Anyone Into Coffee?

elcoholic said:
. . . . My advice to beginners is to standardize your brewing method* so that time and temperature are fixed. Then the variables are the coffee and the grind. Once you get a decent burr grinder (I have a Baratza) then just the coffee and your roasting technique are the only variables. Keep a log and have fun.

Ditch the auto drip as they don't get anywhere near 185-200*F which is the required temperature for serious coffee brewing. French Press, Pour-over, Chemex, Vaccum pots and aeropress are all way better than any auto drip below the the $200 Behmoor Brazen level.
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Definitely keep a log and take copious notes. After a week and three or four trial runs go by, you'll be lost without written notes. Change ONLY ONE variable at a time or you'll just be wasting you time because you won't be able to replicate what you have done. With my Bloomfield which has fixed brewing cycles, there are still variables to consider: amount of coffee, the fineness of grind. The amount of water is always the amount to brew a full pot. Even on things like the Mocamaster, you can't brew different volumes of coffee and expect consistent results. With a French Press and the vintage old Vacuum pots can you brew different volumes of coffee and have consistent results because ALL the water and ALL the coffee are combined immediately and for the entire brewing time. I love and still use my grandmother's all stainless steel Cory Vacuum pot.

RedSectorA said:
Starbucks have a tendency of over roasting their beans. . . .
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Just a tendency??? I thought that was their raison d'etre.

hoosiertom said:
Starbucks is the Bose of coffee. . . .
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THAT'S a great line, probably only appreciated by audiophiles.
 
hoosiertom said:
I've worked for 3 Hi-Fi shops and the ProAc importer ( Mostly for salesman accomadations ) :) The most common phrase was..... " Bose Blows"
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Don't forget, "no highs, no lows, must be Bose" and also Bose is the acronym for "Better Off with Something Else."
 
RedSectorA said:
Need steady hand pressure with those machine, I use an Astoria which I tweaked so my pump does the heavy lifting ;) .

I think you need to try good fresh coffee though Glareskin, you won't know what your machine can do until then.
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Thanks for the advice but I have tried dozens of coffees and somehow keep coming back to this one. It is the combination though. In my Jura that we use for daily coffee the Lavazza doesn't work.
 
GaryProtein said:
elcoholic said:
. . . . My advice to beginners is to standardize your brewing method* so that time and temperature are fixed. Then the variables are the coffee and the grind. Once you get a decent burr grinder (I have a Baratza) then just the coffee and your roasting technique are the only variables. Keep a log and have fun.

Ditch the auto drip as they don't get anywhere near 185-200*F which is the required temperature for serious coffee brewing. French Press, Pour-over, Chemex, Vaccum pots and aeropress are all way better than any auto drip below the the $200 Behmoor Brazen level.
Click to expand...

Definitely keep a log and take copious notes. After a week and three or four trial runs go by, you'll be lost without written notes. Change ONLY ONE variable at a time or you'll just be wasting you time because you won't be able to replicate what you have done. With my Bloomfield which has fixed brewing cycles, there are still variables to consider: amount of coffee, the fineness of grind. The amount of water is always the amount to brew a full pot. Even on things like the Mocamaster, you can't brew different volumes of coffee and expect consistent results. With a French Press and the vintage old Vacuum pots can you brew different volumes of coffee and have consistent results because ALL the water and ALL the coffee are combined immediately and for the entire brewing time. I love and still use my grandmother's all stainless steel Cory Vacuum pot.
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Words of wisdom!

Water dosage is automatic on my Astoria, I weigh the ground coffee to 14 grams and I time my brew, it should take 25 seconds. If I'm off I change my grind. As for roasting I have a spreadsheet that I keep when I initiate any change or introduce a new kind of green bean.
 
elcoholic said:
I started roasting 3 years ago this coming January with a modified hot air popcorn popper. After a year I moved up to a Behmoor 1600. The Behmoor folks are great. They just updated the 1600 to allow more customization and they are making the upgrade available as a kit. I roast 2 lbs a week, one for home and one for work. I buy my beans from Bodhi Leaf Coffee Trading Co. as they are great people, have killer single origin beans, and are local. They sell on line as well. I use a French Press or an Aeropress with the Able Disk instead of a filter. If I'm able to go to the next level of roasters it may be a Huky 500. My advice to beginners is to standardize your brewing method* so that time and temperature are fixed. Then the variables are the coffee and the grind. Once you get a decent burr grinder (I have a Baratza) then just the coffee and your roasting technique are the only variables. Keep a log and have fun.

Ditch the auto drip as they don't get anywhere near 185-200*F which is the required temperature for serious coffee brewing. French Press, Pour-over, Chemex, Vaccum pots and aeropress are all way better than any auto drip below the the $200 Behmoor Brazen level.
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+1
 
Glareskin said:
RedSectorA said:
Need steady hand pressure with those machine, I use an Astoria which I tweaked so my pump does the heavy lifting ;) .

I think you need to try good fresh coffee though Glareskin, you won't know what your machine can do until then.
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Thanks for the advice but I have tried dozens of coffees and somehow keep coming back to this one. It is the combination though. In my Jura that we use for daily coffee the Lavazza doesn't work.
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I'm not judgemental I'm just curious, you tried local roasters or the bagged variety in the past?
 
What a surprise! There are just as many opinions about the "best" coffee and the "best" way to prepare it as there are about audio gear :P

BTW, Starbucks has offered many lighter roasts for a while now (although I haven't tried any so I don't have an opinion on how well they do it). In general, "over"-roasting and/or dark roasting is a way to help otherwise inferior beans taste good by burning out some of the unpleasant properties.
 
I have tried Starbucks Blonde as well as Kirkland's Starbucks Blonde whose slightly different name I don't recall. They are both good and the Blonde Starbucks, I think is their best offering.
 
rbbert said:
What a surprise! There are just as many opinions about the "best" coffee and the "best" way to prepare it as there are about audio gear :P

BTW, Starbucks has offered many lighter roasts for a while now (although I haven't tried any so I don't have an opinion on how well they do it). In general, "over"-roasting and/or dark roasting is a way to help otherwise inferior beans taste good by burning out some of the unpleasant properties.
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Haven't seen them in Canada yet, had to go to 4Bucks not too long ago while on a trip. It was either that or the dish washing water the restaurant I was at had.

Absolutely right about over roasting, you kill everything. So cheap beans and good beans taste the same
 
rbbert said:
What a surprise! There are just as many opinions about the "best" coffee and the "best" way to prepare it as there are about audio gear :P

BTW, Starbucks has offered many lighter roasts for a while now (although I haven't tried any so I don't have an opinion on how well they do it). In general, "over"-roasting and/or dark roasting is a way to help otherwise inferior beans taste good by burning out some of the unpleasant properties.
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they call the light roast Pike place and its drek...you can tell the stores sell very little drip coffee nowadays b/c they drain it off in one of those thermos dispensers and sits for who knows how long - a total waste of my time and two bucks. and you're right, someone i know in the biz says its common knowledge Fourbucks buys broken/inferior beans passed over by just about everyone else.
 
I know they have several more lighter roasts than just Pike Place. And as far as homogenizing the coffee experience, espresso does that to a large extent as well (at least compared to carefully brewed coffee). It's much harder to appreciate the differences between beans with espresso.
 
While were bitching about Starbucks, has anyone noticed that their stores have damn few coffee beans for sale that aren't a blend? They don't even sell Colombian beans in their stores anymore which is like Baskins Robins not selling vanilla or chocolate ice cream. They obviously have more profit in selling you their beans. I'm not a fan of blends. Maybe I will take the plunge and get into buying high quality beans and doing my own roasting.
 
One advantage of blends, from a SELLING point of view is that they can make each bag/batch taste much more similar than unblended coffees which vary from vintage to vintage.

Consider how Tropicana OJ tastes the same all year, as does Maxwell House coffee. UNblended products are going to taste different over time.
 
GaryProtein said:
One advantage of blends, from a SELLING point of view is that they can make each bag/batch taste much more similar than unblended coffees which vary from vintage to vintage.

Consider how Tropicana OJ tastes the same all year, as does Maxwell House coffee. UNblended products are going to taste different over time.
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As it is with wine too.

Coffee to me is just not that important. We grind and brew in the morning and for after-dinner parties during dessert. I don't want to drink crap tasting coffee from a percolator or a mr. coffee or other automatic so we've used the manual Chemex with a consistent burr ground bean offering.

Some make claims about the roast-type-length-color making the most difference and perhaps they're right, but in my own experience using the Chemex allows what I feel is very important too.....that of temperature control. When a percolator will boil the shite out of coffee or coffee shops that serve coffee in excess of 650 degrees Fahrenheit, I believe that too alters the taste and smoothness.

Using the Chemex allows you to take fresh ground, pour a little just-boiled water over the grounds to let it bloom for two minutes, then go ahead and perform the fill and let-it-drip process in a controlled environment.

With this method the coffee itself is very much laid bare for flavor profile.
 
Both the Chemex and French press allows you to fully control the brewing temperature to be lower than most people use.

Does anybody here make cold brewed coffee?

That is usually coarse ground coffee allowed to steep at room temperature for about 12 hours. It could be perfect for people who want to start their coffee at dinner time and drink it at breakfast the next morning.
 
mep said:
While were bitching about Starbucks, has anyone noticed that their stores have damn few coffee beans for sale that aren't a blend? They don't even sell Colombian beans in their stores anymore which is like Baskins Robins not selling vanilla or chocolate ice cream. They obviously have more profit in selling you their beans. I'm not a fan of blends. Maybe I will take the plunge and get into buying high quality beans and doing my own roasting.
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I don't per say have a problems with blends as I almost exclusively drinks blends, what I have a problem with is when they don't identify the coffees they put in their blends. They call them Flowery Perception , Morning Glory (pun intended) but no reference as to what's in there, man that pisses me off.

As far as roasting, Mep take the plunge you won't regret it. Read and watch videos on the Internet to get the lowdown, if you are still confused afterwords don't hesitate to PM me I will help you. In the end it's so easy it's scary. Funny thing is that roasting is a lost art, most people roasted 100 years or so.
 
MikeCh said:
GaryProtein said:
One advantage of blends, from a SELLING point of view is that they can make each bag/batch taste much more similar than unblended coffees which vary from vintage to vintage.

Consider how Tropicana OJ tastes the same all year, as does Maxwell House coffee. UNblended products are going to taste different over time.
Click to expand...


As it is with wine too.

Coffee to me is just not that important. We grind and brew in the morning and for after-dinner parties during dessert. I don't want to drink crap tasting coffee from a percolator or a mr. coffee or other automatic so we've used the manual Chemex with a consistent burr ground bean offering.

Some make claims about the roast-type-length-color making the most difference and perhaps they're right, but in my own experience using the Chemex allows what I feel is very important too.....that of temperature control. When a percolator will boil the shite out of coffee or coffee shops that serve coffee in excess of 650 degrees Fahrenheit, I believe that too alters the taste and smoothness.

Using the Chemex allows you to take fresh ground, pour a little just-boiled water over the grounds to let it bloom for two minutes, then go ahead and perform the fill and let-it-drip process in a controlled environment.

With this method the coffee itself is very much laid bare for flavor profile.
Click to expand...

To me coffee is like audiophilia, it's all in the details! It starts with the right coffee beans all the way to brew, you screw up one part and the experience is lost!
 
The Pacific Northwest probably has more choices than almost anywhere and Ristretto Roasters is easily the best coffee I have ever had. The espresso is also marvelous.

You can find them at Ristretto Roasters Dot Com
 
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