How do you make your coffee?

[mlteenie]

OK coffee drinkers, I am always interested in improving the enjoyment of our coffee at home.

We have tried percolators, cafetieres and plain old pans of hot water, but what is your method? I once saw something on tv about barista training where they said the water mustn't be more than 82 deg c (or something...).

So how do you make your perfect cup o' kwaufee?

[*Bob*]

Well I suppose it depends on what kind of coffee you want to drink.

I drink-a what some would call 'Americano', which is basically a couple of shots of expresso diluted with hot water, made with a Bialetti (not a Bialetti clone which are crap for the sake of saving a pound or two)

It's not proper expresso, which requires exactly the right temp and pressure in order to extract the crema stuff from the bean, but it's still-a bloody good, and the equipment no cost-a you a bomb.

I dissolve the sugar in about 1/3 cup of boiling water, then add the milk, which cools the water before adding the coffee on top. Otherwise the boiling water will burn the coffee when the two meet and make it taste rubbish.

Eh Voila!

[mlteenie]

Sounds good *Bob*.

May try that tomorrow, altho' don't do the ol' white death myself (well, not THAT one anyway).

Yes, we have a couple of Bialettis and I always want to stop it when the crema starts to come through before the majority of the water, but I never have. And how long does one allow the gurgling to go on for? Some people have been known to heat the buggery out of it until there is no sound. I reckon this must be a bad thing for the flavour, if not the percolator.

What I really want at home is a good capuccino. You can froth milk really well as long as it doesn't quite reach boiling, although it ain't steam-stylee.

[Asset]

I don't like frothy coffee, I hate having to fight my way through a load of froth to get to the coffee, but I always heat the milk up.

I allow the percolator (Bialetti of course - stainless steel too!) to start gurgling then whip it off the heat. Warmed milk in the cup first, then coffee. No sugar.

[jumpinjackflash]

2 sugars with Bailey's Irish Cream instead of milk! Lovely jubbly.

[bignumber5]

We use these bodum re-usable one-cup things http://www.bodum.com/b2c/index.asp?id=K1791-01&famId=10&famSubId=&shpId=4, because we have different coffee (Mrs.number5 has hers with ground chicory, I think this tastes of evil)

Totally agree with the 82deg thing when making filter, although not obsessively enough to have home thermometer or anything! We just don't start getting cups, filters etc ready until kettle has boiled, lets the water cool a bit. Never have milk, although my favourite take-away coffee is a flat white (I defy anyone to go to NZ and not fall in love with them!)

Recommend experimenting a bit with different beans, roasts etc as I didn't have proper coffee until I left college at 21, and then discovered Monmouth Coffee in Borough Market. Staff are happy to chat about what you want out of your coffee, make sample cups etc. Has greatly improved my coffee life. we stick to normal sainsburys most of the time, then I pick up a bag of different beans from Monmouth on the friday before our joint weekend off as a treat, when we revert to cafetiere.

Beans/grounds not be kept in fridge/freezer, lots of flavour lost at either end of temp spectrum - back of a cupboard is fine.

Think that's it!

[Brendan]

1 sugar, milk and a slug of J&B. >:D

[Ted Max]

I half fill my Stainless Steel Morphy Richards kettle, flick the switch on and then generally leave it until it has just clicked itself off. I then pour the bubbling Water onto two level teaspoons of Mellow Birds in a good quality Porcelain Mug. Sometimes I add Whitener, sometimes no. If you have left the teaspoon you used for the coffee in the mug, this is ideal for stirring the Whitener in with.

[*Bob*]

What do you do if the whitener ('Coffee Mate', I presume?) clags and gets stuck to the teaspoon, Ted?

We've all been there. Should one leave spoon in cup and hope for the best, or 'rinse in' with extra boiling from the kettle?

[Ted Max]

There's two schools of thought here. I usually just nick any lumps of whitener off the top of the coffee with the side of the spoon. If you're going down the sugar route, though, you can usually get everything stirred in at that point. The brown clags of sugar in the top of the bag can be unattractive, though.

I use Mellow Birds because I find other brands give me the rankest instant coffee breath ever. Mellow Birds isn't too bad if you are masking the smell with a gasper or two.

[atila the gooner]

I have a machine which makes latte or espresso, I have a cafetiere (is that how you spell it?), I have one of those coffee pots which comes in two sections which come apart so you can put the coffee in one half, water in the other and you heat up the water on the gas, or electric grill, but my favourite coffee at the moment is from those filters which you put on top of a cup or mug, pour hot water into and add your cream or milk. Perfect. Minimal fuss and effort plus good coffee.

[Ted Max]

Which method gives you the best breath for the 3:30 team meeting in Room 4, where the windows don't open and the A/C is recycling your exhalations at 20?C?

[Brendan]

I would recomend the vodka method for that.

[*Bob*]

Ted Max Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Which method gives you the best breath for the

> 3:30 team meeting in Room 4, where the windows

> don't open and the A/C is recycling your

> exhalations at 20?C?

I would recommend a double Sminting at 3.27, then lodging two Wrigley's Extra behind your bottom lip (like you would with a Skol 'Bandit') for a slow-release minty failsafe. It makes you like a bit like Brando in Godfather, but he won an oscar for it - so it could give you much-needed presence in the board room too.

[Ted Max]

I actually used to work with someone whose instant-coffee and cigarette breath was so foul it literally made me recoil so that I would be talking to her leaning back like a limbo dancer.

No doubt she is now posting on some local message board about the foul creep she used to work with who couldn't hold a conversation without thrusting his groin at her.

[SimonM]

Cafetiere...Illy coffee beans ground whilst the kettle is boiling...infuse for no more than 20 seconds before plunging. Pour out immediately.

[SteveT]

A large comfortable settee, a naked, amiable, lady with a terrible memory, and forget about the coffee.

[TillieTrotter]

This has been a laugh out loud thread. Ted Max and his Mellow Bird!! Brilliant.