beaker of coffee in an ice bath

Welcome to my glamorous life as a certified brewing technician (and superbarista). Today I journeyed down to Muggswigz in Canton with Steve Goldberg, my fearless companion, and there I met Alex, Muggswigz' proprietor. The three of us brewed countless batches of french press coffee in an effort to acheive perfect extraction and therefore obtain a sample of optimal brew for Golden Cup Certification, through the SCAA. At first the samples were testing at too low a TDS (total dissolved solids) so we adjusted the grind and the brew quantity in an effort to get an optimal sample. Of course, we overcorrected, and suddenly the coffee was testing off the charts. So we then re-adjusted the grind, chose a different variety of coffee, and again adjusted the quantity. Finally our efforts did pay off and we were able to get a sample with 20% extraction and 1.2% dissolved solids, clearly in the acceptable range! Alex has made an adjustment in his ongoing dosage for every day brewing, so his customers might notice a small difference. Hopefully the SCAA testers will arrive at the same results we did and award Alex with a nice Golden Cup Certificate for his cafe's walls!