Your friend Jim George thinks you'd be a great addition to Ricochet, so we'd like to offer you a special deal: You can become a member for no initial charge for one month!
Ricochet is a community of like-minded people who enjoy writing about and discussing politics (usually of the center-right nature), culture, sports, history, and just about every other topic under the sun in a fully moderated environment. We’re so sure you’ll like Ricochet, we’ll let you join and get your first month for free. Kick the tires: read the always eclectic member feed, write some posts, join discussions, participate in a live chat or two, and listen to a few of our over 50 (free) podcasts on every conceivable topic, hosted by some of the biggest names on the right, for 30 days on us. We’re confident you’re gonna love it.
The old adage says, “write what you know.” As you can see from my profile picture, I know coffee. As a little kid, my Finnish uncle would roust me before dawn to go fishing, then serve us the morning’s catch with heavily sweetened java. I started guzzling the stuff in earnest as a 13-year-old paper boy. Over time, I used less cream and sugar, so by the middle of high school I was slamming down black coffees before trig class. (I was also very ADD, so I apologize to my mom and teachers for being such an annoying spaz.)
Beans
Grinding
Brewer
It’s Time to Brew Some Coffee
Excellent advice. I have been using a drip through paper filter with fresh ground beans for over 40 years. Every time I have guests, they always compliment the coffee. I have an instant hot device at my sink that has filtration built into it. It does improve the water, which in Kansas City, is excellent right out of the tap anyway. By the time I heat my already hot water to boil in a tea pot, I have just finished grinding my beans. I can make a full thermos of delicious coffee in five minutes. I believe the paper filter is key to removing acid bitterness.
This:
and this:
I’m intrigued by the water temperature variable. I just bought an electric kettle for Brit wife’s tea and may just pour its water through the top of my electric coffee maker (over the grinds) to see if it tastes better)
After I complete an 11-mile run, drink a lot of water, and weep to myself where I hope no chicks can see me, I like a mocha. I grab it from Starbucks. I wait in line with obvious loads who look at my salt-caked visage with a certain animalistic loathing, and the furtive glances to my running shirt that’s from a half-marathon I ran 5 years ago indicate that I Am The Other.
What were you talking about again, Jon? Oh, that’s right. Not me.
The methodology (fresh grind, drip through a filter) is pretty standard. What really matters are the beans, the actual ingredients. It’s just beans and water. Bean juice, really. If you say that fast 3 times Michael Keaton appears and improvises “Birdman” for 3 hours in your living room. You’ve been warned.
So: If you really want good coffee, or the “best”, seek out a roast you like. Get recommendations from friends. Go to a farmer’s market – I’ve found some small shops selling their own home-roasted coffee that way. Travel to Costa Rica and bring back as much as you can without alerting the cartels of your presence.
But you do need to sample. I used to work at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. They take the flavors and aroma to an extreme, in terms of evaluations, because they have to, but I learned quite a bit. Mostly, though, it all starts and ends with the bean, and the roasting.
As a dedicated caffiend, I appreciate your thorough overview. At times, I have gone so far as to buy green beans, roast them myself in small batches, grind them with a very good burr grinder and make filter coffee. Tired of all the rigamarole, I now make it simpler and make only two kinds of coffee.
My wife likes Dunkin Donuts coffee, so I make that each morning in a French press. It is not great coffee, but, as we let it sit for a long time before pressing, it has lots of caffeine. My usual dose is two six-ounce cups with half a teaspoonful of turbinado sugar and some half and half. After that mission is accomplished – i.e. wakefulness – I am ready to actually taste the next cup.
That one is the best cup I have been able to come up with in North America: Nespresso. There are numerous blends using the finest coffees. All I do is use reverse-osmosis water. The pods cost about 75 cents each. I often cheat and make larger volumes than Nespresso calls for. For instance, they say an espresso should be 30 cc. I will use that capsule to make a 110cc cup which tastes fine.
The machines can be had for under $100 for the simplest. You can spend more, but it is optional, as far as I am concerned.
My young-ish colleague, JM, was introduced to coffee around the age of 10 or 12 by his Polish grandfather. J roasts his own beans and thinks percolating is the best way to brew!
J also told me that darker roasts have less caffeine.
How did you survive Navy coffee, Jon?
A college friend, of Italian heritage, married a roaster (his shop being on Comm Ave in Vancouver). She told me that you can tell how bad coffee is by how much sugar it needs (Starbucks, anyone?).
“If this is coffee, please bring me tea. If this is tea, please bring me coffee.” —Abraham Lincoln
We use a French press and a burr grinder. The coffee is pretty good. While the water heats on the stove top, I feed the dogs. By the time they are fed, the water is hot. After putting the coffee and the water in the press, let it sit for 5 minutes, push the plunger, and drink coffee.
I go toMcDonald’s get a senior coffee 50 cents plus tax. Have it in 30 seconds. Never even been carded, dammit .
I made fun of all the San Francisco hipsters who ordered cups of drip Blue Bottle coffee that take like 20 minutes to make. And then I had one and I could ridicule them no longer. Certain things in life just live up to the hype.
But I still want someone to shoot me if I ever start listening to music on vinyl because it’s “warmer.”
Well, it is!
Interesting stuff Jon. I didn’t know the difference between a blade and burr grinder. I always use a french press – why do you prefer the drip method?
The best cup of coffee I have ever had was in Bali at a coffee shop in a botanical garden. It was kopi luwak and only set me back 50 cents – it was incredible.
Right up there though was the coffee at Losari Plantation in Central Java. My wife and two youngest took a trip there in October of 2010 when we were living in Jakarta. It was one of the most fabulous resorts I have ever been to – a stunningly beautiful place. This is a view walking in the main gate looking out across the lawn:
It was a working Dutch coffee plantation turned into a resort. One day we took a tour of what was left of the plantation:
The roaster and beans:
Relaxing over a cup:
The two dishes in the middle of the table are freshly roasted beans and shaved gula merah (red sugar – coconut palm sugar). It was the signature snack there. One mixed a shave piece of sugar with 2 or 3 beans and popped them into your mouth – tasted like some of the best chocolate you have ever had!
After a few years of buying expensive drip coffeemakers with what turns out to be a lifespan of 2 to 3 years, in exasperation I bought the cheapest Mr. Coffee I could find last summer. Within a week of bringing it home, both Mr. B. and I lost our appetites, and felt sort of like we had a stomach bug. After two weeks Mr. B. accused the cheap Chinese coffeemaker of poisoning us and we stopped using it. We recovered right away — it WAS the coffeemaker!
The solution is a ceramic version of the Hario shown, which we pour over a glass carafe from one of the deceased coffeemakers.
I like to set the timer on a coffeemaker so that there is a fresh cup of coffee waiting the minute I stumble out of bed and into the kitchen, so actually making coffee in the morning is still an adjustment. However, it is preferable to being poisoned.
Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is a Breville Smart Grinder Pro!
I love Dunkin Donuts coffee. When I don’t have time to run to my third-wave hipster roastery, I’ll pick up a bag at the Safeway next to my house. Again, it doesn’t need to be cloying and expensive to be good.
Navy coffee is the most appalling thing on earth other than genocide or Nickelback CDs. And it’s true that the darker roasts have less caffeine. Espresso has even less than that.
As far as Starbucks, their financial model is based on selling whipped cream and flavorings, not coffee.
Great advice, in particular re: grinding. Just a couple of quibbles: Robusta can be interesting, especially if roasted where it’s grown. The Brazilians do it well. It also has more of a caffeine kick.
I also believe 205 degrees is a bit too hot, especially if you’re stuck with marginal beans. I’d go with 190 or so.
My French Press was the first good brewer I ever owned. A solid choice.
As with Dunkin Donuts, McD’s makes a solid cup of basic joe. Both are far better than Starbucks.
I’m halfway there I guess. We’ve been using the funnel and filter method for years, but I don’t grind my own beans. I did at one time but I got lazy. I will try the trick of pre-wetting the filter.
Gorgeous photos, Scott. I enjoy French Press coffee, but the coarser grind necessary doesn’t allow the water to extract all the flavors. Also, it leaves a bit too much of the oils in the cup, as well as the few stray grounds. It’s not at all a bad option, just not my favorite option.
Most list the optimal temp as between 195 and 205. Intelligentsia, my favorite coffeehouse, recommends 208, if memory serves. But as long as you’re in that ballpark, you should be fine.
The big problem comes when the Mr. Coffee dumps out lukewarm water at a temperature far below that range.
For a little variety get an Aeropress to go along with the Chemex or French Press.
it makes an outstanding shot of Espresso for $14 and is portable.
I buy green beans, and roast them myself. I like dark roast and it’s smokey taste, maybe because I was a fire fighter. But there’s a local coffee house that eschews dark roast, and I’m trying to find out how they get their exquisite, fruity flavors. Blade grinder because that’s what I have. Then a cone. I use half Sumatran and half Ethiopian beans. Exquisite. Softened tap water works fine here as long as the kettle is clean. Sometimes a French press, which I think is also really good.
It’s true that the darker the roast, the lower the caffeine. Doesn’t seem to make any difference for me.
For the life of me, I don’t see what people like about Dunkin’ Donuts “coffee.”
I have it on good authority that the java at Twentynine Palms doubles as hydraulic fluid in certain armored vehicles.
Thanks, @jon, I love coffee so much I give it up every Lent and I always enjoy different takes on how to brew coffee. Having tried various varieties, our 12 cup Cuisinart remains our standard for 20-some years now (granted, three appliances, but same maker)
Oh, and great pictures, @scottwilmot.
I’m not nearly as “high-tech” of a coffee brewer as many fellow Rococheti are, but…
The one purchase that upped the quality of my daily pot of coffee significantly has been a thermal carafe, which sits underneath a “standard” drop machine. The carafe keeps the coffee hot for a good while without any burner heat added.
So, if you’re not up to going all hipster (or if time doesn’t allow for it), get a thermal carafe drip coffee maker.
I am a coffee gourmand. I actually like Starbucks Lattes, even though the beans are way overdone. Their regular coffee is too dark and bitter. McDonalds coffee is drinkable, but not good. Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, freshly ground, is pretty good and makes a nice espresso. As sold in the donut shop, perhaps the first cup of a fresh pot is good, but otherwise, it is only a slight improvement over MickyDs. French roast remains a terrible idea. I tend to like Colombian beans, medium dark. It’s the most aromatic of beans. The best cup of Joe I’ve ever had was a latte from a little coffee shop two blocks from the beach in La Jolla. I will go back. Soon. My old blade grinder smells of ozone and needs to be replaced. I have a small two cup fast drip maker that does a decent job each morning. My wife and I also have a fancy, pump style espresso machine. It does a good job. I microwave my milk for my lattes. It’s faster than steaming and doesn’t dilute the milk. Whole milk is best but my wife buys 2%, which is OK.
I prefer to roast my own green beans. I know where and what plantation the beans came from. I find the best coffee can only come from good beans, well roasted. The rest is just support work.
May I again suggest a (virtual) visit to Sweet Maria’s of Oakland?
https://www.sweetmarias.com/
Jon,
Between steps #6 and #7 do you maintain the 205-degree water temperature in the Bodum, or do you allow the water to cool slightly during that 60-second interval?
I ask this because I have never used an electric water heater for coffee and wonder if I should place my kettle back on the burner and keep it at full boil after soaking the grounds or let it sit off the flame.
In that service it only needs to be incompressible, not indigestible.
I whole-heartedly endorse the burr grinder recommendation. Other grinders really aren’t grinder because they’re not actually doing what they’re supposed to do. You will not want to go back once you’ve crossed that bridge. My current grinder was $40 from Target and works well for me.
One question on my mind lately is the difference between paper filters and metal ones. Which do you prefer and why? I started out with paper and so I’m partial to it. I find the other kind is a maintenance hassle and doesn’t do much for the taste.