UKC

Since I got my own grinder I have been enjoying outstanding espresso on my machine. Light years away from the vast majority of cafes, restaurants in Glasgow. No comparison.

Been getting fresh beans from three different Glasgow roasters.

Artisan Roast.
Coffee, Chocolate & Tea.
Dear Green Coffee Roasters.

Any other online sellers with fresh roasted beans? Even the supermarket vacuum packed beans are already stale.

I am also wanting to break into the brewed coffee world for my office. I am deciding between Chemex, v60 and aeropress. Any fav?

In reply to Milesy:
Has Beans and Happy Donkey are good. I don't usually buy online though, because you end up paying so much for delivery if you only get 250g at a time. I tend to get Union from a local shop, or Square Mile if I want to splash out.

In reply to Milesy:
The Aeropress has a very good reputation, but I've never tried one. Personally, I wouldn't buy anything glass for my office, but then you might have better cleaners than we do.

In reply to Milesy: Aeropress every time - amazingly good for a small cheap thing. RedMonkey do beans (and you can even roast your own if the need takes you).

b

In reply to Milesy:


More likely they are just not that good. I've tried almost every version and there are one or two good ones. My current favourite are Café Direct Machu Picchu beans. Chocolatey, nutty and very coffee-ish. Percol Black & Beyond are not bad, not as sweet. Waitrose Italian Espresso, in a drum, are cheap & almost as good.

Beans can be too fresh. They need a period of maturing after roasting to get the best flavour.

In reply to Milesy:
Have a mate who loves beans he gets from monmouth but dont know if they do mail order though.

thanks folks. I am hinting towards Aeropress.

In reply to digby:

For espresso that is between 1 and 3 weeks. For filter I have heard a week. I can notice the distance between week and month roasted beans drastically even when sealed. I picked up supermarket beans to look at, and "best before" dates were years in advance. No roast dates obviously. I picked up a bag which looked good anyway. Single origin Arabica but they extracted very poorly with not much life at all. Comparable to a typical good restaurant Italian make (Lavazza, Illy etc) but definately stale in comparison to third wave cafes with really fresh roasts.

In reply to Milesy:
not used the others you mention but the aeropress produces really nice coffee and v handy for office environment. Just off to make myself one now as you've mentioned it

cheers
Mark

In reply to Howardw1968:

Monmouth is where it's at

In reply to Milesy:

Try Thompson's Coffee in Thornlybank G46, they roast on site and beans are fresh as a fresh thing!

loads of varieties and you can mix your own blends.

J

In reply to Brownie:
Sorry forgot link
http://www.thomsons-coffee.com/index.php

In reply to munro:

Really I can't see what all the fuss is about, I brought some of their coffee and it tasted weak and horrible esp for the price they charge. Much better outlets in my opinion such as http://www.darkfluid.co.uk/

In reply to Milesy:
these guys roast awesome coffee...

http://exchangecoffee.co.uk/

They really know their beans... I discussed exactly what I do and dont like about coffee and they told me exactly what kind of coffee beans to buy to suit my tastes! (sumatra!!)

I can however call into one of their shops for a chat cos they are 2 mins from where I work!

In reply to Milesy:
+1 for Aeropress. Very easy, no washing and most importantly, nice brew!
uses a bit more coffee than usual, due to quick extraction, but worth it.

In reply to thin bob: try www.feraltrade.org for coffee, i used the coffee when I ran a student coffee bar and it was great. And much better than getting from a shop!

In reply to aligibb: So how does that work then?

In reply to Milesy: +1 for exchange coffee. Just down the road from me but boy do they know thier stuff!!

In reply to quirky:

Try Kopi online, I've not tried it myself but heard good things. I get my coffee from the Algerian Coffee Co. in Soho, pretty sure they mail order too.

Aeropress is great, I use one practically everyday.

In reply to Milesy:

I use Has Bean. Love their coffee but paying for delivery does add a fair bit to the order. I use an aeropress.

In reply to thin bob:

Try the inverted method for Aeropress. It uses hotter water, less coffee, and a longer brewing time. Probably my favourite so far.

Hello, Lawrence here, roaster at Dark Fluid coffee and climber for ages.

A climbing friend pointed this thread out to me and having just lost 2 hours flicking through the pages and looking up moments of past glory in the Peak I thought I might as well sign up and add my bit.

I added a couple of shots to my gallery, one of the roastery bouldering wall under construction- my solution to the steady decline in fitness since moving from Sheffield to London. The other is of my standard brewing setup for climbing trips and one of the best ways of making coffee full stop. Aeropress and a Hario mini mill

I'm an espresso nut but the aeropress really is great, especially upside down, as pointed out, easy to clean but best of all makes really good coffee. I think it's two biggest strongpoints are that it is not very temperature critical, it lets you get away with a cool brew temp- vital when outdoors useful when in. The ratio of paper to water is also very good, meaning you do not need a gallon of water to rinse the filter paper. Pretty unbreakable too.

I recently became a massive fan of the Clever dripper, like a cone but with a simple valve at the bottom, much easier than a cone and tastier imo, being a full immersion brew. I make my best cup of filter with one of these and they are only about a tenner. btw I don't work for/with/sell any of this stuff.

Not sure how you can like my coffee but not Monmouth Coffee, they are awesome, we even share some beans. Quite different style though.


Best

In reply to Milesy: have heard so many good things about these aeropress thingies. i currently use a stainless steel stove-top espresso pot at home, and a smartcafe cafetiere mug when camping (I like my coffee black but longer and not as strong as traditional espresso). I'm not unhappy with either - my question is, would i notice a big difference switching to an aeropress with my existing pre-ground coffee, or a bigger one using my existing methods but using freshly ground beans?

In reply to ripper:
the aeropress is just an espresso maker. easy to dilute it after & get an americano, though.
for £20, give it a spin?

In reply to thin bob: yeh i could - but why blow 20 squid if the end product is not noticeably different to what i get already?

In reply to ripper:

I love the moka pot. I think your biggest difference would be shifting the pre ground. It is defacto stale. I can't use my moka in work and I don't like the French press. Going to get the aeropress thanks

In reply to ripper:

Good point!
if you like espresso or it's derivatives, yes, get one. Filter / cafetiere coffee isn't the same to me.
It does use a bit more coffee, ready in 20 seconds & cleaning it is dead simple .

In reply to Lsjms:

Eh up Lawrence!
Must come check out your wall! I'll bring beer

I tend to travel with a rocky grinder for use in the campsite and a Hario Slim for use when on the hill. I've got some pics somewhere of me using the Hario with an Aeropress at 4550m (let's just say I'm not a fan of refuge coffee ) and a syphon in the campsite at ~1700m.

For anybody using an Aeropress, I'd recommend looking up the reverse aeropress method instead of the instructions that come with it. There's plenty of info on http://brewmethods.com/

And for anyone wanting to buy their coffee from real climbers (out of all the roasters I know/am mates with) then Darkfluid are the guys! Hasbean is not bad too, for a Sunderland supporter