(relax topic) what's your preferred method to make coffee?

[DiTBho]

There are several ways to make coffee:

• Moka
• Chemex
• Pour Over
• (Portland, USA) “hand drip coffee”
  
• French press
• ... other methods

What's your preferred method to make coffee? 

It sounds I need to watch  some video on Youtube to master each of these other methods, since my preferred method is Moka and unfortunately it's also the only way I have always made coffee.

[Cubdriver]

I typically use a Keurig as I’m making a single cup just for me, but as far as flavor goes much prefer perked coffee.  It’s just not worth the effort and waste to perk for a single cup, though, and I don’t drink enough to justify making a whole pot.

-Pat

[jonpaul]

Bonjour à tous
After semi-automatique espresso machine Jura Capresso, French Press, filtre, we discovered Italiano Bialetti Moka Espress stove top,

The best, but requires

1/ précise grinder just coarser than fine espresso,
2/ original genuine Bialetti not cheaper Chinese knockoffs
3/ remove from heat immediately after brew
4/ enjoy and clean up right away
5/ best with no dilution of milk or crème
6/ use proper size, eg 1 cup 50 ml espresso from 1 cup pot, 3 cups 150 ml from 3 cup pot, so always fill 100%

Silicon gasket needs periodid replacement

We threw out the semi- automatic

Visit any of the café forums for much better information

its 01:00 and I am starting my day with a Moka.

Bon chance

Jon

[tszaboo]

Pressing a button on a commercial Nespresso machine.

[DiTBho]

Yup, I’m making a single cup just for me, too.

I can find small Moka 250ml (1-2 cup), but the smallest French press machine I have found is 1L (4-6 cup).

I also have to understand which Coffee grinder I have to use. As well as I understand Moka needs fine grind, while French press need coarse grind, and Chemex needs medium grind.



Yesterday I bought a new tool with six adjustment setting. The coffee is collected in the jar attached to the grinder with no mess or loss of coffee. The grind on the coffee appears to be consistent and uniform on all settings. If you fill the top of the grinder with coffee beans it will hold roughly 18g max. On the finest setting (Position 1) that 18g of coffee takes around 70 seconds to grind which I am impressed with although I have nothing to gauge it against.

I know nothing at all, but I love this stuff 

[Muttley Snickers]

It's instant or nothing!   

I couldn't be bothered mucking about with gadgets and gismos just to make a cup of coffee, the thought alone makes me want to percolate.   

Years ago a mate talked me into buying a Delonghi Magnifica coffee machine because he said they were the best and he could get a good deal on a few of them, it turned out to be one of the worst purchases I ever made and a terrible waste of $600   

The coffee was always only luke warm and tasted like mud regardless of the beans used, making a one minute coffee would result in a one hour cleaning exercise and I recently pulled the machine out of the cupboard and did a complete destructive teardown out of disgust for this machine. If you think your coffee machine is clean and hygienic perhaps it's time to take the back off and check out the various species of mold and fungi that these machines seem to create so well.        

PS: This thread probably belongs in the cooking section.

[Nominal Animal]

Boiling water, coffee grounds, a bit of time, then milk.  I'm Finnish, you see; it's quantity over quality.

If you can make the grinder do superfine, I'd probably just snort the stuff.

[DiTBho]

If you can make the grinder do superfine, I'd probably just snort the stuff.

LOL 

[DiTBho]

Pressing a button on a commercial Nespresso machine.

haha, what's the next step for an engineer? Maybe the plan to somehow *connect* the button to Alexa just to say "Alexa? make me some coffee"

(don't make me tempted, I want to prepare coffee manually  )

[DiTBho]

If you think your coffee machine is clean and hygienic

I don't know about other methods, but Moka, Chemex and French-press are easy to clean.
Probably express-machines are more complex because you need to open and tear down.

Dunno

[jonpaul]

Hi: French press: Messy the glass beakers are so then they alwyas break.
Moka: Perfect, but a "cup" is a 50 ml espresso cup. The Moka pot must be fulley used for the water and cafe grounds never partial so a 3 cup moka gives 150 ml = 3 cups espresso.

We boil the water (filtered) in a separate elctric kettle, then add to the reliefe valvelevel in the pot.

Level filter with cafe, do not pack.

Remove grinds from seal

Close tightly

Please on lowest heat of any type stove except induction.

Wait till brewing starts, open lid to see it fnish, drink immediate

Over 20 yera fo Jura/Capresso machines, we found that   semi/auto machines  need constant maintenance  and make lousy café


Just my opinion!

Jon

[themadhippy]

What's your preferred method to make coffee?

I use the ancient magic incantation " OI get us a coffee" whenever possible

[penfold]

I quite like drip coffee, you don't get the same taste, but it's satisfying to watch as it creeps through the tube up to the cannula.

I like the convenience of the aero-press when in the office, so much easier to dispose of the grounds and rinse clean than french-press, seem to get a reasonably consistent flavour. When at home or relaxing, usually go for the Moka/stove-top espresso, I'm not really sure I have a sense for flavour in absolute terms, but I find it "pleasingly different" to other types.

[tszaboo]

Pressing a button on a commercial Nespresso machine.

haha, what's the next step for an engineer? Maybe the plan to somehow *connect* the button to Alexa just to say "Alexa? make me some coffee"

(don't make me tempted, I want to prepare coffee manually  )

Honestly, I don't really care how she is called if she brings me a cup.
But yeah, jokes aside, we have a Nespresso Gemini 200 at work, it's just too easy and good.

[PartialDischarge]

I still have to try, but I've read that using coffee beans from just roasted green beans  makes all the difference

[Ian.M]

Hi: French press: Messy the glass beakers are so then they always break.

You can get stainless steel double walled (thermos flask) french presses, which are far more robust than glass ones, e.g. ours has survived ten years knocking around in the cook's locker on a sailboat.  As long as you clean them same day^*, they are no harder to use and clean up after, and make just as good coffee as the glass ones.

+1 for moving this to 'Cooking'

* OTOH if you are a slob and leave your french press till its growing green fur, that's possibly sentient and old enough to vote, well its easier to get biofilm off glass!

[tom66]

Espresso machine - add extra water for Americano, add milk for Latte, add chocolate milk for a Mocha.  Found that oat milk is quite good in coffee so it's dairy free now.

It was inexpensive to purchase (about £100).  We just grind beans down using a Krups grinder - we got the grinder for free because it was "broken" but in reality it was just the lid missing on the ground coffee bin which disables the interlock.

[eugene]

I now have a mini Keurig, but for years I did it the way Nominal Animal does: put a tablespoon of grounds in an empty mug. Add hot water, stir. Wait until most of the grounds sink to the bottom and drink.

I really don't like coffee. I drink it, but only for the caffeine.

[Nominal Animal]

I now have a mini Keurig, but for years I did it the way Nominal Animal does: put a tablespoon of grounds in an empty mug. Add hot water, stir. Wait until most of the grounds sink to the bottom and drink.

Actually, it's more like this:

Fill the coffee pot with cold water, and put on the stove.
When it boils, move it off so it won't actively boil, but won't cool too fast.
Add enough coffee grounds so your mixing spoon will stand up straight.
Let steep until the grounds are at the bottom.
Pour the coffee into a thermos flask.
Pump some coffee into your cup, mix in with milk.  (Edit: sugar?)

The worst sound is the Groorh-groorh when the thermos is empty.  That is scary on a Monday morning.

That said, I do have a Dolce Gusto capsule coffee maker, since nowadays I rarely drink more than one cup in a row, but the cafe latte capsules are too sweet.  I may have to switch to freezedried, and see if I can find unsweetened dried creamer, too; that'd be very nifty: it'd be so easy.  Coffee does taste better if you mix the coffee into the milk instead of milk into the coffee (just try it and see), unless you drink your mix burning hot.

I also occasionally mix in Vanilla (the genuine stuff, unsweetened) with my coffee.

[caulktel]

Roast my own beans and then grind and pour over. The only way to make coffee.

Joel
N6ALT

[PaulAm]

When my state changed the law to prohibit smoking in food establishments, I was able to pick up a 2 head commercial espresso machine from a Hookah lounge with all the trimmings for peanuts.  It has to preheat for about 15 minutes before use  and I figure a cup takes about 1KWH

Freshly ground coffee goes into the portafilter, press a button and >coffee<  (and mochas, lattes, etc)

Yeah it takes up a lot of space but I built a space in the kitchen for it and it runs off the solar array.  Also, the nearest decent coffee shop is 32 Km away so it makes living in a rural area possible 

[cdev]

I like using a French Press for making "chewy" coffee.

I also prefer milder lighter Guatemalan Antigua coffee.. I'm on the third one. The first two were the original Chambord kind and eventually they both fell and broke. Now we have a stainless steel thermos one (made by by Highwin. Cost around $20)

Like Ian suggests.

This method is very good. The coffee is delicious every single time.

Note: The picture is cut away, to show how its constructed. The body of the coffee press is all stainless steel. They also make a rainbow one. Very pretty but thats not the one that we have.

[Alex Eisenhut]

I have a Saeco Super Automatic, the kind of machine that grinds the beans and tamps and brews automatically.

I got tired of the constant cleaning and maintenance and inconsistency of the thing. It's old I guess.

Now I just drink instant and if I want a cappuccino I saunter across the street to the coffee shop.

I might buy a capsule machine eventually.

[TimFox]

The procedure that we use at home hasn't changed in over 40 years, following the procedure in "The Cook's Catalogue", Harper & Row 1975 (list price $15.95 for a 565 page illustrated hardcover book), p 501.  We use a manual Melitta filter holder and glass pot (nominal 8 cup capacity) with #6 Melitta paper filters, keeping the pot on a (now-discontinued) Melitta hot plate.  Two differences from our practice in the 1970s:  the filters we use now are unbleached natural brown paper (the bleached white ones are no longer politically correct), and our bean grinder is a burr grinder rather than the original Braun blade grinder.  The filters are still readily available, but I rarely see the manual pot and filter holder anymore.  No internet connection need apply.

[Nominal Animal]

You can get nasty biofilms and burned in stuff off stainless steel with boiling water and machine detergent.  For the truly stubborn stuff, boil clothes detergent in it.

I love my stainless steel thermos mugs, too.  The stainless steel half-liter thermos bottle I have is annoying to clean; the above plus a bottle brush works, but isn't as easy as thermos mugs.