Help Madtown make awesome coffee (aka coffee-making tips)

[Madtown]

So I've started drinking coffee. There's a great little coffee shop right across the street, but this morning I discovered my roommates have a coffee machine that no one's been using. Instead of treking the twenty feet to the shop, I fired that bad boy up and tossed in a package of Starbucks that someone had in a drawer.

It tastes like crap. I don't know if I did something wrong with the filter, or if the machine has some settings I need to adjust (I just hit auto and it started going), or if -- the most likely reason -- the grounds were just really stale.

Anyway, tell me how to make kickass coffee, so I can do it here on rainy mornings like today. Favorite blends, cream/sugar combos, whatever. I'm a coffee noob, so I'll take any help I can get. And if this turns into an elitist coffee drinker's thread, that's fine too.

[turnipmonster]

get a medium sized french press (you can get these at target and similar, they make about 2.5 mugs of coffee) and one of the following kinds of coffee:
cafe bustelo, el morro, el pico. make sure to get the espresso roast. if you cannot find any of these, get some espresso roast coffee with spanish on the package. this is the good stuff, however it should not be expensive.

heat up some water, put 3 tablespoons of coffee in the french press, and add the water once it is hot. give it a minute or so, and do the press thing and have a mug.

[The DaveR]

French press is the way to go.

[sarahbellum]

[ QUOTE ]
French press is the way to go.

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[pryor15]

Pura Vida Coffee

[*TT*]

[ QUOTE ]
French press is the way to go.

[/ QUOTE ]

For the average person, I agree. But if you have the resources to get a serious machine and keep it at the right temperature, then a French Press doesn't compare.

No long ago someone posted an article by William Grimes (former food critic for the NY Times) about coffe... you should belive anything this man has to say about food, especially coffee since he is an expert. - NY Times link GOOGLE link

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[Madtown]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
French press is the way to go.

[/ QUOTE ]

For the average person, I agree. But if you have the resources to get a serious machine and keep it at the right temperature, then a French Press doesn't compare.

No long ago someone posted an article by William Grimes (former food critic for the NY Times) about coffe... you should belive anything this man has to say about food, especially coffee since he is an expert. - NY Times link GOOGLE link

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks TT. On a sidenote, has your thread been restored yet? I'm due for a wardrobe cleansing soon, and I was going to pop into that thread to seek your tutelage before it disappeared.

Everyone else, thanks for the comments. I'll obviously not be roasted my own beans, or even grinding them for the moment. But it's good info nonetheless -- I'll be bookmarking this.

Any suggestions for commonly available grounds to start out with?

[bdk3clash]

I didn't know that the French press was such a popular choice but it's what I've been using for the last couple of months and I couldn't be happier. One of the cool things about using a French press is that you can mess around with different brew times and whatnot.

I have both the Bodum 8 cup French press and the Bodum 3 cup French press but I mainly use the 8 cup one. In terms of what coffee to use that's a personal preference but if you're buying ground beans be sure to ask for them to be ground for a French press (any coffee place, including Starbucks, can do this.)

I basically follow this guide.

Also, using clean water is pretty important. Tap water is probably fine but I notice a difference when I use bottled/distilled water and regular tap water (and I don't have a particularly acute palate.)

[*TT*]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
French press is the way to go.

[/ QUOTE ]

For the average person, I agree. But if you have the resources to get a serious machine and keep it at the right temperature, then a French Press doesn't compare.

No long ago someone posted an article by William Grimes (former food critic for the NY Times) about coffe... you should belive anything this man has to say about food, especially coffee since he is an expert. - NY Times link GOOGLE link

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks TT. On a sidenote, has your thread been restored yet? I'm due for a wardrobe cleansing soon, and I was going to pop into that thread to seek your tutelage before it disappeared.

[/ QUOTE ]

Chuck is on vacation, but its backed up so when he returns it will be renewed. This is a long-term project, the shoot probably won't take place until this sumer, so there is no rush to get the thread back up. Looking forward to your submission.. word on the street is that BugStud and Kurosh seem to be the favorites so far.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[*TT*]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
French press is the way to go.

[/ QUOTE ]

For the average person, I agree. But if you have the resources to get a serious machine and keep it at the right temperature, then a French Press doesn't compare.

No long ago someone posted an article by William Grimes (former food critic for the NY Times) about coffe... you should belive anything this man has to say about food, especially coffee since he is an expert. - NY Times link GOOGLE link

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

This thread inspired me to buy a new coffee machine. Suffice to say that after dropping $150, its going back to the store tomorrow. The water temperature isn't hot enough to properly extract the flavor, and the thermal container is a bitch to pour. Krups gets a big thumbs down [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]