What a great place this lounge is to pose any kind of question.1. Start with quality coffee. If you drink commercial stuff (Maxwell House, Yuban, etc.), you'll get coffee that is mostly Coffea robusta.........The best coffee is Coffea arabica,
The skill of the roaster is also critical.
Since your cup is mostly water, the quality of your water is critical.
We buy whole beans and freeze them, then grind only the amount that we need to make a pot. .......The consistency of the grind is crucial.
We prefer the drip method and use, of all things, a now-defunct KitchenAid 4-cup maker
I'm currently using Maxwell House, which says Coffee Arabica on the label, but I wonder if their roast is the issue. I find it a bit 'edgy' whereas I like a coffee that's more 'mellow', so I am looking for something else.
The water tip is interesting. Our tap water is quite good and very soft (I use much less shampoo than I did in any other city we've lived in - although I suppose there's an argument about having less to shampoo). The new coffee maker (Cuisinart Brew Central) uses water filters.
I've never ground my own beans although it's something I'm starting to think about. The idea sure has a lot of support from the folks in this thread.
Although my coffee maker can make 12 cups (needed for company) I seldom make more than four. Interestingly, the Cuisinart has a 1-4 cup water-heating function that double heats the water for four cups.
Whatever you use, only drink freshly made coffee. If you absolutely have to keep it around, do so at exactly 83°C (181°F) for no longer than about half an hour, unless you want your taste buds to secede.
Interesting. Tim Horton's has a freshness policy where any pot, no matter how full, is dumped and remade every half hour. And, my new coffeemaker has H-M-L plate temperature settings - although it doesn't say what the temperatures are.
Given the amount of coffee I drink, I developed a caffeine addiction which resulted in migraine-like headaches if I went over 12 hours without caffeinated coffee. Bummer. So I've had to shift to my preferences.
As for those of you who like Starbucks or Tim Hortons, look closely at the stuff they're selling for take-home. You'll see shiny bits among the ground coffee.
You can develop the addiction even with a lower intake. Years ago my wife, who never drank more than a few cups a day, stopped drinking coffee. About a week later I was reading an article about coffee addiction (thinking of myself, who was consuming about 18 cups per day) and I gave the article to her.
About ten minutes later she came back into the living room, eyes open to about f1.4, and said that she had experienced every one of the withdrawal symptoms.
What would the 'shiny bits' be?
Since you've brought up the subject of caffeine, I'll mention that I get mine from Pepsi, which is the first liquid down my throat virtually every day...close to 2 liters/day these days, but 24 cans/day at one point in my life.
Diet or Regular? If it's regular I hope you're keeping an eye on your blood sugar level - Stage 2 diabetes is such a worry these days. Sorry about the health nag but it is a prod accompanied with kind intent.
I used to use the freezer, but upon reading somewhere.......that airtight, not cold, is the important state for preserving freshness, I stopped doing so years ago and haven't noticed any falloff in quality.
Like Grelber, I'll sometimes mix in some decaf (Trader Joe's French or Italian Roast) to cut the caffeine; on other occasions, I'll make decaf and "spice it up" with a few caffeinated beans.
I hope that's true. When our deep freeze gave up the ghost we didn't bother replacing it (once the kids are gone, who needs it?) and just use the refrigerator freezers, which means that frozen real estate is at a premium.
It's looking like experimentation is a good idea. I've read that some people use chicory to reduce caffeine while maintaining a good coffee taste. If so, it's also something that would be pretty easy to grow.
The Archer Cafe served "cowboy coffee'. (The coffee is ready to drink when it was strong enough to float a horseshoe.)
It sounds like the coffee my Mother made except that her criterion was whether a spoon could remain vertical in it, which probably accounts for why I didn't start drinking coffee until I left home and had a less intimidating brew, "Oh....
that's how it's supposed to taste!"
....pull out only what's needed for a single pot of coffee, then nuke the beans for just over 30 seconds to bring out the oils
Another good experimentation idea. Thanks.
