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Good Coffee at Home.

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 Malt_Loaf 03 Apr 2015
Hi Everyone,

Calling any coffee connoisseurs....

My partner and I love nice coffee but have only recently started to make nicer coffee at home- always used instant stuff. Recently started using ground coffee and a caffatiere and we've really enjoyed having nicer coffee at home.

I guess we could just get a coffee machine, but we kinda like the process too.

My question is two fold:

Would we benefit from roasting/grinding our own beans or is the ground stuff just as nice?

Also, can anyone recommend some good brands? Not sure exactly what we like yet, but both like medium/strong/rich coffees but still experimenting with countries and kinds etc...

Thanks,

ML

PS I know this thread is very boring!
 MonkeyPuzzle 03 Apr 2015
In reply to Malt_Loaf:

> My question is two fold:

> Would we benefit from roasting/grinding our own beans or is the ground stuff just as nice?

Don't see much point in roasting your own when there's so many good professional independent roasters out there, but I definitely recommend buying freshly roasted beans from a local or mail order roaster and grinding them at need.

> Also, can anyone recommend some good brands?

Go to a local roasters or try hasbean.co.uk who have loads of different blends to try and see what you like

> PS I know this thread is very boring!

Actually, I think you're just about to be adviced to death.

All you have to worry about is there's no turning back!
 Pete Dangerous 03 Apr 2015
In reply to Malt_Loaf:

http://cellarandkitchen.adnams.co.uk/catalog/product/food/adnams-house-blen...

This is really good coffee. Grinding fresh and making the coffee in a moka is the one.
OP Malt_Loaf 03 Apr 2015
In reply to RedFive:

Thanks for the links, didnt think to check the threads on here!!

OP Malt_Loaf 03 Apr 2015
In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:
Thanks for the responses, some great links for coffees and brands - will have a scan through tonight.

The moka pot looks interesting, never seen one before!!

Looks like grinding fresh beans will be next to try!
Post edited at 11:55
 RomTheBear 03 Apr 2015
In reply to Malt_Loaf:
Recently started with Pact Coffee and quite pleased so far, they roast it and grind it (or not if you don't want to) to your liking or depending to your type of coffee maker. Different coffee every week, usually very good. Slightly more expensive than supermarket premium brands though, but also usually better.
Post edited at 12:03
 jethro kiernan 03 Apr 2015
In reply to Malt_Loaf:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=610527

Another forum, working my way through so e has been coffee ordered online and very nice.
OP Malt_Loaf 03 Apr 2015
In reply to Malt_Loaf:

Thanks for the links Jethro, will have a look through them- seem very useful!!

 Thrudge 03 Apr 2015
In reply to Malt_Loaf:

It's better to buy beans and grind them as needed. The flavour of coffee comes from the oil in the beans, so as soon as you grind them the coffee starts to go stale as the oils are exposed to the air. Bottom line: beans keep longer than ground, and taste fresher.

When you buy beans, they should look dull. Glossy ones look nicer, but that gloss is the oil that's worked its way to the surface and is currently going stale. A dull colour means the oil is still trapped inside the beans, where you want it.

As for types of coffee, Kenya Blue Mountain is famous, and one of my favourites. I buy from these bods:

http://www.northern-tea.com/

they're very good, although there's plenty of other good suppliers, e.g Pumphreys.

There's a surprising variety of taste in coffee. I recently tried a Sumatra Lintong, which I found too acidic, but there's plenty of people who like that acidity.

As for making coffee, you might want to try the Aeropress. It's a little bit of a faff compared to a cafetiere, but the taste is significantly better, IMHO. You get a much smoother and more flavourful brew.

Have fun
 Jim Fraser 03 Apr 2015
In reply to Malt_Loaf:

I am enough of a coffee nerd to have read a 60mm thick book on coffee by a french nutrition professor. That was many years ago before the recent explosion of the coffee house theme. That was a very reassuring read. It detailed a range of ancient coffee making habits that had ruined the reputation of the drink in many territories and showed benign results from large-scale modern health studies. More recently, similarly reassuring work has appeared from British and American sources. Being originated in English and not being French, the British are now permitted to believe it.

Coffee making has a nasty old history and the persisting idea that a lot of it is bad for you probably comes from the times of stomach cancer from some very very bad coffee making methods. Many older studies into coffee drinking picked up results linked to boil methods, high rates of smoking amongst coffee drinkers and routine use of large amounts of sugar in coffee.

Minimum heat and good filtering produce healthy and tasty coffee. This can be achieved with the expresso method (where the filter is the coffee itself) or using a paper filter. Of these, a good quality paper filter produces the healthiest result with less of the oils that can raise LDL cholesterol.

The route from the expresso method to an ordinary cup of coffee is of course americano: diluting with hot water.

The paper coffee filter is a marvellous device. There may be other filter methods that approach its effectiveness but I am pretty sure that a cheap plastic sieve is not one of them.




The Ethiopian need the money.
http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/en/farmers-and-workers/coffee/oromia-coffee-far...
OP Malt_Loaf 04 Apr 2015
In reply to Tony Naylor:

Thanks for the reply and the link- that's interesting information, the more you understand how coffee "works", the better you can fine tune the process to get the most out of it.

My partner likes the coffee itself, as do I, but I'm enjoying the whole procress behind it as well!

Will check out the link and have a look at Aeropresses to see what its all about!
 Indy 05 Apr 2015
In reply to Malt_Loaf:

Personal thoughts....

Stay away from anything thats branded.
Stay away from any retailer that calls itself a stupid/trendy name i.e "The Pink Hippo Coffee Company"
in fact....
Stay away from any coffee/producer/grower* that calls itself by a stupid/trendy name. ("*normally only for western consumers)
Stay away from any coffee that doesn't state what the beans are or where they are from.
Rainforest Alliance.... RUN!
Be highly suspicious of any company that bombards you with a torrent of information about the coffee i.e 3 pages of "cupping notes" i.e "In the cup you can expect honeydew melon" or "then there's a creamy, melted milk chocolate". Be especially wary of photo's of young westerners posing on far off coffee plantations with bemused looking local coffee growers.

So what should you be looking for?

A local speciality coffee roaster that has a good reputation and a high bean turnover. A smallish range that that has all the information you need without bombarding you with tons of stuff that probably only there to try and justify the inflated prices. Not very original I know but If your in an area without a good speciality roaster and have to mail order I can personally recommend Monmouth coffee in London.

An example of the (to me) good...
http://www.monmouthcoffee.co.uk/coffee/south-america/colombia/finca-san-fra...
and of the (to me!) bad (sorry MonkeyPuzzle)
http://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/el-salvador-finca-la-ilusion-natural-bour...


 MonkeyPuzzle 05 Apr 2015
In reply to Indy:

No need to apologise. I wouldn't even have looked at coffee that cost £60/kilo. I've used hasbean a couple of times when my local roasters (Two Day Coffee in Bristol) was on holiday and thought that the coffee they sent was really tasty, althouh a couple of quid more than I would pay at Two Day.

Unfortunately, when you get into the very expensive, severely diminishing returns end of any consumable (coffee, wine, cheese etc.) suppliers/producers feel the need to justify the price with over-flowery language. I think they think the photos give it "provenance", in case we don't believe them when they tell us where it came from.
 Indy 05 Apr 2015
In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

Whereas Monmouth might do a coffee at £60/kg I'm betting that its going to be something very special for that price. Its also worth pointing out that even at £60/kg its cheaper than those who use say Nespresso coffee pods.

Anyway £60/kg is at the upper range of what Monmouth do. You can get coffee with prices starting at £15/kg from memory. Hand on heart I've never had any bad coffee from them.
 gd303uk 05 Apr 2015
In reply to Malt_Loaf:
Hi , Buy your beans from a local roaster, we are lucky here, living a few miles from a great little company: https://www.adamsandrussell.co.uk/coffee-beans.html
I can have a chat with Graham; the roaster, about the new coffee and whatnot .
Buy a coffee grinder, a cheap one will be miles better than buying ready ground. You can get a conical burr one when you realise the expense might be worth it. You can get cheapeish ones.
And for the coffe machines, I have had a lot of machines even a professional gaggia effort, ( owned a cafe forr a bit) and a still think a stove top coffee machine , like the Bialetti makes a great cup of coffee, I preffer it over the French press type machines and the Aeropress, ( great machines to take camping with you.)
My fav coffees at the moment are the cuban sareno, Kenyan blue mountain, ( they stock single estate coffees , from blue mountains Jamaica, etc.. being single estate does not necessarily equate to better tasting coffee)
for £10 + , you will buy 3 good coffees that will put you off branded coffee .
Post edited at 11:39
 Milesy 05 Apr 2015
Mostly at home I use a woodneck brewer which is fairly simple glass jar with a cloth filter for the coffee. Makes a really good cup. I use a good quality hand grinder (see other post) and good quality speciality coffee. This week it's a single estate coffee from Peruvia from gordon street coffee in Glasgow who roast their own beans.

While I agree mostly with what Indy says it's not true that you avoid coffee with detailed cupping notes as speciality coffee by definition has came through likely several professional cuppings to get to your table. In fact usually only speciality coffee has legitimate tasting notes like melon, cherry, bruised orange etc (specially in acidic and light roasts which give very mellow fruity notes). Supermarket coffee tends to be heavily roasted due to their inferior quality so you don't get delicate flavours but rather big bitter ones.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dtouhyw76vfwsdf/Photo%2005-04-2015%2012%2014%2027...
 Indy 05 Apr 2015
In reply to Milesy:

> While I agree mostly with what Indy says it's not true that you avoid coffee with detailed cupping notes as speciality coffee by definition has came through likely several professional cuppings to get to your table.

I have no issue with cupping notes per se but your intended audience is key. if you were selling a family car would you say its got a 1.6 litre engine OR would you go into a whole raft of technical spec's? Yes, detailed cupping notes for professionals are fine but when your dealing with your average customer it just seems to me to be done to bamboozle or make the coffee appear worth more than it really is.

Respect regarding the Chemex!
 Milesy 05 Apr 2015
Woodneck not a chemex. Similar but used a cloth filter instead of paper and has a slightly different neck

To be honest though speciality does have a target audience. Me and you. Your average coffee drinker just isn't willing to pay £6 upwards of £10 for 250g of coffee. Your average shopper believes that by buying some fairtrade crud they are actually making a difference but in effect they get really poor coffee at a really cheap price and the farmers are basically living on charity. Speciality rewards farmers and pays them well and encourages other farmers to up their game and gives them job satisfaction. I actually refuse to buy fairtrade.
 Bob Hughes 05 Apr 2015
In reply to Malt_Loaf:

three things have changed my enjoyment of coffee:

1. Heating the milk up - makes a much fuller flavour somehow
2. Buying beans and grinding fresh each morning. You never have to worry about the coffee going stale and it tastes better in the first place
3. Getting rid of the stovetop and buying an aeropress.

I've tried all sorts of beans - some expensive, some cheaper - from a few different sources an, whilst they do taste a bit different, I couldn't honestly say any of them taste better than the the 1kg bag of own brand beans from the local Carrefour.
 Milesy 06 Apr 2015
Can I ask how much the 1kg bag cost? If they are just commodity coffee beans then they are low quality and that's not being snobbish, but also any supermarket beans have been roasted months in advance and are already stale when you buy them. Air tight bags only stop things from the outside getting in, but when beans are roasted they give off gas and thats why even supermarket beans have one way valves to let the gas escape otherwise they would explode. The more gas they give off they are basically becoming stale and less active for when you add water to them.
 Bob Hughes 06 Apr 2015
In reply to Milesy:

sure - about 5 euros / kilo. I'm pretty sure they are low quality beans and while I can taste a difference between them and other more expensive beans I can't honestly say they taste worse than beans I've spent more money on.
 Milesy 06 Apr 2015
What were the good quality beans you tasted?

There certainly is little difference between bulk bags from say Costco and beans which are marketed as expensive in supermarkers - likely with pictures of italy or columbia or something, but have you tried beans from a fresh roaster like hasbean?
 Bob Hughes 06 Apr 2015
In reply to Milesy:

I bought the expensive beans from this place (all in spanish I'm afraid).

http://www.laboutiquedelcafe.com/es/113-0-0-0-0/comprar-cafe-arabica-gourme...

I'm pretty sure they don't roast their own beans - I think they just import or buy from a wholesaler.

Interesting tip you have about finding a fresh roaster. I'll have to see if this concept has arrived in Spain yet. We're a bit behind on most fads.
 Milesy 06 Apr 2015
Try hasbean, they should delivery to Spain but I am sure barcelona has thriving coffee scene.

http://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/america-brazil/products/brazil-fazenda...
 nbonnett 07 Apr 2015
In reply to Malt_Loaf:

The in-laws buy me the Granite City Blend they do mail order if need be.

http://www.macbeans.com/
In reply to Jim Fraser:

> I am enough of a coffee nerd to have read a 60mm thick book on coffee by a french nutrition professor. That was many years ago before the recent explosion of the coffee house theme. That was a very reassuring read.

I was wondering if you had a note of what the book was called as it sounds just the sort of thing that would appeal to my inner nerd too.

Thanks in advance

Dave

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