Asymmetrical Information

Gold filter? No. A pre-moistened paper filter is best.

I've heard of people going a step beyond grinding their own beans and are actually roasting their own at home. This sounds like far too much work, though.

As I understand it, the key is not just grinding your own beans, but also roasting them. All of the chemical changes in the beans occur during the roasting process, and begin to degrade almost immediately. Even gourmet beans purchased at the store will have been in transit for days, if not weeks, and have a fraction of the flavor.

Of course, I'm not a huge coffee drinker, and have never ground/roasted my own beans. I'm just getting all this off the interweb.

What are the secrets to really good coffee?

Buy it in France or Italy.

(Food processor + coffee beans) == disaster.

Small pieces of advice like this are what make the internets great.

(Thanks.)

What about adding an egg (or is it egg white) to the grounds before brewing? I heard about this years ago, not sure what it is supposed to do for the coffee and have never tried. Has anyone else? What was the result?

While we're asking about coffee rumors, is it true that coffee in the military is jazzed-up, caffeine-wise?

AJ-- as far as I know, that's left over from the days of boiled coffee, and is done to make the grounds settle out.

Burr grinders are your friend, Megan.

Me, I have a cheap stovetop espresso machine. No worries about weak coffee there, and plenty of extraction of all the deliciousness.

(I'm also far too lazy to care if my coffee is as fresh as possible, let alone roast it myself. I find that even ancient beans, by coffee-maven standards, taste quite delicious enough. Sometimes apathy is a big win.)

Jane - That makes sense re: the egg. I think I probably first heard about this as a kid before we switched from a percolator to a Mr. Coffee. There do seem to be a few online who claim it adds to the taste. If I try it, I'll report back.

Some people claim that percolators consistently make better coffee than drip-style coffemakers. I don't really drink enough coffee (tea is more my thing) to give an opinion one way or the other.

Regarding military coffee, an old rumor says that the coffee served to recruits contains some substance (saltpetre?) that has an anti-aphrodisiac effect.

"
What are the secrets to really good coffee?

Buy it in France or Italy.
"

Italy, yes, or Portugal, or Austria; but France? Don't get me wrong, I love eating and drinking in France, but the espresso at the end of the meal always disappoints me. More than once have I asked "vous êtes sûr que ça ce n'est pas un decá?" (are you sure this isn't decaff?)

In my opinion, the best bet is to invest in a good burr bean grinder and grind just enough for the coffee you will drink soon. Furthermore, keep the beans in an airtight container, out of the light. By no means, put the beans in the frig. Then start experimenting with various kinds of beans. Its a real taste treat.

We roast ours at home with little fuss. We buy green beans online, use a hot air popcorn popper (West Bend Poppery II works best for us, not every brand is designed to do this particular task well... costs about $18 from ebay), takes about 20 minutes to roast enough to last 2 weeks. The coffee is wonderful, and you can play around with various blends to see what you like. It's really no big deal; you need a popcorn popper, a collander and a measuring cup. Check online for more info, there are lots of folks into this.

Filter the water??? You mean to tell me that ... tap water isn't actually meticulously purified water pumped through ultra-clean pipes that scientists have proven people can't distinguish from distilled water?

Say it isn't so!

The problem with increasing one's level of coffee snobbery too far, is the same as the problem with wines, home audio, or any other hobby that deals with diminishing returns: the increase in required investment (time, money, or frequently both) to go to the next level of enjoyment, begins to far exceed the marginal return from doing so.

In my case, I freeze my coffee to preserve flavor, and will continue to freeze my coffee to preserve flavor. I drink plenty, but even so the beans will start to taste stale before I can consume the bottom half of the bag; I'm not going to throw away half a pound of coffee to get some marginal, non-freezing increase in enjoyment from the first half.

Incidentally, it is possible to buy a real food processor, but even then, a food processor blade is not designed for fine grinding, so the output will always be about 30-40% large bean fragments. An actual coffee grinder, on the other hand, IS designed for fine grinding. It can even make powdered sugar from normal crystalline stock if you really want to use it for that purpose.

I'd like to see AJ try to put an egg through that $3000 Jura-Capresso that Jane is hawking on Amazon. :-)

I don't drink regular coffee any more, only espresso (I have one of those super-automatics, but not that $3000 jobbee). But, yeah, the secret is to buy good beans and only grind what you going to use immediately.

Filter the water??? You mean to tell me that ... tap water isn't actually meticulously purified water pumped through ultra-clean pipes that scientists have proven people can't distinguish from distilled water?

It gets worse. The community water system in our neighborhood uses chlorination to maintain system purity, and the water is naturally softened by alkaline salts. One drop of PalmOlive dishsoap under running water will lather your hands for a full minute, and clothes washing is a breeze; but coffee or tea made with the stuff has, shall we say, a distinctly non-original flavor.

AJ,

Real cowboy coffee is made in a simple pot over an open fire, by boiling the grounds. You fry your eggs on a cast-iron skillet at the same time, and when you want to drink the coffee, you put the shells in the pot to capture and settle out the grounds.

I can imagine no reason to do this unless you're eating a fried egg on the prarie next to a hobbled horse.

I'm with anony-mouse. I can taste the difference between a $5 bottle of wine and a $20 bottle, but another factor of 4 and you're over my head. Ditto coffee: decent beans and my mini espresso machine beat Folger's Crystals, but I'd be awfully surprised if I'd get much out of those beans they get from Indonesian cat excrement, or whatever it is.

What makes for good coffee? How about a damn simple coffee pot. I tried to replace my stove top Revereware/Faberware and came up empty. The only thing on sale at the department stores are drip coffee makers and they all suck (I hate using that term but I can't think of any other). Bring back the percolator.

"A lot of high end machines now come with filters; I don't bother with it. They're outrageously expensive to replace, and also, a pain in the [expletive deleted]."

Nonsense. We've had a Capresso CoffeeTeam Plus for 5-1/2 years now, and it has an integrated filter that is neither a pain in the $!@, nor outrageously expensive to replace (I think 3 of them costs something like $12). It's a great machine, by far our favorite wedding present. ;)

Using Brita water does seem to cut down on the frequency of running vinegar through my drip coffee maker. I don't think, however, that I've detected any difference in taste.

As for the egg thing, I must admit that the more I think about it, the less I understand.

AJ,

The egg thing is, as Rob said, about the shell. The shell when exposed to hot water begins leaching Calcium. The Calcium, like in TUMS, acts as an antacid, mellowing the acidity of the resultant brew.

Frank,

Re: Those quality Percolators of yore, I'm afraid you're only recourse is to "informal markets".

And, in general, Re: Water Filtration: while Brita, et al.-style filters help lessen the true nightmare that is the public water supply, unless you're achieving RO-levels, or better, of filtration, you are engaing in, what is, ultimately, a financially expensive exercise in self-delusion. Though, of course, CLX, and the MedIC, doesn't mind.

You can indeed freeze coffee beans, as long as you freeze the whole beans and the beans are reasonably fresh roasted when you freeze them.

The best thing to do is find a shop which roasts the beans, or at least gives you a "roasted on" stamp on the bag. If they're less than 7-10 days old, they should be at their peak.

Nothing is funnier than having a coffee-obsessed person over, and whipping up a batch from a plain Co-op bag of coffee, tossing in some tap water, not measuring anything, and pouring a cup 20 seconds after its stopped pouring.

The simple joys in life...

Megan, you probably already know this but there is some evidence that drinking coffee that hasn't gone through a paper filter can raise a person's cholesterol.

I practically live on coffee, but I know practically nothing about brewing it.

As far as the best coffee I have ever had, and would consume until I dropped dead or ran out- chocolate-covered espresso beans-possibly the most addictive food on the planet.

I'm not a coffee snob . . . as long as it's reasonably strong, I'm happy. These are all things that seem to me to be relatively trivial effort, with a decent payoff in flavour. But I happily drink coffee made with tap water and canned coffee beans at friends' houses. The only thing I really hate is the pods, which always seem to brew too weak.

Frank: Outdoor stores sell plenty of percolators, for camping, that you should be able to find locally, and the traditional percolator is still available, if you look around on the interwebs.

Lots of people are partial to the Pyrex ones, but I've never noticed a difference in flavour.

If you want to taste the best coffee (with or without mixing with milk) in the world, come to the South Indian States of Karnataka, Kerala or Tamil Nadu.Fresh coffee grown in the misty Western Ghats of South Indian States of Karnataka,Kerala and Tamil Nadu make South India a coffee-paradise.You will get coffee at so low a price too (say,at a price of hardly $0.10 per cup).So is the case of quality tea which is consumed in greater quantity in Northern India.

G.V. Varma,

If you'd like to Export the coffees that you mention, please investigate whether you can obtain the necessary permits for so doing.

If you are able to do so, or need any potential assistance in so doing, let me know.

Contact: Jane Galt, we'll help her feed her student loan interest addict by playing initial intermediary (we'll put some of this 'Asymmetrical Information' to good use)

I've found a gadget that I think deserves some attention...it's called the AeroPress.

It makes the best espresso I've ever been able to make in my home at a tenth of what other machines I've tried cost. I use it to make americano style coffee every morning, and I love the ability to choose how strong/hot I want my cup each day, depending on the weather or the previous night's revelry. It produces the boldness of traditional coffee presses with none of the grit.

It's made by the people at Aerobie, creators of that other novelty flying disc, and it's been getting significant praise in the world of coffee lovers, but it's such a great idea that it deserves to meet the mainstream.

If you need to brew a whole pot, it's not for you, but if you want 1-4 shots of high quality espresso, this is one amazing find. It's really revolutionized coffee drinking for me, and I wish more people knew about it.

Best,
-kd

http://www.aerobie.com/Products/aeropress_story.htm

"Thus, the result with hardly any tinkering: Two very, very good mugs of coffee. I was able to taste qualities that I had mainly read about before, particularly on the floral, fruity, and sweet end of the spectrum. You've obviously made a fine discovery."

Jeffrey Steingarten - Vogue Food Editor

I've seen some surprising advice in here, most particularly that regarding percolators. It may be what you're used to, but it's about the worst way you can make coffee. Of course, most people I know put in so much sugar and cream (or milk or whatever) that it hardly matters what the original coffee tastes like, so your mileage may vary. If you normally buy the stuff where the list of added flavors barely fits on the package, you probably aren't reading this ^_^

For me, I usually do end up using a drip machine. Not the best, but far from the worst. If you're really picky, you should be using either a french press or a vacuum pot. The latter make truly fabulous coffee, but take a fair bit of watching. If you pick the right one, you can even get them with a permanent glass filter, which is the best choice (but are rather difficult to find).

Regarding grinding/roasting, you should at least get whole beans and grind yourself. It's a fairly trivial task and allows the beans to last longer (less surface area, after all). Freezing whole beans isn't a big deal, but it's a bad idea to freeze grounds. Roasting, as noted above, isn't that difficult either.

Given how simple it is, it's kind of sad how hard it is to buy a good cup of coffee in the US. Just like how I use scrambled eggs as a test of a restaurant. They're bloody simple to do well, but very few places bother. Tells me plenty about the rest of their menu.

You must, you simply MUST grow the coffee yourself....while wearing a straw hat. And have a donkey also, that helps.

Instant. I put it and sugar in milk in a jar in the refrigerator and drink it at work the next morning, or even a couple of days later.

Think of the money I save.

What works for me is always to use a cafetiere and not less than 4 minutes before pressing.

Freezer or not: I bow to technologists on this one but as long as the grounds are fresh when they go into the freezer they seem to be fine on the way out.

Water: Just off the boil. I'm happy with London mains water but I can tell you it's not as good as the stuff that comes out of the tap (sorry - faucet) in Naples (but it's probably a lot healthier)

Drink within about 10/15 minutes of brewing - don't bother to keep coffee simmering - it ruins it.

The thing about freezing largely depends on how often you take it out and put it back in. If you do it up in single-use batches, there really isn't a big deal. If you freeze a big container of it and repeatedly take it out to get some, you'll have more of a problem. Every time you put it back in all the extra moisture in the air in the can/bag/whatever will freeze out, which is where the main problem lies (AFAIK).

Xellos,

Be careful that, in your attempt at humility, not that it isn't appreiated, that you don't wind up unintentionally impugning your P.O.V..

I'd reckon, or, better, wager against high odds, that if someone were to travel--(AFAIK)--as far as you do know, that before thay reached their destination: they would be found ducking, in order to reach that point, where you are, under the far right-hand side of the bell-curve.

IOW: No pain in Plain, People will figure it out.

C-o-f-f-e-e
Coffee is not for me

It's a drink some people wake up with.
That it makes you nervous is no myth.

Slaves to a coffee cup
never give coffee up.

The original german folk jingle that this poetry comes from also includes racial slurs against the turks for drinking too much coffee.

Here are some pointers on how to roast coffee at home: http://www.sweetmarias.com/instructions.html

The site is for a firm that sells green coffee beans. Check it out!

(not my company, although I am a customer)

G V Varma is absolutely right. The best coffee that I have ever tasted came from and was consumed in south India. I believe that it was grown in the Niligiri hills, between Ooty and Coonoor. In north India, in addition to tea, there was always the opportunity to have cold coffee and ice cream,perfect on a hot afternoon. It was made by pouring brewed coffee that had been allowed to chill over the ice cream flavor of your choice,vanilla or coffee.

Yeah, I used to like that fancy-schmancy strong coffee, but now I've had my gall bladder out and am fighting gastritis, I'm not supposed to drink coffee at all. I refuse to give up, however. So, for me, no matter how prole, I proudly brew up Folgers Simply Smooth with tap water in my 4 cup Mr. Coffee. It doesn't cause massive pain and GI distress. That's my new benchmark for measuring the coffee experience.

Thank God, British tea doesn't bother me. Yeay! I brew that properly.

Re: the press, I think it's best to have a burr grinder. I've got one of those Cuisinart whirling-blades grinders, and it always reduces a certain fraction of the beans to a fine powder. Which is not good for coffee done in the press, unless you're very careful. Which I am; you just have to be gentle and not, for instance, pound down the last inch or so in your cup.

Regarding preground coffee: I bought a bag of pure Kona in the local gourmet store, and it absolutely sucked, compared with the whole-bean kind you buy direct from the plantation. It was almost as ordinary as Folger's, which isn't exactly what one would expect, paying $20 for a half-pound bag.

Whole bean coffee we just keep in a sealed bag until it's time to use it. It keeps just fine. Ground coffee I'd throw in the freezer, because it does go stale.

Last thing: I lived in Huntsville, Alabama and there was a coffee shop there that roasted their own beans onsite. Lovely smell, and great coffee. It's called Kaffeeklatsch; looks as if it's still around. Fresh coffee; prices that compete with Starbucks and the like (but much fresher, and much less burnt).

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