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I've been ever experimenting the ways in which to prepare coffee the way my mother makes it at home. I am never tired of it and even though I have a stable version of coffee available, I not completely at home Pleasae give me some way of preparing coffe the way it used to be at home. I think this especially goes for the people of south India. I know many others too have a love of coffee, but nothing beats the home coffee. Please share your tips for ethereal coffee land today...

Whenever I make coffee in my vintage Silex vacuum pot, I swear that I can detect a slight rubbery taste in the coffee. It comes from the rubber gasket, it smells like a new automobile tire whenever the pot is action. Have any of you ever had this experience? Should I wash the gasket thoroughly with anything? Though it is in perfect shape, I know it is quite old (around 30 to 40 years old); I am hesitant to clean it thoroughly because it might crack. Thanks!

Thought I'd venture a thread that is not oft discussed on Coffeegeek and doesn't seem (at least recently) to have been fleshed out here... Yes - I'm perfectionist about many things; I've got my modes of making coffee down. But I ain't getting to roasting (this statement will result in many a good natured flame at CG - and orig post goes OT into waxing poetic about homeroasting); don't have the time, don't have the place - I can't afford to get obsessive about yet another thing. My wife will disown me... So I am willing to pay for good roasting. Good roasting as defined by great bean knowledge, 'crack' precision, accurate dating and the rest of the art that goes into cooking the bean. I've got a pretty good roaster in my little nabe (Montclair, NJ) - and I know that buying local's a good thing 'cause coffee fades quickly. But I get my espresso from... St. Louis. I swear by Barry Jarrett's "Espresso Taliaferro" and at $8.95 - this is worth sending away for. In fact, Barry's quite the roasting maven... http://www.rileys-coffee.com/DarkRoasts.htm Anyone know of other master roasters that make paying the shipping worth it?

This is another interesting topic offered by Nakagawa of Flavor coffee http://www.flavorcoffee.co.jp/index.html (Japanese only) Nakagawa is sometimes asked by customers to modify and improve their roasters. The Roaster Modification Museum page http://www.flavorcoffee.co.jp/3f/r-index.html (Japanese only) lists some of the roasters he has modified so far. Among the list is the Alpenrost http://www.flavorcoffee.co.jp/3f/3f-15.html . Let me translate part of his description of what he did about the roaster. *** Side view With the cover open Perspective view, with the cover open Heater Roasting, with the shutter closed Cooling, with the shutter open The roaster has several disadvantages. First, you cannot visually check the beans to determine when to stop roasting. Secondly, this roaster does not have the concept of murashi* (lit. steaming), resulting in light-taste coffee. I think this is its biggest defect, a fatal one. Air inlet slightly open (roasting phase) Air inlet half open (murashi phase) Close-up of the spoon with a thermometer attached Close-up of the spoon retainer I made three modifications so that the roaster allows the user to: - Vary the exhaust air at will so that the concept of murashi can be applied. I made a hole in the cover so that the amount of exhaust air could be controlled. With the hole in the cover open, the roaster sucks air through the hole, so that the exhaust air from the drum decreases. - Use a spoon to check the beans. For this particular roaster, there is a flow of air inside the cover, so I had to plug the gap between the spoon and the cover. - Check the temperature inside the roaster. I inserted a tempura thermometer into the spoon so that the temperature could be measured except when checking the beans. Results: - The exhaust air-regulating function allows the user to perform "murashi" as with a commercial roaster. By performing "murashi", the user can now prevent the coffee beans from losing flavor. - The user can check the beans with the spoon to determine when to stop roasting. - The thermometer assists in improving reproducibility. *** *Murashi (lit. steaming): With a direct-heat type roaster, it is common practice to restrict the exhaust port for some time after beans are put in and heated, so that the humidity in the roaster increases. This very initial step of the drying phase of the roasting process is called murashi in Japanese. I tried to find an equivalent term in English, but to no avail.

I bought their espresso training video. I think by now you guys/gals know I barely have a clue when it comes to all things espresso. After watching the video, which is all of a bit over 1 hour, I'm not exactly the junior barista I thought I'd be. Actually, I didn't pick up a single bit of useful info. They covered a zillion areas including commercial and home brewing and roasting in like a heartbeat. It's really absurd. I wouldn't mind so much if it didn't cost $59.95 + tax (jeez, they have no stores in NJ) + shipping which translated to $70+. And to think - Owen would've travelled 4 hours each way, given me a day's training and bought me a shot for a lot less loot. :-)

My first attempt to roast coffee beans with a milk powder can Nakagawa, the owner of Flavor coffee http://www.flavorcoffee.co.jp/index.html (Japanese only), is a proponent of roasting coffee beans with a milk powder can. Today, I made my first attempt, but it ended in a failure; the beans didn't crack even after 25-minute roasting. I think that the main reason of my failure was that I did the roasting outside and it was rather windy. More text later.

I was told by a barista that Cimbali is better. This seems contrary to other advice I've been given. Is it a fair question to ask which one's better? I'm talking 1 or 2 group machines. I've decided to hold off for now on serving espresso at my cafe (assuming all the i's get dotted and the deal goes through.) I'll have enough to keep me occupied with my primary items, grilled cheese sandwiches and milkshakes. And it will give me a chance to judge whether or not my store will bring enough interest in espresso drinks to justify the zillion dollars it costs. Instead, I've decided that I wanna get the coffee thing right. I'd love to hear opinions on the best way to approach this. This same barista told me it wasn't necessary to get a double hopper grinder for coffee. Again, this runs contrary to other advice I was given. He recommended a Bunn G3. No? AS for brewers, everyone seems to agree on the plumbed Fetco. Yes? Finding the right company for a coffee roaster is another issue I need to tackle. It's tough not being a connoisseur, and I'm the first to admit that is not my strongpoint. While I know a good cup of joe when I have it, I'm really no good in discerning the fine intricacies - acidity and body and all that good stuff. It's a small place - 20 seats - and my business plan projects about 150 covers/day. Thanks for any advice.

The coffee machine in the office or one of my companies is beginning to leak, and repair costs indicate its time to replace it. It serves around 20 people, but being in high-tech compter industry good coffee is vital. The current machine is a Jura X90 bean to cup machine, and its done well. Suggestions please on its replacement. Should we continue with a) a bean to cup machine, or b) Seperate grinder and expresso (potentially messy: these are programmers, not barristas); or c) Conventional pour-on and paper filter (many options here) d) Instant sachets, like Flavia (ugh!) e) Other.. Your opinions please on make and model, or just sound off about office coffee... Of course this is not as famous as that other Cambridge coffee machine, The Trojan Room coffee machine, the world's first web-cam. The coffee machine was sold on ebay, and bought by Spiegel Online, reconditioned, and is once more online.. I was a student and then faculty member at the time in the Computer Lab, and knew the original. It made awful stewed coffee...

as i drank this kind of sweet coffee in san francisco the first time i totally forgot to buy a few of those filters as they are a nice optical treat to invited friends and of course myself! did i say that the coffee is good too!?! i am located in germany but there might be a chance to buy them? yes or no?

Last night, I dined at a fine local establishment. My companions ordered coffee at the end of the meal, and the server brought out a lovely small tray with lump white sugar, lump brown sugar, the usual Sweet 'n Low and Equal packets, and a lot of little dark things described as "chocolate-covered licorice lentils". This was a first for me. Seemed like a nice idea, but how common is it? Or anything like it?

A recent question posted here by Geetha about Indian coffee has left me very curious. It appears that although much of India is traditionally a tea drinking culture, there is a strong tradition of coffee drinking in Southern India. Thus far I've found only this information about the brewing device Indian Coffee Filter The description indicates that the "davras" is a two part stainless steel assembly with a mushroom shaped filter in the upper portion. The lower portion is used to collect the brewed coffee. It's unclear to me whether the entire davras sits on a heat source and pushes boiling water up and then down through the filter (as with moka coffee or American stove top and electric percolators) or whether it's simply some sort of drip device. Can any of you shed light on this? I also found reference to the desired coffee types as "Arabica from the Chikmanglur and Nilgiris mountain ranges and Robusta grown in the lower, more humid areas of Malabar, Salem, Coorg, etc.". India is known for growing some of the world's best Robusta coffee but very little of it makes it to the US market. Suggestions (these came from a variety of sources) also include roasting to a fairly dark level, even with the Robusta beans (which are not typically roasted extremely dark as it increases their bitterness). Here in the US I can obtain Kappie Royale Robusta, Coelho's Gold Monsooned Malabar AA, Pearl Mountain Peaberry, Mysore "Nuggets" and perhaps one or two other varieties. Is South Indian style coffee best made from a blend, as is often the case with espresso coffee, or do people typically make it from a coffee of a single varietal origin? To add to the confusion.... some people recommend that for those in the US market wishing to duplicate the characteristics of South Indian drip coffee, it is advised to used roasted chicory mixed with the coffee in a ratio of 30% chicory to 70% coffee. Apparently the chicory-coffee blend has been popular in South India for quiet some time but many discerning Indian coffee drinkers are now advising to just use 100% coffee with no chicory. India produces some very high quality coffee and I can see the wisdom of dispensing with the chicory. Finally... there is the question of the milk. Is it scalded on the stovetop by boiling or is simply heating it to the simmering point sufficient? I have seen reference to a technique whereby one pours the "decoction" (the concentrated brewed coffee that has collected in the bottom of the davras after dripping through) into a cup or glass and then adding the heated milk with sugar. the mixture is then poured back and forth between two glasses until a certain frothiness is achieved. Is this procedure typical and does it impart a better mouthfeel quality to the milk by introducing air or in your opinion is it really just for show? (not that there's anything wrong with that).

I know purists that will roast their coffee beans immediately prior to grinding their cup of coffee and drinking it immediately. If a shot of pulled espresso sits around at a Starbucks for more than 30 seconds or a minute, it gets dumped. However, I have a brother-in-law who will walk into my house and if there is cold coffee still sitting in my pot and there are no moldy floaties on top, he'll drink it. As I write this, I'm still sipping on a latte that Shawn made for me when I left for work this morning. He pulled the shots at 7:15 a.m. and it is now 1:30 p.m. I consistently make an entire pot of tea and re-heat cups out of it for a day or so afterwards, despite the fact that I PREFER it fresh, just having it made and ready to heat is often easier on a busy morning. What about you? How old is too old for you?

http://www.manhattanspecial.com/products_i...fee_drinks.html Manhattan Special is perhaps one of my favorite soft drinks -- this Brooklyn NY company, in business since 1895, produces one of the finest coffee sodas in the entire industry. Like any quality soft drink company they only use cane sugar in their products. Their signature espresso soda is made out of pure coffee, carbonated water, cane sugar and some caramel coloring, thats it. While perusing their site I noticed they launched a new line of iced coffee drinks. Anyone try these yet?

Market research for a major Canadian coffeehouse chain indicates that their customers believe people who go to Starbucks are pretentious, stuck-up, etc. etc. In your experience, do people choose or avoid a coffee place based on their personality type?

While our well traveled espresso machine is once again on a ship back to Italy, our coffee at home comes from our well seasoned moka. While everyone likes to talk about espresso very little attention is given this simple machine which is used by most Italians at home. The truth is given care and with a little practice moka makes a wonderful coffee - all for about Euro 18.00. What I have discovered is that for my morning coffee - I usually don't take a capuccino unless I am in a bar and never in hot weather - I tend to prefer the round rich taste of the moka coffee. It seems more of a beverage than the quick short short of espresso and it is much better to dunk your cookies in. It is a shame the moka is marketed outside of Italy as a 'stovetop espresso maker' because it is not. Moka is its own style of coffee.

I came across this by accident at this site= http://ww2.mcgill.ca/chempublic/right_chem...m/indexprnt.htm I found the following article which is REALLY BIZZARO!= If you are going to spend a couple of hundred dollars for a pound of coffee, you expect something special. What is so special about Kopi Luak coffee? Answer: The coffee beans have been put through a special machine. A living machine, called the Javan civet cat. The luak is a species of civet cat found only on the island of Java in Indonesia. Like all civet cats it possesses anal scent glands which secrete a fluid with a characteristic odor. In a concentrated form it smells terrible but when diluted it has a pleasant musky odor and can be used in perfume manufacture. The luak apparently loves coffee. But it is very particular in its taste. It only eats the choicest beans. The luak's digestive system, however, cannot handle the coffee beans very well and most of them are secreted a few hours after being eaten in a partially digested form. Somehow the contact with the animal's digestive juices changes the chemistry of the beans. When these beans are roasted, the coffee they produce is extremely tasty and full-bodied. Hopefully the enhanced flavor is due to partial digestion and not to contamination from the anal secretions of the civet cat. Plantation workers routinely search the grounds for the special beans which are then brewed into coffee in Indonesia's most select hotels, probably with the visitors not being informed about the origins of the great taste. Please tell me what you think, especially if you have tasted this coffee.

I once made the mistake of ordering a cup of coffee at London's Victoria Station. When I took a sip, I thought they'd made some horrible mistake and given me something else, but the server assured me it was what they knew as coffee. It tasted like they'd brewed up Postum with Marmite--absolutely unrecognizable as being in the same family with any coffee I'd had anywhere else in the world. Where did you experience truly, memorably terrible coffee?

What is the best way to make a good cup of coffee with a drip process? I am not talking espresso (I love it out--but I am not about invest the time and effort, or the money to buy excellent equipment, to make it at home!) but good american-style coffee. And I know about buying fresh-roasted beans in small quantities, keeping everything clean, and measuring pretty carefully. I have been grinding my fresh-roasted coffee beans very finely, using the finest grind on a classic Braun grinder for 20+ years. (I have gone through several of those grinders over the years and the current one is dying.) We have always "measured" the coffee by using the timer scale on the starting knob and have always measured the (filtered) water to our tastes. And I make the coffee in a Braun coffee maker using Melitta filters. We are about to replace the grinder with another or a similar non-commercial machine for the home. Such as Bodum, Solis or the like. With this in mind, what is the best way to grind the coffee beans to get the best taste? As finely as possible? That would get more cups out of a given quantity of beans. Or a little more coarsely? Maybe the coffee would be better?

Adam Gopnick's little brother Blake goes on at some length in the Washington Post about his discovery that one of the best things at a recent art exhibit was the sponsor's coffee: http://www.msnbc.com/news/936130.asp

In "Kitchen Confidential", Tony Bourdain mentioned that in Les Halles, the busboy makes the espresso. Is this common practice in finer restaurants? If it is, I find it surprising that a place that is noted for the quality of its food would relegate the espresso to the busboy. On a related topic, why is it that a restaurant that would never, ever think of using anything less than the freshest of ingredients would use canned, preground coffee (i.e. Illy, Lavazza)? Would a fine restaurant have Boone's Farm on the wine list? Then why do they serve Folger's? With as many small-batch specialty coffee roasters as there are, it just doesn't make sense.

I read of Cafe du Monde in the south and found a can of Chickory Coffee from the restaurant at a gormet store. Brought it home and thought a bit. Does anyone have a recipe that uses this? Chickory Ice Cream is obvious off the top of my head and a chickory sauce. Thanks in advance! Chickory Chocolate Mousse...

While traveling in Friuli last month, the coffee of choice in most espresso bars was Hausbrandt, which, after doing a little digging, is a Trieste-based company founded back in the waning years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Barista skills notwithstanding, the coffee is as rich and deep as any Illy, Lavazza, or other I've had. I know I haven't seen any of it out here on the Left Coast, but wondered if anyone back east can give any indication that the company has a US presence. Thanks for the assist. Hausbrandt

A friend of mine who runs a coffee shop is considering expanding his menu to include French press coffee. Currently, he sells esspresso drinks and drip coffee. In drip, he offers house, decaf, and a rotating selection of the day. He would like to offer a choice or 3 or 4 bean selections in a 32oz French press. The French press coffee will be better, but more labor and capital intensive than drip. Coffee would be ground a-la-minute for each French press order, and the presses would have to be cleaned and maintained. The current prices for drip coffee are $1.27 for 12oz, $1.50 for 16oz, and $1.68 for 20oz. He is trying to decide how to price the 32oz French press. How much would you be willing to pay?

Do you think that the people who get so wrapped up in their espresso can taste the nuances of great tea? Or do you think that the two beverages appeal to entirely different personalities? Can you truly love tea and also be passionate about coffee? I'm of the tea persuasion. Betts

So... I do a fair amount of grilling over charcoal. In one year, I have nearly worn out a chimney for starting charcoal. Looking at the bloody thing warm up (and roasting many a marshmallow during January in it) I came to the conclusion that this might be a good start for hand-roasting coffee. Has anyone had any experience roasting over a charcoal fire? Over any non-petroleum-based flame? If/when I get this going, I'll attempt to be sure and post some pictures and experiences.