Aww. I know how to make coffee (at least the instant kind), but am terribly saddened that I don’t like it. With all the multiple kinds of yummy sounding varieties, I feel like I’m missing out. The closest I’ve ever come has been barely stomaching mocha. But I’m thrilled you like it now. Just have a carmel vanilla latte smoothie on me.
I stumble over to the machine, throw out yesterday’s grounds and filter while cussing about how early in the morning it is, out in a filter, take a sniff of the coffee grounds, put them in, turn on the pot and leave to do some work. Then I drag myself back to the machine a few minutes later expecting a nice cup of coffee, realize I forgot to put the water in, cuss at myself some more, add water and make some coffee.
I have a Keurig. http://www.keurig.com/
I bought it hoping it would cut down on my coffee consumption. I was making a 4 cup pot in the morning and drinking all of it. Now I just make one Keurig.
I absolutely agree with the other posters that mentioned quality of the water. I have very hard water and use bottled in the brewer.
How do you guys feel about robusta vs arabica? I think the consensus is arabica is far superior to robusta…Ivylad got a book called The Joy of Coffee, and it said while Vietnam is coming along as a coffee producer, they only produce robusta beans. So, don’t get sucked in by the whole allure of foreign coffee…even beans grown on the same plantation at the same time can have different flavors. According to the book, this is the best run coffee plantation, but the book was published a few years ago and I know tastes vary widely.
Coffee truly is like wine…finicky, persnickety, nasty when it’s wrong, pure heaven when it’s right.
French press with a course grind. I have various kinds I’ve bought at Trader Joe’s or Caribou Coffee. My favorite right now is the Obsidian Dark Roast from Caribou. No caffeine for me after about 1 pm, so I shall make decaf now. Lots of cream, lots of sugar. Sometimes I add some cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg, or cocoa powder.
My espresso machine is described herein.
I just enjoyed a nice ristretto after dinner. Now that is what is meant to be made from fresh coffee beans.
I’ll go you one easier, and I’ve never had better coffee. Starting with good coffee and clean water, boil the water in a small clean pot. When it’s boiling, turn off the heat. Stir your preferred amount of coffee right into the water. Let steep your preferred length of time. Pour into a cup through a tea strainer. You get some lees, but otherwise it’s the ghetto version of a french press.
These days I switch between a French press and a stovetop cappuccino/espresso maker. Because my preference for coffee means that milk is not optional, the stovetop cappuccino maker serves me quite well. There’s a video on the link, showing the process by which I generally make my own coffee. Easy peasy.
I put one ground tablespoon of ground coffee and one teaspoon of sugar into a plunger, add boiling water, let it sit for a couple of minutes to infuse, plunge, then pour into a mug and add milk. Coffee-tastic!
I read that five times trying to figure out what coffee beans have to do with a nice risotto.
Dump grounds from filter. Wash filter thoroughly (it’s gold mesh, not paper). Wash carafe if it hasn’t already been washed.
Scoop-thingie is 1/8 cup (I measured it one day). My custom blend is one can of Yuban to one can of Medaglia d’Oro. Two scoops of blended coffee into the filter. 2 cups of filtered water into the water basin. Switch it on and let it gurgle and chatter until with a couple of gasping coughs it runs out of water.
Pour. Drink.
Wow! I have a Farberware percolator too! Mine’s electric. It was my mother’s… Put the coffee in the metal basket, water in the pot, plug it in. It bubbles and boils and perks and the red light goes on when it’s ready. Love the coffee it makes.
Now I’m going through $$$ issues so I’m getting Wegman’s brand coffee for $1.99 a pound. It will do. But I can add cocoa and/or cinnamon and maybe vanilla to jazz it up a little if the mood strikes me. When I’m out of this crappy recession I’ll go back to getting beans and grinding them. Oh wow, that’s the best.
I’m an utter pleb when it comes to coffee. I have yet to find a fresh coffee, using any variety of grounding, beans and filtering methods, that I find tastes better than instant.
So I drink instant. With a bit of milk.
I’m the same with chocolate. None of that 90% cocoa gubbins. I want it cheap and milk.
Drip coffee. Fresh ground beans (one scoop per mug) and clear, cold water. Even the scungiest truck stop in North America will have coffee made that way. It’s been most welcome when I’m driving somewhere at weird hours.
I’ve enjoyed visiting friends and relatives in the UK and Australia, but they seem to think instant coffee anytime is okay. No, it’s not. If the 24-hour Tim Hortons on Ontario’s 401 eastbound can serve me a cup of fresh drip coffee at 2:30 in the morning, then Buddy in Coventry UK, or Pal in Perth Australia can at more reasonable hours.
Have you had instant coffee in Australia? Some of it is actually pretty good, IMHO. There’s also a lot less mess and generally dicking around than with ground coffee. I really don’t see a problem with serving guests instant coffee. And Tim Hortons can serve you drip coffee 24 hours a day because they have a machine that will let them do it. Your average Australian does not have a fancy coffee percolator on standby 24/7 in case one of their guests turns their nose up at the perfectly good Nescafe Gold on offer.
Yeah, Americans are pretty prejudiced against instant coffee, because it’s usually crap, and the instant coffee makers haven’t tried very hard to overcome the image. I’m not surprised the quality is better in other countries. It’s also extremely easy and fast to make fresh coffee in a modern electric drip. With instant, or tea for that matter, you still have to heat the water in the cup. That’s about how long a coffee maker takes anyway.
Since people are mentioning brands, I’ll say mine is Millstone, the breakfast blend. My grocery sells the beans and they have a machine to grind them. Sometimes, I’ll mix in some Hawaiian Blend beans to vary the flavor.
I always keep my fresh ground coffee in the freezer, because it stays fresher. I measure it out into the filter and wait about 15 minutes for the grounds to thaw a little. The boiling water does the rest. 
How do you make the ristretto? I thought you couldn’t do that on an automatic machine?
Yes, very much so. I remember when I was little I would come downstairs for breakfast and the warm wafts of coffee would be rising up the stairs and would smell so delicious. It is almost the smell that made me want to like the taste more than anything else. It was almost shocking to taste it and jump back in suprise at how bitter and disgusting it was!
It is a bit like hot cross buns and grapefruit. Hotcross buns smell so yummy and warm, but taste like cardboard. Grapefruits look so beautiful but again taste so bitter and disgusting.
Apparently we have Miles coffee at the moment from the south west of England. I drink their tea a lot and that is lovely. I can’t compare the coffee to much else at the moment!
I know I do love (and I mean really love) froth. I could almost order a cappucino and just lick the froth off the top and leave the rest. I wish lattes had more froth than they do. In America and Australia lattes had a shockingly small amount of froth. In England they have a lot more, but still not as much as cappacinos. I wish you could just order a mug of froth! Yum!
I get my coffee by hanging out at Queen Tonya’s house most of the time. But at home, I’m a big Millstone fan, particularly their Bed and Breakfast blend. As to my brewing method, tr0psn4j nailed it.