Question for the day. Why is so much of coffee lore and advertising associated wit Goats? (Hint Kaldi)
I know I'll get flamed for this amongst you coffee aficionados. But I have fond Nescafe Classico to brew an adequate cup for my needs. 2 min in the nuker and a teaspoon of coffee stuff and I'm off and running. Iused to use a Mr. Coffee, but we were wasting so much that it became cost prohibitive. I only drink one cup in the morning so no need to brew a pot. Is it as good as fresh ground? Probably not, but it works.
I really have no problem with instant coffee....... it can be soooooo much better than some coffee. Most of the coffee you can make in hotel rooms is horrid and I often travel with instant coffee, use the room maker to heat the water and make instant coffee. Also I travel with a small hotel shampoo bottle with dish washing detergent as those coffee makers pots probably get a rinse at most (or at least it appears that way at some places i've been). I say make what you like.
Thanks for the idea of cleaning with minute rice....... never heard/thought of that. My dad worked at a small grocery store, when it closed they sold EVERYTHING including the shelves and he bid $10 on the grinder and won. When I got it I took it apart and cleaned up everything......... The minute rice would have been much easier ;-)
Nice. Made me do a bit of research this morning and learned something. Now it's about time to pour a full mug, load up the pipe with some Dunhill Early Morning Pipe and sit on the deck
I sorta take my coffee seriously. I order my beans from Alterra Coffee Roasters online. They're from Milwaukee. I usually use Ethiopia Yirgacheffe. I prefer to French press my coffee. I use the Breville electric kettle- which allows me to set the perfect temperature for coffee. The result is the freshest, most smooth and bold cup of coffee you can get- without being bitter. For me, my coffee routine feeds the same part of my soul as my shave routine. Good things ought not be rushed, right?
I'd personally rank Yirgacheffe in my top three, just behind Tanzanian Peaberry and 100% Kona; to my palate, all have a certain wine-like acidity that I enjoy, without the sharpness of, for example, a Kenya AA.
Have you ever thought of roasting your own? I use a stove top popcorn popper with excellent results; and it really is as simple as popping popcorn.
...with just a bit more smoke—especially on dark roasts. I used to roast indoors, but with some gentle prodding by my wife, I've moved the roasting operation to the outdoor burner. Coffee is still great, and she's happier.
I notice nobody has mentioned grinders. The grinder is probably one of the most important variable in the coffeee making equation. I have been roasting my own coffee for 10 years now. I started with fluid bed roasters and have moved up to drum roasters in the last 8 years. I now use a Quest M3. My preference for brews tend toward earthy coffees. Sumatra Bali and Papua New Guinea lead the list.
I use a Baratza Virtuoso to grind for my Technivorm. I bought the grinder factory-refurbished about 4 years ago and it's been great. At the time I also got an espresso machine that looked promising, had good "specs" and was a "bargain" for $200, but after about 3 months it started leaking steam and making really awful shots, and I realized that to "do it right" I'd have to invest in a "real" espresso machine and a better grinder. Since doing that would get me in deep with SWMBO (for the $$, counter space, and plumbing/wiring involved), for the time being I'm happy with making really good drip with the Technivorm, and the Virtuoso, while not quite up to the task of espresso, is more than adequate for other methods of extraction. I typically vary the grind depending on the coffee I'm using, and like being able to produce a really coarse grind if I want to use a French press, or a really fine one if I want to slow down the drip process a little. The rice tip you shared previously is a good one, I've never put anything but beans into my grinder the entire time I've owned it and it's probably long overdue for a cleaning.
Tips on using Minute Rice. 1. Use Minute Rice or any Par-Boiled rice. Do not use regular rice it is too hard. Regular rice will dull your burrs and will not absorb the oils as well. 2. Put a cup of Minute Rice into the grinder 3. Grind 1/3 cup. 4. Wait 5 minutes 5.Repeat step 3 and 4 twice more. 6 I use a shark hand held vaccuum to remove the residual rice. If not run some coffee through the grinder and throw it away. If a little rice remains in your future grinds it will not affect your coffee negatively. The goal of cleaning with the Minute Rice is to absorb the coffee oils before they become rancid and effect your future grinds. It always amazes me when I go into grocery stores (even good ones like Whole Foods) the clerks just keep refilling the plastic bins with roasted beans and never give a thought to washing out the bins. There are probably years worth of rancid oils lining those bins.
I quoted the wrong post, haha! That's what I get from doing this on my phone at the airport. Anyway, I've only ever joked about roasting my own beans to my wife. But I may have to actually consider it!
Agreed...I wasn't a regular coffee drinker until a coworker got me hooked on Cafe Rico. I use an electric perc, supposedly a 6-cup model, which really gives 3 cups, just right for my daily intake.
My coffee is French press. I have a Bodum 12 and 34 oz French press as well as a 16 oz travel press. I purchase whole bean coffee and grind the desired amount for each brew. I take the coffee black... No sugar or milk.
I know lot of people will cringe when reading this but I'm interested to know what to do you think about the Nespresso machines and their capsules coffee quality ? I'm giving a serious thought at buying their new U-Milk machine for my wife morning ritual(I'm not of a much coffee drinker). An espresso machine or french press is not an option as time is very limited on weekdays morning.
Coffee begins to degrade 18 seconds after grinding it. The degradation occurs due to so much of the coffee's area being exposed to the air. If the been is roasted and not ground it will still degrade after about 2 weeks exposure to the air. The ground coffee found in the pods can be up to 1 year old. That makes pod coffee sort of equivalent to shaving with foam from a can and a multi-blade disposable cart. Or for old timers remember C ration powdered eggs in the Army?
Coffee This Weekend Past... (Confessions of a Coffee Snob) I spent the past weekend up at my sis-in-law's Tahoe home, celebrating with wife and family my mother-in-laws 85th birthday. My sis-in-law has one of those Keurig Single Cup machines— you know the ones: insert a coffee pod of your choice, depress the lever, and...Voila! Hot coffee fills your 6-8oz cup. I can certainly see the appeal of these machines, especially if one is pressed for time in the morning. I tried a pod of Peete's 'breakfast blend' and it wasn't too bad at all. But regrettably, all the other pods in stock were of the 'Hazelnut' 'French vanilla' 'Raspberry Chocolate Truffle' flavored varieties. So early the next morning, I had to make a choice: Flavored pods? (nope!), drive 6 miles to the local Peetes (possibly), or make a drip pot from the can of...Yuban in the cupboard. Since it was early, I opted for the 3rd choice: the Yuban. I scooped up 8 or 9 teaspoons of the coffee-like sawdust (or is it sawdust-like coffee?) from the can and loaded the paper filter of the 12-cup Mr. Coffee, and hit the brew button. I warned my wife of my plans so her expectations would not be set too high regarding her morning cup. End result? I was pleasantly surprised at the coffee. The Yuban certainly won't become a staple for my morning fix, but overall, my wife & I both agreed that, first and foremost, the Yuban was drinkable! I have had much worse coffee out at restaurants & diners, and if any of you have ever tried 'freeze-dried' coffee, you know how low the bar for coffee can be set. But I drank about 3-4 cups of the yuban (black), and I made it through the morning. The next day, we stopped at a local coffee joint on our way back home and had a memorable dark-roast done french-press style. Ahhhhhhhh!
