xtreme coffee geekery

[chelidon]

I was going through reader letters for some recent articles, and I ran across this response to a piece which referred in passing to one's preferences of different forms of caffeinated beverages -- coffee, tea, coke, etc:

It is a shame that you lump coffee all together. I know some folks who just drink whatever has been sitting on the burner since last weekend without a second thought. Others simply keep piling in new grounds on yesterday's old stuff and think that adds to the strength of the coffee throughout the day or week. (Well, I suppose it does in much the same way that aging limburger adds strength...)

Really, the only way to enjoy full-bore caffeinated pleasure is to roast your own and brew each cup to the ideal strength. (See http://www.sweetmarias.com among other sites for details.) It is a geek art that should be more widely practiced.

No comment about the article itself, just to my offhand comment about caffeinated beverages. This is someone who is very, very serious about his coffee. Here I thought I was doing well by buying Fair Trade fresh-roast whole-bean, grinding it as-needed with a hand mill and brewing in a French Press. Now I see there is a whole new level of geek artistry to the humble bean. Gosh. Who knew?

Comments

[alobar.livejournal.com]

In my highly caffeinated years back in the 1980s, I brewed spresso beans ground very fine by mixing the the near-powder with cold milk, then cooking slowly over a double boiler for about 6 hours. Then I chilled, strained out the sludge, added an equal volume of sugar, then another equal volume of jolt cola. On a long drive, one small sip every hour and I could drive non-stop for 36 hours. I only stopped to pee and fill up my gas tank.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Gracious. And the fact that sounds good to me is proof positive that I'm still a bit of an addict, albeit a more discerning one these days ;> Jolt has a small-can "cappucino" beverage out now, and it's foul, foul, foul. Nope, if you want good sludge, stick to properly-made Greek or Turkish coffee, yum. I have a couple of those little mini-percolators they use to make the sweetened iced coffee at Vietnamese restaurants, love that stuff.

In the mid to late 90s, I happened to be camping with a few thousand of my closest friends near one of the rural towns where Jolt did a test-marketing prior to widespread release of their product. We discovered it and cleaned out every single bottle and can in the town within 2 days. I think we may have skewed their results a bit...

I can remember the following year being in the middle of completing an enormous research paper, having been up for something like 72 hours straight, downing without thinking my second 2-liter bottle of Jolt within a 4-hour period (back when it used to come in such things, I suspect it does not now due to liability concerns ;>)...and then the heart paliptations started. Oops. There really is such a thing as "too much." Never again. And thank goodness for the resilience of young heart tissue.

[elnigma.livejournal.com]

Did you ever like Sole d'Italia's cappuchinos?

[ravenedgewalker.livejournal.com]

I used to work for whittards of chelsea - tea and coffee importers. I have certificated in tea and coffee geekery....

[elnigma.livejournal.com]

I bet your office smelled great! :)

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

ah, see? Another reason I like you :>

[phryday.livejournal.com]

Whe knew? Any barrista who has been properly trained (and all Italian ;). We got the lecture when we were in NZ talking to a family friend who runs a coffee shop.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

There's a small micro-roastery in Oregon that a friend turned me on to some years back, and my gods, I could have just lived off of the fumes in that place...

[miriams-well.livejournal.com]

My lord. That sounds like something the dear Fr. Mantis would write. There are some out there like that, yep!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Ah, prolly a Virgo ;>

[khidir.livejournal.com]

Couldn't help but want to comment (tangent) on this. Ever smelled the smoke from logs made out of old coffee grounds? Wonderfull, delicious faint odour of coffee and its very efficient, burns much longer than wood logs and smokes less.

[coraljune.livejournal.com]

YES!! I love them! They are wonderful to watch, and they do have this nice faint coffee aroma to them as they burn, mixed of course with fire/smoke smells... *sigh* Gorgeous.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

No I haven't, but what a great idea! We produce a lot of grounds around here, and now it goes right into the composter or the worm composter (no doubt hopping up the worms something fierce ;>) I can just save it in a bin and press it into logs. Thanks for the inspiration!