OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: Charmion
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 11:05 AM

Pumpkin pie spice may contain some or all of the following: cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice and dried ginger, all ground fine. Cinnamon is usually the dominant note.

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: Stanron
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 02:08 PM

Thanks Charmion. I got something today called Mixed Spice. It has the spices you named plus ground coriander. Maybe I put too much in but I took one sip and threw the lot away. I've read a recipe for Turkish coffee using a cardamom pod. I'll try that tomorrow.

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: Charmion
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 10:08 AM

A small pinch per cup is the correct dose. Very small.

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 11:01 AM

Just to clarify things for Stanron-a season or two ago, Starbucks began pushing a seasonal item called a "Pumpkin Spice Latte" which actually was quite tasty--it caught on, big time, and this year, Pumpkin Spice coffee, tea, and such things are everywhere the rage. Ironically, Starbucks ran out of whatever they needed to make the stuff early in the season(they have got it now), leaving all the "me too" products to pick up the slack.

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 11:20 AM

It may just be where I go, but with one or two exceptions, none of the coffee shops I know offer a choice of coffee. They will certainly offer a choice of style - americano, latte, espresso, cappuccino and so on - but they do not offer a choice of bean, which seems to be what everyone here is talking about. The coffee shops I went to in my youth did offer different beans, but not style.

There was a news report recently where Costa (I think) have decided not to open a branch in a town which had some 400 independent coffee shops. After the interview with one of them the report asked what coffee they would recommend and got cappuccino as the answer. Very disappointing that the bean appeared not to matter ...

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 11:31 AM

Is it true - as it seems - that the UKers use a lot more INSTANT coffee than we in the States do?

It is certainly true that in the UK we drink a lot of instant coffee. I drink both instant and real, but regard them as distinct drinks. A good instant brand may be nothing like real coffee, but can be a pleasant drink in its own right. Cheap instant, on the other hand, is often foul from both perspectives.

As for real, depending on whim and the number of thirsty people I use an Italian style espresso (bought and instructed upon by my Italian daughter-in-law), one of several sizes of cafetiere, or a cona-style machine capable of steamed milk enhancements ... but its usually too much faff and I go for the instant!

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: MartinRyan
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 12:39 PM

Filter (paper) in the morning, made fairly strong. Nespresso capsule (Indian) for the rest of the day, as espresso. Tried doing the grind/Gaggia machine approach but could never get it consistent. Very happy with the capsules both for taste and consistency. Only problem so far is the need for much more frequent descaling than the manufacturers think!

Regards

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: Stanron
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 02:32 PM

Thanks again Charmion. I tried a cup today with a cardamom pod in and then a cup with a pinch of the spice mix. Neither went down the sink but neither were noticeably better than my usual brew. Hi ho, I'll try again tomorrow.

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: Charmion
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 02:52 PM

Stanron, is there any place you go to have coffee where you find it delicious? If so, ask the staff how they make it. If not, ask yourself if your sense of taste might be a bit off.

I find that my sense of taste is highly variable. At times of the year when my sinuses are inflamed, such as now, everything tastes sort of bland and uninteresting. The other day, for example, we had cold roast chicken with cranberry sauce for supper, and the cranberry tasted of nothing much in particular except acid and sugar. To me, that is; to my husband, it was the same old familiar very-cranberry-tasting cranberry sauce I always make.

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: GUEST,Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 03:55 PM

I got to spend the better part of a year in Beirut. "Qawa arabiiya," i.e. the sort brewed in a small pot on an open flame, is still a favourite. Espresso will do as a substitute. I have taken to café au lait as a means to spin it out (I tend to want to slug espresso back) and to take in milk. North American coffee seems to be, as Germans accuse, just dirty water. My last boss in the regular army was a coffee snob (John Sawicki, where are you?) but he taught me to blend Kenyan and Arabica beans in the grinder (5:3 small scoops for 60 oz Braun filter pot). It comes out so that both our guests and I can drink it (but I would still rather espresso).

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 04:00 PM

'Twas Totnes in Devon that drove away Costa.

All my life I've hated instant coffee. I thought I hated coffee because of that. Then, in Venice last October, a place where a good cup of tea cannot be had (they tend to give you a cup of water that was boiling ten minutes ago and a tea bag with string attached in a nasty little wrapper), I found out that fresh coffee was, in fact, very nice, that it was just that I'd never had it. We got someone to buy us an espresso machine (with milk frother) and a coffee grinder last Christmas. We now consume cappuccinos with gay abandon and I enjoy a large espresso or two on frequent occasions. No sugar, no mucking about with sprinkly chocolate on top. We use semi-skimmed milk. I'm thinking of trying unsweetened soya milk tomorrow.

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: Stanron
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 04:58 PM

For reasons that are way off topic I don't do milk or anything else bovine. I use oat milk on my cereal and used to buy Alpro soya yoghurt until they added loads of sugar and vanilla flavouring. Yuk, yuk and yuk again.
I can't remember the last time I bought a cup of coffee. I usually take one look at the price and go and have a beer. I buy beans from various supermarkets and usually try different brands. There have been loads of suggestions here and I will work my way through those that are physically possible. Cheers.

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 05:03 PM

Charmion's Brother Andrew: Kenyan beans are Arabica beans. Also, you can get about any kind of coffee you want in North America these days, including what you call Qawa arabiiya. Since the advent of Starbucks, even McDonald's now offers Barista coffee, which will do in a pinch.

Stanron--those who care for such things have been known to add ground cardamom to the ground coffee before brewing. I was once at a dinner where the host(a rather haughty fellow from one of the coffee countries) served an amazing espresso to about twelve of us at the same time. When asked, "How do you make this?", he indicated that he'd merely tossed some cardomom into expresso ground, and thrown that into a large Moka Express pot.

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 03 Nov 12 - 02:24 PM

Mix sugar and coffee granules with soya, then pour the hot water in.

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Nov 12 - 12:17 PM

The unsweetened soya milk instead of semi-skimmed normal milk experiment was a disaster. Never again. The soya imparted a completely alien taste to the cappuccino.

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: Stanron
Date: 04 Nov 12 - 02:36 PM

Maybe there's some thing wrong with my sense of taste. I recently discovered a drink which I suppose could be called Maryog. A heaped teaspoon of Marmite, Half a mugful of hot water and top it up with yoghurt of your choice. I've just made a mugful to check and it still tastes better to me than most coffee I make. There's no caffeine in it so it's best as a nighttime drink.

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 04 Nov 12 - 03:03 PM

I know we've had our differences in the past, Steve Shaw, but you have my utmost respect for experimenting with the soya milk and capuccino. It was an act of great personal courage;-)

As for you, Stanron, perhaps you are not, at heart, a coffee drinker. There are, after all, other ways to pass one's time on Earth. We do not all need to march to the same drummer...

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: Stanron
Date: 04 Nov 12 - 03:22 PM

Mmmmm.. I want to like coffee. The idea that large sections of the human race have access to a pleasure that is blocked to me is mildly irksome.

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Nov 12 - 04:34 PM

Huh? What differences? Just take things as they come! I have a bit of an aversion to sweetening hot drinks (I'll make an exception for a large mug of hot chocolate, as long as it's consumed outdoors on a cold night with a big bag of roast chestnuts to hand), but the unsweetened soya milk was a bridge too far. 'Twas Alpro Light, the fresh stuff, not long-life, that I used, which I use on me cereal and make porridge with and which I even enjoy as a cold drink every now and then. But something horrible happened when I tried it instead of milk in me cappuccino, I tell you. Something very dry, acrid and manky. I see you can have soya in your coffee in Café Noir shops. No thanks. If I couldn't stomach milk for some reason I'd stick to king-size espressos I reckon. Stanron, read my story. I hated coffee for 60 years. At least, I thought I did, until Venetian coffee made me see the light. Whatever you try it has to be freshly-ground from fresh beans. Buy ye not powder in any shape or form. Insist.

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 05 Nov 12 - 12:38 AM

I think that that is quite the wrong approach, Stanron. Expanding on what Mr. Shaw has said, one cannot decide to drink coffee. One must be called to it, generally by the aroma, either of the freshly ground or roasted beans, or by the freshly brewed coffee itself.

I came to coffee on a sunny Friday afternoon, many years ago, in Berkeley, California. I stumbled into an espresso bar across from the campus, and immediately was overcome by the aroma of roasted beans and steam. It was many years before Starbucks (which was inspired by the Peet's, mentioned earlier in this thread), and a menu hung above the coffee machines, which featured the notation"Espresso: If you don't know what it is, you won't like it."

Of course, I ordered an "Espresso", and have never looked back.(Though, for personal reasons, as mentioned above, I currently favor a peculiar Latino freeze dried product.)

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 05 Nov 12 - 07:51 AM

If I buy coffee to drink when I'm out (or, in the case of the recent power outage in the wake of Sandy), I go to McDonald's for the buck-for-any-size Newman's own.

I drink my coffee (and my tea, for that matter) with extract of neither cow nor cane. (Except very, very occasionally, if, perhaps I've got a wonky tum.) Tom prefers cream, but no sweetener.

I have sometimes used instant coffee to flavor cakes or other baked goods, but I certainly wouldn't drink it, although I recognize that some brands taste better than others. Instant espresso is a much better substitute for brewed coffee. And I keep coffee BAGS around for "emergencies" -- they're like tea bags, but for coffee. I stock both regular and decaf (from which I normally run screaming, but is nice if I'm in the mood for a coffee drink (alcoholic with whipped cream on top) and it's after, say, 2 p.m.

I usually freeze the day's leftover coffee, if there is any (we usually only drink a cup or two with breakfast), in ice cube trays and keep the cubes in a Zip-loc bag until used. After Tom broke his ankle, I started doing the shopping and discovered how expensive coffee is. I can't stand waste (the used grounds are composted) and we're on a low fixed income and a tight budget. Tom won't drink coffee with the cubes added, but I don't mind and I prefer my coffee on the tepid side anyway.

Linn

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: Stanron
Date: 07 Nov 12 - 12:20 PM

I thought I'd bring this back from the dead to report a modest success. One cardamon seed and one heaped desert spoonful of beans per cup into the grinder for a coarse grind. Adding a sweetener at this stage seems to leave a cleaner grinder. The pinch of mixed spice is OK as long as it is a very small pinch.

Cheers.

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: Charmion
Date: 07 Nov 12 - 12:30 PM

May you drink it in good health.

Subject: RE: OK How do you make the perfect cup of coffee?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Nov 12 - 01:55 PM

Even though it doesn't sound much like coffee.