What’s on your coffee bench?

[notlance]

Originally Posted by d_douglas

I confess, I am a coffee lover and have not once looked at this 11pg thread.

JC it's at 51 pages right now. Something I too want to get into to interject into the daily jaunt to the local CS for their excellent Latte. I like to peruse over what others have to say and their preferences and experiences. Good thing I'm off until the NY to make a dent into this thread.

[benb]

The remarks a few pages back about climate & coffee preference are interesting.

I'm originally from VT.. one side of the family is from VT, the other side from MA by way of Canada.

No one in my family has ever really drank espresso, certainly not enough to make it at home. I can see a little espresso drink being good in the hot weather when you don't feel like a big hot mug of coffee, but right now it's freezing and a little espresso shot that you finish in a minute or two is not nearly as satisfying as sipping a bigger drink.

Realistically the V60 is my favorite way to make coffee far and a way. I just got a Flair Neo for Christmas though and have been playing with it a lot.. my grinder is probably not good enough to use the non-pressurized porta-filter so the Neo is about right for now. It's pretty cool for what it is but it feels like a lot of variables.

Realistically it's not that many extra things to keep track of compared to a V60 it's just different and I have my setup with the V60 pretty figured out, and my grinder does much better at the grind sizes for the V60 than it does for the Flair.

I feel kind of lost with Espresso now trying to make it home. I can't say I've ever had a great espresso in my life even at a Cafe. When things return to normal maybe I will start asking at the one local place near me that's very good. But for now I don't even really know what I'm supposed to be shooting for.

[froze]

Today, my daughter and I did a blind taste test (she didn't know what cup was which cup) to see what the difference was between the AeroPress taste and the V60 pour-over taste.

I measured out the exact same grams of coffee and water for both and ground both with the same espresso grind, and away we went. After tasting them we both concluded that the AeroPress made the coffee stronger in flavor, but if the V60 was smoother, obviously from not being as strong tasting. My daughter like both of them but thought the AeroPress was more to her taste, so I gave her my 2nd AeroPress I had bought to go camping with and decided it was too bulky to take on a bike and wasn't using it.

That was as scientific, if you call it that, as I could do a taste test. It doesn't mean I like one over the other, because I like coffee made in various ways, I can't drink coffee the same way all the time I need a change of pace, which why I have all the methods I have.

The funny thing was, about a month my daughter tried my Turkish coffee and she didn't like it, she said it was too strong, well she's young, I give her more time to catch up! LOL!

[geeter]

I was cleaning this past week and found my old Moka pot. I cleaned it, fired it up, and have used it five days in a row. If you use hot water before the stovetop and pull it off right when it bubbles it is so good.

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[froze]

I like the flavor of Moka coffee too. I had to throw mine away because something was happening to the aluminum, it had corrosion inside, and I was a bit concerned about having aluminum leaching into the coffee, so I will look into a stainless steel version instead. The Moka makes stronger tasting coffee than the Aeropress does, and Turkish is stronger yet, I haven't tasted anything stronger than Turkish yet.

[geeter]

It's definitely in between Turkish and Aeropress. I do really love the Aeropress simply because it's in between an espresso and drip. It's a happy medium.

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[benb]

I usually heat my water to 175 and then pour it in the Moka pot.. that way I can still handle the Moka pot to screw it together. It seems to work.

I think it's super hard to decide what the difference is between the V60 and the Aeropress.. but a big issue for me is I just haven't used the Aeropress as much.

I think you could probably make almost exactly the same coffee in both if you're really really familiar with both of them.

Now that I have the Flair I no longer think the Aeropress is anything like Espresso. The Moka pot is closer.. but still really different.

[geeter]

Lol that's perfect. I've been using an oven mitt to screw it shut.

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[froze]

Originally Posted by benb

I usually heat my water to 175 and then pour it in the Moka pot.. that way I can still handle the Moka pot to screw it together. It seems to work.

I think it's super hard to decide what the difference is between the V60 and the Aeropress.. but a big issue for me is I just haven't used the Aeropress as much.

I think you could probably make almost exactly the same coffee in both if you're really really familiar with both of them.

Now that I have the Flair I no longer think the Aeropress is anything like Espresso. The Moka pot is closer.. but still really different.

All makers make coffee different, I don't think the Aeropress is anything like Espresso either, not sure why Aeropress calls it espresso, it's a lot like French Press instead.

I have a French Press and when I compared the two some time back, there wasn't a whole lot of difference, the French Press had more flavor than the AeroPress had...HOWEVER, that's only IF you followed the Aeropress instructions if you instead follow how to make French Press coffee and did that method with the Aeropress than it became a bit more difficult to tell the two apart from other, the filter in the Aeropress stops the oil and sentiment from getting into the coffee which does alter the taste. This is where I got the idea to try to make a drip coffee maker filter work for the French Press...see that, I'm weird. Anyway, the first attempt I thought I could rubber band the filter around the cup then pour the coffee through it, that failed big time, so then I wrapped the filter around the screen instead and then press, and the first 2 attempts to make the paper filter work failed, they ripped, but on the 3rd try it worked. All of that told me that the Aeropress was simply a filtered French Press.

No, the V60 cannot make it the same as the Aeropress unless you use more coffee in the V60 then you could get close I believe, but if you use the exact same amount then no the V60 is a bit weaker but smoother. You can turn an Aeropress into a pour-over! You simply put your filter into the basket thing and connect it to the Aeropress tube, dump your coffee down the tube, then pour your hot water slowly over the grains as you would with the V60, and the coffee drips into a cup. It might extract the coffee a bit faster than the V60 so you would have to go to a finer grind to slow down the extraction to the same speed as the V60. I actually did that too, and the taste was darn close to the same! After I did that I felt I wasted money on the V60 that's how close it was!

[fmradio516]

What does everyone do for making a large cup of joe in an aeropress. I have one, but its collecting dust as i always go to my v60 cause i like a full cup in the morning

[oldguy00]

Originally Posted by fmradio516

What does everyone do for making a large cup of joe in an aeropress. I have one, but its collecting dust as i always go to my v60 cause i like a full cup in the morning

I find when using the aero press, when I fill it, I start mixing and some of the water goes down through the filter on its own without pressure during that. Then I top it up again with a little more water, and then use the plunger. That gets me a good size mug of coffee

[froze]

How big is your cup? I use a standard size cup and can fill it almost to the top using the AeroPress.

[tctyres]

Originally Posted by d_douglas

I confess, I am a coffee lover and have not once looked at this 11pg thread.
...
Also, when I drink drip coffee (good stuff), it makes my stomache churn a bit and this doesn't happen with espresso - why is that?

Honestly, I love this thread. I've picked up a few tips here.

Your stomach problem is likely either the acid content of the beans or, if you're adding milk, a problem with the lactose and heat. I would try changing beans first.

Originally Posted by jh_on_the_cape

Has anyone here ever used a technivorm moccamaster?

My brother just bought one for his wife for solstice. He was surprised at how good it is and claims that it's better than his chemex. There were a few reasons he bought it: 1. His old cuisinart finally cracked (literally) and so they couldn't load it at night, and 2. He got a wifi/bluetooth plug so my sister in law can start it from anyplace in the house at any time to get her morning coffee. The bonavita doesn't do that. So far, it's a hit. Amoritized over the decade+ of ownership, the Moccamaster is not that much more than a Cuisinart.

[gibbo]

For the last 6 or 7 years I have been using a stove top espresso unit with freshly ground beans.


I have played with a few different techniques and what works for me is cold water, med ground beans, start on max heat, once the coffee is flowing, reduce the heat to medium, once half full reduce heat to low.

I like a flat white, so I hear milk in the microwave, froth the hot milk, then add coffee.

For a long black I add coffee to hot water at a 3:1 ratio (3 parts water).

I am probably biased but this produces a lovely espresso coffee, as good as almost any caffe I have been in.


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[fmradio516]

Originally Posted by froze

How big is your cup? I use a standard size cup and can fill it almost to the top using the AeroPress.

I use a "standard-sized" mug, nothing too big or anything. I havent done it in a while, but i remember it only being filled about halfway. maybe i was doing something wrong. I do know i was doing the inverted aeropresses because right side up, it would leak like crazy(as others mentioned here) but i probably should try again and make my grind size finer.