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Coffee - do you and how do you consume it?

Billy Budapest said:
If you drink American-style drip coffee, you have to get one of these—they are just about the only coffee makers that brew at the correct 202 degrees Fahrenheit temperature:

https://new.seattlecoffeegear.com/technivorm-moccamaster-coffee-brewer-kb741
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Yes, Moccamasters are the best cofeemakers, they will last you a lifetime too.
Moccamasters are standard equipment in most homes in Norway.
Wilfa Svart are pretty good too, but more expensive, but also have some tweaking.
 
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gene_stl said:
In the USA we like our Bunn coffee makers.
https://imgur.com/UOhbovj
this is from a post from member Rod and it looks just like my setup. Except my scale is elsewhere because I measure beans by volume rather than weight before grinding them.
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The Bunn stuff is built like a tank but isn’t super common in residential applications. They are omnipresent in the workplace, however. My only real complaint is that they run their hot plates way too hot, burning the coffee if the pot is on it for any appreciable length of time.
 
What’s the general opinion of a Baratza Encore grinder? I don’t make espresso—my usual are pourovers.

Rick “birthday coming up” Denney
 
I gave my brother a Baratza Encore, its more simple and with more consistent coarse than my Baratza Preciso, which is more expensive.
I will be getting encore next, highly recommend that particular grinder.
 
A plug for Baratza ... I have a 15 year-old grinder of theirs (whichever was the cheapest at the time). It broke last year. I called the company and asked their recommendation for a current model to upgrade to. The guy asked a bunch of questions, and told me that for the press pot coffee I make, none of their current grinders would be any better than what I had. And so he sold me the $5 replacement part. They have a video online on how to fix the thing.

I'm impressed by any company that sells replacement parts at all. But to have them for your cheapest product from 15 years ago, and to refuse to upsell to someone asking to be upsold to ... that's pretty rare.
 
rdenney said:
What’s the general opinion of a Baratza Encore grinder? I don’t make espresso—my usual are pourovers.

Rick “birthday coming up” Denney
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It's a sold recommendation at it's price for filter use. In Europe the Wilfa Svart is also great, but I don't think it distributed in the US.
 
Wes said:
NSF??

what does NIH think?

or ONR?
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National Sanitation Foundation - they are a non-governing body who create most of the standards used by all local health authorities, insurance companies, restaurants, the food service industry, food service equipment manufacturers, etc. Google them.
 
Doodski said:
I toss into a large coffee mug 2 heaping table spoons of sugar and use a flat or heaping table spoon of powdered cocoa. Add ~boiling water and mix well. I bought Hersheys, Frys, Nestle and no name cocoa and found the no name works the best for baking because it creates a darker more shiny surface when baked.
21039704_front_a06_@2.png
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Thanks for the instructions! I think I've been making it more difficult than need be.
 
I have a Baratza Encore - at least 10yrs old. THought I needed to buy a new grinder but found they sell replacement parts (including the grindy thing for like $25)...and also publish YT vids on how to repair/upgrade them. Hats off to them!!
Compared to all the high price ones out there, it gets good recommendations for most grinds - esp for the price!!
PS. Just signed up for one of these. Sure am curious to find out if it'll be any good (I like the 'just need a heat source' for occasional espressos, no firing up the espresso machine nonsense...?)
But then I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff, too:)
 
thegeton said:
National Sanitation Foundation - they are a non-governing body who create most of the standards used by all local health authorities, insurance companies, restaurants, the food service industry, food service equipment manufacturers, etc. Google them.
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Most commercial cooking equipment has an NSF label. It seems to mean that the thing was designed to be easy to clean. A lot of consumer kitchen stuff is terrible in this regard. There is some commercial stuff that doesn't have NSF certification, for whatever reason. Contrary some assumptions, many health codes don't require it. NYC has relatively strict health regulations for restaurants, but doesn't require NSF approval for most things.
 
paulraphael said:
Most commercial cooking equipment has an NSF label. It seems to mean that the thing was designed to be easy to clean. A lot of consumer kitchen stuff is terrible in this regard. There is some commercial stuff that doesn't have NSF certification, for whatever reason. Contrary some assumptions, many health codes don't require it. NYC has relatively strict health regulations for restaurants, but doesn't require NSF approval for most things.
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NSF is more than cleanliness, it's a required certification process where the manufacturer must demonstrate via objective NSF witnesessed testing that they can guarantee that their device not only meets all construction material requirements, but that when using the mfgr's described cleaning process that it removes 100% of an injected ecoli bacteria sample. All commercial equipment and some consumer grade equipment must pass NSF testing in order to be sold for public use in the US.

I've managed numerous equipment programs and projects which had to go through the NSF certification process. In 100% of the nation wide cases where we installed or sold this equipment, the end user location was required by their local health authority to either have NSF certification, or to have achieved its equivalent through ETL, UL (who also do NSF testing), or a number of other lesser known testing entities.

I don't mean to argue, but when I worked for a previous employer, we opened a large restaurant in NYC in 2018 and we were required to meet the requirements of my previous paragraph for all of the food service equipment in that location. My project was a single serve bean to cup brewer which was definitely required by NYC health code to be NSF and UL certified. I personally delivered those certificates to our QA team and was copied on the official document transmission to those same NYC health officials.

peace
 
coffee_station.jpg


I'm a big pour over fan. I like a number of different brands and roasts, but my favorite is Sumatra dark roast.
 
I'd like to drop a rec for a few businesses.

Angels Cup is based in NY; I get 4x ~80 g samplers once a month for $25. USPS has impacted shipping times recently. They have an app that lets you do blind tastings. They source from all over the country, so the beans are 7-10 days old by the time you get them, but the variety is outstanding.
https://angelscup.com/

Bean Box is based on the west coast; I get 4x~50g once a month. I've only used it for a little bit and may cancel it; I've been to every coffee shop on the west coast.
https://beanbox.com/

I've also previously used MistoBox, but getting an entire bag that I might or might not like was a little too much.
https://www.mistobox.com/

I also peruse the reviews on CoffeeReview:
https://www.coffeereview.com/


For gear, I use a Baratza Virtuoso and a MoccaMaster. The MoccaMaster replaced 10 years of pourover - I gave up pourover right quick when the baby arrived. I also use Third Wave Water, because our local municipal water is no bueno. It's a little fancy but I also like that I don't have to descale everything every week.
https://thirdwavewater.com/
 
Billy Budapest said:
Anybody drink “cat poop“ coffee? I tried a sip of it once and it didn’t taste different enough from my normal brew for me to get over the gag factor.
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I did! It was basically a $40 cup of mediocre diner coffee. Might be different if I ordered it from a specialty coffee shop, but it wasn't great after dinner at John Howie. I felt like most of the cost was for the ceremony, not the quality of the beans or knowledge of the staff.
 
Billy Budapest said:
Anybody drink “cat poop“ coffee? I tried a sip of it once and it didn’t taste different enough from my normal brew for me to get over the gag factor.
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I have tried it; a coworker brought a bag back from Indonesia. The bag was months past roast, so it tasted like stale coffee. :)

If you could try it fresh, it'd be worth it to a coffee fan. But if it's stale... not worth it.
 
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