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GrAviTy84 posted:Intelli roasts a few different beans throughout the year so it could be any number of options. Do you remember what you got? Less acidic with sweeter tones sounds like anything from a Brazillian to an Indonesian coffee. I'm pretty sure it was just a cup of their pour over (my wife picked it up for me). I figure I'll just get a sampler from Sweet Maria's and try different origins to explore different flavors. Hopefully I get a Brazilian or Indo pack and get that sweeter stuff for my wife. Google Butt posted:I made a video that may or may not convince you to purchase and electrically modify the West Bend Air Crazy ($20 from Target). I actually have one of the West Bends that I picked up from Target a couple of months ago. It's still sitting in the Target bag since I haven't had a chance to get some beans and give the roasting a go. I currently have an Aeropress, but I may be picking up a pour over setup once I get roasting. I still need to pick up a decent grinder but can't decide on whether I should spring for a Baratza or settle with a cheaper Capresso Infinity. edit: When you use your West Bend, how long does it typically take to get to first crack? I know it probably depends on the ambient temperature, but what's your best estimate? Cyborganizer fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Jan 17, 2013 |
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Jan 17, 2013 18:08
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ded posted:
The reason I order from so far away is loyalty and the fact that this guy showed me the difference between store brand and home roasted coffee so I guess my question is, does it really matter that it is shipped to me or would I notice a difference in quality if I buy locally? I will only be doing FP for now nothing fancy no crazy machines or anything. For some odd reason I miss military coffee I think it is something like how I enjoy rot gut cheap vodka from time to time.
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Jan 17, 2013 19:07
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meno257 posted:The reason I order from so far away is loyalty and the fact that this guy showed me the difference between store brand and home roasted coffee so I guess my question is, does it really matter that it is shipped to me or would I notice a difference in quality if I buy locally? I will only be doing FP for now nothing fancy no crazy machines or anything. The only worries I would have with shipping is freshness of roast (< 2weeks, preferably less, so you could still store it for a week or so as you consume it) and compounding cost of shipping. I will warn, local roasters can be lovely, so don't just assume they're going to be good. To a lot of us, finding good coffee is an on going process. So, though we may find a steady source of quality beans, or roast great coffee at home, it doesn't mean that we've stopped looking or won't try new places/methods. French press is actually about as close to "cupping" (the method bulk buyers and coffee tasters use to judge the quality of the coffee they are buying/judging) as you can get without actually cupping, so don't sell it short.
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Jan 17, 2013 19:20
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A few months ago I had a good cup of coffee at a friends house and realized that the extremely stale coffee I have been blade grinding(chopping) and drip brewing for the past 10 years of my life could be used as a form of torture. I am ready to get rid of my Mr. Coffee and my Senso pod brewer to invest in some serious hardware. I am also planning on getting into home roasting with the Poppery 2 I already own and/or buying directly from a roaster down the street from me that serves far better coffee than what I can currently make. After reading every post in this thread I have compiled a list of what I want and think I should get but I need a little advice. A Clever Coffee Dripper. I was thinking I might get two depending on how easy/hard it is for me to meet the coffee demand of both my girlfriend and I with just one. This will most likely be the main source of hot brewed coffee in my house. Any advice on how many mouths a CCD can satisfy? An aeropress. A french press. A mypressi TWIST. I am still on the fence for this one and it depends on what I can get away with for a grinder. Either way with it being sold out this a "in a few months" purchase. A digital scale. This model got recommended a few times. I already brew with a Toddy and would like to know if this scale can work with that much weight on it. The manufactures site says it has a capacity of 2000g / 70.55oz / 64.30ozt / 1286dwt but since I don't already have a scale I have no idea how heavy a fully loaded Toddy actually is. I know cold brew is pretty forgiving but it seems like it would be so much easier to just tare out the scale while filling the Toddy. Grinder(s). This is where I need the most help. When I started reading the thread I had no interest in making espresso due to concerns of counter space in my house. The mypressi TWIST looks like it would be fun to play around with though and while I might not buy one right away I don't want to limit myself in the future. The current coffee consumption for my household is cold brew during the week and hot on the weekends when we have more time at home to invest in a hobby like this. With that in mind I was thinking I could get away with a 'cheaper' automatic grinder like the Baratza Virtuoso or Preciso (Refurb) to handle the Toddy, CCD, Aeropress, and French Press. And getting a slightly more expensive manual grinder like the OE LIDO to handle the mypressi TWIST. Note: Another reason I was looking into the LIDO was to leave myself the option of bringing a CCD to work to make a good cup in the office AND depending on how crazy I get I might want to bring it with me when I travel. I was also looking at Turkish coffee brewing and thinking I might want to try that eventually. Can the powdered grinds required for it be produced by any of the grinders I mentioned? Thanks for all the advice in this thread already and thanks for any guidance on where to put my money.
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Jan 17, 2013 19:47
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GrAviTy84 posted:The only worries I would have with shipping is freshness of roast (< 2weeks, preferably less, so you could still store it for a week or so as you consume it) and compounding cost of shipping. I will warn, local roasters can be lovely, so don't just assume they're going to be good. To a lot of us, finding good coffee is an on going process. So, though we may find a steady source of quality beans, or roast great coffee at home, it doesn't mean that we've stopped looking or won't try new places/methods. French press is actually about as close to "cupping" (the method bulk buyers and coffee tasters use to judge the quality of the coffee they are buying/judging) as you can get without actually cupping, so don't sell it short. HAH roger so basically what you are saying is that I have just started a eternal quest for the perfect cup dam I hate you guys for getting me addicted. Real soon I will probably be on here talking about my home roast and coming up with all kinds of fruity berry descriptions.
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Jan 17, 2013 20:01
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I'm going to try out the Rwanda coffee that Sweet Maria's currently offers. My other pound, I was thinking Guatemala. Out of the two available (http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee.central.guatemala.php?source=side) does anyone have any experiences with them? I'm okay with just choosing one, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.
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Jan 17, 2013 20:38
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Doh004 posted:I'm going to try out the Rwanda coffee that Sweet Maria's currently offers. My other pound, I was thinking Guatemala. Out of the two available (http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee.central.guatemala.php?source=side) does anyone have any experiences with them? I'm okay with just choosing one, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. Each country has different regions has different growers who use different processes and whose crops change from year to year. Your best resource for picking should be Tom's cupping and origin notes since anyone who may have tasted *region* *farm* in the past's experiences will be different from this lot.
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Jan 17, 2013 21:13
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GrAviTy84 posted:Each country has different regions has different growers who use different processes and whose crops change from year to year. Your best resource for picking should be Tom's cupping and origin notes since anyone who may have tasted *region* *farm* in the past's experiences will be different from this lot. That's what I've been doing. code:
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Jan 17, 2013 21:34
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meno257 posted:For some odd reason I miss military coffee I think it is something like how I enjoy rot gut cheap vodka from time to time. The only good thing about military coffee was how it kept me awake on watch. I've had very few cups of coffee that tasted worse in my life.
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Jan 17, 2013 21:56
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Just want to thank the thread for finally pushing me into buying an aeropress. I've been looking at them for months (years?) but never bought one until yesterday, it arrived this afternoon and I'm about to brew my first cup with it. I also went out and found a local roaster near me to buy beans and am pretty excited to try it out. I bought a guatemalan from them that sounded good and since i don't have a good grinder and probably won't get one anytime soon I just had them do a fine grind for me on the 1/2lbs I bought.
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Jan 17, 2013 23:47
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ded posted:The only good thing about military coffee was how it kept me awake on watch. I've had very few cups of coffee that tasted worse in my life. or throwing a lip of folgers in from the MRES
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Jan 18, 2013 00:13
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I am definitely budgeting for a Behmor roaster some time this year as I spent $720 ($60/month) on roasted coffee being shipped to me from Verve/Temple/SweetMarias/Peerless during 2012. I go through 3 lbs per month on average so it should pay for itself in 6 months. Already have 5 lbs of greenies from SM to use on my whirly pop in the time being.
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Jan 18, 2013 00:32
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This whole past year when I couldn't make a drinkable pour over was because of that lovely Bodum Bistro grinder. I want that time back because there's not enough of it in the day to catch up on all this delicious coffee I want inside me.
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Jan 18, 2013 03:41
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meno257 posted:So I just wanted to post on here for the first time and say that I hate you all. I was perfectly happy with my blade grinder and drip coffee till I came upon this forum. 20 pages in I already had 10 or so tabs open trying to find the best equipment. So since you all killed my love for drip coffee I thought I should tell you my findings. I just did my first french press with a horio grinder nothing fancy but with my budget it works. For my coffee I used my left over drip coffee from my micro roster back home that will ship to me. At this point the coffee is many many months old been sitting in the freezer so granted cant expect much. Plus I know I need to do allot of fine tuning with the amount and time, but even with all of those negatives GD it is a mighty fine cup of coffee, and not what I was expecting with a french press. No sludge or grinds a perfect oily thick cup, it is so good that I have to readjust my taste buds to accept GOOD coffee. So ya I hate you all you ruined my lazy easy cup of joe. Wondering if you could give me a opinion on my micro roster that I order from he is up in Boston and I am here in Texas, should I find someone closer or is this fine? I know in my limited experience, of military coffee, folgers and this guy,that his coffee is dam good. Sometimes it sucks to look behind the curtain. Reality you didn't know existed rolls over you. Then you find out there's more curtains. 
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Jan 18, 2013 07:56
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I'm really glad I bought a $5 thermometer. I was wondering why my coffee in the aeropress tasted so bitter and it turns out the water was too hot and was burning the grounds. They smelled wonderful when I ground it but after I took a sip it was just foul so I knew I was doing something wrong. Get a $5 thermometer.
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Jan 19, 2013 00:06
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Mu Zeta posted:I'm really glad I bought a $5 thermometer. I was wondering why my coffee in the aeropress tasted so bitter and it turns out the water was too hot and was burning the grounds. They smelled wonderful when I ground it but after I took a sip it was just foul so I knew I was doing something wrong. Get a $5 thermometer. What I've always done is bring water to a boil on the stove. After it's boiling, remove it from heat and let it sit for 45 seconds to a minute, then pour over your grounds. That's for a french press, though, I've heard an Aeropress works better at lower temperatures.
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Jan 19, 2013 05:14
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Cyborganizer posted:I'm pretty sure it was just a cup of their pour over (my wife picked it up for me). I figure I'll just get a sampler from Sweet Maria's and try different origins to explore different flavors. Hopefully I get a Brazilian or Indo pack and get that sweeter stuff for my wife. Somewhere in between 3-4 minutes. I've found a chimney helps big time. I ordered a glass chimney (for oil lamps) and first crack came at 3:15-3:30, second crack at 7:20. I noticed that both cracks were much louder and defined using this glass chimney. I usually take the chimney off midway through first crack to stretch the roast.
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Jan 19, 2013 07:44
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Mu Zeta posted:I'm really glad I bought a $5 thermometer. I was wondering why my coffee in the aeropress tasted so bitter and it turns out the water was too hot and was burning the grounds. They smelled wonderful when I ground it but after I took a sip it was just foul so I knew I was doing something wrong. Get a $5 thermometer. Even better is a Thermopen. I realize most people scoff at the price and it took me a few years to take the plunge but I swear up and down every time I am forced to use a slow-to-read/inaccurate crap thermometer at someone else's house now. Best kitchen gadget ever. Astronaut Jones fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Jan 19, 2013 |
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Jan 19, 2013 18:45
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Now is a great time to get one since they're having an open box sale. 69bux  Edit: link http://www.thermoworks.com/products...aign=openbox-cs GrAviTy84 fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Jan 19, 2013 |
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Jan 19, 2013 19:52
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GrAviTy84 posted:Now is a great time to get one since they're having an open box sale. 69bux I wish I didn't own one already. Yes, it is 69 bucks for a theremometer, but it is worth every dollar of the 100 bux usual price. Seriously, if you get one you will never be able to use another without feeling you're in the 20s.
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Jan 19, 2013 21:28
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God drat it, here I go buying more poo poo. Thanks a lot Gravity.
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Jan 19, 2013 22:00
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Get it get it get it. I love mine, and even though I pretty much use it exclusively for coffee, it's been more than worth its money.
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Jan 19, 2013 22:26
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I've been playing around with good coffee at home for a couple years and have mostly dabbled with single origin stuff in french press and aeropress and doing cold extracts (Toddy) of low-acid dark roasts for iced coffee in the summer. Lately I've decided to start messing around with espresso. I have a pretty good (but not very user-friendly) setup of a Rancilio Rocky grinder and a Silvia v3. I've been working on technique and am pulling pretty good shots, 26 second ristrettos at about a 70% ratio. Now I'm looking for new beans. I've been using local roaster Batdorf and Bronson's Dancing Goats blend; I like it but it works better in milk drinks. I'm looking for a good Italian dolce style roast/blend - really strong, chocolate/nut/caramel flavors, low acid (just enough to keep things balanced). I just ordered a pound and a half of Counter Culture's Toscano to play around with. I've enjoyed stuff in the past from Bluebottle, Stumptown, and Intelligentsia and have been hearing lots of good stuff about Klatch's espresso on other forums but the prices are a bit higher than the others I listed. Anyone have a suggestion for a good espresso blend that meets the above requirements? Bonus points if the roaster is around Atlanta (or at least has retail in the area and solid enough distribution that I can buy within a week of roasting). Edit: User friendly would also be a huge plus. Something that can handle a bit of variance in temperature (no PID) and dose (hopperless grinder and too lazy to pull out a scale every time) would be extremely helpful. Lawen fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Jan 20, 2013 |
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Jan 20, 2013 02:03
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To be honest, even if you had a doser I'd suggest pulling out your scale every time if you are only making 1-2 drinks. I can "eyeball" my doses pretty accurately but I still think weighing is the way to go. I had a Silvia and Rocky at one point, my advice to you as far as hardware goes is a) Get a "click clack" lid for your Rocky, it makes purging retained coffee 100x easier, and b) Get an Auber PID kit and install it. Temp surfing sucks. A PID will improve your shots quite a bit (at least it did for me), as it eliminates all of the guess work. I love Cappuccinos, so eventually I got tired of pulling shots, flipping on the steam and having to wait ~2 minutes before it came up to temp before I could steam and bought a DB, but at least with a PID you know when it's "go" time. Also, if you like CCC, give Apollo a shot.
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Jan 20, 2013 03:02
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So I had a Kenya today that had a very dry mouthfeel and a distinct olive aroma/taste. I dunno how appealing that sounds to most of you but it was like drinking a perfect coffee martini and it was fantastic to me. Also the Big Central Region Barista Competition is being held this weekend in KC. Anyone follow those kinds of things? I was going to to today but missed it. Might hit up the Brewer's Cup finals and see the award ceremony tomorrow, though.
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Jan 20, 2013 03:07
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GrAviTy84 posted:Now is a great time to get one since they're having an open box sale. 69bux Have had mine for a few years now and love it. Worth full retail.
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Jan 20, 2013 15:47
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GrAviTy84 posted:Now is a great time to get one since they're having an open box sale. 69bux I have been waiting a long time to make the plunge, and at 69bux I can't say no. Thanks!
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Jan 20, 2013 19:04
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GrAviTy84 posted:Now is a great time to get one since they're having an open box sale. 69bux I'd be stupid not to spend the money! thanks for the heads up
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Jan 20, 2013 19:48
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I just spent $50 in just coffee (and a donut) at intellegensia. I see it as money well spent. Coffee thread, I think I'm broken.
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Jan 21, 2013 00:05
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I see that Intelligentsia is offering some Geisha coffee. Anyone had a chance to try it, or any Geisha coffee period? Even at $80/.5lb, I'm tempted to try it
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Jan 21, 2013 09:13
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Does it include an actual geisha? 
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Jan 21, 2013 13:38
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I had some geisha at Villa Rica, Peru and brought back a small bag. I liked it quite a bit, but I certainly wouldn't pay 80 bucks a pound or whatever..
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Jan 21, 2013 15:40
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I love Intelligentsia. They are the ones who introduced me to coffee beyond Charbucks. I try to visit them every time I go to Chicago. With that said, their roasted beans are outrageously priced. They typically charge 30-50% higher. I've seen Geisha coffee for less than 50 dollars for 12 ounces at places like Klatch, which I consider on par with Intelligentsia.
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Jan 21, 2013 16:44
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GODDAMN FOOL posted:I see that Intelligentsia is offering some Geisha coffee. Anyone had a chance to try it, or any Geisha coffee period? Even at $80/.5lb, I'm tempted to try it I have some still from a 2 lb bag of green I bought from Sweet Marias. They're awesome. Intense, Bright, floral, berry-like. Pretty fun, expensive though. Mine is Panama Esmeralda Gesha.
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Jan 21, 2013 17:57
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marmot25 posted:For my Hario I usually try to obtain something like this. I tend to pour slightly faster at first to get the bloom to rise up and out (all after pre-wetting the grounds of course.) Different coffees bloom differently though, especially depending on how fresh the beans are. Ok, I'm about a week into my CCD and I'm wondering how much I need to agitate the grinds. Do I need to be doing something like the V60 here above? I'm worried that because my grinds go in at the bottom and I don't stir it too vigorously (since I broke my filter doing so), I'm not reaching the grinds at the bottom of the Clever.
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Jan 21, 2013 19:11
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GODDAMN FOOL posted:I see that Intelligentsia is offering some Geisha coffee. Anyone had a chance to try it, or any Geisha coffee period? Even at $80/.5lb, I'm tempted to try it Yes, a cup of that was part of my $50. It was pretty darn good. That said, not sure it was $60 better than some of the great keynans and ethopians.
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Jan 21, 2013 19:26
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nm posted:Yes, a cup of that was part of my $50. It was pretty darn good. That said, not sure it was $60 better than some of the great keynans and ethopians. Yea, I've yet to try it and I'm kind of skeptical on whether the flavor of Geisha is really as powerful and complex as they say it is or if the price is just that high because they want it to be (low supply nonwithstanding)
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Jan 21, 2013 21:12
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GODDAMN FOOL posted:Yea, I've yet to try it and I'm kind of skeptical on whether the flavor of Geisha is really as powerful and complex as they say it is or if the price is just that high because they want it to be (low supply nonwithstanding) The best I can describe the stuff I had was a yirgacheffe but no where near as acidic. Definitely worth having, but I wouldn't want to buy a pound or even half pound roasted.
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Jan 21, 2013 21:22
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GODDAMN FOOL posted:Yea, I've yet to try it and I'm kind of skeptical on whether the flavor of Geisha is really as powerful and complex as they say it is or if the price is just that high because they want it to be (low supply nonwithstanding) Unlike Kopi Luwak and JBM (and Kona in some ways), the Geisha market is entirely for coffee super spergs. So, yeah, I think it's definitely worth trying at least once (for now) until it gets completely over blown and quality suffers because of it.
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Jan 21, 2013 22:31
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nm posted:Yes, a cup of that was part of my $50. It was pretty darn good. That said, not sure it was $60 better than some of the great keynans and ethopians. How much is a cup at Intelli? "part" leads me to believe you spent $25 on a donut.
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Jan 21, 2013 22:56
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