Coffee Addicts Thread

[Zeno]

Although I have a French press and a coffee grinder I don't make that much coffee so I hope others that are more proficient and knowledgeable will add their expertise to this thread. I will start off with a number of links to set the stage:

History of Coffee


Types of Brewing

More on Turkish Brewing and other info

I recently had Turkish Brewed coffee at a resturant and enjoyed it very much. There is a thick pasty residue in the bottom of the cup. But the coffee taste was elegant.

Practical Stuff

French Press Coffee Makers

Coffee Grinders


Some coffee aficionados think grinders are important and need to be a certain type:

Grinding your own coffee beans is a fairly easy way to ensure freshness in your cup of coffee. Grinders can be inexpensive, and some coffee makers or espresso machines even have them built in.

There are basically two different kinds of grinders: blade or burr.
Blade Grinders

Most inexpensive grinders use a metal blade to chop up the beans. The blade cuts up the beans, and you control the fineness by how long you let the grinder run. Unfortunately, the resulting coffee grounds can be uneven in size, leading to inconsistent brew quality.

Another downfall is that if you are grinding finely, and therefore leaving the beans in the grinder for a longer period of time, there can be significant heat created by the blades. This can give your final coffee a burned taste. These are fine grinders for basic use, but that's about it.

Burr Grinders

Burr grinders crush the beans between a moving grinding wheel and a non-moving surface. The positioning on the burr is what regulates the ground size, which allows for a more consistent grind. In the burr category, there are two different types.

Wheel Burr - The less expensive of the two burr grinders. The wheel spins very fast, and these grinders can be noisy. The higher speed rotation makes these grinders more messy as well.

Conical Burr - The best grinders you can get are conical burr grinders. The burr spins slower than the wheel model, which makes them quieter and less messy. You can use a conical burr grinder for oily or flavoured coffees and it's not likely to clog, like the other kinds of grinders. These are the best type, but you will pay the price for them.

__________________________________________________ _____

ROASTING IS IMPORTANT

Some coffee nuts roast their own beans. I hope we have a few around here to fill us all in. Some information follows that I found:



"The roasting of green coffee beans of green coffee beans develops the coffee aromas and flavors. Roasting is the process of heating the coffee beans uniformly, first to remove the moisture (about 12%) then to cause pyrolysis of the sugar in the bean cells, which means that the sugars break down to caramel, water, carbon dioxide, and many aldehydes and ketones which characterize the aroma and taste of fresh coffee.
The roast weight loss is related to bean color and beverage taste, and is often related to the mode of brew preparation and cultural taste.

Different coffee beans react differently to the various end temperatures cited. And various green beans have preferred levels of roast for best flavor developments. In the USA, too many firms roast their beans too lightly because that gives less weight loss (greater yield and profit). Often roast level is determined by the coffee buyer-taster who is used to evaluating green coffee beans at light roasts. The end result of such light roasts can be a very acid, astringent, harsh-tasting beverage which does not have optimum flavor development. It is a wasted coffee sold to the public.

Few people realize that the manner of roasting has a great deal of influence on the taste of the final roasted beans. For example, rotary steel cylinder roasters, which are traditional in the trade; e.g. Probat in Europe, due to their high operating temperatures (over 800 degrees Fahrenheit) cause searching of the beans, oil release that can coat all the beans, and smoke from burning chaff that fumigates the beans, giving them a harsh, biting, and (in dark roast) a burnt taste which is "dirty". The use of Melitta filter paper, for example, helps remove some of this bitey taste. It is far better not to scorch or burn the beans or lay a tar coat on the bean. In order to avoid this scorching and non-uniform roasting of coffee beans, Mike Sivetz developed, in 1975, a fluid bed "once-thru-air" coffee bean roasting machine that produces a clean "tar-free" non-biting, smooth tasting beverage.

__________________________________________________ __

That is enough.

What are the best coffee beans (green or roasted) and where to get them?

Speak up coffee addicts.

-Zeno

[theBruiser500]

i told the coffee store man to give me something with a lot of caffeine in it aweek ago, just to see what's up with coffee. he gave me a big hot cup and said there were 2 shots of espresso in it. i couldn't sleep all night, i had a headache and my heartbeat was quite loud and a little irregular i am never doing that again.

[Coffee]

Despite my screenname, which would lead one to believe that I'm all about dark, black coffee, I actually prefer a medium or light blend.

With that in mind, I'd recommend the following:

Jamaican Blue Mountain
Kona
Kenya AA
Colombian Supremo

All of these are light to medium roasts, although I have seen Supremo and AA packaged as darks before. However, if you're really lazy(which I am), I think you can get a perfectly decent cup of coffee from the Folgers Special Roast...it's the one with the yellow label on the front. It's a solid blend for everyday, especially for the price. But...for gourmet purposes, stick with the blends above. Stay away from Starbucks...they burn the hell out of their beans.

[TyFuji]

Starbucks coffee sucks. Their iced stuff, however, is delectable.

For quality, I like most of what I have tried from Whole Foods. I like to sample different flavors and boldnesses.

When I don't feel like brewing a cup, I go to one of my favorite delis (I live in new york) and buy the delicious coffee that many delis in New York have. The quality is surprisingly high from most of the corner-store type places.

[adsman]

Back when I lived in Australia I had a blade grinder, and tried lots of different types of beans. Over here in Italy, however, nobody does that, which perhaps is a bit surprising considering how seriously they take their coffee.

The method for brewing coffee here, which wasn't mentioned in your link, is the moka. I'm drinking a cup right now, it is good.



I use Illy Moka blend, which is the most expensive coffee here but it is simply sensational. Lavazza is very good also.

[Zeno]

adsman: Thanks. I found a good link on the moka: Moka Brewing


Moka Pot stovetop brewers produce a dense concentrated cup that's something between espresso and Turkish coffee. Coffee is placed into a filter between the lower chamber (that you fill with water) and the upper chamber that will contain the finished beverage after brewing. Since the water is forced through the cake of coffee by pressure, the process bears more resemblance to espresso extraction that infusion (gravity-based) brewing.

__________________________________________________ __

There is a store near by where I can get lavazza coffee beans and their espresso grind so I can also vouch for the quality of this coffee.

-Zeno

[bozzer]

[ QUOTE ]
adsman: Thanks. I found a good link on the moka: Moka Brewing


Moka Pot stovetop brewers produce a dense concentrated cup that's something between espresso and Turkish coffee. Coffee is placed into a filter between the lower chamber (that you fill with water) and the upper chamber that will contain the finished beverage after brewing. Since the water is forced through the cake of coffee by pressure, the process bears more resemblance to espresso extraction that infusion (gravity-based) brewing.

__________________________________________________ __

There is a store near by where I can get lavazza coffee beans and their espresso grind so I can also vouch for the quality of this coffee.

-Zeno

[/ QUOTE ]

This is my preferred method, and I'm actually using that exact brand at the moment two. Using almost 50% hot milk ensures a really smooth, strong coffee.

In the UK I think these stove top machines often get called espresso makers even though they aren't quite.

Otherwise, I think filter coffee is standard in the US, but surprisingly not so in the UK where cafetieres are mostly used.
If you're one of those people do yourself a favour and get a filter and some papers - much quicker to make a single cup, and much less harsh than the coarse taste of cefetiere coffee.

How many scoops do people put in their Mokas?

[keikiwai]

[ QUOTE ]




I use Illy Moka blend, which is the most expensive coffee here but it is simply sensational. Lavazza is very good also.

[/ QUOTE ]

lol, you have the same coffee maker as my grandma.... they do work very well

i drink illy espressos and cappuccinos - [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] illy, i get the pods in the mail every month

no frills espresso machine - nothing special, but i'm happy with it:

[Badger]

[ QUOTE ]
Back when I lived in Australia I had a blade grinder, and tried lots of different types of beans. Over here in Italy, however, nobody does that, which perhaps is a bit surprising considering how seriously they take their coffee.

The method for brewing coffee here, which wasn't mentioned in your link, is the moka. I'm drinking a cup right now, it is good.



I use Illy Moka blend, which is the most expensive coffee here but it is simply sensational. Lavazza is very good also.

[/ QUOTE ]
Interesting, I had no idea I have been drinking something other than espresso. I picked one of these up a couple years ago after trying it at my Italian friend's home.

[savageorc]

Intelligentsia

And it isn't close. Unlike a lot of places, they buy directly from quality growers, not wholesalers. They roast in small batches. Their largest roast is 200 lbs. Starbucks smallest roast is 2000 lbs for their "special offerings".

If you happen to be in Chicago, you can take a very cool tour of their roasting works.