Coffee

I've been pretty poor lately (I was unemployed for a few months and my previous roommate moved basically in the middle of the night without warning, leaving me on the hook for the full rent) so I've been brewing crappy President's Choice overroasted "morning blend". It's bad coffee, but it's also 15$ for 1.8kg.

I've been coming back to immersion brews lately after a long stint of only using my V60 for pour-overs. My love for coffee was born out of a French press, and was pushed further by the Aeropress, both of which I've started to mess about with again. I generally find immersion methods more forgiving with low-quality beans than a pour-over.

I'm excited to start having a bit of income again, I can't wait to try the new offerings at my local roaster. I'm lucky that I found work as a barista, so I do drink quality coffee most days. I just have to suffer grocery-store beans on my days off (that is until my next paycheck!)

Got a fancy new Timemore Sculptor 078s grinder this week. Noticeable upgrade from my Baratza Encore, but I'm still working on sorting out grind settings and general methodology. Static is definitely more noticeable now, hot loading is a new concept for me, still sorting out what the RPM settings are doing, etc.

Was at a farmer's market where Catfish Coffee was selling bags so I've been drinking their Sunny Side Up roast this week. It's a "normal" tasting light roast, I've never gotten any super exciting flavour profiles out of it, so it's actually kind of nice as a way to play with the new grinder. I can play around quite a bit and still get a pretty solid cup of coffee, but I know it well enough that I can sort of tell whether I'm doing better or worse.

This week, Sweetshop from Square Mile, and my standard El Carmen decaf from James Gourmet.

Grinding in Mahlkonig/Baratza Vario, to which I swapped in the Baratza/Ditting steel burrs and steel grind chamber, and every few months I'll have another go at trying to get the burrs aligned perfectly.

Brewing as espresso, usually 17g -> 34g, sometimes longer. And V60 20g -> 320g, with varying pours and pour timings.

Favourite instant is the house brand from Lidl. It's not good but it's significantly better than Nescafé. Works well as a low calorie appetite suppressant, with artificial sweetener.

I'm not satisfied with the taste of the instant, but I don't drink it for the taste. My "real" coffee tastes f-ing amazing, including the decaf.

I'd be interested in other brands of instant worth trying, and also in other decafs - I've tried a lot and this JG stuff is head and shoulders better than anything else I've found.

Absolute beginner here, don't have any knowledge about coffee culture, all my life drank Nestle instant coffee so I wouldn't recognize good coffee even if the best barista threw it in my face.

I've recently picked up a French press and cheap Melitta ground coffee and have been using the James Hoffman method. Today I brewed some freshly ground moka grains, also frothed some milk to go with it. I liked it but found it somewhat bland, maybe I made some poor choices so suggestions on method/beans are welcome, just fyi I live on a small town where we don't have real variety and also it is expensive.

One of the local roasters sells whole bean at Costco so that is my go to. I occasionally splurge on local fresh roasted single origin, one in particular that is my favorite local bean.

I got a cheap conical burr grinder 16 years ago. I've had to replace a resistor 3 times but otherwise working great.

I love to use my stainless French press but most days brew a pot on the Keurig out of convenience. The wife doesn't like the silt and it's not worth brewing two batches different ways. If I am alone I'll French press it.

I've been adding long pepper to my coffee and it's amazing. Going to experiment with adding olive oil too.

Guatemala Proyecto Xinabajul Dos Villatoros from Sweet Maria's, roasted just a little past medium, ground in a Hario Skerton by hand, about 5 clicks on the grinder setting, brewed pour over in a Melitta single serving ceramic cone. Bloom it first, pour splashy the second time. It takes about 2 minutes for the brew to finish.
I play with beans and roast a lot, I am pretty fixed with brew technique.
I found some instant in a Vietnamese market once that was interesting. I usually avoid instant.
Like I said, I keep brew the same so as to evaluate playing with roasting, but I am open to ideas, I could probably do it better.

I've been back on a roasting kick, using a popcorn popper. It works surprisingly well, it's cheap, and another fun thing to nerd out to! This week I'm brewing a few different roasts (all in the light-to-medium range) of an Ethiopia Sidamo bean from Sweet Maria's (my main source for green beans). I usually do V60, but sometimes Kalita, lately using Lance Hedrick's 1-2-1 recipe. I have a LIDO 2 hand grinder that I'm pretty happy with. I'm toying with the idea of sifting out fines, but I'm not sure I want to throw that big of a variable into my process just yet--differences between roasts and slight changes I make to pouring etc. are enough variables so far. And yes, very satisfied! This 1-2-1 recipe has allowed me to grind coarser than usual (I think because of how you agitate the fines out of the bed and into the filter, which slows the drawdown), and that has really helped with flavors. (Another reason I'm not sure I want to sift out fines just yet.)

Been thinking that I need a grinder to get fresh ground coffee while hiking as the season is starting. Still using old pre-ground from last year and it os not that good. Does the job and is better than the slush at work.

So I think I'll need to get me a hiking grinder. And has to grind coarse as in the field i make kokkaffe (boilcoffee?). Or really fine to do something more akin to turkish coffee.

Spending easter weekend at my in-laws, meaning Folgers K-cups in a keurig. I'm incredibly spoiled with my fresh ground robusta+french press+tablespoon of ghee, but honestly after an incredibly long day of two family get-togethers (stopped in to see my own family en route), I was just happy to wake up the next morning and brew something bitter.

Rio Grande Roasters Chocolate Pinon beans ground in my Shardor electric burr grinder. (I assume this is a shit brand as I never see it listed in the best grinder breakdowns.)

I grind at the 8 cups setting and use the Aeropress Reverse Hoffman method. As this is a lighter roast I let it steep longer than I've been used to, about three minutes. Water is microwaved to barely boiling, haven't bothered to take a temp.

Invert and press over ice, then add half and half to taste.

Its my slow release Americano.

I'm brewing "The Coffee Farmer's Co-op - Organic Mexican Estate - Dark Roast Whole Bean" that I got a 2 lb. bag from Grocery Outlet

I tend to grind enough grounds for about a week, this time about 3 oz.

Finest grind setting on my Baratza Encore, which is still not anywhere near espresso powder.

Water is at 195F from my Zojirushi water pot.

After a couple of tries in my french press brewing at 4 minutes that resulted in weak sauce, I tried 5 minutes, and have finally achieved a decent tasting brew.

This is consistent with my previous experience with dark roasts: Longer brewing time is better, up to a point

This is as opposed to medium roasts, which are less forgiving: Longer brewing time past 4 minutes, sometimes shorter, results in astringency.