Coffee/ Espresso/ other

[Opas Coat]

Any coffee lovers around here?

I myself like a good espresso, tho not in the traditional manner any more. I have grown bored of the old fashion little cup of espresso beans.

First I was making my espresso's in a "proper" espresso cup, little milk, little sugar, etc... That wasent enough so I started making them in your standard coffee cup. I got a little bored with the run of the mill espresso so I started making my normal sized cups with flavored coffee alone such as Irish Cream and Amaretto being my favorites. From there I have moved on to blending my coffees with different flavoured beans. Regular light roast coffee with say Irish Cream, Arabica espresso Beans with Chocolate Hazelnut and so on and so forth.

I doubt this practice is worthy of being called anything near Connoisseur but the change is very nice and hardly run of the mill.

Am I alone here?

Compared to the run of the mill city, coffee in any great quality is hard to find here. We have two Tim Horton's and a small coffee shop with art gallery that closes at 430pm week days, 3pm Saturdays and completely closed on Sundays... Two standard grocery stores which for some off the wall reason got rid of there section of flavored coffees in favor of canned and pre bagged.

So am I a connoisseur, mad man or an abomination to the coffee world?

Has anyone else tried this?

 

[St.Ignatz]

I'll go with abomination to the espresso world.

 

[skyvue]

My wife is a coffee professional -- she has been a professional barista for years, managed one of NYC's best coffee shops, and now works for a great roaster out of North Carolina, Counter Culture Coffee.

As such, she has very specific ideas about how to make coffeee, but she's no snob about it. If you like it the way you make it, good for you, she would say (and has said). She might gently suggest some other methods that you'd likely enjoy even more, but she's of the "no judgement" school.

She also blogs about coffee at slashfood.com -- look for posts by the CoffeeMeister. She's a terrific writer, and is sharing a lot of useful knowledge there.

 

[skyvue]

But she does say that those flavored coffees do harm to your coffee maker. Counter Culture, when they take on a new client that has made flavored coffee in the past, gives them very specific instructions for cleaning the machine, and it's a really intensive, time-consuming process.

That's not to say she's not warning you away from flavored coffee, if that's your cup of tea ... er, coffee -- she sometimes drinks it herself -- but she strongly recommends you achieve that effect by adding flavored syrups to the brewed coffee.

It was news to me when she told me that what's added to flavored coffees is actually almost all aromatics, not flavors, and the oils that achieve that effect do damage to coffee makers of every type.

Syrups still smell great, but they taste better and, because they're added after brewing, do no damage to your machine.

 

[Opas Coat]

How does it damage my machine? Its steam going though a metal strainer with the coffee in to my cup.

That's not a bad idea with the syrups, it just seems a little odd to me. What would be a good coffee base then?

 

[dr greg]

don't muck around

I'm a robusta man mahself, hard and bitter with lotsa brown sugar.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

I love coffee!

I start each and every day with a nice cup of instant Nescafe' ... and often go back for a second before leaving the house!

In actual fact, I prefer the taste of instant to much of the brewed swill that I've tasted over the years! But, more recently, I've
discovered this stuff at a coffee tasting in Scottsdale. www.thehealthy-cup.com.
If your gonna drink the stuff, it might as well be healthy!

-dixon cannon

 

[djhatman]

While I'm not a big coffee drinker I do have two cups every Saturday morning while reading a local free paper. I got a French Press from a friend and love to use it as it gives me more control.

 

[St.Ignatz]

I have to agree with Skyvue. The syrup choices are numerous and it won't leave a lingering taste in your machine. With all espresso machines once you stop applying steam you can get some suction back into the workings unless you remove the basket right away. At some point you will wind up with a caramel, butterscotch, hazelnut, mint, chocolate beverage.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

My wife is a coffee professional -- she has been a professional barista for years, managed one of NYC's best coffee shops, and now works for a great roaster out of North Carolina, Counter Culture Coffee.

As such, she has very specific ideas about how to make coffeee, but she's no snob about it. If you like it the way you make it, good for you, she would say (and has said). She might gently suggest some other methods that you'd likely enjoy even more, but she's of the "no judgement" school.

She also blogs about coffee at slashfood.com -- look for posts by the CoffeeMeister. She's a terrific writer, and is sharing a lot of useful knowledge there.

I think that's an excellent approach of an expert. There are a few too many food/liquor snobs out there.

I like Espresso, on it's own, a dark roast and occasionally a double. I am partial to dumping it on some nougat gelato from time to time.

 

[scottyrocks]

Ive used a few different brands over the years. My latest favorite (again) is Eight O'Clock Coffee 100% Columbian. Black, no sugar, tyvm.

 

[PADDY]

I mix my own beans now.

A Monsoon Malabar (the name alone is just great!) and a dark Italian espresso bean, which I mix and grind. Then through the espresso machine it goes. A touch of milk, unless I'm after a short shot (which is left alone). No sugar, as I like the bitterness.

I attended a professional Barrista course (self funded) a few years ago, and really-really enjoyed it.

But I know myself...I drink 'too much' coffee. [huh]

 

[Spitfire]

A steaming hot double espresso - with a little hot milk on the side.
That's the stuff!

 

[BinkieBaumont]

"I know you are going to hate this, but here in the Swan River Colony Ronald Mc Donald and his "Mc Cafe" serve a delicious brew rich tasty,STRONG FLATE WHITE, mellow and without a hint of bitterness, someone told me what beans they used, but I forgot, as per usual"

 

[rkwilker]

I like a nice frozen Latte with skim milk and no whipped cream.....mmmmm good.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Kopi Luwak

Has any Lounger ever actually tried this one?! Here's the skinny on this gourmet coffee - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak

A Starbuck's barrista told me they may begin serving this one, but I've yet to see it. Here is the site for a big distributor: http://www.animalcoffee.com/

Who's tried this one?!

-dixon cannon

 

[Ethan Bentley]

"I know you are going to hate this, but here in the Swan River Colony Ronald Mc Donald and his "Mc Cafe" serve a delicious brew rich tasty,STRONG FLATE WHITE, mellow and without a hint of bitterness, someone told me what beans they used, but I forgot, as per usual"

Nice to hear they can get it right in some places. In the UK their coffee is hotter than the sun!
If we're talking about economy though, Wetherspoon's 79p coffee, Larazzo I think, is hard to beat in terms of value for money.

 

[miss_elise]

i love coffee... love love love it...

i'd like to think i'm not a snob... but there are times when you get an absolutely abysmal cup of coffee and it takes all my effort not to go over and instruct the "barista" how to do it properly. ( i say barista in quote marks because any real barista worth their salt wouldn't make a bad cup)

 

[PoohBang]

Here's my espresso machine... a vintage La Pavoni...

and as always... more pics on my blog

 

[Elaina]

I'm a huge coffee drinker, and I do they syrup route if I flavor coffee because I don't like the lingering taste to it.

I drink Colombian, and prefer it in a percolator...the worst way to brew coffee in the world, sometimes with cream and sugar, mostly black...all day, every day.