Coffee People. Talk to me.

[manoeuver]

My name is Tim and I'm a Coffee Geek.

Other terms I've had applied: Coffee Jerk. Coffee Ninja. Coffee Sensei.

Background: Been drinking the stuff forever. Had my first coffee job in college, that was 13 years ago. Since then I've been baristo, manager, trainer, and owner of retail gourmet coffee shops. Last year I started a (one-man) consulting company. My clients were all coffee businesses. One client (my favorite coffee roaster) brought me on full-time last year as an Evil Scientist- I've been doing program development there, it's been a blast. I also discovered I love love love the coffee roasting side of the industry.

anyway, here's my home brew rig:


my auto-drip machine is 10 years old and going strong. Brews at 195 degrees. I drink about 24oz out of this thing daily between 5 and 8AM.

I'll use the Aeropress after the drip's gone. The Bonavita kettle is fun to use- super convenient, with built-in thermostat.

Main grinder is Capresso Infinity, I've used it for almost 8 years now. Still very happy.

I'll take the Hario hand grinder and Aeropress with me when I travel.

Two things I don't have to fuss with: home roasting and home espresso. I respect those who go through the hassle, I'm very fortunate to have commercial capabilities at my fingertips where I work.

ok, who's next?

[drgoretex]

My name is Ken, and I'm a coffee addict....

Nice set up there!

My home apparatus is pretty similar, with a burr grinder a drip brewer. We get our coffee beans freshly roasted at a small coffee shop near us. At work, it's Tim Hortons coffee all day long (they opened up an outlet in the lobby of my workplace). In fact, I've been sipping on that as I peruse FPG this am :-)

Cheers,

Ken

[ardgedee]

When I have coffee at home...
I quit the electric burr grinder a year and change ago, and use a Hario Skerton I modded with a homebrewed stabilizing bearing. For brewing I usually hand-pour because that's the easiest to clean up, but I also have a Frieling double-wall steel press pot and a Bodum Santos vacuum pot. Water comes from a Zojirushi electric water boiler, which my partner uses for her tea.

There are a couple local roasters doing good work, so I'm not deprived of variety, but when I talk about coffee I begin to miss Mighty Good and Roos, both of whom operate in Ann Arbor, MI, and are still my favorites.

[manoeuver]

When I have coffee at home...
I quit the electric burr grinder a year and change ago, and use a Hario Skerton I modded with a homebrewed stabilizing bearing. For brewing I usually hand-pour because that's the easiest to clean up, but I also have a Frieling double-wall steel press pot and a Bodum Santos vacuum pot. Water comes from a Zojirushi electric water boiler, which my partner uses for her tea.

There are a couple local roasters doing good work, so I'm not deprived of variety, but when I talk about coffee I begin to miss Mighty Good and Roos, both of whom operate in Ann Arbor, MI, and are still my favorites.

I'd love to see your grinder mod. Got any pics?
I also love the cleanup ease of pourover coffee. That's how I do demos for the roastery. I don't have a vacuum pot cause I know I would never use it knowing what cleanup is like.

[ardgedee]

I'd love to see your grinder mod. Got any pics?

Not really. I'm going to redo it, hopefully better and hopefully soon, so I'll try to take some photos of that.

Cleaning out a vacuum pot is neither easier nor harder than a press pot, it's just messier. The trick is having a pipe brush the right size to fit in the flue; Asian groceries usually stock a set for a buck or two.

[PointyThings]

My "new" grinder, a $25 Craigslist find after a "bonus" piece of gravel in a supermarket bag of beans destroyed my Bodum burr grinder.

This 100+ year old grinder does a beautiful job on drip grind and provides a nice morning workout.

Grinder-1010280.jpg

[KrazyIvan]

I am Krazy about coffee. While I try to get locally roasted coffee, that always does not work out since they are a good drive away. A friend supplies me with some Guatemalan beans every now and then that he gets shipped from his mom in Guatemala. She roasts the coffee herself. When I can't get that I usually have some whole bean on hand from Rio Grande Roasters or the medium roast Costco stuff that is roasted by Star Bucks.

I don't have pictures of my gear but I have a burr grinder, regular blade grinder (yeah, yeah I know), drip coffee maker and French Press. I bring bean to work but since I get in later than some of the coffee drinkers, they don't want to wait for me to grind the coffee. They say it is too much work and won't touch the bean. Whatever.

My Starbucks coffee mug.


Mmmmmm Coffee by IvanRomero, on Flickr

[manoeuver]

I don't use a press pot, either. the silt makes me dry heave.

[jar]

I've pretty much moved backwards. I've abandoned roasting and grinding, put most of my coffee machines away and settle pretty much on the single serve format products. I've abandoned Keurig and Nestle (the machines are still going strong just at new homes) and settled on the pod format as my main machine (Bunn MCP) and rotate through CBTL, Illy, Tassimo and Lavazza machines in addition as the fancy strikes.

[ardgedee]

I like my press pot, but then again I'm fond of chewy coffee... The main goal of re-modding my grinder is to get a more consistent grind than I currently have, and hopefully get even less dust than it currently produces.

If you like the idea of press pots but dislike them in practice, might be worth trying one with a pluger that has a rotating shield over the screen. It does a better job of separating the grounds from the drink.

[Sailor Kenshin]

*raises hand*

I have a K-rig that I just got and am having fun with, three or four percolators (which SAVED us during a two week power outage, lol), a vacuum maker, buncha Chemexes, couple press pots, buncha stovetop 'espresso makers,' a Mr. Coffee that's a regular weekend user, a larger Gevalia for when company comes and which makes excellent coffee, and once I had a Turkish stovetop maker but I lost it.

I HAD a good hand grinder and a great electric. But those went the way of the Turkish pot.

Yeah, I'm iggorant, but What's an Aeropress?

Always sorta kinda wanted to roast my own, but... Little scurd.

[tenney]

Yeah, I'm iggorant, but What's an Aeropress?

Aeropress is an inexpensive (< USD$30) easy to use, fast, easy to clean "press" coffee maker that makes a great cup approaching an espresso. It makes a consistently very good cup quickly and with crema. It's available at many places including Amazon.

See http://aerobie.com/products/aeropres...ress-story.htm

[Sailor Kenshin]

Yeah, I'm iggorant, but What's an Aeropress?

Aeropress is an inexpensive (< USD$30) easy to use, fast, easy to clean "press" coffee maker that makes a great cup approaching an espresso. It makes a consistently very good cup quickly and with crema. It's available at many places including Amazon.

See http://aerobie.com/products/aeropres...ress-story.htm

Thanks! I might put that in my Wish List. Is it easy to clean?

[I like mango pudding]

Yeah, I'm iggorant, but What's an Aeropress?

Aeropress is an inexpensive (< USD$30) easy to use, fast, easy to clean "press" coffee maker that makes a great cup approaching an espresso. It makes a consistently very good cup quickly and with crema. It's available at many places including Amazon.

See http://aerobie.com/products/aeropres...ress-story.htm

Thanks! I might put that in my Wish List. Is it easy to clean?

for the most part, yes.

You do need to buy little round filter papers but those are really cheap. It would be no different than cleaning a drip coffee filter holder. YOu need to rinse the excess cling on grinds under a stream of water, and that's it

[I like mango pudding]

There's coffeegeek dot com for you to spend lots of time when you are not here (yes, another geek site). Also homebarista dot com if that isn't enough for you. I'm on both. I have a Rocket Giotto HX E61 machine that is only a year old or so, plus a Macap MC4 doserless grinder. Used to have a Rancilio Sylvia that was PID'd but even still, it was too tempermental. Never had a problem with the Rocket, and I'm still getting used to it. I use mainly local roasters. I've had some good shots with Intelligentsia's Black Cat. I can do many different types of latte art too. Yes, coffee is my other "hobby". I have one other "hobby" but I won't mention that right now.


not exactly mine, but you get the idea of what it looks like.
5508380789_4043f87c45_z.jpg

[drgoretex]

There's coffeegeek dot com for you to spend lots of time when you are not here (yes, another geek site). Also homebarista dot com if that isn't enough for you. I'm on both. I have a Rocket Giotto HX E61 machine that is only a year old or so, plus a Macap MC4 doserless grinder. Used to have a Rancilio Sylvia that was PID'd but even still, it was too tempermental. Never had a problem with the Rocket, and I'm still getting used to it. I use mainly local roasters. I've had some good shots with Intelligentsia's Black Cat. I can do many different types of latte art too. Yes, coffee is my other "hobby". I have one other "hobby" but I won't mention that right now.


not exactly mine, but you get the idea of what it looks like.
5508380789_4043f87c45_z.jpg

WOW! Nice! I guess that is the coffee equivalent of someone posting a pic of a high end 'grail' pen

Ken

[Scrawler]

5508380789_4043f87c45_z.jpg

It is my dream to have either this or the Gaggia hissing and steaming copper and brass machine in my kitchen.

[kirchh]

For a single cup, I am very fond of the Clever Coffee Dripper (got mine from Sweet Maria's). It's basically a pourover but with a valve, so it adds a dimension of control, as you can control the steeping time; after it steeps (I go four minutes total with a stir after one minute to break the "crust"), you simply place it on top of your cup and it automatically opens the valve and dispenses the coffee. Fun! So, by fiddling with grind, grounds quantity, water temp, and steeping time, you can tune the flavor to your liking. As it uses a paper filter, the coffee is not silty, but it is as robust as you want to make it. And for $15, it's hard to go wrong.



--Daniel

[Toffer]

Wow I didn't know coffee was so complicated! I had to look up burr grinders but I have one of those, like this:http://www.espressotec.com/media/cat...lGrinder_M.jpg
But I got fed up of grinding for ages so bought one with blades, which I then have to put in the old grinder because it doesn't grind well enough! Then I have a stove top Bialetti like this:http://www.conranshop.co.uk/conranca...ain/357210.png

I would love a proper machine though!!

[manoeuver]

I love the idea of the valve on a pourover brewer. on the other hand I like the challenge of dialing in brew time by adjusting the grind of the coffee.