Coffee

Over the past few years I've gotten a small handheld blade grinder, an Aeropress, a French Press, and started roasting my own beans.

Need to talk about coffee stuff today guys. Gotta keep my mind off the news as much as I can.

I’ve been pretty happy with my home setup for a while. I have progressed from the Sage Barista Express to the Sage Oracle and never had any issues at all. I recently bought a hand grinder for when I have a speciality blend or am on the road and so purchased a KinGrinder K6. I have found that it is actually a lot better than the grinder built into the Sage.

I'm currently looking to replace my gaggia classic. I don't want to upgrade. I want to replace it, so I just went to eBay thinking I could take my pick of hundreds of machines, but I was surprised to find none at all.

I had never really thought about using an immersion brewer as a pure pour-over device but just had a mind blowing honey process Ethiopian, and I noticed barista was brewing it in a Hario switch with the switch open the whole time. Tasted as good as a v60 brew to me. I've been wanting to try immersion brewing for a while. I get the sense this forum and many others lean more strongly towards the clever dripper. I imagine that device could also be kept open and used as a pour-over. Do you think an open Hario switch basically IS a v60? That sounds like the ultimate multi-Tasker to me. Am I missing something here? Any thoughts on the perceived lean toward clever? I've ruled out the plastic version and would be looking at glass clever vs switch.

I mostly do drip coffee (shh, I'm basic), but I'd like a more consistent, fresh brew, and potentially something that could do an espresso grind, as well.

.

Anybody else in Denver tune their water for brewing? Denver city water is insanely hard. I'm using a simple two-phase under-sink filter since I live in an apartment, but it doesn't touch the hardness problem. I've also read the city has drastically changed the pH to reduce lead leaching from old pipes.

In our house, we generally go for variety in our coffee beans. That means when we are finishing one bag, we're going to open a different bag with totally different beans inside.

I’ve been using James Hoffman’s recipe since I bought AeroPress, and I was pretty satisfied. While being simple, it produced rich, balanced cups of coffee for both light and medium roasts. I was happy with it. But then I started noticing that some light-roasted coffee was too bitter. It rarely happened, but when it did, it wasn’t possible to get rid of that excessive bitterness. When I tried to increase the grind size, I got watery, but still too bitter coffee. At first, I thought there was something wrong with the coffee beans, but then I thought, maybe immersion brewing was just not suitable for them. So, I decided to find another recipe.

The civet processed beans? I’m wondering if it’s all hype? Or worth buying a bag to try?

My wife and I go through about 4lbs a month using mainly Chemex and Areopress. Used to get (decent) crummy coffee at Aldi and Grocery Outlet, occasionally splurging for local roasts at the coffee shops. Still, I calculate that’s about $35 or so a month on beans, Chemex filters should probably be calculated with how pricey they can be - napkin maths say $11 roughly for a months supply.

I've just reached the point where'd id say I have full control of the process (just bought a grinder, kettle has temp, I've got an accurate scale)

Am currently sick with a bad throat. While enjoying my cup of coffee, I had the thought; "Should I avoid coffee if I have a bad throat?". So, are there any studies or general consensus on this?

I'd like to experiment with a drip assist tool. Currently looking at Melodrip vs Hario v60 drip assist. The Hario is much cheaper, and I like the idea of not having to tie up both hands. Of note, I have been using less of my Chemex and more of the Orea big boy for multicup brews. It looks close, but I think the Hario drip assist might fit on big boy without falling in. Do you all think that these drip assists will have a bigger or smaller impact on these bigger multicup brews? Is channeling a real concern with the Hario and a bigger brew bed? What if I just rotate it between pours? How much are you adjusting grind size for these?

What's your opinion about adding chicory to coffee? I know there's a few places, like Café du Monde in New Orleans that offers coffee with chicory. It's also sold as a mix in grocery stores in France.

Hi all,

Some time ago I commented that one of my favorite ways to brew coffee is on a moka pot which I then aeropress to clean out the particulates. Many responded that they just put an aeropress filter on the moka pot for the same results. So, I tried it. The resulting brew is VERY different and, to me, not good at all.

Facepalm

Personally, I like:

Anybody brew at work? If so, what's your setup/process? I'm fortunate enough to have free access to a shared automatic espresso machine (beans not pods) so the drive to do this is not super strong. I wrote about my experience with the pipamoka device for travel, and I'm thinking it might make for a pretty simple at work option rather than sitting in my cabinet when I'm not on the road. Often the mediocre espresso has me longing for something better even if it means using my own stash.

For the longest time I've wondered why my coffee tends to run either bitter or too watery. I even bought a fancy 64mm flat burr grinder, and noticed the problem became even more pronounced.

Morning Gentlepeople.

I love coffee, but have a surplus of tea bags that I want to experiment with. Does anyone have suggestions for how to get started with tea? Or a simple recipe to use as a baseline? I'm only working with tea bags at this time, which appear to be 2g. I would also love to know how much agitation you are supposed to do with the tea bag itself.

I make aeropress at home, been my go-to for years. My taste in beans never really left the 90s though I do enjoy a fruity brew once in a while.

Pour over guy here but I enjoy just a touch of oils in my extractions so I've settled on coffee sock use. Never liked the French Press side of things, but I've just learned about FP with paper filters, the Espro paper filter and more interestingly the Caffi bag filter. I'd like to experiment with this. The Caffi filter especially is appealing as the cleanup looks super easy (big change compared to my coffee sock ritual) and I like the idea of cleaning up the murky FP taste with some decent filtering. I'm considering trying an Espro device so I would have the option to try their paper filter too, but that's less interesting since you still have to clean grounds out of your FP bucket. The Espro devices are pricey though. I'm curious if anyone thinks the finer mesh buckets on the Espro would contribute any cleanup benefit at all if using a paper filter like the Caffi bag? I would assume the much finer filter mechanism of the paper would just trump any plunger filter mechanism. Ok, my next question is what's going on with insulated FP brewers? Stanley, Yeti, even Espro (they even make a travel mug FP that you just leave the grounds in!!) and many others make these. I don't mean to be rude, but are FP drinkers just barbarians that think there is no such thing as over-extraction? How in the world can you just leave coffee grounds sitting in contact with your brew for hours as these insulated FP brewers claim? Don't you need to decant as soon as the brew is complete?

Hello out there, fellow caffeinated Lemmings!

With global warming (and other factors) affecting coffee production and prices, I’ve noticed a couple of interesting patterns in marketing strategies for household and white label brands.

I know high end grinders are probably worth it for espresso, but for pour-over coffee does it make that much difference? I use a Capresso Infinity at either fine coarse or medium coarse and that's about it. Visibly the grind size does look a bit variable to me. Since I'm already in conical bur territory here, are higher end grinders really going to make a noticeable difference in my pour-over brews? If you feel strongly the answer is yes, I'm also curious what you would recommend (but please don't bother naming anything over $500usd unless you provide a link to a used version that is in that range).

... but it's my most successful attempt at latte art so far. I also know the foam could be better, but I'm really chuffed about the progress I'm making and wanted to share it!

I'm doing a blend of Kona from a local store and whole food Kenya. It's a 70/30 of Kenya to Kona and taste great. The Kona alone I got taste and looks like really dark soil after a brew, so I picked a lite roast to see how it would go and I'm happy.

I am worried that I drink too much at once. I don't drink coffee daily but typically when I do drink coffee I will have 4-6 shots of espresso. I am not asking if this is healthy per se, I'm more searching for confirmation that it isn't too uncommon lol.

I don't mean this to be an advertisement, but I have tried a few metal coffee filters, and have not been able to find one that works as well as one from a company called Ovalware. Its the only one I could find that lists a micron size for the inner mesh (40 μm). I've found that this draw down time is faster than a paper filter, it is still slower than other mesh filters. And while it doesn't quite eliminate fines, it does a great job keeping most of them out of my coffee compared to other mesh filters. I've also not had any trouble with the filter coming apart at the seams, or getting coffee grounds stuck between the inner and outer layers.

It's like an epidemic. I've tried like 4-5 cafes now and it's all like drinking battery acid. Do they just not care? Or do you think they believe it's meant to be like this? If that's the case I feel bad for them.

How are you grinding, if applicable?

I'm currently brewing in an Aeropress, and considering one of the lower end espresso machines.

On a whim, I tried searching YouTube instead of search engines and found a short video which led me to this shop in Etsy. It looks quite promising, so I'm going to update the title as "solved."

Somewhat bewildered by the millions of Aeropress recipes on youtube, I'm wondering if daily users end up settling into a reliable, simple process that's similar from person to person.

Thinking of getting a fully automatic espresso maker. Seems like machines with 2 hoppers are double the price.

The additive haters won me over. I tried a long black today, and I'll give it another week or so and see how I go!

When I make cold brew, I just use room temperature water.

Coffee fedi, help me out!

I have been experimenting with brewing medium roasts in my french press.

If you search YouTube for V60 brewing videos and guides you'll find about three billion different ones. Some with agitation, some without; pouring fast, in the middle, making circles; 40-60 or 30-70 or whatnot.

Hej Hej,

I've been a closeted coffee guy for a couple years. I go out of my way to order beans I really like (a robusta variety called Indian Parchment), and this might be sacrilege on this board, idk, but I was perfectly happy running a Keurig with reusable cups I'd fill with my own grounds.

For those who aren't familiar with it, Magic is style of coffee that was born in Melbourne Australia somewhere in the last 10 years. It's a double ristretto with equal part latte frothed milk, served in a 5oz cup.