The Indiana Jones of Coffee
Todd Carmichael is an international man of mystery. The man has transversed Antarctica on foot, written for Esquire, and is the star of his own reality show on the Travel Channel. He also knows how to brew an incredible cup of coffee.
Carmichael, who owns La Colombe Coffee Roasters, turned more than a few heads when he won the Northeast region of the US Brewers Cup this year. In April, he’ll brewdown with 17 other leading baristas for the right to represent the United States at the World Coffee Championships in Rimini, Italy. What’s his secret? Well thanks to a Youtube video posted by the legend himself you can learn how to brew coffee like Todd Carmichael.
Carmichael calls his technique “Polished Immersion – Suspended Double Filtration“, which – you guessed it- uses full immersion and two forms of filtration. The genius of Carmichael’s approach is the way he modifies each piece of equipment to suit what he wants to accomplish. Personally, we can’t believe we never thought of glueing our electric kettle to its base!
What You’ll Need
- A Chemex
- Chemex filter
- Glass “candy canes”
- A cupping bowl (or any bowl really).
- Kone Filter from Able Brewing
- Bonavita Variable Temperature Kettle
- Coffee. Preferably a geisha from Hacienda la Esmeralda, Panama.
Photo from the Travel Channel.
I had the pleasure of meeting Todd in January, and he is at least as approachable and knowledgeable as this brewing method is simple and sophisticated.
My biggest regret at Big Eastern was not introducing myself. Hopefully we’ll get to meet at Nationals!