What coffee are you drinking just now?

[gentlegreen]

You made me look back at this thread and realise I've varied my technique a fair bit over the years and I've gone from weighing 25 grammes of beans to chucking in two scoops - nearly 32grammes ...

Recent experiments show I haven't been getting all the flavour out using so many beans in so little water - even with frantic stirring to a froth - though I may at least be leaving a little of the caffeine behind.

Anyway today and tomorrow will be a repeat of yesterday as it works well enough and a fresh bag of Guatemala El Bosque should be with me by next weekend.

 

[Hassan I Sabha]

You made me look back at this thread and realise I've varied my technique a fair bit over the years and I've gone from weighing 25 grammes of beans to chucking in two scoops - nearly 32grammes ...

Recent experiments show I haven't been getting all the flavour out using so many beans in so little water - even with frantic stirring to a froth - though I may at least be leaving a little of the caffeine behind.

Anyway today and tomorrow will be a repeat of yesterday as it works well enough and a fresh bag of Guatemala El Bosque should be with me by next weekend.

Consistency is about having a recipe that you follow. There are various recipes and brew methods and it is about finding one you can master & enjoy and sticking to it. This is the same for Espresso, pourover, Aeropress, French Press or CCD.

For Aeropress try these - Recipes

 

[antimata]

on second can of kingfisher this morning no coffee required.....

 

[ringo]

Had a fantastic meal in Milkwood in Herne Hill, if slightly spoiled by my mardy 6 year old daughter, and they were serving Volcano Autumn Blend coffee. Possibly the nicest coffee I've had since a cup of Blue Mountain coffee in the Pelican Restaurant in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Volcano not selling it on their website, probably 'cos its not Autumn any more. Anyone know where to get some?

 

[gentlegreen]

I have most definitely become a heretic.
Today's Guatemala El Bosque is perhaps a bit too freshly roasted, I brewed it for a full 45 seconds with nearly boiling water and I found the second cup made 20 minutes later with the same grounds perfectly decent - really rich ... perhaps I'm nostalgic for the cafétière ...

Not good though - I lost all the health benefits of puck-filtering and I'm caffeined-up to the max.

 

[Cheesypoof]

Lousy coffee from Centra - it's percolator stuff but tasted watery, awful. My first thoughts are of getting some decent stuff when i go shopping...

 

[gentlegreen]

My Aeropress seal is suddenly even looser than ever, so I've had to order a replacement after how many years of two brews per week.
(5 years in February)

Let that be a lesson to you, don't leave the plunger in the barrel (and push out the previous coffee puck the next time you use it) - though I stopped doing that quite a while ago.

EDIT :-

I almost chickened out of using my usual inverted method but found that pouring in boiling water tightened the fit sufficiently.

The inside of the barrel is quite noticeably scored ...

 

[gentlegreen]

Due to my current poor state of health, my first ever decaf beans - which are the same (Hasbean) Guatemala El Bosque beans which I have preferred for years now.
No doubt I will become accustomed to this ..

First attempt was quite rich - more rounded than usual ... I'm stopping short of saying "caramelised" .. I may need to experiment to get the coffee the way I like it.

 

[pogofish]

Some kind of bitter/rum flavoured sludge that one of my colleagues brought into work. Vile but I'm being polite!

 

[Pickman's model]

free coffee for the publick

 

[bi0boy]

This

Not as good as this though despite the coffee in the coffee

 

[gentlegreen]

Has Bean Coffee — Colombia El Meridiano Rioblanco SC Decaffeinated



After weeks of drinking Hasbean's solitary decaf "offering" - my beloved El Bosque which was made lack-lustre by the process, their new one is genuinely very nice indeed - even the second brew from the same grounds. Darkish roast and really fruity - not what I would ordinarily buy - but perhaps tamed by the decaf process. And no annoying residual acidity.

 

[pogofish]

Happy Donkey - "Classic Italian Blend"

Puts hairs on your chest!

Quite strong and robust/well roasted flavour but it smooths-out superbly and very richly when you stick a shot of whisky in it!

I also got four new baskets - which are maybe two grams per shot bigger than the old ones!

 

[Hassan I Sabha]

Gashonga from Rwanda from the excellent Foundry Coffee in Sheffield - Lovely coffee. Also just finishing some Costa Rican beans from Iron and Fire roasters in Shropshire.

 

[Virtual Blue]

...much better than any coffee shop in London.

 

[Sue]

I am currently not drinking a weak, tepid beverage that East Coast Mainline claims is coffee. And without walking to the toilets a couple of carriages down, there's nowhere to dispose of it. They've had proper coffee on the West Coast Mainline for years.

 

[bi0boy]

I got some ground coffee from M&S, it doesn't actually doesn't taste of coffee at all, more like watery caramel.

 

[pug]

Aldi special Guatemalan beans, the best coffee I've had this year.

 

[Libertad]

Tesco's French #5, it's shit but it works.

 

[gentlegreen]

I messed up on the bean ordering front, so my weekend brew was made using truly ancient El Salvador beans that have been sitting in a scrunched up bag in a mashed potato canister for 18 months (I was amazed to check back in this thread to discover they were that young ...)

A somewhat chewy grinding experience and after a generous minute of brewing with a lot of stirring the result almost tastes like coffee.
I still probably prefer it to Carte Noir instant.

The emphasis is on bitterness - which my sweaty brow tells me was largely down to the caffeine I have been avoiding this year - thus adding another dimension to the experiment.

 

[Hassan I Sabha]

I joined a coffee secret santa this year (Third Wave Wichteln) and received some very drinkable coffee from Cologne (1 x Ethiopian, 1 x Costa Rican & 1 x Kenyan) which I am currently enjoying alongside some Ethiopian Rocko Mountain Reserve that was roasted in Sheffield.

 

[pengaleng]

nespresso.

what else?

 

[pogofish]

Segafredo espresso and a bit of dark chocolate in Bavaria - it always seems to taste so much better here. Maybe they get a different blend compared to the UK?

Befor I left I was drinking a 50/50 mix of Guatemalan "Honey" unwashed coffee and Mysore. Heavenly stuff!

 

[mrs quoad]

I joined a coffee secret santa this year (Third Wave Wichteln) and received some very drinkable coffee from Cologne (1 x Ethiopian, 1 x Costa Rican & 1 x Kenyan) which I am currently enjoying alongside some Ethiopian Rocko Mountain Reserve that was roasted in Sheffield.

Is that those Barn bastards?

I was forced to buy an extraordinarily overpriced bag by a shop in Manchester that I'd sought out for Square Mile.

It reminded me why I always invariably revert to square mile. (The one exception being sth like The Collective, whose wares I had forced on me by another Manc coffee shop that should have held Sq Mile. Whose beans turned out to be pretty darned decent, but way overpriced compared to SqM). Harsh roast of an acidic bean, and a total mess of a cup any which way I brewed it.

For fourteen ducking quid. Half the bag's still st work, some months later. Would prefer to waste £7 than force myself to brew up that shit.

Or perhaps you're talking about another German roaster

 

[mrs quoad]

Ah. Clearly not.

I see the Barn is in Berlin.

Still.

Fuck em. Hideous coffee wankers.

 

[Cid]

Have you come across Ozone? They roast the beans for my local trendy Coffee makers (Tamper, Sheffield). I tend to default to that because I just have to walk over when I run out, rather than having to wait for Square Mile delivery. Seasonal blend £7/250g... Which is quite expensive now that I think about it, given SM is 350g. Maybe I'll go back to them.

 

[Voley]

Hasbean's Christmas Espresso blend which is meant to taste like fruit cake and notes of snowman and stuff but really just tastes like coffee. Good coffee mind.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Tim Horton's Double Double Decaf.

 

[Hassan I Sabha]

Ah. Clearly not.

I see the Barn is in Berlin.

Still.

Fuck em. Hideous coffee wankers.

Was a small roaster called Ernst.

Have had Barn beans and they were very good, I preferred their filter roasts to espresso. Very nice via a Chemex. Man vs Machine are also another great German roaster. I tend not to pay full price as I get them via a dedicated coffee forum. I also tend to pay more for filter beans than espresso beans as I find them a lot easier to get the maximum potential out of.

Foundry are a great UK roaster as are Rave who are very well priced.

 

[pogofish]

Piacetto Espresso. Nice body but a bit burned/bitter taste. Not a favorite but it's thawing me out nicely after a walk in ghostly/frosty misty woods.