The Coffee Thread™

There’s that, too - and it’s a whole different pet peeve of mine. But the issue I’m talking about here is simply adding too much water, not grinding finely enough or both. In Italy, from Verona to Palermo, espresso is a tablespoon or two of thick, syrupy goodness - with the bitterness increasing the further south you go until you’re drinking ground charcoal by the time you cross the straits of Messina.

In Holland, even the good places kindly fill the entire espresso cup for you, not by  giving you a double shot by default but simply by running twice the amount of water through the filter.

I find this strange. Surely hundreds of thousands of Dutch people visit Italy each year and so can be expected to know what the real deal is supposed to be like? Especially the ones that buy these insanely expensive Italian espresso machines for use in their cafés and restaurants?

And yet here I’m measuring out the kitchen top to see if there’s enough space for *another* coffee machine (thinking of a La Pavoni Europiccola manual espresso machine) for use on weekends when I can put in the time.

Sigh.

Double espresso using a freshly ground, dark roasted espresso blend is my daily breakfast.

Ground using a Rocket Faustino, then pulled through a Rocket Appartamento. These two machines may have been expensive, but damn were they worth it (and are pure coffee porn)! Mind you, it took me a while to learn how to pull a decent shot.

Now those are some baller coffee gadgets. 

I've toyed with the idea of getting a Breville Barista Express, but it's a bit of commitment, like having a kid or something. 

Wow. Awesome. I'm told the Rocket Appartamento is a classic and really, really good.

  On 3/1/2020 at 4:14 PM, Jamesqdot said:

Mind you, it took me a while to learn how to pull a decent shot.

See, there's the problem. I'd be all up for a setup like this, but there's also the wife to consider. She will absolutely not go to barista school simply to get her morning cup of coffee.

  On 3/1/2020 at 4:31 PM, Candiru said:

I've toyed with the idea of getting a Breville Barista Express, but it's a bit of commitment, like having a kid or something. 

Looks cool ... but I'd personally skip a device with a built in grinder as (I'm told / friends of mine experience) they break down sooner). You can get professional quality grinders for not that much money and replace the cones. Of course you'd then have to smuggle them past the spouse, but in my experience that's a simple matter of downplaying the size (or at least not drawing attention to it too much) until it's in place.

lol

Can't be arsed to search the thread, but I am an avid iced coffee drinker (I drink a glass every morning) and I use either Starbucks Blonde Roast iced coffee in a bottle, or STOK unsweetened iced coffee in a bottle and mix with whole milk and a few shots of Torani vanilla syrup.

I bought an OXO cold brew coffee maker (the one that uses drip feeding to make the cold brew coffee), but no matter what kind of coffee I use (light roast, blonde roast) it always comes out way too bitter compared to the bottled iced coffee. What am I doing wrong, or is it the choice of coffee (medium grind BTW which I read is best for cold brew coffee)? How do I achieve mild cold brew coffee made at home which would be much cheaper than buying a bottle at roughly $4.75 and lasting me about 4 or 5 days...

One of my roommates works as a barista. At the start of the lockdown, they brought home three huge bags of coffee beans that they couldn't sell. I ran out of tea so I've started going through those.

Making coffee is kind of a nice morning ritual, but it's generally too much caffeine for me, so I want to go back to tea.

  On 8/11/2020 at 10:04 PM, Joyrex said:

Can't be arsed to search the thread, but I am an avid iced coffee drinker (I drink a glass every morning) and I use either Starbucks Blonde Roast iced coffee in a bottle, or STOK unsweetened iced coffee in a bottle and mix with whole milk and a few shots of Torani vanilla syrup.

I bought an OXO cold brew coffee maker (the one that uses drip feeding to make the cold brew coffee), but no matter what kind of coffee I use (light roast, blonde roast) it always comes out way too bitter compared to the bottled iced coffee. What am I doing wrong, or is it the choice of coffee (medium grind BTW which I read is best for cold brew coffee)? How do I achieve mild cold brew coffee made at home which would be much cheaper than buying a bottle at roughly 4.75 and lasting me about 4 or 5 days...

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You should use a pretty coarse grind for cold brew and I'm sure you already do this, you should steep the grounds in cold water otherwise it'll get extremely bitter.

  On 8/12/2020 at 12:17 AM, Braintree said:

Making coffee is kind of a nice morning ritual, but it's generally too much caffeine for me, so I want to go back to tea.

Interestingly espresso does not have that much caffeine in it while black tea has quite a lot.

Even more interestingly, *green* tea is quite caffeine rich, especially matcha. Though there also have been instances where I’ve added a few leaves too many of perfectly ordinary Chinese green tea and bounced around uncontrollably for he better part of a day.

TLDR; drink espresso.

  On 8/12/2020 at 8:31 AM, rhmilo said:

Interestingly espresso does not have that much caffeine in it while black tea has quite a lot.

Even more interestingly, *green* tea is quite caffeine rich, especially matcha. Though there also have been instances where I’ve added a few leaves too many of perfectly ordinary Chinese green tea and bounced around uncontrollably for he better part of a day.

TLDR; drink espresso.

Espresso has a lot of caffeine per volume. It's like crack to me. About 64mg/shot, so a double has 128mg. That's way more than can of Red Bull around here and all packed in a very small volume. Source: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/caffeine/art-20049372

Teas really depend on the particular variety, brewing time, amount of leaves per volume, etc and it gets pretty complicated, but it's not just simple black vs. green because there are tons of different black and green teas.

When I was in high school and in military service I just used to take a ton of caffeine tablets that were easy to get back then once you turned 16. But sweet lord they screw up your stomache.

  On 8/11/2020 at 10:04 PM, Joyrex said:

Can't be arsed to search the thread, but I am an avid iced coffee drinker (I drink a glass every morning) and I use either Starbucks Blonde Roast iced coffee in a bottle, or STOK unsweetened iced coffee in a bottle and mix with whole milk and a few shots of Torani vanilla syrup.

I bought an OXO cold brew coffee maker (the one that uses drip feeding to make the cold brew coffee), but no matter what kind of coffee I use (light roast, blonde roast) it always comes out way too bitter compared to the bottled iced coffee. What am I doing wrong, or is it the choice of coffee (medium grind BTW which I read is best for cold brew coffee)? How do I achieve mild cold brew coffee made at home which would be much cheaper than buying a bottle at roughly $4.75 and lasting me about 4 or 5 days...

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you could try orleans-style iced..

https://bluebottlecoffee.com/preparation-guides/new-orleans-iced

  On 8/12/2020 at 9:16 AM, zkom said:

About 64mg/shot, so a double has 128mg

Right. But no one in their right mind(*) would do a double shot.

(*) that's what Italians say, anyway, and given they're from a country where you can have good coffee for next to nothing on pretty much every street corner, let's assume they know what they're talking about.

  On 8/12/2020 at 10:58 AM, rhmilo said:

Right. But no one in their right mind(*) would do a double shot.

 

 

(*) that's what Italians say, anyway, and given they're from a country where you can have good coffee for next to nothing on pretty much every street corner, let's assume they know what they're talking about.

I mostly do double shots. I usually have cappuccinos also with a double shot.. But let's assume you're making espresso at home, you're not just going to make a single shot, are you? Like I use a moka pot at home to make some vague imitation of espresso and doing a single shot with that would be pretty silly.

My previous workplace had this coffee machine that made also espressos. It had the double espresso as a separate option. And then the double button. So you could double the double espresso, which I sometimes did. Then they removed the doubling feature.

But I like my coffee strong, when I'm staying in hotels or hostels that only have instant coffee I usually put like two to three packets to one cup..

  On 8/12/2020 at 11:16 AM, zkom said:

I mostly do double shots. I usually have cappuccinos also with a double shot.. But let's assume you're making espresso at home, you're not just going to make a single shot, are you? Like I use a moka pot at home to make some vague imitation of espresso and doing a single shot with that would be pretty silly.

My previous workplace had this coffee machine that made also espressos. It had the double espresso as a separate option. And then the double button. So you could double the double espresso, which I sometimes did. Then they removed the doubling feature.

But I like my coffee strong, when I'm staying in hotels or hostels that only have instant coffee I usually put like two to three packets to one cup..

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You sound like the worst possible combination of a northerner (lots of coffee) and a southerner (very strong coffee).

Do you have any stomach lining left?

Me I just do single shots.

And with the heat we’re having now: Greek style frothy coffee: 1 tablespoon Nescafé, a teaspoon of sugar, around a tablespoon of water. Whisk into a foam (this is easiest with proper Greek Nescafé as it contains some chemicals to make the froth more stable). Pour over ice.

  On 8/12/2020 at 11:23 AM, rhmilo said:

Do you have any stomach lining left?

At this point coffee and spicy food are keeping me regular..

But my ex was way worse. She would start her day at home with two moka pots of espresso strength coffee. Then go to work and first get a cup of filter coffee.. If she went a day without coffee it would cause her a massive headache.

  On 8/12/2020 at 11:48 AM, zkom said:

If she went a day without coffee it would cause her a massive headache.

Yup, same here. If I don't get any coffee before 10 AM I am guaranteed a headache.

  On 8/12/2020 at 8:31 AM, rhmilo said:

Interestingly espresso does not have that much caffeine in it while black tea has quite a lot.

Even more interestingly, *green* tea is quite caffeine rich, especially matcha. Though there also have been instances where I’ve added a few leaves too many of perfectly ordinary Chinese green tea and bounced around uncontrollably for he better part of a day.

TLDR; drink espresso.

Yeah, I like americanos (I typically don't get any stomach pain from them), but I don't have an espresso machine or anything. Partly why I drink tea is because I'm lazy

  On 8/12/2020 at 10:58 AM, rhmilo said:

Right. But no one in their right mind(*) would do a double shot.

(*) that's what Italians say, anyway, and given they're from a country where you can have good coffee for next to nothing on pretty much every street corner, let's assume they know what they're talking about.

in north america, double shot is the standard in most cafes, and you can specify long or short pull. if you order a single here they will pull a double and then have to toss half of it or hope somebody else is ordering single drink at the same time. 

technically youre right that doing it this way is 'wrong', but plenty of people, myself included, order and consume a double shot as 'espresso' for the simple reason that they are set up to serve it that way

no disagreement from me that italians do it well..  just that its complicated question with cultural variation

  On 8/12/2020 at 8:30 AM, Squee said:

You should use a pretty coarse grind for cold brew and I'm sure you already do this, you should steep the grounds in cold water otherwise it'll get extremely bitter.

Yes, I use cold water. I might try coarse grind (as I mentioned, I used medium grind) and see if that makes any difference.

  On 8/12/2020 at 10:28 AM, iococoi said:

you could try orleans-style iced..

https://bluebottlecoffee.com/preparation-guides/new-orleans-iced

I've heard good things about Bluebottle - they are all the rage in Japan right now apparently...

Found out Makita makes also coffee makers

I'm a sucker for unnecessarily sturdy and functional things like using military equipment for everyday stuff so this really intrigued me even though I have no use for a battery powered coffee maker..

lol, wtf is this.. Aviator Veloce Turbojet Espresso Machine. Single serve and weighs 28kg..

https://www.superveloce.co/products/aviatore-veloce#1

  On 9/30/2020 at 4:56 PM, zkom said:

lol, wtf is this.. Aviator Veloce Turbojet Espresso Machine. Single serve and weighs 28kg..

https://www.superveloce.co/products/aviatore-veloce#1

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I started drinking Bustello again.

people who name coffee with milk as coffee and coffee as espresso... they're the worst...