The Wife's plastic Mr. Coffee has died (yay) so now I can break out my trusty Sunbeam Coffeemaster... (yay!) I just ued a gift card to buy a basic burr mill and am looking for grind recommendations, please and thanks.
That's what i was thinking but the filter is a flat mesh screen...thought coarse might be more suitable...but with 18 settings i want to avoid experimenting and possibly wasting beans.
I've got a '30s Silex 8-cup stove top vac pot, using a Lox-in glass rod. I've read that you use a fine grind, but it stalled when I did. So, I coarsened (is that even a word?) it up a bit to a medium grind, and it worked. Really a sight to see when the coffee gets sucked back down to the lower pot. With a mesh filter, I'd try a grind what you'd use in a percolator.
Medium grind would be a good starting point. As a point of reference, I use a "modern " farberware percolator and a medium grind works well. I bet that coffee will taste great.
Brews a very clean cup. The coffee will depend on whatever bean is used. Sweet Maria's (a good source for all that is coffee) says African & Central American beans do best. I've read elsewhere light roasts do best. When I first started collecting this stuff, I did much research, and found so much conflicting information that I just winged it & brewed trial by error. Some sites said fine grind, others said medium. Some said brew for 20 seconds once it filled the top bowl, others said a minute and a half. Sweet Maria's lists a 45 second infusion time. I do 30 seconds, stirring with a wooden chopstick.
I went with 2 notches below Medium and it works great. Flavor of the same beans is noticeably improved over the whirlygig grinder and plastic drip. I already regret the day when the big seal starts to go. Still quite pliable but has some fine cracks at the edges. Vacuum will be shot without it. Ah well, these things are to be enjoyed while they last.
