Silly Commuter Coffee

itboffin

NGale wrote:

my personal choice of coffee

made in a stove top coffee make

Sigh!

Amateur :P

NGale

itboffin wrote:

NGale wrote:

my personal choice of coffee

made in a stove top coffee make

Sigh!

Amateur :P

heck I like it and I've tried pretty much all types of coffee. Its the one I come back to each time.

Ands

meanredspider wrote:

I stick with the Illy because I can source it locally. Choice is rather limited in the Highlands (though, bizarrely, there's a Belgian chocolate shop nearby that serves the most incredible hot chocolate that's nothing like anything I've ever tasted - even in 3 years of living in Brussels). I'm afraid that if I discover some mail-order stuff, I'll bankrupt myself.

Ooh - time to fire up the Gaggia

How about coffee with tones of chocolate? I'm drinking a rather lovely Colombian from HasBean at the mo (only ~£4-5 a bag, so cheaper than Illy) which has an amazing dark chocolate taste. (Unfortunately, as I've just re-joined the world of commuting (new job - which is why I've been lurking over here a bit ) I'm having to resort to the on-site Starbucks for my daily fix as I don't have time to make one at home ) . Go on, give the mail order a try.....HasBean are great!

sjacob33

My rig
got it on special as well winner

itboffin

Goooood morning

First cuppa of Monmouth dispatched 8)

itboffin

itboffin wrote:

Goooood morning

First cuppa of Monmouth dispatched 8)

Two

Three

:?

itboffin

Well well seems i'm now less than half a mile from Monmouth street - SUPER!!!!!

pangolin

Finally got round to getting a Moka Express. Delicious.

What do people usually do if they have milk? Just add a little? Or treat it like espresso and add a lot to make a sort of latte? I know it's not as strong as espresso, but if you're having a mug full then the filling it up with what comes out of a stove top is quite strong no?

Kieran_Burns

My Italian colleague has just given me a Ferrero pocket coffee sweet. Apparently it contains a really strong espresso centre.

If I start posting gibberish in about 20 minutes, you'll know why

Gussio

In the market for a coffee machine. Currently using a stove top pot, which is OK but not great. Have around £300 to spend and was originally thinking of a Gaggia. Now had my head turned by a Nespresso rig. Should I stay traditional or go newfangled? Who is making the best makers, so to speak?

Irvinet

Gussio wrote:

In the market for a coffee machine. Currently using a stove top pot, which is OK but not great. Have around £300 to spend and was originally thinking of a Gaggia. Now had my head turned by a Nespresso rig. Should I stay traditional or go newfangled? Who is making the best makers, so to speak?

Have had a Nespresso for years and very, very happy with it.

Pros
- Quick and easy
- Clean and tidy!
- Consistently very good espresso(really)

Cons
- More expensive per-cup than other options
- Stuck in the Nespresso loop. You can only buy coffee from them
- Obviously not at the quality that you could get from fresh beans -> good grinder -> good machine operated by someone who knows what they are doing.

If you don't mind the extra running cost and are not really looking to become a master of the fine art of espresso making then the Nespressos are great.

itboffin

Oh dear I've run out of monmouth coffee :shock:

How much would a taxi to London be?

joeytwobastards

Gaggia Baby Dose, cleaned more regularly than my bike.
Krups burr grinder.
Lucaffe coffee (Espresso Bar, Mama Lucia or Mr Exclusive).

The last is the most important, as long as the grinder is burr not blade and the machine is 15 bar.

Anyone drinking Lavazza, try Lucaffe, and curse me for the rest of your life for showing you how it should taste. Even the super-obsessive bloke at my favourite restaurant says that Lucaffe is "acceptable", and from him that's high praise indeed.

Win.

dhope

itboffin wrote:

Oh dear I've run out of monmouth coffee :shock:

How much would a taxi to London be?

Taxi? They sell Monmouth at the shop 5mins from my front door

DrLex

I only drink coffee once a year. To do so I must travel to Celebes and build rapport with the locals, seeking out a different village every time in order to preserve some semblance of authenticity. Coffee is not to be taken lightly, after all. Once the village has accepted me, I ask them where I might find the palm civets in that area. Armed only with my equipment and mind, I take to the jungle and scour the floor for their characteristic droppings. The next week generally consists of locating excreted coffee berries that have passed through the civets' beautiful digestive systems.

Once enough partially-digested coffee berries have been located, the brewing process begins. This is very similar to the way coffee is normally brewed (the exotic locale and stellar beans being somewhat out of the ordinary):

First, the ripe beans are cleaned and washed by hand with boiled water from a pristine local spring. It may take a while before a fitting source is located - an inappropriate balance of trace minerals can harm the taste. After this customary cleansing comes the familiar ritual of roasting. I will not go into details here because I trust most of you are familiar with this step. The process is somewhat more complex in a jungle environment, but as always dedication, roast profile and individual skill are the most important factors.

Following the roast and subsequent cool, I like to take around two hours to contemplate the history of coffee and the impact it has had on human society. I find this meditative step is necessary to fully understand and enjoy coffee. Most people neglect to do this, resulting in an intellectually-impoverished, incomplete experience. As soon as I have arrived at the correct mental state I hand-grind the beans in a purpose-built, multi-stage grinder. This is a crucial step that requires a level of concentration and skill that is wholly alien to most - speed, coarseness and throughput volume all affect the end result and the slightest error can ruin a batch completely.

Near the end stages of grinding there is a self-evident need to multi-task. I boil around ten cups of water and rinse out my insulated French press nine times. The final cup is left to cool for around half a minute (depending on ambient temperature) while I place the ground coffee in the press. With cool anticipation, I then poor the water on the coffee and stir briefly so as to ensure a perfect mix. I let it steep then, resting my weary mind and enjoying the aroma that lazily drifts up from the maturing brew. Having settled and developed, the coffee is finally strained and poured into a bone china cup.

All is now in place. As I sit down in my hand-carved chair of ivory and teak, pausing to pick up my cup and put my feet on a kneeling servant's back, I am generally overcome with my own awesomeness. It is only fitting. Then, in a fleeting instant, I have the first taste. Sadly but inevitably, it is a moment uniquely indescribable to mere mortals. As heavenly music drifts through the warm air the sun shines down on me - and me alone. The taste is so perfect that it sends shivers down the spine of every man, woman and child in a radius of 500 miles. Illnesses are cured, ancient friendships rekindled and generational feuds abruptly ended, all in the blink of an eye.

Naturally, I do not expect you all to understand this. The preparations involved in making a single cup take about a month, but the sense of superiority lasts throughout the year. The taste is superior to any coffee any of you will ever pour into your boorish, uncultured mouths.



 

joelsim

I had a Krups for years which I practically never used because it was too much hassle and too much cleaning up afterwards.

I have a stove-top, and a couple of cafetieres.

And used them occasionally, often I wouldn't make coffee at home.

Now I have a Nespresso and it is absolutely superb. Use it all the time, great coffees on a par with decent cafe purchases.

dodgerdog

Have a basic delonghi which is normally fed with Monsoon Malabar or Guatamalan/Colombian for a 4 shot start to the day.

Cafetierre at work when I can be bothered.

Out and about it has to be Boston Tea Party in Brizzle for a flat white or triple shot latte with a slab of their Choc & Raspberry Flapjack or Yogurt Topped Berry Flapjack.

Caffeine is goooooood!

rambo1

Teacher asked how to sell a book student said a girl on the cover and no cover on the girl.

gert_lush

John Stevenson wrote:

I have one of these, more or less:



I say 'more or less' because just as there are bike manufacturers who supply bikes and frame that other people put their names to, so it is with coffee machines. This machine is sold round the world under various names and mine claims to be a San Marino, but it's substantially the same as the Wega.

It's plumbed in.

Beans ground in one of these:



Beans from the tiny but mighty Colonna and Smalls in Bath. Origin Coffee roasts their blend, I've raved about them to enough people in Bath they're happy to sell me a kilo as and when I need it.

I can certainly agree with this recommendation they are ALL about the coffee and super helpful and knowledgeable about all the different types they are selling at that particular time. plus now they are in the new bigger shop its even nicer Quite often cycle over from Bristol just to have a coffee there on a Saturday morning.

asprilla

I don't like coffee, but I've decided to learn it.

I'm starting with espressos and taking it from there. I figure if I can drink them then I should be able to move on to machiatos and the like before too long.

Headhuunter

Asprilla wrote:

I don't like coffee, but I've decided to learn it.

That made me chuckle! How do you "learn" coffee if you won't drink it?!

asprilla

Headhuunter wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

I don't like coffee, but I've decided to learn it.

That made me chuckle! How do you "learn" coffee if you won't drink it?!

You learn to like it. Or at least tolerate it. The worst that can happen is that I no-longer spit out coffee chocolates and make retching noises at the dining table in polite company

meanredspider

Asprilla wrote:

The worst that can happen is that I no-longer spit out coffee chocolates and make retching noises at the dining table in polite company

I love coffee but always spit out coffee chocolates - for me, the two have as much in common as "chocolate" and "chocolate starfish"...

veronese68

Headhuunter wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

I don't like coffee, but I've decided to learn it.

That made me chuckle! How do you "learn" coffee if you won't drink it?!

I've done the same. I'm half Italian and was always being laughed at for not drinking coffee. The advent of Starbucks has also turned me against some of the ridiculous coffees. So I decided I would drink proper coffee. I now only drink coffee Italian style. Cappuccino is only for breakfast or children. Espresso at all other times. Macchiato is acceptable if you really must. Corretto is ideal.
I do find that I only drink coffee in Italy though. It's better over there. I like a proper espresso. Over here you get way too much.
I still hate coffee flavoured stuff. Tastes like the scrapings of the devil's jockstrap.

Headhuunter

Asprilla wrote:

Headhuunter wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

I don't like coffee, but I've decided to learn it.

That made me chuckle! How do you "learn" coffee if you won't drink it?!

You learn to like it. Or at least tolerate it. The worst that can happen is that I no-longer spit out coffee chocolates and make retching noises at the dining table in polite company

Heh heh... Surely you don't have to drink coffee in "polite company"? Ask for a mint tea instead or something!

asprilla

Headhuunter wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

Headhuunter wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

I don't like coffee, but I've decided to learn it.

That made me chuckle! How do you "learn" coffee if you won't drink it?!

You learn to like it. Or at least tolerate it. The worst that can happen is that I no-longer spit out coffee chocolates and make retching noises at the dining table in polite company

Heh heh... Surely you don't have to drink coffee in "polite company"? Ask for a mint tea instead or something!

No, but the point is that I want to. I love the smell of coffee and the ceremony that goes into it. I see no reason why I can't learn to like it and enjoy it.

rick_chasey

I got into coffee when my girlfriend poured a ton of sugar into hers, and so refused to drink it. I gave it a go as a dare and loved it.


It's virtually a different drink. She has a breath of sugar, I have a proper Italian style helping.

Headhuunter

Rick Chasey wrote:

I got into coffee when my girlfriend poured a ton of sugar into hers, and so refused to drink it. I gave it a go as a dare and loved it.


It's virtually a different drink. She has a breath of sugar, I have a proper Italian style helping.

Sugary coffee - bleurgh! You should have been well into coffee from birth being partly from the home of the "coffee" shop...!

clarkey cat

Some good spots for coffee around us Asprilla. There is a Prufrock on Leather Lane now.

rick_chasey

Headhuunter wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

I got into coffee when my girlfriend poured a ton of sugar into hers, and so refused to drink it. I gave it a go as a dare and loved it.


It's virtually a different drink. She has a breath of sugar, I have a proper Italian style helping.

Sugary coffee - bleurgh! You should have been well into coffee from birth being partly from the home of the "coffee" shop...!

I should be tall and have blonde hair too