Deet’s Coffee College Is Another Success

After learning about the history and processing of coffee, a person has to learn how to next successfully brew and grind it in order to enjoy the “world’s most popular drink.”

Deet’s Place, Virginia Tech’s premier coffee shop, held its course on coffee brewing and grinding as part of the shop’s second annual Deet’s Place Coffee College Tuesday evening.  Held in the D2 dining area above the coffee shop, the course went over how coffee gets its flavor, six essential elements in coffee brewing and grinding, and taught various hands-on methods in brewing coffee, including the Chemex, Percolation, and Mocha brewing methods.

“The reason why we’re here is to learn how to make a specialty cup of coffee at home,” said Don Harvey, unit manager at Deet’s Place.

With having several Virginia Tech students in attendance, Harvey welcomed everyone at the beginning of the course and introduced the guest presenter for the event, Brian Babcock, to share his knowledge on coffee brewing and grinding.

Babcock currently serves as roastmaster at the Easy Chair Coffee Shop in Blacksburg and also is a former employee at Deet’s Place.  After working at Deet’s for three semesters, he served as assistant manager as well as brewmaster of coffee for the shop. 

To start off the course, Babcock went over the components on how coffee gets its flavor, in that it gets most of the flavor from chemical compounds released upon contact with water. 

“Different beans, different blends, different roasts, different brewing methods all alter how your beverage tastes,” said Babcock.  “In the end, it all comes down to your personal taste.”

Next, Babcock went over six essential elements to be aware of in order to constantly achieve one’s desired coffee taste:

• using an efficient coffee to water ratio,
• successfully matching the right coffee grind size with the right brewing method time,
• proper operation of equipment, such as proper contact time, temperature, and turbulence level,
• choosing your favorite brewing method,
• having good water quality,
• using a successful filtering medium

After going over the elements, Babcock invited all participants to come up and personally experience the various brewing methods.  The brewing methods taught included the Chemex, Percolation, and Mocha.

The Chemex method is more of a pour-over method in which a person pours water over a grind of coffee held by filters over a beaker.
 
“You’re able to have more control using this method,” said Babcock.  “It’s a lot cleaner and it’s a lot user friendly, so there’s a balance between the quality of coffee you get and the ease of operation.”

Percolation is a method of coffee brewing in which hot water filters down through a bed of coffee.  It uses the force of boiling water to force it up a tube and over the coffee bed. 

The third method, Mocha, uses steam pressure to force water through the coffee filter.

As the participants went through the different brewing methods, they took in lots of information that some said they will take back home with them.

“I really like how this course is hands on,” said Jessica Gorzo, a senior biology major.  “[You see] how you can brew coffee at home and have a good feel of what’s going on.  This was very informative for me.” Gorzo also said that she has loved coffee ever since she was six years old.

Deet’s Place Coffee College will continue in the spring semester with its next courses on coffee cupping and tasting methods.  Students are encouraged to contact Don Harvey at (540) 231-7101 or send an e-mail to deets@vt.edu if interested in participating.