Making good coffee

[Heisenberg]

Originally posted by: DurocShark
Ya'll have missed the biggest issue in coffee taste: The water!

Most places filter their water through a pressurized carbon block. Makes a world of difference.

Yeah, I noticed since I went from an el-cheapo coffeemaker to a slightly-less-el-cheapo one with a carbon water filter, the coffee tastes much better, as the city water here is pretty crappy.

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: DurocShark
Ya'll have missed the biggest issue in coffee taste: The water!

Most places filter their water through a pressurized carbon block. Makes a world of difference.

So long as it's not distilled I find it's not that big of an issue. Granted, if you have chlorine, arsenic, or any other noxious undesirable water I hope you wouldn't use it for coffee or anything else. That said, I find 50PPM of hardness to be the absolute best mineral content for espresso and regular preparation methods. Anything less and the espresso will actually come out flat tasting, but anything more and you have a lot of scale build-up problems in boilers.

 

[0roo0roo]

clean, make sure to always clean coffee basket and such. oils go rancid. coffee is full of oils.
fresh, fresher the roast the better. coffee degrades very quickly. grind at brew time to help garrnatee freshness. if using a larger coffee maker for single serving make sure it has a single serving mode, some may not get hot enough quick enough. err, make sure to use enough grounds. overextraction leads to yuck.

stay away from french press. gets cold too quick, its basically almost luke warm by the time its done plus, the chemicals paper filters catch are the ones that harden ur arteries.

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
clean, make sure to always clean coffee basket and such. oils go rancid. coffee is full of oils.
fresh, fresher the roast the better. coffee degrades very quickly. grind at brew time to help garrnatee freshness. if using a larger coffee maker for single serving make sure it has a single serving mode, some may not get hot enough quick enough. err, make sure to use enough grounds. overextraction leads to yuck.

stay away from french press. gets cold too quick, its basically almost luke warm by the time its done plus, the chemicals paper filters catch are the ones that harden ur arteries.

You don't have to get the 32oz press pots. You can get ones that are no more than 8oz. Brew it and pour it straight into a thermos. They also have the thermos with the press as well.

The lack of filters has been under scrutiny lately, but like all things... in moderation.

 

[Fiveohhh]

coffeegeek

 

[fitzov]

Originally posted by: elzmaddy
What coffee would you recommend? Something from Starbucks maybe?

There's two ways you can go--cheap or gourmet.
I recommend the cheap approach for you, since you think D&D coffee is good.
Two brands of cheap coffee that I buy regularly are Yuban, which can be had even at Walmart, and Don Fransisco. I use an evenly rounded tablespoon for each two cups on the coffeepot (or, one cup in the mug). Use cold water that is drinkable by itself, either from the tap, or filtered, if you don't happen to have well water like me.

 

[Dunbar]

I think you guys are being a little drastic, the OP just wants coffee that's as good as McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts. For that all he needs to do is buy some decent whole bean coffee, a $15 grinder and a little experience. Grind the beans right before brewing the coffee and experiment with the quanitity of ground beans until you get the taste you want.

I used to roast my own coffee so I know what the pursuit of the "perfect cup" can lead people to. But the average Joe, who just wants a good cup of coffee, isn't going to want to spend the time or money to reach perfection.