Let’s talk coffee

[MJ5150]

In fairness, she drinks an iced tea and juice thing usually, I think with either no sugar or half sugar. Actually pretty darn good.

I like a cappuccino every now and then, and a packet of hot chocolate mixed with army coffee makes the cold bearable but this thing was gosh darn syrup.

All good my friend.
I wasn't passing judgement. While I'll pass on Starbucks, I do respect what they've done for the third wave of coffee.
Without them, none of us would stand in line for 25 minutes to pay $5 for 12 ounces of coffee with a fancy pseudo-Italian name.

-Mike

 

[buldog5151bass]

In fairness, she drinks an iced tea and juice thing usually, I think with either no sugar or half sugar. Actually pretty darn good.

I like a cappuccino every now and then, and a packet of hot chocolate mixed with army coffee makes the cold bearable but this thing was gosh darn syrup.

I was just having a little fun. Some of those carmel-choco-almond milk-lite-lattes seem silly to me, but whatever gets you through the night...

 

[pie_man_25]

All good my friend.
I wasn't passing judgement. While I'll pass on Starbucks, I do respect what they're done for the third wave of coffee.
Without them, none of us would stand in line for 25 minutes to pay $5 for 12 ounces of coffee with a fancy pseudo-Italian name.

-Mike

I was just having a little fun. Some of those carmel-choco-almond milk-lite-lattes seem silly to me, but whatever gets you through the night...

geeze, it's all good guys, it's starbucks, not a crime... or something like that.

 

[MJ5150]

geeze, it's all good guys, it's starbucks, not a crime... or something like that.

That's where you're wrong. I may have to put you on ignore for your treachery.

I don't patronize Starbucks for other reasons, but I'd go there now and then otherwise. Especially the roastery in Seattle.

-Mike

 

[pie_man_25]

That's where you're wrong. I may have to put you on ignore for your treachery.

I don't patronize Starbucks for other reasons, but I'd go there now and then otherwise. Especially the roastery in Seattle.

-Mike

Now is that a quality thing, or an exploitation thing? No need to post publicly if that's an issue.

 

[MJ5150]

Now is that a quality thing, or an exploitation thing? No need to post publicly if that's an issue.

First has to do with the former CEO of Starbucks who was also the former owner of the NBA team in Seattle that was sold and moved to another city when he owned the team. This is the main reason I refuse to spend money at Starbucks.
It's also a quality thing, which is why I'd only ever go to the roastery in Seattle on Pike.
The exploitation aspect, that's tough to pin on Starbucks as being their problem. I buy green coffee beans from farmers around the world too, just not as much as Starbucks does. Perhaps I should be held accountable as well.

-Mike

 

[Downunderwonder]

I buy green beans advertised as fairtrade and organically grown, from a small importer. If they aren't then more fool me for supporting exploitative criminals.

Starbucks work their staff like dogs. I figure one less coffee to make is an easier day for them.

 

[sleddogn]

i've got a good friend that converted a hot air popper to a roaster, now he buys green beans and does his own

 

[buldog5151bass]

geeze, it's all good guys, it's starbucks, not a crime... or something like that.

 

[Downunderwonder]

i've got a good friend that converted a hot air popper to a roaster, now he buys green beans and does his own

My conversion consists of putting coffee in it instead of corn. I put a damp cloth under it so to prevent stray bean skin from getting sucked back through. I don't like the idea of skins gradually gumming up the works and catching fire.

 

[pie_man_25]

Whelp, a few days down, I had to go down to base for a few days to administrate some stuff.

That being said: Project COFFEE is under way.

first experiment: pre-heating

pre-heating the water in a moka pot - does it improve the flavour?

Whelp, I gave it four days, two days of test, two of control. For the test, I boiled some water while grinding the coffee, and poured the boiled water into the boiler on the moka pot, then made the coffee as normal. For the control? I made it as I usually do, with cold/room temperature water going into the pot. All other things identical, at least as far as I can control them.

results:
1) the pre-heating did notably speed up the brew-time. It wasn't really a thing that I set out to measure, but while my usual batch takes 3-5 minutes or so to make on an electric stovetop, this took 2-3 minutes - but in all honesty I expected that.
2) the coffee was notably less bitter. I'm using a dark roast, from whole beans bought at a supermarket. It's not the worst stuff going, but it's definitely a couple months old by now, since I mostly only drink it on weekends. All that to say, any subtlety it may have had is more or less gone, which I suppose is particularly great for this application, as there is little other flavour to distract from any bitterness present.
3) while it doesn't make handling impossible, I WOULD recommend for one to grab a towel to handle the thermally conductive aluminium container with boiling-hot water in it.

On the whole, would I recommend it?

Honestly, if you hate bitterness in your moka pot coffee, it's at least worth a shot. That being said, it's not a night-and-day difference, but it's decently noticeable. I think I'll do it on days where I've got time to sit back and take my time with it. If I just need to gulp my coffee back, I'll just use cold water, it's not really worth the hassle.

 

[Downunderwonder]

Whelp, a few days down, I had to go down to base for a few days to administrate some stuff.

That being said: Project COFFEE is under way.

first experiment: pre-heating

pre-heating the water in a moka pot - does it improve the flavour?

Whelp, I gave it four days, two days of test, two of control. For the test, I boiled some water while grinding the coffee, and poured the boiled water into the boiler on the moka pot, then made the coffee as normal. For the control? I made it as I usually do, with cold/room temperature water going into the pot. All other things identical, at least as far as I can control them.

results:
1) the pre-heating did notably speed up the brew-time. It wasn't really a thing that I set out to measure, but while my usual batch takes 3-5 minutes or so to make on an electric stovetop, this took 2-3 minutes - but in all honesty I expected that.
2) the coffee was notably less bitter. I'm using a dark roast, from whole beans bought at a supermarket. It's not the worst stuff going, but it's definitely a couple months old by now, since I mostly only drink it on weekends. All that to say, any subtlety it may have had is more or less gone, which I suppose is particularly great for this application, as there is little other flavour to distract from any bitterness present.
3) while it doesn't make handling impossible, I WOULD recommend for one to grab a towel to handle the thermally conductive aluminium container with boiling-hot water in it.

On the whole, would I recommend it?

Honestly, if you hate bitterness in your moka pot coffee, it's at least worth a shot. That being said, it's not a night-and-day difference, but it's decently noticeable. I think I'll do it on days where I've got time to sit back and take my time with it. If I just need to gulp my coffee back, I'll just use cold water, it's not really worth the hassle.

Hmmm. Mine takes 7 min from room temp water. No bitterness.

So many variables, so little time.

 

[pie_man_25]

Hmmm. Mine takes 7 min from room temp water. No bitterness.

So many variables, so little time.

Maybe I'll have to use a stop watch, I'm just kinda ballparking it. It might take 7 minutes.

 

[Downunderwonder]

Maybe I'll have to use a stop watch, I'm just kinda ballparking it. It might take 7 minutes.

Next job is to carefully control the minute difference in amount of water in tank while timing it.

I watch for the meniscus on the bottom of the valve. If it only touches and hangs on when I give it a nudge it's just right. ''Too much'' drowns the edge of the valve and it sort of makes the level invisible.

The sound it makes at that level is a nice ring with a slight muffle on it. Too much and it's way muffled. Too little and it just rings but poorly. So I eye it in roughly with a woosh out of the tap then rap on it to get the sound. Then eye it in on the bench.

 

[slobake]

geeze, it's all good guys, it's starbucks, not a crime... or something like that.

Was on a road trip with friends. Stopped in a remote area to get some gas. Wanted some caffeine so I bought a cup of gas station coffee. Yup, it was nasty but I got a little caffeine. My companions responded like I had just run over their dog. Yeesh! It's coffee guys not a moral failure. You would have thought I was eating tuna noodle casserole or something.

 

[pie_man_25]

Was on a road trip with friends. Stopped in a remote area to get some gas. Wanted some caffeine so I bought a cup of gas station coffee. Yup, it was nasty but I got a little caffeine. My companions responded like I had just run over their dog. Yeesh! It's coffee guys not a moral failure. You would have thought I was eating tuna noodle casserole or something.

In fairness, they weren't REALLY giving me crap, it was all in good jest, tbh I kinda knew it and I didn't really know how to respond at that point.

Either way, it was just made known to me earlier in the thread that mj wanted to do competitive coffee at some point, and bulldog likes what he likes (and is entitled to). At any rate, a bit of good-natured ribbing never hurts anybody.

Now the REAL menace, is TNC.

 

[pie_man_25]

Well guys, after this weekend I'll have to pack my stuff up from my girlfriend's place and wait out to conduct the field portion of this course. Given that I'll be moving to Ontario for this course, I'll have to self-isolate on return from the course. Starting the week after next though, I'll probably be sucking back packets of instant coffee in the cold... or at least as cold as it's going to be in November .

I should be able to finish up my experiments on the differences between varying amounts of water in the boiling pot and post that hopefully on Sunday, but that'll probably be my last post on the subject for a while.

 

[Funky Ghost]

I need to post a few pictures from where one of my contracts are working I'll do that tomorrow . . . I need to visit them anyway. The smell is.... intoxicating.

 

[pie_man_25]

Whelp, my experiments have been on hold longer than expected, I'm sorry about that.

Long story short - I thought I'd be stuck in NB for the holidays due to policies about spending leave and quarantine, which ended up changing last minute. Had to move out of the barracks temporarily, too, so I'm technically homeless right now, and my entire life is in the back of my civic - it'll be a while before that gets sorted again. No complaints here, though, given that I'm home for the holidays, and there WILL be a room waiting for me on my return.


Anyways, the important thing, @MJ5150 , I got this coffee from my girlfriend's father from a roaster in NS, and it's got a VERY similar flavour to the stuff you gave me. I've been looking for something even remotely similar ever since, but with the two or three local roasters I've found, nothing came close and I was honestly about as well off getting whatever I could find at Costco. I'll probably have to buy some and ship it your way

 

[MJ5150]

Whelp, my experiments have been on hold longer than expected, I'm sorry about that.

Long story short - I thought I'd be stuck in NB for the holidays due to policies about spending leave and quarantine, which ended up changing last minute. Had to move out of the barracks temporarily, too, so I'm technically homeless right now, and my entire life is in the back of my civic - it'll be a while before that gets sorted again. No complaints here, though, given that I'm home for the holidays, and there WILL be a room waiting for me on my return.


Anyways, the important thing, @MJ5150 , I got this coffee from my girlfriend's father from a roaster in NS, and it's got a VERY similar flavour to the stuff you gave me. I've been looking for something even remotely similar ever since, but with the two or three local roasters I've found, nothing came close and I was honestly about as well off getting whatever I could find at Costco. I'll probably have to buy some and ship it your way

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That's awesome bud. It's truly a nice treat in life to find the right coffee for you.

-Mike