BS: Coffee maintenance

Subject: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 30 Oct 17 - 04:20 PM

I have a (hopefully interesting) culinary question up for debate and illumination. How do you store your coffee? I am pretty old school in preparation, being quite happy with putting store bought pre ground coffee into my glass percolator. But I'm never sure of how to store it. On the counter in my (coolest, darkest) room? In the fridge? The freezer? In the original container, or in a ziplok bag?? And how long is it good for? I have tried various brands, and usually like Columbian blend, by almost any company; but recently have found Dunkin' Donuts to be best (for my tastes). I sometimes put the leftover ( already perked coffee) in the fridge, and have it cold the next day- surprising delicious.

But I've read different opinions about how to store the opened container or 'tin' of coffee. Suggestions, anyone? btw, this is my last vice left; the doctor and dietician have removed all others.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 30 Oct 17 - 05:01 PM

For some months we have been using Carte Noire Espresso Instant Coffee, which to my taste is as good as any ground coffee, and far less hassle, and requires no particular storage!!

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: gillymor
Date: 30 Oct 17 - 05:36 PM

I store it in a tight-sealing glass jar on the counter top. I've heard that freezing it can dry it out.
Outside of some bulk coffees we get from Fresh Market we only use Starbucks coffee, mostly Columbian, sometimes ground, sometimes whole bean. You can catch it on sale and stock up and it cost the same as most other brands of decent coffee.
I also make cold brewed coffee occasionally which has a slightly sweeter taste and is lower in acid and higher in caffeine. You can use a french press but I just throw a heaping scoopful into a measuring cup with 16 oz. of spring water and let it sit 18-24 hours. Makes great ice coffee but is also good heated up.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Oct 17 - 06:01 PM

The less oxygen the less oxidation so I go with ziplock.

cold brew sounds good.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: Stanron
Date: 30 Oct 17 - 07:51 PM

I only buy coffee beans and hand grind them as needed. The beans come in a foil bag with a re-sealable adhesive strip. I seal this and then put it into a press-seal plastic bag, getting rid of as much air as possible. This then gets stored at room temperature. I always get that fresh coffee smell when I open the bags. Yummee!

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: Rapparee
Date: 30 Oct 17 - 07:53 PM

I store whole roasted beans in the original containers, then kept in ziplocks with as much air as possible removed. Then I put them in the freezer. Roasted beans are dry anyway. I grind them as needed in an electric grinder.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 30 Oct 17 - 08:01 PM

I would not drink coffee before the year 2010. Until then all I knew was instant, which I regard as Satan's vomit, or cafeti?re, nearly always brewed from someone's stale fridge supply.

Then, one sunshiny October day in 2010, we were in beautiful Burano, one of the islands in the Venice lagoon. I'd gone three days without being able to get a proper cup of tea. We stopped at a canal-side cafe and ordered two teas. We were eventually served with two cups of tepid water, a tea bag each and a little jug of milk. A cup of tea as she is generally understood could not be obtained from these articles. Desperate, we ordered two cappuccinos. Didn't even know what one of them was.

Italian coffee is as good as it gets. Within five minutes I'd zoomed along the whole length of the road to Damascus.

So when we got home we bought a cheap espresso machine (with our Tesco Clubcard tokens) that could also froth milk. Eschewing pre-ground coffee, we bought a separate grinder. Grinding in a separate gizmo is a pain in the arse but we never looked back. A couple of years ago, we were at a loss as to what to get each other for Christmas, so we bought a mutual bean-to-cup coffee machine. A Delonghi Caffe Corso, a Which Best Buy. It is truly magnificent. We get through a bag of beans a week. We keep the opened beans in an airtight tin in the fridge. Beans lose their sheen after a day from opening the bag but they still make great coffee. I can't imagine resorting to pre-ground coffee. How could it be fresh!

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Oct 17 - 08:36 PM

I use Folger's dark roast, either "Gourmet Supreme" or "Black Silk," and keep it in the cupboard in its plastic container. A three-pound can (which has gradually and subtly been reduced to 1-1/2 pounts) costs me $7 and lasts me a month. I can't be bothered with doing anything special to protect it, and I don't have room in the refrigerator. Tastes good to me. Nobody else drinks my coffee, so maybe that's telling me something. I make it a cup at a time in one of those Melitta funnels with the paper filters.

Now, my parents were very particular about their coffee. I think they stored theirs in a metal can in the refrigerator. And they always had to have Chock full o'Nuts coffee, which none of us offspring actually liked. My siblings speculated that nobody born after 1930 could like that brand. I'd drink it, but in limited quantities.

Wikipedia says there are no nuts in the coffee. The store orginally sold nuts, but switched to selling coffee and sandwiches when the Depression made nuts too expensive.

Chock full o'Nuts is that heavenly coffee,
Heavenly coffee, heavenly coffee.
Chock full o'Nuts is that heavenly coffee,
Better coffee Rockefeller's money can't buy.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: Charmion
Date: 31 Oct 17 - 08:01 AM

We recently moved to a foodie town, population 32,000, with no fewer than five independent coffee roasters whose wares we are sampling to identify our -- actually, Himself's -- favourite. Although we own a coffee mill of the approved burr type, he seems to be buying it ground at present.

We keep most of our coffee in the bag it came in, carefully resealed with as much air as possible expelled. The bag is then stowed in a large ceramic crock. Ready-use espresso coffee is kept in a plastic jar fitted with a vacuum seal that works with a clever little hand pump of the type also used with rubber corks to reseal bottles of wine.

Himself is one of those people who cannot settle down to a specific method of making anything, let alone coffee. We already have every kind of coffee-making technology available in southwestern Ontario, including a Rancilio espresso machine that cost us north of Cdn$800 ten years ago, but he recently purchased a granite-ware coffee pot that would fit right in on the set of Bonanza in order to make coffee "cowboy" style -- i.e., boiled. Personally, I see nothing about the cowboy lifestyle that merits emulation in a 21st-century suburban house with central heating, but this is not the hill I choose to die on. Live and let live, I say, especially if doing so means that (a) Himself is happy, and (b) Himself habitually makes coffee in the morning, sparing me the task.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: Donuel
Date: 31 Oct 17 - 08:21 AM

Charmion, you're funny. I am reminded of Phyllis Diller who knew how to make fun of her husband 'Fang' with distinction.

Is using 'himself' an Irish euphemism?

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: gillymor
Date: 31 Oct 17 - 08:37 AM

How to store coffee

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 31 Oct 17 - 11:33 AM

Well, thanks to all for these great suggestions - and coffee stories.
Joe, you brought me back with the Chock full o nuts song lmao, and the
apt observation that the brand was better appreciated by an older generation.

Charmion you are hilarious and I hope your husband continues to
make coffee for you and the entire Duke Wayne fan club (OT my book club
just finished reading True Grit; yes it was a book, who knew? ) and
the one thing we all agreed on is not a one of us wanted to live in
those pioneer days of sleeping on the cold winter ground outdoors on a
bed of damp straw)

And I am intrigued by the idea of 'easy' cold press- if you re still here,Gilly
more; do you leave the coffee out on the counter or in the
fridge while ' brewing'?

So I ve now learned to keep the coffee as airtight as possible and I m
going for putting the open tin or bag in a ziplock and leaving
it on a dark cool countertop. And next time I am poking around
a flea market or such, I think I'll pick up an airtight container.. Thanks,
cats!

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: gillymor
Date: 31 Oct 17 - 12:17 PM

[On phone]
Here's how I make cold brewed:
1. Put 16 oz spring water into a container
2. Add one heaping scoop of coffee (it will sit on top for awhile and eventually seep down)
3. Let it sit on counter 18-24 hours
4. Drain thru a Melita cone w/filter and in heat in microwave, drink at room temp., orchill in teefer

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: gillymor
Date: 31 Oct 17 - 12:24 PM

Last few words should be or "chill in reefer"
I tried putting it in reefer overnite but the coffee mostly floated on top the water
French press works well too
Might want to experiment til you get it how you like it

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: gillymor
Date: 31 Oct 17 - 12:30 PM

I should add that the "scoop" I refer to is a coffee measure which is probably 1 & 1/2 - 2 oz.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 31 Oct 17 - 12:49 PM

Thanks Gillymor! I always appreciate something easy to do,
and especially that it ' s space- saving, since I have a tiny kitchen (I could say the
mice are hunchbacked, but really, there s not enough room for mice).

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: Mr Red
Date: 01 Nov 17 - 04:35 AM

Satan's vomit

yea, but best drunk warm!

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: Charmion
Date: 01 Nov 17 - 08:05 AM

Hi, Donuel -- In both Scotland and Ireland, Himself (or Herself) is the person of greatest significance in the household, family or clan. The usage is an early modern (i.e., 17th-18th-century) English-language rendering of a Gaelic phrase that translates literally as "him, that one". In my opinion, the best 21st-century translation is "You Know Who", complete with initial caps.

I use it to refer to my husband on Facebook, of which he is not a member, in order to defend his last shreds of Internet privacy. I have noted, however, that he is pleased when I photograph him doing interesting things and post the pics on Facebook ...

Ah, well. What's that line about too great a concern for consistency being the hobgoblin of little minds?

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: leeneia
Date: 02 Nov 17 - 12:11 PM

Hi, Steve. You went to Italy and discovered that coffee can be good. I visited the St David's Welsh Society and discovered that tea can be good. Up till then, I had never understood why people would like tea. Now I know what good tea is.

I can't contribute to the coffee discussion. We've stopped making it, and a pound of year-old ground coffee sits in a ceramic jar next to the stove. But if we used it, we would probably like it just fine.

People recommend buying beans and grinding them, but to me, the sound of a coffee grinder is so loud and ugly that I would not want one in the house.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Nov 17 - 08:55 PM

I was in Richmond in London today on a flying visit. Our son took us to a rather posh pub (which turned out be very nice and not too expensive as it happened) for a spot of lunch. I wanted a pot of tea with mine and I had a very jokey exchange with the waiter to the effect that I didn't want any of that fancy scented muck, just a pot of builder's. He laughed and assured me that they didn't do any of that pretentious stuff. But when it came it was disconcertingly fragrant, totally unlike a pyramid teabag job. I put up with it reluctantly, moaning and groaning to the assembled clan about this bloody soft southern slop, etc. But then I noticed a little tab on the teabag string that gave the origin of the tea as Birchall's Virunga tea from Rwanda, and that buying the tea triggers a contribution to the conservation of mountain gorillas. Jayz, I felt guilty!

As for coffee, the grinding is built into our coffee machine. You're right, a separate grinder is a pain and a deterrent. The built-in machine grinder is noisy, but not as much so, and it's a matter of 20 seconds only. Lately we've taken to having a macchiato every morning, just a stain of milky froth on top of the espresso. Keeps the calories down! I never put sugar in my coffee. I find it totally unpalatable. I will have choccy powder sprinkled on if I go to a coffee shop but we never do that at home.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: Mr Red
Date: 06 Nov 17 - 04:08 AM

30 years ago in Totonto they had a chain of "Real Coffee Company" shops.
They served moccha, mint coffee, and about 12 flavours, one of which may have been coffee, but don't quote me!. When they asked which flavour I suggested "instant". They were not amused!

Totonto specialised in shops with punny names - mabye "Real Coffee" was an in joke.

Subject: RE: BS: Coffee maintenance
From: Hrothgar
Date: 06 Nov 17 - 05:19 AM

Store both tea and coffee in airtight containers, preferably away from light.