Coffee Advice............

If you are getting him some beans you truly must try Thundermuck. Go to http://www.thundermuck.com/

I've tried a couple of their varieties and need to make another order this month. But the regular thundermuck is very good coffee. Plus they are offering free shipping for October.

Mike

Agreeing with HermitJohn...

If I could afford Starbuck's Komodo Dragon decaf, I'd have it all the time. It is similar to a Moka Java-type coffee, which is Indonesian. In fact, I'm thinking of buying Trader Joe's Moka Java, even if it is full caffeinated, because I really prefer Indonesian/Sumatran coffee.

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I think that is a fantastic gift idea. It's been a long time since I've had coffee from fresh, ground beans. This thread has flung a cravin' on me!

We just have backyard brew. The trees were rescued from the local gulches and they were originally from Guatemala so they are an arabica descendant. Nice smooth coffee, no bitterness at all. The roasting is still a bit erratic, but maybe this year I'll get it figured out. The berries are just starting to ripen on the trees so there is plenty of time yet this season for practice.

I really like a French Press for making coffee. It is really easy and you don't have to buy coffee filters, either. Makes for a great tasting cup of coffee.

I agree that fresh is best. I have a grinder I bought several years ago for $14 and use it for coffee only. Mostly I use Eight O Clock whole bean and I use to get Gevalia whole bean but just stopped the shipments. I have a 12 cup auto-drip, a 4 cup, and a Keurig single plus a french press and a stove top percolator. I guess I drank auto drip for so long with a filter till I have a problem with the dregs in the bottom of the cup but, the coffee sure has a better taste. The dregs left in the cup from french press and the percolator.

I got a grinder last year; it was all the rave for a couple of months. It really wasn’t better coffee than I was buying at the time, but you might save a buck.
I think your husband will really like it as a gift. I kind of stopped using mine, it is just easier to dip a scoop and I am the only one drinking it.

I have found that the real trick to good coffee is the temperature your water gets to, it needs to break 200 F; I think they say 205 F is perfect; most drip makers don’t get that hot. Last winter the power was out for a week, I boiled water on the wood stove and sit my filter cup over a mason jar in the sink, pouring the almost boiling water through the setup made perhaps the best coffee I have ever drank.
Now when I have the time and get the urge for a great cup of coffee I do the same thing. Wally world sells a cheap setup for about $11 online but is not available in stores, I may yet buy one. I think this is why people love a French Press, you heat the water yourself and it gets much hotter than a drip maker…

The way the coffee is brewed does make a diffrence. Here i simply pour very hot not boiling water thru a mesh filter lined with a paper filter set into my coffee cup. It's very good and simple. Course, I only drink 1 cup per day.

I agree with those who say start with GOOD coffee beans and grind them just before you brew the coffee. I also would advise getting your husband a French press. They don't have to be expensive, and come in various sizes.

We just this morning did a comparison between our fresh roasted, fresh ground Ethiopian Harrar beans (hows that for snobbism?) made in a drip and in a French press. The press coffee had none of the bitterness present in the drip. I don't know what the reason is, but it tasted much better.

After he does his own fresh grinding for a while, he can go on to roasting green beans, once a week. You can start with a cast iron pan on a stove and go on to a specifically designed roaster. The green beans last almost forever and are way less expensive than roasted, so you can get excellent beans for a reasonable price.

I use the antique glass and cast iron wall mounted coffee grinder that I got from my grandmother's estate about 30 years ago, and boil water in an electric kettle, and make my coffee one cup at a time either with a French press or a reusable (washable) coffee filter in the funnel made for individual cup servings. I also have a small electric grinder but it is more trouble to get it out than to use the wall mounted one that is just behind the door to the basement. I may try roasting my own beans, too, now that the local food coop has green coffee beans for sale.

Coffee is my lifeblood .... well, it's not that bad but I really love the stuff. My wife used to own a coffee shop, so I do have a bit of experience in this area.

Yes - fresh ground is superior in flavor. The finer the grind, the stronger the brew (the coffee particles are smaller, so overall you have more surface area exposed to water). I routinely use a small electric grinder (although one of the manual ones is on the list to add to the preps in case of a grid-down TEOTWAWKI situation) to grind beans, but mostly on weekends when I can sit and enjoy the brew. For cost reasons, we drink Folgers or Maxwell House - buy the big plastic containers when they are on sale and safe "the good stuff" for special occasions or weekend.

I second the recommendation for a French Press - makes very good coffee and can be used without power. As for bean sources, seek out the small, local, independent shops!!! They often have excellent blends as well as the common varietals.

I may be a food/coffee snob but I can taste the difference and I appreciate it. Fresh ground coffee in an automatic drip coffee maker (the kind that you can remove the caraffe before it's done). I put a cup or 2 of water in. Turn it on. After the first water is in the basket, I add the rest of the water. It took me years to learn this after watching the first cup of clear water go into the caraffe.

After I open a fresh bag of beans, I keep it in a vacuum sealed cannister. After getting beans out, every morning, I suck the air out of the cannister.

8 O'clok is my mainstay.

I use an older Proctor Silex coffee maker. I've tried newer ones that don't make nearly as good coffee. I regulary check Goodwill for replacements....especially the caraffes.

I use paper filters. The coffe grounds go in a separate bucket and the filter with some grounds goes to the compost. I've tried the cleanable/reuseable filter but too much of the grounds goes into the septic tank.

Ditto on the French Press. Obviously opinions vary, greatly on the best bean to grind. Personal favorite is Kona (not Kona blend since that usually has very little actual Kona in it,) or the organic Guatemalan. Both are a medium roast and very smooth.

Some have recommended French roast or other dark roasts--to me dark roast just means the beans have been burned (on purpose) and that is what it taste like. Someone above described that as charred--that is being generous I think.

The idea you have about buying him flavored coffee as little presents sounds nice but you should be sure he actually LIKES flavored coffee. I like the smell of it but after a couple of sips it gets to be a bit much.

The good thing is that there are broad selections of beans in most major grocery stores, and of course in any good beanery, so you can sample small amounts of various types of coffee and types of roasts until you find what he really likes best. You could buy him a selection of beans or give him a gift certificate so he can pick out the types he wants to try.

As a coffee lover, let me add, this is a very thoughtful idea and I am sure he will appreciate it.

Yea, make sure he likes the flavored coffees. Some people do and more power to them, but they get very cloying if you drink much coffee. I refer to them as koolaide coffee. Its just way of selling cheapo low flavor robusto coffee for big bucks. More economical to buy some grocery store canned coffee and add you own flavoring if thats what you want. Where they ever got the idea that artificial hazelnut flavoring tastes anything like real hazelnuts is beyond me.

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One thing with flavored coffees - if you do drink them make sure to clean everything those beans touched as the next pot you brew will taste flavored. My wife had multiple large commercial grinders in her shop - one was dedicated for the flavored coffees for that reason.

This is so nice............many taking the time to educate me. Hubby will be VERY surprised!
For example: Hunting season, hubby took off a week. Yesterday got to working on a project for me and wanted to finish........did not go hunting! A nice little gift of new coffee on the counter this morning would have been a nice "thank you" from me.

This idea will work all year for those little (and big) thank you moments.............Joan

i just want to add that in my experience putting fresh ground beans into a drip coffee maker is a waste of perfectly good coffee. it tastes no different than folgers or MH.

i found a small dripolater from coffee express but it was quite pricey. a french press would do a good job, so you might want to look into that.

this has given me a good idea for my son's xmas present. he always heads straight for the coffee when he comes to my house. i bet he would like a grinder and french press too.

what kind of beans do they use for that greek coffee, the stuff that is thick and super strong?

once when the power was out I ground some beans up with a mortar and pestle(note to self, if I know the power will likely go out with a storm, pre-grind beans!!!). It took 45 minutes to grind enough for two cups worth of coffee(I like it strong and have to get it fine), but the SMELL was AMAZING! I would like to get an old fashioned hand grinder, was wondering if that smell would happen with that.

The best coffee I ever had was fresh beans(and freshly roasted) that a friend brought home from a stay at a coffee/cattle ranch in Honduras.

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I'm assuming that Greek coffee is similar to Turkish coffee in which it's not so much the beans as the grind. The coffee is ground especially fine, almost like flour, and mixed with hot water - stirred in, so you're not actually running water through ground up beans, just adding very finely ground coffee to the hot water. Makes a very thick and strong drink.

As a side note, it's interesting to note that most people associate dark roasts (like French roast) with a strong coffee that has more caffiene. Actually, by roasting the beans longer there is less caffiene left in them. So, for those of you wanting to be more caffienated, drink brews like Guatamalan Antiqua, Papa New Guina, etc.

If you really want some robust coffee, just get some really tasty roasted beans, put them in little heaps on a buttered cookie sheet or inside a buttered ice cube tray and pour melted chocolate on them. I prefer the dark chocolate. Let them cool off and happy snacking! You may want to limit the amount of them you eat, though, unless you get decaffeinated beans.

Single estate Hamakua coast coffee is better than Kona, at least, IMHO. We had coffee on this side of the island before they had it over on that side of the island but when sugar came in, most of our coffee fields were made into sugar fields. Kona was too steep and rocky for sugar so they stayed in coffee. We have more rain on this side so the coffee isn't ever bitter.

What ever blend you buy or beans get an air tight container for storage.
Just my .02

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