnes Noble, Ala Moana Center
When: 1 p.m. Sunday
Cost: The book will be accessible for $17.95; a apportionment of sales advantages Hawaii Literacy; signing is free
Info: bookshawaii.net