The best Seattle roast, IMHO, is Vita from Vivace. I just grabbed a bag and it is in the french press now. Absolutely amazing:
Coders guide to good coffee
61–70 of 98 posts
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#62I like nice things, I really do, but what I've found is that sometimes being a connoisseur kills your ability to enjoy simple things.
Really? I don't find that at all. I find that being a connoisseur can improve your ability to enjoy simple things, you just may need to work a bit harder to find those things that you enjoy.
I enjoy a good cup of coffee. And while many people drink horribly complicated flavored venti mocha crap that's massively overpriced and has more calories than a Big Mac, I can enjoy a simple cup of black french-press coffee made with good fresh beans. Now, it's true that I can't find that on every street corner like I can a Starbucks, but once I've found a good place for a cup of coffee, I get a lot more enjoyment out of just the bean itself rather than all the milk, flavorings, and sweeteners they add to it.
It took a little while for me to develop a taste for good coffee, but now that I have it, I can get something I enjoy quite a bit cheaply and simply.
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#63This 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.
> This is all spot on The beans really do not need to be roasted in the last few days. Roasted beans stay fresh for at least a month if stored properly.
I don't think so. Month-old beans are certainly better than beans older than that, so it's something, but I can certainly taste coffee being noticeably worse after about 10 days from the roast date.
I'm not a huge expert, but my impression is that coffee gets stale mainly by exhaling CO2, not by oxidation (although it may oxidize as well), and so you can seal them as well as you want and they'll still go bad after 10-14 days, although not as fast as if you leave them out.
I believe this is why when you pour hot water over freshly-ground, recently-roasted coffee, you see foam come to the top (especially visible in espresso, which they call crema). CO2 emissions.
I don't personally believe in roasting beans myself, since I think real-people roasters are more consistent and accurate than I could ever be, and also I don't think it helps very much to go from 2-8-day-old beans to 5-minute-old beans.
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#64As an alternative, try cold-brewed (aka 'Toddy') coffee. Cold-brewing circumvents the freshness problem by brewing large batches of concentrate that can be stored in the fridge. Then simply mix the concentrate with boiling water for standard coffee, or with cold water to make true iced coffee. The results are notably less bitter than conventional coffee. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toddy_coffee
I don't know about circumventing the freshness problem, but I do know that if you introduce chicory to the brewing process and then add milk, it becomes fantastic. See iced coffee here:
http://www.bluebottlecoffee.net/coffee/preparation-guide/
That's also probably the best guide on the internet for coffee preparation, and one of the better places in the world to buy coffee in any form.
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#65Stop drinking bad coffee. http://thetyee.ca/Life/2009/02/20/BadCoffee/
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't totally solve the problem, but one approach I sometimes try is to only move up the quality ladder (insofar as there actually is a linear quality scale, which is itself a bit of a simplification) when I can consistently tell the difference. It seems many people jump straight to the best they can afford, while I find it more enjoyable to slowly work my way up, so e.g. there's no point in jumping straight to…
Except that sometimes differences only exist on a slightly more expensive scale. If you can't tell the difference between 6$ Cab and 6$ Merlot, it is likely because at this price range there is very little difference. Better wines are better at expressing the differences between the grapes. Cheap wines are all fruity and alcoholic.
This is the argument that Monster Cable* uses.
* Monster Cable, please don't sue me.
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This is all spot on The beans really do not need to be roasted in the last few days. Roasted beans stay fresh for at least a month if stored properly.
I don't think so. Month-old beans are certainly better than beans older than that, so it's something, but I can certainly taste coffee being noticeably worse after about 10 days from the roast date. I'm not a huge expert, but my impression is that coffee gets stale mainly by exhaling CO2, not by oxidation (although it may oxidize as well), and so you can seal them as well as you want and they'll still go bad after 10…
I'm an expert because I live next to a place that roasts daily. It tastes the same when the beans were roasted a few weeks ago, I assure you.
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#68This 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.
Do you know why the Chinese always seem to drink tea from these massive glass jars?
Mostly for convenience I think. There's also the working-class/unpretentious image, and many people dig that. You will find many Chinese government officials drinking from glass jars in public appearances. They probably have expensive red clay tea sets at home though.
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#69I swear by the Aeropress: http://www.aerobie.com/Products/aeropress_story.htm I brew it a little differently than the instructions -- I use 2 scoops of coarse espresso, fill the canister, let it drip halfway out (about 2 mins) then top it off, wait another 30 secs, then use the plunger. Makes a perfect 12oz cup of coffee, every time. I also have a hand-pull Gaggia espresso machine from Italy. So it's not like I'm com…
The Aeropress is fantastic: it's cheap, easy to use and clean, and portable. It makes fantastic coffee. I'm not an espresso expert, but I think you would have to spend hundreds more to get an espresso machine which can make as good Americano coffee.
Spend a few bucks on a burr grinder, however. I bought a Saeco Titan from Costco some time ago for $70 and have been very happy with it.
Re: Coders guide to good coffee
#70Coders guide to good coffee?
Nah, Russian Tea HOWTO: