I drink coffee before mid-day, and tea after; so let’s have a rumination on coffee, shall we?
For me, coffee is best out of a pour-over set-up. I use Melitta filters in a generic cup-top holder usually, although we do have a French press. I tend to find that a French press is extra fiddly for an extra value I’m not really sure is worth the extra effort.
We have a Brita water filter that we run tap water through before it goes into the electric kettle.
By the by: why don’t more Americans have an electric kettle? They’re all sorts of useful.
Seeing as how we’re doing an anthology with King Harv’s Imperial Coffees in 2024, and since they have a blend specifically for us, I feel I should do a plug for them, but truth be told they make damned fine coffee, and I’d recommend them even if we didn’t have a connection.
If King Harv’s is out of your budget, Wide Awake Coffee Company and Community Coffee are my go-tos for good, inexpensive coffee.
Since I am diabetic, I put one packet of Splenda stevia sweetener and one packet of Splenda monk fruit sweetener in my mug, then I wet the filter at the faucet and put it in the holder on top of the mug.
My Rule of Thumb is one tablespoon of ground coffee for each person drinking, and one for the pot; so two tablespoons of ground coffee in the filter, and a gentle pour once the water is just off the boil.
For those Gentle Readers not familiar with that phrase, when the water hits a rolling boil, turn off the heat, wait about 15-20 seconds after the bubbles have stopped, and you have water “just off the boil”.
The “one per cup and one for the pot” can vary. King Harv’s Geisha blend doesn’t require that much grounds, so trial and error is your friend here.
Pour the water into the filter, making sure all of the grounds are well wetted, and continue to pour until you have the amount of coffee you are looking for.
I prefer evaporated milk for my coffee and tea — my African childhood coming through — but half-and-half is perfectly ok.
As an aside: half-and-half is closer to what I remember milk in Europe as being. I don’t know what Americans do to their milk, but it isn’t as rich as I remember it from other places.
Then I sip gently on the back steps, watching the dogs snuffle around the backyard, and mentally preparing for the day.
Voila! Coffee.
LawDog
We drink coffee half the day here, and when I set up the office knowing I’d be working at home with the Retired Curmudgeon at his desk in the corner, I put in a coffee station. One 12-cup (and I don’t know what cups they use, but it’s not the same as my cup of coffee) pot of drip a day, usually, but the french presses are stowed in the cupboard should I desire frou-frou coffee (he never does) and the electric kettle alongside the drip pot for tea, cocoa, or the french press. It is very convenient.
I can drink coffee all day and go to sleep on it..real coffee, no decaf (ugh!) .keep a kettle on the stove for when tea or cocoa is wanted. Heats quick on the small burner….
First off, if you have friends who can’t drink coffee at 8 p.m. and still go to sleep at 10 p.m., you need to get those people out of your life. Don’t surround yourself with that kind of negativity.
If I have time it’s Three scoops of either Cafe Du Monde, King Harv’s New Orleans or two scoops of Blanket Fort and one of chicory into the french press. I use boiling water, let it steep until the press is cool to the touch then pour. Once in the cup I pour one “Glug” of Mexican Vanilla and condensed milk to taste for that whole Vietnamese Ca Fe Sua Da expierence. If I dont have time (non telework days). I use one pack of Vietnamese 3 in 1 instant coffee with breakfast and 1 K-cup of Community with Chicory at work. If I crave coffee after noon then I break out the decaf.
Electric kettles are great, but I can’t spare the counter space in this house. I keep a kettle on the stove top for tea or instant coffee; don’t hate. I drink coffee for the caffeine, not the flavor.
Americans did not traditionally use electric kettles simply due to the fact that until recently they were ineffective.
European power comes in at 220 volts while American voltage is 110.
To get the same power at a lower voltage requires a proportionally higher current. An electric kettle requires significant current/power to boil water quickly.
I add heavy cream (whipping cream) as it has no cholesterol. My sweetener is local produced raw honey. Coffee should be strong enough to show up on a drug screen test, IMO.
Coffee guarantees you greet the day with a content soul.
It also helps keep me out of prison for murder.
Just got back from western Alberta Canukistan. Love the country, love the people, but the political environment would have me welding AR500 plate to a D9 in pretty short order. That said, they have a 3% milk there, vs the 2% or “whole” milk which they have around these parts. Surprisingly creamy. Moreso than the whole milk sold in these parts.
Big (50 ounce) French press, and often two runs in the morning. My mug alone is 20 ounces. Hers is a paltry 12 ounces and she only drinks one a day.
Tap water (our well is deep, and the water is hard but tastes good).
Coffee is whatever I liked at the time I was ordering it. We usually have 5-8 pounds of roasted beans on hand at any time. We easily go through at least a pound a week, and I rotate stock. Eight O’clock (My parents drank that exclusively), Lavazza espresso, Amazon Columbian medium roast, Whatever floats my boat that day. Also, friends drop off bags of coffee from their travels. They know me. Lots of good stuff coming out of DR and the hills of PR.
I never measure. The coffee is ground fresh, then I pour in depending on my mood. Some days strong, and some days just plain angry.
Level teaspoon of sugar in my first mug of the day, and two heaping in hers. Half/Half in every cup, unless I am too lazy and then black is fine. I’ve been known to spike my coffee with bourbon cream if I have any on hand.
Frankly, I have no issue drinking it all day, but I can feel it when I go past that second pot.
Oh, yeah, electric kettle. It lives on the kitchen counter. Damn handy thing that is.
Ah, yes, café.
Being a native-born Tico, I MUST drink it daily, ideally from my own Province. 🙂
Using a 100% cotton filter, called a “media” or sock, well seasoned, one pours a mug full of boiled water over ground coffee, with a similarly sized mug catching the dark gold. For stronger coffee, repeat the process.
Once satisfied with the base, pour in enough heavy cream to lighten the color to beige. Add sweetener to taste and enjoy life.
Ulises from the People’s Republik of Kalipornia
Typing this as a pot of coffee is boiling on the kitchen bench, “Cowboy” style.
Tried other ways of making it, and the complex methods aren’t worth the bother. If I don’t do cowboy, I just throw coffeee into a pot, pour boiling water onto it, steep and strain. Just like tea.
Either way, the grounds settle and I happily sip off the top. Standard milk here is 3.4% fat.
Peter.
It’s weird.
I’m a caffeine addict, and I love the SMELL of coffee, but never managed to acquire the taste. I actually drink Diet Coke, diluted 50% with seltzer water. That accomplishes two things; it brings the caffeine level down to ‘mild addiction’ not ‘surly dependence’ and it kills the aftertaste of the artificial sweetener.
Yes, I know I’m a wimp. My inability to adjust to coffee is just one of MANY reasons that the Military should thank its lucky stars I was just a smidge too young to get drafted for Vietnam.
That, and nobody with any sense wants anyone as slewfooted as I am near any kind of explosives.
Still, I can admire the connoisseurs who make their own brew. Everything I have read or heard about Starbucks indicates to me that it is to coffee what 7-11 donuts are to pastry.
I use a Black & Decker Brew-and-Go to make a single cup of coffee and have for the last thirty years. But they’ve discontinued the model and I am in fear of the day when mine gives up the ghost.
Be prepared:
This might help.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/204531393325?hash=item2f9f05632d:g:b8sAAOSwz2hlSa2c&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4LZ3vc4M5vIIxJe9I1JHkGagTN%2FYOXvHW7LA6JLi5trMqpw8ABRIBDGdkWnABlwN2%2Fr7Imw8WGz2f9%2B6Qo37b7QC5s6lKbnbHlInqdUW2xu0s8wB%2FRqd9%2BZOU%2F3HtWeVh9iXiNt%2BlVNGNKq7CZ%2FCjvk6EeDThLQTNx36WO1CyXvG80%2FFJ0mIB1cJK9flXyBuQqyVPHRZ605xzKclqaNDHvq5nzTAsuDudshfcQ33fB8YlkS5hxFpyEJiRbmrxtc8K0DsnG1zbqckYEGdFd6Wr5IPysPp0cu%2BcYQF2CV4Xh1H%7Ctkp%3ABFBMiqmU_vRi
Just what you want!
Ulises from the People’s Republik of Kalipornia
Black coffee… nothing fancy, out of the pot that ‘hopefully’ is brewed before I wake up. And I can/occasionally do drink coffee to go to sleep.
You should prepare express cofee.
Where were you on the night in question?https://www.kxly.com/news/top-stories/spokane-police-searching-for-armed-robber-who-wore-strange-costume/article_98b0a236-8293-11ee-a257-e3866a020dd6.html