Coffee Hounds: Tell Me of the Best Way to Make Coffee

In My Humble Opinion
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In my efforts to ascend from extended adolescence to a state of maturity and provide proper host services, I’ve decided that I need to add some capacity for the production of coffee beverages into my food preparation apparatus. Mind you, this is not something I’d be using every day, so I desire something I can put away into a cabinet and only pull out when I need to make java for hypothetical guests or some Irish Coffee on a rainy Saturday evening. I don’t want a massive, counterspace stealing cappuchino machine or anysuch.

So what do people suggest? A (small) drip maker? A French press? Something else?

Stranger

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There is a coffeehouse in Monterey that keeps a whole heap of glass jars full of beans. You order your preferred variety, they grind exacly one cup’s worth, dump it into a gold filter, then pour hot water to be filtered into the cup underneath.

It is amazing .

The practicality of such a method is a different question altogether.

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If you’re looking for something that’s not going to take up counter space or a lot of storage space, grab either a French press or a Chemex. The press will be cheaper by about $20 and you won’t have to buy filter paper for it. On the other hand, you have to be paying attention when using a French press - you can’t just pour in the water, wander away for a few minutes and then come back and find your coffee waiting for you.

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There are lots of “best” ways to make coffee, but a simple drip coffeemaker will do wonders with fresh roasted beans freshly ground.

Mrs. Danalan & I own a coffeehouse, so we can have any kind of coffee we want, anytime. At home, we have a 4-cup drip coffeemaker and a simple grinder. We bring home no more than 2-3 days worth of beans at a time. Of course, if we are entertaining more than a few guests, we do that at the shop. You may need a bigger coffeemaker if you entertain more guests routinely, however if that’s a rarity you can always brew several batches in a 4-cup drip.

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Danalan! My new best friend! How are you? My, you’re looking very spiffy today! And the missus…very pretty. Love the hairstyle…and the shoes! To die for!

(next to owning a bookstore, I think a coffeehouse would be most excellent)

Ivylad and I have gotten to be coffee snobs, so much so that when we go to a hotel we have to bring our own coffeemaker, beans, grinder, etc. We order from Green Mountain, after a bad experience with Gevalia.

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Oh, to answer the OP, grind fresh, and if Alton Brown is correct, don’t buy from the bins in the grocery store. They’ve been exposed to light and probably aren’t the freshest. Purchase in vacuum sealed bags if possible, store the beans in an airtight container, and only grind what you’re going to brew right then and there. Remember, coffeehouses are like fishmarkets…the busier the store, the fresher the product.

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Coffee = grown-up-ness? :wink:

Back when I used to drink coffee (um, two weeks ago? yes, I’m breaking my addiction again), my favorite coffee came from a French press. I echo the others who suggest that the best coffee comes from fresh beans, purchased from a place with a high turnover (so they’re freshier – yes, that’s a new word), and then ground in small batches as they need them. But if you’re only a dilettante, you won’t want to invest in a burr grinder. Instead, in anticipation of your need, you can purchase some beans from one of the coffee shops (Coffee Bean or Peet’s, I’d say) and have them grind them for you there.

Or you can be like my dad, when we give him coffee. Silly me, I thought he’d enjoy trying some different things, so I bought him several different kinds of coffee beans, including two flavors (Irish coffee and chocolate raspberry, both of which I thought would be nice dessert coffees for him to serve) and three or four other kinds of coffees. He mixed all the beans together into one mish-mash, then ground them all, burning out mom’s coffee grinder.

And, may I say, that was the foulest cup of coffee I have ever had in my life. Now, when I bring him coffee, I bring the espresso pods from Starbucks; pre-ground, pre-measured, sealed in a filter so he can’t mess with them.

But I digress…

In addition to the taste, the French press will take up the least amount of space and you don’t have to worry about filters. You just measure in the grounds, pour in hot water, wait, and press. It provides a very rich taste, looks cool, and is very easy. A drip coffeemaker (at least, one that costs about the same as a French press), by contrast, is perfectly fine and functional, but the flavor isn’t as rich. And, frankly, there’s no magic in making drip coffee.

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You might also look into learning how to prepare Greek/Turkish/Arabic coffee. The equipment to brew it (an ibrik/cezve) is not that expensive, and done properly it’s (IMO) the best method of preparing coffee, and is also a traditional eastern Mediterranean way of showing hospitality.

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It’s bigger than a french press but smaller than a standard coffee maker. Get a Senseo. Perfect cup of frothy coffee every time.

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I own the 4 cup drip and the little rotary grinder as well as a hand-crank burr grinder and several french presses in several sizes for different applications. Weekdays, I get my coffee from work for free. Weekends, about 75% of the time I use the Mr. Coffee and the rotary grinder. About 22.5% of the time I use the french press with the rotary grinder. The other 2.5% of the time, I actually use the burr grinder and french press. I can tell the difference between the press and the drip, I can’t tell the difference between the burr and rotary grinds. I get my coffee beans at the grocery, but I buy Steep&Brew, which is a local company and I shop at a very busy grocery store. The only time I have every been bothered by the coffee was when I got a seasonal flavor that brewed horribly astringent coffee. French presses are also really nice for loose tea, which is also very grown up, quite tasty, and recommended by Alton Brown.

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We all sure love good ol’ Alton, huh? I’ve seen his shows in so many damn rotations that I can almost repeat some of them verbatim. Alton also recommends that an opaque air-tight container is best.

I love good coffee. Lyons restaurants when they were still around here had the best kona coffee.

Anyway, to OP, I have a Cuisinart 12-cup programmable coffee maker that has lasted 3 years now. Coffee makers have a short life in my house. Once they get so ugly they can’t be cleaned well a replacement is in order. The pot I have now works great and looks great. It was around $80 and has lasted longer than any previous maker that we’ve had.

We also grind beans before brewing. I like a nice fine grind of either Columbian or Kona-type beans. If I could get my hands on some real Kona, ahhh, Nirvana!

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By all means get a French Press. There is no easier or better way to make coffee. With a French Press, all of the flavorful oils remain in the coffee, so it has a richer flavor and no chance of having an off flavor from the filter.

I have an awesome travel version (like a regular travel coffee cup, but with French Press parts) that I got from Peets. Every morning I stumble to the stove, boil up a kettle of fresh water. Then I pour it in to the French Press (which I pre-fill with coffee at night- I buy freshly ground coffee from Peets on a bi-weekly basis) and read the paper while I wait for it to work it’s magic. If you can learn the timing, you actually can just go away and come back to a nice pot of coffee.

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Many here do not like percolater coffee. I don’t like it either from on of those “church-function” 50-cuppers with the spout on the bottom and the Megawatt-sized heating element that boils the life out of it.

However, the last time I broke the carafe on a drip maker and complained of having to spend just $2 less for a carafe than the cost of a whole new machine,
I was given a 1950s chrome electric percolator.

This thing is slow. The heating element is only a mere 400 watts. Apparently, in the old days, Mom got up first and started the coffee while Dad slept in for 5 min. more and then had a leisurely shave before breakfast.

The slower brew and the low-wattage keep-warm mean that the coffee has surprisingly good flavor that lasts a good while. I’ve seen “retro-look” new percolators in stores that all have at least 1000watts and don’t think they’d make coffee nearly as good as what my old one makes–they certainly wouldn’t keep it both warm and drinkable for several hours.

The dripper at work is blazing fast, but you pay for it in degradation due to the excessively-hot hotplate. To keep it drinkable, you grab a quick cup, then shut off the element and, if the coffee pot’s cooled too much, you nuke it by the cup in the microwave. Or you let it turn to road tar within an hour sitting on that overwattage hot plate.

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I should add that you need good water. If your tap water tastes like crud, get a Brita pitcher or a faucet-mounted filter.

The water is especially important if you’re going to take a while to drink the pot.
Bad water causes a scum to float to the top of coffee kept hot.

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Accumulated knowledge from the aficianados.

http://coffeefaq.com/coffaq1.htm

And an alternative view with tongue in cheek

http://www.baetzler.de/humor/alt_coffee_guide.html

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Actually, I’ve been thinking of hosting a dopefest, now that I have the perfect location. Unfortunately, I’m in the other corner of the country from you – deep in the heart of coffee country.

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Can I use this thread to brag about my husband’s brand new coffee bar? All for that big ol’ espresso machine he bought used from a former bookstore/coffee bar. It’s plumbed in. The cabinets were pre-built units from Home Depot, but the countertop he did himself. Tile backsplash, also. He still needs to fix the trim around the pantry door, since he had to rip it off, and we need to retile the kitchen. But we’re going to retile the entire kitchen, so we won’t bother to fix that one area until we do it all. (I broke my arm slipping on that floor; the tile is as slick as ice when it’s wet.)

To answer the OP, if you don’t drink coffee regularly, go for a French Press (like the one in my picture.) It takes up very little space. I don’t even like coffee, but I tasted some from that press, and it’s smooth and without a lot of the bitterness that drip coffee keeps. You’ll have to have your coffee ground for a press, but you can have that done at many coffee shops.

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Where do you get your beans? (ivylass, taking a big ol’ sniff of coffeeness)

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I started with a Senseo machine and upgraded to a Bunn MCP My Café Professional-Grade Single-Serve Coffee/Tea Machine. I’ve tried many of the various coffee pod brands, but much prefer the pods that I make myself: (Your favorite beans/ Turkish grind (even finer than espresso grind)/ put ~9gms in each self-made filter pod). Good stuff.