How do you make your coffee?

Discussion in 'The Good Life' started by gorgo2, Dec 11, 2011.

  1. richgem

    richgem suffering from chronic clicker hand cramps

    Those bags don't solve anything. :( They taste bad, just in a different way. And OMG, Sanka?! I haven't had it since I was a kid (my grandparents loved it). To this day, it's the only coffee that I would know immediately by taste.

    From wikipedia:

    Decaffeinated coffee was developed in 1903 by a team of researchers led by Ludwig Roselius in Bremen, Germany.[1] It was first sold in Germany and many other European countries in 1905–06 under the name Kaffee HAG (short for Kaffee Handels-Aktien-Gesellschaft, or Coffee Trading Public Company).[2] In France, the brand name became "Sanka", derived from the French words sans caféine ("without caffeine").[3] The brand came to the United States in 1909–10, where it was first marketed under the name "Dekafa" or "Dekofa" by an American sales agent.[2]
     
  2. PickledNorthern

    PickledNorthern Fabulous, the unicorn

    I am not a coffee connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination, but I do like good strong black coffee. My wife picks the beans. We gtind in a Cuisinart burr grinder and brew in a Bunn.

    I think it would be fun to branch out a bit, but at this point, that would just be one more hobby I don't have room for or money to spend on.
     
  3. HolyRollah

    HolyRollah BaconLord

    I remember as a boy seeing my dad using this to make his morning cup of 'joe'….absolutely dreadful stuff.

    [​IMG]
     
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  4. PickledNorthern

    PickledNorthern Fabulous, the unicorn

    Oof.
     
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  5. John Beeman

    John Beeman Little chicken in hot water

    I recently acquired two more vacuum coffee makers.

    Here's a photo of the three I now own. The Cory DR on the right is the one I purchased earlier this year and the other two I've acquired in the last 14 days just by happenstance.


    002.JPG

    The two newest acquisitions don't have water level markings for various cup amounts like the one on the right but I've figured out that the Cory DX top gold ring is a mark and the Kent is marked by the indent rings.

    I don't have a top cover for any of them but other than a handy place to stand the upper part, I haven't seen the need for one. The Kent also doesn't have a lid for the bottom portion but I always transfer my coffee to a carafe after I make it so that doesn't matter either.
    $25 for the big Cory with no filter included. Fortunately I had an extra filter I picked up one time for $5.
    $30 for the Kent with ceramic filter. I hadn't seen a ceramic filter up close before and I did some research and found out that some of them screwed apart for cleaning but mine you just rinse.

    003.JPG

    I originally wanted a Cory (all glass) because I'd read that all glass components make for a smoother cup and I'd been using a Pyrex percolator which is all glass except for the top and bottom of the basket. And yes, glass does make a noticeable difference.

    I've been most pleasantly surprised to discover my best cup of joe to date is coming from the Kent with ceramic filter.
     
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  6. swarden43

    swarden43 "It's your shave. Enjoy it your way."©

    Roasting hasn't become a hobby for me, just something I enjoy doing. Expensive? Not really much more per pound for green beans. $35 for a stovetop popcorn popper about 6-7 years ago. Still using the same one. Less than half an hour to roast up half a pound - enough for my weekend treat.

    I look at it this way, I don't mind paying a little extra every once in a while for a steak. I don't mind firing up the grill to cook that steak. Grilling and eating a steak is not a hobby. Enjoying a fresh cup of coffee doesn't have to be either.
     
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  7. RetLEO-07

    RetLEO-07 likes his penguin deep fried, with pink sparkles

    I am the only one in my house that drinks coffee. So every morning when I'm not working(free Joe in the Caf), it's off to the local coffee shop for a large Sumatra. It's a locally owned small business so I go there rather than 7-11 or WaWa. I started drinking coffee when I got on the cops. It was self-defense, had to stay awake some how. Now I gotta have at least one cup a day.
    :eatdrink013:
     
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  8. gorgo2

    gorgo2 geezerhood

    My new setup at work, seen here, the 1950s Sunbeam Coffeemaster. Two people have tried the result and are convinced it's a heck of a machine. Of course The Major helps.

    0324170943-1-1046x763.jpg
     
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  9. oldtrout

    oldtrout Well-Known Member

    Wow, I haven't seen one of those in 50 years. And yours looks new!
     
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  10. gorgo2

    gorgo2 geezerhood

    There's another one just like it at an antique mall near me for 18 bucks. If it heats, thinking about getting it for back up.
     
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  11. jmudrick

    jmudrick Type A Man

    [​IMG]

    Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
     
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  12. John Beeman

    John Beeman Little chicken in hot water

    What a coincidence. I just picked up a Sunbeam C20B two nights ago. It looks very much like yours only a few years older.

    I did some reading and apparently they're great machines. I was hoping to clean mine up tomorrow and figure out what to use for a filter.

    And yes, you should go get the other one (if it heats up). $18 is a great price.
     
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  13. gorgo2

    gorgo2 geezerhood

    I have the C30A, with the recessed removable steel mesh filter on the hook rod. I remember reading about an older model that took a cloth or paper filter of some kind, maybe that's yours and something to be rigged up?
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2017
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  14. John Beeman

    John Beeman Little chicken in hot water

    It takes a cloth filter and you can still buy them online but I was going to try a paper disc since I've got a package of them.

    I also found a supplier for the gasket.

    The gaskets on my stovetop Corys are in good shape but the gasket on the Sunbeam I just got looks like it may not hold a seal.
     
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  15. gorgo2

    gorgo2 geezerhood

    Mine has a few tiny cracks here and there but seals fine and is still fairly supple (amazing). How does yours look?

    The big thing I dread is when the element finally goes. I recall reading it's way too much trouble to be worth fixing.

    Post pics of yours, please!
     
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  16. John Beeman

    John Beeman Little chicken in hot water

    I hesitated on buying an electric for the same reason plus I've already got three stovetop models; but the price was right and I was able to plug it in at the store and it heated up right away. I don't know about yours but mine has a rubberized power cord and supposedly those need replacement eventually too if they crack and expose the wiring.

    I'll try a get a pic posted today.
     
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  17. gorgo2

    gorgo2 geezerhood

    My cord is still intact but I'm not afraid of using some Plastidip and pro grade electrical tape when it needs it.
     
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  18. John Beeman

    John Beeman Little chicken in hot water

    Well, here's some pictures and the tale of my first pot of joe (woe) with my new C20B.

    All of the parts are intact and work as they should. There was one cloth filter that needs to be cleaned or replaced.

    005.JPG

    I had some disc filters and they are the correct size so I used two of them (for added strength).

    006.JPG

    007.JPG

    The gasket was pretty hard but no major breaks and the siphon tube unscrews for easy cleaning.

    009.JPG

    011.JPG

    A few scratches and dings but not too bad considering this model debuted in 1938. I don't know how old this particular pot is but it's older than me.

    013.JPG

    I thoroughly cleaned it, installed paper filters, filled it with water, and filled it with coffee.

    Total time start to finish was similar to my stovetop models. My stovetop models take longer to heat up (partly because they're glass and I'm careful with the flame) but cool very quickly and the coffee siphons back down in a jiffy. This one heated up in a hurry (6 minutes to a full roil) and then two more minutes and the switch popped from high to low. Two minutes after that and everything was quiet. Then came the wait while the bottom portion slowly cooled enough for the coffee to siphon back down.

    Everything went fabulous until I unscrewed the filter rod and tried to separate the top from the bottom. The first thing I noticed is that the paper filters had partly pulled away allowing some grounds to end up in the finished product. That wasn't a big deal because I can either use larger paper filters or buy some cloth ones.

    The main problem was the old hard gasket turned mushy under heat stress and the top and bottom were stuck together by a gooey gasket. I finally got them separated and filtered the coffee to remove any grounds and any melted gasket.

    The coffee tastes very good (I'm enjoying it as I type) but now I've got to remove and replace the gasket. Hopefully I can get all of it removed from both sections without damaging the chrome finish.

    I found an online vendor that sells replacement gaskets but I also read that someone successfully used a plumbing gasket of the same size.
     
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  19. gorgo2

    gorgo2 geezerhood

    Beautiful!

    That double paper filter is exactly what I would have done, if I couldn't get the cloth to come clean.

    Yeah, it take me about 10 minutes start to fishing for a pot, but the flavor is well worth it vs drip or even old percolators.
     
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  20. gorgo2

    gorgo2 geezerhood

    Oh, one other thing...someone noted on a website that he immediately unplugs the unit once the switch clicks back to Low. I do that now, too -- found that the lower pot can quickly add a burnt taste if it sits warming too long.
     
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