Extremely Off Topic: Anyone obsessed with coffee too?

[trallis]

I am interested in learning a few things about perfect coffee brewing and I ask here for a few reasons.

-It'd be interesting to see how many closet coffee snobs we have here.
-Based on the extremely specific and detailed methods we all have for brewing tea I would expect anyone here who is interested in coffee to be pretty knowledgeable with coffee as well.. while it seems like coffee forums would be overrun with starbucks people who probably don't know very much, and it may be tough to discern the experts from the beginners(this may be a crude assumption but oh well), while here people don't really say it unless they know it.
-I hate signing up for new forums so i'm asking my friends here.
-I'd rather hear the answer in tea drinker language.

Okay now that I justified my way off topic post, heres what I want to know.
We all know the general guidlines for tea brewing, even though there are exceptions to every rule. I'm talking about the simple rules like black tea:212F:3mins:1tsp/8oz.water.
So what are the rules for coffee and espresso? What's the brewing temp? How much coffee? How much water? What type of brewing vessel are the real coffee geeks using? What other factors that I don't know about effect the brew?

Help me out guys.

[Proinsias]

controversial

[Cinnamon Kitty]

There are actually a few coffee forums out there if you search for them. I had three come up in the top four spots on a google search when I did a quick search earlier to see if one them had some answers to my mother's questions about her new coffee pot. I don't drink coffee though.

[olivierco]

-It'd be interesting to see how many closet coffee snobs we have here.

No coffee for me.

[omegapd]

I am a huge coffee snob. That was my first hobby, and what eventually started me into tea.

Brewing temp: 200 degrees F

Amount of coffee: The Specialty Coffee Association suggest two tablespoons per cup. I find this way too much for my tastes, but whatever.

Cup= 6 3/4 oz of water

Real coffee geeks use a french press, manual drip or the Technivorm electric brewer ($$$). I personally use a Bunn electric drip.

I'm not too much into espresso, but like Moka Pot coffee quite a bit. Feel free to PM me if you want to talk more coffee.

Eric

[Proinsias]

Your 666th post and it's about coffee, hmm.

I've had my eye on a vacuum pot for a while but I'm trying to ignore my want.

[Chip]

Your 666th post and it's about coffee, hmm.

I've had my eye on a vacuum pot for a while but I'm trying to ignore my want.

Does realllly liking the smell of fresh roasted beans make me a bad person?

I think my nephew got me a vacuum pot and fancy beans this year. It is a strange looking contraption made by the maker of the Aerobie, which I do love, not sure about the pot yet. My first thought was, I wonder if I could extract more flavor from tea leaves with it.
.

[Herb_Master]

I love coffee but just as with different ypes of tea - different types of coffee respond most favourably with different types of brewing device.

Expresso - whether straight or turned into cappucino, machiato or something even more exotic - I prefer the simple stove-top expresso pot as made by Bialetti and others

But less fully roasted beans, or special beans like mature aged Sumatra, or coarser grinds, or extremely fine grinds I prefer another method.

For these I think the plain old Cafetiere is hard to beat (perhaps that is what all you on the other side of the pond call a french press?)

But if you are really into coffee
you want different types as well - I remeber 40 years ago being impressed with Kona - just watching it perform was a delight

and my favourite ever Expresso Machine was a 'La Pavoni' machine I bought 35 years ago for $40 - it lasted me 20 years - but it noe costs a prohibitive $900

[Rakuras]

I used to be by note that I still use a French Press for tea. Of course, it was an addiction my younger sibling picked up longer than I did and she still goes on about premium coffees. Personally I've always liked the special mixed, blended, or flavored bean sets that reduce the amount of sweeteners I need to use and adds a new element to the commonly dark and bitter drink some prefer or drink simply for the buzz.

The major reason for the swap to tea is that caffeine affects me inversely due to a predisposition to Type 2 Diabetes- something that is a major concern now and the simple fact that I respond to caffeine like that is a major flag against my old drinking habits. Still, tea has more nutrients and flavors that coffee so I add it as a dietary supplement atop of my normal diet. Overall I've drank it for years and only within the last four have I actually transitioned out of coffee into tea as my daily drink. Still, those nice sacks of flavored coffee are nice to have about and drink when I'm pushing the phosphorous tolerances or need something else to drink aside from water and soda.

Now back to something that may or may not be like controversial or mind numbingly terrible: Daikatana, the "expert" FPS.

[gingkoseto]

If everything else such as roasted barley and camomile can be called "tea", surely coffee is within the range of "herbal tea"

I like coffee a lot. I don't know if this counts snob or not. I can surely do without coffee, but I don't drink bad coffee.

[andy825]

Hmmmm, coffee is a "tisane"? I had never thought of it that way before. Don't drink it though, the caffeine is way too intense for me. I do love the smell of the beans, though.

[gingkoseto]

I don't think my way of making coffee is the best way, but I have my specific preferences to make coffee. I use a stove top espresso maker (macchinetta or moka pot). I use bialetti brand's basic model, which is good and inexpensive. Before that I use a random brand I found in tjmaxx on sale for $5 It was pretty good too. You don't really need to do much other than grinding the coffee bean and fill the pot, and the pot gives you coffee with good kick

As for coffee water ratio, I guess, it depends. For a few month, I went for 1 3/4 scoops of coffee beans for every 300ml water. Then I had to hold it back to about 3/4 scoop of beans for every 120ml water, otherwise I guess I would have messed myself up soon But different people must have very different capacity for caffeine.

But overall for coffee, my motto is "have better coffee and smaller dose". But for tea, it's "have more and have better"

[tenuki]

Yes. And wine. And lets not mention food ok?

[Yaanon]

No coffee for me. Never liked it. One of the reasons why I got into tea was because of my dislike for coffee.

[omegapd]

Your 666th post and it's about coffee, hmm.

Phew! Glad that's over with. Good eye!