Coffee and the grinding thereof

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kaptain_zero
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Re: Coffee and the grinding thereof

Post by kaptain_zero »

Clive,

I would not do anything other than grind *fresh* beans, fresh.

When I bought my first "cheap" Solis grinder and started buying my beans from my local roaster (Black Pearl Coffee), my wife thought I was nuts..... until she tasted her first cup.... no complaints since!

Find a local roaster you can purchase beans from and where you are sure you are getting fresh roasted... I don't mean fresher than 48hrs though.... Beans, fresh out of the roaster will taste harsh and burnt.... let them mellow for 2 to 3 days to off gas (If packed in sealed mylar foil pouches, the pouch WILL puff up for the first 72 hours.... then the beans will have mellowed and the taste should be great for the next 10 to 12 days... after that, they will start to taste stale.

Vacuum packing coffee does NOT prevent coffee from going stale, The coffee beans would have to off gas for days before being packed so they would stay vacuum packed and not puff up. After roasting, they are allowed to sit for days before packaging and as they are exposed to oxygen during that time, they will go stale even after vacuum packing... though perhaps not as fast.

Purchasing beans in any typical *store or coffee chain* will most likely be stale when you buy it. It's the reason why when you buy a coffee shop bag of beans, you can never get it to taste as good as the coffee shop can. They don't use the little bags they have for sale, their in-shop beans come from the roaster directly and they know very closely how many lbs of beans they go through in a day, so their beans never sit around for more than a few days. The bagged stuff for sale..... if it sits on the shelf for months.... it sits... until some poor soul buys it. Stale beans are stale.... no matter if they are ground fresh or last week. Fresh beans, freshly ground will start to go stale in minutes... but.... I ground them the night before, when I used to go to work in the morning, and it was good enough.

For fresh, great tasting coffee, next after fresh beans and fresh grinding comes the water/coffee maker. There's only 2 brands of Drip Coffee makers that actually get the water hot enough to make decent coffee and those are Technivorm and Bonavita. Neither are cheap, nor are they available at your typical store.... but easy enough to source online in the USA or Canada.

For drip, press and such (NOT espresso), a Baratza Encore grinder would be an excellent choice. I would avoid the more typical department store brands. I have a Solis grinder (Solis grinders are now Baratza) that I have used for some 10+ years and it keeps on going, just keep it clean.

Coffeegeek got me started on my coffee snobbery, though some of the gents and gals there are uber snobs.... they have their tastebuds so well trained, they can detect a 1 degree change in brewing temp, just by the flavor. Espresso machines.... we're talking multi thousands of dollars for decent ones, which is why I stayed with drip brew.

Do not store your beans in the refrigerator or freezer, the cold temps force the oils out of the bean and opening such a package only induces more moisture which also deteriorates the beans. Keep them at room temp and dry. If you need to store roasted beans for some reason, an unopened package could be placed in the freezer for a month or more, but for less time... don't bother, and if possible, just don't do it.

Good luck, but do your homework before you buy. The cheapest way to buy anything is to buy your last one first! (Unless you are REALLY GOOD at buying low and selling high)

Regards

Christian
Previously lost, on the way to the pasture. Now pasteurized.
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fallingwickets
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Re: Coffee and the grinding thereof

Post by fallingwickets »

giant thanks for the detailed response, Christian. Much appreciated

clive
de gustibus non est disputandum
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Squire
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Re: Coffee and the grinding thereof

Post by Squire »

Good information Christian, thanks.
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Squire
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Kyle76
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Re: Coffee and the grinding thereof

Post by Kyle76 »

How do you find fresh beans in your area? We don't have any coffee roasters around here that I'm aware of.
Jim
brothers
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Re: Coffee and the grinding thereof

Post by brothers »

It takes me several weeks to use up an entire pound of coffee. If I was really into using freshly roasted coffee beans, I'd probably want to buy it by the ounce if possible, but I suspect that would get pretty expensive. I don't know if there are any stores who will sell a few ounces of freshly roasted coffee here in my area.
Gary

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Squire
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Re: Coffee and the grinding thereof

Post by Squire »

For me fresh beans mean green beans which are widely available online and have a very long shelf life because staling doesn't start until the beans are roasted.
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Squire
brothers
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Re: Coffee and the grinding thereof

Post by brothers »

Is roasting a do-it-yourself project? If I had some fresh green coffee beans in need of roasting, is it normal to just take them to a shop who roasts on demand, and is it expensive? I'm probably way off track in my thinking about this seemingly complex issue. :)
Gary

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kaptain_zero
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Re: Coffee and the grinding thereof

Post by kaptain_zero »

Roasting your own..... wow, I've never been THAT keen myself.... just too many variables for me. That said, it can be done in a hot air popcorn popper, or a roasting basket on a gas grill rotisserie, drum roasters... oh my.... it's NOT just about roasting. There is the issue of a roast profile, the heat profile of the device you are using to roast, roasting time, how dark to roast, how fast to cool down, which beans.... single origin or blend, that's off the top of my head and I'm afraid the list goes on.

Places to start reading, if you are interested, is coffeegeek.com (a very deep rabbit hole, with lots of sticker shocks) and sweetmarias.com, with the latter being a US based supplier for hobby roasters of green beans, coffee roasters from $30 popcorn poppers and up + other paraphernalia.

Working with my current roaster (and no, he will NOT roast beans, just for me.... it's just not practical for him to roast such small amounts as 1 lb) I have been dismayed to find that last years crop of beans from a single farm, taste very different from the previous year. There are so many different farms around the world that produce beans, it's impossible to try them all. Soil, sun, rain, number of hours of daylight, which side of the mountain and the list goes on, determines the flavor, not to mention including the variables of roasting said green beans.

It's one of the great things about finding a good roaster... when he knows your preferred flavor profile, such as Trevis does with me... when a new years crop shows up, and he knows it's changed enough to put me off... he'll often put me on the trail of something else that suits me. It's never the same, but, it's what he knows I and the Mrs. might like. He also samples new crops, to avoid such surprises and sometimes he will simply not buy that years crop of a bean and choose something else interesting. There's also the problem with large corporate buyers, who will come in and buy the entire years production of a bean and or drive the prices up to the point it's just not worth it.

If you are just looking to save money, you might as well learn to like the cheapest coffee you can buy from Walmart.... there is just no way to save money over that, doing it yourself.

I buy a 1 lb bag of roasted beans and that lasts me and the Mrs. about a week and a half to two... depending. Sometimes only 1 week. When I was working and not drinking more than 2 cups per day and the Mrs. frequently choosing to make a boiled grass (tea) beverage instead, we would run into coffee going stale, at which point I just dumped the bag and went and bought a new bag. It was the price *I* was willing to pay for good coffee....

Regards

Kaptain "Life it too short to drink bad coffee.... there is plenty of time to sleep after I'm dead" Zero
Previously lost, on the way to the pasture. Now pasteurized.
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Squire
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Re: Coffee and the grinding thereof

Post by Squire »

brothers wrote:Is roasting a do-it-yourself project?
Sure, but it's as simple as cooking popcorn.
Regards,
Squire
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MotifSky
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Re:

Post by MotifSky »

nteeman wrote:I drink coffee black. No sugar, no cream, no anything but brewed coffee. I find drinking coffee this way limits the coffee I can drink. The coffee machine coffee at work tastes like liquid tar to me. Most coffee stand coffee also tastes terrible to me. For this reason I like to brew my own. While I have looked into roasting my own, so far I haven't gone that far. I have found several very good coffee roasters on the WWW that provide me with excellent coffee. I enjoy the darker roasts. Kenya AA, Sumatra Mandheling, Mocha Java blend have been favorites of mine. Of course I grind the coffe myself--at home in a Delongi coffee mill, at work in one of those spinning blade grinders. Both work fine. Lately I have been drinking Italian Espresso. I don't brew it in an espresso maker though. At home I brew in a Swiss Gold one-cup gold filter. At work in a drip electric. Maybe someday I'll get an espresso machine or at least one of those stovetop espresso pots.

I get my coffee from Porto Rico Importing here in NYC. I haven't any stake in this company, just a happy customer.

Cheers!
Oh, you seems like a great fan of coffee! :) I'm the same in fact, however I prefer to drink it only with sugar and milk, also sometimes cinnamon :) And yeah, I like the most of coffee taste made with a coffee machine, it seems the best for me :)
I had a separate grinder too, however I found it too annoying, to prepare the beans separately before making coffee so I was glad to find combo coffee machines with grinders like in this list from cozzy, that was a nice decision for me :) I have now such Delonghi model and it's really cool, the only minus of such models is their price, sadly they're rather expensive... :(

Image

I also heard many information about Nespresso machines, seems that they're very popular now and make special type of coffee which is very tasty, is that true? Because when I read such things I want to buy one too :lol:
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JayTrek
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Re: Coffee and the grinding thereof

Post by JayTrek »

Wow!!! I have been missing a great thread.

I love coffee

I have a local roaster in Huntsville that has a great Creme Brulee. I also really like his Guatemalan.

I do not drink as much in the summer because by 8am in Alabama, it is already hotter than a smoldering sack of crap! But I think you guys are motivating me to go get a couple of pounds.

I appreciate the education a couple of you guys are providing to us.
Regards,
Jason

Upon Further Review...
brothers
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Re: Coffee and the grinding thereof

Post by brothers »

Old habits are hard to break! Roasting coffee might actually be something of a hobby, come to think of it. Maybe I should give it a try.
Gary

SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
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