Coffee

[chiggins]

8'oclock has some good beans...lately we just get the preground Bustello and make cappuccino every morning.

I found Bustello in NY, ran out of the beans we usually used and grabbed a can at the bodega on the corner. It's not the best coffee I've ever had, but it's got something no other coffee has, very addictive.

[chiggins]

I must admit, I am intrigue by the French press, but have never used one. Someone care to enlighten me? Benefits? Drawbacks?

It's steeped rather than filtered. There's a barrista here somewhere that probably knows what compounds you get out of it that you don't get from pouring the water through the grounds, I just know I like it. It's just a pitcher that can get put away when you're done with it, and I like having the counter space, and you don't have to keep buying filters for it. There's steel versions you can get through REI that are kinda handy for camping too.

You throw your grounds into the carafe, fill it with sub-boiling water, or boiling if you're lazy like me, but 180 degree is supposed to be the right temp. If you uuse one of those fancy electric kettles with a temp control, that part's easy. Stir it (or don't, again, if you're lazy), put the lid on with the plunger up. Let it kick back for 4min or more, sink the plunger and the screen takes all the grounds to the bottom.

It's a very good cup of coffee.

[some call me...tim?]

I've come around to not enjoying standard drip coffee anymore. I used to think that my coffee maker did just fine, french press was nice, but more work. But, the coffee here at my work is a sort of mechanized french press/esspresso machine and I've gotten accustomed to it. Now when I use my Mr. Coffee, or have any other type of drip-machine coffee, it tastes acrid and bitter, less of the "true flavor" of coffee. I think a lot of it has to do with the filter keeping back the oils, but also, the constant heat of the hotplate underneath gives it a stale kind of taste. Now my Mr. Coffee just collects dust, and I only use my press, even though it's crappy and needs to be replaced.

I saw an Alton Brown show on coffee, and the way he said to do it, is the old fashioned way of just pouring hot water straight over grounds in a mesh net, into a vacuum carafe. Cap it off and you're good to go for hours. Also, an interesting thing he pointed out was that a lot of people don't like the bitterness of coffee, so use less grounds per pot. He said that this just ends up making weaker and more bitter coffee, and so then people have to add a bunch of cream and sugar to make it palatable--basically, you get less of the "good stuff" and more of the "bad". I've made coffee this way before (without the carafe though), and it does make a REALLY good cup of coffee.

[tgm]

I've started to like the manual drip method (needs more grounds than usual to get good flavor) since the biggest downside of the French press is the cleanup. With the manual drip, I just go straight into my thermal pot throw away the filter and I'm done.

Also, moving to a Burr mill grinder was a huge improvement over the whirly blades.

[BLURR]

I work for an international company...and we have a developer that flies in every few months...and brings me a couple bags of Carte Noire. This stuff is gooooood.

[domromer]

Starbucks just came out with an instant coffee. It's amazing for instant. I don't drink strarbucks much but it tastes excatly like thier standard drip coffee to me.

[tgm]

Agreed. For instant it's drinkable, but I took the A/B test and could easily tell the difference. Regular coffee is still much better. But for camping, or friends' houses that don't drink coffee, it can be a good fix.

[RustyP]

Agreed. For instant it's drinkable, but I took the A/B test and could easily tell the difference. Regular coffee is still much better. But for camping, or friends' houses that don't drink coffee, it can be a good fix.

My girlfriend works for starbucks...she's actually at a training seminar about the instant coffee ("Via") right now. Not bad when you want some coffee fast, but it can't compare to a good cup of Sumatra Mandehling brewed in the french press. It works really well in baked goods and bbq rubs, by the way.

[jnecessary]

Interesting...I was thinking of buying bulk on Ebay because the coffee machine at work sucks so bad. I have a few here now, they are very good for what it is..instant coffee.

[uNicedmeMan]

I'm a coffee snob. I grind from beans (old school hand crank burr grinder) every pot and use a manual drip or french press method.

I get up around 6 most mornings, my wife isn't usually up for another hour or so after that. We picked up one of these thermos french presses, and the pot I make at quarter after 6 is still piping hot an hour later, which makes her a little less angry at the world for having to be up.

Swooped up one of those french presses. Where do you fellas normally get your beans? Supermarket, interwebz???

[MonsterX12]

I am another french press user. The darker the better.

[chiggins]

Swooped up one of those french presses. Where do you fellas normally get your beans? Supermarket, interwebz???

We've been getting 5lb bags from Dean's Beans. Coffee's good and we typically order sugar from them too, which gets it down to around $8/lb with shipping.

[tgm]

I just get my from the grocery store (Sam's Club usually) for my regular beans. If I'm feeling really snobby I'll get some from a local coffee shop, one that roasts the beans there so they're fresh. If you're a super coffee snob, that's the only way to go (like fresh produce), but since I'm lazy I just rely on a good air tight container to hold the beans in.

Simply using good filtered water and grinding your own beans makes a world of difference.

I really do recommend trying a burr grinder too instead of the blade grinders. They are usually a bit more expensive than the $20 Braun (which works), but you get a much more consistent grind which makes for more consistent cups of coffee. It takes a few pots to figure out how much beans and what grind setting but once you've got it figured out, you're set.


Another alternative is Toddy coffee. http://www.toddycafe.com/
Here in the twin cities I know a few places to pick them up are Mississippi Market and Cooks of Crocus Hill.
You basically let the ground soak overnight and in the morning you drain it out and have coffee concentrate that you add hot water too. It tastes quite a bit different but very good. I usually do it about once a month.

[disc junkie]

Im partial to ethiopian beans myself and I urchase them from a local coffee shop regularly.

http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee.africa.ethiopia.php

I would love to have some Australian beans but apparently I can not get them in the U.S.

[Will Aubrey]

Folgers or Kroger coffee singles. BLACK