ALL I WANT IS A PROPER CUP OF COFFEE

[Toonce(s)]

This is my new rig for my apartment. One of the first things I bought, went with a burr mill because by Odin's Ravens I knew I was going to need decent brew to survive my lifestyle revision.

Burr mill + pourover kit = Alton Brown's perfect cup.

[DerGolgo]

^^
THAT is how you make a good cup of coffee.
Okay, cup ... gallon drum

Used to be, I'd like to sleep in. I'd work out, to the minute, when I'd set my alarm clock, when I'd get up, so I could grab every last minute before heading out to work. I had that down to a science. How foolish I was.
Now, I get up hours early. Not just because I don't have to hurry then but, MUCH more important, to get my coffee fix. About 20 to 24 of your fluid ounces when I'm on the early, 8 AM shift. A full pot, about 34 fluid ounces, when I'm on the 10 AM shift. TWO pots when I clock in at noon.
I don't drink any coffee past 4pm, though, regardless of shift, so about two and a half pots is my maximum for the day.
I never really did the math, yeah, that's more than I expected.
Guess I picked that up from my pa, who usedd go through two or three pots a day himself when working from home.
But I don't care. I buy my coffee fair-trade, I hear it has beneficial health effects like reducing the risks of certain cancers, and it's fucking delicious.

[Toonce(s)]

The only caveat to this setup (that is the correct usage in case you are reading this Rhinoviper) is that it takes a bit of patience and care. The end result is dependent on at what rate the water is poured over. You can't just dump it in, it won't extract right. You have to gently feed it, and I even like to pour a starter amount, let it drain out, then do a few more iterations of pour gently and wait. The only drawback to this is the amount of cooling that occurs during this process, in case you like rocket-hot coffee. I have been keeping the kettle on simmer to help mitigate the cooling. Taste and strength is super duper. Being a born again bachelor, this also gives me something to focus on in the mornings. I'll work up to morning sex eventually (one would hope).

[red]

...
They did science on it and found a lower acidity than regular coffee brewed with steam or boiling water, and a lower amount of caffeine too.
...
I hope someone will try this so you will know that I am not hallucinating,(not that there is anything wrong with that), and just because I want to share the goodness!

Ohhh yeah. This stuff which I have found recently is seriously the shit.



I'm going to have to try the above method to see if I can get close to it. Chameleon has the taste you are describing, and also seriously high caffeine levels.
You said the caffeine was low on the soda bottle method. Is that something you are going for? Is there some remedy for this?

I saw this at our grocery store last weekend, I'll have to get some tomorrow. Cold brew is amazing.

Lately I've been enjoying the lazy man's coffee. Aldi brand k cup Columbian. It's damn good for k cup.

[guitargeek]

I stayed a few days at a friend's house, and had K cup coffee a few times, Wolfgang Puck's brand. Pretty damn good, I must admit!

[red]

The Chameleon cold brew black coffee is absolutely Jangleplatz.

[wyckedsin]

I just brought back a bunch of Kauai Coffee when we came back from Hawaii. It is very very smooth, hints of coconut, and very low acid. The same qualities you can find in Pure Kona Coffee.

I do need to get a good grinder (one bag is whole beans). Currently, I use an insulated STARBUCKS french press thermos. It was a gift, otherwise I wouldn't spend the money on $tarbucks products. LOL

[Bigshankhank]

So living in an RV comes with certain privations, but no way am I doing without coffee. During the week, I am covered at the office. Here? Cannot have a glass carafe in a traditional coffee maker. As luck would have it, a few years back I bought a piece of kitsch at a garage sale that is coming into good use.




Apparently back in the day when one traveled, hotels did not have coffee makers in each room, so the discerning vacationer would bring this along with the rest of their luggage. Hence the leather case and plastic containers for carrying ones favorite local grounds (or bean, apparently the lid carried a grinder as well but that was no longer present in this set). So I am perc'ing a cup of coffee as I type this. I feel like such a hipster using my vintage coffee maker, but hey, any port in a storm amiright?

[Toonce(s)]

You could probably sell that to an actual hipster for enough to buy a new RV with a built in coffee maker.

[0l4fderstout]

Anyone had Black Blood of the Earth? http://www.funraniumlabs.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jaeger]

Anyone had Black Blood of the Earth? http://www.funraniumlabs.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

After several failed attempts, true glory was met by the third iteration of the experiment where I started by putting the grind in a 4L Erlenmeyer flask, covered it with a watch glass, and let it stand for a day. By my calculations, I produced the equivalent of 145 cups of conventional coffee’s worth of caffeine in 5.7 cups of volume. I was terrified by the idea of passing Batch 3 through this entire process two more times to achieve the coffee that my acquaintance had in Japan. Later, I realized that this was actually a very lossy process that could stand a great deal of improvement. I quickly moved beyond my failed apparatus and the original cold brew rig; there were improvements to be made…

Oh, I wanna try me some of dat chit...

--Jaeger

[Bigshankhank]

Lets try a little chemistry experiment.

[Rench]

So you're doing THAT ^^^^^ in a mobile home somewhere down south? And the feds haven't kicked your door in yet beeeeeecaaaauuuuse!?!?!?

-Rench

[Bigshankhank]

Oh I moved out of the RV at the beginning of the month of July, a little coffee brewer/My 1st Meth Lab is totally legit in a nice neighborhood.

[Jaeger]

Oh I moved out of the RV at the beginning of the month of July, a little coffee brewer/My 1st Meth Lab is totally legit in a nice neighborhood.

WTF is that thing?

--Jaeger

[Bigshankhank]

WTF is that thing?

--Jaeger

Better Coffee Through Chemistry.
Basically you use a little alcohol burner (because FIRE) to boil water in the lower flask. Insert the filter and pour the grounds into the upper chalice, which has a narrow neck into the lower flask which allows the boiling water to flow upward and fill the chalice. Remove the flame, allow the water to flow back into the lower flask bringing the coffee through the filter, then remove the chalice and using the handle/stand which is holding the flask, pour into a cup and drink the brew as one does. I have a video of it working, its kind of neat. It makes a very "clean" cuppa, no grounds or residue in the bottom of the cup. Takes a long time to brew though, the instructions warn against having the flame too high but I am playing with it to get it right. Using the wick-height settings recommended took about 45 minutes to bring to a boil, my 2nd attempt I raised the wick a couple mm's and brought the brew time down to about 25 minutes, I would be happy with maybe 10-15 so I had time to eat breakfast while it works.
In the background you can see its stablemates, the modern single cup brewer as well as the vintage hipster percolator in its case. I'll have to do a Pepsi challenge between the three and see which is best.

[guitargeek]

Lets try a little chemistry experiment.

I have that same Hario syphon... only mine is cracked.

[DerGolgo]

A principle not entirely dissimilar to the Moka Pot, isn't it?

[Bigshankhank]

I think so Derg, except in the case of mine (and apparently GG's) the water filters back down instead of upwards into a new chamber. In fact watching the animation again it looks like what you posted is more similar to a traditional percolator.

[Bigshankhank]

I have that same Hario syphon... only mine is cracked.

I shudder to think how much the glassworks would be to replace. Maybe the bottom flask is common enough (distillation or reaction type) to be easy to get, but the upper chalice seems pretty specialized.
How quickly were you able to get it to boil? Obviously the volume of water is a factor as is elevation above sea level, but I don't think where you are (elevation-wise) is so different from where I am to make a difference outside of a lab.

[DerGolgo]

I think so Derg, except in the case of mine (and apparently GG's) the water filters back down instead of upwards into a new chamber. In fact watching the animation again it looks like what you posted is more similar to a traditional percolator.

So it boils up into the upper bottle and condenses down into the lower bottle once more?
Won't it just boil away again then?
I don't get how that machine works.
WITCHCRAFT!!

[Bigshankhank]

I think so Derg, except in the case of mine (and apparently GG's) the water filters back down instead of upwards into a new chamber. In fact watching the animation again it looks like what you posted is more similar to a traditional percolator.

So it boils up into the upper bottle and condenses down into the lower bottle once more?
Won't it just boil away again then?
I don't get how that machine works.
WITCHCRAFT!!

No re-boiling, once the water rises into the upper chalice you remove the heat source which allows the water to drop back down into the flask.

[AZRider]

Other methods may produce a superior cup, but only the drip coffeemaker is readily available with a built in timer programmable to brew my coffee fifteen minutes before the alarm clock starts shrieking.
I have a Pyrex Wulkex version of the methlab coffee brewer, inherited from my very hip gay great-uncle. I have never tried it because I need to get a screen filter for it.

[MoraleHazard]

I want to make a pot of proper Arabic coffee, but I have to ground the cardamom, so I've been lazy about it.

[Beemer Dan]

The wife and I did a heavy bit of research after our last coffeemaker gave up the ghost and this one stood out as a champ:



http://www.technivorm.com/products/brew ... ed_silver/

It seems a bit over the top, but if you like coffee more than sunshine it's worth it. I think we got about 3 thousand pots out of it before it broke. We sent it back when that happened and they fixed it free, we only paid shipping. This thing makes the best damn cup of coffee I've ever had and now I'm spoiled. When it broke I felt more desperation than when the battery on my bike died in Fell's Point in downtown Baltimore. Seriously, if I had to choose between the coffeemaker or my iPhone being broken for a week I'd just spend the whole time blackout drunk.

One thing to note- as perfect as the cups of coffee are that comes from this coffeemaker, they pale in comparison to having a cup with friends, or that first cup of the morning when waking up in a strange place with the bike nearby and contemplating a few hundred miles of asphalt.

[guitargeek]

I've been having great results with an Aeropress. Smooth and rich.

"What'd you get, Dad?"

[DerGolgo]

Got my belated birthday present yesterday.
My sisters and I, we don't give each other Christmas gifts, but we also don't see each other between my birthday in mid December and Christmas itself, so the family Christmas is when I got my birthday present.
I just got to try out a cup of coffee I made with the aid of this:


It's the Ceramic Coffee Mill Skerton, or so it says on the box, by Hario.
Judging by the sparse use of English in the manual, and on the box, and all the URLs mentioned ending in .co.jp, it would appear to be made primarily for the Japanese market.
It doesn't appear to be badly made, quite the opposite. But recalling what I've heard about the Japanese's obsession with quality in anything food- or drink-related, I'm smiling.
The reason I had wanted a coffee mill to begin with was this ice-brewing stuff that had been mentioned in this very thread. So, going through my parents' basement, I dug out grandpa's old coffee mill.
A beautiful monstrosity, made from sandcast metal. Problem, I have no idea where to find carbon brushes for a sixty year old coffee mill.
My father, digging for something else in his basement, found his own old coffee mill. Only 40 years on its back, it still runs. Also, with 40 year old shaft seals and other gaskets, the moment you switch it on it stinks to high heaven and is NOT something one should prepare anything for human consumption with.

I hadn't really thought much more of it, but after days of wracking my brain how to answer my sisters' question as to what I want for my birthday, coffee mill was all I could come up with. Hand-cranked, after the experience with the two electric mills I mentioned, ceramic grinder that won't mind getting rinsed out and won't wear out so quickly, adjustable coarseness and surprisingly large capacity. I ended up milling slightly more than I could use in my 1 liter pot.
I've made a regularly brewed pot for a start. I might be that the specific brand of whole beans I got along with is superior, but I doubt it. It's darn delicious!

[Pintgudge]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_AMyTZF2cu64/S ... pong+1.JPG" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This looks like what I have. A Spong #3, made in England. Adjustable grind, mounts on the wall, or clamps to the edge of a table. Infeed hopper holds about 1/2 pint whole beans.

I found it in a antique store for $15.00. People seem to want a lot more than that now.

It is nice not to hear the electrical manic whiney noise, but just a mellow "grind, grind, grind".

[red]

I'm back to my old beat up Bodum press and just about finished with a bag of Jamaican Blue Mtn blend. It's kinda meh. Looking forward to the bag of Ethiopian beans I bought yesterday.

[guitargeek]

Along with the Aeropress (from the elusive Yeti), I also got a bag of coffee from the Death Wish Coffee Company, warnings all over the box about how it's THE STRONGEST COFFEE IN THE WORLD.

It's pretty good.

I grind it very fine in my $2 thrift store Braun grinder, make it nice and strong. It's definitely a different experience than I'm used to! Using my French press these last few years, I've grown accustomed to a thick, chewy, gritty cup of mud, like a slap in the adrenal glands. All that's absent from my coffee now, though it's still quite flavorful! It's very much like switching to filtered cigarettes after enjoying the unfiltered variety... still plenty strong, but not so XTREEEEEM!! It's more... subtle.