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[Boomslang]

How do you serve cold brewed? I'm a fan of chilled coffee, but would you add hot water to the concentrate to heat it up, microwave it, or what?

[Is it cold in here?]

Just heat water and stir it in.

[DoomMagnet]

Some people just love coffee of all kinds. I like the smell and have tried to like it. But to no avail. It is far too disgusting.

[Carl-E]

With enough cream and sugar, you can drink damn near anything. 

[CompSarge]

How do you serve cold brewed? I'm a fan of chilled coffee, but would you add hot water to the concentrate to heat it up, microwave it, or what?

actually, it's usually served as iced or frozen coffee drinks. I've never tried heating it up before. That could prove interesting...

[idontunderstand]

I prefer cappucino but the only reason is that espresso makes me shake to the point where I resemble a Parkinson patient.

[rje]

But no really I mostly grab a coffee from a Speedway or something most of the time, since I never have time to make it at home anyway anymore, and idk what the stuff they have at work is. Business bulk-buy coffee. I've had Seattle's Best though, and good brands from french presses and the like...I just can't taste a difference. I mean I wish I could, friends have been 'omg isn't this coffee the best' and all I can say is 'it's sure...coffee flavored.' All I can tell is if a coffee is too strong or weak for me, but other than that, it just all tastes the same.
But to be honest, lots of cheeses, herbs, spices, meats, sauces, etc taste alike to me too. It's probably just my taste buds, expensive gourmet brands might as well be generic store brands for all the difference it makes to my mouth.

Are you a smoker?  'cause that'll kill your sense of taste quicker than anything.  I still can't understand how Anthony Bourdain has a job... must be his personality.  

Also, I haven't seen a Speedway since I left Indiana... what, 16 years ago?  I went there for college.  It took 15 years (three degrees, though).  Aren't they home-based in Indianapolis (hence the name)?  

Yes, this is a roundabout way of asking where you are located.  It's not just women.  

*cough* Yee-eeesss...  I am now... I had quit for about 2 years and then fell off the wagon due to multiple stresses and now I um, need to quit again. D;  But I only smoke about a pack every two weeks so...that's not.......so bad? Aheh.
I don't know why I didn't think of that as the culprit, derp, but yea, I killed my tongue myself I guess.  Dx

And haha yea! I live in Indianapolis actually, and I grew up in southern Indiana, down near Evansville. And yea, they are, although I actually never put two and two together, haha xD I actually live about eight minutes from the Speedway racetrack -- this weekend was especially enjoyable, working third shift, staggering home to sleep and being serenaded when I finally get in bed by the lullaby of the race. 8D Like angels singing it was.

[Carl-E]

When my wife and I were married (25 years ago last week), the Saturday in May we picked happened to be the Saturday of race weekend.  We weren't in Indy at the time (West Lafayette, I'm a former boilermaker), but the hotels were booked for two hours in any direction from Indy.  The visiting members of the wedding party were put up in single rooms we could find here and there all over the area...

For several years my in-laws lived in Brownsburg, practically across the street from the speedway.  They left town for the week of the race every year, just to avoid all the drunken fans. 

[slydon]

I have a standard coffee pot, a percolator, and a keurig.
The coffee pot burns everything.. the only thing I can do is shove my cup under the stream and get some before the pot scorches it.
the percolator kind of sucks some of the flavor out of the coffee, but makes a great aroma in the process. Maybe I'm doing it wrong :/
The keurig is pretty good, but the little pods are expensive and typically make a very smooth but not super-strong cup. I think it gets the temperature right, but not quite the duration of brewing time necessary for a real strong cup. But there's an adapter out there that lets you brew your own stuff in there. It's pretty fun to try different bulk coffees that you buy by the pound and make your own samples to find what you like best.

[pwhodges]

I have no idea what you mean by "standard coffee pot".

[akronnick]

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER heat the container that the coffee rests in after the brewing process is complete. That's just asking for trouble. I don't even drink coffee and even I know that. If you have to brew more than one cup of coffee, store it in an insulated carafe, or better yet, a thermos.

[Tiogyr]

I have a standard coffee pot, a percolator, and a keurig.
The coffee pot burns everything.. the only thing I can do is shove my cup under the stream and get some before the pot scorches it.
the percolator kind of sucks some of the flavor out of the coffee, but makes a great aroma in the process. Maybe I'm doing it wrong :/
The keurig is pretty good, but the little pods are expensive and typically make a very smooth but not super-strong cup. I think it gets the temperature right, but not quite the duration of brewing time necessary for a real strong cup. But there's an adapter out there that lets you brew your own stuff in there. It's pretty fun to try different bulk coffees that you buy by the pound and make your own samples to find what you like best.

Either your "Standard coffee pot" has a short in the element, or it's set far too high, because all that heating pad is supposed to do is keep it from cooling as rapidly as just sitting out on the table would do, not actually increase the temperature of the coffee. If you're coffee is scorching as it hits the bottom of the pot (but catching the stream in a cup doesn't), that is definitely the problem there. Throw that piece of shit drip brewer away and either get one of those drip brewers that stores the brewed coffee in semi-insulated reservoir inside the coffee maker itself (Hamilton Beach makes a decent one for fairly cheap) or figure out how to properly use your percolator.

Is your percolator an actual stove top percolator or a glorified drip brewer? If it's the second one, throw it away. If it's the first one, you're doing it wrong because if you do the first one right it will be the best coffee you've ever had.

Screw those pod coffee makers, if you're actually going for flavor (and not confusing "Bitter as fuck" with "strong cup of coffee"). Get an Aeropress (tm) coffee maker if you want a gimmick coffee maker that actually makes a decent cup of coffee, they're only like $20 on Amazon and make a good single cup at a time and you don't have to waste money on pods.

[slydon]

I have no idea what you mean by "standard coffee pot".

standard coffee pot = the $15 POS grad students can buy in walgreens

[slydon]

 :roll:I thought I said that... the pods are convenient but too much $$$, but the adapter for course ground makes pretty decent brew-flavor, but low acidity and oil, which is important because my stomach is sensitive to the stuff.
One of my friends has an aeropress, I didn't watch his coffeemaking process like a hawk, but the end product was, as you said 'decent', but just barely. Might have been crap coffee for all I know.

The keurig itself was a gift, so it didn't cost anything

[mike837go]

Within this discussion of espresso == hard liquor and cafe' americano == wine, the K-cup system would be cheep beer.

Fast and some kind of coffee-flavored beverage.

Kudos for getting it cheap.

[slydon]

Mega-ostentation aside, you're right,but if I spent $600-2000 on a true espresso machine, I'd either have to open a coffee place or shoot myself on principle.
My point was while the k cups are meh "cheap beer", you can actually use decent coffee in there and it won't royally screw it up like a $15 coffeepot or percolator.

So, just a question people, which would be less acidic, the aeropress or the french press?

[Carl-E]

My thesis advsor kept a french press in his office, and raved about such cofee.  I tried it once.  Tasted disgusting, and was full of grounds.  The man may have been a mathematical genius, but if that's what fueled it, it wasn't worth it. 

Of course, he was probably doing it wrong. 

[Tiogyr]

Mega-ostentation aside, you're right,but if I spent $600-2000 on a true espresso machine, I'd either have to open a coffee place or shoot myself on principle.
My point was while the k cups are meh "cheap beer", you can actually use decent coffee in there and it won't royally screw it up like a $15 coffeepot or percolator.

You can get a perfectly servicable cup of coffee out of a drip coffee maker, you just have to add some salt to the grounds before brewing to neutralize the acids that you get with that type of brewer (this turns nasty as hell coffee like Folgers into something that is actually drinkable).

[Is it cold in here?]

I accept that it works, but I don't understand it chemically. Salt is neither acidic nor basic, so it can't neutralize acids.

[FunkyTuba]

This has probably been talked about before on this forum, but here are my opinions about the different ways coffee can be made. Chime in if you like.

"Good coffee" is in the eye of the beholder. It depends on what your preferences are. I'd caution you to give each method a fair shot before dismissing it out of hand. Each one exists because someone somewhere thought it was a good idea that produces at least serviceable coffee.

Non-comprehensive list follows: if you know anything about one I missed, feel free to add it:

Application	Grind	Method	Result if done properly
Espresso	Very fine, almost sandlike	You need as much surface area as possible because steam is in contact with the coffee for only about 20-30 seconds.	Thick, syrupy, sour, intense shot-sized cup of coffee essence. I find it hard to pick up on the flavor notes that other people can
French Press	Very coarse	not quite boiling water in contact with the coffee for 3-4 minutes. It's kind of like steeping tea	rich, rounded, full-flavored, and yes, some sludge in the bottom of the cup
Drip	Somewhere in the middle	Water contacts the coffee once, extracts what it can, and drips out the bottom of the basket	Brighter, harsher, somewhat bitter because the water gets a little too hot in most automatic coffeemakers
Urn-style Percolator	Whatever	The water boils up and is splooshed over the coffee over and over again so it's going to get every last little bit of flavor, good or bad, out of the coffee	Bitter, overextracted, tired-tasting, but it does have caffeine
Pods/Keurigs/etc	who knows	the pod machines do what they want and give you what they want	if you like what they provide and can afford it go for it

I'm not sure what kind of stove-top percolator Tiogyr is referring to, but I'd love to hear more.

As to beans: the market tends to favor dark roasted coffee (French Roast) because there's a perception that strong-tasting coffee is stronger/cooler/better. Coffee providers can provide that by taking cheap beans and roasting them dark, baby, dark, resulting in homogeneous-tasting blah coffee.

If you roast on the lighter side, two things happen: 1) The flavor notes stick around and you can start to taste the varietal flavors in the beans themselves rather than dark char 2) Less caffeine is burned off so you get an actually-stronger cup of coffee

As has been mentioned earlier, adding a bit of salt to cheaper coffee being brewed less carefully can make it more drinkable... to my palate it smooths out the flavors a bit, but I'll defer to Tiogyr on the chemistry.

[TheEvilDog]

I have the perfect recipe for a coffee, of any type.

Step 1. Throw coffee in to bin.
Step 2. Go to kettle, and add water to it, remember to switch it on.
Step 3. Get favourite cup/mug/mug shaped like cartoon character's head.
Step 4. Add tea bag to same.
Step 5. Add near boiling water to the cup/mug.
Optional Step 5a. You may or may not wish to add some form of sweetner or milk. Thats up to you.
Step 6. Stir tea bag well, and remove.
Step 7. Sit down, relax and drink tea.

[FunkyTuba]

"Is Tetley Really 'Good' Tea?"

[TheEvilDog]

Actually I prefer Twinnings. But don't get me started on those bloody PG chimps.

[pwhodges]

Twinings has a good range; both their regional varieties and the blended English Breakfast.  My preferred everyday tea is Yorkshire Tea.

[TheEvilDog]

English Breakfast is my usual everyday tea, perfect for any time really. That said, I like the Raspberry, Strawberry and Loganberry tea some afternoons. And the Earl Grey is quite nice too.

[Carl-E]

I'm afraid I drink a lot of Lipton's.  It's not bad, but  recall reading several years ago that Thomas Lipton pioneered the use of the paper fiber tea bag, allowing him to use what were called the "fannings" (essentially the tea-dust) that other manufacturers would discard, since it would go right through the linen bags or other steepers that were in common use at the end of the ninteenth century. 

Guy knew how to make a buck! 

I'm also fond of Earl Grey, and when I can find it, Darjeeling.  A friend once gave me a tin of what was called Russian Caravan Tea, it was delightfullly spiced, like a mild Indian chai.  But the flavored stuff is for the evenings - big travel mug o' Lipton, steeped for at least 10 minutes, lots of sugar for the mornings. 

Meh, it works. 

[Method of Madness]

Has anyone ever used one of these?  I'm somewhat tempted to get one.

[O8h7w]

I drink tea. Preferably with good-quality honey, which my grandmother gladly provides, and without milk. And without fruits and flowers in it, thankyouverymuch. Mostly just plain, black, tea.

And therefore I am not very fond of Lipton's Yellow Label, or just about any other tea that comes in paper bags. The paper bags themselves doesn't taste quite right to me. The best I've had so far was, IIRC, called Golden Label. But I don't recall the company name, so I can't find it, and I do recall that it was not available in my country - someone of my dad's colleagues brought it from London...


Hey, what has this to do with the comic anyways? It's even a long shot from the thread title. Heck, it's bedtime. 

[Carl-E]

Has anyone ever used one of these?  I'm somewhat tempted to get one.

Someone mentioned this earlier...  Ah yes,

So, just a question people, which would be less acidic, the aeropress or the french press?

Seems to me they both work on the same principle.  The Aero press seems to be a slight improvement as the grounds doesn't sit in the coffee, and it's better filtered, but they use paper filters, so you have the issue of losing oils again. Because of the filter it also uses a finer grind of coffee than a French Press, which just uses a screen, and so needs a coarse grind. 

Damned if I know which is less acidic...

[TheEvilDog]

So, just a question people, which would be less acidic, the aeropress or the french press?

Make up some coffee in the aeropress and in the french press and dip some litmus paper into them. Thats the real acid test. (Well, the pH test...)

[DoomMagnet]

Though not nearly as bad as coffee, tea is pretty bad to me. And I have tried a good deal different kinds.

[cat_rant]

I can't abide the taste of English breakfast tea or Earl grey. Any kind of tea that you serve with milk and sweetener is out for me. I am a coffee girl through and through. That being said I am partial to a cup of peppermint tea of the odd occasion. I like Bewleys peppermint tea as well as Twinning's or Clipper.

[jwhouk]

Meh. I had some family members long ago who didn't care much for tea. They dumped it out into the harbor or something.

[Method of Madness]

Quite the opposite.  They liked tea so much that they wished to swim in it.

[pwhodges]

No one's even mentioned the way I make coffee in the office: coffee bags!  They're actually quite decent.

[Tiogyr]

I accept that it works, but I don't understand it chemically. Salt is neither acidic nor basic, so it can't neutralize acids.

That was just psuedo-science babble. The truth is that the salt basically masks the bitter flavor and is a lazy-man's way of saying "Fuck getting the ground measurements and brew times just right, I'll just add some salt to cover the bitterness if I added too much coffee grounds brewer/percolator".

The trick is knowing how much salt to put in to mask the typical bitterness you get with a given measurement of coffee grounds (and brand, if you do store bought). The rancid shit Folger's puts out, for example, actually requires a tablespoon of salt per 12 cup pot where Maxwell House only requires a teaspoon (just for comparison). And yes, you add it prior to brewing, not to the actual cup (though you could put saline solution in the final cup of coffee and stir it around if you wanted to try it that way, it would still work but takes a bit more guesswork).

No one's even mentioned the way I make coffee in the office: coffee bags!  They're actually quite decent.

Every name brand coffee you can find at the store has those, and that isn't decent coffee at all (unless you're doing the salt trick).

I drink tea. Preferably with good-quality honey

Oh yeah, if you want something really good, try substituting honey for your usual sweetener in your next cup of coffee (though in a smaller quantity, a little honey goes a long way). Give it a second to melt in the coffee then stir it around really good to get the flavor distributed about then enjoy the true nectar of the gods!  

[pwhodges]

Every name brand coffee you can find at the store has those, and that isn't decent coffee at all

Not in the UK - the Lyons ones are literally the only ones on the market, and are passably decent coffee if you have no practical access to any other means of making it (there are some much more expensive filters with the coffee built in, from Rombouts, but actually they aren't nearly so nice).

[Tiogyr]

Every name brand coffee you can find at the store has those, and that isn't decent coffee at all

Not in the UK - the Lyons ones are literally the only ones on the market, and are passably decent coffee if you have no practical access to any other means of making it (there are some much more expensive filters with the coffee built in, from Rombouts, but actually they aren't nearly so nice).

Ah. Over here Folgers, Maxwell House and whoever that third brand is all have their own versions of them.

[O8h7w]

the true nectar of the gods!  

I'd say that is a hot chocolate - irish coffee crossover, made with honey of course... mmm...

[jwhouk]

Ah. Over here Folgers, Maxwell House and whoever that third brand is all have their own versions of them.

Folgers, Maxwell House, Hills Brothers, Eight O'Clock Coffee (which is more whole-bean in the bag) and, of course, our friends at *$.

[akronnick]

I'd just like to say that this thread is awesome!!!

All of you, to a man, claim to enjoy drinking coffee, but to read what you've all written, it seems that unless the specific bean is prepared a specific way, the final product is complete shit.

You do realize what this makes you:

HIPSTERS!!!!!1111

[Boomslang]

I drink terrible coffee all the time- I just also drink good coffee sometimes too.

Same with tea.

[TheEvilDog]

I'd just like to say that this thread is awesome!!!

All of you, to a man, claim to enjoy drinking coffee, but to read what you've all written, it seems that unless the specific bean is prepared a specific way, the final product is complete shit.

You do realize what this makes you:

HIPSTERS!!!!!1111

Errr, I hate coffee.......

[Tiogyr]

I'd just like to say that this thread is awesome!!!

All of you, to a man, claim to enjoy drinking coffee, but to read what you've all written, it seems that unless the specific bean is prepared a specific way, the final product is complete shit.

You do realize what this makes you:

HIPSTERS!!!!!1111

[DSL]

I'd just like to say that this thread is awesome!!!

All of you, to a man, claim to enjoy drinking coffee, but to read what you've all written, it seems that unless the specific bean is prepared a specific way, the final product is complete shit.

You do realize what this makes you:

HIPSTERS!!!!!1111

Hey, I drink instant coffee and the pushbutton machine stuff from the convenience stores (gomvoice) AND I LIKE IT (/gomvoice). Sometimes even from vending machines. There are beans involved?

[FunkyTuba]

...to read what you've all written, it seems that unless the specific bean is prepared a specific way, the final product is complete shit.

"Good coffee" is in the eye of the beholder. It depends on what your preferences are. I'd caution you to give each method a fair shot before dismissing it out of hand. Each one exists because someone somewhere thought it was a good idea that produces at least serviceable coffee.

I don't think you have read what we've all written.

Neither do I consider "Hipster" to be quite the epithet you seem to think it is

[Visible_One]

Espresso made well is good coffee, yes. it's the only way you can get coffee in Italy.

But I love Greek coffee.

[Kugai]

Espresso made well is good coffee, yes. it's the only way you can get coffee in Italy.

But I love Greek coffee.

Shit!

[Avec]

I'm planning on getting a french press for college. Any advice in that department?

I liked this model:

Code: [Select]

http://www.thecoffeebump.com/bodum-chambord-3-shatterproof.html


[FunkyTuba]

The coffeeshop I got to  (and am currently posting from) sells various products from planetary design with the coffeeshop logo on it.

Here's their online retailer:  http://www.liquidplanet.com/estore/home.php?cat=69

Product Suggestion for Jeph/TopatoCo: Would love to buy one of these with the CoD logo on it



Edit: Can't believe I spelled jeph wrong