I like espressos (especially mochas) but they take a bit of work to prepare a single cup. With drip brew, I can do very little and get unhealthy amounts of caffeination into my corpse. Also, I pour ungodly amounts of creamer into my coffee. That Mason jar is quite literally half coffee half creamer.
Espresso is coffee.
There is nothing magical about espressoWhile espresso is pure magic, it’s still made from standard coffee beans. Lol
By the way, that machine is actually pretty great for a topdrip. That Strong button is brilliant!
Personally, I don’t like creamer, but if you like it, then keep at it.I used to date a guy who had that EXACT machine. I appreciate it’s a popular model but it brought back memories.
Anyway, he made the shittiest coffee, real dirty-tasting brown sludge and I couldn’t figure out why. When he wasn’t about one day I tested the machine with some cheap supermarket grounds and I couldn’t believe it: it was fine. Perfectly cromulent, surprising clean tasting, and hassle-free.
Anyway, after a while I figured it out. Turns out he was putting Nescafé instant coffee into the filter.
That’s disturbing. Did he actually like his coffee?
Sounds like someone so cheap that it didn’t matter what it tasted like. I think these are the people that drink the $1.50 bang energy in the morning. It’s more about a vehicle for cheap caffeine than it is about enjoying coffee. Sounds like a sad life.
That’s just how you view it. It’s not a sad life at all.
Congrats you just defined an opinion.
I can’t take all the credit. It was the little people that did most of the work. /s
If cheap, why would they add expense of coffee maker to make instant coffee? Could just boil water for that.
I love shitty coffee, I love fancy coffee, I love coffee.
This is my take too, any coffee is good. I just wanna talk about this drink, I don’t care how people like to actually drink it. I’ve got my preferences, and accept that others may have different preferences. It’s what makes this hobby so much fun. Life would be boring if we all had the same likes and dislikes.
When I was in university, and it was finals time and they opened the study areas 24/7, they would wheel out big coffee dispensers, the kind I associate with hospitals or bad hotels. Just a big insulated metal cylinder filled with almost rancid, mealy, astringent black liquid, with rickety little spouts.
The default coffee here is Turkish-style (we call it Turkish or Arabic coffee), but this was a weird halfway between batch brew drip coffee and Turkish style coffee. And being a few hours old it was basically the absolute worst of both worlds.
I think they don’t allow any food or coffee anymore there now which sucks, maybe one too many spills. Never an issue when I was there.
My friends knew I would only get coffee from particular places, and they would be shocked to see me drink what I called hospital coffee. But for me this was the coffee called for by the situation I was in, hopelessly cramming control systems at three in the morning. The bad coffee is integral (don’t clap) to the experience. I’m participating in the ritual that is finals here, so this is part of that ritual. The fact that the coffee tastes like bitumen is just part of me taking the moment in. I know it’s shit. I want it to be shit. Let me enjoy the diversity the world offers.
I’ve got one like that, but in the military. We got little packets of instant coffee in our rations, I’d just pour that in my mouth and drink some water. I think that’s still technically coffee. Tasted like shit but woke you up, first from the taste and then from the caffeine. Mission accomplished, that’s a good coffee in my book.
Getting down those concentrated bitter coffee crystals with semi cool water (that might be a bit mildewey or plasticky depending on the age of the camelbak you’re drinking from) on a long shitty ruck just feels proper.
Your choice was proportional to the situation.
no you’re onto something. i call them taste memories. when a flavor is ingrained with an experience
yeah, i’m not a coffee snob, i’m a food snob. i appreciate the delicacy in the coffee but if it’s brown, drink it down. if it’s black, drink it back. if it’s white, tastes alright. i can rhyme these all day.
*I can rhyme these for all time
i never said i could rhyme them good
just that i got rhyming time on my hands
if it’s blue drink your stew yeah that works well enough
You love the java jive and i do too
Waiter, waiter, percolator
It’s just bulk espresso /s
- thin soup espresso…
That is a glass of milk with a splash of coffee.
My god i thought it was a random bar of maionese…
So, my cuppa Iron Goddess of Mercy Oolong tea is right out then?
(Enjoy your coffees. no matter how you make it, everyone!)
man, I yearn for the coffee maker that lasts long enough to have the button rub off again. It’s been years since I’ve had one last long enough to do that. I started buying service/replacement plans for my coffee makers because they just are not built like they used to be.
My drip coffee maker is a Technivoorm Moccamaster. It’s been my main coffee maker for a solid decade and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. I wouldn’t be surprised if it lived through the next decade. They’re pricey upfront, but I’m convinced that it’s paid for itself with itself with its longevity. Not to mention great coffee.
That as well will go on my list for prospects, although, I think it’s going to go closer to the espresso machine area of the listing! you are quite right they are a tad pricey up front lol
(Psst, get a French press)
that may be my choice next time around
I like the french presses but they are too hard to clean.
Dump the grounds, run hot soapy water in it. Undo the filter a bit to loosen the hold, run hot soapy water over it, re-tighten the filter. Clean.
Actually, as I type it, yeah. It’s annoying
Use a paper basket filter with it and it becomes super easy to clean after. Plus, no grit in your cup. Win-win.
That sounds plausible. Thx.
Basket filters like these work best in my experience:
It should look like this when it’s done:
Or a ChemX! Unless I drop the thing it’ll never break down on me. We also love the Aeropress because it never makes a bad cup.
Love a French press but it can be acidic and doesn’t always agree with everyone’s stomach.
Depends which coffee you use in them, getting a good blend it generally turns out very good.
I do believe that the fact remains, the lack of a paper filter + long dwell time = inherently more acidic brew. Scientifically speaking.
You can absolutely use a paper filter in a french press. Just grab a pack of basket filters, they fit most FP sizes pretty well. It makes a far better cup.
Really good to know! I’ve never seen one made that way. I wonder if filters for a percolator pot would work as well.
These kind work great:
This is how it should look:
Note, neither picture is mine, I shameless stole them from the internet.Check out the French press section in my coffee brewing guide for more details.
You’re not suppressed to use boiling water in a French press, that’s why you’re getting the acidity. Scientifically speaking.
High acidity/sourness comes from under-extracting, not over-extracting. Too high of a brew temp will bring out bitterness, not sourness.
To fix sourness, either use hotter water, finer grind size, or longer contact time with water.
All my coffee is brewed at 195.
Internet says French press is 195-205.
“* French press coffee can be more acidic than filtered coffee because it doesn’t use paper filters that trap acidic compounds.”
https://notnotcoffee.com/blog/does-a-french-press-make-coffee-less-acidic/
There are several other variables as well but the first one listed is the one my previous comment.
“French press brewing allows oils and acids to remain in the coffee, contributing to a fuller flavor profile.”
Use hot chocolate mix instead of some creamer or sugar. Approximates the mocha flavor along the same lines of laziness for payoff.
Evil Drip Brew Gang represent!
After trying the alternatives, including unreasonably priced espresso machines, I’ll never stop using $15-$20 (USD) 12-cup evil drip brewers. Most efficient way to get coffee in me as quickly and frequently as possible.
Coffee House owner chiming in: drink whatever the hell you enjoy.
Espresso is a type of coffee. Some like Café Crème, some Americano, some Lungo, some filter coffee, some french press.
My recommendation for you: try the french press. Even more simple and mostly glass/metal instead of plastic.
Counter point, tossing a filter with grounds into the trash is easier than washing the French press.
“Simpler way” as you need less machinery and less equipment for the same type of coffee, while giving an ecological benefit. So tossing away a one-use filter does not really fit into that category.
Besides that, how do you clean the rest of the coffee dripper? Can you put it in the dishwasher, as you can do it with the french press? Heck, even just rinsing the french press filter is good enough in 90% of the times.
Tl;dr counter point countered.
I still can’t get a consensus definition of the difference between Café Crème and Americano.
Café crema was the original name for espresso because of the crema it produced. Café crème is the French translation. Espresso became the more popular word.
Now it’s when you make a long black / americano style drink but instead of adding water before / after pulling the shot, you run the full amount of water through a coarser grind when making the espresso.
Americano = water after shot
Long black = water before shot
Café crema = water through shotI couldn’t have explained it any better; well done!
Thanks for your input! Then this would be similar to a “lungo” or “allongé”?
My issue is more in the consensus side of things…
Some coffee places in Switzerland told me (with 100% certainty) that “Café crema” and “Americano” was the same thing, and the fancy espresso machine at work offers “allongé” and “cafe crema” as different choices…
Personally I’ve never heard of a cafe crème before, but one website says it’s an espresso to which you add a bunch of milk. Another website says it’s supposed to be less foamy than a cappuccino and less milky than a latte. Found a swiss Site which makes it sound even more complicated.
As for the others… lungo and allongé are the same thing, which is usually an espresso but you let more water flow through the coffee. Usually at least twice as much. Americano is usually just an espresso to which you add a bunch of hot water. Usually to fill one of those bigger mugs till you get to like 150-200ml
In German café crème is the same as lungo / allongé (wich are the same word just translated) but in French café crème is lungo + milk. Apparently Switzerland takes inspiration from the former :')
That makes sense! I was right on the language frontier in Switzerland, thus it could explain why different shops were using the French or the German definition!
Anyway, I think I enjoy the discussion even more than the coffee itself 😂
Little anecdote: I’ve been to Paris a fair bit, and always enjoy a big bowl of cafe au lait with my morning pastry. First time in Nice, the waiter mocked me for my order. “Café olé!” he shouted and did a little flamenco dance. In the south of France, he explained, they call milky coffee “café crème”. So there you go.
In the UK an Americano is just a watered-down espresso, no milk or cream.
Upvote for French press, there is a double-walled steel version that keeps the coffee nice and hot.
Grind the coffee yourself and it’s miles better than drip.
Eh I always end up with fines and they really bother me.
There are definitely quality levels of filter brewing too. From cheap drip machines that don’t get to the right temperature to really fancy drip machines can effectively simulate a pourover.
Just depends what you like really. Would say that a $20 French press setup will almost certainly produce better coffee than a $20 drip machine, but a better comp is a $20 pour over setup imo.
with a pourover, you’d be doing even less work with less cleanup
Maybe OP does this at work and just wants to waste time. I know I do.
Nah that’s my house. What’s a pourover?
You pour the water (from a kettle or whatever) yourself instead of the machine doing all of the work.
“all the work” you mean your machine pours water into itself?
Yes
you can go all the way from cheap to absurd in price, but pretty much the cup you’re drinking from becomes the pot, and the pourover is the drip brewer. place filter, add coffee, pour hot water, done. throw away the grounds and filter and rinse the pourover, cleanup is done.
i bought one of the cheapo ones when my second keurig machine in 2 years took a shit, and never looked back. the only con that i’ve found is that it won’t suffice for multiple coffee drinkers at once. if you’re traveling you can throw the pourover, bag of coffee, and filters in your luggage and not have to deal with a hotel’s shit tier coffee. or if you’re staying at some weirdo house where no one drinks coffee. just use one of their cups to microwave some water
the only con that i’ve found is that it won’t suffice for multiple coffee drinkers at once.
That’s when it’s Chemex Time!™ Or you have to lateral to french press.
Yes, but skip the filter if you want to do less work and get more coffee in your coffee
Put the grounds in the mug. Pour water. A bit later, stir with a spoon so you have less floaties. Enjoy a mug of tar. Chewing on the grounds later is optional.
We call it “thief’s coffee” in Estonia, because you don’t have much time to spend on making coffee when you’re robbing someone’s house, but you still need the caffeine fix lmao
Pourover is more work in my opinion, since you usually don’t pour all the water at once, do you
What actually is quite easy is an immersion switch dripper since there, you can just pour it all at once
Yes, it’s more work
sounds like a load of hype ass bullshit to me
but not in a bad way
It’s just kinda how the regular old Mr Coffee machines work, but you boil the water in a kettle and pour it on top all at once. So it’s pourover with a drip throttle.
Been working in coffee for several years now. It started as a hobby which means I have about 6 different ways of making coffee at home. All that to say I can find very little wrong with these machines as long as your beans are decent quality and you’re grinding fresh for each pot.
Yes they rarely have any form of temp control and the hot plate leaves coffee tasting stale after a few hours of keeping it warm, but they’re consistent, albeit consistently mediocre.
And they come with the added bonus of being able to schedule the brew time which can be helpful for those rushed mornings.
I have a drip machine with a vacuum insulated metal carafe and it keeps the coffee warm for hours without a hot plate. Those hot plates are awful and the glass carafes always break ime.
up front: everyone should do what works best for them. no judgement.
with that out of the way, yes, machines make coffee, and they’re easy. the biggest thing that keeps me from using one is the tubing-- if you don’t religiously run cleaning cycles (which is more $ for the cleaner chemicals), then you end up with internal tubing full of bacterial colonies, which, no thanks. that’s to say nothing of the reservoir. when did you last clean the reservoir of your coffee machine?
pourover = rinse out, air dry or towel dry, no moisture for shit to grow in
also, you talk about “grinding fresh for each pot” which i totally agree, but then you say “schedule the brew time” which means letting the “fresh ground” coffee sit in a coffee machine basket overnight, open to the world, which, as you know from working in coffee, negates the “fresh ground” bit. the coffee is fine, i pre-grind my own coffee. but i definitely taste a difference in coffee i grind immediately before brewing, and that which i grind the night before
internal tubing full of
cockroaches
i fucking hated that specific machine. i wish i never found out why.
Fair enough. And yes the cleanliness of those machines can be problematic and require more care, but not enough to be an inconvenience to most people. But I agree with you on that in general as well as the cost aspect.
I am aware that those two phrases negate each other to some extent, however grinding the night before is still infinitely better than store-bought, pre-ground coffee. Just pointing out the small steps someone can make to improve their current setup. No need to overhaul the entire system you have for yourself if a couple small changes can get you to a better end product.
My own experience in coffee has always just been “use what you have until you understand the reason for updrading or changing your equipment.” Make baby steps along the way instead of changing everything at once is always my argument.
Espresso is hard to do at an office but a French press and hand grinder are very easy to keep in a drawer at your desk. And if you’re desperate you can use the drop brewer to get your hot water.
I’m broke and that machine was a rescue. My brother showed me once how to use a French press but my impression of it was that it took more effort than “4 tbsp of grounds into a filter. 24oz of water, push button.”
4tbsp of grounds into bucket. Add 24 oz boiling water. Wait 4 min. Press and pour.
But then you start asking questions like, “surely boiling water is too hot, what is the proper temperature?” and “what about grind size?”
So you go down the rabbit hole. And learn about “blooming”, etc.
But soon enough you no longer need the precision scale, you can just eyeball things like grind size and amounts. You may even learn what the kettle sounds like when it hits the proper temp. You come out the other side.
IMO Boiling water is typically just fine for most coffee, unless it’s a dark roast. By the time it’s in the press and accounting for cooling it’ll be mid 90s.
No worries with blooming on a French press!
I’ve been using French press for 20 years and tried a bunch of things; the only complication that stuck is the Hoffman Method (and of course a decent grinder). It’s the graph with a bubble in the middle - don’t know enough, knows enough to be way too intense, knows enough that the intensity doesn’t matter.
+1 for French press, but enhance the experience with an insulated carafe so it stays warm. Makes an excellent cup of coffee without a ton more work.
What about an aeropress? Full disclosure, I haven’t seen one in person and therefore never used one.
easy for an office. i can’t compare to a french press since full disclosure, same reason
Aeropress would probably be better than a French press in an office setting. More compact and significantly easier to clean
I just use instant at my office though. I rarely use it, but I prefer it to Keurig or the drip machine in our office.
But I mainly just drive in with a cup of coffee from home.
I’ve never tried a single serve Keurig. What makes it undesirable, besides the wastefullness?
it’s single serving, preground drip brew coffee that tastes of plastic.
i got a basket so i could adjust a keurig. grind my own beans. reuse the filter. still tasted like shit. ended up being full of cockroaches. so it may have just been my machine
Thank you, I will avoid Keurigs.
Probably good, not my thing since it requires filters. Very compact tho so yeah.
I don’t understand what’s so hard about espresso :-)
I love espresso. But coffee of all types is fascinating and awesome.
