Coffee

calstars i think some of these kettles have temp controls on them for the real finicky types

its also much faster

is it? on your weeny little 120V current?

i had always understood that to be the stumbling block to mass acceptance of the countertop kettle

yeah its faster, americans dont have them i think just cause they dont use kettles very much

it's faster, but not as fast as euro kettles due to what I am told is the "mains voltage"

its against gods law for europe to have a single better household appliance than america and must be rectified i demand mains voltage

most houses have 220V outlets for the washing machine.. i bet something could be rigged up

xp burning the european flag to heat my coffee water

I didn't get it either before I dated/married a non-American but now I will never go back to the stovetop kettle. And the Fellow did heat very fast somehow.

I really did like the temp control as well as the temp hold feature on the Fellow, but I just can't splurge like that again. The cheapo one I've been using is basically fine for now.

the fellow kettle pulls hell of amps to keep up afaict

tbh feel like electric kettles have become pretty common in america

as many as one in fifteen of my coworkers may have them in their domicile

Ive switched to a stovetop kettle because the electric ones just got eaten by the hard water locally

reminding me that i need to get an electric kettle for my office...for TEA

......i use the water arm of my coffee machine....

It's a Friday afternoon and I'm fading, coffee would be great right now. I work on a college campus, it's finals week, shouldn't be hard to source, no?

Turns out, yes. None of the cafes in the buildings I can access are open, the local coffee shop randomly closed at 3 this afternoon, even the Starbucks is closed.

Thoughts and prayers

An otherwise excellent cof house in my town closes at 1pm, WTF? Others close at 2pm. Only one is open until 5. Otherwise, the Starbucks inside the Target is your choice.

Not in the same annoyance league as most cafes in Japan, which OPEN at noon or some afternoon hour.

japanese business hours are strange

i got a good espresso grinder (eureka mignon) for xmas. this is going to be a life-changing upgrade.

get ready baby

nice

nice

London's first coffee-house, as reported by an eyewitness in 1654:

"A cuphye-house or a Turkish- as it were ale-house is erected near the Old Exchange. ...It is somewhat hot and unpleasant but a good after relish and caused breaking of wind in abundance"

— Dr Anton Howes (@antonhowes) July 2, 2022

mods plz change thread-title to "cuphye"

it came late to london i think. bohemia and vienna were getting it in on horses from hungary and transylvania from the 1630s or so

"caused breaking of wind in abundance, also the second half of the thirty years war"

lol

so my Oxo Barista Brain coffee maker finally bit the dust. I decided that I will go back to using the Chemex, and I purchased a new electric kettle for it. The kettle works really well, but I'm extremely underwhelmed by the results I'm getting from the Chemex. There's some good flavor in there, but it's just way too mild. I'm kind of surprised because the Barista Brain is designed to imitate Chemex-style pour over coffee, but it produces much more robust flavors.

I've tried making some little adjustments that have helped a bit, but not nearly enough. Here's what I will do next: try bumping up the kettle temp from the coffee setting (around 200 degrees) to full boiling temp, add a bit more ground coffee (not sure why I'd need more coffee when I'm using the exact same amount of water and coffee as with the Barista Brain), go to a finer grind (I've already bumped this up a bit and it helped slightly, I don't have much more room left for this before it starts to clog). If all else fails, I may switch to darker beans. I think I used to use French Roast with the Chemex in the past, I've moved to somewhat (not much) lighter roasts in more recent times, but maybe that just isn't going to work here.

do you scald the chemex first might help a lil but yeah more cof higher temp will prob do it, tho pouring actually boiling water in there is prob unadvisable

yes, I do. The water I used is a hair below 212 because 200 wasn't quite cutting it.

oh no, was the BB dead from natural causes? Mine works well, still

For most of the past year the water sprayer had only been hitting half of the basket, so I had to constantly stir up the coffee grounds while it was brewing to make sure it brewed correctly. Then the heating element got stuck to be permanently on, which meant that it would just immediately crank through all the water as soon as you poured it in, plus it didn't seem particularly safe. I got a good several years of daily use out of it, so I'm not too upset, but I may eventually have to get a new one if I can't nail down a good routine with the chemex soon.

I'm no expert, but to get better Chemex results I had to start using hotter water (boiling or very near) and way more coffee than you see recommended online.

On that note, how much coffee would you all use when doing a Chemex for two?

I tend to go with roughly a scoop per 6 oz cup. I use about 6 scoops for my daily massive cup of coffee (more like 6 cups), so I'd probably shoot for about 10 scoops for 2.

I did raise the temperature and also went with a finer grind, I may have swung it a bit too far towards bitter, so I'll probably dial those back a tiny amount tomorrow

Lately I have been moving away from the single origin coffees and back to Stumptown's blends. Man, they are good. I've been especially into Homestead and Founders blend lately. They just taste more classically like coffee to me, but significantly elevated, as opposed to a high-end, wine-like product where you focus on tasting notes.

i too have been getting some blends and digging it, and agree it's more of a "classic coffee" type vibe.

was thinking about getting an espresso machine once I saw how cheap (and small ) they are, I assumed they were huge and cost $$$

I mainly want the blacknessof the bean to be true - a French roast - a real one, jet black

yeah, I can't go there, but I am mostly liking a roast right down the middle. Light roasts are a little too delicate for me sometimes, although I do enjoy them.

was thinking about getting an espresso machine once I saw how cheap (and small ) they are, I assumed they were huge and cost $$$

― a (waterface), Thursday, November 10, 2022 4:00 PM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Anything below a few hundred bucks is probably not going to be satisfactory quality though

yah that's what i'm worried about. if anyone has one they dig???!!!

My father has done a lot of study of home espresso, and according to him the least expensive option for real espresso at home is the Flair manual espresso maker. However, its a much slower and more manually intensive process than you might want:

https://flairespresso.com/products/espresso-makers/flair-classic/

I've come to prefer blends as well. Agree that the mentioned Stumptown blends are excellent. I also enjoy Verve, which I think is based out of Santa Cruz, so not sure how widely available they are. Their 1950 and Streetlevel are favorites - always buy them if they are on sale.

Never used it but the Breville Bambino seems to get good reviews and is not super expensive, if you just want a small machine to make espresso for yourself or you and a couple other people. Rancilio Silvia seems like it's the long-running favorite for modest sized kitchen espresso machines but it's gotten pretty pricey. I loved my La Pavoni Europiccola (which I'm sure I waxed extensively about in this thread in the past) but it was such a pain in the ass at the same time.

we have had the Saeco Aroma for 10+ years … seals are starting leak now but it has been a solid workhorse, love it

i dont think they make them anymore sadly but there are used models floating around sometimes on ebay

the bambino is good but bambino + decent grinder is still $$$$$

we've got a great burr grinder

i almost typed butt grinder

Capresso Infinity. $100