Got tired of buying coffee makers that always burned out. A drip cone is the easiest to clean, never breaks.
They burn out, and they inevitably taste funky. That's what drove me to a Chemex.
Handbrewing Coffee
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Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#32French 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.
I use a French Press abut 90% of the time. But the different methods are better at extracting certain kinds of flavors, so it really depends on what kind of coffee I'm using. For most coffee, the FP is great at extracting deep, earthy flavors (and the oil, obviously). So that's always my go-to coffee in the morning. For brighter, more citrus-y coffee (Intelligentsia brand excels at these lighter ones), I favor the pourover or Aeropress method to really highlight the fruity notes.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#33Got tired of buying coffee makers that always burned out. A drip cone is the easiest to clean, never breaks.
I am a big fan of the steel "drip-o-lator"-style coffee brewers. They are a predecessor of electric coffee makers. It is similar to a pour-over, but you can just dump the hot water in and walk away. Unfortunately, they are no longer in production, but I have purchased several from eBay. One day I would like to design and build my own version with vacuum-insulated walls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg4ncWWqjno The…
Sounds like the Vietnamese single-serving coffee apparatus! Fun to use too.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#34I use a pour-over Chemex and manual bean grinder at home. I enjoy the process, but I really don't drink coffee that often, maybe once a week on a lazy sunday morning. I would definitely need a side by side taste test if I was to tell any subtle difference in fresh ground pour over vs pre ground in a normal drip coffee maker or a Keurig.
If I was a daily drinker, I doubt I could resist the temptation to get something convenient like a Keurig, despite all of that plastic waste it generates with the K Cups.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#35French 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.
French press also extracts and preserves all the oils present in coffee beans, whereas drip/chemex filters them out. As a sidenote, french press is also great for brewing tea, but keep your coffee and tea presses separated.
You frame the difference in oils as a bad thing, but it's simply personal preference (I much prefer paper filtered coffee).
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#36OP misses a CRITICAL intermediate step in the handbrewing process: SMELLING the freshly ground coffee beans before brewing. Shameful.
My three year old comes running when he hears the grinder running, just so he can smell the ground coffee.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#37I 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.
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…
The case for bad coffee:
https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/10/the-case-for-bad-coffee....
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#38I 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.
Right there with you on the beans from Kenya -- my local roaster has a Kenyan "Kifahari" that has a nice tartness to it. I can't drink it all the time though, as it gets to be a bit much, so it is more of a treat when I get it.
If you come across a Costa Rica, you should try it. It’s my favorite due to the tartness and fruit flavors that come through.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#39OP misses a CRITICAL intermediate step in the handbrewing process: SMELLING the freshly ground coffee beans before brewing. Shameful.
My three year old comes running when he hears the grinder running, just so he can smell the ground coffee.
My sister loved to do that when we were young. But then one day she sneezed in them. Watch out.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#40I 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.
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…
Yeah, there's no reason you can't have both.
I am _way_ down the coffee rabbit hole (home roasting, etc). I'm still perfectly fine with "common" coffee from Starbucks/Dunkin/etc. They're just different things.
Really the only coffee I can't drink is "diner" coffee, but that's more about heartburn than preference...