Coders guide to good coffee
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Coders guide to good coffee
1–10 of 98 posts
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#2One more item: in a work environment, it's really useful to have single cups of coffee on demand. A pot is usually too much, and is only really good for a short time (even in a thermal carafe). So my office sprung for a super-automatic espresso maker. We got this one - http://www.amazon.com/Jura-Capresso-13185-Impressa-Espresso-... - but there are a few dozen models that are similar.
It makes really good espresso (freshly ground, brewed at the right temperature, etc.), and you can dial in your desired strength by tweaking the amount of water. An espresso with a few ounces of hot water makes for great coffee. Not cheap up front, but with 5-10 people using it for a few years, it isn't that expensive either.
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#3This is all spot on. The art of making the perfect cup of tea is fairly analogous: buy fresh, loose leaf tea, pour the right temperature water over the right amount of tea for the right of time, and then enjoy some great tea.
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#4I'm not sure there is a great deal of new insight in this article for anyone who isn't already a coffee geek but it's worth a read.
For me, what is more interesting is that this is an article from 2002! (yeah, check out the latest discussions over on alt.coffee!)
I wonder how these things resurface?
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#5I like nice things, I really do, but what I've found is that sometimes being a connoisseur kills your ability to enjoy simple things.
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#6> [Originally I posted this article on Thu Apr 25th, 2002 at 02:29:34 PM EST to Kuro5hin.org. I am reprinting it here with minor corrections.]
wow, kuro5hin.org, that brings back memories... and it is still kickin' (barely)
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#7One more item: in a work environment, it's really useful to have single cups of coffee on demand. A pot is usually too much, and is only really good for a short time (even in a thermal carafe). So my office sprung for a super-automatic espresso maker. We got this one - http://www.amazon.com/Jura-Capresso-13185-Impressa-Espresso-... - but there are a few dozen models that are similar. It makes really good espresso (fr…
That's a great model. I own a Krups XP9000 (similar to the Jura) which went out of production about 9 months ago but you still see them being sold off at places like Bed Bath and Beyond and even Amazon.
It's a great machine that originally retailed $2000 but you can pick it up for ~$500
I flip back and forth on the idea of having an espresso machine at work. Jason Calac-anus raves about how great it is your employees don't have to leave the office and can be more productive but I actually find getting out of the office to stretch my legs, give my eyes a break, etc is all beneficial to my productivity.
I'm also lucky here in downtown SF to be close to a number of Blue Bottle outlets and other fine local coffee establishments. It does add up though, I probably spend $50+ a week on coffee from cafes.
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#8I like nice things, I really do, but what I've found is that sometimes being a connoisseur kills your ability to enjoy simple things.
Perhaps I misunderstand the meaning of "connoisseur", but I don't see anything connoisseur about the article. It talks about really simple things: just get a good, fresh coffee and don't rely too much on expensive technology: a simple press will do.
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#9I like nice things, I really do, but what I've found is that sometimes being a connoisseur kills your ability to enjoy simple things.
I don't want to be able to enjoy the bitter caffeine-infused black water that passes for coffee so many places. And sometimes I've found that being a connoisseur brings the ability to enjoy many other simple things: that a glass of really good wine can last for an hour, or that when I've had a good strong cup of fresh ground, fresh roasted coffee in the morning, I don't feel the urge to drink coffee for the rest of the day, rather than pouring down 6-8 cups a day of the above-mentioned junk, as I used to.
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#10Articles like this make me wonder how much of this is simple religious ritual. I personally can't tell the difference between fresh ground and store ground coffee.
I feel like these best practices are not subjected to KISS type debugging after they are invented. If a blind taste test doesn't reveal a difference, is the step needed? Instead they become the voodoo of the connoisseur. Regardless of the possibility that, for example, "Put a kettle of freshly drawn, cold water on the stove" works equally well (and faster) with warm or hot water. I can't tell from store ground from home ground, so I just buy ground to save time.