Green when it's done? And red when all the water has evaporated?
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Two of my favorite things (Early Intel Mac edition).
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I’ve used both stainless and pyrex-based electric kettles (as well as the cheaper plastic ones) at places where I’ve worked (and also past house mates). They get the job done quickly and, arguably, probably better for saving energy in warm climates, since the heating elements are all self-contained and insulated.
I’m guessing their popularity is more that the British (the whole Commonwealth, for that matter), especially post-WWII, adopted the electric kettle for tea, whereas in the U.S., the stove top kettle was used probably because of the abundance of coal/wood-burning oven/stoves in dwellings carried over from the 19th century (which used stove-top kettles), which were replaced with electric or gas stoves/ovens in the 20th.
As for sketchy tap water, yikes. In reading that, I feel especially fortunate that the tap water locally is clean and, frankly, delicious.
Hahahahah, no. LOL!Green when it's done? And red when all the water has evaporated?
It's got auto shutoff and boil dry protection.
When I first got serious about coffee, we bought a Brita pitcher. The water in Cherry Valley, Calif. was always good growing up though - but not enough for coffee. It's when I moved out from there I realized that tap in other places was bad.
Phoenix water is decent, but the problem is that we have algae blooms. They treat the water as is required, but they do not fix the taste those blooms leave behind - because that isn't required.
So, for the last 21 years we've simply filled up 5-gallon bottles from various water machines in the area. Since it's already filtered - it's already suitable for our coffee.
Over the years, I’ve come to ascribe colours as metaphors to describe the tastes of different waters.
I can say two of my least-favourite municipal tap waters are Houston’s (tastes like the colour of dirty sand with also a whiff of sulphur) and Montréal’s (tastes like a dark brown/lead grey, with sharp hints of the translucent hue you might ascribe to the weave in a tennis racquet). As a calibrating reference, I find most bottled waters taste like the various colours in hues of stainless steel (like Dasani or Aquafina) to aluminium (like Poland Springs or Ozarka). And although it’s been ages for me, Evian bottled water tastes uniquely, for worse or better, like the colour of white — whatever that means.
The water around here tastes transparently clear with the ever-slightest hint of light blue, whereas the tap water in Vancouver and Seattle generally tastes a bit like the colour of lichen or moss, but in a clear base.
I use tap water, which is sourced from a private well system. It works and seems pure enough.
[WriteNow takes sip of tea just brewed using tap water. Suddenly chokes. Falls to floor, screaming in agony. The curtain falls. The audience is in suspense whether he'll be OK. LOL]
[WriteNow takes sip of tea just brewed using tap water. Suddenly chokes. Falls to floor, screaming in agony. The curtain falls. The audience is in suspense whether he'll be OK. LOL]
I remember seeing some house rennovation project on This Old House (IIRC) that must have had horrible tap water--there was an-all house filter, and then a secondary system supply cold water for the kitchen sink.
And I remember when my family would visit family. We'd drive, and take cold water in a Thermos. I'm sure I noticed the variability--but the one thing that sticks in mind 30-plus years later was the place that had water so terrible it was just undrinkable. Actively awful. So much so I might well have thought: I'll die of dehydration before touching this stuff again!
And I remember when my family would visit family. We'd drive, and take cold water in a Thermos. I'm sure I noticed the variability--but the one thing that sticks in mind 30-plus years later was the place that had water so terrible it was just undrinkable. Actively awful. So much so I might well have thought: I'll die of dehydration before touching this stuff again!
@B S Magnet
OK…for me, it's a light coffee. Really used to the dark stuff. That's not to say I don't like it or that it's bad. My wife likes it, and as a mellow type of coffee it's more likely to get brewed on Sunday for us.
Our pattern is the Death Wish for daily consumption and the other specialty roasts on the weekends or in the evening. So, having a go to for a mellow, relaxing cup is going to be good. I'll probably take a look at their other roasts and see what I find. When it comes to new restaurants, coffee shops, etc for us I go with the stuff that is the main product. If they (whoever they are) can't get their main product right then there's no real reason to try anything else.
I will admit that this has been inverted however every once in a while. I cannot stand Peet's Coffee. It's swill to my taste. But. Peet's Major Dickison's Blend is just awesome. It's the only blend that Peet's makes that my wife and I will drink. Great stuff.
Anyway, my wife reckoned this coffee to a certain brand of coffee that Burger King used to have in their shops. (No, she isn't saying this is fast-food coffee). This was in the late 90s and it was a major reason that my wife and I frequented BK. We were out for a party once and the restaurant served the exact same coffee so we jumped on the opportunity to ask which brand it was.
Douwe-Egberts It is available in the US, but you can only get it through Amazon. D-E services the restaurant industry, which is how it ended up at BK during the late 90s. I guess it was an experiment at BK, but because…Americans, they eventually dropped it.
Douwe-Egberts was a cut above and a really mellow, relaxing coffee. Which is why my wife made the comparison. She really likes Vivace.
So, we now have that again. Thanks!
PS. Yeah, Vivace is good as a light, relaxing roast. Thanks again!
OK…for me, it's a light coffee. Really used to the dark stuff. That's not to say I don't like it or that it's bad. My wife likes it, and as a mellow type of coffee it's more likely to get brewed on Sunday for us.
Our pattern is the Death Wish for daily consumption and the other specialty roasts on the weekends or in the evening. So, having a go to for a mellow, relaxing cup is going to be good. I'll probably take a look at their other roasts and see what I find. When it comes to new restaurants, coffee shops, etc for us I go with the stuff that is the main product. If they (whoever they are) can't get their main product right then there's no real reason to try anything else.
I will admit that this has been inverted however every once in a while. I cannot stand Peet's Coffee. It's swill to my taste. But. Peet's Major Dickison's Blend is just awesome. It's the only blend that Peet's makes that my wife and I will drink. Great stuff.
Anyway, my wife reckoned this coffee to a certain brand of coffee that Burger King used to have in their shops. (No, she isn't saying this is fast-food coffee). This was in the late 90s and it was a major reason that my wife and I frequented BK. We were out for a party once and the restaurant served the exact same coffee so we jumped on the opportunity to ask which brand it was.
Douwe-Egberts It is available in the US, but you can only get it through Amazon. D-E services the restaurant industry, which is how it ended up at BK during the late 90s. I guess it was an experiment at BK, but because…Americans, they eventually dropped it.
Douwe-Egberts was a cut above and a really mellow, relaxing coffee. Which is why my wife made the comparison. She really likes Vivace.
So, we now have that again. Thanks!
PS. Yeah, Vivace is good as a light, relaxing roast. Thanks again!
Hurrah (for your wife) and also darn (for you). Sorry about the semi-miss on java recommendations. :|
I tend to ascribe lighter roasts as having a higher caffeine content since the roasting process being much shorter results in less of the bean’s caffeine being leached by the roasting process. Darker roasts, comparatively, tend to have lower caffeine content at the bean level for that reason unless additional caffeine gets added in during post-roasting (such as with the ultra-high caffeine beans which made that list).
As for Vita blend, I recommended it for the flavour in addition to it having higher caffeine for a roast relative to darker-roast counterparts (that is: when nothing additional gets added in after the roasting step). So yah, while it won’t win awards for highest caffeine in a bean ever, it still has enough to stir one awake gently before looking for additional coffee in other roasts/varieties, and it tastes wonderful either as a black coffee or if one adds sugar and cream. It really is a breakfast coffee (or an evening wind-down one). When I used to walk to the sidewalk kiosk, I’d get a double Americano or, in much rarer moments, a quad-Americano (typically on the gloomiest of mornings during wet season), in Vita blend.
That said, I agree with you that Peet’s tastes like swill, as do Second Cup’s Paradiso (Second Cup is a coffee chain here in Canada, though I’ve been told the brand, much like another Canadian brand, Timothy’s, might also get sold elsewhere for those Keurig machines I deeply detest) and Starbucks Verona. Verona and Paradiso are the bane of gross to my palate, and them both being dark roasts means they taste awful and don’t give me a lot of caffeine — a lose-lose in my book.
Starbucks, to their rare credit, at least has had a light “blonde” roast for the last few years. I forget what they call it in the U.S., but here it’s called True North. Many locations here refuse to brew it as a drip after about 4p, annoyingly, because of its immanently high caffeine content as a light roast.
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Ah, no, no no. I like the coffee. It's just more of a chill-out type of coffee for me, relaxing. So for that its the type I make on a Sunday or a later-evening type of thing. On Saturdays in particular, I just like my dark roasts as they have 'bite'. Not necessarily more caffeine, just a roastier flavor. If I want caffeine, I'll put in Death Wish - which is why we use that during the week.
I also am not arguing against your take on caffeine content and roasting time. That makes sense. But the Vita slots in well because we now have a go to for kind of a wind-down coffee. We didn't before.
PS, Starbucks in he US calls it the Blonde Roast. While it might have more caffeine, it's light on taste and generally that rich, dark-roasty flavor is what my wife and I gravitate towards.
We'll be buying more from Vivace though. Interested in seeing what their other roasts taste like.
Don’t get me wrong! There are definitely dark roasts I’ve loved — particularly ones which aren’t astringent to the tongue.
But I have a terrible confession: those dark roasts which I’ve loved (typically from Panama, Guatemala, or Sumatra) are the go-tos I’ve ordered at those rare places which have an in-house Clover press. There’s a dark roast out of Ethiopia which has appeared as a Clover option at one local café, but I’ve found that roast especially astringent and sharp (the chalkboard description likens it to black currants and other tart fruits, whereas the others I’ve preferred mention more spice notes like vanilla or cardamom).
In short, I have (in the past, a total of once) ordered a Clover press coffee which was $15, from a small batch of beans from a particular spot on a Panamanian mountain. It needed nothing and it was incredible. But it was also $15 — almost 8x what I’d usually spend on a coffee if I went to a café.
But now I’m veering into fancypants, high-falutin’ coffee brewing methods which are fairly uncommon, seldom cheap, and impractical to make at home.
Now I understand how you mean about a mellow, wind-down flavour. Vita is definitely that!
P.S., “Blonde Roast!” That was it! Odd name, but I guess it polled well in U.S. market research.
Every weekday morning at approximately 4:45am I deliver a cup of coffee to my wife so she can start her day…
Me: [knocking on door]
Her: 'Come in!'
Trudge, trudge, trudge over to the designated coffee drop off spot, a space on her desk next to the bed which has a glass coaster with a picture of a coffee mug on it.
Only it's covered up (AGAIN) by a candle lighter, a bunch of papers and her phone!
SIGH! Clean off stuff, put coffee down.
Her: 'Heavy sigh! Your fault!'
Me [thinking and not wanting to argue this early]: 'Yeah…my fault!'
Her: 'Whattttt? It's your fault I got all this tech stuff now!'
Me: 'Yeah…………it's my fault you have all this stuff in the way so I can't put your coffee down.'
Her: 'Oh…sorry!'
SMH!!!!
Me: [knocking on door]
Her: 'Come in!'
Trudge, trudge, trudge over to the designated coffee drop off spot, a space on her desk next to the bed which has a glass coaster with a picture of a coffee mug on it.
Only it's covered up (AGAIN) by a candle lighter, a bunch of papers and her phone!
SIGH! Clean off stuff, put coffee down.
Her: 'Heavy sigh! Your fault!'
Me [thinking and not wanting to argue this early]: 'Yeah…my fault!'
Her: 'Whattttt? It's your fault I got all this tech stuff now!'
Me: 'Yeah…………it's my fault you have all this stuff in the way so I can't put your coffee down.'
Her: 'Oh…sorry!'
SMH!!!!
So, the past two weeks or so have resulted in the purchase of a French Press, a kettle and two Keurig K-Express Essentials (one red, one black).
The red Keurig went to my wife's work and the black has replaced our four-cup drip coffemaker at home.
I've never been interested in Keurig before, but with the kind of students my wife has in her classroom a breakable glass carafe is not an option. She also doesn't have the time for the machinations involved with preparing it. So, drop in a K-cup and go.
For me, I'm just too lazy to grind, insert a filter, pour in water and turn the machine on for 3-4 cups in the late afternoon. So, the second Keurig. This actually turned into a bonus because when my wife is home she is constantly asking me to make coffee in the late afternoon/evening. Now all she has to do is use the Keurig. And I did not have to make coffee for her before she left for work the other morning because…Keurig.
Looks like this is going to save some aggravation.
Vita in the cup this morning, MacPro below.
The red Keurig went to my wife's work and the black has replaced our four-cup drip coffemaker at home.
I've never been interested in Keurig before, but with the kind of students my wife has in her classroom a breakable glass carafe is not an option. She also doesn't have the time for the machinations involved with preparing it. So, drop in a K-cup and go.
For me, I'm just too lazy to grind, insert a filter, pour in water and turn the machine on for 3-4 cups in the late afternoon. So, the second Keurig. This actually turned into a bonus because when my wife is home she is constantly asking me to make coffee in the late afternoon/evening. Now all she has to do is use the Keurig. And I did not have to make coffee for her before she left for work the other morning because…Keurig.
Looks like this is going to save some aggravation.
Vita in the cup this morning, MacPro below.
And I suppose that the school wouldn't approve of her chaining the kids to their desks?! LOL
I looked up the K-Express Essentials. Nice looking design. They mention how Keurig is trusted by over 75 companies. Including Folgers (yes, a real endorsement there. LOL). And Green Mountain (which had better trust Keurig, since it's a Keurig brand.)
www.keurig.com
K-Express Essentials™ Coffee Maker Keurig®
Available only at Walmart Introducing the K-Express Essentials™ Single Serve Coffee Maker: Keurig quality at our most welcoming price. This have-it-all brewer is a great way to experience genuine Keurig quality and rich, full-flavored coffee made with the push of a button convenience – at a...
I have to admit I'm not the biggest fan of Keurig--although a lot of that is just due to price of those pods.
But one thing I have really welcomed--Keurig seems to be the standard now for coffee available in waiting rooms. A huge step over coffee in Mr. Coffee that burned beyond recognition 3 hours ago. Or a pot of barely warm water and a jar of Folgers instant.
But one thing I have really welcomed--Keurig seems to be the standard now for coffee available in waiting rooms. A huge step over coffee in Mr. Coffee that burned beyond recognition 3 hours ago. Or a pot of barely warm water and a jar of Folgers instant.
Yeah, considering the swill I consider Green Mountain to be, I don't like giving them my money for the machine. But it's been a long time since the original machine was introduced and it's not just Green Mountain that offers pods now.I looked up the K-Express Essentials. Nice looking design. They mention how Keurig is trusted by over 75 companies. Including Folgers (yes, a real endorsement there. LOL). And Green Mountain (which had better trust Keurig, since it's a Keurig brand.)
K-Express Essentials™ Coffee Maker Keurig®
Available only at Walmart Introducing the K-Express Essentials™ Single Serve Coffee Maker: Keurig quality at our most welcoming price. This have-it-all brewer is a great way to experience genuine Keurig quality and rich, full-flavored coffee made with the push of a button convenience – at a...
You can even use your own K-cup, which I probably will get at some point. I just don't see the value in that at the moment. You are measuring and grinding beans to put into a K-cup to insert into a Keurig - for a single serving. What was the point of having the Keurig now?
Anyway, it's not a replacement for the primary drip machine. My wife and I drink too much during the course of the day for it to be that. And I'm only going to be running K-cups through it that are NOT our daily grind. So then, for what it does, it is useful.
Something to be said for that instant, on-demand freshness and availability. I'm no fan of the environmental impact of course, but Green Mountain is mostly to blame for that if you believe the account of the inventor.
So, the past two weeks or so have resulted in the purchase of a French Press, a kettle and two Keurig K-Express Essentials (one red, one black).
The red Keurig went to my wife's work and the black has replaced our four-cup drip coffemaker at home.
I've never been interested in Keurig before, but with the kind of students my wife has in her classroom a breakable glass carafe is not an option. She also doesn't have the time for the machinations involved with preparing it. So, drop in a K-cup and go.
For me, I'm just too lazy to grind, insert a filter, pour in water and turn the machine on for 3-4 cups in the late afternoon. So, the second Keurig. This actually turned into a bonus because when my wife is home she is constantly asking me to make coffee in the late afternoon/evening. Now all she has to do is use the Keurig. And I did not have to make coffee for her before she left for work the other morning because…Keurig.
Looks like this is going to save some aggravation.
Vita in the cup this morning, MacPro below.
View attachment 1930467
A smooth Saturday morning.
So…irony.
We visit Seattle and the place where we stay (Airbnb) has no coffee maker and canned coffee. The promised Keurig to borrow never made an appearance, so Safeway provided instant Starbucks in a can for three days.
Our flight back was cancelled, so there was a two day stay in a hotel, which had only it's own brand coffee in it's own filter (you dropped it all into the drip coffeemaker). The night before flying back we finally got filters and were able to brew some Major Dickison's blend. Only, we were using Seattle tap water.
While waiting at the gate to depart we got the only 'good' coffee we had the entire trip - from a Peets in the South Satellite of Sea-Tac airport.
So yeah, we went to coffee nirvana and got bad coffee.
I should mention that there were opportunities to visit Starbucks, but we were often in between doing things that it (and the snow on the ground) just seemed a hassle.
Oh yeah, did I mention the snow storm which pretty much shut Seattle down? Yeah, there's that too.
We visit Seattle and the place where we stay (Airbnb) has no coffee maker and canned coffee. The promised Keurig to borrow never made an appearance, so Safeway provided instant Starbucks in a can for three days.
Our flight back was cancelled, so there was a two day stay in a hotel, which had only it's own brand coffee in it's own filter (you dropped it all into the drip coffeemaker). The night before flying back we finally got filters and were able to brew some Major Dickison's blend. Only, we were using Seattle tap water.
While waiting at the gate to depart we got the only 'good' coffee we had the entire trip - from a Peets in the South Satellite of Sea-Tac airport.
So yeah, we went to coffee nirvana and got bad coffee.
I should mention that there were opportunities to visit Starbucks, but we were often in between doing things that it (and the snow on the ground) just seemed a hassle.
Oh yeah, did I mention the snow storm which pretty much shut Seattle down? Yeah, there's that too.
Sorry to hear the trip to the land where Aldus once lived didn't work out as one might hope!
Coincidentally, I'm currently using a bag of Peet's "Sumatra". Interesting, although this specific coffee is not something I'll go out of my way to get again.
One thing I like about this coffee (and I think I've seen it on other bags of Peet's): they clearly print dates on their bags (pack date, and best by date.)