At the age of 25 I can finally declare I like coffee. Up until now I have despised it, and could not understand how people could like it.
However a few months ago I went on a round-the-world big trip and when I was in America found everyone drank it…a lot. So I kind of forced myself to drink it and I have come home liking it (ignoring the fact I put about half a pint of milk and a bucket of sweetners in it).
This morning my Dad, NineToTheSky gave me a rather large lesson on how to make coffee. We started with a cafetiere and I had fun pushing the plunger down. I did have to use two hands as it does take some effort. A good, mini workout there doing that! The cafetiere method was easier than I thought it would be. And tastes okay.
We then moved onto the coffee filter. I’m so keen so keen on this method. It took ages and involved too much faffing around. And the taste wasn’t worth all of the effort.
Finally I made some coffee using good, old instant coffee. I like this method best. Quick, easy and it tasted the best.
Remove old grounds and filter from the basket. Throw out. Grounds and filter, that is. Not basket. Put new filter in basket, then add four tablespoons of ground coffee. Put basket in coffeemaker. Fill carafe with water to the 8 cup line. Pour water into coffeemaker. Make sure brew basket is aligned properly so hot water dips through it into carafe. Put carafe underneath filter. Flip “brew” switch. Wait for enough coffee to accumulate in carafe for one cup. Pour coffee out of carafe into cup. Replace carafe.
I’m not too picky about my coffee first thing in the morning. Except that it’s hot and strong.
I just use a drip maker. But I use Cafe Bustelo which is an expresso grind. Good Stuff.
Since you are new at this. Realize that coffee needs to be made with hot water. Some drip makers do not heat the water to a high enough temperature. It makes all the difference. Also, most people do not use enough coffee per pot. Alton Brown points out that the directions on most coffee is correct, just that most people don’t follow them. He once had an episode on coffee and the guy he made the coffee for about had an aneurysm over how much coffee he actually used.
We use a Senseo coffeemaker (like this) and it could not be easier to make espresso, cappucino or regular American coffee. Put a coffee pod (packet) in its little basket, put water in the tank and push a button. One perfect cup.
First I start with the bean. It has to be fresh roasted and a dark roast is what I prefer. Once I get my beans alone, I grind only enough for the coffee I am brewing at the moment. I use a fine grind about what you would want for Espresso, then it goes into an Espresso maker. I heat and froth whole milk not too much with the frothing.
Slap that sucker together, add just a little cream to make it smooth and silky, and just enough sugar to feel like a hug. Boom! Bowl full of amazing coffee. I only have one a day with the odd cuppa in the afternoon. Once you get used to the method, you never would want to change it.
Oh, dear Lord. I got Ivylad a coffee roaster for his birthday and he has just skedaddled over the edge, especially since his new burr grinder arrived yesterday. This is a man who took his electric kettle, French press, and grinder with our own roasted coffee beans on vacation with us.
He buys the green beans, roasts them, then grinds and brews in a French press the next day. I will tell you I had my first cup of black coffee yesterday. Coffee, brewed correctly, is sweet and tasty all on its own. Which makes me wonder…what the hell have we been drinking that flavored creamers have such a sizable shelf in the dairy section?
I’m not hugely into coffee, but I do find I like the French press method a lot more than drip. The coffee is visibly oilier and those flavor compounds definitely come through. (If you use a paper filter most of the oils stay in the paper.)
I’ve also found that it’s good to grind your own, especially with decaf. The flavor suffers enough due to the decaffeination process - it’s best to avoid further deterioration by letting ground coffee sit around.
I’ve got a cappuccino machine that rarely gets used, lack of counter space and it’s a pain in the ass to clean. We sometimes use the french press on a lazy Sunday, but the good ol’ drip coffee maker is in near constant use here. It’s only an 8-cup with a thermal pot so it never tastes burnt, and it’s almost always full of hot coffee.
Folks are getting the idea we like coffee a lot, we received 6 different types of it for Christmas, as well as some large mugs and a t-shirt with the caffeine molecule on it.
I think the simplest piece of advice is this: garbage in, garbage out.
You want good coffee? Put in good water. Clear out the grounds from the past batch. Use a good filter (or go French Press and use no filter at all). And, above all else, use good, fresh, coffee beans. You use bad beans you’ll get bad coffee. It’s just as simple as that. Go down to a good coffee shop and grab a half pound of coffee. You should be able to get it for $7.00 (or pounds for around $12) and it will last you around two weeks for just your own daily use. If you think that’s expensive, imagine a daily cup at $2 and see how far that gets you.
A good coffee shop should also be able to help recommend styles you like because not every bean is for everyone. Some are roasted lighter and some darker. Some have more acidity and some are more floral and some taste fruity and some taste velvety.
First the coffee itself - to some degree it’s like wine. You can buy coffee roasts intended to be used with or without milk; espresso which is an ultra fine grind; decaf; flavored coffees, et. al.
Coffee is best when fresh. Whole bean coffee is at its peak within 72 hours of roasting; 10 days after roasting it’s already getting stale. Ground coffee deteriorates much more quickly. We buy the whole beans and grind as needed. Grinders are cheap and plentiful.
We’re using a brand from Argentina (Bonafide Franja Blanca), which makes a strong, rich brew intended to be used with milk. Argentina isn’t a coffee growing country, but they have a coffee culture beyond compare. The coffee is roasted with sugar, but that doesn’t make the coffee sweet; it’s just incredibly smooth.
A French press is the way to go for brewing. Using hotter water helps release the oils. The glass carafe doesn’t add that weird plastic aftertaste. You have to deal with the grounds, but that’s not too difficult; they’re great in compost heaps.
Since we like coffee with milk, but dislike cold coffee, we put a smalll pitcher of milk in the microwave for 2-3 minutes. Then, if we’re feeling fancy, we use a small, battery operated milk frother to add some foam.
My uncle drank Postum every morning for thirty years. It tasted like coffee and didn’t have the caffeine. Mormons used to drink it as a coffee substitute. My uncle wasn’t Mormon. He just preferred the taste of Postum. I drank it as a kid before I was old enough for coffee.
Sadly, the a-holes at Kraft stopped making it in 2007.
I used to make nothing but cold-brewed coffee, and will probably go back to it soon as it is far superior to hot-brewed. When we embarked on our RV trip, we started using the drip maker that came with the RV, and are still using it in the house. I use between 1/2 and 3/4 cup of grounds for 10 cups of water.
Mostly cappuccinos, from a pretty manual pump machine.
This lets us select the bean and the grind (and we are very picky), and control the steamed milk. The automatics and the pod machines are fine, but they are the equivalent of instant coffee for espresso-based drinks. An automatic with only one hopper also makes it harder to switch to the occasional decaf.
Our spare cappo machine goes with us on any driving vacation; we take a little stove-top espresso maker like this when we fly: Google Shopping - Product not found
I have a Farberware percolator. I put in one scoop of Folgers mild coffee for sensitive stomachs, 1 to 2 scoops of regular Folgers, and one scoop of Trader Joe’s gingerbread coffee. 4 to 5 cups of water. Let it perk. Pour it into mugs that already have a bit of milk and French vanilla creamer.
I’ve been making it “Hobo Style” DAILY for the last, oh…13 or 14 years.
Take a slightly heaping Tbs. of Yuban.
Wrap in filter.
Crimp end of filter with Hemostat.
Immerse in small saucepan of 2 cups boiling water, “sponge” filter up and down untill air bubbles stop coming out of filter…about 7 seconds.
Remove from heat, let filter drip into water for about 5 drips.
Pour into cup, add a splash of cold water to bring it to a drinkable temp.
Enjoy.
It is always less-acidic/bitter than from a drip-style maker.
And best of all it is HAND-MADE.
I have the same great coffee in the mountains, desert, or the ice-shack.
