So… this morning we’re running out of coffee. I give my wife the last full tablespoon of coffee, leaving me with a level tablespoon for my cup. Not enough. So I get the filters out, and put some expresso init and then put that in the cup too…
Tastes like crap, but I can feel my hair growing… really.
I’m only 1/3 the way through my cup, but
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
ok, so there’s my post. I’m going to go clean something…
If you are using instant (wanabe coffee) it’s going to taste bad IMHO. Get some regular grind or better yet get the beans and a grinder…now that’s coffee
Nothing but Columbian arabica for me and my wife. We keep our beans at room temp…grind them to an optimal size, and either french press it or a straight brew will do.
On weekends we enjoy our coffee with 36% milk fat.(heavy cream) Whipped and, of course, cold.
On more than one occasion, I’ve been caught making love to our coffee beans. Sometimes, I cuddle with our french press. Stroking and cooing sweet nothings into it’s plunger.
I often check out “alt.coffee” to see how the other sluts coax the flavor out of their beans.
Hey don’t get me wrong. I love a good cup of coffee as much as the next guy. But we’re talking morning here.
Put a bean grinder in my hand before I’ve had a coffee??? Bwahahahaha. You guys are funny.
One of two things will happen:
a) I’ll grind off all my fingers, one by one.
b) I’ll stare at the thing stupidly until someone passing by notices and helps me out. (It’s happened before. Almost 20 minutes standing there, catatonic)
I can barely figure out how to twist open the freakin instant jar. I fill the kettle the night before so all I have to do is flip one switch. By the time I’ve got the sugar and coffee in the cup, the water’s boiled.
As for regular drip, same thing as the bean grinder. (Without option ‘a’) These things are incomprehensible to me when I first wake up.
I use a tablespoon instead of teaspoon primarily because it’s easier to see and use.
As for the taste of instant coffee. So it’s not the greatest. S’ok. I can’t figure out how to work my tastebuds till after my first coffee, anyway.
Oh yes, the lure of the bean. I think it’s safe to say that there is a serious caffiene addicted bunch in this house. I have a bean grinder, expresso machine, ice tea pot and Mr. Coffee with a timer. The best investment I ever made. I grind the beans and get the pot ready before I go to bed, set the timer and like magic a beatiful fresh pot is just finishing brewing when I get up in the morning. I usually make latte with or as dessert. Oh how I love the foam. I think it’s better to pay for good expresso beans because you use so little of it for a pot. I usually pay about $8-$9 a pound. I just can’t see paying much more than that.
Get a coffee maker that can grind and brew on a set timer. If I remember correctly, Bruan has a maker that can do this. You put your favorite beans in the night before, set the timer, and it grinds and sends the grounds to a filter and brews it for you in the morning. My father loved it, until the coffee maker leaked all over the place.
Grind the beans before you go to sleep. Set up the coffee maker with water, grounds, etc… Either set a timer on the maker or buy one yourself, and set it for a half-hour before you wake up. You stumble downstairs and hit the machine. A little sugar, a little cream, voila! Your set.
I actually, like my morning instant. First coffee of the day - instant. I like the control. The control of the spoon. I’ve never been able to make a really top notch pot of drip coffee anyway.
Dylan and I have been known to fire up the pot and have some drip after we’ve had our first coffees (instant).
If it’s going to be drip though, my fav is Blue Mountain beans from Jamaica. Dylan’s got to make it though, I suck.
Oh god, you’re bringing up really bad memories for me. I remember a day, not so long ago when I woke up to find that I’d run out of coffee. Hands trembling, a cold sweat on my brow, I rummaged through all the cabinets looking for a stray bean, anything, when I found it. A jar of instant coffee left over from making Mocha Fudge Pudding Cake. Mmmmm…pudding cake.
The problem was, I didn’t know how to make instant coffee and there were no instructions on the jar. So, I experimented. It took about eight tries before I realized that there is just no way to make instant coffee taste good. Now that was a terrible day. Bleh, just thinking about it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Vietnamese coffee. Ooh, this is good! There’s a little coffee maker that looks like a stainless-steel espresso cup on a stainless-steel saucer. The bottom is perforated. Put some finely-ground French-roast coffee in the maker. Put some sweetened condensed milk in a cup. Put the maker over the cup. Put some boiling water on the grounds – just enough to dampen them. Let it sit for about 30 seconds. Screw the perforated cover over the grounds and unscrew it about half a turn. Fill the maker with boiling water and put on the cap. It will take 10-15 minutes for the coffee to drip ever so slowly through the perfs on the botton of the “saucer”. When it’s done, stir the coffee to mix in the sweetened condensed milk. Pour into a glass of ice and stir a little bit to start chilling it. Drink and enjoy! (BTW: I have two of the makers).
I’ve tried making it in an espresso pot when I’m in a hurry, but it’s better the slow way.
For everyday drinking, I always use French roast from Trader Joe’s. It’s the strongest, blackest coffee they have. I make it in a French press.
I’ve been known to drink 20 oz of espresso at a sitting, and have ordered 10-shot espressos at coffee bars/kiosks. Why does the barista always ask if I’m serious?
For emergencies, I always have the little cofee packets that come with MREs (which, not ever having to eat MREs, I like to eat on occasion).
Chocolate-covered coffee beans. In addition to combining two of the best flavors in the world, they’re a great alternative on road trips to that nuclear-heated “coffee” offered by fast food joints.
dewt, when I camp, I use Cafe Bustelo instant espresso. Not bad.
Sure! I like them. I like to cook, but as a bachelour it’s usually easier to just open something. I’ve gone through three cases of MREs (36 meals) in the last couple of years, and I have yet to get the little Tabasco bottles. Haven’t seen them in quite a long time. The MRE packer must have discontinued them. A friend of mine who was a helicopter pilot in Desert Storm said she’ll show me how to make a dessert using the dehydrated strawberries, crackers, cheese, sugar and creamer. Unfortunately, it looks like the only fruit you get nowadays is wet-pack pineapple or apple sauce; and the (aweful!) cheese is gone too.
Coffee beans, like chewing gum on the bedpost, will lose flavor if left out, exposed to air for too long. Not a whole lot, if you’re just leaving them out overnight, but it does affect the flavor. For maximum flavor, keep the beans in a sealed container, and when you want to use them, grind them and brew right away (I worked at Dunkin’ Donuts for several years, and they do make awesome coffee–Arabica beans totally rule).
I myself do not have a coffee grinder at home. I want one. I want one bad. My husband and I use Folger’s or Maxwell House Columbian, in an electric perk (because our beloved automatic drip finally gave up the ghost, and we haven’t gotten a new one yet).
We’re also cappuccino junkies. I normally take my coffee black, but I have a serious addiction to the white chocolate caramel cappuccino that our friendly neighborhood Mobil gas station sells. I like Border’s & The Coffee Beanery, too. Yum.
I bought a bean grinder at a yard sale a few years ago for $3. It’s probably the best $3 I ever spent.
Combine that with my Mr. Coffee reservoir machine and the fact that a little shop just opened less than a block from my house that roasts its own beans, and my life is gooood. A ten-cup pot will just exactly fill my Stanley stainless steel badass trucker thermos and my Elvis travel mug, giving me the ammo I need to face the world.
I must admit that the coffee in the Medical Center cafeteria is quite good. Health care workers take their coffee very seriously. (Overheard one day when the cafeteria had run out: “You mean they expect me to practice medicine without coffee?”)
Czech coffee…regular strength coffee with a big mess o’ grinds on the bottom.
Austrian - with real whipped cream. Definitely dessert.
My favourite is arabic coffee which as far as I can tell is brewed like turkish coffee (espresso-ish) but with cardamom. Its a very fresh taste.
We have Timothy’s in Canada with great every day 10 o’clock coffee break coffee. Just don’t give me flavoured. Blech.