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I've tried a bunch of these internet coffee suppliers and these guys are the best. I'm particularly impressed with my last delivery which came on Monday after being ordered on Saturday. I'm trying some Nicaraguan now, but the Mexican organic was some of the best coffee I've had.

OK i got my Freshroast Plus 8. I fired it up on several occasions and passed out my beans to get several different coffee drinkers opinions. Everyone said, the coffee was great, but it was not as "strong" as they like it and is there a way to make it stronger. Every time I make coffee in my Cuisenart Grind 'n' Brew drip, the coffee is extremely clear. It has zero bitterness and tastes very good but a little weak. Is this a function of roasting time? Does fresh roasted coffee need to have a larger number of tablespoons per pot? Is this just the way it tastes? Is it the type of bean I am using? Is this why people go the presspot route? I really do enjoy it but would like to make it a bit stronger. Msk

Clickety. Jitter Jitter. Clickety. from the mastermind behind The Regrettable Gallery of Food.

I have been experimenting with using a heavy cast iron rounded skillet that is used traditionally in the Middle East as a bedouin coffee roaster, usually over an open fire. Results have been fantastic for very dark roasts (espresso, and Arabic coffee) but not so much for lighter roasts where i am getting a lot of unevenness in the roast. Can i get advice from people who are doing stovetop roasting what they are doing to get more evenness in the roast? i am stirring constantly but that does not seem to be enough over the 8-10 minutes of a medium roast... it seems to be fine over the 12-14 minutes of a dark roast though.

Many of you have probably already seen this info on sites such as Coffeegeek, Coffeekid, and espoused by our many knowledgeable members here, but I just wanted to bring up my experience so far in the enthralling realm of coffee making. Most helpful has been the Newbie Tutorial on Coffeekid. Here is a summary of what I have learned: * Get a good burr grinder. This is an expensive step, but crucial. * Brewing temperature and grind seems to be the two major elements involved in making good coffee. * Fresh beans are extrememly important. Homeroasting is a fantastic option for many people. * Press Pots and Vac Pots are cool and somewhat affordable...but you still need a good grinder! * Espresso machines are expensive for the worthwhile ones...and be sure to add about $250-$350 to your budget for a good grinder! * There is much much more than this, but remember to buy a good grinder. So, I have been reading a bunch of stuff here on the coffee boards as well as Coffeegeek and Coffeekid recently. I really like the idea of making much better coffee and possibly even espresso. I see the purchase of a Vac Pot or Press Pot in my nearterm future. I am, however, having trouble swallowing the high cost of a good grinder. I fully realize the need for this aparatus, but I have yet to come up with a way to qualify it for myself. I am sure that I will only need some more lusting time until I am ready to pick up a Rocky grinder and a Silvia machine, but for my bank account's sake I hope I can hold out. Ben

Apparently, Starbucks is now promoting the radical idea that you can order coffee any way you want it, but is afraid that we won't know how to order it and has supplied an instruction manual. There's an article about it here.

I picked up my grinder last night - can't wait to use it this weekend! The regular price was $125. The sale price was $99 and they threw in a free bag of coffee. A sign in the store said the sale was going on through March 16, 2004.

This was inspired by jgoulds question on another thread. I just drink espresso (or espresso and milk drinks), not brewed coffee. I read about all sorts of beans that get great reviews, but they are not roasted specifically for espresso. Do some of them make great espresso? How does one decide whether a particular bean might make great espresso (other than trial and error)? Is there a style of roasting or land of origin or taste factor described in a review that might lead me to be relatively confident that I would recognize it's great traits in a cup of espresso instead of a cup of brewed coffee?

I'm a cycling nut from the Heartland as well as an avid coffe drinker. So I'm curious to know if anyone has tried this coffee: http://www.chrisking.com/store/coffee_beer..._directory.html King Cycle Group (KCG) is a high-end cycling parts manufacturer in Portland, OR. Folks at KCG openly say that while they love to ride, they do so primarily so that they can enjoy more sweets, munchies and fine coffee drinks. So I have to wonder: is the Machinist's Blend any good?

Today on The Splendid Table, there was a repeat broadcast of 2 stories about fair trade coffee. The first is about the impact of fair trade on actual farmers. The second discussion is between Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Kevin Knox. Knox gives a little more background & depth to the fair trade movement. I hope it provokes further thought/discourse. (The two stories are about 1/2 way through the show) NPR's THE SPLENDID TABLE

For the past year or so I've been drinking yerba maté more than coffee and can attest to the differences between caffeine and the mateine in this South American beverage. I still love coffee, but can expect an edgy ride when I drink a few cups of coffeeshop-strength brew. With maté it's different; I feel a lift to the body and the brain without any sleep deprivation or crash -- and I can drink six teapots' worth or more. And if you believe what mate purveyors claim, the stuff is full of antioxidants among other health benefits. A few natural-foods stores sell small portions of maté at a steep price; I've found it's better to order large quantities on eBay. The best deals I've found were for Cruz de Malta. I bought it in large shipments, and it is decent, but I've had better. Can anyone recommend an affordable but high-quality brand? Or does anyone have anything maté-related they want to share? I have been trying to get my small-town coffee shop to stock it to no avail.

Recently a Bad Ass Coffee opened up in Jacksonville. I checked out their website and it says they only use 100% Kona! Being a Kona fan I was thrilled. So, has anyone tried BAC, and what did you think? Thanks for any input. Chad

Reposted from New Jersey board: There is a new tea room in Denville called Ambrosia's Tea Room. Tea comes in teapots for $3.75. Scones are $4.00 (I think), $5.00 with Devon creme and strawberry jam. Very good scones compared to the Starbucks a block away. I had the house blend which was quite good. Black, green and herbal are available. I haven't had a change to try the tea sandwiches (cucumber, smoked salmon, egg salad). There is a soup of day, salads, and coffees for the non-tea drinkers. I posted an entry on the Restaurants forum in NJ.com and I'm not affiliated with the place in any way. I love tea rooms and this is the first for the area. (The Tea Hive in Newton is nice but a good drive away). It's in an office building (2nd floor) so it doesn't look like a tea room from the outside but the inside is comforting in a modern way. Website: www.ambrosiatea.com Address: 26 Bloomfield Ave., Denville, NJ 07834 Phone: 973-586-0700

I read in the last Art of Eating that the guy who founded Coffee Connection has started a new business after his noncompete agreement with Starbucks finally expired. I grew up on his coffee, and frankly stopped caring about good coffee after he sold out -- I've never found a source of comparable quality (to my taste; don't even get me started on Bay Area roasters). The thing is, we ran out of coffee this morning, and I'm not fully recovered from the freakout that ensued, and I want to order some RIGHT NOW, but I can't remember the website (it was publishished in AoE). Anyone know what it is?

My current place of employment is auditioning vendors for coffee service. (Coffee is the one amenity that supposedly increases productivity and so pays for itself.) I was thinking of starting a ‘coffee club’, as I had at other workplaces, with contributory membership. In the past, I used a cheap espresso machine, but this time I was planning on using Illy’s coffee membership program, so we’d get a good machine and good coffee. Illy: http://www.illyusa.com/AB1666000/webpage.c...ge_ID=110&DID=7 It was suggested the I hold off on the club till they finished their search because I might like the new coffee enough to drop the idea and because this company has no policy on clubs of any sort and wants to set one first. Do folks have any experiences with good coffee service or alternatives at work? I’ll keep you posted on how things go here. (We’re located in lower Manhattan.) I’ve heard they have looked at Starbucks so far favorably, since it’s stronger. warwart

And you thought that you had a hard time getting to a decent cup where you are. This piece by Thomas E Ricks and Liz Spayd of the Washington Post shows that people will make do with what they have in order to get the caffeine they need. G.I. Joe is a hit in the middle of the desert

anybody have any tips on getting the best coffee out of the swissgold "one cup" pour-over brewer? i just got one. specifically, i need help with: 1. how much coffee should i use for 8 oz. of water? when using my old automatic drip brewer, i always loaded up on coffee beans when making small amounts of coffee, and would lower the coffee bean to water ratio as i increased the amount brewed coffee. do i not need to worry about that with the "one cup" because of the water regulator? looks like the unit may not hold much more than 2 or 3 tablespoons of ground coffee beans anyway, so this may be a moot point. 2. proper grind -- i have a starbucks barista burr grinder, which i think is virtually identical to the solis maestro. what grind setting should i use? same as automatic drip? courser? finer? 2. adding more water -- the water container only holds 8 ounces of water. has anyone had success with adding more water midway through the brewing cycle? again, because there may not even be enough room above the filter for more than 3 tablespoons of coffee, this might too be a moot point. any advice would be appreciated!

"Msk" posed a good question in another thread and I believe it deserves some space of its own for discussion.... Wow. This is wide open and there are so many. Plenty more are sure to be forthcoming but here's what I look for and want to know.... ==================================================== What To Look For: 1) Is the portafilter being left in the grouphead of the espresso machine when it's not in use? The thermal mass of the brass portafilter asembly is crucial in retaining heat so the brewing temp does not drop off as the water is forced through the grounds. If you walk into a cafe and see the portafilters sitting on the counter separately from the machine, waiting to be filled and used... fuggedaboudit - chances of getting really good espresso are nil. 2) Do they make a practice of grinding large amounts and leaving the doser filled with already ground coffee? Not good. Grounds sitting in the doser will literally, within an hour or so, start getting flat and losing the potential for creating good crema and superior shots. If they grind to fill the doser every ten to fifteen minutes or so during the morning rush, it's fine but if you walk in at a slow time during mid afternoon or evening and they don't grind the coffee right then for your shot - chances are you just won't get a good shot. Some of the very best cafes use timer assemblies that grind the right amount of reach shot and the beans for every shot are ground when you order the drink - this is the best. 3) Does it appear that they're tamping and doing it well? Usually the mark of a place that cares enough to try for good results. In some places you may see a LaMarzocco Swift grinder - this is the one where the barista actually locks the portafilter onto the grinder and hits a button. In this case the barista does not tamp. The grinder automatically grinds the right amount and tamps. Some purists believe that hand tamping is the best but a Swift can actually do a better and more consistent job than all but the best baristas. A relatively inexperienced barista with a well maintained and tweaked espresso machine and a Swift can produce very good results indeed. 4) Is the steam wand nice and clean and does it get wiped down and purged after each pitcher of milk is steamed? If you see a milk crud encrusted steam wand it's safe to assume that, at the very least, they don't do a good job of steaming milk. More important - it speaks to the big picture. Lack of attention to a crucial process detail like this generally indicates that the owner/manager/staff either doesn't know or doesn't care enough about milk preparation to do it correctly and more likely than not.... that attitude extends to espresso preparation. 5) Is the barista continually adding milk to pitchers that have sat around for extended periods of time on the counter or re-steaming milk that has sat around for awhile? During a busy morning or evening rush it's a resonable practice to steam in the same pitcher for awhile and keep adding more cold milk but the use old milk/warm milk/re-steamed milk means the same thign as the previous comment - lack of attention to process control. What To Ask: 1) Do you roast your own beans, how often is this done and how fresh are the beans you use? They should not be using beans more than ten days past roasting date. 2) If you don't roast them yourselves, where do they come from? In some areas you may find cafes using five pound bags of the popular Italian bar blends like LaVazza. Beans like this can make very good espresso but they have to be coming from a trusted source that monitors dates and has good turnover. Good microroaster beans will still be better in nearly all cases. Other cafes will buy from reputable microroasters. I know of a place in Brooklyn that buys from Caffe Vivace in Seattle. One of Vancouver BC's better local cafes actually has their beans shipped in from Chicago IL in the US! (Intelligentsia Roasters) 3) How many ounces in your double shot? If they say 1.5 to 2 ounces and they really deliver this amount - chances are good that they're trying to do it right. Perhaps they won't be hitting it on every shot - nobody does - but it likely means they understand what's needed. ==================================================== These are only a few but in my experience if any of the above don't meet the right criteria.... chances are slim that you'll get really good espresso.

While researching coffee online I've learned that espresso refers to a method of making coffee and that it has nothing to do with the coffee itself, whereas I'd previously always thought that espresso referred to a type of coffee or coffee bean. However, I repeatedly see comments that imply that there is a difference in the coffee itself when comparing espresso vs. "regular" coffee (i.e. in the thread about Starbucks vs. Dunkin Donuts.) So my question is: Shouldn't good coffee be good coffee, regardless of whether it is made by the espresso method or the "regular" method? And likewise, bad coffee would be bad coffee regardless? Why else does it matter which brewing method is used?

It's true. Heated frothed milk can be simply that or it can be an entirely different substance with not only a different viscosity, mouthfeel and sweetness but the capability for blending with espresso in a manner that yields a drink quite unlike the run-of-the-mill capuccino or latte most folks have ever experienced. I'll quote myself (from the Latte Art Video section of my own web site) as a place to start the discussion: Schomer has a good article on these techniques at his Espresso Vivace website Milk Texturing Basics I have also found the free pdf tutorial offered by Gimme! Coffee to be concise and very helpful Milk Preparation Tutorial I'm no expert.... heck... I can't even pour decent "latte art" despite having a really good machine and plenty of resources to study. What I do know is this: using manual frothers with heated milk is a worthy substitute if you're in a pinch but true microfoamed milk is a thing of beauty and the drinks one can prepare with it really are superior. There is no substitute but few cafes actually produce it. Visit a really good cafe.... JJ Bean or cafe Artigiano in Vancouver BC, Vivace, Vita or Hines in Seattle, Intelligentsia in Chicago, Gimme Coffee in NYC or Ithaca.... you'll find that the difference between a latte and cappuccino is the espresso to milk ratio - lattes get more milk. There's none of this Starbucks style "scoop the extra foam on top and call it a cappuccino". Uh uh.... no sir.... all the milk they serve is microfoamed - it's been prepared so that the milk itself has been transformed in its entirety rather than having a separate layer of foam and milk. I'll welcome and respond to dissenting views but I've had enough first hand experience to feel strongly about this. Here are what I consider to be really "basic basics": Start with cold milk - the colder the better - the longer the frothing time the better developed the foam (within reason) Use an appropriately sized pitcher. Smaller machines in the sub $500 range generally steam no more than 5 - 6 oz of milk at a time properly. $500- $1200 units generally do well with up to 10 or 12 ounces. Best results are obtained when the milk is at least 2" or 3" deep - thus we need a 10 oz pitcher for small amounts and a 20 oz pitcher for larger amounts. Higher milk fat produces more velvety and longer lasting microfoam. I can get passable results with 1% but 2% or whole milk works better. I even know people who juice up their whole milk by adding half 'n half or condensed whole milk. Skim milk creates lots of dry, fluffy and light foam that separates from the milk - exactly what we DON'T want! Purge the steam wand and then start steaming with the tip fully submerged. Immediately lower the pitcher so the the tip stays just under the surface of the milk - feel free to move it around a bit as the milk is "stretching". It will begin increasing in volume from the air being introduced but we're only looking to expand volume by 15% to 25% at most - what we're after is better texture. At about 100 degrees, tip the pitcher or tilt the wand (or both)so that the tip is still just slightly submerged but the wand against the side of the pitcher, more or less parallel to it and get a swirling motion going. This is the process where the larger bubbles initially created are broken into the smaller bubbles of microfoam. At about 130 degrees keep the same swirling motion going but raise the pitcher to fully immerse the tip so it's close to the bottom of the milk. Stop frothing at about 145 degrees. That's pretty close tro the sweet spot - literally. It's the point at which the sugars in the milk have been converted to produce extra sweetness from the milk but well below the level where scorching can occur. Many people forego the use of a thermometer and work by the level of warmth on the outside of the pitcher and the sound that the foaming creates. Maybe I'll be at that level someday but for now I find that having the thermometer really simplifies things and helps me control the process Yes... I know... it seems like a lot of hoo-hah and monkeying around for a coffee drink but if it wasn't worth I wouldn't be here

Normally I work at home, but one day a week I go to one of my client's office to do some in-house work. Rather than have my own coffee before I go, I have theirs when I get there. Yes, I could buy some on the way, but I'm a cheap bastard. Anyway, they've got one of those newfangled Flavia machines, which if you haven't seen one is supposed to be an 'improvement' over ordinary institutional office coffee by making individual cups of coffee from little packets of instant coffee. Or at least I assume it's instant--it brews too fast for real coffee. It is, as a former boss used to say, not good. One of the worst things (of many) that's bad is that the coffee is very, very weak. But the packets come in all sorts of blends, including tea, 'choco' (hot chocolate, I guess), espresso and even cappucino. So I get a bit bored and think, what the hell, I'll try the espresso. You take the 'espresso blend' packet, put it in the machine, and select 'espresso shot' from the menu. A few selects later you have a cup of dark liquid that tastes, well, dark. Sort of vaguely reminiscent of espresso. It's probably about 3 ounces. No crema or actual coffee taste. Not even bitter, really, just dark. It's not really fair to compare it to real espresso, even not very good but still real espresso. Is it fair to compare it to instant espresso from a jar, such as Medaglia D'oro? Actually, no. It does not even compare to that. I am disappointed, but of course not surprised. I haven't tried the cappucino. The cappucino is made in a two-step process that involves first making a packet of 'creamy topping.' I am afraid of the creamy topping. However, this morning I have my brilliant flash. Will it work to use one of the regular blend packets with the espresso shot setting? Yes! it does! Making the coffee with half the water brings it up almost to the strength of coffee-cart coffee. I can use two packets to make one cup of coffee. Yay! I realize that this does nothing, really, to advance the state of the art in coffee-brewing, but I wanted to share my little victory over office-coffee technology.

Ithaca NY based coffee roasters and masters of the truly amazing espresso shot, Gimme! Coffee, have now opened thir first NYC location. Gimme! Coffee Williamsburg Brooklyn info If you've read discussions here or elswhere about the elusive "godshot" or wondered what the big deal is when people discuss legendary Seattle espresso cafes like Vivace, Vita or Hine Public Coffee..... make a trip to Wiliamsburg. IMHO this is at the moment some of the best espresso on the east coast bar none. Their espresso roast is a bit dark for my taste but they have use "Schomer modified" and PID controlled La Marzocco machines and pay great attention to the imnportant details of process - worth a visit. They also make a great cup of plain old coffee.

MSNBC has an odd little article on coffee. The part that really threw me was Am I reading that right? He wants me to put 20 tablespoons of coffee in the basket for a 10-cup pot? What gives, o' coffee gurus? Chad

According to the American Diabetes Association, a recent study published in The Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that people who drink a lot of coffee have a lower incidence of type II diabetes mellitus than those who don't. It is not clear whether coffee itself is responsible or if there are other factors about heavy coffee drinkers that confer protective effects.

All of my friends, colleagues and others I know quickly become aware that I'm a coffee fanatic and espresso hound once they get to know me. I can barely count the number of times that someone has said "Oooh... I have an espreso machine I got as a ________ (insert occasion here) gift. I've never used it. Do you want it? After all.... you're into espresso, right?". We've all seen these - they run anywhere from $30 - $70, utilize simple steam pressure to produce a facsimile of espresso and are way too labor intensive for the average non-coffee fanatic to get involved with using. I'm not referring to the low end espresso machines that have a pump along with a switch for espresso or steam. Machines of that type, usually in the $80 to $100 range, are not great but if used properly they can make a passable cappuccino. Instead, I refer to the devices where one must add water, screw down a pressure cap, wait for steam pressure to build and be very careful about not opening the cap before pressure has gone down. Sooo... how about it.... is this quite possibly the world's most unused gift? I have been offered at least a dozen or so of these in the past few years (slight exaggeration but many) and not one of them had ever been used. I will cross post this in General Food topics due to the chance that there is some non-coffee item which might qualify for this dubious distinction.