Our friend, Ratty, left a comment on my last post. He mentioned that he had given up instant coffee and was doing his own brew. That was a wise move my friend.
Here is a re-post of a piece from January 7, 2013. I hope you enjoy it.
I had signed up for coffee tasting and brewing classes last fall. The tasting (cupping) class taught me how to evaluate coffee and identify flavors and subtleties in various coffees.
In brewing class, I discovered that rinsing the paper filter helped remove that terrible taste from the cup. In the class we watched our teacher brew coffee using various methods and then evaluated the final product.
The vacuum pot looked like a high-school science project. The results were just about that good. We were told that this could produce the finest or the worst results and you could never be 100% sure which you’d end up with.
Then we tried a couple of pour-over methods. They weren’t bad, but failed to impress.
Some were enamored of the French Press. I wasn’t.
Then we tried the AeroPress. Aha! That produced excellent results. Cleanup would be relatively easy. The only catch? How can you consistently heat water to 197 F? All of these methods rely on that.
The answer is a cordless electric kettle with a temperature control. I bought this:
I use it for my coffee and Sylvia uses it for her tea. How handy that Sylvia has a birthday this week. Happy birthday honey! Thanks for letting me use it too.
The rest of the equipment (AeroPress) looks like this:
I don’t use the paper filters. A stainless steel filter (purchased separately) keeps the grounds out of the brew. I only have used grounds to dispose of. These I keep to use on the garden. The grounds help protect root crops from bugs. Neat, huh?
I’ll not bother you with the details, but this takes no longer (may be shorter) than brewing with Mr Coffee. There is less waste and the coffee is incredibly better!
WARNING: Use of this method can turn you into a coffee snob. Therefore, exercise discretion before purchasing anything like this.
I have one final thought to share with you today. The coffee beans make a huge difference. I’ll write about that for tomorrow’s post.
I’ve always thought of coffee as something to help me wake up in the morning. : ) Maybe I need to expand my horizons.
It does that . . . and so much more. By all means, expand those horizons.
Gotta admire a man who knows what he wants and gets it for his wife’s birthday. Happy brewing! :haha:
At least it was something she could, would and wanted to use. Not like the fellow that I heard about who bought his wife and outboard motor for his boat. Now that was wrong.