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Good Starter Coffee?

I am a home-roaster and I had no idea we had so many home-roasters included in this group; discriminating folk do seem to congregate:)
One thing not mentioned is that the lighter roasts tend to have a higher level of caffeine, so if you are bothered by coffee jitters, you may benefit from a little darker roast as the caffeine gets burned off.
Good Luck, Ken.
 
As my namesake might suggest, I'm a coffee nut. My wife, is not. She hates coffee. But, the only coffee I can get her to drink (and she actually enjoys it (rumor has it she craves it from time to time)) is Coffee Fool Organic Fair Trade Peruvian.

It finishes extremely smooth - there's no bitterness at all. If you're new to coffee and want one that you can't go wrong with (it requires no special coffee making skills, no special equipment -- nothing), just give this stuff a try.

I keep 2 pounds of it in reserve at all times.

http://www.coffeefool.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=1090
 
I think that a lot of folks who fancy themselves "true" coffee drinkers, but have grown up on Starbucks & Co., think that the burnt, really "dark" flavor is the pinnacle of coffee drinking for aficionados, but in fact there's really not much flavor there at all. I'm hoping to either find a local roaster back home, or at least buy some fresh stuff from a place like Ristretto.

The reason Starbucks "double roasts" (and if that isn't a recipe for burnt coffee, I don't know what is), is the same reason a McDonalds hamburger is pretty much the same everywhere: the customer needs NOT to be surprised. Individual crops of beans vary so wildly in flavor that getting "Kenyan" coffee from year to year (or even plantation to plantation) would mean an entirely different "cup." So, Starbucks eliminates the variable by roasting the hell out of it. It's understandable, but you're right... many coffee lovers simply don't know what they're missing. You sacrifice a lot for consistency.

Like others here, I home roast, and I love it. I think it builds an appreciation for coffee in the same way that getting a great massage builds an appreciation for the body. There is nothing like pouring a delicious cup of coffee in the morning and knowing two things: 1. It blows away any cup of coffee you're going to buy from Starbucks... et al., and 2. You did it yourself, in your own roaster, oven, or whatever. For me, that's a great feeling.

I'd always advocate home roasting, if you want great coffee. And it's so much cheaper than the commercial stuff, too! :biggrin1:
 
I've been drinking Scotto's homeroast for a while now and I am really, really impressed. Of late, I've been using an aeropress which makes fantastic coffee, but the downside is: It uses a lot of coffee. So now I need to get more. :a52: :biggrin:

Does anyone have any advice on getting started homeroasting your own coffee? I have absolutely no idea about any of it.

Also is there another good (reasonably priced) coffee maker besides the aeropress that both uses a more reasonable amount of grounds and allows you to make more than a single cup.

Thanks all!
 
Does anyone have any advice on getting started homeroasting your own coffee? I have absolutely no idea about any of it.

Also is there another good (reasonably priced) coffee maker besides the aeropress that both uses a more reasonable amount of grounds and allows you to make more than a single cup.

I started home roasting because we were poor, and didn't want to give up good coffee. If we ordered 20# of beans at a time, we paid less than $4 a pound for great coffee. The savings are substantial. We consume around 65 pounds of coffee every year, and the Nicaraguan coffee we have right now is about $10.60 less per pound than Intelligentsia's Nicaraguan coffee. That's a savings of nearly $700 for the year.

Here's a "how to" link. When we were in Iceland I was blogging a lot (what else was there to do?), and did a post on oven roasting your own coffee: http://www.kimmelhome.com/meditations/?p=136

Warning! Oven roasting is not for everyone. If you think of it as a science, well it just doesn't give you that kind of precise control. However, if you approach it like a cook, it works fine. Also, I roast 1 1/4 pounds at a time, which is much better than you will get from any <$1,000 roaster. The one piece of equipment that is essential to me is the stoneware pan. It makes a HUGE difference, and is much more forgiving than metal. If you decide to try oven roasting, just PM me with any questions. I'd be happy to help.

I don't know what "reasonably priced" is for a coffeemaker, but I love our Technivorm Moccamaster (model KB-741), which is $235. I've always wanted to try the Chemex brewers (basically a big pour through cone), and they're much cheaper. But even if you buy a $235 coffeemaker, you'll still come out ahead for the year, with the money you save on the coffee.

For years, I've ordered everything coffee-related from Sweet Marias. They've never let me down. Happy roasting! :biggrin1:
 

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Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
Also is there another good (reasonably priced) coffee maker besides the aeropress that both uses a more reasonable amount of grounds and allows you to make more than a single cup.

Thanks all!

Hard to beat a French press. They come in all sizes, make a fantastic cup, and will last forever.
 
D

doleeo

Does anyone have any advice on getting started homeroasting your own coffee? I have absolutely no idea about any of it.

I started on a popcorn popper. You can't roast very much at a time, but its cheap and effective.
 
You may want to look through this treatice.

My daily coffee maker of choice is a $5 manual pourover filtercone. Makes dynamite coffee for a ridiculously low price. The French Press is an equally good, but different cup.

Glad you enjoyed the coffee.
 
Hard to beat a French press. They come in all sizes, make a fantastic cup, and will last forever.

The coffeemaker is definitely a YMMV thing. We had a French press, but it ended up going to the thrift store. There were two reasons for this: 1. Capacity. My wife and I have found that a 10 cup coffeemaker is perfect for our morning routine (including travel mugs for later); and 2. Timing. Getting ready for work/school in the morning can be hectic. We need something that doesn't require perfect timing. For us, it just works better to flip the switch and then get our coffee when we're ready.

So it's not just about the coffee, but also about how the thing fits into your routine. You may even want different coffeemakers for different times of the day. Still, a French press is a cheap option to try. And you may find that it suits you just fine.
 
I got my Aeropress tonight! It made a fantastic cup of coffee for me, from some stuff that tasted very bad when I tried to use it in my (admittedly low-end) drip pot a few days ago. Seems pretty foolproof, and it really eliminated the acidity and bitterness that made my last batch such a bad one.

Please note that this is not a "dig" against drip pots - I am certain that some folks use them with great results. I've just always had a tough time getting a good cup of coffee from one, quite possibly due in part to not getting the proportions right. However, the Aeropress is very simple and seems like it would be tough to screw up, and it was remarkable (to me) what a different flavor it produced from the same coffee. Whether it's the system itself or the fact that it made the process simple for me, I'm impressed, and I can see a second one for work in my future.

Now, to get some really good beans and put it through its paces...
 
I'm getting ready to purchase a French Press, but I've noticed there are quite a few out there. Which one should I purchase?
 
Adding to all of the above, there is a radical difference between coffee beans that are ground immediately prior to brewing and those that are ground days, weeks or months in advance. The moment coffee beans are ground they begin to oxidize like apples. While an apple sliced open turns brown after a couple of hours exposure to the air, coffee beans acquire a flat and slightly sour taste if brewed more than a few hours after being ground. Even all the wonderful coffees recommended in other postings will not taste as good if you buy them pre-ground, even if packaged in a vaccuum bag. So, if you are brewing at home, buy in small quantities and have it ground at the coffee shop or do it at the supermarket before you bring it home.

Also, whatever method you use to brew--drip, French press, etc.--make sure you don't reheat the coffee after it cools. Drink it all when it's warm or drink it cold. But the moment coffee is reheated, it causes a chemical reaction that makes it sour. This is why old Mr. Coffee style machines, great as they are at brewing, don't keep a good pot of coffee. The heating pad clicks on as soon as the temerature of the coffee pot drops and reheats it, causing it to sour.

However, if all you have ever consumed is pre-ground, reheated coffee you won't notice how bad it is until you switch techniques. Once you do, you can never go back. So be careful. If you make the jump you will become a coffee snob...and since you are reading this on a wet shave devotee site, it's a safe bet you already have one fairly odd, perhaps ridiculous, time-consuming and costly passtime. Can you afford another?
 
I'm getting ready to purchase a French Press, but I've noticed there are quite a few out there. Which one should I purchase?

Starbucks used to (may still? Dunno) sell a nice FP. It was probably made by Bodum. There are lots of nice FPs out there. But I'd avoid the cheaper models. IME they fall apart pretty quickly. It doesn't seem like there should be much pressure on a FP but there actually is. My last one had a plastic part holding the filter screen in place. Once that went loose it was too big of a PITA to use. My current one is all steel except for the glass vessel.

Ken
 
Most of the decent ones I have seen are Bodum. Once you brew you need to move the coffee to another container so that the coffee doesn't continue to brew / extract flavors from the beans(it will get bitter). I would recommend a Bodum Chambord. There are quite a few different sizes out there, so I would say get something that will make at least enough for what you want to drink at a certain time. You can also decant the extra coffee to a thermos (to keep it hot) or move it to another container and refrigerate it to make iced coffee later.

The Chambord is nice in that it can all go into the dishwasher :biggrin:

When using a french press, just make sure you don't try to finish the cup. Depending on how the coffee was ground, you might end up with sludge at the bottom, and drinking that is not a good way to finish great coffee.
 
You can normally find a few Chambord models at Bed Bath & Beyond or Linens n Things which is nice since (at least here) there are always 20&#37; off coupons flying around. BB&B accepts the coupons from LnT and doesn't care if they are expired, just FYI.
 
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