What do you have in your coffee arsenal? Do you drip, steam, press, or <gasp> perc? What’s your current grind? Any extras?
Cuisinart DCC-2400 drip w/12 cup thermal carafe (keeps coffee hot very well)
Krups mini espresso steamer - for ‘long black’ style
generic electric blade grinder
Black Velvet Cognac from CoffeeAM.com
Trader Joe’s Kauai coffee
sometimes Boyds or Lion
half-n-half
raw sugar
Mocafe Mexican Cocoa
I french press the “good stuff” and perc the cheap stuff in the morning as we generally don’t get through the whole pot before it “overcooks”. I grind fresh and am currently looking into getting my own roaster and order green coffee beans for extreme freshness.
No coffee here, but I love my tea. And I do it properly, brewing a pot of tea (no teabags for this American, thank you very much). It’s astounding how much more teabags cost per cup compared to loose tea. A 450 gram box of loose tea costs around $3.25. And spooning lose tea in the pot releases the flavor so much more efficiently that I use less tea.
Roast green beans, grind and drip brew in a Technivorm. I use a press occasionally.
I’ve got one of these. Throw in some nice beans I found from Yemen and it’s a good breakfast.
French press, filtered water, coffee from Boca Java, coarsely ground.
Unfortunately, we are now making hot drip coffee with a B&D coffeemaker. When we have the room, we usually cold-brew our coffee and drink it iced. Much nicer, less bitter, more flavor. We’re brewing with a locally roasted Tanzanian Peaberry, which is very good.
Isn’t this like the fourth thread on coffee making in a very short period?
I use an old Braun coffee grinder. I’ve had it 30 years & it doesn’t miss a beat. We used to have an old dripolator, but couldn’t replace it when it wore out last year. So now we use a Zip steel plunger & I think othe coffee tastes better. At the moment we are using Vittoria coffee beans.
Krups grinder
Krups drip coffee pot
Beans vary. Sometimes Dunkin Donuts, Costo, Starbucks, carries many and I have tried a few.
Drink it black
I hate Starbucks.
French press, and I order coarse ground coffee from Caribou every month or so (they’ll deliver to me in Kabul). I’ve just been working down their list of coffees.
Tell me about cold brewing. I’ve heard good things…
A Bunn.
I have a basic espresso machine, and I use an espresso grind I buy from the coffee shop around the corner. I generally make cappuccino.
Of course, that’s only when I have the energy or inclination to operate the machine (not to mention cleaning it, which is a real pain in the neck). Otherwise it’s Taster’s Choice all the way.
I use a plunger for my coffee and tend to go for a mild Kenyan roast as my “standard” coffee.
Having said that, I like to have at least one bag of coffee from somewhere exotic on hand for something a bit different- for example, I recently finished some surprisingly good coffee from Colombia and I’ve got some from Papua New Guinea to try next.
I’ve got a Braun grinder and a good old reliable French press.
I’ve also used my French press for brewing loose tea. It works like a charm.
If you can do a search on the Dope, it’s detailed in numerous threads. Basically, you just dump ground coffee into a bowl or other container, add cold water and let it sit overnight. In the morning, strain the grounds out through a fine sieve. The resulting brew can be heated or drunk cold. We used to just let it sit covered on the counter until it was time to make a new batch, but some people refrigerate it. Unlike hot brew, it won’t turn bitter or rancid from sitting for a few days.
I have a little $12 no-name drip maker. Make a pot every morning, extra strong, grocery store brand coffee. First cup with milk and sugar, on hot mornings put it in a freezer mug. Drink the rest of it lukewarm or cold, and black. I like coffee a lot, but the main goal is to chug down the caffeine to get going.
A friend of mine used to do a cold-brew method that would result in a “syrup” that would be diluted with hot water to make a cup-a-joe. Know anything about that?
I’m sure you could make a concentrated brew that you could then dilute with water, but I’ve never tried that. Dump a pound of grounds in a bowl, add water and see what happens, I guess. Then just figure out what the water-to-concentrate ratio is for a decent cup.
That’s what I do. I got interested in cold-brewing the last time we did one of these threads because of Chefguy, so I looked for recipes (if you can call them that) and at first I used a big bowl of water & a couple of strainers to make the concentrate. It tasted great, but eventually I bought a Filtron to make the process a little easier. I don’t remember why I chose it instead of a Toddy, which is essentially the same thing - I’d assume it was cheaper on Amazon or something.
I’ve converted my Mom & brother to cold brew - my brother bought a Toddy, Mom uses the big bowl of water + strainer method. They both say that they’ve gotten tons of compliments on their coffee since they switched.
I think it’s really good hot, but it’s even better iced.