coffee DIY rant

[firecat]

I've been working this one up for a few days (begun as a comment in epi_lj's journal and just posted it on ba.food, so I thought I'd share it with my fanbase here :-)

Sometimes I really don't know what to think about the proliferation of DIY in the kitchen, especially where coffee is concerned. In order to keep up with the cool kids, first we had to brew real coffee and not ever use instant, then we had to make coffee in a melitta cone, then we had to grind our own beans at home, then we had to grind them in a burr grinder, then we had to make the coffee in a press pot or an industrial strength Gaggia, and now we have to roast our own beans. What's next, is everyone going to have to get their own Palm Civets and produce their very own Kopi Luak?

I also noticed a few years ago that one of the hoity toity kitchen catalogs was selling a very expensive percolator and making claims about how pushing the beans UP through the grounds produced such a better taste than other methods. I'm sure they carefully timed this announcement to whenever they guessed the absolute most people had finally gotten rid of their parents' old percolator from the 1950s.

My Progress: I have passed the "brew real coffee" milepost, and am starting to think I need a new grinder

Comments

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I'm really glad I don't drink coffee. :-)

Russ is a Tea Snob, but that doesn't involve nearly as much effort -- just a fancy teamaker and an entire cupboard full of bulk tea of different varieties.

[rmjwell.livejournal.com]

I only drink imported coffee.

Of course, I'm importing it from the midwest as no one in California carries the 8 O'clock brand.

I've got my own grinder and I've inherited a Braun drip maker from chiefted, but about the only special thing I do is add cinnamon to the grounds to make the flavor milder still.

[fattest.livejournal.com]

Ha!

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

I've been at "grind out own beans at home" stage for a few years now, and I really don't intend to go any further.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we've been at the "grind our own beans at home" stage for a while, too. I sometimes toy with the idea of buying a popcorn popper and roasting my own, but I've no idea where to buy unroasted "green" coffee beans.

[pogodragon.livejournal.com]

I drink instant coffee about half the time, if I use the coffee maker I buy ready ground coffee. I really cannot be bothered with faffing about more than that.

I have been known to get home from holidays in Europe or the USA and be craving a mug of instant coffee. I suppose I'm just a philistine really.

[jenk]

I confess I like Starbuck's. In mitigation I note that I had my 3rd Mocha ever at the original Starbuck's at the market and, well, it was yummy.

(I was in high school. First two were at Nordstrom's - a Seattle institution.)

You've reminded me, tho, that I should pick up some decaf instant; I use it to flavor hot milk when I can't sleep :)

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Funny how within the space of about 2 years, Starbuck's went from "cool and special" to the coffee equivalent of McD's. The perils of over-expansion...

[firecat]

When were those 2 years? I have equated SB with MD since about 1993. But maybe it's that I was brainwashed with the whole Peeeeeeeeets mystique

[auntysocial.livejournal.com]

....but the coffee grinder terrified the cats.

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

I have a press-pot but no coffee grinder.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I steadfastly refuse to roast my own beans. Even as one of those "you've got to try it once" things. I made croissants from scratch. Once. I made puff pastry. Once. But, yeesh, the people who roast coffee professionally get it wrong half the time (in my humble opinion) and burn the hell out of it. Why on earth would I want to try something like that?

I've actually reverted to buying coffee already ground. On the other hand, I'm a tea-drinker. Tim is the coffee drinker, and many mornings he resorts to instant.

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

Have you never noticed the tendencis of users of mind-altering drugs to ritualize the use of their drug, and to fetishize the both the different forms of the drug and the paraphernalia used to consume it?

The extreme lengths to which people pursue this are demonstrated by the Japanese tea ceremony (http://www.holymtn.com/tea/Japanesetea.htm).

It is worth noticing that when a coffee drinker is in need, she will drink terrible coffee, such as the legendarily bad coffee in hospitals and police stations. It seems to me a natural application of magical thinking to continue to try out the next good-coffee thing in hopes of protecting oneself from such bad-coffee experiences.

[kateo.livejournal.com]

Someone pointed something similar out to me recently, only in a tone of "gee, don't you wish you could roast your own beans?" and I had to laugh. I'm perfectly happy with buying my beans from our local coffee chain, Bongo Java (http://www.bongojava.com/), and they're organic & fair trade certified. They have a roasting facility (http://www.bongojava.com/beans.php?content=roasting_company) a few miles from my house, and they offer a fairly wide range of roasts and blends.

Between Bongo Java beans and my home setup (burr grinder and drip/thermal coffeepot (which I prefer to the plunge/press variety)), I'm drinking some of the best coffee I've ever had every morning. I'm fairly confident I've reached the point of diminishing returns in terms of any "improvements" to my home setup.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

My coffee ambivalence has shaded a few more degrees towards (away from?) coffee avoidance, given the recent gluten reaction fun. Now I'm stuck with Morning Buffalo Thunder tea, by Celestial Seasonings. Oh woe. *sip*

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Um.

Coffee doesn't have gluten in it. (Real coffee, at least. Considering the regularity with which instant coffee makes me sick, I'm not prepared to say it doesn't.)