Do you drink coffee daily? If so how do you make it?
Was making coffee and considering throwing out my K-cup coffee maker because I almost exclusively use a French press now, and got curious what other people did
Hooboy, am I glad you asked!
TL;DR: I work from home, so I can brew individual cups rather than filling a big thermos. I use pourover methods like a V60 and a Koar (I have the acrylic one) or the humble Melitta filter holder. Each one is good in its own way. They require some other gear, so if you want something real easy to use, go for the Clever dripper or especially the Aeropress. Sorry if you weren't looking for recommendations.
Here's my process: I buy my coffee green, either from local farmers or from dealers who do coffee hunting around farms in central Brazil, in Minas, north of São Paulo and sometimes Espírito Santo or the north of Paraná. Green beans are much, much cheaper than roasted. I usually get like 5-10kg (11-22lb) at a time because green beans keep for a very long time.
Once every two weeks or so I roast a batch, which I usually will do in one of these ways:
Regardless of which method I decide to use, after roasting I immediately dump the roasted beans into a cooling box that I made from plywood, and which is connected to my vacuum cleaner. It sucks room-temp air through the beans and helps them cool down ASAP, which is what you want.
Now, my methods for preparing my coffee all involve freshly ground beans. I bought a Bravo IT, AKA a Bravito, a very very fancy bougie grinder that a local coffee pro makes, it's on par with a Comandante C40 or a Kinu, but I got it on prerelease before it had become famous (locally, at least) and paid less than half the current price. I will protect it with my life. My secondary one is a Timemore Slim, which doesn't seem to be available anymore.
On a regular day, as I said before, I'll use a V60, a Koar or a Melitta pourover, but I always use regular ass Melitta filters folding them as necessary in order to fit all these filter holders, and that's because I don't want to spend a lot of money on filters. I've used cloth filters in the past, too, and they're great if you know how to take care of them.
I always make my pourover coffee with a gooseneck kettle. I just have a cheap one, the Hario was way too expensive. I don't know all the fine details about how exactly it is better than a regular kettle, but I know for sure that it's a hell of a lot easier to control and handle. Which is great when it's early in the morning and you haven't had your first coffee yet.
I'll also sometimes brew with my 3-cup Moka pot, a Clever dripper (although I haven't used mine in a while) and there's an Aeropress that I leave at my mom's place for whenever I go visit. I'm not a fan of French press, but I do enjoy using the press itself as a container for cold brew, which actually sounds lovely right now and I should get a batch ready for tomorrow.
I also have a Flair NEO, which is a lever espresso machine for dummies. There is no way I could afford a really good, proper espresso machine, so the NEO really fits the bill for someone like me, a very enthusiastic amateur who doesn't work with coffee and doesn't really have a ton of money to spend on this. Mind you, all of this stuff I'm talking about has been acquired over the past five or so years.
I think that's it. The specific method depends, once again, on what I feel like doing at any given moment. I'm satisfied with where I am right now and I don't want to spend more money on this hobby anymore, because the next steps would be very very expensive: courses, a proper roaster for larger batches, a large volume grinder to sell pre-ground beans, and so on. The sky is the limit.
If you or anyone has any questions to ask, I'd be happy to be the resident coffee nerd!
Tag yourself I'm still Marxist-Leninist
As the Clever Dripper is something between a French Press and a pour over, I'm an anarco-hoxhaist I guess
Every week I roast my own green coffee beans on the stove so I get freshly roasted stuff literally every single day.
Daily I throw it in a grinder, put it in a french press and go wild.
That's cool so they come like fermented already? Is that cheaper or are you going after flavor here?
That's cool so they come like fermented already? Is that cheaper or are you going after flavor here?
They come ready to roast if that's what you mean. It's cheaper than most specialty coffee but the real upside is having the taste of "The first cup from the bag" every single morning. Unless you drink a lot of coffee, even your bag of roasted whole beans loses flavor after a month. You roast it every weekend however and you get that fresh flavor.
The greens can technically go stale too but it's in the realm of years until you see a noticeable difference.
Some coffee is processed with fermentation, but that's usually just to make removing the cherry easier. That process is called washed process coffee (and honey process is similar but with less water). The coffee bean is the seed inside the cherry. The bean itself doesn't ferment, although it can be affected by the process.
Step out of the way you stinky proles, the true coffee bourgeoisie has arrived.
I have a La Marzocco GB5 commercial espresso machine in my "office" that I'll use If I don't want to make a whole pot on the Ratio or am too lazy to use one of literally any brew methods you could think of I have on hand. On the weekends, I'll go into the cafe and have the baristas make me an espresso. At home I have a vintage 70's Conti lever espresso machine, and a kalita wave, Chemex, and aeropress that I cycle through depending on how I'm feeling and the coffee. The instant that I just had made actually slaps so I'll make that if I'm on the road.
Mr. Coffee, filter, a couple scoops of pre ground from Aldi. A bit of creamer.
Are there better ways? Yeah. Do I want to do them on weekdays before I’ve had coffee? No
I'm gonna out myself as a bougie
here - I have one of these:I always buy the darkest beans I can get my hands on. First coffee of the day is an americano (I run the double shot option four times). Second of the day I make myself a lattee, usually plain but sometimes with salted caramel syrup.
I fuckin love my espresso machine. Easily the best coffee-related investment I have ever made.
whole beans → grinder → French press
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I really like piñon coffee which is made from pine nuts. Amazon has this brand - New Mexico Piñon Coffee
I do french press. Easy to maintain and is pretty portable for travel purposes. Makes a good cup of coffee.
french press french press the press is best. i'm not very picky tbh i just like a system i fully understand and can clean every lil bit of. also limited amount of plastic
a lil fucking clock on a mr coffee is too much complication imo
moka pot bc i'm twisted like that
Death to America
There's no wrong way to make coffee.
Except for percolators. If your coffee is contacting boiling water, you're doing it wrong.
Cold brew. Just need some largish jars depending on how much you want to make. Grind the beans (on the coarse side), put in the jar(s) for ~18+ hrs with 4:1 ratio of water to grounds. Filter and enjoy. Very low effort, tastes great (low acid) and good caffeine density. I'll make hot coffee rarely.
Instant Coffee, not too fussed about the brand but Mount Hagen is my special treat brand.
Preface: I work in a cafe style restaurant with a fancy Italian espresso machine
Double espresso, no sugar, 5-6 days a week. Most of my colleagues that drink coffee either have flat whites or cappuccinos, except the Italian chef who also only drinks espresso.
At home I've got loose leaf oolong imported from China for my caffeine intake.
No, but I still do all sorts of terrible things to coffee, like do a 50-50 blend with caffinated soda if I need extra energy, or with a tea like yerba mate. I like iced coffee and coffee slushes in summer. Heavy cream is way out of my budget, so I substiute cool whip or the coconut version depending what's on sale to make an affordable cream coffee, then I sometimes add tea to that to make a sort of fancy milk tea-coffee just missing boba pearls.
Eat the beans whole like a real crusty ass anarchist!
But I also, the press is king. We have a Barratza Encore grinder, a Bhemore Brazen auto drip for work mornings, a moka pot, and a Vietnamese phin. Different ways for different tastes, I really like manual methods. I'd like to pick up an aeropress some day.
hario v60
gone through just about every device over the years and nothing else gets the combo of great coffee, easy to make, easy to clean up as well as the v60 (or any other pour over really)
thoughts on the aeropress? I find it really easy for single-cup daily brewing, and the coffee puck pops out into the trash like espresso almost, so cleanup is just a rinse and then I put it through the dishwasher every so often
A light roast because it has more caffeine and better flavours
A French press because I'm too lazy to use an aeropress or pourover for individual cups
Cinnamon + powdered coconut milk. The cinnamon takes away bitterness, the coconut milk is a subtly sweet creamer
the caffeine difference is pretty negligible btw and may actually be the opposite depending on how you measure/brew. (dark roasts are less dense so you get more beans for the same weight dose so more caffeine) But yea love a good light roast
Cold brew and I need to chill on it because it gives me this deadpan enthusiasm that's indistinguishable from hostility
I used to buy growlers of coldpress from a local joint and just slug that stuff straight all the time and yeah it really does a number on you after a while lmao
Yeah it's good if you have a good exercise regimen. In high school i did not work out, or eat much and just kushblasted and drank coffee until i was so scared id just hide 🌿🌲🌿🫣🕳️🍃🌿🥀🌿🌲🌿🌿
ditch the K-cup! literally anything else is better lol
I have a modded gaggia espresso machine ( https://gaggiuino.github.io/#/ ) from craigslist originally which has been a fun project and makes decent espresso even with my meager skills and grinder (baratza encore)
I've also historically done pourover (hario stuff. if I had to do it again I'd get a hario switch I think), and aeropress (for a single cup its great, I do it with an inverted method, not too picky on the recipe or exact process, but I don't like the right-side-up way where the water can drip out while it's still infusing)
I mean it's probably fine, but I can't blame you for not wanting to roll the dice, the plastics industry has gotten away with lying about dangers plenty of times before
This is why I like espresso. No filter waste, all metal water handling except the intake tube which is silicone
Cold brew has ruined everything else for me. Get some roasted beans, grind about 6oz very coarsely, then put it in this OXO cold brew thingy for about 18 hours. I add equal parts concentrate and boiling water into a warming mug.
You can (and probably should) make it more concentrated so that it's less total work, but certain members of my family were not diluting it enough
Hand grinded in burr grinder, then pour over in v60 or Kalita Wave. I also have a timer + scale.
I have coffee every two or three days, so I don't go through a ton.
Roast once a week, in a modified popcorn roaster.
If the roast came out right, espresso machine, adjusting grind for 22g coffee yielding 20-25g liquid in 25 seconds.
If the roast is light, pour-over with a metal filter, otherwise, turkish style on the stove (though grinding it that fine messes up the grinder).
I used to use a french press, but then I realized that good fresh ground in a Mr. Coffee is more than fine. I can make a whole pot for my partner and I to work through in the morning and that’s that.
I’ll occasionally still pull out the French Press for a single cup for myself cuz I love it, but more often than not the drip coffee maker is the path of least resistance and makes a good cup of coffee.
Its all about the beans.
Aeropress. Totally worth it. One cup of dark roast per day.
I use coffee grounds in a Keurig adapter doohickey in my hand-me-down single cup coffee maker.
I'm sure there are better ways of making tastier coffee, but I'm very corn syrup damaged so I think the effort would be wasted on me since I'd be dumping creamer on it anyways.
The "way too much" method is what coffee shops use usually, but they use it as a concentrate, mixed with milk, ice, even water depending, to water it down to a more reasonable strength. drinking it straight is kinda fun but not good day to day.
I got a bean-to-brew machine and reprogrammed the volumes so you can brew a lungo. After about two I'm finally ready to shoulder the burden of consciousness for another day.
At home, I grind from whole bean with a Baratza Encore. Pretty decent conical burr grinder for the money.
I'd like an espresso machine, but I don't have the counter space or money for it.
Most of the time it's trash motel coffee, at home i have an espresso maker and make lungos.
I've just got a lil stove top percolator, makes about 3 cups and that's more than enough. I don't drink much coffee at home, gets me all jitters up and nothing to do with it usually. At work I plow through that stuff. I buy like, pretty good beans. I dunno much about coffee.
Putting two spoons of ground down coffee in the turkish thingy (cesva or someshit?) on top of tap water, sometimes with a bit of cinnamon,, and let it sit on small heat until foam forms (50 50 i fuck up and it starts boiling, but whatevs, it doesn't immidiately goes mega bad).
I grind some medium roast beans and drink a couple of pots from my Mr. Coffee drip maker. Oat milk, no sugar, 34 oz mug.
Black with honey and coconut sugar. It’s incredible everyone should try it
ooooh my mom's been really into coconut sugar lately too for some reason.
Any specific ratio or anything ?
I do like a few squeezes of honey and then 3.5 spoons of coconut sugar and I’ve found that’s a great combo
I have a relatively nice grinder and an aeropress. I've used traditional presses, moka pots, a v60, and so on but I definitely prefer the aeropress. It's extremely easy and consistent. Once you have your recipe dialed there's almost nothing you can do to fuck it up so I just never get any astringency or acidity.
That said the grinder is definitely more important than the brew method. If you have $70 to spend; get a $65 grinder and get a $5 press or v60 at a thrift shop. You definitely want an electric grinder with nice ceramic burrs if you can afford it.
I used a hand grinder for years. A very nice and accurate one. The idea of using a hand grinder + moka pot was very romantic to me, but in practice it's a huge pain in the ass and the coffee will never come out as good as a silly looking plastic aeropress.
French press daily sounds great! I always take too much time cleaning it. What's your cleaning routine? Do you grind daily?
Ngl my cleaning routine is very minimal:
Dump as much of the grounds into the trash can as possible. Rinse the remaining down the sink with lots of water. Rinse the press to remove grounds.
It helps that my water comes out of the tap just below boiling because the hot water heater in my apartment is insane
Whole bean, dark roast, grind it immediately before brewing (medium-fine). 1 TBSP per cup. Mainstream coffee maker. Double filter with paper and mesh.
Also, occassionally cold brew.
not daily, but yeah I'll make a French press about once a week and that gives me 2-3 servings. Hot I always drink black. Whatever I don't drink on the first day, I pour into a glass and keep in the fridge, then serve with ice and almond milk.
I like the Chemex too but I don't own one personally. I'd only use that on weekends tho, the pourover takes a while.
If I'm at a cafe I typically just get espresso.
Big ol pot of drip sludge at work
Aeropress is nice for at home or on the go
Maoist
I have a single cup pour over. Make 2 cups of coffee (30g) in a thermos and then drink it for a while
I used a French press until I kept breaking it and someone bought me a cheapish metal pourover. Impossible to break. Honestly I prefer the pourover now. It's not really more work and it makes the coffee smoother texture wise. And it's simple; grind beans, put in the filter area, pour just enough to get the grounds wet, wait 30 seconds, pour in the rest, come back in 2 minutes, done. Takes the same amount of time and is maybe one extra step (the bloom step) than a French press but is overall still very easy. I also find the metal filter easier to clean on the pourover than the filter on the French press. The only downside is I get very fine particulate at the bottom of my cup which...whatever. I don't drink that part.
Hell yeah! When I have the time l'll grind some beans by hands (which smells amazing!) then use a french press. Then I'll heat and steam some milk to go with it.
Unfortunately I don't always have the time and then I'll drink the sad, bitter filter coffee they have at work. It's kinda gross, but the energy boost is still nice.
During spring and summer I usually make cold brew once a week, but once it gets colder I drink either filter or aeropress coffee, depending on how much of a rush I'm in.
For me it's whole beans (light roast). I like the Aeropress, but I use a 1-cup Bialetti moka pot 90% of the time because it uses less coffee and the result is still pretty good. In the mornings I usually add a splash of milk and after lunch no milk. I never use sugar or any other sweeteners.
standard american brew machine. I'd like to be able to use my percolator again sometime soon but I have an induction stove now and it doesn't work anymore
Yes. Just use a simple drip and have a grinder for fresh grounds each day. Have a metal reusable filter I wash out so I don't have to waste paper.
I just inherited old roommates coffee gear so I didn't choose it, but it was free so I upgraded a DeLonghi ECP3420 with an IMS competition basket and a bottomless portafilter handle off of ebay and I use a breville smart grinder pro, which lets me save 1 and 2 cup auto grind times which makes it easy to get the same amount every time.
I also got the normcore spring loaded tamper which is the only one I could find (at the time) with a spring loaded level keeper and a separate calibrated tamping spring. The other "spring loaded" tamper I tried only had spring loaded level keepers with the actual tamping head rigidly attached to the handle (like what the point if you still have to estimate the tamping pressure yourself but you now also need to estimate the feel of the spring loaded level keeper in addition to your desired tamping pressure). With the normcore one I can just hold the level keeper down and push the handle fully to get the same tamp pressure.
Now I just need to get a spirograph based wdt tool because my basic distributor and manual wdt is hit or miss.
Cheap Aldi Fair Trade whole beans into decent hand grinder set at "good soil fine" (I have a Timemore Chestnut C2, but others would likely be just as good), throw it into a Clever Dripper with whatever filters were cheapest when I last needed a box, fill w/ ~350mL of boiling water, let it sit for 6 minutes, stir, drain into my cup with w/e sweetner is at hand.
Usually take some preground coffee and put it in a coffee maker. If have time though I usually have some coffee beans that I'll grind for something a bit fresher. I also prep some cold brew overnight during the summer mostly.
I've also tried doing a Turkish style coffee. Its coffee grounds in water which you then put over a flame until just before it starts boiling, which you then drink with the grounds still in the coffee. I've been able to get it to work a couple times although l don't have a cezve.
Pour over with Chinese knock offs of the medium-nice gear. I think I spent $12 total for a nice carafe and ceramic dripper. Got a decent burr grinder on Craigslist for $50.
I just weigh and grind the beans and pour hot water on them while doing some morning exercises. Takes up very little space and it's just as easy to make 800 ml as 200 ml.
I occasionally do immersion, usually just with a big jar and then pour it over my dripper setup. It's possible to make several liters at a time this way for socialist events. Can have a ton of nice coffee for like $5 whereas a cafe would charge you $30.
I might grab a French press so I can do the same process a little faster. Still gonna pour it through a paper filter though. My understanding of the "is coffee good for you or bad for you?" science is that paper filters make a big difference in making coffee not show up on the "bad for you" spectrum.
I bought at walmart a 7 dollar tiny coffee maker that only has an on/off switch and if I'm gonna be home for multiple cups I just pour additional water in the tank after I pour a cup out.
French press or double shots of espresso. Once in a while I'll do a pour over with my V60 if it's a new blend I really want to enjoy.
Started out with milk and sugar at 13 or so. Then got real lazy and just drank it black. Then reddit /r/coffee rabbit hole happened after I had an Aeropress brew from a local shop. I eventually got into various pour over methods and roasting my own beans. Then got into teas for a while, got into yerba, then went back to percolator black coffee and been there since. Was a fun journey, if not a waste of money. I have a better respect for craft coffee and still get a pour over occasionally but kids make you busy and I'm willing to sacrifice good flavor over convenience at this point in my life.
Tldr: black becuase no time and lazy.
I usually make about 650 ml a little over 3 cups. In my Chemex when I have time in my preset coffee maker when I don't.
I use a phin for single serve, but if my partner wants coffee too, I'll use a french press.
Espresso machine
I'm too lazy to find my french press so I usually have cowboy coffee in my one 'me and maybe a friend' sized meal pot so I have to keep it clean. The brand I buy is course so I can just strain it with my (idk how its called) metal hand strainer. So I can be chad and stay off the unitasker bourgeoise decadent tip.
My coffee maker is broken so I have to boil up the ground coffee on my stove, it gets the job done.
Yes, by a few different methods:
Filtered drip from the machine for the morning coffee to go or when I don’t want to put thought into it. It makes serviceable but not great coffee.
Chemex pour over. This is a tricksy method as I’ve made some absolutely brilliant cups of coffee with it, but also some very meh cups, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.
Aeropress. My preferred “proper” way to make a cup these days. Straightforward method, consistent, works with just about every variety/origin/processing type of bean. Only shortcoming is it’s not efficient for making large amounts of coffee.
Moka pot aka the fauxpresso machine. The one that gets used the least, nice for certain varieties but too fussy for regular use.
mortar and pestle for grinding then french press, idgaf
hoxhaist-primitivist or something on the coffee making alignment chart
I use the $3k Dolce & Gabbana stovetop coffeemaker
sorry to break it to you buddy, but you made a bad purchase
the $4k Supreme stovetop coffeemaker is a bit more expensive, but it makes vastly superior coffee, because it has "Supreme" written on it