'These are skull ice cubes of pure espresso' is the most metal thing that I've ever heard James say.

@annakissed3226

Ай бұрын

And utterly wonderful - I have got to get some. Who knows James may as much a metal head as any of us - I can well imagine him in the mosh pit. Or maybe just chilling back to some old skool AC/DC or Metallica. What sort of metal does the Hoffman listen to? To be honest I would think he's into progressive metal like Animals as Leaders as Tosin really shreds

@beerfish109

Ай бұрын

​@@annakissed3226Polyphia seems to fit his personality. But as for what he enjoys in music? And if it even is metal? Certainly interesting questions.

@jedrus696

Ай бұрын

"skull of pure espresso" its James rock band

@discostoo

Ай бұрын

Thought it was a Meshuggah lyric for a second.

@rogerspencer-jones785

Ай бұрын

But does it top “Personally I don’t like rubber in my brewing area” ? “ Or even “I enjoy a bit of violence in my basket” ?

Okay, so, no one tell my PhD supervisor, but I've experimented with making instant coffee using our lab's freeze dryer. I had access to a pretty nice super automatic espresso machine in the building, so I brewed into a pre-chilled container, and then flash-froze the coffee in liquid nitrogen. From brew to solid ice in less than a minute. This then went onto the freeze dryer overnight, and it was done by the next day. It tasted quite good, but I agree with James, there is something lost in the process that I can't quite explain. Fun experiment, but definitely super inefficient.

@Marta1Buck

Ай бұрын

Write it down so the next generation can improve it 😂

@marcelbuhler1157

Ай бұрын

I hope your biosafety department does not read this!😅

@itay51998

Ай бұрын

what about extracting the coffee straight into the liquid nitrogen and putting in freeze dryer?

@jacobcdefg

Ай бұрын

@@marcelbuhler1157 they would autoclave me.

@schlammie446

Ай бұрын

I'm guessing that you lose quite a bit of the tasty volatile aromatics in the freeze drying process despite all efforts to preserve them by freezing the liquid as fast as possible. It's not just water boiling off at those low pressures.

Ben from Hasty Coffee in Canada here - Seems like specialty instant is trending on KZread this week! We've been scaling freeze-dried for 4 years for us and over 40 coffee roasters and it is very difficult on a small scale. If you have 2-300k to dump into equipment you could produce an economically viable specialty instant on a small-medium scale. We've had to get creative and do some very risky in-house engineering and waste a ton of cash on blowing stuff up. It's been a wild ride but we've created a fantastic instant process now and I can't imagine a world without it. Always happy to forward some samples for comparison!

@user-yi3yx2fn7g

Ай бұрын

The amount of coffee nerds happily exchanging thoughts in the comments is the whole reason for internet existing. You guys are awesome and Canada is my favourite American country.

@AdamJRichardson

Ай бұрын

So what you're saying is, we shouldn't expect James to give away the freeze drying machine to a patron?

@hopegold883

Ай бұрын

Do you freeze it first? I always thought the benefit of a freeze dryer was how fast it freezes. If you leave coffee to sit to come to room temp, the exposure to air gives it a lousy taste. So if you do that first, aren’t you just gonna end up concentrating that flavor?

@BenMcGaghey

Ай бұрын

@@hopegold883 If you have an industrial freeze dryer you could freeze it in the machine. Harvest Rights like in the video on the other hand are pretty much useless for coffee production. If you freeze in the machine you’re on track for a big mess.

@milutii

Ай бұрын

Hello from a coffee Canuck in Nova Scotia! ...S'cuse me while I go scour the internets for your stores/socials/etc. 😂😅❤

I'm loving that this video has activated all the chemistry nerds who are secretly using their insanely expensive specialist work lab equipment for making illicit homebrew instant coffee, and then nerding some more about the exact process. Nerd love

Slurp-free audio track is the kind of innovation I expect from this channel.

@refactorear

Ай бұрын

I was hoping for "Slurp" to be read out instead of silence, sadly.

@jameshoffmann

Ай бұрын

I’m tempted to do this in future

@NatashaCreatesThings

Ай бұрын

@@jameshoffmannyes!!

@Karowato

Ай бұрын

And maybe a B roll audio track of only slurps for us, weirdos. :D

@spamcan9208

Ай бұрын

​@@jameshoffmannit's a clever use of the feature and greatly appreciated.

Never clicked so fast. Missed you James.

@ellieb2914

Ай бұрын

I didn't realize how much I missed him until he came back!

@CoffeeTeaAndPotpourri

Ай бұрын

Ditto. Absolutely! There simply are no words to describe how brilliantly and delightfully entertaining he is. BTW, this means I don't have to second guess my decision to pass on the purchase of a freeze dryer. They are ridiculously expensive.

Instant Dan from B&W Coffee Roasters here. Thanks for shouting out our vid! The bit about freezing time was fascinating; we don't worry about it too much, but that's mostly a logistical thing. Would be interested to see if different modes of extraction yield different profiles for you to test your espresso theory. We found that a blend of espresso and filter actually produces a better instant than either alone. Would be happy to send along some samples if you want to test some of your experiments side-by-side!

@lorenzowang7933

Ай бұрын

Hi Dan, Lorenzo from Loric Coffee here. Your BTS vid was one of our faves as you share many of our approaches. On freezing time, we found it absolutely makes a big difference in FD time, which then impacts final flavor. The reason for this (and there's whitepapers on this) is that getting the right crystalline structure in the frozen product affects FDing results. I'd be happy to send some product samples to you or James too!

@BadDogeU

Ай бұрын

Hi Dan and Lorenzo, BadDoge from "The Internet" here. I have some samples of brown crystals I could send both of you, no guarantee it's instant coffee though.

@iankrasnow5383

Ай бұрын

Did you ever try freeze drying cold brew? I wonder if it might retain its flavors without as many bitter compounds compared to heat extracted coffee.

@stevenmeyers5088

Ай бұрын

@@iankrasnow5383 I had the same thought!

@BenMcGaghey

Ай бұрын

Hey Dan - Ben from Hasty Coffee in Canada here. I'd love to exchange some samples if you're interested. I haven't tried your instant before. We use a home-made extraction system but it would be interesting to compare profiles.

I work in a research lab (some weird field called 'proteomics'), where we try to understand proteins using ridiculously expensive and complicated instruments ('mass spectrometers'). Sample preparation involves chopping up our proteins into 'peptides' using an enzyme (trypsin) and 'drying' the peptide-containing solution in a little vacuum centrifuge/vacuum concentrator (so called Speecvac), which makes our samples more suitable for storage. One trick we use to speed up the drying process is to first 'snap-freeze' our sample in liquid nitrogen before we place the frozen peptide-containing sample into the Speedvac for drying. You could kind of steal that idea to potentially improve your instant coffee: Idea 1): Directly extract your coffee into liquid nitrogen (or into a container placed in liquid nitrogen) and then transferring your 'snap-frozen' coffee into the freeze-dryer (you may want to add a bit of liquid nitrogen into the drying tray to prevent the coffee from thawing again). Idea 2): get some dry ice and extract your coffee directly into your dry ice. This will probably form some sort of frozen coffee crystal/dry ice mixture, which you could then spread out on your freeze-drying tray (without your coffee starting to thaw again) to start the drying process. The dry ice should just sublimate (released as CO2) during the drying process. The dry ice approach could be a bit messy, though (you may want to wear a lab coat and some protective glasses)... These approaches may address three problems: 1) Freezing your coffee much more quickly (which, as you mentioned, is essential to get tasty coffee); 2) Preventing your coffee from thawing while you distribute your coffee onto the tray of the freeze-drying machine, as I my gut feeling tells me that repetitive freeze-thawing may not really promote your coffee taste; 3) Speeding up your drying process, which may also help you create better tasting coffee. The cold temperatures and the fact that you have a lot of gas (CO2 or N2) surrounding your coffee may also reduce the amount of oxidation, and thus, preserve taste (although that's really just a naïve hypothesis...). Anyhow, would be interesting to see you play around with coffee and dry ice/liquid N2🥶😅. Really enjoy your channel, keep up the good work!

@AndreInfanteInc

24 күн бұрын

Hah, you had the same idea as me. Basically liquid nitrogen ice cream. Dry ice is probably a no-go though because CO2 and water react to make acid, which will result in a bitter coffee. Nitrogen is pretty chemically stable and shouldn't really have any impact on the flavor.

"If you dont know Bovril, well done. If you do know Bovril, good times!"

@Roqedda

Ай бұрын

I know Bovril only trough James May / Top Gear ^^ And the thought of Bovril'esque coffee makes me shudder a bit.

@ClanWiE

Ай бұрын

"Indispensable for invalids and weak persons- You can't say that!" Edit: lest I anger the God of citations and plagiarism, Hbomberguy, "Woke Brands" video

@chrisstokes1334

Ай бұрын

He likes to paint himself all over in it. It's like baby oil to him. That's what he does. Him and his lorry driver friends all bovrilled up and then they slip about, that's what they do. Good times indeed. Must be a James thing.

@tmarritt

Ай бұрын

Think of it like instant beef soup😅

@RustyAymes

Ай бұрын

Bovril is not bad on toast- a close second to marmite. As a drink tho it’s rancid.

I reckon James could be obsessed with door knobs and his passion and media quality would still have thousands of us hooked. It’s really magnetic.

The "slurp-free" track is a kind of wonderful example of how much you and your team care about the quality of your videos. I don't personally mind the slurping but it says a lot that you're willing to put in a little more effort to make your videos better in that small way.

@sn1000k

Ай бұрын

Thoughtful care for the misophoniacs in the audience. Nice.

Thanks for this video, James. I broke a $700 lens today at work. ( I work in video.) and I just needed to unwind and think about something else. I love coffee. I use your V60 method every morning with my daughter. And your work always transports me to a better place. Thanks for that.

Not a hack, but a little bit of science. I know the natural impurities of your water are important to the taste of your coffee. If you brew a cup of coffee with water that you like to drink and then freeze dry it, it will have all the impurities your water had. Then, if you reconstitute it with the exact same amount of the water you like to drink, the resultant cup will have double the number of salts/other impurities as the fresh cup. Some ways around this might be: a) to brew an extremely concentrated batch of coffee with water you like to drink and then reconstitute it at a more normal concentration for drinking. b) to brew your coffee with distilled water and reconstitute it with water you like to drink. c) to brew your coffee with water you like to drink and reconstitute it with distilled water. The problem with option c is that if you're in a situation where you are using instant coffee you probably don't have distilled water to hand. I'm not really tempted to use instant coffee as I just make some, even if I'm camping or traveling. I have a tiny french press and a little rocket stove that fits in my bag easily. Mostly I see uses for instant coffee in baking and there, maybe it's not necessary to get The Best cup of instant. Anyway, for the sake of science it might be fun to compare those three options I presented.

@jameshoffmann

Ай бұрын

We did actually brew the instant with distilled but figured this detail was too much for the video!

@LiveFreeOrDieDH

Ай бұрын

​@@jameshoffmann I think you might be underestimating your viewership's tolerance/hunger for such detail. Maybe create a second channel with the bits that don't make it into the more polished main content? 😊

@davidf2281

Ай бұрын

@@LiveFreeOrDieDH I second this idea.

@Turkos245

Ай бұрын

I feel like brew with prefered water reconst with distilled is the play, just because the extraction would be what youd be expecting already

@sudhutvs

Ай бұрын

@@jameshoffmann Would it not have been better - purely for the best cup of instant question - to have brewed with that water you think is best for brewing coffee (since the salts/metals are important for extraction) and then make your coffee using the freeze-dried coffee but with distilled water, which is just because you don't want double the salts/metals? Oh also, it would be very cool to potentially use liquid nitrogen to speed up the freezing process.

Not freeze-drying the coffee in skull form might be the greatest missed opportunity this channel has ever experienced

@peterterry7918

Ай бұрын

I think that would sell itself.

@jameshoffmann

Ай бұрын

I wish I could have but they wouldn’t fit in the trays…

@minibeefcake

Ай бұрын

Do all the tray slots have to be occupied for the machine to turn on? Maybe put the tray with skull ice in the middle tray and leave the 2 tray spots above it empty, ie not put the trays inside at all

@alexfreeman4245

Ай бұрын

​@@minibeefcakeOr put the one above in upside down to increase space

@owlrecon6263

Ай бұрын

​@@minibeefcakeor maybe put the one above upside down

As someone who has suffered from misophonia their entire life, thank you so much for making a separate audio track available.

@sn1000k

Ай бұрын

Me too. Slurping is ok but talking while chewing makes me unbearably enraged. Cheers, I agree that this is thoughtful.

Wow, my mom bought one of these freeze drying units a few years ago and started freeze drying everything she could think of and ended up making some really interesting fun snacks or stored ingredients. And James Hoffman is using it! This is the first time I have ever had some real-life experience with one of the crazy fancy appliances he buys for a project!! And very possibly the last time…

James' face after tasting the dried espresso is exactly what the doctor ordered for all our woes. Bless him! (it's at 10:24)

Highly disappointed that this didn't end with liquid nitrogen to flash freeze espresso before freeze drying. Amazing sweater game as always.

@NanneWielinga

Ай бұрын

Liquid nitrogen is easily available and I am also slightly disappointed

@devildante9

Ай бұрын

Yeah, after seeing Nigel do it in NileBlue I missed the liquid nitrogen shenanigans

@jameshoffmann

Ай бұрын

It's annoyingly hard to access in the UK. In the USA it feels like you just roll in with your dewar and fill up...

@harveythompson3161

Ай бұрын

@@jameshoffmann yes please try

@lilablume

Ай бұрын

Proper lyophilization requires the liquid nitrogen shenanigans. Otherwise it lacks the fun in science. 🎉

I have had a coffee on my mind for a while now and this feels like a good time to bring it up. A few years back, I was visiting Peru with my (now) wife. We decided to take a trip out to the Manu forest from Cuzco. On our drive we made various stops at little family-owned cafes, on the one road heading out to the Amazon rain forest. I noticed a staple on every Peruvian dining table in the mornings, it looked to be a coffee concentrate in a glass cruet bottle with a cork in the top. The locals would just add a bit of this with hot water from the kettle to make, in short, instant coffee. It was strong stuff. And the concentrate apparently keeps for days at a time. I haven't found much information online about this, but I would love to learn more about it. If anyone can shed some light on Peruvian coffee culture, I would greatly appreciate it. I always enjoy your videos James. Thank you, and your team, for all you hard work.

@vladd6787

Ай бұрын

Sounds like a local version of Camp coffee, an instant coffee in a bottle now used more in cooking than for drinking.

@juliendulong7639

20 күн бұрын

@@vladd6787 Thank you! looked into it and this is the closest explanation I have heard so far.

@alejandrodelhierro9676

12 күн бұрын

Hi there! Not from Peru but what you described sounds exactly like coffee essence (esencia de café) that we have in Ecuador, down to the description of the container. After doing a bit of digging I found that it goes by a couple of names, mostly the already mentioned coffee essence, but also coffee extract (extracto de café) and liquid coffee concentrate (café concentrado líquido). I would assume that could be found in a lot of places other places with coffee in Latin America, like Colombia and Mexico. As far as a recipe is concerned, the best I could find, without going and asking the owner of a place that has some on its tables, was using 200ml of water and 250g of coffee, and bringing the water to a boil, cutting off the heat, adding half of the coffee and wait for it to get to room temperature to filter, then get the first extraction up to a boil, add the rest of the coffee and wait until it’s room temperature before filtering. But being that it is something made in so many places this could very well taste different from what you had, but for what is worth most of the recipes I could find described this method, so it could be it. Hope this helps

Will I ever do this? No. Did I watch the whole thing? Yes.

@cheesescientist

Ай бұрын

Ditto!

James Hoffman colluding with his son Lance for an instant coffee revolution

@SamsonOng

Ай бұрын

I came here exactly for this comment, salute!

@conradurch5956

Ай бұрын

Just what i thought when I saw this

@Ghostrander

Ай бұрын

Exactly this

@thefuturetom

Ай бұрын

he has a son called Lance?

@someguy9520

Ай бұрын

Was about to comment this

The struggle of adequately capturing James' joy with respect to the skull ice cubes is apparent. If there's a long shot of this, can there please be a directors cut?

I simply love these experiments you do here, it’s always so fulfilling to see someone talk about something they care. Thank you

Love the video James, as someone who enjoys but knows very little about coffee I love the clear and simple way you explain everything, I learn something from every video I watch - thank you! 😊

Bovril mentioned, means I can drop the one fact I know about it, which is that the "vril" part of it is named for a popular 19th century sci-fi novel. Vril was a high-energy compound consumed the ancient subterranean Vril-ya beings, who invade the surface world in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's "The Coming Race."

@AARONMACKENZIE

Ай бұрын

The weird pseudo-orientalist post-Victorian racial fantasy stuff that people like Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft dipped into in this time period is so absolutely fascinating, if occasionally depressing.

@chriswalker2753

Ай бұрын

For the sake of completeness, the first syllable is from Latin "bos" = ox, bull or cow. The description "English beef drink" is not entirely accurate: it seems it was originally made by a Scotsman living in Canada to provision the French army.

@ericssmith2014

Ай бұрын

@@chriswalker2753 Provenance like, “originally made by a Scotsman living in Canada to provision the French army,” is the sort of thing that usually leads to our declaring something A Canadian Invention, but it seems that for this one, we’re letting the English take the hit.

@Plan3tBob

Ай бұрын

@@ericssmith2014 "... letting the English take the hit." 🤣🤣

My guess, the rubber flavor was from the presumably silicone lined ice mold you used.

@AndrewDasilvaPLT

Ай бұрын

Yep, the release on them is nasty.

@MTheKing09

Ай бұрын

With cold water they might be fine, but not with coffee.

@jameshoffmann

Ай бұрын

We thought about that. But there was still a tiny bit of it in the better batch that froze faster that never came into contact with the molds. (It’s also a different kind of rubber taste.)

@z_nar349

Ай бұрын

@@jameshoffmann Could be something to do with your freezer? If you had access to a commercial chiller to cool it down really quick and then stick it into a freezer that would be ideal.

@Haward821001

Ай бұрын

@@z_nar349 Or try liquid nitrogen to flash-freeze the coffee

First Technology Connections, then ElectroBoom, and now James Hoffman? KZread really is giving us all the greats today.

@chuck1804

Ай бұрын

Technology Connections published?? .... I'll be right back

@shouldb.studying4670

Ай бұрын

Through the magic of watching two of them

Incredible work. In addition you give it to the public! Thank you

The rubberiness may be at least partially coming from the tray bay in the Harvest Right. The silicone and glue in the bay can take a few batches to "burn off" on brand new Harvest Right machines. You also want to make sure that there's not too much oil in the pump as that can cause the oil to get into the food. Great episode btw! I'm going to have to try this asap!

@pj6073

Ай бұрын

Could it not also be coming from the silicone ice cube moulds

@EvanCreekmore

Ай бұрын

That was my thought. Silicone food molds often leave the food with a weird taste/smell.

@user-vk2hf1jc5f

Ай бұрын

Agreed, those silicone ice moulds should probably be dishwashered a few times if they were new. Putting warm liquids in probably wouldn’t help with the rubberiness!

@ard1choke

Ай бұрын

I thought the exact same thing about the ice cube molds

James is always instant gratification.

@Blkcoffeeroastery

Ай бұрын

I see what you did there 😏

Love the joy I’m seeing in these experiments; the coffee skull got a hearty laugh. Thanks for sharing your results!

My brother has a freeze dryer and I’ve wondered this as well! Thanks for making this video!

Once upon a time I worked for a biotech company that had a Lyophiliser and I was always tempted to misuse it to freeze dry my espresso. But the pharma-related chemicals we ran through it dissuaded me. Excellent topic, thanks for covering it

@nfast42701

Ай бұрын

Good choice resisting the urge 😂

@NaireVeuze

Ай бұрын

Same with me. This machines are somewhat mystical!

Literally just finished watching a video Sir Lance put out on instant coffee, and here you are! What a time to be alive!

@georgielol

Ай бұрын

Sir Lance 😂

@Ghostrander

Ай бұрын

Same thing happened with me lol

@djhoremans3365

Ай бұрын

@JamesHoffman loving the new video drop time for those of us on the West Coast of North America! We can watch you as we brew our first cup of the day

James' somewhat joyous delivery in explaining he'll be BLENDING his frozen espresso skulls was honestly beautiful

REALLY cool video! I had no idea of the work behind Instant and Kat's video really opened my eyes. Very cool! And I am giving Headspace a try. Thanks James!

I'm very glad that you ate it straight. Sign of a man who knows his audience.

"If you don't know how freeze dryers work, it's very cool." Yes, yes they are. 😉☕🤘

your exploration of homemade instant coffee is fascinating! It's a great example of experimentation and pushing the boundaries of traditional coffee-making methods. ☕

Chemistry, physics, coffee-tasting, James….and Skull-shaped instant coffee ice cubes!!! “My God! It’s full of stars!” 🤩 Fabulous as always… Thank you Mr Hoffman 😍

I'm going to start incorporating the phrase "domestic best efforts" into my vocabulary.

Positively surprised to see my mug in the video, AND paired with a cool experiment of making quality instant coffee ❣ Makes my day and simply so happy to see it being used in your studio. 🙏🙏🙏

Canadian here, Bovril on a nice cold winter day out ice fishing .... great memories.

Great video James, thank you. Very interesting as well - instant coffee being affordable because of their ability to extract more from the bean than a regular brew. Fascinating.

In terms of freezing quickly, liquid nitrogen can be bought fairly easily from most welding places. If you let droplets of the coffee fall in and freeze one at a time, they'll be flash frozen and should be easy to load into the trays as a bonus.

@jonwesick2844

Ай бұрын

Even dry ice would work.

@lindenmeyer11

Ай бұрын

Another experiment would be to see if there is any difference between dropping directly on Liquid Nitrogen or Flash freezing it in a Liquid Nitrogen Bain-Marie recepient. In theory Nitrogen should be Inert and not react with coffee. But it's worth the experiment.

"English beef drink, Bovril" words I did not expect to hear in that sequence

Yesterday i stumbled over Roaster Kat's Video on how they do instant coffee at Black and White. Its really, really interesting and fun to watch. Was facinated by how accidently a night in a fridge seperates fines and oils from the coffee before dry freezing. Literally it means a roaster can take most of the processes of making great coffee out of the hands of the customers so a customer can enjoy a great cup of coffee without learning all the stuff of differnt brewing methods, ratios, grind sizes etc. Thats possibly a game changer.

Yeah!!! You got a freeze dryer! We have been doing this for a few years now. I use it for travel. It works well when you are stuck in a vehicle for hours and hours. This beats road side or train coffee any day, We blitz it in our food processor after it is dried… especially the one with cream (or milk). I do one with cream and the other one without. Hubs add his sweetener afterwards. My key is to use really really good coffee and add some salt to it. I pre-freeze directly on the tray. The tray is frozen when I pour it… it is poured and goes into the flash freeze section of my freezer. Don’t overfill. Reconstitute… I use about a teaspoon or less per cup. Put it in the cup with just about a teaspoon of cold or room temp water, stir it up, then add super hot water.

Maybe the rubbery taste came from your ice cube molds-i have silicone ice cube molds and find they give the ice a bit of a rubbery taste

@pawel7055

Ай бұрын

I 100% agree, it very likely is and I have also experienced this. While freezing time and oxidation could play a part, it has to be the molds. Low quality coffee is associated with rubbery flavors but considering he knows his coffee, occam's razor applies.

@TinyShnutz

Ай бұрын

I concur

Justice for Hames Joffmann! James, our favorite joke channel needs your help.

@BizarreBear

Ай бұрын

Justice for Hames Joffmann!

@paradise_valley

Ай бұрын

Wait what happened?

@BizarreBear

Ай бұрын

@@paradise_valley the parody channel, Hames Joffmann was terminated.

@justcallmedan301

Ай бұрын

​@@BizarreBear By the YT gods or by the channel owner?

@kaptainKrill

Ай бұрын

YT- the owner has come out and said that they’ve already had an appeal to bring it back denied, too

Great episode. I never knew just how much goes into the freeze dried coffee process.

We bring instant coffee while backpacking and while I’m never going to make freeze dried coffee myself, I thoroughly enjoyed this 😊

I think a good starting point would be cold brew concentrate. You can get it as strong as espresso, you're starting close to the freezing point already, and you can do the actual brewing in a sealed container. As another user commented, you'd probably want to use distilled water as well.

@WineoftheBean

Ай бұрын

My thoughts exactly re: cold brew concentrate. About using distilled water, removing all of the minerals is detrimental to flavour (as a master craft beer brewer once told me, he uses reverse osmosis, and then adds minerals back in to mimic water sources from around the world).

@itsROMPERS...

Ай бұрын

You can actually buy packets of minerals meant to condition your water to make better coffee. It is a specialty coffee making product, for making espresso.

English Beef Drink was a grouping of words I didn’t know I needed to hear today. But I did.

@ClanWiE

Ай бұрын

What is soup but meat drink?

@thomp

Ай бұрын

@@ClanWiEthank you! This is what I’ve been saying for years. No one listens to me.

@brookswhitehurst1543

Ай бұрын

You’re both so right

We liked this so much it inspired our very own Instant coffee video! Thanks James!

This might be the best part of my day. This is spectacular. Thank you!

The number of times I’ve thought about trying to make my own instant coffee in my freeze dryer (I also have a Harvest Right) but being afraid it wouldn’t be good is not a small number. Now I don’t have to do my own experiment. Thank you, once again, James Hoffman for the coffee science. Also, yes, freeze dryers are cool. I like to freeze dry marshmallows, powder them, and it makes a weirdly delicious coffee creamer of sorts. 😊

Hey, thanks for sharing! If I ever want to spend time and money turning good coffee into bad coffee, I’ll definitely give this one a go. Cheerio!

Thank you so very much for the slurp free audio track

The existence of slurp-free audio tracks on these videos is so, so, so wonderful. A HUGE thanks to you! (Oh right, also for the video, it was great too.) Misophonia makes me avoid most coffee content on KZread, unfortunately.

One of the trick with instant coffee is to first put room-temperature water in it, so that once you add the boiling water, it doesn't scorch the coffee that's already been brewed and frieze dried. It totally changes the flavor and reduces the bitterness! Give it a shot !

@feanaaro8652

Ай бұрын

it's a myth that hot water "scorches" the coffee. What very hot water does is to extract more efficiently from the ground coffee, which may be desirable or undesirable depending on the coffee and the drinker preference, but that does not apply here since the freeze-dried coffee already is the result of extraction.

@Elendil963

Ай бұрын

@@feanaaro8652 Just try it, you'll be surprised!

@FamilyWeir

Ай бұрын

@@myopiczeal Just thinking aloud, but is it more that by drinking it at a lower temperature you're able to taste more flavours anyway? I had a cup from my Aeropress earlier, and the last part of it cooled down quite a lot before I drank it all - and if anything it tasted better than the initial few sips of much hotter liquid. Could be the same with the instant - though I have to admit I'm not about to do a taste test on it....

Justice for Hames Joffmann! Bring him back!!!

@slateization

Ай бұрын

Amen brother!

@Togen2063

Ай бұрын

Hames Joffmann would be a bovril fan I think

@jameshoffmann

Ай бұрын

We’ve been trying but KZread have been deeply uncool about it all.

@chocolate108

Ай бұрын

What happened to hames joffman?

I'm really impressed by your slurp-free track. Incredible

10:05 James giving a giddy like a little girl is the absolute meme I needed.

Run the coffee through a line chiller then freeze with liquid nitrogen. That should be fast enough.

@kevinpenfold1116

Ай бұрын

Or one of those instant ice cream freeze plates like they have on iron chef.

James spent so much on his holiday, he has to drink instant coffee. 😂

@nicoler5713

Ай бұрын

Lowering the budget instead of starting his own streaming service. Truly a man of the people.

It’s really cool to see you using a technique I first heard about from the bar Panda and Sons. They’re doing sugar concentration in unripe fruits via directional freezing. So cool!

@james hoffman ; since you are adding hot water at the end maybe a cold brew could be good for thid experiment?

The world isn't ready for a James Hoffmann x NileRed collab

@waylandsmith

Ай бұрын

I agree. I appreciate each of them and I don't think combining them would go well.

The slurp-free audio track makes me so happy. Always glad to be a patron

THANK YOU FOR THE SLURP FREE AUDIO, IT IS WONDERFUL

❤❤ James is the reason I stay on KZread

As someone who drinks a lot of inexpensive instant, I'd recomment not using boiling water for instant coffee and instead experiment with 60-75C water. Unless you're using Nescafe. Nothing will save that stuff.

I've tried freeze concentrating in the pat. The best way to achieve a nice result is to periodically visit the freezing material and remove the top layer of ice, while the underlying layers are still liquid. It makes the whole process easier.

Intriguing as usual - thank you, James! I'd be interested in seeing how Aeropress or fairly concentrated cold brew might perform should you get around to another run.

Wild how you and Lance Hendrick both posted videos about instant coffee within 24 hours of each other. Is instant coffee having a moment? Not complaining mind you :)

LN2 and dry ice (frozen CO2) are readily available in the US, and would be far more ideal for the initial freezing. Non-commercial freezers simply aren't powerful enough to extract heat quickly. It's possible to craft a freezer box fairly cheaply that houses you choice of super-coolers. Dry ice in a simple styrofoam cooler, with the pan set directly on top of the ice will flash-freeze even boiling-hot coffee. LN2 is even faster, but you would need to pour it directly into the pan of coffee, so it's not as safe (I suppose you could pour beside the pan while it's sat in a cooler, and let the flow under/around/over prevent splashes...). On a different note, they sell those exact same freeze driers at my local sporting goods store (for hunting and camping food purposes). I hadn't paid any attention to them, but now I'm genuinely interested. Might have to check them out.

@nylesnettleton88

Ай бұрын

Interesting effect of dry ice is that it can wind up carbonating what it comes in contact with - fizzy espresso?

@donttouchthisatall

Ай бұрын

@@nylesnettleton88 Interesting idea - seen that on a chefsteps video back in the day with carbonating fruit. Then again, i am sure you can find carbonated coffee in Japanese vending machines?

Pharmaceutical chemist here, when we lyophilize (freeze dry) compounds we use a container (glass) and freeze it by rotatinging in a dry ice/acetone bath. Then the container is put into the lyophilizer which boils off the water and dries the compound. Your tasting of "rubber" could be from your silicon ice cube trays that you froze in. Suggest you try a direct freeze of container in dry ice/acetone bath or liquid nitrogen before placing the container into the lyophilizer.

@joepangean6770

Ай бұрын

James, try it with cold brew.

Finally, a new video. I've been waiting for this! 😅 Awesome video as always!

Probably never tapped KZread notification this fast. Wasn’t disappointed. James is still wearing suberb knitwear

@phreakli

Ай бұрын

So you clicked on it INSTANTLY? * ba-dum-tss *

Could the rubberiness be from the silicone molds?

This was great take on how coffee tastes when the chemical composition has to do work to get there. You should also make a video on most practical ways of how to best store an already brewed coffee to still taste great.

For anyone wanting to try freeze concentration, it doesn't require direction freezing. Freeze concentration happens by allowing the ice to melt with the flavorful liquid melting first and discarding the still-frozen water. Bars typically do it to fruit juices -- like pineapple juice.

Greetings from Switzerland :)

The directional freezing coffee was *not* a failure! It didn't give you the expected result, but you still learnt from it. As long as you learn something from an experiment, it succeeded.

@cdgonepotatoes4219

Ай бұрын

There are lessons in failure. You can say you failed something and still say it was a positive experience, you shouldn't think of "failure" as a scary word and avoid using it.

@QuantumHistorian

Ай бұрын

@@cdgonepotatoes4219 The point of an experiment is to learn what happens when you do X. They learnt what happens so they didn't fail; experiments can fail if they're too inconclusive to draw any conclusions, but that's not what happened here. What you're describing is attempting to make something and failing to make it, but if you attempt something with the sole goal of reaching a particular outcome then what you're doing is no longer an experiment, at least in the scientific sense, but rather a manufacturing trial.

@pmbrig

Ай бұрын

An adage I once heard: Every experiment turns out right. But not necessarily the way you expect it to. And there's no guarantee that you understand it.

@QuantumHistorian

Ай бұрын

@@cdgonepotatoes4219 It's not about failure being a scary word, it's about understanding what an experiment is. An experiment is a way of learning - if you learn, it succeeded. experiments can definitely go wrong and fail to teach you anything about what you were testing, but that's not what happened in the video. If you're trying to get a specific results then it's not really an experiment in the first place, at least not in the scientific sense I was using, but something more like a manufacturing trial or a prototyping a method.

Excellent video as alway. Thanks for the video james

That process of directional freezing pushing impurities out is actually used in semiconductor engineering too, to improve the purity of big pieces of silicon or germanium.

I'm just waiting for the "freezedryers are cool" merch to drop?

THIS GUY IS A FREAKING LEGEND FOR FITTING AN AUDIO TRACK WITHOUT SLURPING OMG

Oh man, there's a new Map Men video, and a new James Hoffmann video. What a great Wednesday!

Great thing to explore!) Thanks, James!)

I appreciate the slurp free audio track.

James is the only person that could make me worried that I don't know Bovril

@benjaminm4702

Ай бұрын

It's like a disappointing miso soup.

@EphemeralTao

Ай бұрын

@@benjaminm4702 It's essentially a combination of beef bullion and Marmite, but less interesting than either one alone.

@jerther_

Ай бұрын

We use Bovril frequently here and to us it's nothing more than concentrated beef broth. Nothing special, to us anyway ;)

i'm not even into coffee, i kinda hate it, never had a cup i truly liked, but i'm enjoying your videos and i love your way of explaining things and your tone of voice. very chill, relaxing videos!

I have this freeze dryer. It is the source of that rubbery taste. It adds that taste to everything.

James, I think you meant "Antoines Equation" at 5:30 which describes the vapor pressure a liquid has at different temperatures. That directly correlates it to its "boiling point" at certain pressures. For Example at 100°C the vapor pressure of water is around 1,013 bar or 1 atm. So to make Water boil at 20°C you have to bring the pressure to around 0,023 bar. Great Video as always!

Hey James! Thanks for diving into the world of instant coffee and the Hotfreezing machine. It was quite the journey to witness how the cooling process affected the flavors. If you're looking to speed up the freezing, perhaps considering liquid nitrogen could be intriguing. It's incredibly cold and might just slash the process time. However, as you well know, handling liquid nitrogen requires caution due to its hazards. Maybe it's worth discussing how this method could expedite freezing and alter flavor profiles. Thanks for the engaging content and the eye-opening experiments! Can't wait to see what's next. Cheers!

Awesome! Try making some from rehydrated instant, also from a few pop brands of coffee and again some nice coffee.

Thank you I always enjoy your channel , I love your committment to discovery. Blooper I'd like to see: James tries the Nescafe thinking its something else and pronounces it excellent! balanced acidity and honest depth of flavour!

Garden Hose: A tasting note that I could immediately comprehend.

@SamsaSpoon

Ай бұрын

"Garden Hose" cracked me up so much.