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If I manage to hit a certain sweet spot, coffee makes me very happy and productive for a while. Can't be too much or too little.

Patrick says

If I manage to hit a certain sweet spot, coffee makes me very happy and productive for a while. Can't be too much or too little.

Gives me the shakes. Part of the reason I stopped it. I think people thought I was an alcoholic looking for a drink. I was consuming copious amounts though. 36oz roughly throughout the morning. I'll do a cup now and then, but not often. Once a month maybe.

It woke me up, but in hindsight I didn't like the way it made me feel.

Patrick says

What's your coffee habit? What does it cost you?

@Patrick,
try this:

https://bigbendcoffeeroasters.com/product/chiapas/

Obligatory:

Patrick says

Peets

People call Peet’s strong, but it is really over-roasted. A lot of roasters call it burnt.
My economy daily drink is Trader Joe’s Columbian Medium Roast. Vacuum packed so it stores well.

Other thoughts-
Brew coffee at home, go out if you want an espresso
Best economical burr grinder: Baratza Encore. Rugged, rebuildable, great customer service.
Keep your habit at 1-2 cups a day.

Robert Sproul says

People call Peet’s strong, but it is really over-roasted. A lot of roasters call it burnt.

Lies and slander!

The hip young roasters had to be different, so they have pale and lame roasts that do nothing for me. They can keep them.

I also like to toss a cardamom pod into the coffee grinder sometimes. It's a fun flavor.

Patrick says

I also like to toss a cardamom pod into the coffee grinder sometimes. It's a fun flavor.

Cardamom and cinnamon prob my two favorite spices/flavors. Three twins used to make a flavor of their organic (and generally low sugar) ice cream called Dad's cardamom. So good. Unfortunately they were another victim of the scandemic.

When people ask what I need for the holidays I tell them coffee. I stock up in December and normally my stash lasts a good chunk of the year, since I'd only have a cup or two on the weekends...

However, when I was working at an office, I always had a cup in my hand. I'd have anywhere from a pot to a pot and a half a day... some of my best work was done in the kitchen grabbing a cup of Joe and catching up with colleagues, from the top brass to the new interns.

Now that I work from home, I actually drink less coffee during the week (about 4 cups a day on average) but there's no way my stash will last all year since I'm dipping into it daily instead of just on the weekends.

As an aside, I gave up coffee for Lent this year. Wasn't nearly as difficult as I expected. But now that we're in the Easter season I'm glad to have it back. I feel human again ;)

GreaterNYCDude says

some of my best work was done in the kitchen grabbing a cup of Joe and catching up with colleagues, from the top brass to the new interns.

"Ummm Yeah.... I'm going to need you to go ahead on and come in on Saturday and finish up the TCP reports...."

@Patrick looks like its a DeLonghi .. think it came from bed bath and beyond . chinese with an italian name probably. but.. it has worked for 5 years so... shrugs

clambo says

I recommend you try the Roland brands which are both excellent.

They are: Bustelo and Pilon espresso
They're in the form of a brick vacuum packed.

Get the ones which are 100% Arabica.
I see them in Mission Street Safeway in Santa Cruz in "Hispanic food" aisle.

@clambo I checked four little Hispanic marts around here and none of them had it. One had some non-Arabica Bustelo.

Target carries it in theory, but says they are out of stock.

But you know, I didn't check Safeway, lol. I'll do that.

I have only seen it in one Safeway in Santa Cruz, on Mission Street (Almar cross street)
In that Safeway, it’s on the “hispanic foods” aisle, not with the other coffees.

Hispanic Market in California is usually Mexican and they won’t have it probably.

Here in Publix they even have Italian Lavazza coffee which is also good but more expensive than the Roland brands.

I go to Dunkin sometimes in the afternoon, they have all sorts of stuff now.

Lol, the Safeway here just had one of the Bustelo Arabica cans, but it was expired. The expiration date on all the others is 2 to 3 years in the future, so I'll skip that can and keep looking.

Patrick says

joshuatrio says

Just bought a bag of covfefe coffee, but at $20+ bag, it's not the most cost effective product. If it's killer though, I might make it semi-regular.

Here's a link to save others the search: https://www.doyoucovfefe.com/

Right, $20 seems high to me. But I will pay if it's justified by the quality.

I've been drinking the coffee this week. Very similar to Starbucks house blend.

Pros: MAGA approved, decent taste
Cons: $20/bag, already ground, Starbucks beans are 1/2 the price and actually taste a slight bit better.

Still a fun gift. I'll stick with my java genesis though.

Coffee is like wine:

1. What kind of bean (Arabica or Robusto)
2. Where it's grown (the soil)
3. How it's grown (Partial shade or bright sunshine)

The best coffee you can get is Jamaica Blue Mountain, followed by Kona, followed by Columbian. The best coffee can be found in Jamaican Grocery Stores, much cheaper than buying online. Jamaicans are right up there with Texans, Jews, and Sicilians and not easily swindled, and many grew up with the real shit and can taste a phony, so I'd say pretty trustworthy.

Also, the dregs of the Kona crop are better than the best of Columbia or Brazil I find. But, it's ridiculously expensive and why subsidize blue state hippy-commies?

I don't like overly acidic coffee like Eithiopian, but it's a nice change once in a while.

I'm not a snob - I drink Chock Fulla Nuts (like TPB) or Cafe Bustelo usually. I just had Publix coffee and it wasn't bad. Shockingly, Ecuadorian Coffee was weak, but smooth. I like stronger coffee as I get older. I'm a huge Dunkie's fan, but the second cup I just had was also weak and watery.

Maxwell House and Folgers is swill for people who don't normally drink coffee. Starbucks is complete garbage. The beans aren't the best and you can taste it's been on the burner too long. People who drink "Coffee Drinks" have their mediocre flavor masked by all the Soymilk and Flavoring Syrup.

I too like the grind my coffee into "Espresso" or small size. Best method is French Press (closest you can get at home to all those piped pressured contraptions), followed by an espresso machine, followed by "Pour Over". Drip Machines usually suck ass, and Perculators are the worst method of coffee prep (since coffee is not meant to be boiled, but have near-boiling water slowly poured over it, at pressure if possible).

Ah! Beware of "Kona Blend" or "Blue Mountain Blend" or anything "blend"

It means they use very little of what they're labelling it as, mostly mediocre Columbian or whatever they can get for cheap, and maybe 5% of what they claim.

IE 5% Kona Coffee and 95% whatever cheapest Columbian they could get at time of "Blending", but charge you as if it was almost all Kona or Blue Mountain.

"Why, it's Royal Kona blend. Only $29.99/lb!"

https://www.konacoffee.com/kona-coffee/kona-coffee-blends/

Example of Overpriced "Blend"
https://www.coffeebeandirect.com/hawaiian-kona-blend.html

The old "Kona Blend" then list "100% Arabica Beans" switcheroo:
https://joffreys.com/shop/best-sellers/kona-blend/

Only 10% Kona, 90% whatever South American mediocre cheap bean, but $26/lb.

MisdemeanorRebellionNoCoupForYou says

The best coffee you can get is Jamaica Blue Mountain

I found it to be too light. When I do drink coffee now I just do it straight black. No special coffee maker. It did taste good, but I like a little heavier taste now. Kind of like Coke vs Diet Coke. I'll drink both, but I want the heavy version if I drink coffee now.

The one big thing I miss from coffee is the laxative effect. TMI probably, but I have some of my best bowel movements after a cup of coffee. I just don't really like hot drinks anymore. Iced coffees I only like sweetened to some extent and have never accomplished a good mix at home. So I'm at maybe a cup a month if that warm or cold.

Coffee is like draino to me.

RC2006 says

Coffee is like draino to me.

Yeah, full caff is the same to me. I've switched to a strong decaf, or half caff if I want a little boost.

Joes coffee. Cheap and drinks fine. Might be fun to grow a coffee tree in the backyard to just make own for fun.

Best coffee I remember was made by my sister's Columbian boyfriend at the time in a "sock". They dangle something that looks pretty much like a sock in the hot water.

San Francisco Bay brand makes a decent french roast.
https://www.costco.com/san-francisco-bay,-french-roast-coffee,-whole-bean,-3-lbs.product.470.html
Most places sell a 2lb bag of their beans, but costco has a 3lb for about $17, which is pretty good.

I also like the mcdonalds mccafe coffee, my favorite is the breakfast blend. You gotta buy it ground I think, but prices are really good at walmart. Usually $8 - $9 for ~2 lbs.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/McCafe-Breakfast-Blend-Ground-Coffee-Medium-Roast-30-oz-Canister/171903071

Patrick says

Best coffee I remember was made by my sister's Columbian boyfriend at the time in a "sock". They dangle something that looks pretty much like a sock in the hot water.

Yep, cheesecloth. I was making coffee that way for a while because all we had was one of those crappy one-cup drips that made weakass coffee.

Probably something to do with the surface area you were talking about.

Booger says

Obligatory:

I don't get this - where is this meme from?

The "sock" method was popular in Baja Sur Mexico too.
They sell them in Publix here I think (they have everything)
They used the sock inside one of those blue camping type pots, thin metal coated with enamel.
We visited a guy in San Bartolo Baja, he had a mango orchard. He served us coffee.
I said "Oh this coffee is good, which coffee is it?"
"I grow it here."

I was wondering if there were a covfefe brand of coffee. Surprisingly, their slogan is just "making coffee great" instead of "make coffee great again." Oh well.

I'd give them a try just to have the packaging to save for eternity.

Patrick says

Here's a link to save others the search: https://www.doyoucovfefe.com/

Right, $20 seems high to me. But I will pay if it's justified by the quality.

I usually get the whole bean French roast from Costco. San Francisco Bay or Starbucks brand in a 2 to 3 pound bag. Last summer there was a great sale on the Starbucks — $12 for a 2 (2.5?) pound bag. I bought 4 bags and didn't have to buy anything more until this year. You can usually get Peets' Major Dickason for a bit more.

As for actually making the morning coffee, I have one of those expensive all-in-one espresso machines that does the grinding, tamping, and pumping with the push of a single button. I don't bother with the frothing because cleaning the wand is too much effort. I put a cup of milk in the microwave and heat it while the machine is doing its thing.

The critical change to the automatic machines is to "fix" the grinding mechanism. They all seem to grind too coarsely even at the finest setting. I took mine apart and adjusted the internals so that I can dial up extremely fine grinds. I've even managed to get the machine to report an error: "grinder set too fine; dial back grind and try again." I aim for a "pour" that takes at least a minute. I was worried I'd burn out the pump, but it's been going just fine for 2 years now.

A challenge with the fine-grind machine is that the user interface for grinding doesn't allow enough precision. With the unmodified machine, users are choosing, let's say, a grinder height of between 10 and 20 in 1-unit increments (where a "unit" is maybe 0.00001 meter). But I'm trying to choose between, say 2 and 3 with that same 1-unit increment — that's a 50% height increase between the 2 and the 3 setting. The trick is to either use 2 with the "less coffee grinds" setting or the 3 with the "most coffee grinds" setting. Also, you find out that the amount of beans in the hopper makes a difference in the amount of coffee that is ground. I usually wind up with height 2 with "less coffee grinds" and then either refilling the hopper when 1/2 empty or switch to the "more coffee grinds" setting when the hopper is getting low. Anyway, it's all great fun!

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/spooked-friday-november-23-2023-c

☕ In some more terrific news, get ready to enjoy that feeling of being proven right, again, this time about a critically-important subject. The Daily Coffee News (it’s real) ran a story Tuesday headlined, “Study: Regularly Drinking Coffee Reduces COVID-19 Infection Risk.”

You read that right. The Daily Coffee News reported on a brand-new study with twelve authors, presumably all double-espresso fans, published last week in ‘Cell & Bioscience,’ titled “Coffee as a dietary strategy to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection.”

Following in vitro testing with human cells, and a human trial involving 64 participants who were given a SARS-CoV-2 “pseudovirus,” the researchers concluded that drinking coffee every day appears to help prevent infection from all common covid variants and — get this — drinking coffee also seems to reduce the severity of covid infections.

In other words, coffee works better than the jabs, which don’t prevent infections at all — and that’s even if you credit the jabs for also reducing severity of illness, a highly-debatable point. Plus coffee doesn’t give you myocarditis (or worse).

Coffee somehow interferes with the spike protein’s ability to interface with ACE2 receptors on human cells. Which is even more amazing when you consider that they don’t understand the biological mechanism of how the jabs (supposedly) can reduce the severity of illness even though they don’t stop people getting infected. They just wave their hands and gas on about antibodies.

Coffee’s protective effects — which were consistent with at least three previous studies reaching similar conclusions — held up regardless whether participants drank ground, instant, caffeinated, or decaffeinated coffee, or whether they took it black, creamed, or sugared. “Interestingly, no matter what kind of coffee or adding additional intergrading (sugar or milk), it has the capability to reduce SARS-CoV-2 entering into host cells,” the researchers wrote. “Our research supported drinking coffee is related to reducing COVID-19 infection, which is consistent with the opinion of meta-analyses that reported coffee consumption related to a lower COVID-19 positive probability.”

What can’t coffee do? And we were all promoting coffee from day one. So.

Gimme rotgut black no frills a cup to half a cup in the AM and I'm happy.

Patrick says

What's your coffee habit? What does it cost you?

A couple of years ago I bought an expresso maker for $30 at Publix.

Its almost identical to these: IMUSA 3-6 Cup Electric Espresso Maker with Detachable Base, Red

https://www.target.com/p/imusa-electric-espresso-moka-maker-red-6-cup/-/A-53019599

I buy Cafe Bustelo expresso at Walmart for around $4. It tastes great like it is from a Miami Beach coffee house.

I use stevia for sweetner and half and half for creamer milk.

.

GreaterNYCDude says

When people ask what I need for the holidays I tell them coffee. I stock up in December and normally my stash lasts a good chunk of the year, since I'd only have a cup or two on the weekends...

However, when I was working at an office, I always had a cup in my hand. I'd have anywhere from a pot to a pot and a half a day... some of my best work was done in the kitchen grabbing a cup of Joe and catching up with colleagues, from the top brass to the new interns.

Now that I work from home, I actually drink less coffee during the week (about 4 cups a day on average) but there's no way my stash will last all year since I'm dipping into it daily instead of just on the weekends.

As an aside, I gave up coffee for Lent this year. Wasn't nearly as difficult as I expected. But now that we're in the Easter season I'm glad to have it back. I feel human again ;)

Same story - I weaned of off a 2 pot a day habit to drinking zero coffee during the scamdemic. Now that my corporate overlords demand I return to work, and I reacquaint myself with the brew, I find that coffee does a number on me after 2 cups. Maybe the shit is poisoned now? I dunno, I could drink gallons back in the day.

Lately I have been making cafe lattes at home with a gadget called "Handpresso."

It takes loose espresso and also Lilly cafe pods or whatever they are called. I'm using the Lilly and it's pretty good.

stereotomy says

I find that coffee does a number on me after 2 cups. Maybe the shit is poisoned now? I dunno, I could drink gallons back in the day.

Similar here. I used to drink a whole pot of very strong coffee in college. Now I have a small cup in the morning, and a double espresso at some cafe most days. Even that is a bit much, but I enjoy it too much to stop.

But even strong drip coffee does not compare to this: