Until recently, I was a daily drinker of hot tea. But I decided to give up milk and found I was not enjoying tea without the milk.
I already owned an aeropress and knew it made coffee much smoother than other methods. But I had never made coffee regularly with it so decided to follow the original instructions to the letter and also watched videos by the inventor that explained what is behind those instructions.
I was soon enjoying delicious black coffee. I'd say it's better than 95% of the coffee I have had that was made by someone else, and the coffees that were memorably better were either in high end coffee shops or in Europe, in particular in Italy.
To take it up to the next level, I purchased a coffee grinder. Although I got it for the aeropress, I'm now able to grind beans coarse for cold brew coffee which I have always found delicious and I will also revisit making French Press coffee which requires coarse ground as well.
It really does seem that doing everything right when it comes to making coffee adds up. I now understand why some people become coffee nerds.
@golan and @Chelle, you are both great coffee aficionados to be sure!
@golan, a couple of years ago I bought a juicer and made our morning juices each day, for about a month, until I realized it took about 15 minutes to prepare something that we finished off in under a minute, not to mention the cleanup that took another 5 to 10 minutes afterwards. I finally decided that "fresh made" wasn't worth it, for us, but in your case it obviously is. I truly do admire anyone who has the patience to spend the time and put in the effort to get their reward.
@Chelle, no offense, but I think I have you beat. I set up my automatic drip maker's clock to start up about 10 minutes before I get up each morning, so when I head into the kitchen it's ready and waiting for me.
As the old line says, "Different strokes for different folks." Perhaps nothing demonstrates that better than coffee!
No idea if there is a level of interest making one a coffee nerd - as I sit here enjoying a freshly made cup of blueberry flavoured coffee - I can only add that it is one of this life's best pleasures for me.
As for the processes - I suspect I've tried most of 'em & my preferred instrument is the smallest/cheapest coffeemaker I've ever had.
That exact one can be found by searching "Kitchen Selectives CM-688 1-Cup Single Serve Drip Coffee Maker".
The pics are actually from where I got it (Biglots), and back then it was just ~$12...
(It sits right next to the Keurig that I rarely use at all.)
The cute little coffeemaker has a very nice filter & really makes a good 12 ounce cup of coffee in just a few minutes that is full-flavoured that has not been overheated & it is not as weak as what the Kuerig makes.
We have & sometimes use a couple of cold brewers as well as a nice french press;
Those are mostly for my partner who enjoys the dark roasted varieties.
It was so windy in Death Valley that our fellow campers couldn't light their stoves. After we fixed them up with some electrically brewed coffee several folks were planning to go all-electric, like us. (I cook our food in an Instant Pot when we camp.)
I've always enjoyed McDonalds coffee but only ever had it with cream and sugar.
I saw that it is actually rated highly so I purchased a pack of decaf ground and will see how it tastes black through the aeropress.
When I wasn't using the aeropress regularly, I didn't have the patience for it, but once I started using it on a daily basis, I realized it was actually taking less time (but a little more effort) than making tea.
In fact, if you have instant hot water, you can have your first cup in a minute. Even adding the grinder to the routine has not added any time since the beans are in the hopper and 5 seconds after pressing the button I have the exact amount of grounds required and transfer them to the aeropress.
I did come close to buying a Keurig though. When my coffee consumption was occasional, it was usually decaf after dinner and one evening in a hotel room, I happened to try an Italian roast decaf k cup that was superb. So I set up a 3camel alert for the K-Cafe which sells for around $200 but often goes on sale for $100. It makes "espresso" and also froths milk. I got the 3camel alert shortly after I gave up milk so didn't pull the trigger.
Funnily enough, now that I have been researching coffee, I discovered that Green Mountain coffee is highly rated and I believe that the Italian decaf k cup that I had was Green Mountain.
It turns out that Green Mountain also owns Keurig and that some of the most highly rated K Cups are Green Mountain. It seems they have optimized their K Cup coffee for their machines.
I am glad you are no longer using the juicer because as healthy as it seems to be, many believe that it is simply a way to consume too much sugar, even with something considered healthy like carrots. We've had a juicer for a long time and always enjoyed the results but the effort as well as health considerations has meant it's been in a cupboard for quite some time now.
I believe that a blender is a better option generally as you'll retain the parts of fruits and vegetables that lessen the glycemic index. I will say that adding ginger to the juicer always seemed to make a noticeable positive difference to the health effects of consuming fresh juice.
Apart from that, I am flattered by your admiration for my effort but full disclosure requires me to inform you that I am a generally lazy person but do put in the effort to look for solutions that require less effort to execute. So while what I'm doing may appear involved, it's actually pretty simple in practice. But I will admit that I have now gotten the scales out to weigh the coffee and water.
By the way, talking about speed to morning coffee, I now have cold brew coffee in the fridge that is ready to drink cold or it can be heated in the microwave. Many people make a batch of cold brew coffee on the weekend and then have virtually no prep and no wait for coffee on week day mornings. It's pretty simple to make and I would say that it's overall less effort than making coffee daily as well as delicious.
I'm looking forward to making decaf cold brew which can be used for desserts as well as mixed with alcoholic beverages.
I added a remineralization stage to my RO system a while ago. Improved the tea a lot, and based on the TDS reading, I'm in the right range for coffee as well.
One can compensate for water hardness by increasing (harder water) or decreasing (softer water) the brew time. Apparently this is a skill that Italian baristas have always had.
I totally forgot about our using RO water for all drinking purposes here - but that assuredly does do good things for coffee making, as well as keeping the innards of the Keurig machine from getting clogged up.
And for anyone wondering:
The off-site image links I used above ARE made with HTTPS - just checked in the edit mode here to verify that.
So if any browser is griping it is likely just because they aren't from the same exact domain.
Regarding having good quality water for drinking, making coffee, etc.:
We are renters & this little place is about the size of 2 small garage stalls placed end to end.
Whole house filtration was not an option here - but after seeing the town's 'water confidence report' and tasting the bitter stuff, drinking it was a non-option - not even for our elderly doggie pal.
So we started out here with bottled spring water ~5 years ago, for about a month during moving, etc.
Our solution is an undersink RO system with 2 pre-filters and a TDS meter kept at the counter.
That water has its own spigot at the sink.
Decent, small RO systems can be had for under $100 & a TDS meter is usually under $15.
It is under an hour's work to put one in.
As renters, if/when we get done here it'll be simple to just connect the spigot directly to the cold line as if it is a non-aerated water fountain, then take the rest with us to re-use with a different spigot.
(Those cost about $20 at the big A.)
Results:
Our previously bitter, nasty water is sweet tasting, and went from ~100PPM TDS to as low as 7PPM TDS, depending upon how recently the pre-filters were changed out & how much nasty stuff the town guys dumped into it that week.
And of course - good coffee, as that is the elixir vitae itself !!
When I last looked into RO (well over 10 yrs ago) I was told by the RO salesman I would be replacing the RO membrane monthly due to my water being so hard. Maybe things have changed since then. I will have to look into it again, maybe just a small one for drinking and coffee only. Thanks
