On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 5:14 PM, Aditya Kapil <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 10:53 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian <[email protected]> > wrote: >> The issue is getting those "any other kind of beans" - which is why I >> always come back with a pound of beans whenever I travel. Good stuff >> like blue mountain etc if I'm feeling flush, if not at least Peets, >> Seattle's Best type above average coffee chains. > Yes, I think this is important. It's beginning to look like variety will > only come from travel. I travel quite a bit to SF, Philly, London and Basel. > Let me know of stores where I can pick up beans that are less than 'two > weeks old' and varieties that are your favorites (describing, if you have > the time, what you like about them). The problem is that I don't think I've > had enough good stuff to be able to describe what I like. Strong aroma is > important, but not necessarily too much bitterness... is that a paradox?
Ok, I am a dyed in the wool, full-on, coffee... "connoisseur." I've roasted my own green coffee for the last 10 years, started with 100 gm in a hot air popcorn popper, and using all sorts of roasters including a $700+ programmable countertop roaster. I've brewed "pour over" drip filter, french press, moka pot, automatic drip, percolator, over a campfire with eggshells, aero press, cold extracted, vietnamese drip, thai drip, and yes south indian filter coffee. I currently prefer two triple ristretto macchiatos each morning for breakfast. I've tried beans from all over, South and Central American, African, South Pacific Islands, and yes, Asian including India. The single biggest determinant of coffee quality is how fresh it is. I'm a big fan of South Pacific Island coffees, and not such a fan of South American coffees, but I'll take a freshly roasted generic Colombian over a month old Sulawesi anytime. Suresh's quote is exactly right. First: do not use pre-ground coffee. Not ever. Not for any reason. Yes I'm serious and no I'm not kidding. I don't care if it's Illy vacuum packed espresso. Do not ever buy coffee powder. Just switching to grinding your own coffee will improve your quality more than anything else you can do. Do this one thing before anything else. Nothing else matters until you do this. I would drink coffee boiled over a campfire made from freshly ground beans over the fanciest high tech espresso made with pre-ground coffee (and that includes any kind of coffee pod.) Second: use fresh coffee. If it's more than a week or two old it doesn't matter where it came from. I'd rather have a recently roasted generic Brazilian over a month old "Blue Mountain." Coffee goes stale quickly. Vacuum packing hurts rather than helps, because freshly roasted coffee generates CO2. In order to vacuum pack it they have to wait for the off gassing to stop at which point the coffee is stale. If you can't get freshly roasted coffee I suggest you roast it yourself. If you can't roast it yourself, try to get as fresh as you can. Third: use a decent grinder. If you're going to spend money, spend it on a reasonable burr grinder. Baratza makes some reasonably priced ones, or the Sunbeam EM0480/EM0450 is a decent home grinder for under US$200. (I've got a spare EM0480 if someone wants it. I'll sell it to you for $50+s/h. I'm in Australia...) After this it quickly becomes a matter of taste. With freshly roasted beans, a decent grinder, and a $20 french press I can be very happy. So the next questions are about what styles of coffee you like, what kinds of roasts you like, and what you like in a coffee bean. Since it's all so subjective, I'll subject you to my personal coffee preferences. I prefer low-acid robust dry-processed coffees. Low acid inclines me towards Yemen, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. Similarly for "robust" coffees. I like a big chocolatey coffee - I'm not into subtle fruity and winey flavors I like being hit over the head. That said I like the wild funky complexities of dry processed coffees, so I end up with Yemens, Ethiopian Yirgacheff and Nekisse, and some Celebes (Sulawesi) coffees. I prefer a slightly darker roast, so I tend to go to a city roast, or full city with the Yemeni coffees. I buy beans green and roast at home in my oven. I've also successfully roasted in a wok over the stove or in a BBQ. You don't need fancy expensive equipment to roast at home. I grind using a Mazzer "Mini" grinder, which allows me to both grind finely enough for espresso, and adjust the grind in a continuous range rather than in "steps." It uses dual grinding plates and is slow enough to keep the grounds cool during grinding (though some people like to cool the grinder.) I brew using an Expobar "Minore" dual-boiler espresso machine with an E61 group head and electronic temperature controls. I use a "bottomless" portafilter to check my tamp. This setup allows for varying the brew temperature and pressure depending on the bean, roast, and grind. Anyway, that just indicates that I'm a fanatic, which was already obvious. That said, I'm quite happy drinking coffee from a french press, a pour over filter, a siphon, vietnamese cafe sua da, or south indian filter coffee. I love coffee. If you want good coffee, buy freshly roasted beans (or roast them yourself), grind them yourself, prepare them the way you like and be happy. One last rantlet. Buying "fancy" brand pre-roasted beans is a ripoff. I don't care if it's kopi luwak, Jamaican Blue Mountain, or some other name brand. If you buy it roasted and bring it home it will be stale. I don't bother bringing home Blue Bottle from San Francisco because by the time I get to it, it will be stale. If, for some reason, you can't get good fresh locally roasted beans and you have access to a freezer, it is possible to keep roasted coffee fresher in a freezer. It is a last resort! Freeze in separate air-tight containers in quantities you will use in a week or less, and take out no more than a week's worth at a time. But really - buy or roast fresh, always grind fresh and be happy! -- Charles (drinking home roasted Yemen Ismaili)
