In praise of the Aeropress

[Sakkarin Profile]

AON.

[jeral Profile]

Are tea drinkers basket weaving and knitting then?

[Sakkarin Profile]

There's a nice cup of tea for you in this one...

[hungryhousewife Profile]

It is incredible how coffee in various establishments varies! In Newbury we have about 30 coffee shops - literally - and although most of them are Costa, there are Starbucks, Pret, Nero, a couple of independants, Patisserie Paul and a Coffee 1# - I have to say, I have tried them all. As I drink a black Americano, I can really taste the difference in them all, as the flavours are not masked by the milk. My favourite, by far, is the Coffee 1# - although I am amazed how much difference it makes, depending on who actually makes the coffee.

I had no idea, until recently, what an art it all is.

By the way, what is a 'Pour Over'??? Apparently they seem to be all the rage!

HH

[jeral Profile]

I discovered pour over when looking for a kettle, like this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/1/dp/B006WJB05M ... ver+kettle

It's a long story about why I was looking for such a kettle, but I learned that for coffee the idea was to carefully pour water onto the grounds - just enough to soak, hence slim spout - so definitely not flood and drip.

A problem for domestic use for such kettles is that their nose-to-tail length is seriously wide plus steam comes out at the top since obviously it can't come out of the spout so could be unsafe for some people. I'd love one for myself as they're so "cool" but space-wise it'd drive me mad and too expensive for an ornament or plant waterer

[jeral Profile]

Actually, thinking about it, pour over is probably similar to cold brew in that you can (depending on personal taste) get better coffee by not blasting the ground beans with hot water and expecting them to perform instantly. The "patience, my friend" idea.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Oh dear, I'm going to have to start again on my coffee testing!

I have hummed and ha'ed about getting a decent coffee grinder, although I thought I was doing pretty well with my Krups blade grinder - I shake it constantly while grinding, which gives a fairly regularly fine grind after 20 seconds, and hopefully avoided too much heat.

Bottom end conical burr electric grinders (after much reading it seems they are the only ones to consider) start at about £130 over here, but in the reviews I read, the hand-operated Hario Skerton got consistently good reviews (and better than the cheaper electric ones), so I thought I'd get one of those as a starter. I picked one up for £20 on Amazon.

It takes a while to work out how to use it, as the grind adjustment is really by eye/trial and error, however when it is set up how you like it, you can leave it pretty much alone.

I was surprised at how different the result was than from what I previously thought was well-ground beans from my Krups. 12g of coffee made a cupfulk that was far too strong for my taste, so I tried 10g, and it is still stronger than my previous grinder - and much more of a deep rich coffee taste. I think it means I will have to reevaluate my previous tests, but also has the advantage that it means I will get 27 cups out of a 250g bag of coffee instead of 20, which means that the gizmo will have paid for itsself after 27 bags of coffee. Mind you that's about 5 years' worth I think...

P.S. Apparently the "Skerton" in the Japanese designed and manufactured Hario Skerton was a spelling mistake, and was supposed to be "skeleton".

EDIT: P.P.S. It takes close to a minute and a half to grind the beans for one cup of coffee, so the electric route is still an open option if I get fed up with all the winding and can convince myself it is worth spending a lot more money.

[Renée Profile]

I have a Krups Burr grinder, which was a present from my youngest son and it's about 10 years old now I am very happy with it.
I am still searching for the very best beans and bought a packet of Panamaria Espresso Arabica from a tea and coffee specialist
in Sittard, Netherlands. It was recommended by the owner of the shop, after having a chat with him, but I don't like it as much at Booths Monsoon Malabar beans which are roasted in small batches by their coffee roaster. I shall stick with those now and stop searching.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Krups-Expert-GV ... B0002H2IOM

https://translate.google.co.uk/translat ... rev=search

This is the company which produces the coffee beans that I bought.

http://www.bootkoffie.nl/Koffie/Espressokoffie/

I clicked on Translate at the top.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Just had a thought, reviews of blade grinders suggested that the heat generated by them degrades the coffee flavour, but surely it is nowhere near as vicious as the heat involved in actually roasting the beans???

Renee, your post reminded me of a long, long time ago, when there used to be a shop in Watford which roasted its own beans every day, you could smell it all the way down the high street, and I would treat myself occasionally to a bagful of whatever I fancied. It was around a quarter of a century ago that it closed though, I cannot for the life of me remember specific details of what I used to buy, I vaguely remember "Blue Mountain"

I did a bit of googling to see if anywhere roasts their own near me, and found this lot is just a short drive away, and is in the family as I am a Smith too

...but oh dear, dear, so much choice, where on earth would I begin

http://www.smithscoffee.co.uk/Products/ ... in+Coffees

I think maybe I'll leave that and just try this lot, they are within walking distance, and apparently sell locally roasted beans. Hadn't considered them, as I thought they were just a coffee shop (as in cups of, not beans)

http://www.oceanbellscoffeeco.co.uk/

[Sakkarin Profile]

Haha! Just looked at the website of the company that supplies that "Ocean Bells" shop with its beans, and this is their description of the flavours of their varieties, Jilly Goolden eat your heart out! I think if I tasted blackcurrant in my coffee I'd take it back...

Nyeri AA, Kenya (washed) – full bodied and complex: blackcurrant, lime and a long sweet finish.

Finca La Cascada, Nicaragua (natural) – red grape, berries and demerara sugar.

Finca Santa Sofia, Guatemala (washed) – butterscotch, praline, juicy white grapes.

El Carmen de Atrato, Choco, Colombia (washed) – dark chocolate and blackberries.

Guji, Sidamo, Ethiopia (natural) – lavender, milk chocolate and purple fruit.

Hunkute, Sidamo, Ethiopia (washed) – nectarines, sweet lemon and jasmine.


EDIT: This is them:

http://campbellandsyme.co.uk/

[Renée Profile]

Don't fancy any of those, to be honest. I like coffee that tastes like coffee and not something grown in the garden.

I see that Smiths have Indian Monsoon Malabar, so that might be good to start with. It was the favourite of the coffee roaster at Booths.

"Exposed to the monsoon winds in open warehouses, which increases the body and reduces the acidity, an excellent espresso coffee."

[Sakkarin Profile]

Haaa, you've convinced me! I didn't realise that page ran on for several other pages...

On the other front, I popped into that "Ocean Bells" place, and they had a couple of bags of beans on display, including that Kenyan one at £10 a bag!!!! Sheesh, if it's a tenner for blackcurrant-flavoured coffee, heaven knows how much their coffee-flavoured coffee is!

[Pampy Profile]

Renee - have you ever been here? http://exchangecoffee.co.uk/ It's in Blackburn so not too far from you. It's true that all you have to do is follow your nose to find it - the smell is divine!

[Renée Profile]

I thought that the name was familiar Pampy! I've been to the one in Clitheroe, which is a quaint little place with the lovely smell of coffee and with seating on three floors.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Coffee related, so I thoiught I'd plonk it here.

Apparently drinking lots of coffee helps prevent colon cancer from returning once it's been treated; but what I don't understand is why, if that is the case, it doesn't help prevent colon cancer in the first place.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Coffee related, so I thoiught I'd plonk it here.

Apparently drinking lots of coffee helps prevent colon cancer from returning once it's been treated; but what I don't understand is why, if that is the case, it doesn't help prevent colon cancer in the first place.

it doesn't say it doesn't
They've only researched recurrence, not the initial epidemiology in that particular study

While you'd assume the caffeine drinking would be a life-long habit, perhaps not? And you don't know what the other factors are - perhaps caffeine only works post-chemotherapy?

To look at whether caffeine stops the cancer occurring in the first place you'd need to look at very different and much bigger studies such as Framingham or American nurses that look at the lifestyles and illnesses of 10's of thousands of people over decades

[Sakkarin Profile]

I've at last got some Monsooned Malabar, which I spotted in the "Little Waitrose" in our local John Lewis store (£3.29 for 250g).

It's certainly well up there on my list of faves, and if I hadn't already tried the Tesco Java Sumatra, it might easily have been my favourite, for its very very round deep flavour, lots of what I can only describe as "middle", in a chocolatey way, like a comforting mug of cocoa. And it really does have a chocolately smell and taste. But for me the Java Sumatra has an edge in its initial taste hit, and then in its slightly bitter aftertaste, although it has not much in the way of that "middle".

Probably not a match for those custom-prepared artisan beans though.

I am also getting a bit fed up with a minute and a half of arm aerobics for every cup using the hand grinder, I feel a Krups moment coming on, I've already been checking out eBay.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Oh dear, I hummed and haed for ages over getting a latte glass - online they only came in multiples, when I only need one, and singly they were quite pricey when I'd seen them on sale locally.

In the end I saw them going for £3 each in Tesco a couple of months back, so treated myself to one.

I took a big double take when I found that they're selling almost identical ones in Poundland now for a quid!

The £3 one is on the left, it is very slightly thicker glass with a slightly heavier base.

On a connected note, I also treated myself to a couple of latte spoons (£3.50!), and it led to a bit of a eureka moment. I've always had an issue with scissors and knives, at the fact that designers give us little handles for little ones and big handles for big ones, where to my mind they should all have the same size handles, as the size of our hands doesn't magically change - in fact it physically hurts me to use nail scissors, the handles are so small, its as if they are designed for kids.

I hadn't really considered spoons an issue on that front, but now I have the latte spoons, I've realised it is. Being the nearest spoon to hand, I started using the latte spoon to stir my ordinary tea, and I realised it is perfect, because with a full-sized handle there is plenty of handle to clear the tea, whereas with a normal teaspoon, your fingers are perilously close to that scalding tea, for no other reason than that designers at some stage that spoons should be in proportion, whatever their function, hence a weeny teaspoon handle which barely clears the tea.

My tip: chuck teaspoons, use latte spoons.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I've got some long handled spoons from Tchibo, think they were for ice cream sundaes rather than lattes but they are as you say surprisingly useful;

Really good forgetting a teaspoonful of something out of a tallish jar

[Pampy Profile]

This month's Which? magazine has a test report on ground coffee - Aldi's Specially Selected Roast and Ground Ethiopian 100% Arabica came top with a score of 82%. The next was M&S Single Origin Colombian Roast & Ground at 78%.