Coffee recipe?
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Flavouring coffee is at the very least a crime against nature. :) Really good coffee needs no flavouring at all, it *is* the flavour. The first two recommendations you got were the best already, I'll just add that you really need to start with fresh roasted beans so get to know your local coffee roaster and try their samples out. A french press, the "plunger", referred to in the other post is the best low tech cheap way to make a good cup of coffee. http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.brewers.frenchpress.shtml[^] The espresso machine is the most convenient way and my preference. A good grinder is essential unless you walk past a good coffee roaster every day and can buy enough for one day only pre-ground. Note that you can get manual hand crank burr grinders, you don't need to buy a fancy electric one though it's very convenient. I take my coffee very seriously and roast my own green beans with one of these: http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.hearthwareiRoast.shtml[^] Grind them moments before brewing them on the "Rocky" grinder here: http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.electricmills.shtml[^] And brew them using this baby: http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.rancilio.shtml[^] You've *never* really had a good cup of coffee unless you've had a freshly roasted one made from top of the line beans, freshly ground and brewed right. It's so far from, and so much better than what is called coffee in most places (including most chain espresso places like Starbucks) it's not even comparable. Find a local on premises roaster who serves the coffee they roast and you will more than likely taste what I mean.
"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." - Walter Bagehot
modified on Monday, June 16, 2008 1:15 AM
This must be delicious. It seems you spent a long time to get to this and also a lot of money. I think I can't afford all these machines though, but many others might find the chance to test it. Thanks. Thanks to all members, now I have a lot of new ways to make coffee. From tomorrow I'll find more free time I guess, so I can start testing some of these recipes. I like to test them all. Cheers.
// "In the end it's a little boy expressing himself." Yanni while (I_am_alive)
{
cout<<"I love to do more than just programming.";
} -
I would not presume to measure my coffee appreciation against yours, since I don't know you! I do know that I truely appreciate a fine cup of coffee, but for day to day purposes I grind good to very good whole beans and use a run of the mill drip machine. There *IS* no machine (of which I am aware) on the market which properly leaches the beans. For special occasions I use the old fashioned method; cooked in an enamel pot with an egg. See recipe further down in the thread if you like. Adapted from my great grandmother's recipe. Re-reading my post, I suppose it could be taken the wrong way, but I followed the link on the machine and saw $600 and thought WOW. Just call it sticker shock - no offense intended.
Hey relax, no worries, I put a grin after my statement, no offense was taken at all. I'm not one of the uptight ones around here ;). I fully understand it would be considered madness by a great majority of people to spend 600 dollars on a coffee machine. I personally think it's madness to posess one of those small yappy little dogs but I seem to be in the minority on that one as well! ;) The main thing is I believe if you cook and consume anything you should take the time to find the way that is the most pleasing and unthinking consumption is the real culprit I take issue with. It's like people who drink gallons of diet soda daily or eat cheap candy bars several times a day. Much better to have one really good chocolate bar on occasion when you can really appreciate it or a decent cola with all the sugar once in a while. As far as properly leaching the beans it's been said by many that this sort of device is the ultimate way to go: http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.brewers.vacuum.shtml[^] Looks a little too fussy to me though.
"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." - Walter Bagehot
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This must be delicious. It seems you spent a long time to get to this and also a lot of money. I think I can't afford all these machines though, but many others might find the chance to test it. Thanks. Thanks to all members, now I have a lot of new ways to make coffee. From tomorrow I'll find more free time I guess, so I can start testing some of these recipes. I like to test them all. Cheers.
// "In the end it's a little boy expressing himself." Yanni while (I_am_alive)
{
cout<<"I love to do more than just programming.";
}Yeah, it's crazy I know and not for the majority of the coffee drinking populace. Seriously I think you should get yourself a french press device as so many have recommended and follow your nose to the closest coffee roaster and get some fresh beans and also one of those cheap hand crank grinders with the little wooden drawer in the bottom. Total investment probably less than 50 dollars if you find deals and you can be happy with that for many years to come.
"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." - Walter Bagehot
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Anyone here knows a good recipe for making coffee? I don't have a coffee machine and already tried with milk, with cocoa cream, with coffee mate. Any other flavor you like the most?
// "In the end it's a little boy expressing himself." Yanni while (I_am_alive)
{
cout<<"I love to do more than just programming.";
}Folgers instant, follow the directions on the label. Then get some Jameson Irish Whiskey, a spoon of sugar and some hand whipped cream. Pour the Jameson into a tumbler with a few icecubes (or straight up if you like, either will work). Dump the coffee down the drain, put the sugar back into the sugar bowl and save the whipped cream for some strawberry shortcake. Sip the Jameson while sitting on a deck at sunset with music of your choice in the background, adding more Jameson as the bottom of the glass gets closer to the top of the whiskey. There you have it! Coffee! -- Modified to fix a spelling error...
Mike Poz
modified on Monday, June 16, 2008 2:12 PM
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Yeah, it's crazy I know and not for the majority of the coffee drinking populace. Seriously I think you should get yourself a french press device as so many have recommended and follow your nose to the closest coffee roaster and get some fresh beans and also one of those cheap hand crank grinders with the little wooden drawer in the bottom. Total investment probably less than 50 dollars if you find deals and you can be happy with that for many years to come.
"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." - Walter Bagehot
John C wrote:
Yeah, it's crazy I know
I guess not. Almost all the people I know love something and spend a lot for what they love. I sometimes wonder how people spend millions of dollars to buy an old and sometimes ugly painting.
John C wrote:
less than 50 dollars
This is a reasonable price for me. Thanks for the kind help :)
// "In the end it's a little boy expressing himself." Yanni while (I_am_alive)
{
cout<<"I love to do more than just programming.";
} -
John C wrote:
Yeah, it's crazy I know
I guess not. Almost all the people I know love something and spend a lot for what they love. I sometimes wonder how people spend millions of dollars to buy an old and sometimes ugly painting.
John C wrote:
less than 50 dollars
This is a reasonable price for me. Thanks for the kind help :)
// "In the end it's a little boy expressing himself." Yanni while (I_am_alive)
{
cout<<"I love to do more than just programming.";
}To be honest I'm quite surprised an Iranian wouldn't be raised up on great coffee, I guess it's just a stereotype I have. :) Cheers and enjoy a good cup of coffee, I'm envious if you've never had one before.
"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." - Walter Bagehot
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Is it me or is it a prerequisite to be a Queensryche fan to work in software development?
Bud Simpson wrote:
Is it me or is it a prerequisite to be a Queensryche fan to work in software development?
That's because the coolest people work in software development.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
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To be honest I'm quite surprised an Iranian wouldn't be raised up on great coffee, I guess it's just a stereotype I have. :) Cheers and enjoy a good cup of coffee, I'm envious if you've never had one before.
"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." - Walter Bagehot
John C wrote:
an Iranian wouldn't be raised up on great coffee
I'm not sure if I understand it truly, but people here mostly drink tea. Lots of lots of tea. I think in Britain there's almost a similar situation. To me it might be my programmer grade is overweighting my Iranian style :-D
John C wrote:
I'm envious if you've never had one before
Yes. I had several, but certainly not with the quality of yours, however with a lot of joy.
// "In the end it's a little boy expressing himself." Yanni while (I_am_alive)
{
cout<<"I love to do more than just programming.";
} -
Ouch! I drink nothing but decaf espresso drinks. I spent a full year sourcing the right beans and learning how to make an espresso that is indistinguishable from a full caff. I roast my own decaf beans etc. It's delicious. Caffeine has no flavour and the technology to remove it from beans has advanced greatly in the last few years.
"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." - Walter Bagehot
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Oh man!! What's the point? C'mon the main reason most people drink it in the first place is to HAVE the caffeine. ;)
Give me ambiguity or give me something else!
It's still got caffeine, just about 2/3 less than a full caf and all the delicious taste. A lot of people that drink coffee for the caffeine don't really care what it tastes like, they'll happily drink any kind of swill as long as it's got a kick to it. :)
"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." - Walter Bagehot
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Hey relax, no worries, I put a grin after my statement, no offense was taken at all. I'm not one of the uptight ones around here ;). I fully understand it would be considered madness by a great majority of people to spend 600 dollars on a coffee machine. I personally think it's madness to posess one of those small yappy little dogs but I seem to be in the minority on that one as well! ;) The main thing is I believe if you cook and consume anything you should take the time to find the way that is the most pleasing and unthinking consumption is the real culprit I take issue with. It's like people who drink gallons of diet soda daily or eat cheap candy bars several times a day. Much better to have one really good chocolate bar on occasion when you can really appreciate it or a decent cola with all the sugar once in a while. As far as properly leaching the beans it's been said by many that this sort of device is the ultimate way to go: http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.brewers.vacuum.shtml[^] Looks a little too fussy to me though.
"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." - Walter Bagehot
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080619/ap_on_fe_st/odd_coffee_bean_heist[^] And where were YOU the night of May 28th? :-D 1000 lbs of green Kona beans. Somebody is going to have the coffee jitters for a long time.
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Take 50g of real Arabica beans recently roasted (no more than 10 days). I'd recomend the Brazilian Minas Terras Altas or a good Kenyan. Each bean must be uniformly roasted to the point it begins to become slightly oily but not more. This is the dark roast also known as the espresso roast. Grind the beans in a central burr grinder into the finest possible powder. Blade grinders don't get it thin enough. Put the powder in a espresso machine container (I'd recomend an Italian: Rancilio, Faema, Trucilio, Saeco, Capresso, Illy, etc.). Press lightly the coffee powder to compress it. This helps the machine achieve the correct pressure. Put the container in the machine. Put natural spring water in the machine (that is non-chlorinated water with Ph as close to 7 as possible). Put a small espresso cup in the machine tray. Turn the machine on and enrich your life.:cool: P.S.: the light colored foam that forms in the cup is called "crema". It comes from the oils that the beans began to liberate in the dark roast above. Only the pressure of a espresso machine on a finelly ground powder can fully extract the oils. They are what gives aroma to espresso. [modified]For the whole biochemistry and complex science behind an espresso take a look at the classic paper[^]. Yes, I am that snobish and pedantic. :cool:[/modified].
Of all forms of sexual aberration, the most unnatural is abstinence.
modified on Sunday, June 15, 2008 11:38 PM
Without contradicting Mr Moita in any way, I would like to add some often overlooked points. One, CLEANLINESS: Your coffee equipment must be as clean as possible. This is true for proper espresso and for decent drip/press coffee I would opinion that it's more important for drip, though the typical espresso drinker has a finer palate, balancing out the lesser sensitivity the espresso process has. When approaching an unknown device, I tend to treat the cleaning as if I was cleaning laboratory gear for use. That is, I clean any loose material, followed by a chemical solution designed to react with the expected contaminants, followed by repeated rinsing. In the case of Coffee gear, a solution of very dilute detergent and lye (yes KOH), which is what most 'coffeepot cleaners' are, except they cost 10x as much, and usually have some scent added (yuck). While that strong a chemical seems a bit much, it is exactly what is needed to remove the baked in coffee oils, which will destroy your finest beans. That said, you must rinse it out until there is no trace of the cleaner, or anything it has loosened. A minimum of three times is a start. You may consider distilled water for the last rinse if your tap water has a strong flavor. Once the gear is properly cleaned, a simple rinse between every pot, with a detergent and rinse about once a day, and a full cleaning about 1 to 2 weeks will maintain the quality. Two, WATER: Until your gear is clean, you won't notice the water, but once it is, this is a major point. Except for distilled water, most drinking water has a flavor. This is from trace minerals in all natural water supplies. Coffee will amplify these flavors, especially the metallic ones. Distilled water is better than bad water, but the best coffee is made from water that you like the flavor of, for example a good (but not too mineral) spring water. Once the above is taken care of, Mr Moita's directions will get you a cup of the finest brew you have tasted, but with dirty gear, or poor water, you will have wasted good beans. Minor point, as I don't have a strong personal opinion, but the defined 'proper' pressure on the coffee powder is 30 lbs (for the standard espresso fixture) or approximately 10 psi. That seems a bit high to me, but it's the number usually quoted.