coffee thread

Yeah man, in AZ the plumbing fixtures start to look like cave formations after a few years if you don't keep up.

 

When I owned a house down here, we had a water softener. It was nice. Apartments don't have them, and water filters are pretty expensive to use due to the fact that there's so much mineral content that they don't last long.

 

Proper coffee mug:\

 

Sounds like I need to try some Kona coffee through my Aero-press.

 

I've gone through cycles of enjoying cold-brew coffee of various varieties. I lean towards darker roasts most of the time. I don't have any fancy equipment. I just toss some ground beans into a mason jar with water, stuff it in the fridge overnight, and run it through a filter in a funnel the next morning.

Thing is, I started getting a really harsh caffeine buzz with a crash late in the day, so started hunting for alternatives. Turns out caocao (cocoa bean) nib coffee is a thing now. So I bought some, roasted them myself, ground them and do a hot water steep followed by a twelve hour stint in the fridge before filtering. Holy crap. I mean, it's definitely got chocolate overtones, but there's a fruity, slightly sour coffee like quality to it as well. And no harsh caffeine smash. Just a nice steady energy boost from the combo of much smaller amounts of caffeine and a big dose of theobromine.

After rolling through a pound bag of the stuff in a couple weeks I just ordered out five more pounds. I still have about five days worth of grounds in the fridge, but I'm hooked enough I know I need more.

Highly recommended to any coffee lover that doesn't mind a little trip to the chocolate side.

 

I have a black Iron Maiden coffee mug that I used to use a lot, and at work I have a Star Wars mug... But I've mostly been drinking my coffee out of two Kermansavi (Finnish traditional ceramics brand) mugs I got as a graduation present in 2008. They're really thick, so even though I've dropped them from eye height into the floor several times, they just won't break. They also still look like they're brand new after almost 13 years of daily use. They're pretty big mugs too, 0,37 liters (12.5 oz) if I remember correctly, so I don't need to fill up all the time. When used with the espresso machine, they're just the right size for a 2x2 espresso (simultaneously making two double espresso's, with both going into the same mug) with room for some milk left.

Another point of discussion - how do you guys drink your coffee? Black? Or with milk/sugar/something else?

I always used to drink it with normal "light milk" that the kids drink (1.5% fat), but a couple of months ago we changed to fat free milk, and putting that into coffee is like putting water out of the tap. So now I'm buying coffee milk separately, called "Café milk" and it's a bit heavier (3% fat), and makes the coffee more creamy. Tastes horrible by itself, so there's no risk of anyone accidentally drinking it When I started drinking coffee I also put sugar into it, but I stopped that quite early on.

 

depends on the coffee. When I have to drink shitty coffee at the hospital, it's with cream and sugar. At home with good coffee, usually just just a little bit of honey.

Fun fact: milk proteins bind to the tannins/other bittering agents and that's part of why adding dairy mellows bitter coffee out. Also works for booze too (look up milk washing)

 

Straight black.

 

I never understood the big deal with coffee. But then, I never saw the big deal with weed or booze either. The only thing I ever really got addicted to after trying it was masturbation.

 

Same here, very rarely I'll throw a splash of milk in or a squirt of honey. Just not into the dairy first thing in the AM these days and more or less completely avoid the synthetics with my coffee.

 

I don't even feel I'm addicted to coffee, really. I mean, sometimes I don't even drink it for weeks if I just don't feel like it. I just really like the way it tastes, and yeah, can't deny it also energizes me when I'm really tired, but I don't generally drink it for that.

 

I used to do coffee, back when I was a dairy farmer, with a heavy dose of milk, but not like store milk. We'd just pasteurize our own, and straight off the top (filtered, obviously) and pasteurized it's at something like 4.5% to 5%. Not quite heavy cream, but nothing at all like you can buy as "milk." It sweetened the coffee in a way nothing else really does outside of a heavy blend of whipping cream and milk.

But out of the dairy, I can't take that much fat, so I cut back to just a little touch of agave syrup if the coffee is too bitter, or black if it's not bitter.

But I have to be careful about how much coffee I have now. The caffeine hits me hard if I overdo it.

 

Currently out for delivery.

 

Let me know what you think. I need to order from them again soon.

 

It's pretty good, made a pot this morning. It's kind of earthy and rich but still has a very slight hint of sweetness. The beans smell amazing. Next time I make it I'll probably add slightly more beans, this brew could be a touch stronger.

 

I've also been a big fan of cold brew, especially darker roasts with nitro. The thing is when I drink more than a little of that stuff, it's basically like being on drugs. It puts me in a weird headspace where I'm wired and a little loopy, which was fine when I did construction. But when I went back to school I found out that trying to play solo classical guitar in front of people while feeling like that did not work out well.

Anyway, thanks for the tip. I plan on trying that when it gets warmer. (Says the guy where it's already 30 degrees warmer )