[subego]

Doesn’t matter. Wine is overrated.

Hey... let me ask again. What was your cleaning routine with the Encore?

[subego]

Out of Ethiopian and Burundi. Got a bag of “Rayos del Sol” Peruvian. Not bad at all.

[subego]

I think it was reader who asked about filtered water.

Just did back to back pots of tap and bottled. Bottled is better.

The bottled was in the fridge. I wonder if the temp change affected it too.

[reader50]

I had suggested distilled. Since distilled is tasteless, you'd only get the coffee taste.

[subego]

Ah! Bad memory.

It’s been ages since I’ve drank distilled water, but my recollection is it tasted totally weird.

[Brien]

Distilled water = gross coffee IMO

[ghporter]

Distilled water typically is totally without any flavor. We're used to some sort of flavor in water, from the hint of chlorine that keeps gunk from growing in the storage tanks, to whatever "interesting" chemicals and minerals are in your local water.

[subego]

I also feel like on more than one occasion, the distilled water I’ve tried had taken on the taste of the plastic jug it came in.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Originally Posted by subego 

Doesn’t matter. Wine is overrated.

Hey... let me ask again. What was your cleaning routine with the Encore?

There’s a half-dozen decent YouTube videos, including a Baratza one I think. I gave it a regular brush and quick spray every week, and then a more thorough disassembly every few weeks. I think it depends on your volume and beans, though—I find some are more oily/sticky than others.

[subego]

Thanks!

[subego]

I have a rare opportunity to say something nice about Kroger, which is the one by me carries whole beans from the roaster I go to, so I was able to get some when their cafe was closed.

Unfortunately, only blends. Went with their House, which is Colombia, Honduras, and Burundi. Not bad at all, and a veritable bargain at $10 a pound. The single source Rwanda/Burundi I’ve been getting lately is more like $25.

[ghporter]

I always found Kroger was a good, middle-of-the-road grocer. But that they have local roaster’s beans…that’s pretty cool.

[subego]

Officially it’s a Mariano’s, so “upmarket Kroger”. I figure that’s why local roasters are an option, though I get the impression my roaster (Intelligentsia) is pretty big as local roasters go, and tries to push themselves wherever they can. This isn’t the first surprising place I’ve found them.

The big issues I have with Kroger (at least at my store) are,

1) They stopped carrying Roundy’s “All Dressed Up” salad dressing flavored potato chips, which are fantastic. I’m very serious about my potato chips.

2) Their stock situation is a nightmare. They can’t keep things on the shelves, they don’t get rid of rotten food, and their fruit is garbage.

3) Whenever I ask someone who works there “why did this thing that used to be cool start sucking all the sudden”, the answer is always “Kroger”.


All that said, their bakery is decent. Good coffee cake.

[Brien]

I buy direct from local roasters. We have 3, and they all do a BOGO (different days).

[subego]

I usually buy direct, but they close at 4.

I stick with this particular roaster only because they have a place two blocks away.

[subego]

I know I’ve mentioned before I know someone who lives in Colombia, and will get lattes at Starbucks just to spite them.

Decided to flip that and got some in season Colombian at my roaster.

It’s definitely good, though I’d say it has more “non-coffee” flavors than the African.

[Thorzdad]

My roaster finally got the Ethiopian Sidamo Organic in. They’ve been out for months.

[subego]

Similarly, we just got Buku back. In season, too.

[ghporter]

Most coffee roasters here in San Antonio are either Downtown, or in the ritzier areas north of the city. The closest shop, which I just discovered, is a ways out - not really “far” but not just around the block either. We’re going to have to visit and check it out.

We’ve been dependent on grocery store selections for quite a while. While Gevalia is a good, mass market brand, groceries here only carry a few of their blends. The local grocery giant, H-E-B, has their own line of blends and roasts, but they’re not very far from “middle of the road” in terms of variety. Not bad, just not a place that I’d find a selection of Ethiopian coffees…

So, like our quest to find a good microbrewery (we have found one that’s worth the drive across town), we have a mission to find a coffee roaster that’s worth our time.

[subego]

My roaster has one place downtown, two in the “still edgy” hipster neighborhoods, and two in the “formerly edgy” hipster neighborhoods.

Another place roasters seem to end up at is near the universities.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by subego 

Officially it’s a Mariano’s, so “upmarket Kroger”. I figure that’s why local roasters are an option, though I get the impression my roaster (Intelligentsia) is pretty big as local roasters go, and tries to push themselves wherever they can. This isn’t the first surprising place I’ve found them.

The big issues I have with Kroger (at least at my store) are,

1) They stopped carrying Roundy’s “All Dressed Up” salad dressing flavored potato chips, which are fantastic. I’m very serious about my potato chips.

2) Their stock situation is a nightmare. They can’t keep things on the shelves, they don’t get rid of rotten food, and their fruit is garbage.

3) Whenever I ask someone who works there “why did this thing that used to be cool start sucking all the sudden”, the answer is always “Kroger”.

All that said, their bakery is decent. Good coffee cake.

Yeah, Mariano's is not the same as when Bob was in charge.
But, to Kroger's credit - I expected things go to shit much faster. Kudos for only slowly deteriorating.

-t

[ghporter]

OK, this will probably sound pretty pedestrian, but I have a question about grinds. Specifically how fine.

We use Gevalia on a daily basis, and it is labeled as “fine” ground. This jibes with the illustrations I’ve found showing various grinds.

Our local grocery has the standard grocery store grinder in their coffee section, and I’m planning to experiment with some of their “exotic” roasts. Some of these are in bulk bins, so they ain’t that exotic, but others are packed as whole beans, and that’s what I’m looking at.

Let’s say one of them is called “Ethiopian”, with all the advertising jazz on the label, blah, blah, blah. How finely should a real Ethiopian coffee be ground to get the best flavor, given the limits of a grocery store grinder?

[Thorzdad]

It completely depends on your brewing method.

[ghporter]

Oh, yeah. I left that part out. We do pour over.

[subego]

In theory, the coarsest grind is going to be for French press, and somewhere in the middle is going to be drip. For a pour over, you want in between those two.

In practice, it can be a bit all over the place. For the drip maker I have at home, the grind I use is close to a pour over. In the exact same model of drip maker I have at work, that comes out too weak.

[ghporter]

So a medium grind for pour over? Or more "medium-fine"?

[subego]

Other direction… medium-coarse.

[Thorzdad]

You might want to invest in a grinder. Those supermarket grinders contain bits and powder from every previous grind it’s done before you got there. Lord knows when they get fully cleaned. Your nice Ethiopian could end up with overtones of Aunt Emma’s vanilla-mint roast.

[ghporter]

I am aware of the cleaning issues with grocery store grinders. That machine is a necessary, if imperfect, part of what I’m trying to do. But there are ways to minimize and mitigate the residues involved. Since this is really just a trial run with a specific blend, I’m not terribly worried about a small amount of dust from some other blend getting in the way.

The key point about using the grocery grinder is that it has an adjustment knob that I can use to get a consistent grind (from that machine) in multiple visits. And I can adjust the grind if needed, with that machine as well.

My blade grinder is really only good for small batches - which is an option here. And I’m not flush enough to buy even a modestly priced burr grinder at the moment. But if I can get a feel for how coarse or fine to grind the beans, I can replicate that with my blade grinder in “just enough” batches at home.

[OreoCookie]

Yes, get a grinder. I got one for my birthday this year and I am amazed how stupid I was for not getting one earlier. Experiment with the fineness of the grind. It also depends on the coffee, e. g. if it is aromatic like Ethopian coffee or so.

[subego]

I may have already mentioned this, but I have two of the same coffee maker. One needs 3/4-cup of grounds, the other needs a full cup.

No idea why. Maximum minor irritant.

[subego]

I asked one of the actors of the coffee was okay, and he said it was “Starbucks quality”.

You fucking son of a bitch…

[Laminar]

We went to Detroit last month and I forgot that I don't like coffee. I kept trying stuff at local coffee shops and not liking it - lattes, cold brew, whatever. Then I remembered that I always used to just get a double shot of espresso until I discovered Starbucks Salted Caramel Cold Foam Cold Brew. That's been my go-to for a while if we're out and about, otherwise it's just Stok cold brew at home with a splash of vanilla almond milk.

[subego]

I actually like Frappuccino, and some of their more heavily flavored lattes. As I’ve said before, I don’t think I like coffee that much. I just like the bump, and make it work with cream and sugar.

It’s also a decent appetite suppressant, which is nice because food makes me sleepy.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

What coffee machine? Sounds like water flow or temperature discrepancies. I had a Cuisinart that was like that but the Moccamaster is a rock by comparison.

[subego]

They’re both Coffee Ninjas.

It’s possible I’m shorting it some water at home. At work I make sure it’s the full 12 cups. At home I’ll go closer to 10.

[subego]

Ended up solving that problem by dumping in an extra quarter cup of grounds.

In more recent news, I’ve been lazy, and getting the “House Blend” from my roaster since I can get it delivered from the grocery store. I’m beginning to think it’s more the “Whatever We Have Left Over Blend”.

Just went through the minimal effort required to get a bag of in season Ethiopian. I had forgotten how much better it was.

[subego]

My place found a hookup in the DRC. Not bad!

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

It completely depends on your brewing method.

Also depends on roast.

Light roasts need finer grind to properly extract. Dark roasts can be ground coarser.
All of that comes on top of the relative grind size (very fine for mocca, fine for espresso, medium for pour-over. drip, coarse for French press).

Secondly, some brew methods are much more forgiving than others.
AeroPress will generally give you the best outcome even with bad technique.

-t

[ghporter]

I’ve been playing with my pour-over technique, and I’ve found that if I tamp the grounds into the filter - not as hard as you’d smoosh them for espresso - I get a richer taste, and more consistent results from cup to cup.

[Brien]

Bought an espresso machine. Wish me luck.

[ghporter]

When we made our own espresso, we found that two things were crucial: keep the basket scrupulously clean, and follow that machine’s instructions carefully.

It was a one-cup machine, so we started out just dumping the grounds from cup number one and filling the basket again for cup number two (properly compacting the grounds each time), but the second cup was almost always kind of bitter compared to the first. We found that dumping, rinsing, then (I think this is the key) steaming the empty basket with the milk frother fixed that.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

That is why I’ve lusted after an espresso machine but will probably never get one…..everyone I know who’s into it has an arcane set of trial-and-error rules for their particular use case. I know I’d end up in the same boat and complicate my life all to hell, hahaha. I’ve got my grind-and-drip method all worked out and I’m gonna ride it to death

[subego]

There’s 106 miles to Chicago. I’ve got two bags of Ethiopian and a gallon of light cream. It’s dark out, and I’m wearing sunglasses.

[MacNNFamous]

I hate illinois nazis.

[ghporter]

It’s a “mission” thing, right?

[subego]

Gotta switch to fake sugar, so it’s time for a fake sugar of preference poll.

[subego]

Since I’ve got a bunch of options lying around, I’ve decided to experiment.

First up was stevia. Two packets in a 16 oz cup. Very strange. It cuts the bitterness of the coffee, but wasn’t really sweet, and has its own sorta weird taste. I tried dumping in another packet, which made it slightly sweet, but even more strange tasting.

The whole experience makes me not want any more coffee.

[MacNNFamous]

[subego]

I’ll try no sugar*, but I’ll use a fresh pot to give it a fair chance.

Just did Splenda. Two packets in a 16 oz cup of day old coffee. It’s workable.



*Cream is a requirement for me. Both in terms of taste and I want to get some caloric energy out of it.