BS: Coffee

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: maire-aine
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 07:43 PM

I rarely drink coffee at work-- only if there is a FRESH pot of decaf. But once in a while (winter only) I will make a small pot at home. My favorite is Decaffeinated Amaretto, prepared by Schuil Coffee Company of Grand Rapids MI, and distributed by R. Hirt at Detroit's Eastern Market. I love this stuff. They make 20 or more different varieties (all in both regular and decaf). I don't know if they have a website or not, but it's worth looking for.

Then I splash a little REAL amaretto liqueur, and I'm set for the evening. In fact, since we got 6 inches of snow today, and I've cleared my driveway, I have a pot brewing right now.

Cheer,
Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 08:32 PM

The time to worry is when you ask how big a mug, at home, and she picks up the pint-and-a-quarterish stoneware tankard...

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Dec 05 - 01:49 AM

Talk about leaking coffee cups: many years ago, we had a canteen at work, and used to get coffee in those styrofoam cups. I had several cups that caused a clear liquid to appear on my desk. Yep, the holes were just he right size to filter out all the coloured stuff!

I'm not making this up!

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 17 Dec 05 - 09:06 AM

Billybob
Does your description of the coffee from Porlock apply to all their blends, or are some even better than others?

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 18 Dec 05 - 12:05 AM

During the early 50's I had the dubious honor of making coffee for the crew on the U.S.S. Helena CA 75. The coffee was made in a large cauldron about three feet in diameter and three feet from top to bottom. I'd fill the thing about 3/4 full of boiling water and put in gunny sack full of coffee. Don't really know how many pounds (they never told me but I'd guess around 10 to 15 pounds). Then I'd take a small paddle (like a tiny canoe paddle) and paddle the thing for several minutes. The early chow line would get "tea coff." around midway through the meal the coffee wasn't all that bad, by the end of the meal it would curl your hair. The process was repeated for each meal and around sometimes around 2200 for the guys on night watch.
Cap't Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 18 Dec 05 - 08:50 AM

So Cap't Bob, I've always been told coffee tastes better if you get it in bulk....

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 18 Dec 05 - 11:17 AM

Well foolestroupe that's the way I learned to make coffee and over the years I've tended to stick with the method. My wife thinks I go through way to much coffee ~ I make more than we need. Holding to the words of my Mother "waste not, want not", I hate to throw things away and as a result end up drinking more than I should.

Recently I've been playing at a little coffee house in Atlanta Michigan. Wrote this little blues type song for the place:

I went to Atlanta the other day,
Up in Northern Michigan not Atlanta G. A.
Back in the pine woods is a neat little spot,
The scenery is great and the coffees hot.

CHORUS:
at the north woods ~~~ that's where it's at,
at the north woods ~~~ I'm sure about that,
at the north woods, you can sit and chew,
say hi to Patty and the North Woods Crew

If you need some coffee and a scone or two,
and like to look at paintings while you sip and chew,
You need to escape from your day's routine
and spend a little time with the old coffee bean.
CHORUS
If you like your music in the acoustic style,
come on in, sit down for a while,
and listen to some tunes in the home spun way,
I'm sure you'll want to come back another day.
CHORUS

It's a neat little spot a great place to drink coffee.
Check it out....
http://northwoodscoffeehouse.com/
Cap't Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 Dec 05 - 11:40 AM

Coffee! Colombian - my friends used to bring me back the real thing when I lived in NYC. Black. No sugar.

I have 2 cups per day. I am allowed no more after recovering from a 40 - 50 cup per day addiction. It took six months to get rid of the dull caffeine headache. 24 hours a day even in my dreams, my head throbbed.

But when others order dessert I much prefer an expresso. My main vice, I think.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: billybob
Date: 18 Dec 05 - 07:05 PM

guest Topsie
well, Billy and I were wondering round Porlock on a weekend away and we had been told that there was a coffee warehouse in the village, no idea where, so followed our noses, in the back streets found the origins of the fantastic aroma!!We bought a number of different bags of coffee .. all have been wonderful, looking forward to going back and trying some more.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Dec 05 - 09:21 PM

Lin's granddaddy had a hotel down in the Texas panhandle a long time ago, and we gained custody of his old hotel coffee pot a while back. It was about 2 feet (plus a bit) tall and about 19 inches in diameter. Two taps on the side. It had a cloth basket that hung at the top that I'd guess probably got about 2 or 3 pounds of coffee at a shot.

You heated one of those on the wood stove and carried it out to the counter, or - if you weren't in a hurry or just couldn't lift 20 gallons of hot water - you could light the little wicks (2 of 'em) in the kerosine burner it sat on and wait - and wait.

When the water got hot enough, you'd tap off a quart or so and pour it back in at the top, through the basket, and let it run down. If it wasn't strong enough, you'd just pour another couple of quarts through it.

The hotel, two story wood frame, came from a town a ways down the road that died when the railroad went the other way, so grandpa bought it and moved it (hoss power rollin' on logs) to the County Seat. The new location was almost a ghost town a few years ago, with nothin' but the Courthouse and a bitty little Post Office left, when a couple of young furiners moved in and and set up an art shop, put in a dance platform and started doin' Friday night dances. The hotel is now their frame shop, and they hustled up enough local public support and some grant money to build a "Regional Museum" down by the highway, so the pot's now on loan (probably permanent) to the Wolf Creek Museum.

Stop by and take a look at Lion's pot if you happen to be goin' past Lipscomb Texas (if you can find it). The pot's not extremely rare, but that little kerosine heater is the only one I've seen since I was a real little bitty kid that's in working order - and it still had good wicks in it when we got it. (Doesn't take a lot to get you excited when you've spent a day or two in the Panhandle.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 18 Dec 05 - 11:48 PM

Sounds similar to the old Russian Samovars.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 19 Dec 05 - 06:54 AM

billybob
While I'm sure you will want to go back to Porlock any way, you don't need to run out of coffee in the mean time - I've discovered they do mail order.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: Wesley S
Date: 30 May 07 - 10:43 AM

I'm on my third cup this morning - how about you?

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: Bill D
Date: 30 May 07 - 11:02 AM

my 2nd mug....which = 4 'cups'

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: Rapparee
Date: 30 May 07 - 11:07 AM

Thanks, I think I will. It just finished brewing.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: Becca72
Date: 30 May 07 - 06:39 PM

Had to give up daily consumption...really messes with my GERD. So I went from 3-4 cups daily to 1-2 cups per week. I sure miss it, but it's not worth the heartburn!

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 May 07 - 08:13 PM

I have had GREAT success with the Folger's Smooth Roast. The taste is a bit pale till you get used to it, but my IBS no longer goes into high gear at the thought of coffee, IF the rest of my diet is well-handled (and as long as I don't stop eating in favor of reverting to 32 oz. of coffee with 32 oz. of cream and sugar). I bought a small container until I became a believer. It's not as yummy as the espresso, but it's at least coffee. Once you get used to it that is.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: MMario
Date: 31 May 07 - 09:29 AM

Occasionally red blood cells mix into my caffiene-stream.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: Bill D
Date: 31 May 07 - 11:14 AM

"Once you get used to it that is."

Oh, mercy....

I suppose one can get 'used to' diet Pepsi and Coors Lite, too...but..

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: MMario
Date: 31 May 07 - 11:27 AM

stop eating in favor of reverting to 32 oz. of coffee with 32 oz. of cream and sugar

black is fine - though occasionally when I'm tired, I'll go to cream; or if I'm *REALLY* tired - cream and sugar.

But ecstacy is 1/2 expresso, half coffee ice cream.

in a pinch, B&J's coffeecoffeebuzzbuzzbuzz melted and poured in a glass.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: GUEST,Jay
Date: 31 May 07 - 12:30 PM

Someone said that they think putting sugar in coffee is wimpy.
It depends on how large the cup of coffee is, and how much sugar you
put in. At a coffee house, a large cup with only one sugar packet -
the taste of sugar really isn't noticeable; because of the ratio of
coffee ml to sugar ml.
I can agree with you when a small sized cup with three or four packets of sugar can be considered "wimpy"; because there's so much
sugar in such a small cup, it kills the taste and aroma of coffee.

For me, it depends on how hyper that I need to get.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: wysiwyg
Date: 31 May 07 - 05:44 PM

Oh, mercy....

I suppose one can get 'used to' diet Pepsi and Coors Lite, too... but...

Yeah. Getting older is a bitch! I'll take what I can take.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 31 May 07 - 06:19 PM

oooooooooooooooooooooo..

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 May 07 - 09:09 PM

Someone gave me a coffee press (also known as a plunger, above) but I will have to buy a bur type coffee grinder if I want to use it. The paperwork insists that the coffee grounds have to be coarse and that a regular coffee grinder, with a blade type of grinder, won't do.

Problem is that my regular grinder cost $14; the bur type is $75! Not kidding.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: wysiwyg
Date: 31 May 07 - 09:51 PM

Try it with the coffee you have. We haven't died yet of inappropriate grind, and ya know, coffee is coffee. Oh yes, some folks like to worship it and fuss over it, but it's just coffee. We camped with our press and drank, happily, anything anyone brought to put ito it.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 08:23 AM

Time your blade grinder...a slightly shorter grinding time will give you something quite close to the coarser grind. (I did it accidently a couple of times.)[but once you stop, it's very tricky to put the cover back on]

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 11:16 AM

once you stop, it's very tricky to put the cover back on

Bill, Bill, Bill...... just dump it out into something through a little sieve (from the 99 cent store). What doesn't pass through the sive goes back into the grinder to re-grind. Or to make two separate grinds, with the very fine going through and the coarser left in the sieve.

When life gets too busy I just use the grinder at the store. "Horrors! Never grind a whole pound, it will dry out!" Nothing says you have to buy a whole pound at once!

Yeah, I do all that for Hardi's espresso and then drink the pale storebought stuff that comes ground. Iced, it's not bad coffee though.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: JennieG
Date: 02 Jun 07 - 12:20 AM

Ebbie, try what you have before you spend huge dollars on something else! Our grinder is a Bodum blade grinder which fortuitously was on special when our former grinder died, and I am very happy with it. I have a small insulated stainless steel plunger pot for drinking alone and a larger glass pot for when I have coffee company.

It's coffee o'clock now, I am off to make a pot.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 07:48 PM

refreshing!

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 08:49 PM

wow... I remember those old posts! Nice to re-read my own remarks after 5 years. I still think mostly the same...but *sigh*.. have resorted to cheaper coffee at times. (Trader Joe's "Joe" brand, which is still decent, and I still grind it one day at a time.) I know where to buy the more expensive stuff, but $9-$14 a lb. scares me off.

BTW... I have had very marginal luck with French Market coffee with chicory. I suspect they have reduced the chicory.... (I used to see "Captain's Coffee", which had a higher chicory content, but that was many years ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 07 Aug 11 - 11:49 PM

Thanks for refreshing this thread Charley ~ I thought the words to my coffee song about the Northwoods Coffee house were lost and gone forever.    Cap't Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee
From: ClaireBear
Date: 08 Aug 11 - 12:18 PM

I love a good, strong cup of Sumatra Mandheling, roasted Italian style. However, drinking brewed coffee without milk is something I can no longer do...I never recovered from the sensitivity I developed during pregnancy 12 years ago. And I don't keep milk at home. So no coffee for me...

...until recently when I discovered that coffee made Turkish style doesn't make me queasy! So I got myself a proper copper coffeepot (i.e., an ibric) and a supply of cardamom-scented Turkish coffee, which I mix half and half with Italian espresso for extra richness. I sweeten my Turkish coffee with raw sugar (which goes in before brewing), and augment it with a spoonful of rosewater before pouring. Just one BIG (16 oz.) cup a day is perfect.