Teach me About Coffee.

[adrianlee]

I like it. A lot. I just know nothing about it.

I like a light roast more than dark...why? I hear it has more caffeine.

Tonight, i went to the local coffee house and had a mexican blend. It was the best coffee i've ever had (I'm probably biased because it potentially came from my home land).

SPILL IT

[Eric!]

I know I love dark roast, drinking it black.
I know too much gives me tummy aches.
I know it makes waiting up for El Capistans to be for sale easier (literally have it on auto-refresh for every 5 seconds)
I know it makes me crash some time later and that makes sleep AWESOME.
I know it's good when you pour espresso into it, too.

[adrianlee]

I know I love dark roast, drinking it black.
I know too much gives me tummy aches.
I know it makes waiting up for El Capistans to be for sale easier (literally have it on auto-refresh for every 5 seconds)
I know it makes me crash some time later and that makes sleep AWESOME.
I know it's good when you pour espresso into it, too.

All of this is true! I don't quite have the El Capistan on auto, though. I just have an email from them when it's available.

Black is the best way to drink it, imo.

[tuffteef]

i shop around for cafe's and then keep returning and donating cash to them every morning
because im a dull boy

[Eric!]

I know I love dark roast, drinking it black.
I know too much gives me tummy aches.
I know it makes waiting up for El Capistans to be for sale easier (literally have it on auto-refresh for every 5 seconds)
I know it makes me crash some time later and that makes sleep AWESOME.
I know it's good when you pour espresso into it, too.

All of this is true! I don't quite have the El Capistan on auto, though. I just have an email from them when it's available.

Black is the best way to drink it, imo.

Well you never know which they'll do first, my email is open too. Gmail is awesome because it shows the inbox new message count in the tab label :D

What are you looking to be taught??

[adrianlee]

I know I love dark roast, drinking it black.
I know too much gives me tummy aches.
I know it makes waiting up for El Capistans to be for sale easier (literally have it on auto-refresh for every 5 seconds)
I know it makes me crash some time later and that makes sleep AWESOME.
I know it's good when you pour espresso into it, too.

All of this is true! I don't quite have the El Capistan on auto, though. I just have an email from them when it's available.

Black is the best way to drink it, imo.

Well you never know which they'll do first, my email is open too. Gmail is awesome because it shows the inbox new message count in the tab label :D

What are you looking to be taught??

Not really sure. What makes certain kinds....taste the way they do, etc... I don't really know what to ask. Haha.

I can explain certain beers and why they taste how they do and have the colour they have, etc... Is coffee similar at all to beer? Age, brew process, etc...? I don't know, I feel so uneducated about this.

[Eric!]

Not really sure. What makes certain kinds....taste the way they do, etc... I don't really know what to ask. Haha.

I can explain certain beers and why they taste how they do and have the colour they have, etc... Is coffee similar at all to beer? Age, brew process, etc...? I don't know, I feel so uneducated about this.

Well then I'm subscribing, because that would be great info to read about :D

[warwick.hoy]

Grind it,...pour hot ass water over it,...wait a few minutes,...pour it into a cup,...add cream and sugar,...or don't,....drink it.

If you are serious about coffee just try some of your local roasters, or at the very least use whole beans and don't buy more than a pound at a time. Get yourself a good burr grinder and a french press.

[Eric!]

Grind it,...pour hot ass water over it,...wait a few minutes,...pour it into a cup,...add cream and sugar,...or don't,....drink it.

If you are serious about coffee just try some of your local roasters, or at the very least use whole beans and don't buy more than a pound at a time. Get yourself a good burr grinder and a french press.

Oooo, french press :D

[adrianlee]

Grind it,...pour hot ass water over it,...wait a few minutes,...pour it into a cup,...add cream and sugar,...or don't,....drink it.

If you are serious about coffee just try some of your local roasters, or at the very least use whole beans and don't buy more than a pound at a time. Get yourself a good burr grinder and a french press.

Oooo, french press :D

I was so close to buying one today. Are they all the same? I was eyeing some 3 and 8 cup ones from target.

[devnulljp]

Sneaks across the blood-brain barrier like a ninja in the night and acts as an adenosine receptor antagonist. Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Although I def don't like the sound of pouring hot ass-water over my coffee ...

[elbandito]

I used to work at Starbucks and they teach you a whole hell of a lot about coffee, so here goes:

Coffee only grows in certain parts of the planet, though it is not native to all of them. It will only grow in between the tropic of capricorn and the tropic of cancer, and the three main growing regions are South America (Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, etc.), Africa (Ethopia, Kenya, etc.), and South-East Asia (Sumatra, Sulawesi, etc.).

The trees can be shade grown or full sun and each method of growing, drying and roasting has an effect on the coffee's final taste. Also, there are really only two types of beans in teh world. One is called Arabica - That's the type of beans that your specialty coffee shops like Starbucks, Second Cup and Blendz use. The other is called Robustica or Robustico (I can't remember which) and that's teh type that the run-of-the-mill coffee shops use (Coffee Time, Tim Hortons, Country Style, etc). Folgers and Maxwell House instant coffee is also of this type. It is cheaper and less aromatic.

All coffee beans start as cherry-like berries, which are picked and left out to dry in the sun (in most cases). They are then either roasted on site or shipped elsewhere in the world to be roasted closer to the point of sale.

It is a myth that light roast has more caffeine than a dark roast. Well, it's a "sort of" myth. Your average cup of coffee has about 33mg of caffeine in it, regardless of roasting length. Light roasted beans have only about 0.003% more caffeine than a dark roast and as such, teh difference is so small as to be negligible. The biggest difference is in taste. A dark roast has a much more pungent (and sometimes cloying) flavour to it.

On the topic of flavour, African coffees tend to be the 'boldest' of coffees. That is to say, they have the strongest taste. This is because coffee beans trees that grow in full sun become the most potent... they also tend to have a fruity and sometimes nutty undertone in their flavour, due to the drying process (as I mentioned, they leave the fruit to dry in the sun, which imparts a fruitiness to the dried bean). South American coffees tend to be rather less aromatic, as they're mostly shade grown - this makes them excellent for teh purposes of blending and you'll find that most coffee blends that you buy will be either all or partly of the South American variety. South East Asian coffees usually constitute the second half of these types of blends.

It's important that you know about the hardships endured by teh growers of teh coffee that you consume, imo. I won't go too much in depth but many of them are not paid well for their products and coffee trees are very thirsty plants that require a lot of work. Most of the money that we pay for one cup of coffee goes straight to the american or european company that purchases teh beans and very little of it goes back to the farmers. To this end, I would encourage all of you to do your best to try to purchase ethically sound products from your local grocery stores, if at all possible. There are ppl out there that give their lives for your morning cup 'o joe and it's important that we give back for all their hard work.

[elbandito]

Also, be careful when drinking decaf coffee... some methods use potentially toxic chemicals to remove the caffeine from the beans. Swiss water is probably the safest method that is used nowadays... Many of the decaf instant coffee uses borax, I think, or something to that effect.

I've got a hell of a lot more useless coffee info stuck in my head, so if there's anything else you'd like to know, just ask.

[Eric!]

Also, be careful when drinking decaf coffee... some methods use potentially toxic chemicals to remove the caffeine from the beans. Swiss water is probably the safest method that is used nowadays... Many of the decaf instant coffee uses borax, I think, or something to that effect.

I've got a hell of a lot more useless coffee info stuck in my head, so if there's anything else you'd like to know, just ask.

Bring it!

[adrianlee]

Also, be careful when drinking decaf coffee... some methods use potentially toxic chemicals to remove the caffeine from the beans. Swiss water is probably the safest method that is used nowadays... Many of the decaf instant coffee uses borax, I think, or something to that effect.

I've got a hell of a lot more useless coffee info stuck in my head, so if there's anything else you'd like to know, just ask.

Bring it!

Jesus Chrimeny, that was incredible.


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