THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => CHATTER => Topic started by: Aimless on 04 Aug 2012, 10:19
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These punks call it "Norwegian" which is absurd although, tbh, it's probably as unknown here as it is in Norway... have any of you heard of/tried this?
http://blog.khymos.org/2010/08/04/norwegian-egg-coffee/
There's another coffee thread but I can never figure out the official/unofficial stance on thread-necromancy or thread anything :o
It's this one: http://forums.questionablecontent.net/index.php/topic,25095.0.html
Merge if necessary?
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I'd never heard of that, but I can remember my grandmother in the 1940s putting eggshells in coffee. I hadn't remembered why, but apparently the calcium counteracts some of the acidity and makes a smoother drink.
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Innnnnnteresting. I am kind of curious about trying this, since the reason I don't drink coffee is because of the bitterness and usually have to stick to iced, overly sugary coffee drinks. They say it's popular in the Midwest, but I've never heard of it. (Then again, the population around where I am is predominantly of German descent, not Scandinavian.)
Also I wonder how filtering it a second time would change the flavor. I made a milk liqueur this past Christmas and improving the clarity improved the taste because it removed all of the excess solids and milk. Maybe if I get a hankering for coffee tomorrow morning I'll test this out. :)
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Filtering through paper in particular removes some of the oils, and is considered by some to be a health benefit; other people say that it has an adverse effect on the flavour, though. Presumably filtering twice would increase this effect. The filter has to be paper because the fibres adsorb the oil, which plastic or metal filters don't.
I found a page (http://www.huladaddy.com/articles/which-coffee-filter-is-best-for-hula-daddy-kona-coffee.htm) that covers these issues (including double filtering)
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Michael's coffee maker came with a metal filter, but has switched to paper because he said it improved the taste. (I had a ton of paper ones lying around because I had to buy them for the liqueur and a bulk pack was the cheapest.) So I'd be filtering through the paper. It'd be a good experiment.
Though I just remembered I don't have any eggs, just egg substitutes. So this will have to wait until I go to the grocery store again, whenever that is.
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I'd like to revive this thread to evangelise for a while! I've decided to stop trying to kick my coffee addiction. Instead, I'll culture it.
Those of you who like coffee should, if you have some time to spare, try your hand at roasting your own beans. I use a heat-gun to roast them on my balcony and it's fun as hell! It's extremely satisfying because of the hands-on approach, the learning element, the (hopefully) delicious results... and because the house smells of freshly roasted coffee for a while after you're done :) I get my beans from a Swedish company but you Americans can try www.sweetmarias.com (for both beans and LOTS of info). I'm not sure if Brits can still use www.hasbean.co.uk
Of course, roasting whole green beans at home is only useful if you've a grinder. If you've a little money to spare, check out the Pharos manual grinder from Orphan Espresso. It is a bit of an ergonomic nightmare, but it's probably the best value high-quality manual grinder on the market. That being said, almost any decent burr grinder--even ancient second-hand coffee-mills--is likely to be a good upgrade over nothing at all or over a blade grinder. I like old grinders with flywheels, mostly because I think flywheels are cool (and I think this because I am not cool).
Roasting your own beans may or may not be economically advantageous, but, with a bit of work, it's def advantageous wrt flavour. Buying whole beans is better from a flavour perspective than buying pre-ground coffee. Relatively freshly roasted beans are better than stale ones. Beans you've roasted yourself are, sooner or later, going to beat the tight pants off of any pre-ground coffee you can buy... and, with some training, it'll beat many pre-roasted beans.
When it comes to brewing methods, I have recently become enamored of the good ol' cowboy coffee. It's more common up here in the north and was introduced to me by the manly men in my fiancée's family. I've also bought the second iteration of the Presso and, though the quality of its output is steadily improving, I must say it's been more hassle than it's worth. However, when it works well, it's a reasonably cheap and elegant way to get good espresso at home.
Wrt flavour, I've discovered, to my surprise, that I really like light-to-medium roasts. Done well, and under the right circumstances, these roasts seem to have sweeter and more exciting flavours, as opposed to the more bitter and less varied flavour of most really dark roasts I've tried. I hear adding a tiny amount of salt to a bitter brew can neutralise the bitterness to a great extent but I've decided to steer clear of such black salty magic.
Another way to reduce bitterness is to cold brew your coffee. Depending on the coffee and the time, this method can also bring out both a more rich chocolatey flavour as well as some subtle delicate flavours you'd never notice otherwise. It's probably one of the better ways to use "bad" coffee and it can be fairly practical as well in that you can just prep it quickly in the evening (eg. in a french press or Aeropress) and drink it in the morning. Some people make larger batches of cold-brewed coffee concentrate but I'm not a fan.
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Oh yeah, coffee-liqueur is delicious. Our most successful liqueur experiment to date involved infusing vodka with coffee beans and then mixing it with a nice cinnamon-and-vanilla-flavoured brown-sugar syrup. It was delicious right from the start but after a few months of resting and mellowing it turned into something amazing.
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I've been addicted to coffee for a while, and while I don't roast beans myself, I have access to some very fine beans from a cafe two blocks away who roast their own. It's fantastic! Unfortunately I don't own a nice burr grinder (no hand grinder for me thanks, because while I love coffee, I do prefer it with minimun effort in the morning), they're too big and expensive for my international student life, since I'll eventually have to move everything back to Norway in a year-ish I don't want to acquire many large, heavy items. A blade grinder is just fine for now.
By the way, do you think light to medium roasts is a very Scandinavian thing? Because that's basically all there is in good quality Norwegian cafes, and I definitely prefer it myself, but everyone here in the UK seems to like dark roasts. They also seem to like it with cream and sugar though, which I guess balances out the bitterness. I take mine black, thanks.
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There is a particular style of light roast that's come to be known as the "Nordic style" and I think it's esp. popular in Norway :) From what I've gathered, it requires great beans and great care, so I guess it's not too surprising that you don't see this sort of coffee more often. Swedes have a thing for strong dark coffee but I'm hoping more cafés will begin to serve these Nordic style roasts because I've had no luck trying to replicate that profile at home. For many large-scale coffee roasters, roasting extra dark is about convenience and cost reduction, although I'll grant that consumers have come to prefer the extra toasty coffee.
The Pharos grinder is extremely low effort when grinding for drip or french press. Fast and almost no resistance at those grind sizes. If you ever do consider a hand grinder--with advantages such as low noise and small footprint--give it a look :) the burrs match those of some of the best electric grinders and the alignment is perfect. If you live with a sleepy/lazy person you can grind your beans without waking them.
The closest electrical equivalent (in terms of price and quality) is probably the dainty Baratza Vario. A friend of mine has this grinder and he's justifiably pleased with it. If you can get it for cheap-ish then go for it, it's not too large :o of course, if you mostly brew drip coffee then a blade grinder should serve you well indeed.
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Oh, that grinder does sound tempting then, the one I have now makes a lot of noise. I might do that next year when I have money, at the moment I'm pretty broke. I think it might be worth it though, my current grinder is really old and grinds very unevenly, I use a drip cone and it clogs it up quite often and makes a mess. Thanks for the tip!
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Somehow I stumbled into a Starbucks today. Had an espresso. Didn't like it. I'm not a connoisseur, but the coffee tasted very overroasted. Too bitter, too sour, and without all the nice tastes which make espresso so enjoyable.
I won't go into a Starbucks again.
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Somehow I stumbled into a Starbucks today. Had an espresso. Didn't like it. I'm not a connoisseur, but the coffee tasted very overroasted. Too bitter, too sour, and without all the nice tastes which make espresso so enjoyable.
I won't go into a Starbucks again.
Starbuck's beans are double roasted, which is where that bitter flavor comes from. If you prefer your coffee to actually be enjoyable I suggest finding a Seattle's Best as far as large chains go.
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Never ever order coffee from Starbuck's if you like good coffee. Sorry you had to learn the hard way, ankh.
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I suggest finding a Seattle's Best as far as large chains go.
Pretty sure they don't exist in Germany.
First girlfriend and I used to make out and a bit more at Starbucks. Hot times.
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Somehow I stumbled into a Starbucks today. Had an espresso. Didn't like it. I'm not a connoisseur, but the coffee tasted very overroasted. Too bitter, too sour, and without all the nice tastes which make espresso so enjoyable.
I won't go into a Starbucks again.
I used to go to Starbucks a lot with one of the guys I worked with. I never really liked the coffee there. Since he got his Ph.D, I've just been making my own espresso instead. It's a whole lot cheaper than Starbucks, and better too. The downside is I have yet to replicate their pumpkin scones.
edit -- Google gives me this link (http://www.inspiredtaste.net/16810/spiced-pumpkin-scones-recipe/), which looks like a fairly easy recipe. If I ever get around to trying it out I'll probably gain so much weight... :psyduck:
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There are like 40 major coffee chains in the UK and all of them make better coffee than Starbucks.
Saying that you know how much of a backwater I live in because we don't even have a Starbucks.
We do have a Costa, my chain of choice... and the scene of Saturday's date.
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At the university, there are three Starbucks, including one across the street from another. In the town I'm at now, there isn't a Starbucks around for miles. According to their website, the nearest one is at a rest area off the Pennsylvania Turnpike, about 40 miles from here.
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In my home town is a street corner from which you can see a Costa, two Nerros and two Starbucks.
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Man I'd argue Nero is worse than Starbucks. Costa is way better than both for sure though.
I'm lucky enough to live three minutes away from Glasgow's finest coffee shop, an independent place where they roast their own high-quality beans. Because I'm a cheapo I usually buy their beans, grind them and make coffee myself, but if I'm being lazy or want to treat myself I get them to make me one, they're better at it anyway. I'm not a very good barista.
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Nerro has okay coffee but anything they do with chocolate in it is just wrong.
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No Starbucks here in the North Woods. Gotta go down to Wausau.
Which reminds me: next time, Redball or Barmy, if you're in my neck of the woods? You need to come up to the Starbucks on the north side of town. Much cozier and nicer staff, and they've remodeled.
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Eeeuugh, Starbucks coffee is terrible. If/when I go in there, I'll get a passion tea because yummmm but in general I'm a Dunkin' girl. Their coffee is heavenly.
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I love their passion tea but their passion tea lemonade is the best thing ever.
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I do actually have a soft spot for frappuccinos, they're delicious in summer. It's not coffee though, I take my coffee black with no sugar and if what I'm drinking is sweet, I don't consider it to be coffee even when there is coffee in it.
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Eeeuugh, Starbucks coffee is terrible. If/when I go in there, I'll get a passion tea because yummmm but in general I'm a Dunkin' girl. Their coffee is heavenly.
....While I agree with you in the former... I've had heated pond water that made better coffee then Dunkin Doughnuts.
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Actually there's a coffee shop close to where I live, which is relatively small. They have three coffee shops in this city, and that's it. They make some good espresso. You can choose between 4 different types of espresso beans. I like them. I didn't go into the Starbucks expecting to get some fantastic coffee. I just wanted to see, whether the coffee really is hyped, or if it's alright. Turns out, it really is hyped.
Actually I'm not really a coffee fan. I don't enjoy ordinary coffee, and I don't enjoy all these specialties too much. I do enjoy a good espresso though. I have a relatively cheap espresso machine at home, but it can build up sufficient pressure, and with the right beans it makes an espresso which is so much better than this stuff Starbucks served me today. I'll definitely try the different espressos offered by MoccaSin. I'd also love to try some of the beans of Ettli, a locally roasting brand, but I'd need a coffee grinder for that, and I can't afford one.
In the meanwhile I'll enjoy some nice FTGFOP Darjeeling.
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One thing I really liked when I was in Brazil is that there was good coffee everywhere. Even the gas station coffee there was amazing.
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Maybe someone can explain this to me: coffee is roasted and ground beans through which boiling water is poored. This is not a difficult recipe. Why then is there such a difference between coffees to coffee drinkers? There's not many steps you can fuck up on ...
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Oh there are plenty of ways to fuck up. First it depends on the quality of the beans, if you have terrible quality beans you're screwed from the beginning. Then there's the roasting process itself, roasting beans for a short amount of time will preserve the juices and aromas much better, so if you have good quality beans you want to bring them out with a light roast, but if you have terrible beans you want to roast the hell out of them in order to disguise the awful quality. Of course, you can't really get good coffee that way, since roasting beans for too long will make the coffee really bitter and sour.
At last, there are so many different ways of actually brewing the coffee which will affect the outcome. The quality of the coffee in this process also depends on several factors: water to coffee ratio, how finely and evenly the beans are ground, temperature of water, how fresh the beans are etc etc.
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Man I'd argue Nero is worse than Starbucks. Costa is way better than both for sure though.
You would be wrong. I'd put Nero at the top of the list of UK chains.
About 5-6 years ago I was doing a driving job and about the only place I had on my route to pick up a coffee was Starbucks. I used to have to insist that they give me a small americano with half the water. Bought it a bit closer to palatable and meant I didn't have to stop in the middle of the countryside with an immensely full bladder.
Mind you, In Canada I was once presented with the choice between Starbucks and Tim Hortons. I was very close to crying.
I do make an effort to seek out indie coffee shops whenever I can. I like the anticipation of not knowing quite what you'll get and the sort of treats they might have on offer.
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At last, there are so many different ways of actually brewing the coffee which will affect the outcome. The quality of the coffee in this process also depends on several factors: water to coffee ratio, how finely and evenly the beans are ground, temperature of water, how fresh the beans are etc etc.
And whether the barista adds hot water using the steamer tap. How this isn't a criminal offence yet is beyond me.
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When I worked at a cafe, that's how we were told to do it, on top of letting the coffee ground sit in the machine overnight to save us time in the morning. I cringed every time I made someone coffee and wanted to hand it to them while saying 'I'm so sorry'. That cafe probably had the worst coffee ever, and it wasn't even cheap.
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Maybe someone can explain this to me: coffee is roasted and ground beans through which boiling water is poored. This is not a difficult recipe. Why then is there such a difference between coffees to coffee drinkers? There's not many steps you can fuck up on ...
There are very many different flavour compounds and aromatic compounds in a coffee bean. The overall profile, the balance between all these compounds, is strongly influenced by how the coffee is processed. For example, some only begin to dominate at higher brewing temperatures or with longer brewing times. Many are volatile, so much so that they are lost if you grind the coffee and let it sit for too long before brewing.
Many roasters and coffee-purveyors deliberately use blends that are relatively unexciting and often also summat over-roasted in order to achieve a fairly homogenous but predictable flavour that isn't strongly influenced by finicky variables such as temperature, water type and pH, brewing method, grind, etc. However, even these coffees can be easily "upgraded" to some extent if you buy whole beans at the right time after roasting, grind them right before brewing with a decent grinder, and use a brewing method you like with the appropriate grind size. Try out brewing in a press-pot, a moka pot or an aeropress for example if you haven't already :)
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Then there's the wide variety of beans themselves. While most beans are Arabica (the remainder are Robusto and one I don't quite remember) the soil conditions are area they're grown in effect flavor as well, so it's very similar to grapes for wine, or tobacco in many respects.
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More complicated than I thought ...
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That's twice now that I read
Then there's the wide variety of bears themselves.
and got confused about which thread I was in.
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*beans
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I learned three things yesterday.
1. The moving and handling training course is one of the only places where coffee is still provided.
2. If you have a cold and cannot check by smell, a cup with some instant coffee powder looks very much like a cup with some chocolate powder.
3. The instant coffee provided by M+H tastes especially foul.
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Hey guys, do you want this to be split off to a Coffee Thread?
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A quick check shows we already have 2 threads for coffee, dare we go for the trifecta or is it time to fire up the ol' Merge-atron?
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Thanks for the hint, there you go :)