Got tired of buying coffee makers that always burned out. A drip cone is the easiest to clean, never breaks.
Handbrewing Coffee
11–20 of 217 posts
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#12OP misses a CRITICAL intermediate step in the handbrewing process:
SMELLING the freshly ground coffee beans before brewing.
Shameful.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#13Funny that my entire life that's been the only way I would drink coffee. My parents would make it that way and I was doing it that way when I started drinking coffee. I guess that the fact that electric coffee makers were not popular nor cheap at the time contributed to this habit.
Besides, you can tell me what you want but I think the coffee from an electric coffee maker tastes worse than hand brewing. Perhaps I've only used cheap coffee makers, but I'm yet to find one that can make a drinkable coffee. Exceptions are espresso makers;the ones I tried made really good coffee (including the one I currently have at home).
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#14Let's not make this some sort of big deal. It's not. "Handbrewing" coffee makes this sound like a studied method--I guess it is--but there is little to think about once you know how. It's no different than using any electric coffee maker. Just slightly more manual in that you need to boil the water in something and buy whole beans and grind them in a grinder. Most of that time is just wait time, not thinking or doing…
But that's not really what the post is about. It's about having an excuse to free your brain for 4 minutes. The fact that it's not a big deal to brew it is precisely the point. It's automatic, so your brain can wander.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#15OP misses a CRITICAL intermediate step in the handbrewing process: SMELLING the freshly ground coffee beans before brewing. Shameful.
I really enjoy the whole ritual. Heat up the water, grind the beans, SMELL them, pour the water over. It's honestly just a nice little habit that I find think is a calm way to start my mornings. Even if it takes a little more time, the routine of it is great for me.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
It sounds like you lost a neutral or even positive while gaining a negative here: lost is the ability to drink a common beverage without feeling bad about being uncultured, gained is a dependency on commercial brands - Aeropress and Chemex - and related niche products - in this case African coffee - as well as a related ritual - 'hand-brewing coffee'. In both cases you satisfied your thirst for caffeine, the differen…
Hey that describes pretty much any food preference? We should all learn to live with terrible cooking too? On that note, I had two total lunch fails last week. Food delivered to the table, that I couldn't eat. Is it the phase of the moon? The political climate? The cold weather?
It's possible, I think, to appreciate and enjoy (and spend time on) good cooking - or coffee - without the kind of (IMO unhealthy) dependency suggested by "I can not imagine my day without aeropress or chemex".
Perhaps that was just hyperbole by Griceraae50100. I hope so.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#17French press for me. I buy my beans weekly from a local roaster and grind them at purchase.
I think I get mot of the upside of 100% fresh ground and pour-over with a bit less work. And I start cooking breakfast while the water boils, so no time lost.
At work, it's generic machine coffee. It doesn't taste great, but it keeps me going.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hey that describes pretty much any food preference? We should all learn to live with terrible cooking too? On that note, I had two total lunch fails last week. Food delivered to the table, that I couldn't eat. Is it the phase of the moon? The political climate? The cold weather?
It's possible, I think, to appreciate and enjoy (and spend time on) good cooking - or coffee - without the kind of (IMO unhealthy) dependency suggested by "I can not imagine my day without aeropress or chemex". Perhaps that was just hyperbole by Griceraae50100. I hope so.
Of course it was. But also, comfortable middle-class folk get used to lots of comfortable things and can't imagine living without them. Like cars and roads and a warm house and a good grocery store. Unless those things change drastically then wanting and getting good coffee is way, way down on the list of 'unhealthy dependency'.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#19We have fairly non-terrible coffee at our office available almost always on demand. Yet still there are a non-trivial number of us who opt to brew single cups either with Aeropress, or cone pour over.
The author nails it. Often it's more about the ritual of taking a few minutes to do something that isn't work. The fact you get a nice cup of coffee is a bonus. Others in our office do the same thing by walking out the front door and over to the indie coffee place literally around the corner.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#20I understand this guy. Five years ago, I calmly could drink americano in a terrible coffee shop. Now I can not imagine my day without aeropress or chemex. My favorite grains are from Kenya and Congo, because sourness is felt in them. If you really love coffee, then you will like the hand-brew.
Chemex is just an expensive, proprietary coffee pot.
Yes, but it looks nice on a shelf in the background of an Instagram photo.
Plain old conical drippers have exactly the same effect on the coffee, but they don't make it look like you're performing a science experiment.