I worked as a barista for years, including Costa, Caffe Nero, and high end independent coffee shops that get mentioned in guidebooks. What do I drink today? 'Barista style' fine ground instant coffee from Lidl.
I also worked in a ton of bars. Ask any good cocktail bartender what their drink of choice is and nine times out of ten they'll say a bottle of beer.
If you've had to spend a good chunk of your life fannying around with this marlarkey to make a living, more often than not you want nothing to do with it. Is it better than the instant coffee? Yeah. Is it worth the money, maintenance and hassle? Probably not unless you're loaded. If ever there was an indicator of a privileged existence, fucking about with coffee is it.
Yes, I know I need to stop being grumpy. I'm trying to work on it.
On a scale where one extreme is buying a refractometer to optimize every last aspect of coffee making, and the other end is instant coffee from Lidl, there is a wide range in the middle.
V60, Aeropress (only one needed, but I like both for some variety), a decent hand grinder, and good beans is hardly that much money (amortized over years of use, or "cost per wear"), let alone maintenance.
I bought these around 10 years ago (well, v60 twice, I broke it, and I like it ceramic, and I have to buy beans every few weeks), and they are still going strong. The process takes about 5 minutes total time, including brewing. I would never replace it with an instant coffee, I would rather stop drinking coffee altogether.
It does make traveling a bit tricky, as I refuse to carry additional gear around, and don't always have access to good coffee places.
I have to admit, in the beginning, I was looking for the holy grail setup like with other hobbies, but luckily, was not wealthy enough to sink a ton of money into it.
> If ever there was an indicator of a privileged existence, fucking about with coffee is it.
I don't disagree but this is a little harsh for what can be a relatively cheap hobby and a great way to support local businesses. If someone is a coffee drinker anyway, has a spare 5 minutes, and can stomach like $100 entry cost and higher cost beans then do we need to knock them down for it? Sure people can go overboard and that's pretty gross, especially when the production side of things is not getting the same level of attention.
I agree that coffee prep is over-fetishized, but going to instant coffee seems extreme. At least to me, it's pretty disgusting. But spend like $800-$1600 on a nice grinder and espresso machine that lasts a decade or more, buy whatever brand of beans they have this week at Costco, and you can have really nice coffee without any futzing or making a deal of it.
I think this is a common sentiment. Prolific coffee YouTuber, roastery-owner, and former World Barista Championship winner James Hoffman doesn’t do espresso at home, and says something to the effect of “home espresso is a hobby, not a way producing coffee”.
I'm not loaded, but I screw with coffee just enough to not have to drink instant. Besides the fact that instant (mostly nescafe) doesn't taste very good to me, it makes me poop liquid. Consistently. I don't know what it is - because coffee makes us poop anyway - but nescafe eliminates a lot of solids in my stool.
I have a pretty basic set up - cheap scales so I know how many beans I'm grinding, a Mr Coffee, and a Krups electric burr grinder. The results are Pretty Good To Me(TM) and my partner - who is not crazy about coffee, but likes what I can make for her.
When I want to get fancy I have a pourover that is handy for making iced coffee or some better extracted coffee than the Mr Coffee can handle.
I compare it to baking. We can easily buy a tray of Mr Kiplings or jam doughnuts from Asda, but we can also if we want to, get some flour and sugar and all that crazy baking stuff and have a crack at it ourselves. Some people go so far as to do that exclusively.
I drink whatever the local barista pulls. The value I get from coffee is in the five minute walk and the minor social interaction. We've got an espresso machine at home, but ending up with a physical cup of coffee is the least important part of buying one.
When my mother was younger and coffee was first entering mainstream Australian culture, she claims cafes used to serve instant coffee. When I was younger I used to think this was an abomination, but now I totally understand.
IDK I can buy excellent specialty coffee for like $11 for 300g (15-20 cups of coffee) + shipping. How does that qualify as privileged? (I am absolutely privileged I just don't think this counts).
I love coffee and I have found a few places in my city that makes coffee I love. So I stick to those places and it really makes my day. Bad coffee makes me cranky! And instant coffee even worse! However if instant coffee works for you then great! :)
My wife has been a Starbucks barista for 17 years. She uses a K-cup machine at home. We had the fancy stuff but she doesn’t want to deal with that outside of work.
This is exactly my set up! Although I adopted it as a PhD student precisely to avoid those expensive options in the first place. I've just never found any cause to change since.
Aeropress allows you to combine immersion and high pressure with a £25 device that largely self-cleans, and is small enough to travel with. It makes a smooth, rich-tasting coffee.
With electric grinders you pay for the burr, which is what really matters, and then an electric motor. But if you buy a fairly decent hand grinder like the C2 chestnut, you get a far better burr for the same price, and because of that hand grinding is really easy-going and quick. I enjoy doing it every morning.
There are some coffee enthusiasts that create over-complicated aeropress recipes, but the truth is that it was designed for simplicity. What I've found matters is:
1. Small-to-medium grind size
2. Stand upside down to immerse for longer
3. Use 80-85c water
4. Stir
5. Press gently
Obviously the quality and freshness of the coffee beans matters too, and you can vary the immersion time for the strength of the coffee you want.
Very much the same. Aeropress user for 10 years now. I bought a metal filter years ago and it’s still going strong - probably the best upgrade possible. Not sure if they exist still - bought it on kickstarter.
This year I finally “upgraded” and bought a Niche grinder and reverse osmosis water system with instant boiling water (Osmosis Zero). Mostly for convenience rather than taste. But still using the Aeropress.
My Aeropress recipe is taken from some champion winning recipe and I’ve used it for years:
- Inverted Aeropress
- Fill with boiling water to heat it up
- Grind one scoop of beans (18g)
- Pour hot water from Aeropress into mug to warm mug
- Put grind into Aeropress
- Pour a small amount of boiling water in and stir to wet grind
- Start 2 min timer at same time as pouring in
- At 1:40 fill up Aeropress rest of way, put on filter and cap
- Let sit to 0:50 and pour out mug while waiting
- Invert Aeropress and put on mug
- Slowly press out coffee over the last 50s
- Done!
The only thing you need to adjust is the grind. If too astringent, use a coarser grind. If too weak, use a finer grind. Then enjoy :).
Let's get down to brass tacks. What recipe do you use? [1]
Aeropress is also my favourite method. It's easy to experiment with the main variables than most other devices - water temperature, grind size, immersion time, coffee/water ratio. I find better than the French press - and I think the main factor is that you add some pressure to the process. Aeropress is also easier to clean.
Same here, except all metal French press instead of aero.
I started noticing differences in beans when hand grinding. Some are tough, and feel like trying to grind rocks. Some churn like butter. I'm not smart enough to know why, but that led to me buying the 'butter' varieties.
Best I've found yet is Red Bird coffee. Easy to grind and tastes awesome. Hardest to grind was Happy Mug, closely followed by SW. Guatemalan is our favorite, so same country of origin for all 3. (All 3 taste great, only referring to ease of grind).
Like you, a Timemore C2 and a V60 here (plus a Clever Dripper for immersion occasionally). I didn't enjoy light roasts initially - too acidic! - but over the years, my taste buds have shifted to prefer fruitier, more complex coffees. I still enjoy balanced, non-bitter dark roasts as are common in Japan.
I also enjoy digging into the science of coffee brewing, though - finding out how exactly changing method, temperature, grind size, and brew time change the relative ratios of compounds extracted. There's still a lot of disagreement about the effect of temperature, for example (most experts say temp should be kept higher, while a minority of hobbyists go for lower temperature sometimes). It's a nerdy hobby.
that's what i use. it's OK.
if you know how to make it like that one cup i had that one time that was the best coffee i ever had, let me know.
for a while i knew what bean it was but that's lost to the sands of time/node_modules. El Salvador? it was definitely very light roast.
I have an aeropress and a hand grinder, yet I can't make that awesome coffee. I don't feel like I'm over complicating it so I must be missing screwing up fundamental.
This leaves bean choice, brewing time and grind size. Are there some really basic fool proof values to start with here?
To set my non-coffee-snob bona fides, I exclusively drink decaf (I've avoided caffeine for almost 10 years now).
The reactions this post is getting are kind of odd. A typical home coffee brewing setup is going to offer you just a couple of variables --- a set-it-and-forget-it grind size, water temperature, and the dose of grounds you use for whatever amount of coffee you brew.
It is not especially weird or "gourmet" to be interested in what the right values are for each of those variables. You figure out the right grind size and dial it into your grinder; you figure out the right temperature and hit that button on your kettle; you figure out the right dose and either weigh or scoop-measure that much grounds. Mostly what I'm describing is the simple act of brewing a cup of coffee.
Not to get all nerdy, but there's a couple missing variables: water temperature and evenness of extraction. Water temperature is pretty easy. For light roasts brew hot, almost boiling. For dark, brew a little cooler, maybe 88-90 degrees. Evenness is really the key. Now depending on your method you can do all sorts of rituals whether it's using some super thin needles to rake your coffee in your portafilter to remove clumps (WDT) or pouring careful concentric circles into your V60. But the easiest answer is to eliminate the variable by brewing with immersion. I'm a huge fan of the Hario Switch, but you could just as easily use an Aeropress, a Clever brewer or a good old french press. If you do immersion, steep for a reasonable amount of time (2 minutes on a Switch works well) and adjust the grind according to your taste buds (too bitter -> grind coarser, too sour -> grind finer), you'll be in the ballpark of good coffee very quickly.
While it's certainly possible to overcomplicate things, I find that brewing a good cup of coffee in the morning is a pleasant ritual. Some amount of complexity is actually fun, although it's a different amount for different people. In that sense coffee is no different than hifi, wine, chocolate, weed, or any other sensory-driven hobby.
I spent $700 on a decent semi-automatic espresso machine and burr grinder, learned how to make espresso correctly, and spend $15-20/12oz bag of beans. This translates to well below $1/16g of espresso. Cost of milk if my wife or I want it is negligible per drink. Considering that espresso drinks are at $4-5 for decent quality, this invest repaid itself very rapidly since we make 2-4 drinks per day between the two of us.
At this point, my routine is pretty much dialed in (pardon the pun), and is quite uncomplicated. Everything is on autopilot. I’m not operating at a very high level. A small amount of effort initially was all it took to get very good results. If I ever feel the need to get deeper into this hobby, the option is always there, and it will probably be there. As a hobby it’s a nice one, because there are lots of little ways to tinker. I could get a bottomless porta filter and play with that. If I really wanted to be spendy, I could get a manual espresso maker.
I haven’t worked as a barista before. I think maybe working as a barista causes you to have an unhealthy and sort of extreme relationship with coffee. If you are deciding whether to get deeper into coffee or not, as a non-barista, I can say that has been a lot of fun and a good way to save money.
One thing I find interesting, though a bit annoying in practice is that coffee from the same materials and with the same process still can vary quite a bit. I've been using an Aeropress for some months now, and even if I keep all the major variable the same, it still tastes different.
I don't trust my senses here entirely, and as it's not blind I can easily fool myself. But the amount of agitation and differences in pouring might affect the taste here sometimes. Though my impression is that this is not always noticeable, but if I'm on the border of the coffee becoming bitter or sour it gets noticeably variable between preparations.
The other part that I'm quite sure of is that the temperature you drink at affects taste a lot more than I thought. If I drink the coffee too hot it tastes bitter, and it noticeably improves at lower temperatures (which is different from what I remember from cheap, pre-ground coffee, which tends to taste really bitter when it gets colder).
For an incremental $165, their setup could be very competitive with a multi-thousand dollar espresso setup. The trick is to get a pair of kitchen tongs, and heat the stainless steel cylinder in the pour over kettle with the water for the espresso. (The tongs are needed to remove the cylinder from the hot water. I’ve found 208F is ideal across many different types of espresso beans.)
I think the baratza grinder they use will be passable for espresso (I blew the money I saved on the espresso machine on a nicer grinder.)
Other than cost, this setup has an additional benefit over conventional machines: Most have a boiler that contains brass parts, which adds lead to the water. This doesn’t matter in coffee shops, since there is high water flow through the machine. However, for home use, the water sits in the boiler for roughly a month, leaching a ton of lead per shot of espresso.
Of course, I’m hoping they take my advice and publish the results. I don’t own a brix refractometer.
Want to taste coffee? Switch to light roasts. Want coffee flavored drink? Do whatever, mixing it with cream and sugar and flavor will make all the prep in the world pointless.
For real though, light roasts and a couple different beans and you'll really be able to taste the differences. I'm not talking subtle either. There will be some you hate, some you love and some that make you go "wait! That's coffee?"
I have begun appreciating not having an espresso setup at home. Cortado is my drink of choice, and it is mighty-hard to make it for cheap at home. Aero press is a good backup for lazy days.
But, there is something about the ritual out going to a streetside cafe in the morning. It pushes you to step out if you work exclusively from home; gets you that essential morning sun and serves as a social third-place for those lonely days. It also serves as a great lubricant to do secondary chores on your way back. It costs money ofc, but as far as activities that facilitate those specific things, a semi-regular cafe visit is a fairly cheap 'indulgence' to have.
I feel bad for Americans who live in neighborhoods where everything is a drive away, and chain cafes like Starbucks are the only type of establishment that can survive. As much as I crib about Seattle, it pulls off prison-cell-sized espresso-cafe-on-the-corner pretty well.
After buying a decent espresso machine (or whichever method you prefer) and grinder, the thing that will improve your coffee immeasurably is home roasting (like I started to do 15 years ago, and never looked back)
It is not difficult (although I occasionally over- or underroast a batch) and great fun. Green beans keep for a long time (at least a year) so it is easy to buy in bulk, which is cheaper. Also, I'm never out of coffee....
The entirety of this thread is people talking about their espresso machines and grinders, or else contrarians talking about their instant coffee.
Am I really the only one speaking up here who simply enjoys "Mr. Coffee"-style drip coffee from a paper filter? This used to be so ubiquitous. Today, when I go to the local grocery store there is more space dedicated to plastic K-cup nonsense than to regular normal ground coffee.
Not only is it easier, it's just better. I feel like the Simpsons principal in the "the kids are wrong" meme, I just don't understand normal drip coffee falling out of style.
Far and away the best cups of coffee I've had were when I worked in a kind of industrial-mixed-use-complex with a high-quality roaster in one of the buildings. If you came in before starting work in the morning they'd have just finished a roast and would prepare coffee from the still-hot beans. Incomparable.
I love coffee, though apparently all the wrong kinds. I like Starbucks dark roast. And around the house, it's all instant, all the time, either Walmart or Cafe Bustelo instant espresso. Half and half, no sugar, maybe sugar-free chocolate syrup (I'm diabetic). At work, we have a remarkably good machine that puts out a variety of coffees. No overcomplication for me.
There is a lot of desire for an amazing cup of coffee, and this desire pays for a LOT of ritual and effort, which is reflected in the kinds of information you can find out there for making coffee well.
If you’re okay with “just” a really good cup of coffee and your real desire is consistency with a strong secondary criterion for efficiency, there’s less information out there (probably because this type of person has less desire to make blog posts about their “just” really decent coffee).
The process for this efficient, consistent, “just” really good coffee is pretty simple, though.
The efficiency and consistency criteria require brewed, not espresso (espresso requires expensive equipment just to get started, and requires relatively high effort for consistency - that’s what you pay a good barista for).
The quality criterion requires you to “grind to order”, as ground coffee oxidizes quickly and that tastes bad - buy whole roasted beans that you like the taste of in small airtight bags (whole coffee beans are still slightly perishable).
The consistency criterion requires a consistent grind, which means a high quality grinder, specifically the “burr set”. With hand grinders you are paying for just the burr set, while electric grinders you are paying for other things too, so pick a good hand grinder (James Hoffman has extensive reviews of hand grinders and his style is likely very palatable for tech people). This is the only part you should invest in research.
The consistency criterion also requires a robust brewing process without too many pitfalls or rituals, which is immersion brewing. A Haribo Switch or any French press is the answer here. You should mis-use the French press, though: do not plunge, just let it steep and settle, then bring the strainer down to just above the liquid and gently pour out most of the liquid.
Doing it this way means you don’t have to worry about water temperature, blooming, puck prep, channelling, clogging, or any other of the myriad ways in which a cup of coffee might go awry.
V60 brewing is great but my best and most consistent results have been from a recipe shared by a friend which uses an Aeropress and freshly roasted (<2 weeks old) single origin light roast beans.
Here’s the method as shared to me
0) pre warm your mug and rinse your aeropress filter
1) course grind - more than normal aeropress, more like v60+ grind - 35g of you fav and fresh light roast coffee bean into aeropress. On a Comandante C40 hand grinder, this is about 25-28 clicks out.
2) pour 150g of 85c water into aeropress
3) stir for 10 seconds
4) put aeropress end and filter on
5) wait 1:00
6) press coffee into mug, aim to finish at ~1:30 mark
7) pour 100-150g of 85c water into your mug, diluting to taste
enjoy a very flavourful coffee
Inventing and using a pour over technique that is so convoluted that even you yourself mess it up every time you make a coffee is one way to humble yourself daily.
With respect to the original investigator in the 2006 linked blog post, isn’t it rather obvious that a way to measure the total-dissolved-solids value, where those solids affect the way light refracts in water, is to use a refractometer?
I would guess that different solids cause different amounts of refraction. Most beekeepers have a telescope refractometer that’s calibrated for checking water content in honey. (Wet honey bad, dry honey good.)
You’d probably be able to use it for salt content too, for example, but if you brew coffee then put honey and salt in it, one measure of refraction obviously isn’t going to help you pick apart how much of each substance you have. (The original refraction post talks about this — sugar in your coffee will taint your refraction reading’s ability to proxy for TDS because now it’s measuring coffee+sugar. Although you could of course weigh how much sugar you put in the coffee. A handy technique if you have a cheap refractometer calibrated to a specific range into which the additional sugar can place you, and the deviation from which you can use to measure how strong your coffee is.)
I have an italian manual espresso maker. I used it twice. Loved the concept, hated using it.
I have a moka pot. When I get an envie for coffee, I will brew about 2-3 pots a morning. Makes a great cafe cubano.
But in South Louisiana down River Road, you grow up drinking coffee. I started drinking coffee with condensed milk from the time I was old enough to hold a cup. Also, a proper New Orleans style cafe au lait is second to none when it comes to coffee with milk preparation.
So I've conquered coffee. Sure, there might be better technical applications out there where you can taste all the fruity nonsense of the beans, but coffee has never been about that for me and I've never wanted to demand much more of it. I suppose if I were a multimillionaire I'd get a cool grinder and cool espresso machine with all the bars or whatever, where it would inevitably collect dust because I'm not a fan of routines for routine's sake. I like high quality espresso... just a shame that I feel like I have to drink 8 shots to feel like I'm actually drinking coffee.
[+] [-] rcarr|3 years ago|reply
I also worked in a ton of bars. Ask any good cocktail bartender what their drink of choice is and nine times out of ten they'll say a bottle of beer.
If you've had to spend a good chunk of your life fannying around with this marlarkey to make a living, more often than not you want nothing to do with it. Is it better than the instant coffee? Yeah. Is it worth the money, maintenance and hassle? Probably not unless you're loaded. If ever there was an indicator of a privileged existence, fucking about with coffee is it.
Yes, I know I need to stop being grumpy. I'm trying to work on it.
[+] [-] itchynosedev|3 years ago|reply
V60, Aeropress (only one needed, but I like both for some variety), a decent hand grinder, and good beans is hardly that much money (amortized over years of use, or "cost per wear"), let alone maintenance.
I bought these around 10 years ago (well, v60 twice, I broke it, and I like it ceramic, and I have to buy beans every few weeks), and they are still going strong. The process takes about 5 minutes total time, including brewing. I would never replace it with an instant coffee, I would rather stop drinking coffee altogether.
It does make traveling a bit tricky, as I refuse to carry additional gear around, and don't always have access to good coffee places.
I have to admit, in the beginning, I was looking for the holy grail setup like with other hobbies, but luckily, was not wealthy enough to sink a ton of money into it.
[+] [-] walthamstow|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] falsenapkin|3 years ago|reply
I don't disagree but this is a little harsh for what can be a relatively cheap hobby and a great way to support local businesses. If someone is a coffee drinker anyway, has a spare 5 minutes, and can stomach like $100 entry cost and higher cost beans then do we need to knock them down for it? Sure people can go overboard and that's pretty gross, especially when the production side of things is not getting the same level of attention.
[+] [-] joshlemer|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kobalsky|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jna_sh|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] toasteros|3 years ago|reply
I have a pretty basic set up - cheap scales so I know how many beans I'm grinding, a Mr Coffee, and a Krups electric burr grinder. The results are Pretty Good To Me(TM) and my partner - who is not crazy about coffee, but likes what I can make for her.
When I want to get fancy I have a pourover that is handy for making iced coffee or some better extracted coffee than the Mr Coffee can handle.
I compare it to baking. We can easily buy a tray of Mr Kiplings or jam doughnuts from Asda, but we can also if we want to, get some flour and sugar and all that crazy baking stuff and have a crack at it ourselves. Some people go so far as to do that exclusively.
[+] [-] strken|3 years ago|reply
When my mother was younger and coffee was first entering mainstream Australian culture, she claims cafes used to serve instant coffee. When I was younger I used to think this was an abomination, but now I totally understand.
[+] [-] tptacek|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] john61|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] roflyear|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] deterministic|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xoxxala|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] quickthrower2|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Aloha|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] asplake|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jasoneckert|3 years ago|reply
And at the end of it all, I found that all I needed was a $40 AeroPress, $50 Chestnut C2 hand grinder, and some good quality beans.
[+] [-] Emma_Goldman|3 years ago|reply
Aeropress allows you to combine immersion and high pressure with a £25 device that largely self-cleans, and is small enough to travel with. It makes a smooth, rich-tasting coffee.
With electric grinders you pay for the burr, which is what really matters, and then an electric motor. But if you buy a fairly decent hand grinder like the C2 chestnut, you get a far better burr for the same price, and because of that hand grinding is really easy-going and quick. I enjoy doing it every morning.
There are some coffee enthusiasts that create over-complicated aeropress recipes, but the truth is that it was designed for simplicity. What I've found matters is:
1. Small-to-medium grind size
2. Stand upside down to immerse for longer
3. Use 80-85c water
4. Stir
5. Press gently
Obviously the quality and freshness of the coffee beans matters too, and you can vary the immersion time for the strength of the coffee you want.
[+] [-] nvarsj|3 years ago|reply
This year I finally “upgraded” and bought a Niche grinder and reverse osmosis water system with instant boiling water (Osmosis Zero). Mostly for convenience rather than taste. But still using the Aeropress.
My Aeropress recipe is taken from some champion winning recipe and I’ve used it for years:
The only thing you need to adjust is the grind. If too astringent, use a coarser grind. If too weak, use a finer grind. Then enjoy :).[+] [-] bhrgunatha|3 years ago|reply
Aeropress is also my favourite method. It's easy to experiment with the main variables than most other devices - water temperature, grind size, immersion time, coffee/water ratio. I find better than the French press - and I think the main factor is that you add some pressure to the process. Aeropress is also easier to clean.
[1] https://aeroprecipe.com/
[+] [-] floodfx|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] silisili|3 years ago|reply
I started noticing differences in beans when hand grinding. Some are tough, and feel like trying to grind rocks. Some churn like butter. I'm not smart enough to know why, but that led to me buying the 'butter' varieties.
Best I've found yet is Red Bird coffee. Easy to grind and tastes awesome. Hardest to grind was Happy Mug, closely followed by SW. Guatemalan is our favorite, so same country of origin for all 3. (All 3 taste great, only referring to ease of grind).
[+] [-] creamyhorror|3 years ago|reply
I also enjoy digging into the science of coffee brewing, though - finding out how exactly changing method, temperature, grind size, and brew time change the relative ratios of compounds extracted. There's still a lot of disagreement about the effect of temperature, for example (most experts say temp should be kept higher, while a minority of hobbyists go for lower temperature sometimes). It's a nerdy hobby.
[+] [-] lacrosse_tannin|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rkachowski|3 years ago|reply
This leaves bean choice, brewing time and grind size. Are there some really basic fool proof values to start with here?
[+] [-] ndsipa_pomu|3 years ago|reply
Their Aergrind is designed to fit in the middle of an AeroPress and is extremely well made, so perfect for travelling with.
[+] [-] WelcomeShorty|3 years ago|reply
And a SMEG water kettle(0) with temperature settings. I use 90C for almost all coffee.
0: https://www.smeg.com/kettles/variable-temp.-kettles
[+] [-] madduci|3 years ago|reply
The real trick is to find the optimal beans, Lavazza and Segafredo work best for me
[+] [-] swarnie|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sails|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] leobg|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tptacek|3 years ago|reply
The reactions this post is getting are kind of odd. A typical home coffee brewing setup is going to offer you just a couple of variables --- a set-it-and-forget-it grind size, water temperature, and the dose of grounds you use for whatever amount of coffee you brew.
It is not especially weird or "gourmet" to be interested in what the right values are for each of those variables. You figure out the right grind size and dial it into your grinder; you figure out the right temperature and hit that button on your kettle; you figure out the right dose and either weigh or scoop-measure that much grounds. Mostly what I'm describing is the simple act of brewing a cup of coffee.
[+] [-] hardwaregeek|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] caboteria|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sfpotter|3 years ago|reply
At this point, my routine is pretty much dialed in (pardon the pun), and is quite uncomplicated. Everything is on autopilot. I’m not operating at a very high level. A small amount of effort initially was all it took to get very good results. If I ever feel the need to get deeper into this hobby, the option is always there, and it will probably be there. As a hobby it’s a nice one, because there are lots of little ways to tinker. I could get a bottomless porta filter and play with that. If I really wanted to be spendy, I could get a manual espresso maker.
I haven’t worked as a barista before. I think maybe working as a barista causes you to have an unhealthy and sort of extreme relationship with coffee. If you are deciding whether to get deeper into coffee or not, as a non-barista, I can say that has been a lot of fun and a good way to save money.
[+] [-] fabian2k|3 years ago|reply
I don't trust my senses here entirely, and as it's not blind I can easily fool myself. But the amount of agitation and differences in pouring might affect the taste here sometimes. Though my impression is that this is not always noticeable, but if I'm on the border of the coffee becoming bitter or sour it gets noticeably variable between preparations.
The other part that I'm quite sure of is that the temperature you drink at affects taste a lot more than I thought. If I drink the coffee too hot it tastes bitter, and it noticeably improves at lower temperatures (which is different from what I remember from cheap, pre-ground coffee, which tends to taste really bitter when it gets colder).
[+] [-] hedora|3 years ago|reply
https://flairespresso.com/products/espresso-makers/flair-cla...
For an incremental $165, their setup could be very competitive with a multi-thousand dollar espresso setup. The trick is to get a pair of kitchen tongs, and heat the stainless steel cylinder in the pour over kettle with the water for the espresso. (The tongs are needed to remove the cylinder from the hot water. I’ve found 208F is ideal across many different types of espresso beans.)
I think the baratza grinder they use will be passable for espresso (I blew the money I saved on the espresso machine on a nicer grinder.)
Other than cost, this setup has an additional benefit over conventional machines: Most have a boiler that contains brass parts, which adds lead to the water. This doesn’t matter in coffee shops, since there is high water flow through the machine. However, for home use, the water sits in the boiler for roughly a month, leaching a ton of lead per shot of espresso.
Of course, I’m hoping they take my advice and publish the results. I don’t own a brix refractometer.
[+] [-] iamthepieman|3 years ago|reply
For real though, light roasts and a couple different beans and you'll really be able to taste the differences. I'm not talking subtle either. There will be some you hate, some you love and some that make you go "wait! That's coffee?"
[+] [-] screye|3 years ago|reply
But, there is something about the ritual out going to a streetside cafe in the morning. It pushes you to step out if you work exclusively from home; gets you that essential morning sun and serves as a social third-place for those lonely days. It also serves as a great lubricant to do secondary chores on your way back. It costs money ofc, but as far as activities that facilitate those specific things, a semi-regular cafe visit is a fairly cheap 'indulgence' to have.
I feel bad for Americans who live in neighborhoods where everything is a drive away, and chain cafes like Starbucks are the only type of establishment that can survive. As much as I crib about Seattle, it pulls off prison-cell-sized espresso-cafe-on-the-corner pretty well.
[+] [-] hanslub42|3 years ago|reply
It is not difficult (although I occasionally over- or underroast a batch) and great fun. Green beans keep for a long time (at least a year) so it is easy to buy in bulk, which is cheaper. Also, I'm never out of coffee....
[+] [-] StevePerkins|3 years ago|reply
Am I really the only one speaking up here who simply enjoys "Mr. Coffee"-style drip coffee from a paper filter? This used to be so ubiquitous. Today, when I go to the local grocery store there is more space dedicated to plastic K-cup nonsense than to regular normal ground coffee.
Not only is it easier, it's just better. I feel like the Simpsons principal in the "the kids are wrong" meme, I just don't understand normal drip coffee falling out of style.
[+] [-] photochemsyn|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] themadturk|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fwlr|3 years ago|reply
If you’re okay with “just” a really good cup of coffee and your real desire is consistency with a strong secondary criterion for efficiency, there’s less information out there (probably because this type of person has less desire to make blog posts about their “just” really decent coffee).
The process for this efficient, consistent, “just” really good coffee is pretty simple, though.
The efficiency and consistency criteria require brewed, not espresso (espresso requires expensive equipment just to get started, and requires relatively high effort for consistency - that’s what you pay a good barista for).
The quality criterion requires you to “grind to order”, as ground coffee oxidizes quickly and that tastes bad - buy whole roasted beans that you like the taste of in small airtight bags (whole coffee beans are still slightly perishable).
The consistency criterion requires a consistent grind, which means a high quality grinder, specifically the “burr set”. With hand grinders you are paying for just the burr set, while electric grinders you are paying for other things too, so pick a good hand grinder (James Hoffman has extensive reviews of hand grinders and his style is likely very palatable for tech people). This is the only part you should invest in research.
The consistency criterion also requires a robust brewing process without too many pitfalls or rituals, which is immersion brewing. A Haribo Switch or any French press is the answer here. You should mis-use the French press, though: do not plunge, just let it steep and settle, then bring the strainer down to just above the liquid and gently pour out most of the liquid.
Doing it this way means you don’t have to worry about water temperature, blooming, puck prep, channelling, clogging, or any other of the myriad ways in which a cup of coffee might go awry.
[+] [-] williape|3 years ago|reply
Here’s the method as shared to me 0) pre warm your mug and rinse your aeropress filter 1) course grind - more than normal aeropress, more like v60+ grind - 35g of you fav and fresh light roast coffee bean into aeropress. On a Comandante C40 hand grinder, this is about 25-28 clicks out. 2) pour 150g of 85c water into aeropress 3) stir for 10 seconds 4) put aeropress end and filter on 5) wait 1:00 6) press coffee into mug, aim to finish at ~1:30 mark 7) pour 100-150g of 85c water into your mug, diluting to taste enjoy a very flavourful coffee
[+] [-] seizethecheese|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CTDOCodebases|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gorgoiler|3 years ago|reply
I would guess that different solids cause different amounts of refraction. Most beekeepers have a telescope refractometer that’s calibrated for checking water content in honey. (Wet honey bad, dry honey good.)
You’d probably be able to use it for salt content too, for example, but if you brew coffee then put honey and salt in it, one measure of refraction obviously isn’t going to help you pick apart how much of each substance you have. (The original refraction post talks about this — sugar in your coffee will taint your refraction reading’s ability to proxy for TDS because now it’s measuring coffee+sugar. Although you could of course weigh how much sugar you put in the coffee. A handy technique if you have a cheap refractometer calibrated to a specific range into which the additional sugar can place you, and the deviation from which you can use to measure how strong your coffee is.)
[+] [-] MisterBastahrd|3 years ago|reply
I have a moka pot. When I get an envie for coffee, I will brew about 2-3 pots a morning. Makes a great cafe cubano.
But in South Louisiana down River Road, you grow up drinking coffee. I started drinking coffee with condensed milk from the time I was old enough to hold a cup. Also, a proper New Orleans style cafe au lait is second to none when it comes to coffee with milk preparation.
So I've conquered coffee. Sure, there might be better technical applications out there where you can taste all the fruity nonsense of the beans, but coffee has never been about that for me and I've never wanted to demand much more of it. I suppose if I were a multimillionaire I'd get a cool grinder and cool espresso machine with all the bars or whatever, where it would inevitably collect dust because I'm not a fan of routines for routine's sake. I like high quality espresso... just a shame that I feel like I have to drink 8 shots to feel like I'm actually drinking coffee.