What coffee are you drinking just now?

[Mogden]

Well that was unexpected. Knock on the door. My coffee has been hand delivered! Presumably less effort than getting to the PO and what not but that's seriously good customer service.

The coffee came with a business card giving ratios, coffee & water amounts for different methods. Keen as mustard to get it on and so it was a quick job through my filter machine but the results are bloody good. Smells very much freshly roasted, I would assume this morning, and the flavour is so nice and round I'm having no trouble drinking it black which is my sign for a decent brew. I'm almost sure I've had/have a touch of the corona so my tastebuds are a bit wobbly now and again but are in check today. Goos mouthfeel too. Will try it in my V60 and/or Aeropress at some point but I'm mid kitchen shufflings.

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I ordered the Tobacco Road, trying to find that smokey note in a better quality coffee and this one might be it.

Also ordered the Ethiopian and look forward to trying that. Thankfully I'm caffeine immune so I could put that on later and still sleep like a drunk baby tonight

 

[chilango]

Just arrived and brewed up.

It's good. Tasting notes surprisingly spot on. Heady aroma.

 

[izz]

Right caffeine addicts, I used to be on Aldi's Italian style which was lush, round, chocolatey, brown sugar. They have 'improved the recipe' and it's nowhere near as good. Is there anything else in supermarkets which sounds like the original ? I think Taylor's Italian is closest but it's still nowhere near good enough for me.

Recommendations please

 

[gentlegreen]

I hope never to taste instant coffee again but someone might find this useful.
I hope I find he's done the same with supermarket ground...

 

[Orang Utan]

I hope never to taste instant coffee again but someone might find this useful.
I hope I find he's done the same with supermarket ground...

Interesting remarks there. I’m one of those folk who prefers instant but only with milk. Instant black is too harsh, but generally I find ground coffee to have the qualities this fella is saying is characteristic of instant coffee - bitter and unpleasant tasting.
and he didn’t try Douwe & Egbert!

 

[gentlegreen]

and he didn’t try Douwe & Egbert!

It's a shame he didn't give the whole results list - but Douwe & Egbert is in the thumbnail

The last time I got romantically involved I was led down the sinful path of "Carte Noire" - which isn't in the photo .

I actually have a fairly low tolerance for caffeine which may help explain why I'm happy to pay the extra and take the time to make good coffee. One scoop of beans a day is all I can handle - I'm still feeling it 3 hours later ... and it costs me about 44p - though I shelled out £50 for my grinder and Aeropress in 2011 - I think I can safely write that off now

The oddest thing is I stayed with some champagne communist French pharmacists in 1976 who ate and drank very well, but they used to finish dinner with chicory instant coffee.

 

[Mogden]

If I want instant I have a tub of Millicano which I find palatable. I think of instant coffee as a coffee flavoured drink in the same vein as those foam banana sweets are banana flavoured sweets, they were never supposed to have a real banana taste. I have some because sometimes I want that imitation flavour rather than the real deal.

 

[kalidarkone]

I'm having Taylor's Lava Java -I ground it and yes it's a nice meaty coffee. I think I will order some wogan.

 

[pogofish]

Currently its Modern Standard Guatemalan, which came as a substitution in an online shop - and a very pleasant surprise it is too!

Another I’ve discovered recently is Wogan Coffee’s Josh Eggleton blend - really rich, smooth and enjoyable to drink, esp in a smaller/flat white form. So this time I’ve ordered 500g alongside my usual kilo and a half of Monsooned Malabar beans.

 

[pogofish]

and he didn’t try Douwe & Egbert!

That’s a good move!

I’m always bemused by its being marketed as a premium brand in the U.K. - when I first discovered it via my Dutch relatives, it was unquestionably the cheapest of cheap-shit coffee in their home market.

 

[Orang Utan]

I like it

 

[gentlegreen]

Posh instant.

 

[gentlegreen]

I'm having Taylor's Lava Java -I ground it and yes it's a nice meaty coffee. I think I will order some wogan.

I never thought you would get through those kilos of coffee you got from that Bristol roaster a while back !

I'm going to have a dilemma later - do I continue with my near-optimum combo or actually finish my least favourite of the three coffees I have at the moment ...

My decision may depend on whether I can get my colleagues to bundle up my mail from my desk when they send me my specially-built work laptop next week or the week after ...

 

[chilango]

Really enjoying the Bolivian Taxi posted above, but got some Pact House Blend on order next.

 

[Roadkill]

River City Colombian.

 

[gentlegreen]

So how much does posh instant cost per cup ?
Or cheap, come to that ?
I see that carte noire is £4 for 100g ...

I was amazed last year to realise that my bottom of the barrel Oolong costs about 30 times as much per cup as PG Tips industrial teabags - which are 1p per bag - so is there a political dimension to this ?

Mrs Quoad used to swear that good instant is consistently better than badly made ground coffee, but I would beg to differ - having been forced recently to drink my six month old emergency beans which were somewhat chewy - and still on balance I reckon beat Carte Noire - which is characterless, but not completely disgusting

 

[weltweit]

Just had a Starbucks chilled frappachino, grossly overpriced at £2.00, worth every penny.

 

[kalidarkone]

Currently its Modern Standard Guatemalan, which came as a substitution in an online shop - and a very pleasant surprise it is too!

Another I’ve discovered recently is Wogan Coffee’s Josh Eggleton blend - really rich, smooth and enjoyable to drink, esp in a smaller/flat white form. So this time I’ve ordered 500g alongside my usual kilo and a half of Monsooned Malabar beans.

Just subscribed to Wogan for a delivery once a month for 3 months and bought some Nicuagrian Femina and two different kinds of Bastille and the Josh Egerton blend.

 

[gentlegreen]

So it seems I'm making weak coffee only fit for making into a milky drink...



I've never tasted good espresso - perhaps I need to make a special trip to my local roaster once they're serving coffee again ...

 

[gentlegreen]

Boringly I've just ordered 250 more grammes of the Brazilian Carmo estate from Hasbean to blend with the other two chocolatey coffees I have - so I'm good for a month - at which point I may try two different ones from my local roaster ...

EDIT and a bag of the other brazillian arrived with my work laptop, so I'm OK for at least two months ...
I almost wish I had a better tolerance for caffeine so I could taste more coffees ...

 

[gentlegreen]

I thought I would try to quantify my coffee brewing ...

One scoop of coffee beans 18.5g - 19g on my big scale.
water added = 189 (with cap and filter = 208) = 170g water
brewed 1 minute to 90 secs, relatively fast press.
coffee produced 147g - which I tend to dilute a bit.
With my current blend, I get a smidgen of acceptable weak coffee as a second infusion.
My 150ml of coffee made from 19g of beans still goes down much too quickly - along with 500kcals of toast and PNB - and that's as much caffeine as I can take for the whole day. Apparently that's equivalent to a generous "double shot" ...

so that's 19:147 7.7:1

So significantly under half the concentration of normal espresso.

Using traditional Italian espresso nomenclature, we'll refer to a brew ratio of 1:1 (18 grams in / 18 grams out, for example) to 1:2 (18 grams in / 36 grams out) as a “ristretto” espresso; a 1:2 to a 1:3 ratio as a “normale” espresso; and a 1:3 to 1:4 ratio as a “lungo” espresso.

Brew Ratios Around the World - La Marzocco

Written by Ben Blake/Scott Callender Brewing espresso seems like a pretty straightforward process, but there are actually quite a few variables that we’re looking to control and balance at one […]

au.lamarzoccohome.com

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I grew up in 70s suburbia - well away from café culture - where I tried Nescafé instant once and decided I didn't like "coffee".
Tasting home made (stovetop) around 1980 was a revelation .. and for a long time after that I drank filter - often with pre-ground coffee and then latterly beans smashed up in a whizzer and brewed in a FP.

For the past 9 years it's been exclusively hand-ground single estate and an Aeropress ... which by default made the process more standardised (I had some bad experiences of heading into town with my head spinning after random amounts of FP coffee on a weekend.)
I thought until recently that I was simply drinking "good" coffee...

In spite of hanging around here with advice from Quoady et al, it was only a few years ago when coffee caught on at work that I saw my colleagues drinking tiny espresso shots and I realised a lot of people were drinking much stronger coffee than me and that espresso was not simply an efficient and rapid method of extraction and was more like the difference between coca tea and cocaine...

I confess I still don't "get" it ... I used to start my working day with a cycle ride and oolong... (coffee only when I'm home).
I can see I'm going to have to make the effort to try proper espresso at least once at my favourite coffee roaster - I have several non-chain places near me, but I'm somewhat suspicious of the likely quality.
When I had a disappointing experience at work with "burnt acorn americano", I was patronised by the "barrista" (lol) when I asked about the beans being used - though I see now that perhaps the sort of beans I like might not work as espresso and need a decent brew.

 

[Chz]

Tried "Full Send" from 47 Degrees.

If you like your coffee smooth and soothing, I can recommend it. My wife loves it. I hate it.

 

[chilango]

Easy drinking, clean and refreshing. This arrived today. It's good. Especially after a day on an Aldi Kenyan coffee that I'd bought as a back up.

 

[gentlegreen]

So why do people prefer their particular methods ?
Do people who drink full-strength espresso shots also drink weaker coffee at other times ?

 

[Chz]

I prefer espresso because that's what the machine makes. On a slightly more serious note, it's also because we don't drink enough coffee to justify a bean to cup filter machine. I always find that filter just doesn't work well for single servings. I make a flat white out of it, the mrs has a black americano.

 

[gentlegreen]

I find it somewhat scary that before I got my Aeropress, I don't recall weighing the coffee I was putting in my cafetière - so I sometimes overdosed on caffeine ...

 

[chilango]

So why do people prefer their particular methods ?
Do people who drink full-strength espresso shots also drink weaker coffee at other times ?

I like espresso, and used to make that at home (but it was never as good) but since getting a V60 have never looked back. It gives a lovely, clear, bright coffee and you can taste the difference between different types of bean etc. It's also a nice ritual.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I switched back to buying beans from Sainsbury's after having a sub to Hasbean and I have to say that, even if I couldn't identify all the flavours of chocolate and weasels etc mentioned in the tasting notes, the coffee I made from their beans was a whole lot nicer. I think I'll restart it next week.

 

[gentlegreen]

I switched back to buying beans from Sainsbury's after having a sub to Hasbean and I have to say that, even if I couldn't identify all the flavours of chocolate and weasels etc mentioned in the tasting notes, the coffee I made from their beans was a whole lot nicer. I think I'll restart it next week.

How do you brew yours ?
I've been afraid to try supermarket beans just in case I like them and regret paying a whole 55p to 77p per brew for hasbean ...
I reckon to get the lychee and licorice you would need to brew it a special way with special water ...

But some of these coffee people are a bit weird. (/Alan Partridge)
I watched some of James Hoffman's Barrista championship video from when he was younger and he put actual tobacco in his biscotti thing - but then that was when Heston Blumenthal was still in vogue ...

 

[editor]

Sainsbury's espresso beans, freshly ground in cheap-but-effective grinder. Really like this coffee.