November 16, 2004

Curious George: what's your favourite coffee? What's your favourite coffee, and why? (link goes to my Flickr where I documented a recent coffee delivery)

Following up on the coffee enema story ;).. Last week I splashed out on some Jamaican Blue Mountain ground espresso coffee (supposedly the "best coffee in the world") and the courier just arrived (more on that later) I've been drinking a lot of coffee recently (lots of work, not much sleep allowed!) and it's gotten to the stage of having my own espresso machine at the office. Don't have a bean grinder, yet. Anyway, we've been drinking a brand which is not THAT expensive, but is the ONLY one that isn't bitter (that we could find at the supermarket). In fact it is a meal in itself, and can be easily drunk without sugar. Anyway, I got to thinking, if this $5/bag coffee is this good, what does the "best" taste like? Hence the $30.00 outlay for 100g of the freshly-ground Jamaican (about 4 cups worth.. doh!) Well.. *sip* It's got a distinctly earthy/dusky flavour, (like a good Pinot) and is making my hands shake. Which is a feat in itself! Nice and smooth. So the question is, what's your favourite brew? Is it worth getting a grinder and fresh beans? Am I really looking into this too much?

posted by court3nay 20 years ago
  • Blehh, and the photos are out of order...
  • I like my coffee like I like my women: dark and bitter.
  • I like my coffee like I like my women: ground up and in the freezer. actually the cold makes condensation = bad for both women and coffee.
  • I like my coffee like I like my women: sweet and sinister.
  • I really enjoyed my last batch of $11/lb French Roast from Intelligentsia here in Chicago. Smooth, full of flavor, a big (and still pretty socially responsible) improvement over the organic free-trade coffee I usually buy from the local grocer.
  • I just drink crappy old instant coffee, cheap & generic. Tea, on the other hand, I go for the good stuff.
  • I like my coffee like I like my women: fair trade.
  • Believe it or not, the most consistently good coffee that I've found is Starbucks brand French Roast. In 2nd place is Trader Joe's Ultra Roast Bay Blend.
  • I once heard a proverb, possibly Turkish, that good coffee should be as black as death and as sweet as love.
  • there's a fair trade brand or label or methodology (i'm really not sure how it works) called "max havelaar". it's named after a dutch anti-imperialist. in france, there are several very good coffees available with this brand. for interesting honey and citrus flavors, starbucks has a very nice kenyan coffee. it's not fair trade though :-( freshly ground is better. the flavor is improved and you have the wonderful dispersion of microscopic coffee particles around your kitchen.
  • jb, i think it's:
    Noir comme le diable, chaud comme l'enfer, pur comme un ange, doux comme l'amour. Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, 18th century diplomat.
  • I like my coffee like I like my women: extracted from the fruits of plants.
  • I like my coffee like I like my women: shat out of a Luwak's arse.
  • I like Starbucks Arabian Mocha Sanani. However, if I'm drinking coffee, I'll tend to make it faaaaaaar too strong in a french press (aside from Vacuum, the best way to make coffee) and load it down with sugar and non-dairy creamer until it's a supersaturated solution. I always say: if your coffee cools, and particulate matter doesn't fall out of the solution, then you haven't loaded it up enough. So my recommendations aren't for everyone, but the Arabian Mocha Sanani has more flavor that I've managed to find from any other coffee. Yes, getting a grinder and fresh beans is a fine investment. However, I'm told that the single most effective way to get good coffee is fresh roasting them at home. There are a number of home roasters available, and green beans are available over the internet for a fraction of the cost of roasted beans. You could even use an air popcorn popper for the roasting, in a pinch. People who do it swear by it, but I've been drinking too much tea recently to make the investment. Oh, and just in case you're ever, ever tempted by the convenience of the new Senseo coffee makers: don't bother. As you might imagine, they are pretty convenient but the beans you can buy with them are flavorless. OTOH, if you're one of the people who buys generic or folgers or somesuch, and you just want a quick cup in the morning, it is very convenient.
  • good old Colombian Bean coffee, black. 2 sugars. YUM! (from starbucks, or my mom)
  • At casa de shawnj, we use a mix of an Organic Fair Trade Ethiopian blend with Hazelnut. Black, no sugar, over ice. Mmmm, mmm.
  • Oh, and Monkeyfilter: We like our women like we like our coffee.
  • Bad Coffee: any coffee which tastes burnt. Or bitter. Let alone the odd results you get from Mr Coffee type machines which are left on too long and end up scorching their contents, so charred black Things end up in the bottom of the cup. *shudders*
  • The coffee shop a block from my house brews and sells amazing fair trade coffee. I'm completely hooked on their lattes. They're made with full-fat milk and are like velvet. /drools, digs for $3 in change
  • It doesn't matter what flavor it is when it's used in an enema.
  • If you've got a Whole Foods in your area, most of them roast their own coffee every day (at the very least, the bins should be labeled with roast date). It's usually pretty good stuff. I especially recommend the Sumatra. Then again, I have a thing for earthy coffee.
  • (Also, I second the french-press notion. Easy, cheap, makes great coffee. Although I'd skip the sugar and dairy. I likes my coffee black as my heart.)
  • I like my coffee like I like my women: over the counter of Tim Horton's.
  • I like my coffee like I like my women: with a spoon in them.
  • Whole Foods (a/k/a The Food Hole, nyuk nyuk) is right down the street from me, so I get a few pots worth of their Extra Dark French Roast a couple times a week. Often it's still warm in the bin. I grind it at the store, because I can't abide the sound of a coffee grinder in the morning before I'm awake, and I'm not awake until I've had a pot of coffee. Trader Joe's French Roast is a fair substitute and only seven-something for thirty-two ounces, but Trader Joe's is far, far away. For the record, I like my coffee like I like my men...ummm...black.
  • French press!! French press!!
  • Like you, I like espresso. I just got a good machine for my birthday. I've been trying the packaged espresso grinds at an Italian grocery store near my house to find a favorite. Howver, there are a few places that I want to order from that are discussed at CoffeeGeek.
  • Whole Foods. *shudder* They're like the Walmart of health food, only they jack up the price instead of provide savings.
  • ILMCLILMW: Instant. ILMCLILMW: In big cups. ILMCLILMW: Frothy, and covered in chocolate. ILMCLILMW: Hot, wet, milky and sweet, stimulating first thing in the morning, hastily slurped before business meetings, and enjoyed after a good meal with a cigarette and a little Irish whiskey inside them.
  • ILMCLILMW: In big cups. Christ that's funny.
  • If you like espresso and french press, I've found Turkish Coffee to be a wonderful combination of the two. It works very well with the Kenyan beans at Whole Foods.
  • shawnj, I see people protesting outside WF all the time, and I ask friends who work in WF how shitty the conditions are and how bad their pay is. They actually get much better benifits and make higher salaries than other grocery stores in the area (NYC). None of the WF employees want to join a union.
  • For me, the union thing isn't what troubles me about whole foods. I mean, it's part of it, but mostly it's just that I am not a fan of their business model. Luckily, I have a couple of co-ops in town and a few more supermarkets that sell heatlth food that I never have to go near Whole Foods.
  • oh lordy trampnews, I loves me some Turkish coffee. Too bad it rips my stomach to pieces.
  • I just drink crappy old instant coffee, cheap & generic ILMCLILMW: crappy, old, instant, cheap & generic?
  • My favorite coffee is PG Tips tea. Two sugars, lots of whole milk, yummy. Found it to be much easier on the stomach as well as when I come down from the caffene I don't have the "crash" that I used to with coffee.
  • Free, fast, and nasty during the week, in the breakroom at work. Warm, sweet, and slow on Saturday and Sunday mornings, at home.
  • PG Tips is amazing. I keep a box at work for the times I need to perk up quick. Two bags in a ten ounce cup with some hot water makes the fingers move quick.
  • So i'm on my third cup and the earthiness really grows on ya (yes, and its organic and economically-friendly too). But $30 for 100gms (3.5oz) is a little expensive. Pity I don't live a block from Trader Joe's any more. ILMCLILMW: strong, wet, and inserted up my *** *sigh* that enema meme just won't DIE..
  • ILMCLILMW: all over my lap as I'm driving to work.
  • I am currently in the midst of enjoying freshly roasted beans from Cafe Fantastico ran through my stove top espresso maker. With this set up I can make a homemade americano that is better than 90% of the cafes out there.
  • ILMCLILMW: tied up in a burlap sack and dragged through the Andes behind a donkey. (I'm not that clever.)
  • i like my coffee black. like my soul. i buy fair trade. it's good for me and good for the growers. i really like some african coffees (kenyan, or tanzanian peaberry, or some good ol' yrgacheffe). have been buying some hawaiian stuff lately, not kona but estate grown. having a good grinder helps a lot - fresh ground tastes much better than pre-ground. when i see folks grinding whole bean at the store i scoff. i give 'em the same "oh, you poor poor deluded soul" look that i reserve for people who buy fresh sweet corn but peel it in the produce aisle ('cause peeling starts to break down the sugars... so it ain't sweet corn by the time you cook it tomorrow.) having a good coffee pot helps too, but if you want to do what i did just find a good coffee pot-grinder combo. this is my coffee pot. i managed to convince my wife that i take my coffee seriously enough to need one of these (and yes, if i could have afforded the $800 to $1800 ones i would have gotten one of those instead...) my wife didn't really understand the need for a pot like this considering we could have gotten a mr. coffee for $20 and kept the old blade grinder i got from my dad for free - but a tenfold difference in price actually made a difference in taste even for her, casual coffee drinker that she is. even with all the creamer and crap she adds to it, she could tell it was better coffee than our old machine made.
  • (i do have some green beans in the cupboard - keep wanting to roast them but haven't gotten around to it yet... i'm afraid that if i like it too much i'll end up buying a roaster to go with the coffee pot and end up well-caffeinated but divorced...)
  • Of course, Fair Trade coffee does have the downside that it's such a good deal for the growers, all their neighbours look over and say, "Hey! I want a piece of that!" Then they cut down all their local rainforest. (I buy it anyway)
  • ILMCLILMW: crappy, old, instant, cheap & generic? Pretty much describes my wife, yes.
  • ILMCLILMW: Sparking a lawsuit against McDonald's.
  • For plain-old, gonna-drink-two-mugs-of-it coffee, you just can't beat Tim Horton's, double-double. The stuff for home sale is, well, the same stuff. We're in Texas, so we pick up a few boxes of the coffe-packets -- they stay fresh longer -- when we're up there visiting my bride's folks, and being in Not-Texas.
  • For plain-old, gonna-drink-two-mugs-of-it coffee, you just can't beat Tim Horton's, double-double. The stuff for home sale is, well, the same stuff. We're in Texas, so we pick up a few boxes of the coffe-packets -- they stay fresh longer -- when we're up there visiting my bride's folks, and being in Not-Texas.
  • For pure kick-butt strength, Baby's Coffee from Key West. For smoothness, plus a friendly place to hang out if you're in North Carolina, I love Cup-a-Joe.
  • I like Peet's, it has a nice quality I can only describe as "dusty". Starbucks is too acid or maybe too heavily roasted for me, I find my tastes are veering towards more delicate, smooth and complex flavors and away from the dark roasts I used to love. I grew up in a house where my parents bought whole bean coffee at a ridiculous premium from the only place in town that sold it, so I'm a dyed-in-the-wool coffee snob. My favorite ever coffee experience was when I worked next door to a coffee roaster. She'd make us cappucino in the morning from beans roasted that day, and she always offered a homemade cookie to go with it. Damn, I miss that job sometimes.
  • I would love to try some high-falutin' coffee some time. In the meantime, I drink Equal Exchange 'Mind Body and Soul'. ("The Euphoriac's Blend") I've tried others, but end up coming back to that one. It's dark, smooth, a bit of chocolate tone, not too acid. ~~sluuuurrrp. Ahhh!~~~~
  • Charbucks sucks! As previously mentioned, I'm into roasting my own coffee with an air popcorn popper, but there are lots of other ways. If you are into coffee you really should get into roasting. It is fun and each species of bean can taste differently based upon how far you roast it. I'm still learning about the different bean species characteristics and it really depends upon the time of day. Evening/dessert coffee? I like Kenya AA. Early morning coffee? Something more kick you in the face. I've heard that Blue Mountain is overrated but have yet to try it. I'm going to try roasting my own Kona and Sumatran beans next. Once you identify the characteristics you like you can get into BLENDING. Mix some Sumatran for the heavy body (but low acidity) and add some Nicaraguan to bring in some acidity, some Kenyan for some floral/chocolate notes. You can keep the artificially flavored stuff. Oh and see here if anybody needs a GOOD entry level espresso machine...
  • By the way coffee with no acidity is like soda with no fizz.
  • a GOOD entry level espresso machine The good old Italian coffee maker costs just a few bucks and makes the nicest cuban coffee. This place, among many others, sells them.
  • el_hombre, I've been meaning to try one of those. There are few things as fine as campfire coffee brewed in one of these.
  • mecurious - that looks sweet. i have an old gaggia espresso maker that my dad bought me in high school - i did a trip to spain and came home wishing for more european-style coffee, and he gave me the machine as a gift. i don't use it much though, i think i killed it as an undergrad - dorm water. nothing i've tried has made it work well again. all crusty inside, smells weird when used, and the damn carafe broke years ago, so brewing is messy at best. but from what i've seen and heard gaggia is quality. don't know how they compare to the higher-end capresso machines i linked to, but would love to have someone subsidize my efforts to compare them at home!
  • I can tell no one on this thread needs my advice on this particular matter, but I will share it anyway: Do not cheap out and buy a $40 espresso maker from Target. Pricier espresso makers drive the water through the grounds with a pump. Cheap ones use steam to push the water through the grounds. Steam-driven espresso makers only have enough force to dribble the water through the grounds, so it takes an absymally long time to pull your shot. After you pull a shot, you will then have to wait several minutes for the pressure to build back up before you can steam the milk. Heaven help you if you want to prepare more than one espresso beverage at a time, if you want your milk warmer than "lukewarm," or if you want to spend less than half an hour preparing your beverage. Also, the gasket seals on cheap espresso makers are liable to give way after a few months' use. Hopefully you will not be in the kitchen when this happens, as it is an explosive event. (I, fortunately, had just walked into the living room.) As with men, although a lower-quality model may seem like a bargain at first, you'll pay for it in the long run.
  • ILMEMLILMM?
  • "After you pull a shot, you will then have to wait several minutes for the pressure to build back up" ...ah, youth. Several minutes, indeed. Those were the days. /ILMEMLILMM
  • Completely agreed mechagrue. Gaggia makes home machines all the way up to near a grand, if you want more features, but they put the same technology into their lower priced machines. All pump driven. I wouldn't want to run an espresso shop with a $200 machine, but if most of the time you are just pulling a couple of double-shots for you and your honey, the Carezza will have you done in a matter of minutes. Also, unless you are going the pod route, you will want a good grinder. If you've got all the money in the world get a good electric burr (NOT BLADE) grinder, but for low bucksthe Zassenhaus hand grinders can't be beat. You can find 'em online or on eBay to save a few more bucks. Fully adjustable to give you just the grind you want for your espresso machine. There are really only two variables: 1) the fineness of the coffee grind 2) the firmness of your tamp
  • I Like My Coffee Like I Like My Women
  • Oh, I get it flashboy. nevermind! - Emily Litella voice
  • flashboy, exactly. After the last one crapped out on me, I vowed to quit wasting my time, and just wait until I could get a good one. Which is why I currently don't have one. I'm sure I could find a nice one online. But I'm afraid that there might be faults that aren't visible in a pic, or that it might still be grimy from the previous owner, if you know what I mean. (Maybe my standards are too high?)
  • I may be a philistine or just a boring old fart but I like regular diner coffee served in those heavy cheap old ceramic coffee cups with a little artery-clogging real cream and sugar.
  • Cafe Bustelo! ILMCLILMM: Cheap, strong and in a nice yellow can. ;-)
  • Am I the only one that thinks mechagrue is talking about men and not espresso machines in the last post?
  • FYK: Well, yeah, isn't this thread about how we like our men/women? It's not? what? coffee?
  • We are blessed in New Zealand with several boutique coffee roasters who are very good: L'Affare, Coffee Supreme, Havana, Fuel, Icoco, etc etc etc. I have had great success with home roasting on a tray in the oven, but it really is too much trouble to be anything more than an amusing novelty for me. Currently I buy 200g of one or other blend from Icoco every Saturday. I have a burr grinder at home, and a cheap Krups espresso machine which I have finally figured out how to get a good consistent double shot from. Occasionally I break out the ibrik and make Turkish coffee with a little cardomom. I keep the stovetop Moka for camping, and I must get round to buying another French press for when there's coffee-drinking company. My advice to the coffee noob: buy fresh beans, store them in an airtight container, get a cheap grinder, and use a french press. ("Fresh" means roasted in the last couple of days.) You may never want anything more than that. However, if you're going to put milk in it, you might as well drink any old shit.
  • However, if you're going to put milk in it, you might as well drink any old shit. nothing like cow juice to ruin a nice cup of coffee.
  • I was in Costa Rica for a while last year, where a lot of fine coffee is cultivated. The best coffee I've probably ever had was brewed here at the cafe "el patio" at the cafe milagro coffee roasters in Quepos. I also recommend their french toast. However, when staying in Orosi near San Jose, I had someone describe the coffee their grandmother would hand roast, grid and brew when they were a child growing up on a coffee plantation in that area. At least in my mind, that sounded like the best coffee possible.
  • This is so beautiful - a 71 72 comment thread about coffee. And tea! I love the world. I also haven't slept more than a few hours in two days and just gave a colloquium paper that had no last page and was not ritually disembowled by the attendees. Yay!
  • Huh? Oh... no... of COURSE I was talking about espresso makers, FYKshun. Don't be silly! I mean, sure, I AM single, but... no, I was talking about espresso makers. Definitely. *whistles innocently*
  • By far the best coffee I've ever had was stuff I roasted and brewed myself from green coffee beans. I bought a pound of Costa Rican Doke Estate green coffee beans, roasted them in an air popcorn popper to a light city roast, and brewed the ground beans using the slow simmer then filter method. Smoothest, richest coffee I've ever had. It's not that hard to roast your own beans, and the difference is very noticable. I've heard that roasted coffee beans go stale within seven days, and ground coffee goes stale in a day or two. I can definately taste that staleness now that I've had the fresh stuff. Green coffee can be kept for six months to a year, by the way. On the downside, I can now no longer stand crappy stale coffee, and so have switched to tea or hot cocoa when I want a hot drink away from home. Coffee for me now is a special treat worth taking the time to brew well and drink using nice cups and saucers. Roasting and brewing is now also a neat social ritual when coffee-loving friends come over. If anybody is curious, I can dig up some links about home roasting and where to get green coffee.
  • Cowboy Blend Drink it hot as love and sweet as hell. Throw a handful into the pot and boil hell out of it on a camp fire. If it doesn't float a horseshoe, it ain't coffee. When it's 42 degrees out at 5:00 am, and the sun's just topping the mountains, ain't nothin' finer.
  • By the way, for home roasting with a popcorn popper, you shouldn't use the kind with the screen at the bottom of the popping chamber. The chaff from the coffee beans can get down into the heating element and catch fire. You want a popper which swirls the air in from the sides, like a West Bend machine. Got my Poppery II in a thrift store for $0.99!
  • However, if you're going to put milk in it, you might as well drink any old shit. See, this is just not true. And, as mentioned, I will often use non-dairy creamer . Seriously, there is still a lot of flavor that comes through, and it's really even more necessary to have some seriously strong coffee flavor when one mutes the flavors as much as I do. I'm not saying that I can appreciate the flavor as much as someone who is a coffee purist, but I can guarantee you that the differences are there.
  • I was just in Spain this summer and every day was like a revelation in how to make a great cafe con leche. I have been mourning every day since getting back to the US at the relative lack of java yumminess. Does anyone know if the process mechagrue described what they do in Spain?
  • The timeshares my sister and I stayed in in Spain provided mocha pots like the $25 one on that page, which we used to make great cafe con leche in the mornings. Half very strong coffee and half hot milk. I gave her one as a gift along with Spanish coffee. When she ran out of the Tupinamba, she switched to brands she could get locally. She says that they taste about the same - no bitterness.
  • oh, path! I am so happy right now! Yea! I was fearing that it would cost $300 bucks or so.
  • The mocha pots must have some espresso cred - I've been served espresso in them in good Italian restaurants in NYC. Not for caffe latte, though - but after dinner espresso with a shot of Sambuca. Now that was some seriously good stuff. (Though I gave it up when a bunch of us got kicked out of a lovely place for having a small food fight. I mean, it was just small pieces of bread, but other patrons complained. Or, maybe it was when someone slipped under the table and poured water into someone else's shoe that was the final straw. It's all a little hazy.)
  • After reading some of the links I skipped above, I find that el_hombre got the mocha pot for less.
  • Sambuca will do that. Not that I have any experience or anything. Thanks, path.
  • pawed by monkeys *experiences brief urge to froth at the mouth* Monkey Pick tea is not picked by monkeys. The name in Chinese refers to the shape, which is not quite as curly as the typical Wulong tea. It looks like a earpick that a monkey might use.
  • *runs, screaming, from tea with earpicks*
  • I'm not saying that I can appreciate the flavor as much as someone who is a coffee purist
    Of course not. They're the ones taking it anally. Anything else intereferes with the true taste experience. (Oh, and a handy coffee guide)
  • One of the best (strangest?) coffees I've had was a bedouin style black coffee. it s abit like Turkish coffee but with cardamom and god knows what else. I think to get the complete experience one has to be in the middle of a desert somewhere.
  • dhruva - cool blog!