Coffee

[m in sc]

I like my Cuisinart with integrated grinder. It's a good blend of quality and convenience. I like coffee ready when I get up in the morning as an extra incentive to get out of bed. The program function and integrated grinder is a must for me.

the mill & brew was like that. it made a racket but was nice to come down to it. the keurig i have has a programmable timer to turn on, so i literally push a button and in less than a minute im ready to go

[sav0r]

Once I get back from my bicycle ride I'll write a proper response, but I didn't expect this to blow up like this.

[retaRD]

French press with coffee from a local roaster.
Every day.

[sav0r]

Great responses from everybody, thanks for the excellent content!

I was looking at the Breville actually. Once upon a time I had a decent espresso machine and loved it. Something that can make a nice espresso is really enticing. I was thinking about the Bambino Plus but I'll have to look through all the specs to try and understand what the hell I am looking at.

That said, I love my french press. it makes great coffee, and I generally just drink it over the entire day. Locally, here in Pittsburgh, there is a never ending supply of freshly roasted beans. I try to buy lower quantities and purchase more often, that way the coffee is fresh. Most of the good roasters sell by weight so there's no penalty for buying lower quantity, you scoop it yourself. Of course, I need to get out of this nasty k-cup habit.

[Striker1423]

Either percolator, or cowboy coffee Kent Rollins style. Throw grounds right in pot and bring to rolling boil. Cold water over surface to settle grounds and pour coffee.

[pdxjim]

... yeah, I should get back to local beans.

When I was doing a french press every day, I was burning thru the beans like crazy, but another good thing about the espresso machine is you use waay less coffee.

Living where I do in Portland, there are gourmet boutique beans all over.  The original Stumptown cafe is about three blocks from my house, and there are two other boutique roasters right down the street.

Another thing about the espresso machine:  you gotta re-adjust the settings every time you change beans, so best to find a coffee you like and stick with it.

[85RZwade]

Total coffee Philistine here; 1 cup a day out of Mr. coffee, made with whatever coffee my lovely (and thrifty) bride finds on sale. HEAVY dose of whatever creamer the aforementioned sale shopper found. More than one cup gives me shaky hands.

[mnein]

I'm with m in sc on the old 8 o'clock bean. Cheap but good. Folgers tastes and smells like dookie. Will grind some beans now and then when I have time. Tim Hortons is also good, that may only be a northerners thing not sure.

[m in sc]

I like Tim Hortons. Dave B (theotherdave on here) is kind enough to bring me some from Canadia when he comes to the states to visit. 

[retaRD]

Either percolator, or cowboy coffee Kent Rollins style. Throw grounds right in pot and bring to rolling boil. Cold water over surface to settle grounds and pour coffee.

I do this when I'm camping.
I was blown away the first time I had seen it done.

[quocle603]

For those with deep pockets. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_luwak

[SoCal250]

For those with deep pockets. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_luwak

And if you like drinking coffee that's been sourced from poop   
"...after being defecated with other fecal matter, they are collected."

[IR8D8R]

Luwak coffee... Using Palm Civets. I've tried it in Jakarta. It was $10 a cup. The Indonesians are very proud of it. I was underwhelmed.

Palm civets are sort of like a racoon. The Thais do the same thing using elephants. A lot of coffee is grown and consumed in the ASEAN nations. Some of it is really good. Especially Vietnam.

I have tried processing home-grown coffee. It ain't easy by hand without specialized equipment bean-by-bean. There's a coating on the seed under the fruit flesh that is really tough and a bitch to get off. Roasting in the oven is very stinky. It has a skunk-like odor.

No doubt the exercise led to indonesians trying the animal-process. They keep the civets in cages and feed them coffee cherries which they presumably relish. The little guys digest the fruit and expel the seeds sans the things that we remove with machinery. The seeds (beans) are undigested.

It wasn't worth $10 a cup. More like $1.50.

IR8D8R

[pdxjim]

I have bought green coffee beans and roasted 'em in a cast iron skillet on the stove.

Fun exercise, I guess, but much easier to let the pros do it.

[thatguy]

Dark roasted whole bean ground for each pot. Percolated dark. Touch of 1/2 & 1/2 with sugar to suit.

Started drinking coffee at 4 years old with my great grandfather during summers working the farm. Lots of (fresh-dairy farm) cream and sugar and that habit stuck with me. My great grandmother got up at O'Dark thirty every morning to make fresh bread and cook breakfast when we came back from morning chores. She had suffered a stroke in the '30s and was partially paralyzed but still pulled more than her weight. A crusty tough old gal who I respected but feared as a child. She made it to her 90's.