A few months ago, Ryan Jensen, manager of the Pilot House, got strange looks as he explored his favorite Portland coffee shops. Jensen was downing four cups of coffee in a thirty-minute span on the quest to find brews with unique flavor profiles to bring to the coffee bar in the Pilot House.
In October, the Pilot House introduced a new type of coffee, the pour over, brewed individually and infused with a distinct taste. The coffee is brewed in a glass vessel and undergoes a filtration process that swells and expands the grounds, amplifying their flavor.
Consequently, the flavors in a cup of pour over coffee are more prominent than those in a cup of coffee that’s been in a brew pot for several hours, Jensen explained. Some people deem pour over coffee to be a higher-quality, better-tasting source of caffeine.
“I think it has good flavor, and it’s something different. I like to order things that you can’t get every day,” junior Nick Hof said.
Tyler Hale, director of Haggerty-Tyson Hall, also appreciates the brew.
“It brews a richer cup of coffee,” Hale said. “It’s fresh, it’s not sitting in a press pot. Taste is better — I bet you that I could taste the difference between a freshly-brewed pour over and something that was sitting in
Because pour over coffee brings out the actual flavors in coffee, through the bloom and rinse process the grounds undergo. Jensen thought it would be a great opportunity to highlight coffee roasters in the Portland area that have a blend suited for pour overs. Since the beginning of the semester, the coffee bar in the Pilot House has offered pour over coffee from four roasters other than the Pilot House’s typical Stumptown brew.
The brewers provide the Pilot House with a USB drive to plug into the machine that brews the pour overs. The USB contains precise information on time, speed, amount and temperature of the water. The baristas put a paper filter into a glass brewer, measure out the precise amount of coffee and turn on the machine.
“The actual roaster can dictate the exact profile to get the maximum quality,” Jensen said. “I call it my ‘spaceship coffee machine’ because of the technology.”
The first coffee other than Stumptown brought to the Pilot House was Water Avenue’s Coffee blue creek blend. The roast contains notes of hazelnut, milk
Next was Coava Coffee, a shop Jensen affectionately calls “hipster coffee.” The Pilot House brewed its Bella Aurora blend made from Nicaraguan beans and containing hints of highly bitter dark chocolate.
Ristretto Roasters, a Portland coffee shop with three locations, was next. Its Beaumont blend of Brazilian, Nicaraguan and Ethiopian beans is infused with hints of maraschino cherry, chocolate
Last week’s blend was Heart Coffee’s espresso roast, containing aromas of peach jam, brown
This week, Caffe Umbria’s single origin blend, with notes of cedar, strawberry, rhubarb and honey, will be the featured pour over blend.
Jensen welcomes feedback and suggestions because as he sadly notes, he can only drink so much coffee. If you’re strolling through the streets of Portland and stumble upon a coffee shop whose brew you want to see in the Pilot House, tell him.
“I want to see it grow because there’s so much coffee in Portland, and as people learn to appreciate it more and more...my hope is that people can get as excited about that as I do,” Jensen said.
