Author Topic: Coffee drinkers wanted for advice (Read 5677 times)

mtnbkr · « **Reply #25 on:** January 05, 2006, 06:05:11 AM »

Quote

My daily pot IS a special cup, and I take great pains with it.

I drink my coffee rather than make love to it. Tongue

Chris

K Frame · « **Reply #26 on:** January 05, 2006, 06:06:18 AM »

"I drink my coffee rather than make love to it."

Maybe that explains the constant burning sensations...

Waitone · « **Reply #27 on:** January 05, 2006, 06:25:05 AM »

Drinking coffee is a lot like shooting. Get the foundation skill down first before worrying about technology. A few observations:
--Brew it and take the basket out. OK to leave it on the burner for a while.
--Unbleached filter is better
--Experiment with different brands
--If acid is an issue af first, drop in a few flakes of pizza shakey hot peppers. Kills acid

Caramel, sugar, mint, cinnimon, etc constitutes sin. Don't go down that road.

Jamisjockey · « **Reply #28 on:** January 05, 2006, 06:27:34 AM »

Firstly, let me say I'm not a coffee snob. I like coffee, wether its fresh ground and expensive, or Foldgers from the can.
Start with a milder roast. I like dark, bitter coffee myself. Black, hot, dark.
Instead of adding sugar, use the flavored creamers you can buy. Watch the dietary info on the back, though, to make sure you're not just getting alot of sugar through it.

As for soda:
I drink 2-3 sodas a week. 5 years ago I was on a 6-10 soda a day habit. Not just any soda, my drug of choice was Mt. Dew. I usually got it from the fountain at the Stop-and-Rob. On top of that, I was drinking beer everyday, too. I gave up soda cold turkey, and cut my beer drinking to about 4 a week. I lost 5 lbs in just a week. After that, I felt better, and found myself more motivated to go exercise. I'm down from 195lbs to 155lbs (okay, okay, my winter weight is 160....). doesn't seem like much, but I'm 5'3"!!!!!!! Now I can walk a flight of stairs without suffering.
If you can't quit cold turkey, do this:
Give yourself an allowance. From week to week, cut your daily allowance by one soda. Before you know it, you're at one soda a day. Use a notepad to keep up with your soda intake, and keep track of your allowance.

Soda is IMHO the #1 bad substance parents allow thier children to take in. Worse than big macs, twinkies, or Micheal Moore films, all a soda is is sugar and chemicals.

mtnbkr · « **Reply #29 on:** January 05, 2006, 06:40:00 AM »

Quote from: Mike Irwin

"I drink my coffee rather than make love to it."

Maybe that explains the constant burning sensations...

The doc has a shot for that.

Chris

Harold Tuttle · « **Reply #30 on:** January 05, 2006, 07:45:12 AM »

you must do it this way...

gee, some of y'all must have been raised Catholic

Wink

IIRC, a can of regular soda has 10 teaspoons of sugar in it
i like sweet coffee
but not that sweet

ever have greek coffee?
Its boiled in a brass pot on a hot plate and served in a little cup

when your done, you invert the cup and a little old lady reads your fortune in the grounds

K Frame · « **Reply #31 on:** January 05, 2006, 08:24:50 AM »

"ever have greek coffee?
Its boiled in a brass pot on a hot plate and served in a little cup"

Yes. It's horrific. It tastes like it's had a goat bathing in it.

Harold Tuttle · « **Reply #32 on:** January 05, 2006, 08:52:00 AM »

a goat?

you must have gotten a weak batch

Wink

mfree · « **Reply #33 on:** January 05, 2006, 10:48:35 AM »

Greek/Turkish coffee is decent when it's made right. Basically camp coffee... grounds are superfine powder and left in the mix. Boy that stuff will turn your teeth colors though

As for the french press being called labor intensive... when you have mornings like I get sometimes, it is

No, I do consider it as having a much higher level of cleaning need (I refuse to leave any little bit of grounds in the filter or seal) and unless you find one that's marked, a need for metering and measuring too. Kinda hard to mess up with a drip maker, comparatively.

Something else I use on a semiregular basis is a little cone-shaped thing with a base that sits over a coffee cup and takes I think a #2 folded filter. You just pour water through grounds in the filter, it dribbles in the cup, toss the grounds and filter and rinse the cone, you're done. Got it at Kroger's for $2, IIRC.

MillCreek · « **Reply #34 on:** January 05, 2006, 11:42:49 AM »

I have about $ 2000 of coffee and espresso equipment sitting on my kitchen counter and I roast my own coffee beans. I have to roast four to five pounds every two weeks. For our 'day to day' coffee, I use a drip maker (Capresso MT500) and on occasion also use a french press. In the office, on top of a file cabinet, I keep a jar of whole beans, a KitchenAid blade grinder and a Cusinart four-cup drip coffee maker. Being able to have good coffee at home and work is priceless.

Moondoggie · « **Reply #35 on:** January 05, 2006, 08:03:24 PM »

I'm very particular about my coffee, too.

My individual taste is black, but not too dark. Some of my tasteless firends have referred to my coffee as "Making love at the lake"...you can figure out the vernacular of that phrase on your own. These are folks who think Folgers with an oil slick on top is "the good stuff".

I've been drinking Millstone Swiss Chocolate Almond from beans for several years now. Been grinding my own beans since about '81 or so. Never store them in the fridge/freezer. I use a Krupps blade grinder...it's been going strong since '81, too. I chop it up very very fine.

I'm partial to a Bunn-O-Matic at home with unbleached filters. In my 18 wheeler I have a drip coffee maker with a thermal caraffe. BIG inverter! Nice to have "home coffee" out on the road! My usual ration is a quart of coffee every morning.

I also like English Breakfast Tea. Bigelow or Twinnings, but Bigelow is my preference because each teabag is vacuum packed in an individual foil wraper vs. a paper envelope for Twinnings.

Funny thing...I absolutely cannot stand sugar in coffee, but gotta have it in tea. Creamer belongs in pudding.

Ahh, coffee...AKA "The Sacred Life Giving Fluid".

Sindawe · « **Reply #36 on:** January 05, 2006, 11:40:33 PM »

Hmmmm... Why the rational for NOT storing beans in at reduced temperature? I look at it like this. Coffee is produced by first fermenting the raw seeds, then roasting them. This produces all the delightful aromas and flavors we java junkies associate with coffee. Keeping the whole beans away from oxygen and at lowered temperatures retards the breakdown of those interesting chemicals. Fridge yes, Freezer no, since freezing makes ice crystals and dehydrates the beans.

Anybody use coffee in their gravy? I was served Thai iced coffee that was accidentally made with NaCl instead of sucrose once, and while it was a bit "shocking" to taste, I think it would have made a wonderful dressing for a nice red meat.

mtnbkr · « **Reply #37 on:** January 06, 2006, 03:30:16 AM »

Quote

Anybody use coffee in their gravy

It's the base for red eye gravy in the South.

Chris

MillCreek · « **Reply #38 on:** January 06, 2006, 08:36:07 AM »

As a long-term coffee roaster, the issue of freezing roasted beans to maintain freshness is a controversial one, ranking right up there with .45 vs. 9 mm. There has not been very much published in the scientific literature on freezing coffee. Having read much of the material available, both scientific and otherwise, I freeze all my beans.

After I roast and cool a batch of beans (I roast in one pound batch sizes), I pour the beans into an air-tight clamp-top one liter jar and put the jar into the freezer. When making coffee or espresso, I take the jar out, remove the beans for grinding, and immediately put the jar back into the freezer. I have done some informal taste tests, comparing beans that I have roasted, and keeping part of them frozen, and the remaining part in the same type of airtight jar, but kept out on the counter. To my taste, the room-temperature beans staled more quickly.

If I were to buy store-bought coffee, I don't know if freezing the beans would make much difference, but I do anyway, on the very rare occasions that I buy pre-roasted beans. Staling is also a matter of throughput, and as I mentioned earlier, the longest roasted coffee will stay around in my house is two weeks, before I have to roast some more.

Daniel · « **Reply #39 on:** January 06, 2006, 12:17:21 PM »

Quote

My daily pot IS a special cup, and I take great pains with it.

Same here. Fresh ground and press brewed every morning.

Cold spring water into my electric kettle, which quickly hits that 190ish degree sweet spot once you turn it down from boiling.

My usual is Ruta Maya, which is a local Austin place that imports organic Columbian and sells 2 lb. bags at Costco. I go through those quickly.

Sometimes I'll brew with some freshly ground cinnamon and nutmeg in with the grinds....damn good.

I'll usually also use a sieve and filter between my press and my cup to clean out the dust. Works great.

doczinn · « **Reply #40 on:** January 06, 2006, 01:24:16 PM »

MillCreek, where do you get raw beans, and how does one get into (on the cheap) home roasting?

MillCreek · « **Reply #41 on:** January 06, 2006, 04:02:42 PM »

Doczinn, the single best source of information on home coffee roasting can be found at www.sweetmarias.com. Lots of information on technique there, and also one of the web's most trusted and reputable green bean sellers. You can start roasting with as easy as a $ 15 hot air popcorn popper from Target, or a heavy-gauge metal pot on the stovetop, up to dedicated machines costing $ 600 that roast 8 ounces per batch. I personally use an industrial heatgun and a stainless steel bowl to roast one pound batches. I was one of the pioneers of this method, and have written extensively on it. This method cost me $ 60 for both the heatgun and bowl.

www.coffeegeek.com has a wealth of information related to all things coffee and espresso. There is also a homeroasters forum there, that I hang out on, that also has a great deal of information on roasting and green bean suppliers. Be aware though, that if you start to roast your own, you will find it very difficult to ever go back and drink crappy coffee again.

MaterDei · « **Reply #42 on:** January 07, 2006, 05:09:40 PM »

You guys are all joking, right?

cas700850, your body is telling you to stop drinking caffeine.

Control yourself. Drink water. Need an energy jolt? Take a power nap and/or get more exercise.

doczinn · « **Reply #43 on:** January 07, 2006, 05:44:23 PM »

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Be aware though, that if you start to roast your own, you will find it very difficult to ever go back and drink crappy coffee again.

Yeah, that's been the case with every step I've taken up the ladder so far. From Folger's to ground-in-store Millstone, from that to grinding my own. The next step was gonna be to mail-order just-roasted beans, but maybe I'll just do it myself.

Ran out of beans one day and got some Fiolger's, and couldn't drink it.

And MaterDei, it's not about the caffeine (at least for me), it's about the flavor.

MillCreek · « **Reply #44 on:** January 07, 2006, 07:25:05 PM »

Doczinn and I share the same opinion: coffee is about flavor. That is why I take it straight: no sweetener, milk or cream. By carefully selecting the right varietals and roasting to match their characteristics, you can get amazing flavor: from my earthy Sumatras, to the citrusy Kenyans to the Ethiopian Harrar that smells of fresh blueberries. The same applies for my espresso.

One reason that I rarely patronize a Starbucks or most other coffee/espresso houses is to my taste, the drip roast is far too dark, causing the characteristic 'Charbucks' flavor. So many of their coffees would benefit from a much lighter roast, which would let the varietal characteristics come through. The overwhelming flavor I get from Starbucks drip is a burned flavor, which is to my view is sad, since they buy some of the best beans available in the world, but then over-roast them.

Most of my coffee is roasted to a Full City level, which is lighter than the usual Starbucks French Roast. Most of my espresso is roasted to a Full City plus level, since those beans benefit from a darker roast.

The benefit to me of home roasting is that I can buy the finest beans in the world, roast them appropriately, and grind and brew it at the peak of freshness. It is like baking my own sourdough bread vs. buying it pre-sliced at the store.

brimic · « **Reply #45 on:** January 07, 2006, 08:33:21 PM »

I'm a really bad soda addict.

I did the math for myself a few years ago similar to what is posted on the linked website

Quote

Give up one daily 20-ounce soda, and at the end of the year youll save:

91,000 calories
7,280 teaspoons of sugar
Potentially lose up to 26 pounds of fat
Give up three daily 20-ounce bottles of soda, and at the end of the year youll save:

273,000 calories
21,840 teaspoons of sugar
Potentially lose up to 78 pounds of fat
By replacing soda with a nutritious beverage, you'll feel more energetic, satiated, lighter on your feet, less bloated and less moody.

And decided to switch to diet soda, cutting out 4 or 5 non diet sodas a day.

I rapidly lost weight, in fact I lost 30 lbs throughout the year.
The only problem was that the diet soda was giving me very bad headaches. If I didn't drink any soda, diet or not, I got even worse headaches. I went back to regular soda and ended up putting the weight back on and then some.

I quit smoking about 6 or 7 years ago, that was a piece of cake in comparison with my caffeine habit. Sad

doczinn · « **Reply #46 on:** January 07, 2006, 10:33:26 PM »

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One reason that I rarely patronize a Starbucks or most other coffee/espresso houses is to my taste, the roast is far too dark, causing the characteristic 'Charbucks' flavor.

A man after my own heart. Unfortunately, Starbucks is often the only coffee available, but I've found their espresso is tolerable with some half-and-half, and a few varieties of their drip are OK, too.

Nothing to write home about, though.

SpookyPistolero · « **Reply #47 on:** January 08, 2006, 05:35:51 AM »

The first coffee I ever had was Starbucks, after hearing my friends rave about how good it was. Needless to say I was sorely dissapointed and a bit turned off to java in general after that. I really, really hate Charbucks to this day though, just tastes like crap.

grislyatoms · « **Reply #48 on:** January 08, 2006, 06:13:44 AM »

How about iced tea? Lipton makes a good cold brew iced tea. I have a gallon of it sitting in the 'fridge at any given time. Easy to make, just put in a couple bags and in about 1/2 an hour you have iced tea. I usually throw in a spearmint tea bag with the others, to keep things interesting. Sweeten to taste.

I started drinking coffee by mixing it 1/2 and 1/2 with hot cocoa at 7-11. Gradually cut down on the cocoa until I was drinking coffee.

Can't drink coffee black, it gives me indigestion / heart burn. I put in a teaspoon or two of 1/2 n 1/2 and a teaspoon of sugar in a 20oz cup, just enough to take the edge off.

+1 on the Millstone Swiss Chocolate Almond. Good stuff, IMO.

I am a dyed in the wool cheap ass, so I usually buy Folger's Columbian or French Roast (on sale, of course!), and run it through a cheapo Mr. Coffee drip machine.

Never been big on soda, I maybe drank 4 sodas last year. I stick to water, coffee, iced tea, V8 or Clamato juice, OJ, and the occasional beverage of the malty / hoppy variety.

Filtered water is by far and away what I drink the most.

All time favorite coffees? Hawaiian Kona or Jamaican Blue Mountain; occasionally with a wee shot of Kahlua or Irish Cream. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

K Frame · « **Reply #49 on:** January 08, 2006, 09:37:04 AM »

Starbucks applies three "burnings" to their coffee...

The first is when they roast the beans.

The second is when they brew the coffee.

The third is when they sell it to the consumer at ludicrous prices.

News:

Author Topic: Coffee drinkers wanted for advice (Read 5677 times)