Not in love with my current coffee setup and looking to hear what other folks are doing with their coffee setups? Do you just drink whatever is around or do you heat your water to 175F using a fancy temp-controlled kettle and press it?
Ask HN: Coffee Drinkers, How Do You Brew?
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Re: Ask HN: Coffee Drinkers, How Do You Brew?
#2Microwave water while grinding cofee, add both to french press, wait five minutes or so, press, pour, drink.
Re: Ask HN: Coffee Drinkers, How Do You Brew?
#3At work I drink from the typical diner-style coffee pot. At home I own a Tassimo, which I believe just swirls hot water/milk within the t-disc to make a brew.
Re: Ask HN: Coffee Drinkers, How Do You Brew?
#4Fresh beans - Burr grinder - Aeropress. The three ingredients you need to make a pretty darn good cup of joe. It takes about 10 minutes to reach Nirvana this way. Pretty inexpensive as well.
Re: Ask HN: Coffee Drinkers, How Do You Brew?
#5Plain old Cuisinart drip machine with built-in grinder. I can put beans and water in the machine before retiring, and the whole thing can start up while I'm waking.
Re: Ask HN: Coffee Drinkers, How Do You Brew?
#6French press or Aeropress when I have time to spare, Keurig the rest of the time.
Re: Ask HN: Coffee Drinkers, How Do You Brew?
#7Aeropress with the inverted method - https://sites.google.com/site/scottmarquardt/invertedaeropre...
Re: Ask HN: Coffee Drinkers, How Do You Brew?
#8Complete coffee snob here, but I also like to think that I can find the happy medium between crazy/exquisite and important. Here are my pointers:
1. The most important factor is fresh grind of good-enough beans. Grind just enough for each brew.
2. Water temp, which you mention, makes a difference, but no need to get a fancy kettle. Take water off a boil and count 10 seconds. Good enough!
3. Good-enough beans are basically anything that you can buy in whole-bean form. You could spend $10 on a pound of high-end Starbucks or you could spend $5 on a mid-range pound of 8 O'Clock. They taste different, but I find both levels of coffee to be sufficient.
4. Make coffee stronger than necessary and dilute to your preference. Never use fewer beans than necessary as it will make the coffee bitter.
5. Like flavors? Add them afterwards. Additives in flavored coffee will generally leech into almost any brewing vessel and subtly alter future batches.
Brewing method generally doesn't matter. French press is nice if you don't mind inevitable grit and a manual process. Most auto coffee makers are good enough. I try to steer people away from cups and pods due to waste, cost, and the fresh-grind factor, but they are very convenient if you're optimizing for time. My preferred work/flavor balance is a Melitta cone filter that requires hand pour of water.
Good luck!
Re: Ask HN: Coffee Drinkers, How Do You Brew?
#9I follow the guidelines quoted below. I use an old electric kettle: not very fancy, you just plug it in and it boils the water. There's no temperature control settings, but there's no need: the water comes out about 92C, which is just right. Note that 175F=80C is not hot enough, it's "supposed" to be over 90C. But try it for yourself a couple of times and see if you can tell the difference.
I use a plastic pour-over filter and a manual burr grinder by Kyocera, which costs around U$25. I use coffee ground in the same day or in the previous day. In my experience this is what makes the biggest difference.
I usually buy beans at an import shop that has good turnout, so I know the beans are fresh. But last time I ended up buying at Starbucks and it was... awesome. Really.
If you follow these three guidelines and do nothing
more, you will enjoy coffee better than you can find
in most specialty coffee shops:
1. Buy only whole-bean coffee roasted within the last
few days.
2. Grind it fresh, just before brewing.
3. Brew it in a French press or a pour-over filter using
fresh water, off the boil.
Re: Ask HN: Coffee Drinkers, How Do You Brew?
#10I've been wanting to get more control over my brewing. For now I just use my Keurig. I love it, and I know I'll probably get shit from coffee snobs (no offense), but it's good enough to have a quick cup in the morning.