how do you make coffee?

[hunter]

This thread may have been here already but looking at someone's thread about a drip coffee pot for >$150 (no criticism here - I have bought expensive stuff like that in the pats). But I'm curious how folks like their coffee ?

I personally grind the beans then use a percolator.

 

[iheartmaytag]

BUNN

I have had it for 16 years, still going strong. Coffee in three minutes, always hot, always ready.

 

[hunter]

They make GREAT coffee.

My mother had a Bunn for years.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

Chock full of nuts and bottled spring water in a 1960s Sunbeam AP-20 10-cup electric percolator. A perfect pot every time.

Ken D.

 

[charbee]

We get locally-roasted beans (Anderson's Coffee Company...Java Pantjur!), and grind them fresh for each pot.

Boil water in a kettle on the stove. Use a Melitta drip-cone with brown paper filter, set directly on top of a thermal "air pot" carafe so the coffee never gets heated or burned.

When the water's boiled, turn it off, remove the top of the kettle and let it sit while you grind the beans and arrange the filter cone. Pour just enough hot water through to thoroughly wet the grounds, and then WAIT for about thirty seconds.

Then pour the rest of the kettle of water through at a steady, slow pace. Let it finish draining and cap the carafe...perfect coffee, stays hot for about four hours.

 

[veg-o-matic]

8 O'Clock coffee ground in a vintage Kitchenaid coffee mill, perked in a Corningware Electromatic percolator and served (of course) in cornflower Centura mugs.

veg

 

[jeffg]

Peet's Major Dickason's Blend/bottled water/Melita brown filter in a Zojirushi BD15 with thermal carafe.

 

[panthera]

Freshly ground

100% Arabica beans (Blue Mountain Jamaica when possible even before it was 'in' and especially now it is 'out')
Fresh cold water brought just to boiling at 7000 feet and just under at sea level.
A once through system, whether Italian 'Espresso' maker (which isn't, yes we had that discussion once) or the Melita filter system through a wonderful antique Melita porcelain 104 filter.
Drunk at once, no keeping and no aluminum anything.

Black.

My American friends say my coffee is four x too strong for them, I find American percolated coffee in general undrinkable. Too weak by far and burned on top of it.

 

[rayjay]

Coffee experts say...... That perked coffee is the worst way to make coffee.

I do not mind it but it has to be consumed right away.

 

[hunter]

Well...

...I understand what coffee experts say about percolation. However I think the bigger problem with American coffee is that:

1. it is too weak - you MUST use at least 1 tablespoon/15 ml of coffee per 6 ounce 'cup'
2. it is usually a roast that is too dark - I seem to be one of the few people on earth who detest starbucks (personal preference only, please i don't want a pro-vs-anti starbucks rant from anyone because i'm not trying to be offensive).
3. the water is only so-so (I use an antichlorine filter).
4. It is made in aluminum - which is OKAY but it does add a flavor that stainless steel or glass percolators don't have.

I am with panthera -- most coffee here in USA is way too weak. I'd rather have ONE cup of proper strength than FIVE cups that taste (to me) like dishwater.

I, too, drink my coffee black. I want to taste coffee, not cream/fake cream/or sugar. But that's also personal preference - as all these are, really.

 

[hunter]

corningware

The corningware percolator is very attractive. Interestingly enough, I have one as well, and a modern kitchenaid coffee bean grinder - though I bought mine at Goodwill for $3. (I am in the mode of 'spend no large sum of money on modern small appliances because I question their long term quality and reliability')

 

[rp2813]

I think a lot depends on the beans one chooses. We threw a big party for my mom's 90th birthday and with much dread, I hauled the aluminum 30-cup percolator up from the basement. I went to the independent roaster I've been patronizing for over 20 years and asked which roast and grind would be best for such a horrible brewing method. She was spot-on with her recommendation and the coffee was quite drinkable. So it's possible to produce a decent cup via percolation, even though it's not my preferred method. Meanwhile, my sister swears by her Chemex automatic, which she has had for many years. Basically an old Norelco type system but with a Chemex carafe and filter.

I like a stout, full flavored cup and drink it black. Only if it's really bad coffee do I try to cover things up with cream and sugar. Weak coffee, however, is a lost cause and I'd rather refuse a cup than put myself through that sort of early morning depression.

For a real treat I'll brew up an ibrik of Turkish/Greek coffee, usually after dinner. Mmmmm mmmmm muddily good!

Ralph

 

[panthera]

Perc coffe

can be good, but it depends on quite a few factors.
First, the percolator must be scrupulously clean. That is not easy, unless you can run it through the dishwasher.
Second, I don't care whether it is safe or not, aluminum adds a horrid taste to the coffee. Stainless steel, copper, glass, porcelain don't.
Third, cold fresh water matters. I am highly skeptical of bottled and filtered waters, then again, our water in Munich qualifies as a mineral water and then some. We don't use concrete here, we just pour water into the form and let it dry...
Fourth, perc grind for coffee is coarser than for espresso (and yes, I know those little machines for the stove aren't really espresso, like their coffee anyway) but not as coarse as for a French press.
Fifth, if it isn't a fresh 100% Arabica it isn't coffee. Robusta is to coffee what pears are to apples, except pears taste good. Not too dark, as has been pointed out above.
Sixth, coffee is not tea. It is meant to be strong. This 'two tablespoons for 10 cups' stuff frequently served in the US is not coffee, I am not quite sure what it is, but it is not meant for human consumption.
Finally, you have to drink it right away. Electric percolators hold it at the just the right temperature to ruin the taste quickly.

The greasy spoon truckers' Cafè 'Crossroads' in Cheyenne, Wyoming does coffee by the ton. It tastes great. Starbucks coffee (and this has nothing to do with politics) makes me want to hurl. It's to coffee what chicken McNuggets are to real fried chicken.

 

[volvoguy87]

Coffee.

I make my coffee several ways, depending on my mood at the time.

If I'm feeling nostalgic, I'll use my little aluminum stovetop percolator. Not the best coffee, but it's a flavor I sometimes like.

Sunbeam Vacuum Pots. I have a C30C and a C50. Lately I have been using the C50 more. I was given the percolator by my mother (it had been unused since I was a kid), the C30C came from a cousin who found it while cleaning out her mother-in-law's beach cottage, and I paid all of $9.00 for the C50.

I use filtered water and freshly ground beans. Usually, I like beans from PT's Coffee, but I like trying others too. I usually go for a medium roast. I just don't like dark roasts that much, especially if they are burned.

I had the good fortune of having a housemate who was a nationally-ranked barista and he taught me much about coffee. I used to always take sugar and cream in my coffee. I still do much of the time when I am out or at a friend's home. When I make it, however, I usually take it black, even from the percolator.

I own a Corningware Cornflower stovetop percolator, but have never used it. I would love a Pyrocream electric perk, but I haven't found one yet. I have the carafe and lid to a Pyrex percolator, but I need a set of guts. I also want a vintage Kitchenaid bean grinder.

Now I need to go make coffee,
Dave

PT's Coffee | Roasted in Kansas

Award-winning coffee roasted to order 5 days a week. Without the love, it's just coffee.

www.ptscoffee.com

 

[xraytech]

I almost always use Eight o' Clock bean coffee, I keep it in mason jars in the deep freeze. I grind my coffee in Aunt Thresa's mid 50's KitchenAid A-9 coffee mill. I then use a perc. Either the GE oval perc, or preferably my Cory crown jewl. I use cold tap water, which is unfiltered unsoftened well water. I dont make coffee real weak, but I dont like it strong either, but I prefer it to be closer to strong coffee than weak. If in a pinch I will use Maxwell House Master Blend, which is the only pre-ground coffee I can stand. Also sometimes I will use a Sears Counter Craft automatic drip pot, similar to the Norelcos. I drink my coffee with just a drop or two of milk, and a little sweet n low.

 

[charbee]

The roaster says...

The man I've been buying beans from for the last 26 years (who learned his stuff from none other than Alfred Peet) maintains that the whole beans should be kept in an air-tight container at room temp...refrigerating or freezing the beans alters the flavor of the final cup o'joe in unpleasant ways.

 

[panthera]

I don't think

air-tight freezing affects the taste, in fact when I do have the money (and can get Blue-Mountain) I freeze the unground beans for special occasions.

Don't notice any loss of flavor, but then, when I say air-tight, I do mean air-tight. Plastic bags don't cut it alone.

 

[maytagbear]

I'm a coffee slut

I shouldn't have it period, according to my doctors, but I do, anyway. My cardiologist takes a dim view on even decaf for me, but.....

I can tell the difference between Columbian and Mocha-Java, or Costa Rican, but as long as it tastes pretty much like coffee, I'm ok with it.

My preferred roast is called "full city," which is one darker than the standard American roast, but not nearly as dark as French or espresso roast.

I drink it hot and black, or iced and with milk and syrup (the new McCafe iced Hazelnut is addictive).

I have a one cup manual Melitta cone, a 10 cup Krups automatic drip, a large Corning Electromatic perk, and a jar of Medaglio D'Oro instant.

My Braun burr grinder has died (non-replaceable plastic parts), so right now, I get pre-ground. I am planning on getting a Capresso burr grinder in a few weeks. The only KitchenAid mill available at the moment seems to be the huge, huge "Pro Line" thing, and it intimidates me, so the Capresso.

I keep reading that coffee has valuable antioxidants, and so I keep drinking it several times a week.

I know enough about it to care, but I just don't go overboard fussing about it.

I have even been known to drink gas station coffee.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[ronhic]

It all depends...

We've got all manner of coffee stuff here, but I always migrate back to a French Press...

...and I may line up for cruxifiction here, but we use Aldi ground dark roast coffee (from Germany)....

and the coffee snobs at work are all happy to drink it