Can you drink coffee anywhere with just a few adjustments to make it drinkable, or does your coffee preparation resemble a science project?
I prefer tea myself, and can drink it as long as it’s sweet and has a few drops of milk in it.
But when I do drink coffee, I’m very picky. It must be:[ul]
[li]freshly ground, (since I don’t drink it everyday, whole beans keep longer)[/li][li]light or medium roast[/li][li]made in a coffee press or perculator[/li][li]2 tsp of sugar[/li][li]either Cremora or Coffee Mate non dairy creamer (powder)[/li][/ul]
I’m just the opposite from Batsinma; I can drink any old diner mud or a coffee “a millionaire’s money can buy,” and it all tastes the same to me. But tea? It has to be the best, and I never sully it with milk or sugar.
For starters I’m a hopeless coffee fanatic, freak, geek, and enthusiast.
I roast my own coffee and have gone to great lengths and ridiculous expense at times to have the finest coffee experience possible.
BUT I’ll drink almost any coffee I can get my hands on. If it’s truly awful I’ll pour it out but otherwise I just drink it and accept it for what it is. Unless you are going to carry a grinder and fresh roasted beans in your pocket you can’t get the same quality while you are out as you can at home.
I like drinking coffee…
With friends
After a nice dinner out
With dessert
After drinking and BEFORE driving
When I see a new cafe open
When I smell a pot brewing
Anytime I see an E-61 group head
Whenever I’m bored
With breakfast at IHOP/Denny’s
When I’m on vacation
When I’m stuck shopping in a mall
When I’m in a hurry (no time to eat) but a little hungry
If I hear a steam wand give a deep “growl” in some milk
And about 2,600 other times
Great cups of coffee are unfortunately few and far between in most of the above situations so snobbery goes head to head with obsession/addiction. For me there is always time for snobbery when I get back to my set up……but for now pour me another cup.
As long as it’s got a smooth flavor, is a light roast and is not bitter, I’ll drink it.
There’s a coffee shop near me called Williams’ that make’s the world’s worst coffee. Watery, bitter as hell. The kind where you pour like 6 creamers in and you don’t see it getting much lighter. Unfortunately it’s the coffee shop closest to me, so sometimes I have to resort to their swill.
I’m beyond snobbish. In Denver, we’ve got a company called the Scottish Roaster. After the coffee cart that used it moved to a new location, I called them up and buy the coffee in bulk.
So, 42 packets (Each packet makes about a pot an a half), fresh fresh fresh, doesn’t go bad, and it works out to about $6.50 a lb. The only downside is, once every 6 weeks or so, I have to drive to a little industrial park to pick it up.
I’ll do that and not complain a’tall!
I’m not so picky with coffee as long as it’s been freshly made via a drip method.
Espresso, on the other hand, must be recently roasted, just ground, packed just perfectly, brewed for under 30 seconds in a pump machine, and consumed in less than 2 minutes after it is made.
I’m not really picky about my coffee, except it can’t be weak.
But then I started drinking coffee when out camping, and that’s the strongest stuff I’ve ever had. A friend of my Dad’s would save the last little bit of coffee in a tin and dump it all into one tin for camping (we’re talking about several different brands/roasts/flavours of coffee, as well as who knows how old the stuff is) and then toss it into the percolator and leave it standing on the side of the fire all day.
I’ll drink anything except weak coffee.
Naturally I prefer fresh ground and piping hot and flavorful… but …
If it’s lukewarm and that’s all that’s around, I’ll drink it.
If I want an evening cup and the TV show is about to start, I’ll microwave reheat some still in the pot from breakfast.
I use a BuzzRoaster drum but it’s not normal for people start with a drum.
These days there are many choices and if I were just starting out I’d probably go with whatever small roaster was in my budget. The best place for new roasters to start is here. Enough information to get you started and some very high quality beans to make your efforts worthwhile.
When I first started roasting the big thing was to use Poppery I popcorn poppers, Whirly Pop hand crank poppers, and whatever other inventions people were cobbling together. Now there are many popular dedicated roasters like the Fresh Roast from about $75 to the I-Roast for about $150 on to as much money as you feel like spending. But coffee roasters are often the “tinkering” type so it’s always popular to modify a popper, use a heat gun, or attach a Galloping Gourmet oven to a Stir crazy popper or some other invention for a more “hands on” approach.
After you decide you are truly a coffee lunatic there is really only one place to go and that is here where you will feel comfortable among your kind. There is always somebody taking if farther then you are here so you don’t have to feel so guilty or bad about your obsession.
At home, and by preference, I like it hot, strong, light, and sweet. I have an oversized mug in which I put 2 tablespoons of sugar and quite a bit of whole milk before adding my coffee. In the end, it tastes nothing like coffee.
As a former truck driver I’ve learned to drink it in any incarnation. Day old mud, black, with only sugar (or substitute), with only cream (or substitute), so weak you can see through it, so strong you can see your reflection… you name it, I can and will drink it, I just won’t really enjoy it unless it’s how I make it at home.
I’m picky about tea, but not about coffee. I’m a coffee wuss, though - it needs to have lots of milk and sugar. I spurn Starbucks and Second Cup for a cheap double-double from Timmy’s - call me a rube or something but it just tastes better.
Re: roasting the beans, science fiction author Spider Robinson is really big on microwaving coffee beans. He writes that it makes for an even flavour, without bitterness. Anyone tried this?
I normally will drink anything, although I’ll only make coffee from reputable beans. For years I’ve used a drip coffeemaker at home, even after a friend of mine gave me a little one-serving French Press for my birthday one year.
The gift sat in my cupboard for a couple of years, until my schedule changed and I needed to have a coffee source at work. So I took the French Press in, and made my first cup of coffee in it, and
ZOWIE!
That shit is INCREDIBLE! It is SO GOOD! Thick, rich, smooth coffee, about three or four times stronger than what I’ve been making in the drip machine, but beautifully flavored. It makes me feel like Zeus!
First of all. Store bought stuff in cans is NOT coffee. That is stuff that is only consumed in the most desperate of times (such as when stuck out in the interior in a hunting cabin).
Only the best of coffee beans will do, or in a pinch at least reasonable coffee beans. At home I only use beans I buy from a local coffee shop that buys its beans “green” from around the world and then roasts them here locally.
To grind them they must be ground fine this yields the most flavor and strength. I usually like it just black, but on occasion I add cream and it needs to be good fresh cream, not just milk.
Other than that I’m pretty casual about my coffee (as IF).
I bought a little french press years ago because I thought it was cute. That was before you could find one almost anywhere. After trying it out with some Folgers coffee, I wasn’t very impressed, and couldn’t believe those silly French would go to so much trouble for coffee.
Then I took a 2 year break from all things coffee. When I started drinking it again, it gave me the runs. No matter what brand I used or how weak I made it. As a last resort, I bought some Light Roast beans in a moderatly priced brand. And tried it in the press. I couldn’t believe it was coffee! And I didn’t know that good coffee wasn’t supposed to smell like skunk.
Ahh, coffee, the nector of the gods, or the piss of the evil one.
One requirement is at least 1/2 and 1/2, if not cream, if not heavy cream. Anything else doesn’t taste right, and the amount required cools the coffee down too much.
As for roast, mediumn seems the best, dark is for poor people who have to burn their beans to get more flavor per bean then us rich bastords who can afford an extra bean or 2 per cup. Light roast is OK, much better then dark, but doesn’t go the distance.
