Brewing coffee with the Tricolate.

Could this be my new favourite brewer?

If you have bothered to seek out great-tasting coffee then it would go without saying that you would want to brew it in the best possible way. Right?
The deeper you dive into coffee the more obsessed you will become with trying to find the best way to brew it.

This has led me down many a rabbit hole, some of which I am still very much down. During the pandemic, I had the bright idea of trying to brew on as many pieces of brewing equipment as possible. Let’s just say I am still working my way through them all.

As boring as this might sound, I have always been an avid Cafetiere drinker. One reason for this is, that this style of brewing (Immersion) produces a very textured cup which I am a personal fan of but more importantly, this brewing method closely represents the coffee from a quality evaluation standpoint and removes any extraction errors caused by bad brewing techniques. Once you get your coffee-to-water ratio down, the coffee just hangs out with the water for a chosen amount of time and you can’t really go wrong. Although the Cafetiere seems to be my default brewer this doesn’t stop me from getting very curious when a new brewer comes onto the market. Especially one with big claims…

The Tricolate brewer first caught my attention a few months ago with claims of producing higher extraction yields whilst using less coffee. This particular brewer uses a no bypass method to achieve this. The idea is to grind finer allowing for an extended brew time, in turn creating a distinctly different flavour profile from some of the more well-known brewers on the market. To say I was a little sceptical at first would be an understatement however, I never like to dismiss something until I have had the chance to test out the theories and that is what I have quietly been doing over the last 5 weeks.

I am not going to go into all the recipes I have tried as I would like to go through these in a little more detail in another post, plus I am still learning. However, I am going to give you a brief overview of the brewer and the things I like and dislike.

I was intrigued by the no bypass method as this was something I was unfamiliar with in brewing coffee. Essentially the brewing chamber filter screen is completely covered by the filter paper once seated correctly in its place. If fitted correctly the filter paper should create a good seal stopping any grounds from escaping into the cup. The design of this brewer allows you to create a flatbed with a depth of 1/1.5cm. Nearly all the water is poured at once and the brewer comes with a detachable dispersion screen that creates even distribution when pouring your water. Gravity will then do the rest and in around 5-6 minutes you should have a delicious cup of coffee.

Firstly I would like to say that this brewer has produced some very interesting cups. The cups I have had have been extremely heavy-bodied almost syrupy, highlighting the coffee’s acidity and fruity components well whilst producing a very balanced cup. Some cups of heavier processed coffees have tasted like the dial has been turned up to 10 on all their flavour attributes causing the more subtle nuanced notes to be lost and the cup can lack clarity and delicateness. The brewer is pretty easy to use and the cleaning process although a little sloppy is generally taken care of with a quick rinse. I will say that the seating of the filter paper can be a little frustrating and I have had a few brews that let some grounds through into the cup. Tricolate suggests using the back of a spoon to make sure the filter paper is seated in place. Unfortunately, your fingers just won’t reach that far down the chamber.

The more notable problem I have had with this brewer is the lack of a finished, flatbed. After brewing, a flatbed of coffee tells you that the coffee has had a chance to evenly work its way through the bed providing the best possible chance of an even extraction. Nearly all my brews have seen uneven finished beds with some showing a slightly domed appearance on completion and although the coffee produced has still tasted good with no astringency, I am at a loss of how to counteract this. I am still working on my agitation technique throughout the brew and apart from getting out a spirit level, I am not sure what else I can try. I have had recent success with not agitating the grounds through the bloom phase but everything is telling me that something is amiss. All in all, I would highly recommend the brewer but I have a feeling that I am going to have to work for brews.

I did set out for this post to be a short one, but I guess someone has got to do the research. So in the name of brewing great coffee, I will sign off here.

I will be back again tomorrow with a recipe and maybe a flatbed

Cheers

Burts