On April 13 2011 08:02 RedThor wrote: I prefer to use a french press. It leaves fragrant oils in the brew that are filtered out in drip coffee.
Unfortunately those oils raise LDL cholesterol, because those oils are pretty bad for you
I rarely have coffee: have had starbucks once.
When I do have coffee I have it black out of a standard electric drip coffee machine. Well, black with a tad of sugar, but not really that much.
French press is the only way to go when making espresso, but YEAH are the oils unhealthy in a standard cup of coffee.
As far as regular coffee goes, I generally like a super dark roasted bean brewed super slow, just to get as much flavor as possible, and then I make it extremely light, half and half/cream until it's a buttery caramel color and 2/3 generous scoops of sugar. I was always a fan of light coffee as I first started drinking, and making it this way with whichever dark roast you enjoy is just the best of both worlds in my opinion
Second. The reason why you need to add sugar and milk to your coffee is because you leave it brewing in your plunger for too long. What you are doing when you let it brew slowly is overexxtract the beans which causes bitterness. It doesnt help that you start off with a dark roast cos they will make your coffee even more bitter. What you are drinking isnt strong coffee or light coffee. Its just bad coffee water with sugar and milk to mask the unpleasantness.
Some people like the overbrewed bitter taste. I heard french people actually leave the coffee sitting in the french press for like 10 minutes. There are also people who drink robusta so I don't think its fair to say that thats the wrong way to brew coffee.
First I have heard of it. But I do know people still drink percolated coffee in some parts of the world so it makes sense in a bad way. If I want more strong coffee I just overdose to like 9g/100ml of water and add water to the cup if its too strong.
Im actually curious as of how robusta would taste if I roasted it myself. They cant all be bad and my green bean dealer has a few in stock. Theres some really iffy and low grade arabicas out there as well.
On April 15 2011 08:29 HULKAMANIA wrote: While this thread is still front page, let me ask a question: Has anyone here ever had success cold brewing coffee?
On a number of different occasions, I have tried to get a good system down for cold brewing, but I've never had any real success. I've researched it on the internet, too, but I can't seem to find an answer for brew times and proportions of grounds to water that actually results in drinkable coffee to me. So I would like to hear from someone who has actually done it and made a passably tasty product.
Anyone?
(I say passably tasty because I tend to like hot-brewed iced coffee a little more than cold-brewed iced coffee. It's just that cold brewing my own iced coffee would be off the charts as far as convenience goes so I would love to have a working recipe/method down for it.)
I did this last summer just because it was soooo amazingly effective. It'll take a long time to do but here goes.
1: Get a sun tea jar (basically any big super clear glass jar will work)
2: Grind about 4-6 TBSP of your favorite coffee beans (use roughly 1.2X what you would use for hot brewing)
3: Fill tea jar with water. Put ground coffee in a cheesecloth, tie a string around it with ~ 4 inches of slack on the end
4: (optional) add 1 stick of cinnamon, few slices of lemon, or anything else you'd like in a summer drink
5: Screw lid on to sun tea jar, suspending the string on the cheesecloth under the lid inside the jar so it's roughly in the middle of the jar
6: Bring it outside with you or leave it in your windowsill. 6-8 hours later you have your iced coffee. I prefer mixing in syrup instead of sugar just because I don't like the texture of unmelted sugar in cold coffee.
7: Pour in a glass of ice. Enjoy =D
Thank you very much for the specifics. I'll have to secure a jar, give this a shot, and see what I can get crackalackin, as it were.
As for the sweetener, I've made my own liquid sugar on many occasions (the brand Sugar in The Raw makes for delicious home-made sweetener, in my humble opinion). I typically drink my coffee black but every once in a while I get a wild hair and want to make one of these:
which I'm sure has an official name, but which I've only ever heard called Thai iced coffee. As a desert drink, at any rate, they're delicious as hell.
French Press, coffee grinder, and currently drinking Double Smoked French Bean. Really dark, really good. I never put milk or sugar in my coffee or espresso. When I was in college my study nights consisted of large Nitro coffee (i think it was a French), study for an hour or two, and then a Pepsi. Worked wonders and got me through lots of essays and readings.
Regarding latte art, I could make four-leaf clovers when I worked in a coffee shop. And hearts, but that was my extent. I was more into drinking coffee than staring at it while it gets cold.
On April 13 2011 08:35 indigoawareness wrote: I like my coffee how I like my women.
I got a nice Bodum french press and a random coffee grinder. It's not too bad for french presses, cause you only need the largest grounds and not the fine one for espresso. I'm buying my beans from a small roastery (idk if that word exists :O) around the corner, so i always get freshly roasted beans which is awesome. Since i got all that stuff i cannot stand being at my parent's, cause they only got a pretty normal filter coffee machine and use preground beans. It really is a giant difference. ATM i'm using medium roasted beans from Guatemala. They're ok, a little bitter for my taste, i would prefer Guinea or South American.
Currently I'm the only one in my group of friends that adds cayenne pepper to his coffee. I just love the small hit it gives as an after taste. Anyone else do this?
Tim Hortons puts crack in their coffee, best coffee on earth. lol maybe not crack, but i think they put something in the cream that keeps people coming back i was never a coffee drinker then i had tims i have been drinking coffee errday for like 5 years now if any of you are ever in canada, STAY AWAY from tim hortons coffee