Coffee!

[chinaco]

Coffee is good. I'll do my part.

But there is even a better health booster... Beer! Who 'da Thunk it?

Drink up.

Beer A Health Booster? - The Early Show - CBS News

 

[Kroeran]

For the adventurous that love coffee, here's my favorite: Lavazza from Italy. Cheap on Amazon.com....smells and tastes delicious to me. I think they refer to it as the Gucci of coffees.

Lavazza Tierra! 100% Sustainable Ground Coffee, 8-Ounce Cans (Pack of 3): Amazon.com: Home & Garden

I use Lavazza crema e Gusto expresso as my regular coffee which I buy all over in 8.8 ounce vacuum packs.

have a boiling water on-demand tap and use a one cup metal camping filter to filter the expresso, with the grounds in the water as briefly as possible...maybe 30 seconds.

MSR Mug Mate Coffee/Tea Filter - Mountain Equipment Co-op. Free Shipping Available

I also add a half teaspoon of pure cocoa and sweethen with erythritol

Erythritol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I also whiten it with full fat evaporated milk, which tastes as creamy as half and half to me\

also great in coffee, or elsewhere

http://www.vancouversun.com/Maple+syrup+rich+antioxidants+Study/2720872/story.html

 

[yakers]

I have a Krupps burr grinder, nicer than any of the bade grinders I have used. Don't remember what it cost but I would try the cheapest burr grinder and see if you like it. I could tell the difference but it also matters which beans are used, some are larger and harder than others.

 

[NW-Bound]

I love coffee! If my teeth turn bright yellow then so be it!

Some people may only need to remove their teeth before drinking coffee, but I don't know if I envy that.

I am imagining myself at age 90 drinking hot water instead (just joking).

My grandma liked to drink hot, not cold, water. I didn't know why. But she also drank tea.

 

[W2R]

My grandma liked to drink hot, not cold, water. I didn't know why. But she also drank tea.

I'll bet she wished it was coffee!

All this talk about coffee grinders and expresso machines makes me feel a little wistful. I couldn't afford them back when coffee didn't bother me. Now, I can afford them but coffee keeps me up.

On the other hand, a thought just occurred to me - - who cares if it keeps me up? I can sleep late to catch up on that lost sleep, now that I am retired. Maybe I'll even go back to "real" coffee once in a while.

 

[aaronc879]

Cuppa coffee, glass of red wine, cuppa black or green tea - that is alot of stuff recommended to drink every day! what else? hehe

I have never in my life had even a sip of any of those drinks. I guess i'm going to die young

 

[NW-Bound]

On the other hand, a thought just occurred to me - - who cares if it keeps me up? I can sleep late to catch up on that lost sleep, now that I am retired. Maybe I'll even go back to "real" coffee once in a while.

I drink a lot of coffee, and do not have problems sleeping. I guess one develops a tolerance to caffeine. But I wonder if it is a major contribution to my blood pressure creeping higher.

 

[NW-Bound]

I have never in my life had even a sip of any of those drinks. I guess i'm going to die young

Hmm... It's not too late to join us.

 

[Tesaje]

I drink a lot of coffee, and do not have problems sleeping. I guess one develops a tolerance to caffeine. But I wonder if it is a major contribution to my blood pressure creeping higher.

Try doing without it for a month and see if it makes any difference. You might the caffeine withdrawal headaches ...

 

[audreyh1]

OK, you just saved me some money.

Ha

A good site for coffee aficionados (I used to roast my own beans) but they carry all coffee supplies/equipment Sweet Maria's

I ended up getting the Bodum C-mill (blade grinder) based on their recommendation, and have been very happy. Not fine enough for espresso machines, but otherwise very good. The Bodum C-Mill Blade Grinder

My husband will probably still get a burr grinder when we move into the new house. I forget which one he favors at the moment. I know his favorite coffee equipment website is Wholelattelove and they have plenty of reviews.

Audrey

 

[audreyh1]

We've tried a lot of the smaller local coffee roasters when traveling around the country. Some really great beans out there!

This Montana roaster really stood out, and we order most of our coffee from them - Hunter Bay Coffee.

We particularly like their dark roast blends - very smooth, dark rich taste with nice chocolate notes. "Expedition" & "Moose Drool". We also get the French Roast Decaf to create the 1/2 caffeinated coffee I drink.

Another really good one (also Montana - how about that?) Coffee Traders . They have a sister company in Austin, but somehow we liked the Montana versions better and would order from there instead of buying local.

Audrey

 

[Fireup2020]

I accidentally discovered the decaf from Old Soul in Sacramento. MMMMMMM!!! FABULOUS!!! They roast their own beans (and bake their own bread - oh the heavenly smells there!) Mom flew out yesterday with a couple bags of beans for me...can't wait to get my hands on them! www.oldsoulco.com Absolutely worth it!

 

[bright eyed]

W2R - tea has more caffeine than coffee I believe but decaf tea isn't so bad. You know we have a flood in common. How's it looking down there? We are set to demolish 700 homes this summer.

Is there a specific tea or brewing that you are referring to? I know from my time being pregnant that tea was generally half the caffeine of coffee...

On another note, my new capresso burr grinder is spectacular! Quiet and strong...I got mine on amazon but Costco is also selling one...

 

[tinlizzy]

Is there a specific tea or brewing that you are referring to? I know from my time being pregnant that tea was generally half the caffeine of coffee...

You are the second person in this thread to say that...I'm not sure why I thought tea had less caffeine? Brewed coffee makes my hair stand on end though. I'm very sensitive to it for some reason - tea, not so much.

 

[Emeritus]

I'm a coffee freak. I take my own bone china mug to Caribou.
I use a Black and Decker Burr grinder after killing two Krups in a year.
A few rules
1) Bean coffee should be kept in the Freezer until grinding. It should be used within a few hours of grinding.
2) If you use a drip filter, test different grinds for your particular machine and filters.Stick with what you like.
3) if you use a percolator, don't call the output "coffee".
4) if you use steam extraction as in a proper espresso machine, send me a note and Ill come by with beans. Yes I know there are people who prefer pump extraction, but there are also people who think shooting buffalo in a parking lot is hunting
5) The secret to an Italian coffee shop is the wooden drawer where they dump the used grounds. After 40 years or so the wood is pure coffee aroma. If you want to open a coffee shop go to Italy and buy the drawer.
6) The best coffee houses are in Vienna and Salzburg, The coffee is ordinary but the atmosphere is superb.
7) What they do to the great coffee they grow in Kenya should not happen to your worst enemy.
8) Egyptian coffee is fascinating, strong, sweet and they use the grounds to pave the roads.
9) Drink tea in England. If you are lucky the coffee is only 50 % sawdust.
10) To appreciate instant coffee you must be a scuba diver. After an hour biting on a rubber mouthpiece and breathing bone dry air even a Goodyear tire tastes wonderful
11) When you do the McDonalds coffee case in class, use raw chicken rather than a student to show the burn depth.

 

[Nords]

I've drunk so many strange brews in the Navy under the dubious heading of "coffee" that it's hard to get excited about a specific brand or brew. One of my favorite (very few) happy memories of active duty is standing on the bridge of a surfaced submarine at 3 AM, heading toward the Honolulu city lights glowing over the horizon, and smelling a "fresh"-er cup of coffee being sent up the hatch. I still have that "Ahhhh" reaction when I hear the pot finish brewing.

When I ER'd I stopped all caffeinated beverages, but after a couple years I slowly re-introduced green tea and then regular coffee. No issues. I drink a 24-oz pot of each one each morning and in colder weather I'll follow up with a pot of decaf. If I go out to lunch or a conference/meeting then I'll swill the house's coffee with wild abandon but otherwise that's it. Cold evenings are meant for hot chocolate, not coffee.

I haven't experimented much with various flavors. Small bag of straight Kona, beans or ground, whichever's cheaper. Black. Stronger the better. I enjoyed a bag from a trip to Kauai Coffee Company where they let you literally pick your beans before they're roasted.

One morning by chance our bunny gave a very strong "Oboy!" reaction when he smelled a green tea bag. So now when I'm done with them (and what little caffeine they contain has been soaked out of them) I pull out the staple and he gets the teabag. It's funny to watch him daintily tear the top open, carefully lick out the tea leaves, and then gobble up the rest of the bag. The remaining debris (grounds, filter, the other teabag) goes into our vermipost.

 

[Tesaje]

1) Bean coffee should be kept in the Freezer until grinding. It should be used within a few hours of grinding.

This is a common misconception. Storing your coffee beans or ground coffee in the freezer is the worst place for it. Most of the coffee flavor is in the aromatics in the oils. The freezer is extremely dessicating and destroys the oils faster than anything. Coffee stays good the longest at cool room temperatures in an air tight container, not in the refrigerator or freezer. The best container is a vacuum bag or jar so there is no air at all in the container.

 

[Orchidflower]

Emeritus, if you wrote all that without help you're hysterical! That's really clever and witty!

 

[Emeritus]

This is a common misconception. Storing your coffee beans or ground coffee in the freezer is the worst place for it. Most of the coffee flavor is in the aromatics in the oils. The freezer is extremely dessicating and destroys the oils faster than anything. Coffee stays good the longest at cool room temperatures in an air tight container, not in the refrigerator or freezer. The best container is a vacuum bag or jar so there is no air at all in the container.

Others disagree
When to Freeze Coffee

How long does coffee stay fresh? A good rule to use is two weeks. Now, if you happen to have found a great price on bulk coffee, and you don't plan on using it within two weeks, the freezer can be an acceptable one-time shot. What this means is that once you take it out of the freezer, it should never go back in. The constant changes in temperature will wreak havoc on your coffee. The frozen moisture on your coffee will melt and be absorbed into the bean. When you put it back into the freezer, you are repeating the process.

The goal in freezing coffee is to keep it away from moisture. If you have a five-pound bag of coffee to store, divide it up into weekly portions. Wrap those portions up using sealable freezer bags and plastic wrap. I've even read you should go so far as to suck out the excess air from the freezer bag using a straw!
Remove the weekly portion when you need it, and store it in an air-tight container in a dry place like your pantry. Do not put it back into the freezer!
Store Coffee - How to Store Coffee – Secrets from a gourmet roaster! - CoffeeAM
To Freeze, or Not To Freeze...



The age old question, and also our number one question asked at our weekend coffee shows. How shall I keep my coffee, in the fridge, or in the freezer?

There are two schools of thought here, I'll share them both with you.

First and fore most, keep a weeks worth of coffee in an air tight container, such as a Tupperware or mason jar or etc, at room temperature, in your cupboard or pantry. Keep any excess coffee, that amount that you will not be using in the next week, sealed in an airtight and moisture tight container in your freezer, for the following reasons:

The first school of thought: Your fridge (if it's anything like mine) tends to sometimes have less than desirable aromas contained within it. That leftover meatloaf that was left a little too far over, those fried onions, that science project in the back, all can be quite aromatic if not kept under control. Coffee absorbs aromas as it stales, in the same fashion as baking soda. If you leave your coffee next to that science project, over time, it will start to taste like that science project in your cup, no matter the container the coffee is held in. Result: The fridge is not the place to store your coffee.

The second school of thought: your freezer circulates moist air, and moisture damages the flavor oils in coffee. Correct, hence the moisture tight container for the freezer. Freezing the coffee slows the staling process that much more than the fridge. The closer you can get to keeping your coffee to 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the better. So the freezer is the place. Just keep it air tight, and moisture tight. A freezer bag works well, two freezer bags, even better. But...

Remember to keep a weeks worth of your coffee at room temp. Never use (grind or brew) frozen coffee. Once your coffee comes out of the freezer, it needs to stay out of the freezer. Repeated freezing and thawing of coffee will damage the flavor oils. Put your excess coffee in the freezer, and leave it there. Once that weeks worth comes out, it stays out until it's used. Another way of putting it, your coffee should only be frozen, and stay frozen ONCE. Take out a weeks worth at a time, and draw from that until it's time to bring more out.

Freeze Your Coffee?

 

[bright eyed]

W2R - tea has more caffeine than coffee I believe but decaf tea isn't so bad. You know we have a flood in common. How's it looking down there? We are set to demolish 700 homes this summer.

You are the second person in this thread to say that...I'm not sure why I thought tea had less caffeine? Brewed coffee makes my hair stand on end though. I'm very sensitive to it for some reason - tea, not so much.

You must have just flipped the two when you wrote your other post...

 

[Kroeran]

Starbucks announces new size offering, the 128 ounce "Plenta"





SEATTLE -- Starbucks got into the spirit of April Fools’ Day as the coffee giant unveiled a giant coffee.
The company announced two new drink sizes on its blog Thursday.
“Plenta” is a hefty 128 fluid ounces, while “Micra” is a tiny 2 ounces.
Starbucks added the the extreme cup sizes were definitely recyclable. Among the suggestions for the Plenta cup, the company suggested customers reuse it as a popcorn receptacle, rain hat, perennial planter, lampshade or yoga block.
The Micra cup, Starbucks said, could be reused as a milk dish for kittens, or a paper clip holder.
While the announcement of the two new sizes were just an April Fools’ joke, complete with the April 1 timestamp on the blog post, Starbucks had previously said it is testing a 31-ounce coffee size, called the Trenta, in several markets, including the Tampa Bay Area.

 

[FIYes]

I absolutely love coffee. A few years ago when the e-mail coffee jokes of the "Juan Valdez named his donkey after you" were circulating--20 people must have sent them to me with little "saw this and thought of you notes." That said, I am not real picky and will usually drink most any brew labeled coffee. However, since retiring I have gotten pickier about my morning coffee since I no longer gulp while getting ready to run out the door. Before retirment, day old coffee reheated in the microwave was okay with me---but now that I have time to actually taste/enjoy coffee in the morning, the day old re-heat just won't do.

 

[Chuckanut]

Coffee is back, assuming it left your life in the first place.

Note the cartoon on the first screen.

The Coffee Achievers is back online. « MitchClem.com

 

[robnplunder]

Emeritus, if you wrote all that without help you're hysterical! That's really clever and witty!

+1.

On my recent Costa Rica tour, they took me to coffee plantation and here are some of the things I've learned.

• Properly brewing coffee step is as complex as properly brewing tea (I am not talking about tea bags. Think the way of "dao."
• Coffee can taste better served cold.
• Lesser quality coffee are sold with flavors added, English toffee, e.g..
• Even lesser quality coffee are turned into instant ones. Folgers, e.g..
• Decafs are produced with some kind of water treatment. Be careful - there are ones which are chemically treated.

 

[foxfirev5]

Probably the only menu item I will endorse from McDonalds. In many areas it is much superior to Starbucks, which I can barely tolerate. A smooth cup of Joe, Dunkin's works as well, is all I want. Not some in your face brew.