Just a Cuppa Joe?

[roger wiegand]

Beergraphs is a great site! Thanks, very interesting. I had no idea so many beers were so high in ABV now. They must be using a lot of wine yeasts in the fermentations, back in my beer making days most of the strains we used topped out at 8.5 or 9%. Most of my current favorites are in the 5.5-7 range, which, it seems, is now well below average.

[Ryan Mooney]

We buy "premium" beans (small scale, hand picked, at about $6-7/lb green (less if we're buying 20lbs) which works out to around $9/lb after you account for roasting loss. I can definitely tell the difference between good beans and not-so-good and fresh versus stale beans. I don't really understand folks who buy expensive beans and then keep them roasted for a long time, they do go rancid after a few weeks (I guess some folks like that flavour which is ok I suppose). Personally I'm not a huge fan of Kona, yes I've had good kona, but its not a great value and all to often isn't great coffee either, imho there is a lot of taste the marketing there.

My favourite brewer is a 1930's vacuum pot we bought for $5 at a yard sale (and had to replace a seal for $10 so $15 overall). It makes perfect coffee once I tweaked the thermocouple set points a smidge. Its a bit of hassle to setup in the morning though before you've had coffee We also have a really nice little pour over cone that cost $10 and makes fantastic coffee, you do sort of have to pay attention when doing it by hand but geez louise its not that hard!! An aeropress for under $30 also makes quite good coffee (comparable to a decent but not stellar pour over) and doesn't require a lot of thought to make a decent cup.

The $500 pour over is.. imho.. ridiculous.. crazy.. loco.. We have an espresso machine that's in the same ballpark but its at least complicated in both principal and design. Pour over is just really not that hard.

Someone thinks there are people who have to much money, I would agree and applaud their chutzpah at foisting this off on the unsuspecting world. Well done hipster coffee dude, well done.

Well you can't prove anything by me, because I'm also not a beer snob. But...

http://beergraphs.com/bg/133-some-li...ences-ratings/

"Some Like it Hot: How ABV Influences Ratings"

This actually moves around, for quite a few years if you were looking to take best of show you had to go big or go home. The last couple of years there's been a bit of a reversal on that trend. Its not entirely clear where it will move but there does seem to be a bit of a backlash against the huge beers. Genuine beer snobs differentiate beer on a whole lot of variables, its ... complicated ...

[Ryan Mooney]

Here's another overpriced idea of dubious veracity for your viewing pleasure: http://www.canadiano.co/canadiano-shop/

[Phil Thien]

Here's another overpriced idea of dubious veracity for your viewing pleasure: http://www.canadiano.co/canadiano-shop/

Huh.

BTW, I have a question. The $400 unit Jim linked seems to indicate that less oil gets to the cup.

But it uses what looks like a steel mesh filter.

And some manufacturers seem to emphasize that their coffee makers allow the oils through.

So what is it, is the oil good or bad?

What, in your opinion, actually results in a good cup of coffee?

[Stew Hagerty]

I can't help myself. I confess, I'm a coffee snob.

[Robert Engel]

I am a coffee snob but one of my most favorite brands is the pure Columbian store brand beans you can buy at Sam's Club. It comes in big bags and costs less per pound than standard brand coffees at the grocery store. My favorite brewing method is using a french press I bought for under $30 at a department store going-out-of-business sale. Higher cost doesn't always mean better taste.

Hey I thought I was the only one who thinks this is pretty decent coffee!

My two "coffee snob" sons won't drink it.

My new fav brewing method is pour over. Great for me since I've cut my caffeine intake down to 1 cup/day (BP issues).

[Ryan Mooney]

Huh.

BTW, I have a question. The $400 unit Jim linked seems to indicate that less oil gets to the cup.

But it uses what looks like a steel mesh filter.

And some manufacturers seem to emphasize that their coffee makers allow the oils through.

So what is it, is the oil good or bad?

What, in your opinion, actually results in a good cup of coffee?

If you properly bloom the coffee and pour carefully and slowly in a traditional pour over (which is what the canadiano essentially is) it acts as its own filter bed so you get fairly minimal oils in practice. A proper pour over takes around 3 minutes to do (more than you probably wanted to know here: http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/06/m...re-timing.html)

Of course if you use just roasted coffee it will be oilier than coffee that's rested for the appropriate amount of time so there's that to consider as well. Some oil adds some flavour which can be either good or bad depending on the specific coffee (and there is also some hysteria about coffee oils raising cholesterol, which I have no real opinion on except that its a small amount of oil.. so.. yeah).

So oils, good or bad? yes yes they are

A good cup of coffee is variable and subjective but has some criteria that is somewhat constant:

• is made from decent quality beans. For some uses a little robusta in the mix is ok (like a New Orleans french style coffee with sugar and cream and a beignet on the side) but generally prefer arabica. What region is debatable there are great coffees from all over the world but they do vary so it depends on what you like. Some are rich and roasty, some are leathery and rustic, some are .. well there's a lot of options anyway Personally if I had to pick two I'm fond of Ethiopian dry process and Sumatran but they're on the earthy end so they wouldn't be for everyone, for a lighter cup a Guatemalan is a nice change.
• A consistent roast matters, no green beans, no burnt beans (no half roasted beans). This is unlikely to be a serious problem with most commercial roasted coffee but I've had a few stinker batches from a couple of artisinal places (everyone has a bad day sometimes).
• the beans were roasted roughly the correct amount of time previously (not to recent so they're all greasy +12-48 hours, not so old they're rancid -2-4 weeks)
• the grind is consistent and appropriate fineness for the brewing process used. Many coffee snobs agree that its worth spending more on the grinder than you do on the brew system (especially true for espresso .
  
  • french press: coarse
  • pour over coarse mesh: medium/coarse
  • pour over fine(r) mesh: medium to medium fine
  • aeropress: medium fine
  • drip: depends on the filter, usually medium fine
  • espresso: very fine
  
  
• the roast is of an appropriate darkness for the bean and the brewing method. Generally the hotter your brewing method the finer you want to grind the coffee and the faster you want to brew (optimize extraction of good flavours while minimizing off flavors). Most commercial coffee is slightly over roasted because that cooks off more of the oil and it keeps longer (and a lot of people are used to darker coffee and perceive lighter roasts as being to fruity or acidic). Some explanation of roast profiles here: https://www.sweetmarias.com/roasted.pict-guide.php but there is a lot of play within this and different coffees like to be roasted lighter or darker for a given brewing method so its hard to pick a hard and fast rule here. Its kind of like beer, it should be balanced and allow the flavour to present itself it a pleasant fashion.
  
  • http://www.sweetmarias.com/library/c...espresso-grind
  
  
• Brew at an appropriate temperature and amount/balance of coffee for the brewing method and coffee: https://www.sweetmarias.com/grind.brew.php
• This list is incomplete...

So.. what makes a good cup of coffee? Well... lots of things... I've clearly over complicated it above (that is what we do around here isn't it? ) but as long as you have decently roasted fresh beans, grind them to about the right grind for your chosen brew method, and brew it close to the right way for that coffee its not that hard to make a pretty good cup.

[Chris Padilla]

I don't drink coffee but I like the walnut strips in the maker. I'm not sure I would call it 'carved' however....

[Moses Yoder]

I can taste the difference in coffee. Yesterday morning I made a pot of coffee and drank a cup on the way to work. It was okay. This morning I am sitting at the McDonalds in Orrville OH with a cup of coffee about to spend the day at the International Coleman Convention meeting some good friends and looking at rare and fantastic lanterns all day. Now there is a good cup of coffee.

[Larry Edgerton]

I just make coffee. Its most likely no less important, just I am not so picky. I just need coffee!

I look at fancy coffee kinda like working on wooden ladders.

[Leigh Betsch]

I use a French press and cheap grocery stores beans. But I've been think about a kureg or nespress unit. What say to those?

[Phil Thien]

I use a French press and cheap grocery stores beans. But I've been think about a kureg or nespress unit. What say to those?

I wasn't overly impressed w/ the Keurig we had, it seems your choice is a small cup of okay coffee or a larger cup of weak coffee. You can use a couple of the k-cups but that starts to seem wasteful.

I'm the only person left in the house that drinks coffee, so I have a Black & Decker "single serve" maker that will make a nice big travel mug of coffee.

I know it isn't great coffee but it is a lot of coffee (and I make it pretty strong).

[Rich Engelhardt]

LOL!
I'm the opposite of a coffee snob...

I run the tap water a little to make sure it's hot, then dump a teaspoon of Aldi's instant into a third of a cup of the hot water.
Then I hold my nose and gag it down.

[Moses Yoder]

I see Keurigs for sale all the time at on-line garage sales and on site garage sales. That tells me something. Something like a Bunn has to keep the water hot all the time so the energy costs are astronomical.

[Phil Thien]

LOL!
I'm the opposite of a coffee snob...

I run the tap water a little to make sure it's hot, then dump a teaspoon of Aldi's instant into a third of a cup of the hot water.
Then I hold my nose and gag it down.

That sounds about as bad as it gets.

The funny thing is, these days everyone (even McDonalds) is pitching premium coffee. And I've never in my life had so many bad cups. Coffee that is weak, coffee that is cold.

There is little consistency any more.