Nimble AMS is fueled by Salesforce and NimbleUser is fueled by great coffee
We are often asked what is involved in making our coffee great. Here is how we do it.
The Basics
For a great cup of coffee these basics are required:
Start with Great Beans.
We get all of our coffee from the Dalai Java in Canandaigua, NY. To us that means:
Fresh and recently roasted. Ideally beans have been roasted in the last two weeks. Our favorite roasts are Brazilian (“Full bodied, bold french roast”) and Peruvian (“medium bodied and complex with chocolaty richness”). We find these to be the smoothest and most flavorful.
- Organic – Did you know that conventional coffee farmers apply up to 250 pounds of chemical fertilizers per acre? That pesticide residue negatively affects the taste of your morning cup of Joe. Even worse, these pesticides contribute to a wide range of health problems, including cancer.
- Fair Trade – this means that the people that work (and it is very hard work) to grow and harvest the beans are being treated fairly. We feel that better working conditions lead to a better bean.
- Single source ensures consistency of flavor and accountability of the supply chain. Ben Clarke, the manager and roaster at the Dalai Java, states that flavor can vary not only by region but from farm to farm and being able to isolate the desirable flavor characteristics is central to a great cup of coffee.
Grind Frequently.
Always grind your beans as close to the brew time as possible (for convenience we grind about every other day). A burr or mill grinder is preferable because all of the coffee is ground to a consistent size. We use the Bunn Commercial G3 22100.000 grinder and it does a great job.
Make sure your grind matches what you are going to make your coffee in. Fine for an Aeropress, coarse for French press, etc.
Use Filtered Water
Chlorine and impurities affect taste – nuff said.
Get the Water Temperature Right
We have found that 200 degrees water results in the best taste.
The Right EquipmentWe use three coffee makers at NimbleUser:
- For high volume, we use a Bunn AXIOM-DV-APS commercial coffee brewer. It should be noted that this is not the best way to brew coffee but it is the best way when you need to brew gallons of it at a time. We really like the ability to control the pre-infusion, pulse brew and steeping (in simple terms this allows us to control the amount of time the water is in contact with the grounds – we have it maxed out).
Another key feature is that it deposits the coffee into an Airpot which keeps the coffee warm without keeping it on a heater.
The perfect coffee to water ratio is widely debated. With this brewer we have found that 1 cup of coffee to 96 oz of water is the best. - The Aeropress is widely regarded as one of the best ways to make coffee (and is my favorite) . AeroPress brewed coffee is very smooth and significantly less acidic (about 1/5 the acidity of drip coffee. The downsides: It takes time to brew (about 3-5 minutes including cleanup), it only makes espresso and it makes just one serving at a time.
- Our Bodum French Press is used everyday by a number of Nimblers and has a great more robust flavor because there is no paper filter and the oils remain in the extracted coffee. It makes about 8 cups but it also takes time (4 minutes to brew + cleanup).
