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Coffee: my happysauce
ryuprecht
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I love coffee. I drink it every day. Sometimes I drink it 2-3 times in a day. I like people who love coffee, and all of you who love coffee are my friends, even if we fight in other threads. So let's talk about coffee.
I grew up surrounded by coffee, but could never get into it. Then a coworker bought me a Starbucks and told me to try it. This was in 2003. I have been an addict ever since.
I'm sure most people default to Starbucks if given the choice, especially if you like fancy coffee. It's a trendy reputation that sometimes earns it a backlash, but it's by far the best choice for consistency nationwide (it tastes the same in Manhattan as it does in Seattle (trust me).
But there seems to be a distinctly different flavor with the coffee made by Seattle's Best. I discovered them while in Seattle on business two years ago, and there are times I want something different than Starbucks, so this fits the bill. One of my favorite "I'm bored" events is to go to Borders and browse for new books while drinking a Seattle's Best.
For those in California, I also want to recommend Peet's. They have stores in other states, but not many. Their coffee seems to be more...earthy. Hard to describe, but there's a difference associated with it that I'm starting to latch onto.
You can also make your own coffee. The wife got me an espresso machine for Christmas, and I've been brewing my own 3-4 days a week to save money. I usually get the strongest brew I can find for home brewing, as it doesn't seem as strong when you make it at home. So....
Where do you get your coffee? Are you a coffee snob too? Are you like my family, who drink only drip coffee? Maybe you can post your favorite concoction so I and all of the other coffee lovers can try something new?
My favorite (for now): iced quad venti three pump vanilla percent latte.
A little bit of sweetness from the vanilla, but strong coffee flavor that you can drink fast if you want to. It lasts me about 45 minutes on a good day, and pairs well with a muffin or scone.
I grew up surrounded by coffee, but could never get into it. Then a coworker bought me a Starbucks and told me to try it. This was in 2003. I have been an addict ever since.
I'm sure most people default to Starbucks if given the choice, especially if you like fancy coffee. It's a trendy reputation that sometimes earns it a backlash, but it's by far the best choice for consistency nationwide (it tastes the same in Manhattan as it does in Seattle (trust me).
But there seems to be a distinctly different flavor with the coffee made by Seattle's Best. I discovered them while in Seattle on business two years ago, and there are times I want something different than Starbucks, so this fits the bill. One of my favorite "I'm bored" events is to go to Borders and browse for new books while drinking a Seattle's Best.
For those in California, I also want to recommend Peet's. They have stores in other states, but not many. Their coffee seems to be more...earthy. Hard to describe, but there's a difference associated with it that I'm starting to latch onto.
You can also make your own coffee. The wife got me an espresso machine for Christmas, and I've been brewing my own 3-4 days a week to save money. I usually get the strongest brew I can find for home brewing, as it doesn't seem as strong when you make it at home. So....
Where do you get your coffee? Are you a coffee snob too? Are you like my family, who drink only drip coffee? Maybe you can post your favorite concoction so I and all of the other coffee lovers can try something new?
My favorite (for now): iced quad venti three pump vanilla percent latte.
A little bit of sweetness from the vanilla, but strong coffee flavor that you can drink fast if you want to. It lasts me about 45 minutes on a good day, and pairs well with a muffin or scone.
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Also, it doesn't quite taste the same everywhere. I think they could well use soy milk by default in Japan, as the coffee I had in one of the airports (I think it was Haneda(sp?)) tasted pretty foul.
I have a Nespresso machine these days, which is pretty good as it cracks out espresso really quickly and it tastes good. Good for freeze-dried coffee anyhow. Prior to owning the machine I used an Italian style stove top pot (these things most likely have a proper name but I don't know it). This produced something which never quite felt like espresso to me (the crema wasn't right on it) but it tasted perfectly fine.
One day a coffee roaster opened on my way into uni. You would not believe the difference made by fresh coffee that has been roasted on the same day you are drinking it. It was delicious, and I could have little conversations with the couple that owned it. they'd sort me out with special blends and all the rest. It was really good and cheap.
I need to figure out a way to get the fresh coffee into my pods without making a gigantic mess.
Generally I drink mochas. Now some people say "huh huh huh not real Italian coffee", to those people I say go and fuck yourself. Chocolate and coffee are two things which go together in a way so perfect it is pretty much evidence that there is a God. I'm willing to attract shame from the occasional Italian by drinking an American coffee, I see no shame in this. Even worse, half the people who are cocks about such things then drink cappuccino at all times of day, if you are going to be a bell-end then don't be a hypocrite as well. Cappuccino is morning coffee, Italians will look at you funny if you drink one in the afternoon, and then they question your sanity.
The quad is the number of shots I take? And a venti would normally have three. I wouldn't have thought that extra strength iced coffee would taste any good? Although I suppose that is balanced by the extra vanilla (if that is what three pump vanilla means). I can't even guess what "percent" refers to though.
Since the coffee shop near my work went belly up (3rd one there to close shop since I started working here), I got my hands on an espresso machine for the office and just make my own. While I don't have the supplies to make a variety of drinks, I can knock out simple things that taste roughly as good as Starbucks, when I spring for whole milk. That said, I try to stick to 2% so I don't turn into a giant, caffeinated land whale.
I just use a Nob Hill espresso roast, which is nice and dark, and smells glorious. I've yet to find a scent in the world better than good, freshly-ground coffee.
I'd like to get my hands on the white chocolate syrup that coffee houses use. If I could make my own white mochas, I'd be ecstatic.
Side question, I wonder how bad a McDonald's Iced Coffee is for me. I'm guessing very.
Boston has the worst standards for coffee in the world. They probably have better brew in, like, Uganda. Or even Canada. As a result I end up hitting Starbucks on the way to work. Always a venti red-eye (a shot of espresso in drip) or occasionally what they call a "black-eye" (two shots of espresso in drip). I'm pretty happy with Starbucks - I recognize that a lot of local roaster make better coffee, but honestly, the beloved standard in Boston is Dunkin Donuts' coffee, which is swill.
I rarely get the sweet drinks, but occasionally will get a latte, if for no other reason than to fit the political stereotype of being an NPR-listening latte-swilling urban liberal.
We have a Peet's in Cambridge and it makes great coffee, but it's in the middle of the basically undriveable Harvard Square and is pretty much impossible to grab on my way to work.
At home, I have a burr grinder and French press. Generally I've used Starbucks beans, but recently picked up a large bag from Costco that's decent. Peet's roasted beans are pretty pricey, but they're good as well.
black as tar, black as coal, black as Dick Cheneys heart on a moonless night. And strong enough to eat the goddamn spoon.
Every time I go to a Starbucks in a place like a convention center or airport, the coffee is absolute crap. I'm guessing they don't plan on a lot of repeat business, and figure they can just half-ass it on the international reputation of Starbucks.
Seriously, I got a latte at E3 once that tasted like it was brewed from cigarette ashes. And it cost me, like, $4.50 for a grande. The only reason I didn't bitch was because the structure of the place was such that I would've had to wait in a 30 minute line again to even speak to someone.
Can I just ask for a venti red-eye and any Starbucks employee would know what I'm saying? I'm not sure how universal coffee terminology is. I'm thinking I should try something more closely resembling real coffee, though.
It would so be worth it.
You are all so wrong. So wrong. Like incorrect on such a deep level that you are basically in defiance of nature; your twisted, unnatural footsteps a blot upon the the good earth.
Nature screams silently in your presence. It is hard to see what constructive role, if any, you have to play in our society.
This is deep wisdom.
Red-eye is a pretty universal term, and any coffeehouse should know what you're talking about. "Black-eye" was new to me, so I don't know if that's in the standard lexicon.
Hey!
We have Tim's, which is available pretty much anywhere, makes a pretty damn good cup of coffee and doesn't cost like five bucks.
Also: Second Cup, which destroys Starbucks drink for drink and has consistantly WAY better coffee.
Locally, Bridgehead makes good stuff.
took out her barrettes and her hair spilled out like rootbeer
Seriously, Jeff. And I don't mean, like, Dunkin Donuts coffee is pretty much the norm. I mean that people insist on Dunkin Donuts coffee specifically and won't drink anything else.
And also, fun fact for those of you who visit Boston: when you order a coffee from pretty much anywhere, the exchange will go like this:
You: I'd like a large coffee please.
Countermonkey: Regulah?
You: erm... yeah.
...
<later when you receive your cup take a sip of the "regulah">
You: What the fuck there must be a pint of cream and a cup of sugar in this! Is there even any coffee in here?
This man speaks truth.
Get a french press - and pick up freshly roasted coffee and grind it yourself.
If you're used to getting starbucks with syrup and a little milk, you might just be able to handle it black - the flavor is awesome, and it's almost never bitter.
4 shots of espresso in a large coffee (as opposed to three).
3 pumps of vanilla instead of 5 (so it's not as sweet)
and percent refers to using low-fat instead of whole or nonfat milk.
Yummy!
Cost Plus World Market: $4.99
In my town in a strech of road around 5 miles or so there are 3 Dunkin' Donuts that do brisk business all day and night. Not including the one in the Stop and Shop.
There is not a
That big, scaling thing that grows to be half your screen? Not large enough.
They take a little more skill to use but the coffee is so much better than what you get from just mixing the grounds with water and hoping. If you keep the temperature quite low and open the lid up then you can control things properly. All you need to do is watch for the "brown shoulders" when the coffee strarts to pour out of the fountain in the middle of the upper chamber. Then turn the heat off and leave it until it finishes. This keeps the bad stuff in the bottom and the delicious in the top.
However, I really find the taste to be quite awful.
What advice can you give a coffee pussy like myself, besides "stop being a pussy"?
Congrats, you are my new bestest friend.
Coffee is like beer. It's an aquired taste.
The more you drink it the more you will love it. Start out with some of the sweeter stuff first, then move on to trying more traditional coffee.
My staple coffee-drink-thing is the good 'ol white chocolate mocha. But if I'm just having regular coffee, I drink it black.
Fluffy drinks, like lattes and mochas. The coffee is more subtle, since they're about 3 parts milk to one part espresso. If you don't even like those, then don't bother.
Caffeine wires the hell out of me.
You are so correct here. Everyone I worked with in my 2 weeks in Boston wanted Dunkin' Donuts. I had to beg to get someone to swing by a Starbucks every morning.
What's wrong with people in Boston?! The beer was great. The coffee hurt my feelings.
I hate coffee. I could count the number of times I've drunk it on one hand - and all times I needed it for the caffeine. I consider the horrible taste to be a form of punishment.
Oh God. So noted for when I go to Boston in September. I will be sure to declare, loudly and clearly 'NO. BLACK.' in a fashion that will offend the politically correct sensibilities of the other patrons if they don't just think I'm being quaint and British.
I first started drinking coffee when I was about 16. I was in Switzerland on a snowboarding holiday with my brother and a bunch of friends. We'd been drinking heavily the night before but insisted on getting up early to catch the fresh snow the next morning. I stumbled out of bed, tired and hungover and desptie having never drunk coffee before, new deep in my heart that a big mug of hot, black caffeine was the only thing that was going to get me on the piste. The first time is always the best and I've had a love affair with badly brewed black syrupy coffee ever since.
That said Millers, On the Road, Dunkin' Donuts ( I really don't understand the standards of people sometimes ) and just about every airport Iv been in are horrid. And Starbucks? You know.... Iv never thought about it before but Iv NEVER had their coffee. I always end up with some fu-fu drink with whip cream on top. Then again Id never go to Cold Stone and get vanilla ice cream so I guess it makes sense.
My parents got me a coffee maker for Christmas once. It was a single cup coffee maker. Iv never had the heart to tell them I don't use it because theres no way in hell I can go a morning with only one cup of coffee and constantly making cups sucks.
At home, 8'o'clock whole beans (Columbian preferred) finely ground works for me. I haven't expanded much beyond this but really want to try a French press.
The best, though, is at some restaurants with Middle Eastern food, they'll have Turkish coffee. So so good.
I once made a drink with 3 or 4 espresso shots, some kahlua, a little vodka, some milk and chocolate syrup... my god was it tasty but I was wired for hours...
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Honestly, I'll drink about anything that vaguely resembles coffee. Generally I just brew up a pot in your run-of-the-mill coffeemaker at home, or grab a cup of Starbucks on the way to work. And the only reason I go to Starbucks instead of, say, McDonalds is for the higher caffeine content.
Sometimes I enjoy a quad grande americano, though.
My taste buds hate me.
I like my drip coffee pot. I also have a Percolater and know how to use it! The trick with drip is to grnid well, I use about a 10 count in my grinder and as soon as it is done remove the grounds so they can't drip nasty bitter stuff in my coffee since the bitter crap is water soluble the faster you get it gone the less there is. I have taught the guys at 7-Eleven this and the coffee has noticabley improved when the smart ones are working.
There is a French vanilla whole bean that I buy from Costco, comes in a 1.? Kg package that is not bad. I usually end up getting a small bag of beans from Safeway when my Costco beans run out. I like Safeways Mocha and Hazelnut.
Also from my new mom days I almost never use a regular coffee cup for my coffee, it gets to damn cold to fast. I use a travel mug even around the house, and really regular cups don't hold nearlyenough of the good stuff. I also have become a Loose Tea fan and am addicted to the Epicure Selections teas even their Looose Herbals. Good thing I sell the stuff so I can keep a good supply of it.
I will admit that after all this I am a way too much sugar and cream (International Delight flavored coffee whitner please) in my coffee drinker.