Coffee Thread

[machinebacon]

^ yeah nice, thanks. I use a ratio of 1:17 (coffee:water), 'cause I have read it somewhere. Means quite exactly one spoon on a smaller mug, actually I haven't found such a huge difference between "a tad more" and a "tad less". It's rather the ground that makes the difference, and the beans of course.
What I also do is adding the water twice. The first time to let the ground beans soak, the second time to flush those particles that swim on top. I have read of others who remove the swimming particles on top with a spoon before they press down.
How long is your steeping time? I am somewhere at 5 minutes.

^^ Try to get those with the more "complicated" design: http://www.shopens.net/uploads/5/1/6/4/ ... 2_orig.jpg
I had the pleasure to try "the other one" with simply just a net, seems the simple design is good for tea only.

French press can also be used to make whipped milk (it gets extremely fluffy), if you use cold milk it's literally like whipped cream, if you use hot milk it's like froth. Put in 100ml and jerk it 30 times.

Of course only if you like milk :D

Needless to say the coffee press can be used for tea, too :)

[wuxmedia]

^ oh yes, nice tip about the foam/froth!
A smaller one person press seems to work a bit better than the big (6 cups) one - unless you want a lot of foam :)
My Step mum has some sort of injection thing for making coffee, like a french press but looks, and it is really, a giant hypodermic needle in plastic, and less pointy.
haven't found the right search terms to explain in a link :)

[machinebacon]

^ oh right, mine is a 2 cup sized press, you are right.

Is the injection something like http://www.thegreenhead.com/2016/05/aoz ... -maker.php ?

[wuxmedia]

^ Yeah hard to froth in a 6/8 cupper :)
that press is the same sort of principle I think. I'll snap a shot of it next time I'm there.

[machinebacon]

^ jerk that cold milk longer than 2 minutes and it turns to butter. no kidding :D

[pidsley]

^^^ or maybe an aeropress?

I usually drink tea, but when I make coffee I use a french press and a little Krubs grinder (too lazy to roast the beans myself.)

My ex-wife drank a lot of coffee, and we used a cold-brew system. The resulting coffee was tasty and quite a bit less bitter than french pressed.

[wuxmedia]

^ that's the one pids, aeropress it is!
Hmm invented by the guy from M*A*S*H, weird. (joke)
Cool, thanks, saved me a trip to the step-mothers, she has a manual bean grinder though :)

Interesting cold brew article, "can be done with tea". have to try that, did you have a machine or just put the ground in water - then a paper filter in a sieve over another pot?

[machinebacon]

^ aaah aeropress, sure :D
^ if you try it with tea, you can even use quite low-quality loose one, just give it enough time (minimum 12 hours) in the fridge. I usually use room temp water first, then put it in the fridge. tastes like tea without tannins.

^^ that's a nice idea, I only tried the same with tea (over night in the fridge). Thanks for that, I might really try it tonight.

[pidsley]

^^ Putting the grounds in water overnight and straining through a paper filter should work; I had one of these. You put 12-16 ounces of coffee and 2 quarts of water in the top part and put in the regrigerator overnight. It has a sponge filter in the bottom and a cork to keep the water in. Then you put it over the glass carafe and take out the cork, and the coffee strains through the sponge into the carafe. The sponge is reusable. It makes a concentrated coffee that you then dilute with water to taste and heat.

I have cold-brewed iced tea by just putting tea in cold water in a jar overnight in the refrigerator, then straining the tea into another jar. It works.

[ivanovnegro]

French press can also be used to make whipped milk (it gets extremely fluffy), if you use cold milk it's literally like whipped cream, if you use hot milk it's like froth. Put in 100ml and jerk it 30 times.

Did not know this. Thanks.

[wuxmedia]

that bit about re-heating coffee reminded me of the French neighbours, they make a jug of drip coffee up. then just leave it, for some unspecified amount of time, then re-heat it when you come round.
But heated in a saucepan, which is probably quicker than the jug thing.
Quite nice having some coffee always ready to go, cold filtered or not.

just going to leave this here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Coffee

[machinebacon]

^ oh we had camp coffee in the Eastern Bloc when Vietnam hadn't joined Comecon back before 1978. The GDR Ministry of Food used chicory, crushed peas, shells of nuts to simulate coffee and to relax the situation in the country - many people were very upset that there was no coffee available - and the GDR was not in the political or financial position to trade with countries that would had sold them coffee.

Later in 1978 the Vietnamese got a bunch of coffee plants from the GDR if I remember correctly (of course these came from Ethiopia in exchange of heavy machinery :you know what I mean:), and the plan was to supply the Comecon countries, firstly the GDR, with Robusta beans from there.
Vietnam is now one of the largest coffee producers in Asia, and virtually every shop in China has their robusta instant coffee mixes in the shelves. Still it's one of the worst things you can put in your cup.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_substitute
http://www.the-berlin-wall.com/videos/e ... risis-651/
http://www.academia.edu/8509455/Brewing ... _1949-1989_

[wuxmedia]

History and coffee. what an amazing place here :)
guy called Gábor has joined the ranks, can you guess his nationality?

[machinebacon]

Gábor always sounds Hungarian to me ;)

There is also a minority called Gabor gypsies (trademark: the hat) in Romania: http://romafacts.uni-graz.at/index.php/ ... a--romania

[wuxmedia]

^ yesh he's Hungarian, dunno why I told you that, doesn't have a hat. :)
maybe I'm looking for a not too racist joke to tell him.
(recalling all your "Why/how does A hungarian.....because...." jokes

[machinebacon]

^ this should help: http://www.goldtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25497
and http://welovebudapest.com/budapest.and. ... .hungarian

[wuxmedia]

^ haha, not sure i can just drop one of those in a jabber chat session

[machinebacon]

okay so I just ordered green coffee beans; 500g Brazilian Santos (17-18, NY2/3), 500g Colombian Huila (17-18, Supremo), 200g Ugandan Bugishu (17-18, AA) and 200g Ethiopian Yirgacheffe (15-17, G4). Will first try the Wulong method of roasting them in a wok (small qty) and check the outcome. These 1.4kg cost around 14 USD, so it's not *that* much if I fuck it up.

[machinebacon]

This worked perfectly. I used an induction stove and a wok first (later switched to a pan). It needs around 10 minutes (depending on how dark you want it) at around 160-200 degrees (depending on the bean). I used as many beans as to cover the bottom of the pan, quite exactly 100gr. During the roasting process you lose around 5% of the total bean weight.
You have to keep the beans in motion throughout the roast process. After the first crack you have to be very attentive and adjust the swirling speed, and temperature. The beans need a few minutes to cool down, so take this also into consideration when you want to reach a certain roast level.
Seems that the Brazilian and Columbian beans like high temperatures more than the African smaller ones. The very first try was the Brazilian Santos which I rendered quite "french" ;) According to the intehnetz this is still acceptable, a so-called "espresso roast". Fine with me.

After degassing I tested the South American beans - chocolatey, sweet, fragrant, rich, mellow. I'll continue RYO, it's definitely worth it :)

[wuxmedia]

Very cool, real roast your own :)
I bet the place smells nice afterwards.
Missed this reply somehow last week.