Hoping to have a PSA for coffee lovers

[VirginiaCat]

Guys, you are going to call me foo foo....but the way I get good taste to coffee is not by adding things but by extracting just the oils into your drink...and water...and a good machine.

Sorry, but tap water is a no-no. The additives make the taste bitter when heated to correct temp and actually are killing the life of the machine. I installed a Reverse Osmosis system on my water line to my icemaker and a small faucet on my kitchen sink when I first moved to the new house. Replace the filters about once per year (mine is 5 stage). Mine is similar to this:

https://www.costco.com/aquverse-5-st...100516084.html.

Basic plumbing skills required or in my case $100 to a local handyman (water lines make me nervous).

Drip systems and percolators simply do not get all of the oils out of the bean and therefore you do not get the full depth of flavor.

I was going through about a new drip maker ever 1.5 -2 years because they would burn out or simply coffee started tasting bad to me. Switched to Keurig at one point but god that is awful coffee.

Finally, invested in a Jura automatic espresso maker (the intent at the time was to replace my wife's foo foo starbucks Latte' habit at $5 per cup at least three times per week that makes espresso shots but also can make an auto mixed latte/cappuccino. I have to admit the one we bought ($1200) is only ok at the latte side of things because it does not get the milk hot enough for us but the coffee it makes (I do the 4oz strong pour and have 2 of those before work every morning) is delicious. I suppose is it more like a strong americano if you go by starbucks language because it is extracting an espresso shot and mixing with about 3oz of water. you can choose to make it weaker and giver yourself a 6oz pour. that is too week for my tastes. Ours has many of these features (ours also grinds the beans to make the coffee) but is a bit higher end and less plastic parts than this DeLonghi :

https://www.costco.com/de'longhi-mag...100490250.html

The Beans do make a difference. I simply cannot get a taste for some really dark African beans. They are always bitter to me no matter the water or maker.

Having said that, we just bought a 12oz bag of beans from my niece that is a fair trade small batch by Sseko Designs that is AMAZING. It appears to be a light roast bean but dang, the acid content is not high like many light roasts. It is from Uganda. Pretty pricey at $15 for 12oz.

[kingcat]

There is the good stuff!

[CitizenBBN]

VirginiaCat, I may need to pick your brain, and that of other coffee folks here.

My GF has to have coffee in the morning or many people will die. Now she has a nice commercial Bunn maker, but I happen to have an Espresso machine I never used. I got it cleaned up and fired up and read the directions which were clearly translated from Italian, and got it working.

So I can operate it, but have no knowledge of the subtleties yet. I am going to go to a place in town Mick recommended over on Stone Rd and get some good beans. That's step one.

But then comes getting the right process. The machine is a Profi, which from what I can tell is at least based on a Saeco b/c it has the same portafilters (See I'm learning).

So if I don't blow the place up using it I'm sure I'll have questions. My next challenge is knowing when to stop it as it doesn't have a pre-set pour level. You can let it run till the grounds are spent and dead and awful, so I have to get a touch for that part.

[Darrell KSR]

A couple drops of vanilla extract works better...much better

I tried that this morning with a pot of coffee. It didn't transform the coffee into good coffee, but it did take out the "burned" taste a good bit. I'd call it now more like a "stale" taste--which is an improvement, as you know.

I'll try that again Tuesday when I make my 500 mile round trip for my coffee thermos where I'll have it available for mental alertness at 2 a.m. if needed, and the taste isn't as important.

The next few days back to the good stuff.

[Darrell KSR]

FWIW, I just changed my delivery date for my next delivery of Craft Coffee. I've been away from home, and also picked up some other coffee, so it really wasn't a good time for the next delivery. I pushed it off for three weeks, which should be about perfect. Very easy to do.