The Coffee Shoppe Talk

[Otsego Mar]

I'm a man who loves his steak, but I'm also a man who loves his coffee. I have been using my keurig machine over the past year or 2 and I'm starting to realize one thing - it's a piece of garbage when it comes to brewing a good cup of a coffee. All it really provides is speed and convenience. You end up paying 3x the amount of money on kcups as you would for the equivalent of stand-alone coffee just for some convenience - and that doesn't include what you would consider good coffee.

So, any coffee lovers here? I'm considering going with a Hario V60 set-up eventually. I just found out about this method (pour over).

What methods do you enjoy? Do you have any favorite coffee providers? I just recently visited Red Cedar Coffee and I really like some of the flavored beans they have.

I will enjoy a frap or something with milk once in awhile, but I prefer my coffee black.

 

[Sumac13]

Agreed about Keurig. My only advice for that if using is to use the doohickey that allows you to use your own coffee grounds and then to pack it down hard before brewing. Even still, not that great.

The pour over method makes for a very good cup of coffee. Play around with the coarseness of the grounds some.

For about a year, I've been using the stove top octagon hourglass shaped expresso maker thingamabob. Grind beans daily and fine grind them. I also like the french press, but cleaning it is tedious without a garbage disposal. If you like iced coffee, try cold brewing (despite it being a fad now). I make a concentrate of coffee to use. It will last weeks to a month depending on how much coffee you drink. Turkish coffee brewed in the proper method is great for occasions calling for it. Arabic coffee flavored with cardamon and whatever else is awesome.

Oh, and flavored beans are an abomination.

Black. No cream. No sugar.

 

[Otsego Mar]

Agreed about Keurig. My only advice for that if using is to use the doohickey that allows you to use your own coffee grounds and then to pack it down hard before brewing. Even still, not that great.

The pour over method makes for a very good cup of coffee. Play around with the coarseness of the grounds some.

For about a year, I've been using the stove top octagon hourglass shaped expresso maker thingamabob. Grind beans daily and fine grind them. I also like the french press, but cleaning it is tedious without a garbage disposal. If you like iced coffee, try cold brewing (despite it being a fad now). I make a concentrate of coffee to use. It will last weeks to a month depending on how much coffee you drink. Turkish coffee brewed in the proper method is great for occasions calling for it. Arabic coffee flavored with cardamon and whatever else is awesome.

Oh, and flavored beans are an abomination.

Black. No cream. No sugar.

If I pack it too tight with grounds it will leak on me - another problem that many people have, as I've researched.

I'm not a huge fan of iced coffee, really.

As for flavored beans, I can respect your opinion. I don't like to get too crazy with flavors. But, I think my affinity with flavored coffee has been because of a lack of a quality brewing method. I hear pour over will really bring out the clarity of the coffee.

 

[gourimoko]

My wife and I have recently bought an espresso machine and coffee grinder. We have cappuccinos and lattes regularly; almost every day. The difference between freshly ground coffee you make yourself, and the shit that comes out of a Keurig is astounding..

It takes no time at all to make a fantastic tasting cup of cappuccino, from whole beans to finished product, and ultimately that will taste infinitely better than anything you'd get outside of a proper cafe.

There are several added dimensions (both taste and smell) to fresh whole bean coffee that just aren't present in ground coffee blends. Explaining it to someone who hasn't tried it is like trying to describe color to the blind.

We've got an entire corner of our kitchen devoted to coffee, espresso, cappuccino , and tea (the wife being Asian drinks a shit load of tea).

p.s.
I prefer my coffee with cream, no sugar. I agree flavored beans are ridiculous, just flavor the brew not the beans - wtf were they thinking? And lastly, anything you put in your coffee should be real - i.e., real milk, real cream, fresh cinnamon, etc. Why fuck around with garbage - it doesn't save time.

 

[Otsego Mar]

My wife and I have recently bought an espresso machine and coffee grinder. We have cappuccinos and lattes regularly; almost every day. The difference between freshly ground coffee you make yourself, and the shit that comes out of a Keurig is astounding..

It takes no time at all to make a fantastic tasting cup of cappuccino, from whole beans to finished product, and ultimately that will taste infinitely better than anything you'd get outside of a proper cafe.

There is are several added dimensions (both taste and smell) to fresh whole bean coffee that just aren't present in ground coffee blends. Explaining it to someone who hasn't tried it is like trying to describe color to the blind.

We've got an entire corner of our kitchen devoted to coffee, espresso, cappuccino , and tea (the wife being Asian drinks a shit load of tea).

Once I get a Hario or Chemex (I'm pretty set on the pour over method) I'm going to invest in a good burr grinder so I can have better control of the method.

I like tea, too. Some of my favorites are chamomile, ginger, dandelion, and fennel. As with coffee, using your own fresh product beats packaged stuff.

 

[Otsego Mar]

@gourimoko as for flavored beans, how exactly does that work? Are the ingredients used in the roasting process?

PS - real men drink it black. My chest is chock full of hair (no really it is)

 

[theSwayze]

cold brewed coffee is the fing best coffee. I friend/client who runs a coffee roaster and coffee retail business. His take is that if you have good beans, ground well you can make great coffee in a sock. He said the problem with my brew isnt my 25 year old Mr Coffee - it was my shit 12 dollar blade grinder. Got a burr grinder - everything is better.

 

[Otsego Mar]

cold brewed coffee is the fing best coffee. I friend/client who runs a coffee roaster and coffee retail business. His take is that if you have good beans, ground well you can make great coffee in a sock. He said the problem with my brew isnt my 25 year old Mr Coffee - it was my shit 12 dollar blade grinder. Got a burr grinder - everything is better.

Very true....it takes a bit more, though. Temerature of your water and your ratio of water to beans is big.

 

[natedagg]

This thread is quite timely - my Keurig is on the fritz and I was just looking around at alternatives. Of course yesterday I just descaled my Keurig and it's now working perfectly but whatever.

My only advice is everyone gets the hario v60 or similar due to travel. I am going to get one today after this thread and thinking about it.

 

[natedagg]

Question: is an instant hot too hot/cold for using in the pour over method?

 

[Otsego Mar]

Question: is an instant hot too hot/cold for using in the pour over method?

What is an instant hot....instant coffee? If so.....I'm sure it's not going to be great quality and the grind size might be too fine.

 

[Sumac13]

What is an instant hot....instant coffee? If so.....I'm sure it's not going to be great quality and the grind size might be too fine.

I believe it is an in sink dispenser of near boiling water. How hot 'near boiling' is I don't know.

Anyway, I wondered about water temperature and coffee and the possible relationship between water temperature and fineness of grind. Cold brewing aside, I've always used boiling water. Never boiled twice.

I know for green tea, it is much better when the water is only 180F and brewed for less than 4 minutes. I forget the science behind it, but it gets a funky taste when brewed with too hot of water.

As for a burr grinder, anyone suggest a hand crank one? Between tuition and rent, I cannot fork out the money for a good electric one at the moment. I have a turkish one that grinds coffee as finer than talcum power, which is wonderful except that it takes nearly 10 minutes to grind enough for my small stove top espresso maker. I lost patience with it after a month. It only gets used when making turkish coffee, which isn't that often.

 

[Otsego Mar]

@Sumac13 @natedagg everything I've read (at least in relation to pour over) says it should be right around 200 degrees F, which, if you don't have a thermometer, would work if you bring it to a slight boil and let it sit for 30 seconds or so.

If you use boiling water I think it will dissolve more of the acidic residues from the beans, IIRC.

 

[Frank Reynolds]

If you guys really want to take your coffee game to the upper stratosphere, there's only one place left to go....

Freshly roasted beans. There's a restaurant in Tampa known as Bern's steakhouse; one of the top steak joints in the USA.

After you are done eating, you go to an entirely separate restaurant upstairs which specializes in gourmet desserts.

The founder of the restaurant being so anal over details demanded that fresh green beans were to be roasted, ground, and brewed all in the same kitchen.

Holy fuck. Best cup of joe I've ever had bar none. I had 3.


The aromas, the freshness, the flavor profile. The fresh roasting of beans ensures that you are getting the best cup of coffee imaginable. I'd imagine it would make your home smell damn good inside too.


Obviously there's some little barista etiquette/techniques that go a long way to really round out your perfect cup.

Fresh roasted beans, ground with a good conical burr grinder, using a pour over brewer, brewed into a pre-warmed cup you should be golden.



For those who don't know, the standard coffee makers don't get the water temperature quite hot enough to really release all of the flavors.

Boil your water in a kettle, vent the kettle for 2 minutes until the temp drops from 212F. Slowly pour the hot water over the grounds until you get that bloom. Don't go too fast, and try your damnest not to wet the grounds around the edges, keep your water pour directly in the middle of "the payload."

Happy brewing.

 

[Otsego Mar]

If you guys really want to take your coffee game to the upper stratosphere, there's only one place left to go....

Freshly roasted beans. There's a restaurant in Tampa known as Bern's steakhouse; one of the top steak joints in the USA.

After you are done eating, you go to an entirely separate restaurant upstairs which specializes in gourmet desserts.

The founder of the restaurant being so anal over details demanded that fresh green beans were to be roasted, ground, and brewed all in the same kitchen.

Holy fuck. Best cup of joe I've ever had bar none. I had 3.


The aromas, the freshness, the flavor profile. The fresh roasting of beans ensures that you are getting the best cup of coffee imaginable. I'd imagine it would make your home smell damn good inside too.


Obviously there's some little barista etiquette/techniques that go a long way to really round out your perfect cup.

Fresh roasted beans, ground with a good conical burr grinder, using a pour over brewer, brewed into a pre-warmed cup you should be golden.



For those who don't know, the standard coffee makers don't get the water temperature quite hot enough to really release all of the flavors.

Boil your water in a kettle, vent the kettle for 2 minutes until the temp drops from 212F. Slowly pour the hot water over the grounds until you get that bloom. Don't go too fast, and try your damnest not to wet the grounds around the edges, keep your water pour directly in the middle of "the payload."

Happy brewing.

Nice info. The bloom is wetting all the grounds completely and stopping the pour for 30-45 seconds (depending on how long ago your beans were roasted) in order to let CO2/gasses escape.

Have you heard about people pre-wetting their filters?