Coffee: we drink it or we get angry.

Discussion in 'Food and Drink' started by Jeb, Jan 16, 2016.

  1. Vansen

    Vansen Gear Master (retiring)

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    The North East is really lacking in the coffee culture unless you're in NYC or Portland, ME. It's one of the things I miss about the West Coast. There are little gems here and there, but they're few and far between.
     
  2. DigMe

    DigMe Friend

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    Boston too.
     
  3. bxh

    bxh Friend

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    Been wanting to try Stumptown Cold Brew for a while now, I've ordered a couple bags of their roasts in the past but always wanted to try their cold brew.

    I was grocery shopping last week and stumbled upon this down the organic section. I was shocked to see it make it's way all the way up here.

    Picked up two but still haven't gotten 'round to trying it.

    [​IMG]
     
  4. Vansen

    Vansen Gear Master (retiring)

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    You'll start seeing Stumptown in a few places now that you wouldn't have before. Similar to Anheuser-Busch InBev buying up a bunch of craft and micro breweries, JAB Holdings is buying up coffee brands.

    JAB owns the following companies: Peet's, Intelligensia, Stumptown, Keurig/ Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Caribou Coffee, Krispy Kreme, and quite a few other brands.
     
  5. brencho

    brencho Friend

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    Verve is excellent

    Edit: and temple and chromatic! I should really venture outside California roasters soon
     
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2016
  6. TRex

    TRex Almost "Made"

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    Phil'z Aromatic Arabic is my favorite. @brencho haven't tried Verve; will do soon.
     
  7. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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    im using a OE Pharos grinder. and my machine is rancilio silvia.

    the last year, ive been in the process of testing Italian blends, after spending years with red bird cofee and metropolis coffee and 49th paralell, ive decided to try italian blends. here's my findings:
    Ranking
    1- Kimbo superior blend
    4- Caffé Motta lounge bar
    4- Caffe Motta espresso bar
    4- lavazza super crema
    5- Segafredo intermezzo
    6- Vergnano
    8- Danessi
    8- Kimbo Napoletano

    Id say red bird coffee is equivalent then caffé motta. 49th parallel is hit and miss, first time I received my coffee from them, I thought it was the best coffe ive ever had, bettering even metropolis coffee. the next two orders werent as good. I think ill order soon from them and try café névé.

    http://www.home-barista.com/coffees...-kimbo-danesi-lavazza-caffe-motta-t40668.html
     
  8. Smitty

    Smitty Too good for bad vodka - Friend

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    The Handground grinder finally shipped. Clearly my order was mishandled, it shipped from the wrong fulfillment warehouse. Probably won't get it until saturday, best case.
     
  9. Vansen

    Vansen Gear Master (retiring)

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    I love Verve and Temple! They both have great instagram feeds, too. My friends and I use to rent a beach house occasionally right down the road from Verve's roastery; made for a nice morning walk to get coffee.

    Also, if you're in the game for simply roasted whole bean coffee, Sweet Maria's roasts coffee, too. They see a lot of green coffee variety, and the stuff they roast has never let me down. I used to stop by their place in Oakland when I'd pass though and grab a bag or two. I see a subscription for roasted coffee on their site now, but nothing a la carte at the moment.
     
  10. take

    take Friend

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    Blue Bottle just came out with a new pour over cone. It seems to have a smallish hole, centered, and ridges that go 2/3 of the way up the cone, gradually fading out up to that point. The filters are ridged like the Kalita wave. Previously, Blue Bottle were Bonmac dripper advocates. The Bonmac has a single small hole, too, and ridges up to about halfway, but with flat filters instead of ridged. It seems that they're trying to create a hybrid with that and the Kalita wave, maybe. The filters are a bit pricey, but I'm considering picking up one to play around with.
     
  11. DigMe

    DigMe Friend

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    These are for people who think, "I like the Kalita Wave but the filters are just not expensive enough." :p
     
  12. Smitty

    Smitty Too good for bad vodka - Friend

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    Finally got my Handground. I even made pour over, which turned out really well. I'll post something with more detail tomorrow or over the weekend. Also ordered an Aeropress, but that's tied up with amazon holiday insanity until next week.
     
  13. Eric_C

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    Make sure to use the inverted method for Aeropress! I find that works really consistently.
     
  14. Smitty

    Smitty Too good for bad vodka - Friend

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    Will do. I also bought the Able Disc filters for it, I heard good things about those from my brother.
     
  15. Eric_C

    Eric_C Friend

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    I have the standard Able disk, use it for Aeropress on the go (so I don't have to worry about paper filters getting wet or damaged). I think they make it more convenient in that sense, but the coffee produced is slightly oilier.
    Anyway I'm sure your Aeropress will come with paper filters so you can do a comparison for yourself.
     
  16. DigMe

    DigMe Friend

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    I've been enjoying two exceptional coffees from Counter Culture last week and this week - Ethiopian Banko Gotiti and Colombian La Golondrina. At first I wasn't super impressed with Banko Gotiti but after lowering my temps a couple of degrees the fruit really came out and it's a fantastic african natural. La Golondrina is definitely one of the best Colombians I can recall having in years. I strongly recommend these two coffees.
     
  17. Delayeed

    Delayeed Facebook Friend

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    I'm far from a coffee expert I just drink the store bought stuff but at least it's better for you than energy drinks. It always helps with my depression and even though it makes me nervous sometimes I can not imagine waking up without a nice cup of coffee. :)
     
  18. xLn

    xLn Acquaintance

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    I got my handground a few days ago as well. It's bigger than I expected and does feel like a quality product. I got the white, actually I forgot what color I had even ordered it's been so long, kind of wish I got stainless (because I just bought all new appliances today!!!), but it feels nice none the less.

    I did a finer grind (2) for my aeropress and a mediumish (4) grind for my kalita wave and have been very happy with the results. Grinds are uniform. The 2 setting did take a while to grind up by hand, but for the pour over settings it grinds relatively fast. It's fast enough that I'm not ending up with water that's already boiling while I'm still trying to grind. It doesn't slow me down or make me feel rushed in any way during the brew process.

    I'd give it a 9/10. I've never tried another hand grinder so I really have nothing to compare it to, and it is priced at a premium compared to a lot of the ones you can find on Amazon.

    Now to find a coffee scale... why is the hario less attractive than most others
     
  19. DigMe

    DigMe Friend

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    I've heard bad things about the Hario's reliability. I've been through several scales including the worst scale I've ever used. I bought this one earlier this year and I've been very happy with it:
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B018SMY2RS/ref=ya_aw_od_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    It is small but just big enough to brew into my Hario 1000ml carafe or into a mug and it's great for traveling. It has a 4 minute auto-off which is key for brewing. I've had some that turned off too fast and it screws up your brewing. It comes with a little tray that makes it easy to weigh beans and pour them into the fairly narrow opening of my Lido hand grinder. It also has a light-up display and excellent battery life.

    If you're looking for something higher end that has better reliability there is also the Bonavita scale. They use those at Houndstooth coffee in Austin and they looked pretty nice and hearty.

    I'd love to compare the Handground to my Lido. I can't imagine a better handginder than the Lido as far as quality goes but I'm curious.
     
  20. Vansen

    Vansen Gear Master (retiring)

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    Having used Mettler-Toledo lab scales at work my whole career to make coffee, I've pretty much disliked most home scales out there, including the Hario. The Hario is a decent enough scale, but caps out well below the weight of my hand grinder or a six cup Chemex with water. Having gone through several scales, I've come to love the AWS AMW-2000. It caps out at 2kg and measures to a 0.1g accuracy. I've had it for two years and it's still rocking solid. There's also the AWS AMW-13, that goes up to 6kg in 1g increments. The scale can take an AC adapter if you want and has a switch for auto-off or always on.

    Heres the link:
    http://a.co/1BBmLFY

    Oh, and a Chemex fits on it nicely:

    [​IMG]

    Edit: Just started reading reviews on the AMW-2000 on Amazon. I don't have any of the issues stated in the reviews there. I didn't buy mine from Amazon, though. My experience with it has been inline with most of the other AWS scale reviews, such as the AMW-13.
     
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2016

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