I remember once drinking it straight from the cow at my cousins farm. Lovely!
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Espresso Enthusiasts
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I remember once drinking it straight from the cow at my cousins farm. Lovely!
What from its udder? Not even into a glass!
What from its udder? Not even into a glass!
Ha! Heavens no! Twas from some sort of pot as I remember. It was the middle of the week and the middle of the day and my cousin make a full roast dinner as if it was the usual thing to do. The farm was and still is just outside Cockermouth in Cumbria. A lovely part of the country.
My dad used to spend his summers working on his uncles farm, and he used to talk about warm milk fresh from the cow on his cereal.
Men, and udders.......Hmmmmm.
Very strange. That commingled desire and distaste - but perhaps this is not the place to best explore such atavistic instincts and primeval stuff.
Let us focus on coffee, espresso, cream, and real milk.
However, I will add in passing (en passant) that you will rarely find a female engaged in consuming her milk (and I write as someone who loves full, fat, luscious, delicious, tasty, milk - at a food fair in Bristol some years ago, my dear friends - and hosts - were stunned to see me disdain the sour thin homemade cider on offer - and I do like my drink - and foreswear it for real, organic, full-fat white moustache milk.....) from such a vessel in such a manner. That is not quite how we do things.
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I recommend a stiff Stella. Or a black coffee.....
Very strange. That commingled desire and distaste - but perhaps this is not the place to best explore such atavistic instincts and primeval stuff.
Let us focus on coffee, espresso, cream, and real milk.
However, I will add in passing (en passant) that you will rarely find a female engaged in consuming her milk (and I write as someone who loves full, fat, luscious, delicious, tasty, milk - at a food fair in Bristol some years ago, my dear friends - and hosts - were stunned to see me disdain the sour thin homemade cider on offer - and I do like my drink - and foreswear it for real, organic, full-fat white moustache milk.....) from such a vessel in such a manner. That is not quite how we do things.
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I recommend a stiff Stella. Or a black coffee.....
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Black coffee at this time of night?
I'll stick with my tea thanks (complete with skimmed milk from a carton). Yes I know it came from a cows udder originally, but it's had many treatments since then.
Milks quite disgusting if you think about it, but still better than when you think about where eggs come from.
Er, why? That is some statement.
Anyway, I beg to differ.
No, it is not disgusting - that is a peculiarly male idiocy to suggest that. Nor are eggs disgusting. Why do a surprising number of men blurt out this sort of nonsense?
What is disgusting are the conditions of battery hens, laying tasteless eggs industrially, deprived of light, movement, and any sort of joy in life.
Organic, free range eggs (the only kind I seem to have eaten in around two decades) are delicious.
Actually, milk is delicious, - especially from well treated animals - and God rot those pusillanimous individuals who thought to remove the gorgeousness of the taste in milk, the delicious voluptuous richness, the genuine goodness by way of vitamins, extract it all, then sell thin, insipid, criminal tasteless white stuff, with 'added vitamins' - and marketing it to costing a premium. That is what I think is sick, (and yes, ''disgusting').
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I would suggest that we all (myself included) return to the topic of the thread.
I think we are dancing around the edges of PRSI.
I think we are dancing around the edges of PRSI.
Having a nice cup of Rwandan coffee with milk and brown sugar instead of honey while on radio watch. Yum!
My goodnight after booze coffee. Goodnight x
This morning I'm enjoying some French Press coffee. I have just enough beans for one more espresso until the new batch arrives on Wednesday.
I am completely out of coffee beans. Not a single bean. No beans. Pas de beans. A total absence of beans.
This is a disaster!
Somehow I managed to survive without coffee for a year and a half. Now I can't survive a day. (yes, definitely a first World problem)
However, all is not lost. Since, as of about three weeks ago, I have been able to drive, after some morning chores I will drive into Boston where there is a roaster on Newbury Street.
I will then buy enough coffee to get me through to next week when, in theory, I will receive coffee that is currently on order.
Being able to drive, and the independence it provides, is certainly nifty keen.
Yes certainly a lack of beans is a crisis in our first world! I'm happy you have the ability to drive again and go to the local fleabag supermarket and buy some pre-ground Folgers produced 2 years ago to get you through the week!I am completely out of coffee beans. Not a single bean. No beans. Pas de beans. A total absence of beans.
This is a disaster!
Somehow I managed to survive without coffee for a year and a half. Now I can't survive a day. (yes, definitely a first World problem)
However, all is not lost. Since, as of about three weeks ago, I have been able to drive, after some morning chores I will drive into Boston where there is a roaster on Newbury Street.
I will then buy enough coffee to get me through to next week when, in theory, I will receive coffee that is currently on order.
Being able to drive, and the independence it provides, is certainly nifty keen.
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Yes certainly a lack of beans is a crisis in our first world! I'm happy you have the ability to drive again and go to the local fleabag supermarket and buy some pre-ground Folgers produced 2 years ago to get you through the week!
It just goes to show what you know. You think I would buy that Folgers stuff. Not me.I have a connoisseur's taste.
So I will be buying the delightful Chock Full o'Nuts pre-ground coffee. It's heavenly coffee. Better coffee a millionaire's money can't buy.
(***US cultural reference known only to old folks***)
Ah, excellent.
A French Press (Le Creuset) of Ethiopian (freshly ground beans - the OE Lido grinder put through its paces effortlessly) coffee from Yirgacheffe (two different types of bean from Yirgacheffe - Kochere and Aramo) accompanied a very late breakfast (butcher's bacon rashers, organic free range eggs, and organic tomatoes, excellent brown bread from the French bakery, freshly squeezed citrus juice, a grapefruit, two oranges and a half a lemon each). Quite delicious.
I am completely out of coffee beans. Not a single bean. No beans. Pas de beans. A total absence of beans.
This is a disaster!
Somehow I managed to survive without coffee for a year and a half. Now I can't survive a day. (yes, definitely a first World problem)
However, all is not lost. Since, as of about three weeks ago, I have been able to drive, after some morning chores I will drive into Boston where there is a roaster on Newbury Street.
I will then buy enough coffee to get me through to next week when, in theory, I will receive coffee that is currently on order.
Being able to drive, and the independence it provides, is certainly nifty keen.
Ah, @Shrink - how did that sorry state of affairs arise that you found yourself clean out of coffee?
That happened to me - once, years ago. I returned on leave from the Caucasus, (I had been away for months) to find that a cousin who used to drop in to see my mother every week or so had helped herself - over time - to all of the coffee in the house. Now, she was welcome to the coffee, but I was slightly irked that I arrived back from the Caucasus to find nothing - nada - not even a small LavAzza bag by way of vocational offering to replace it.
So, I understand the feeling.
Well, enjoy your drive to Boston and your coffee shopping.
But, yes, I agree that it is funny: You can - by which I mean one can - go without something for ages in a testing and challenging environment, but when relatively normal life is resumed, even the smallest deprivation assumes amazing proportions.
Yes certainly a lack of beans in a crisis in our first world! I'm happy you have the ability to drive again and go to the local fleabag supermarket and buy some pre-ground Folgers produced 2 years ago to get you through the week!
Ah, now, @SandboxGeneral; to our friend @Shrink, that suggestion concerning Folger's must rank with Chinese water torture when contemplating its exquisite horror.
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So, what coffee did you actually buy in your nice roaster on Newbury Street when you ventured into Boston?
(And no, I cannot claim to get old - or new - cultural references from the US. However, when you see British politicians referring effortlessly and glibly to Game of Thrones - with evident knowledge of plot and characters - you know you must be doing something right.)
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I've still got one eye on grinders but don't know enough about them. I don't want to spend too much on one and have seen this one on Amazon that gets good reviews. Can you take a look at it and tell me what you think? Thanks.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Manua...7550791&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=OE+Lido+grinder
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Manua...7550791&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=OE+Lido+grinder
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If you are going to grind for espresso I'm not sure that this is an ideal grinder. The conventional wisdom is that if you are grinding for drip, pour over, or press you can use a grinder of somewhat lower quality.
I, for one, don't agree with the conventional wisdom because no matter which method of production you are grinding for the need for uniform particle size doesn't change in that uniformity is essential for proper extraction.
That said, if you are not as loony as I am you might well be satisfied with a less precise grinder if you are not grinding for espresso.
If you are grinding for espresso, however, I would suggest that you need to spend a bit more on a grinder. Aside from freshly roasted, high quality beans, the most important element in the production of coffee is the grinder. If you can afford to spend a bit more I would suggest looking for a better grinder that will allow for espresso grind.
I guess a better idea of your maximal budget for a grinder would enable me to help you a bit more in finding the best grinder possible for your budget.
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My sense with a cylinder made of stainless steel is that it might be difficult to retain a grip on the thing, while grinding the coffee beans.
While my fellow aficionados on this thread will (quite correctly) stress the importance of burr grinders, most of them use electric ones.
I have a manual grinder, a monster made by Orphan Espresso (OE), the OE Lido 2, which - to be honest, is so over engineered and so sturdily constructed that it would survive a nuclear disaster.
However, in addition to the burr grinders (which, in this thing, the OE Lido 2, are constructed to a serious professional standard), it is also stable on a table, when I am grinding (a slim stainless steel cylinder won't be - and I am not the sort to grind with it tucked airily under my arm - I don't have that sort of brute strength, and besides, I like to see what I am doing), and it is sufficiently powerful not to require massive amounts of - or, in fairness - much by way of - elbow grease from me. This machine deals with coffee beans easily.
Reading reviews of the less expensive manual grinders, there are issues that don't apply to electric models.
Thus, you will find references to ergonomic issues and questions: These include: Is the thing easy to hold? Does your grip slip? Is it stable on whatever surface it is sitting/standing/placed while you are grinding?
How well made is it, and is it well constructed - often there will be a trade off between quality of materials used (plastic versus ceramic, glass, metal) - and, thus, cost.
Then, there is appearance: Is it attractive looking?
How small/large is the size of the actual grinder/grinding mechanism - smaller ones take an awful lot more elbow grease, - basically effort - to grind the beans. For me, especially in the morning, I don't want to be wrecked even before I have made my coffee.
How easy is it to get access to the fresh grounds when you have ground the coffee? How easy is the thing to clean?
And then, yes, how much does it cost? What is your individual sweet spot between affordability and the features you want in a manual grinder?
These are some of the questions you must ask yourself; the answers will give you some idea of what you really want.
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Actually, I will add a caveat to the topic of manual grinders; even the very best of them - and I have one of the best of them - the OE Lido - are not really designed to grind coffee finely for espresso. Or, rather, it can be done - but it takes a long time, and a lot of hard work.
For espresso - the reviews (I have read several) - are in agreement that an electric burr grinder makes an awful lot more sense.
With my manual grinder, grinding coffee beans so that one can consume coffee with a French Press, or Hario dripper, or Chemex, - and the like - are no problem, with my OE Lido 2 - even for me, a middle aged lady who does not worship at the same shrine where fitness fanatics can be found.
But, a using a manual grinder in order to obtain beans ground to the consistency required for espresso is Seriously Hard Work - both physically taxing and time consuming.
These days, I hardly drink espresso. (At home. When I am out, I drink espresso very frequently).
This is because I am not prepared to put the work into grinding beans manually to the desired consistency. For now, that leaves me two choices: Buy an electric burr grinder (which I will probably do at some stage), or buy some freshly roasted coffee beans and get them pre-ground to espresso consistency.
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Thank you both for your replies. I shall look further into the matter. As for my budget? Well, that's a hard one to answer as I don't know how good grinding your own beans will be. As I've said before, my coffee "journey" continues as does my taste so as this develops the cost of any grinder will be how I value it. (If that makes sense?)
It is, what you get used to. My father, who is 74 and still working 60+ hours a week (he's as fit as a flea (much fitter than I and I'm 20 years younger)) won't drink anything but instant coffee. It's just what you're used to.
As for me, I'm someone who wants to know "the best", be it music, literature, computers, pens, TV's and coffee. I've spent thousands of pounds on my several passions so it's not beyond reach that one day I'll buy an expensive grinder, once I convince myself it'll be worth it. For now, I'll maybe look at one in the region of £50-70? ($70-90?).
It is, what you get used to. My father, who is 74 and still working 60+ hours a week (he's as fit as a flea (much fitter than I and I'm 20 years younger)) won't drink anything but instant coffee. It's just what you're used to.
As for me, I'm someone who wants to know "the best", be it music, literature, computers, pens, TV's and coffee. I've spent thousands of pounds on my several passions so it's not beyond reach that one day I'll buy an expensive grinder, once I convince myself it'll be worth it. For now, I'll maybe look at one in the region of £50-70? ($70-90?).
This one?
De'Longhi KG79 Professional Burr Grinder https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002OHDBQC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_XKsExb9B0WXQC
De'Longhi KG79 Professional Burr Grinder https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002OHDBQC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_XKsExb9B0WXQC
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What do you want to do with it? In other words, what sort of coffee do you wish to make?
For espresso - unless you go for the extraordinary grinder that @Shrink used to have (the HG-1) - a manual grinder - and that includes my wonderful monster - the OE Lido 2 - just is too much work. Candidly, if espresso is the main type of coffee that you drink, I would suggest that you get an electric grinder.
After that, (and, when addressing the question of manual grinders, one of the things that many who buy them want - but I neglected to mention because this issue did not really motivate me) is portability.
Rather than listing manual grinders, and asking opinions - few of the coffee aficionados here use manual grinders - why not google - and read - several of those lists of 'top 10 manual grinders' written by coffee freaks.
Then, you will get reviews which compare and contrast the various grinders, with pros and cons, which Amazon reviews will not really offer you.
This, in turn, should give you some idea of what you want from a grinder.
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If you're willing to go for that much money I would suggest did you take a look at it this one–it's the one I bought and I'm very pleased with it. It will give you all the adjustments you need for anything from espresso to press grind. I think it's an excellent starter grinder which will carry you for a good period of time. It's also delivering, for all practical purposes, zero retention, which makes measuring your bean dosage much less guesswork. Baratza also has a one step down, less expensive, model which is also a good investment. But if you can make the price of the one I've suggested I strongly believe you can't go wrong.
And now a bit about my Boston adventure.
So, I'm cruising down Newbury street (which is Boston's version of Fifth Avenue in New York… a very high end shopping street) looking for parking. I finally find a space about 1 1/2 blocks from my destination. I get out of my car and staggered–wobble–stumble–waddle down the street to my destination. I ask the friendly "barista" to point out a dark roast on the shelf. She is babbling about the beans they have and how wonderful they are. She hands me a bag and I checked it for the roast date. It says "Best Used By Jun 20, 2017". Yes, that's not a typo, it says 2017!
Obviously, I figure an error has been made. So I ask her about the date and with a straight face she says "roasted beans are fine for up to one year after the roast date." Not believing my ears I ask her to repeat that. Someone else enters the scene, apparently the owner of the shop. She has heard our conversation and reiterates that roasted beans are fine for up to one year after roasting. I gently and sweetly suggest that after one year the beans are fine for the garbage can. In fact, after two weeks the garbage can is a good place to store them. At which point both people turn away from me and walk away. Following suit, I turned away from them and walk out of the shop.
So now I've schlepped into Boston and have nothing to show for it. As I am staggering–wobbling–stumbling–waddling back to my car I noticed another coffee shop. What the hell, all I have to do his get down a steep flight of stone steps to check this out... why not. So I go into the shop and I ask the barista to help me pick out a dark roast blend. It turns out that this is really nice guy and he tells me that they only do medium roasts with their beans. Nice of him to be that honest but he's even nicer than that. He tells me that about a block up there is another coffee shop that has fresh roasted beans and that they have several very good dark roast blends. He even goes so far as to recommend one of the blends that he says he has tried and enjoyed. I thank him effusively as he's been very helpful in recommending another shop without even having made a sale.
So, I stagger–wobble–stumble–waddle another block to the recommended shop. They have a wonderful selection and I pick a dark roast blend of Bahia, Brazil and La Paz, Honduras farmed beans. And, oh joy, they were roasted only three days ago.
I am now going to put the kettle on and make myself a cup of what the shop calls it's Commonwealth Blend.
I will return shortly with a brief, it totally unhelpful, report.
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