What's in Your Cup?

Wide open - your latest coffee, tea, beer, wine, cocktail - bring it on!

On my menu today, starting out with 2011 Shui Xian from my friend The Mandarin's Tea Room. Unlike coffee, heavily roasted tea benefits from a few years of aging.

After lunch, Espresso Toscano from Counter Culture, drip grind in a Chemex.

On deck, Bitter Orange Juice filtering for a cocktail party later.

Feel free to ask me any tea questions, I have been practicing Chinese tea for over 10 years.

I am new to coffee, so I'll throw out some idle questions to the group.

- Do you ever put a pinch of salt in your coffee?

- What makes some coffees recommended for drip, others for french press, espresso, etc?

- If I've done everything in Chemex, is it worth also owning a French Press?

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Comments

Samuel_68313

I don't put salt in my coffee unless it is really really bad. I love the bitterness of coffee.

I really appreciate the convenience of a French Press. I don't know about the various differences it would make, but it is a lot less time consuming, which is good in the morning.

As for my drinks today, not a lot. I had a coffee earlier, a can of coke, I'll probably have some earl grey later. Doubt I'll drink anything tonight but if I do it'll just be an eggnog with some brandy I think.

Matt_67991

Haha, oh man. Totally ashamed to admit it, but lately I've been drinking a lot of instant coffee.

Before that, I was doing the whole aeropress with a burr grinder and measuring the water temperature with a thermometer etc., and I'll go back to that, but there really is something to be said for the convenience of instant coffee in the morning if you're in a rush.

I also have a french press, but I mostly use that for cold brew. I definitely prefer the aeropress because it's single serving and I'm the only one in my household who drinks coffee. I'm sure I'd love a chemex though.

Brendan_Lee_56950

We just polished off a few vietnamese iced coffee's, a great afternoon pick me up.

Chris_Young_80640

We need Brandon to pour tea into the ingredient wiki!

Matthew_Snyder_68770

Since the weather has gotten chilly, the wife likes to make spiced rum and apple cider drinks, served warm with a stick of cinnamon. Mmmmmmmm.

@Brandon, re salt in the coffee. My uncle was in the Marines for 23 years and did two cruises (Med and WestPac), when he came back from each, he'd be going on about putting a pinch of salt in his coffee. Is it a navy thing? Anyway, I do it every time I get hot coffee now.

DiggingDogFarm_65362

Snowing heavily here, I chose chai today.

I rarely use the Chemex since I bought an AeroPress......I love it!

A pinch of salt in coffee is also an old diner trick.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

In my cup I have a Sweet Maria's liquid amber, roasted to a Vienna+,

added some Swedish honey, cinnamon, and belgian choclit.

Pulled at 202F in a QM67, then the milk and cream was frothed.

The water was from a spring in the CO mountains.

Manfred_18311

....,and

I though you talk about your new Porsche.

Manfred_18311

First the

water, even though we have here excellent tab water, I distill first 2000ml of Guatemala

highland coffee to distillated coffee water. For safety reasons I keep the

still in the basement. mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:

Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-char-type:

symbol;mso-symbol-font-family:Wingdings">J The distillated

water holds a nice and quite strong coffee scent and proofs excellent for

brewing coffee.

Than an Ethiopian/

Kenyan highland blend is cocked with it for about 4 min. and poured through a

gold filter. Gold filter last forever and keeps the paper taste out.

Nicky_J_17040

@Brandon

which teas are most beneficial for our health...and why?

I love my coffee, but am trying to balance it out a little more. I love almost all teas that I've tried so far.

Brandon_34695

I really think if you are looking to tea for some health advantage, it is a lot more expedient / effective to take a supplement of the compounds that interest you. EGCG, l-theanine, or whatever. In cases where tea replaces high calorie beverages, obviously, the substitution is a great benefit.

Personally, I get the most benefit from the ritual of preparing tea. I find my natural tendency towards anxiety exacerbated by a high pressure corporate workplace, and a slow paced hour of tea offers a lot of comfort. Think of it as a form of mindfulness practice.

robert.c.brown15

egg nog and bourbon.

Brandon_34695

First try at French Press. 21g/300ml. I definitely need to make a coarser grind tomorrow. I kept the choice of beans and grind the same, but I will admit this was probably not an appropriate grind and may have overexposed the flaws of press brewing. At first glance, I have a strong preference for the cleaner flavors coming from Chemex, and the caffeine level extracted is hitting me a lot harder. A large dose of caffeine actually puts me somewhere between sleepy and stoned, instead of the typical energy boosting claims. Aftertaste was improved at first, but the lingering taste a few minutes later in the throat is more reminiscent of gas station coffee. Does anyone else weight throat tasting highly? It is a big part of my tea tasting. Most of my descriptors on this are in Chinese and I'm not sure how relatable it is to other topics. More on this tomorrow.

Manfred, your coffee still is seriously intense. I wouldn't expect any less from this group!

Manfred_18311

@Brandon

Thanks..., the

still is allocated to a multipurpose function, trough using different size

bulbs I also extract herb essences and.., yes of course distill spirits.

Getting into the distilling of spirits, which is a delicate process if looking

for high quality, I will be on top of after taking a seminar in Austria in

January 14.

If using a

Chemex you should definitely look into getting a gold filter for it. I am good

with a “Swiss gold filter”, the actual filter is pure 24k gold and not as other

filter products stainless steel with a vapor deposit gold layer. It goes for about

$ 35.- and considering the long lifetime its saved easely on the filter paper. Filters

mesh size 0.06 mm /63 µm or # 230.

Gold filter

Coffee really

is a healthy drink if accurately prepared. Boil the coffee and then pour it in

the filter, not pouring hot water on Coffee in the filter. The extraction of flavor, taste and other

elements is much better by boiling coffee for 1min. for Robusta and 3-4min

Arabica at 80C° - 90C°. Coffee contains a high amount of antioxidants working

positively to the body cell regeneration.

It’s not uncommon

to get in a rather sleepy state after drinking coffee. Caffeine works in

different stages, shortly after drinking it gives a sedative effect, the cerebral

perfusion of the brain area responsible for sleep rises, aprox. 15mi - 20min after it the caffeine will

affect the cerebral area of concentration and attention.

It also

depending on what sort of Coffee bean you prefer to drink. Arabica or Robusta, Arabica,

with 60% WW sale the most common Coffee bean, contains half of the caffeine

than Robusta.

robert.c.brown15

@Manfred, do you use that gold filter for anything else? Straining infused oils or anything like that?

Manfred_18311

@Robert_Brown,

Basically not, but there is nothing what stands against it since the filter is solid gold it won’t take on any “flavor” from whatever you choose to filter.

Manfred_18311

A coffee distillate

43%vol.. One result of recent distilling efforts at the weekend seminar in

Austria, wise enough I left the car and travel by train .

Surprisingly

it of sweet taste and nowhere sharp. Might I reduce some coffee and sugar to syrup

consistence and add some of the distillate to make a "Kahlua" liquor, plus a nice

Baily like foam.

prince_of_porcelain

This morning, I brewed up a batch of beet coffee. Just to be clear, the beet coffee was necessity rather than the plan

for this morning. Not to say that I hadn't planned to make beet coffee,

just not this morning. I had a large number of coffee beans left over

from my coffee roasted beet dish. Turns out, a byproduct of coffee

roasted beets, is beet infused coffee beans. I figured I'd brew them up

some weekend and see what happened. Then, this morning, I realized the

2 bags of coffee in the cupboard that I had assumed the previous night

were full enough to stretch for one last pot, only contained a few

meager beans apiece. I wasn't up early enough to roast a fresh batch of

beans, so I decided to go for the beet coffee. Let me be clear again,

the beans smell clearly of beets...and yes, coffee too. It's really

quite an intriguing aroma. I was excited, but figured my wife might not

be too keen on the idea. So I didn't tell her. The brewed

coffee was still black, even though I'd secretly hoped for a dark

garnet color. And it smelled mostly like coffee. If you didn't know it

was beet coffee, you'd probably just think it was coffee. But it

definitely had an earthiness to it, and the finish was mildly beety. I

liked it.

Beets buried in coffee beans....pre-roasting

nick.pmallon

Since my toddler decided to wake up at 5:30am today, after I got out of the restaurant at 12:30am last night, I am going with my Tesora blend from Philz Coffee in San Francisco. Love making this in my French Press with a little golden brown sugar to sweeten it up and play up the caramel tones in the beans.

lachlan_14664

Does anyone no of a good chai masala recipe?

So many variations and possibilities it is incredible.

tshewman

Man! Reading this thread makes me want to like coffee and tea! When I first moved to Seattle in 98 from Canada I didn't drink coffee or eat seafood. Needless to say I was the standing joke that the fiefs would be on the lookout for a guy like that that lives in Seattle. My taste for seafood has drastically changed but I have yet to find a coffee (or tea) I like. About once a year I try various versions of both and rarely get past 3-4 sips and have never had as much as half a cup. :-0

Johan_Edstrom_5586

What I've found the more I roast is an intense dislike of old and bitter coffee.

I'd sincerely suggest the home-roasting and maybe a good book on coffee, I also have no

qualms about adding tasty things to my coffee.

DiggingDogFarm_65362

I don't think I could live without coffee or tea (I love both)....not happily anyway!

Pepijn_31744

Not a huge coffee drinker here, but I do love my tea. I should try to get myself to experiment more with it, try some more variations in brands and preparation. For some reason I'm really lazy when it comes to tea, is it because it's my relaxation drink? Who knows.

Tea is awesome, as long as you stay away from the teabags. (generally speaking)

Mike_Minh_Truong_54120

Jasmine tea pearls.

christopher_12897

I got a pretty heavy dose of TEA education in SF

I got to go to some rad tea shops in Tokyo several years back and I spent quite a lot bringing stuff back.

Sencha and Gyokuro are very very good Japanese Style Greens.

Ku Ding is an interesting Chinese tea thats bitter and strange tasting but very good for you.

Pu Erh can be very satisfying and have a world of distinguishing characteristics. They can also be very expensive. But the process is interesting and you can develop a preference and palette for it. I think some wheels of it sit around the house on a mantle or something and are drunk on special occasions and such.

Theres a world of white teas and oolongs that are great too. Theres a VITAL TEA LEAF in Seattle (owned by Vital in SF)

Places like this are cool to go and taste basically anything as long as you walk out with a little something. All chinese though.

As for coffee I grind all mine when I make it and do pour over only. Its the easiest and makes the best brews in my opinion.

HammeredChef_DEFINITELY_does_NOT_work_at_22134

And to this discussion I bring sacrilege.....the water temp is adjustable and you can roast, grind and make your own pods.

Now if this had headed in the wine direction..

Brandon_34695

Green St Coffee Roasters "Lupara" Espresso

19g dose, 201F, 36g output, 25 seconds, Volvic water

It took me over a month of practice to get to here, but I find this week's brews more enjoyable and balanced than most shops I visit. There is something to be said to making it yourself.

I had some beginners luck, followed by a severe period of acidic failure. I later learned that I was over-filtering my water and it had no ph buffering ability. Scaling the output made me feel in control of tuning the other variables. H/T to Jim Seven and Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood for his talk.

(http://tampertantrum.libsyn.com/maxwell-colonna-dashwood-tamper-tantrum-birmingham-2014)

Loads more room for learning, and of course toys.

Chris_Kolbu_16712

Hunkute, an Ethiopian coffee sourced by Nordic Approach and roasted by Small Batch roasters here in Melbourne.

Delicious.

Leonard_13847

@Chris Haha, I have had Hunkute many times! I love it.

Now I am fortunate enough to have got my hands on some of the legendary Geisha coffee from Hacienda la Esmeralda roasted by coffee guru Tim Wendelboe. However, I cannot decide whether I prefer it brewed with Aeropress or V60.