My coffee is awful this morning.

[Pressureangle]

Came home after 2 months away, didn't figure on the espresso going stale. Should have left it in the fridge.

Oh, and if you have a whole-house water filter, be sure to use the 'vacation' function I didn't know it had, or you'll drink salt water at low pressure for a couple hours.

[Scud]

Well I had a lovely coffee just before 5am PT. Went to a friends house to watch Moto GP Catalunya live this morning. He has a Nespresso machine and made me an "Intenza."

You can even keep coffee beans/grounds in the freezer.

[Pressureangle]

7 minutes ago, Scud said:

Well I had a lovely coffee just before 5am PT. Went to a friends house to watch Moto GP Catalunya live this morning. He has a Nespresso machine and made me an "Intenza."

You can even keep coffee beans/grounds in the freezer.

Yeah, just forgot. Been in El Paso for the duration, discovered a traditional Mexican style called 'Cafe de Ollo'. Pretty fantastic, but I've only found one shop that makes it. Probably I'd have better luck knocking on some stranger's house where Tia Maria makes it ever morning.

[guzzler]

Ha ha

Mine was a bit smoky this morning.....

It's 1 degree here and when my wife lit the fire the flu being COLD meant house filled with smoke, so coffee had a wee smoky edge to it!

Cheers 

[Pressureangle]

4 hours ago, guzzler said:

Ha ha

Mine was a bit smoky this morning.....

It's 1 degree here and when my wife lit the fire the flu being COLD meant house filled with smoke, so coffee had a wee smoky edge to it!

Cheers 

Newspaper is pretty hard to find anymore, and junk mail doesn't burn fast enough. Gonna have to find some dry pine needles and gasoline to get that thing moving.

 

[cash1000]

6 hours ago, guzzler said:

Ha ha

Mine was a bit smoky this morning.....

It's 1 degree here and when my wife lit the fire the flu being COLD meant house filled with smoke, so coffee had a wee smoky edge to it!

Cheers 

Good test for the smoke alarms

[guzzler]

4 hours ago, cash1000 said:

Good test for the smoke alarms

Bloody hell, never thought about that....

We've got two in the house and not a peep out of either, better go check them!

Thanks mate.

 

[docc]

My worst-coffee-ever story happened just recently . . .

Faced with an eight hour non-stop drive (an act of desperation and duty), I fueled at a remote location in the rural Ohio countryside and took on tarmac-grade provisions: an "American Hoagie " (that "looked like" ham&cheese) and a large (LARGE) coffee poured over a chemical-creamer-like-substance squished out of tiny plastic dispensers.

Having to choose between two coffee pots, one half-empty and the other half-full, I chose to pour from the Half Full pot. Out of pure optimism.

Headed into the city traffic, the "coffee-like-substance" proved to be an exercise in POR (Press On Regardless ), an old rallye cry. I was committed for the duration of this forced-march event.

Once I thought I was hungry enough to take the risk, the "Hoagie-like-tarmac-food" package was deployed.  As a sensory organism, my neurologic input attempted to process the texture (no detectable flavor) of the thick bread-like-substance surrounding a baloney!-like-substance pasted with a cheese-like-substance. None of this should be confused with "food", only a function of the act of desperation to carry on.

Caught in a traffic slow-down on our US Interstate system provided an opportunity to pour out the remainder of the coffee-like-substance. Amazing how that spatters, held out the window from a moving vehicle, even at a "draggy" 50 mph . . .

Coffee matters. Yet, sometimes the mission-at-hand overrides the privilege of selectivity. 

 

 

 

 

[Pressureangle]

1 hour ago, docc said:

My worst-coffee-ever story happened just recently . . .

Faced with an eight hour non-stop drive (an act of desperation and duty),

 

...between two coffee pots, one half-empty and the other half-full, I chose to pour from the Half Full pot. Out of pure optimism.

 

Coffee matters. Yet, sometimes the mission-at-hand overrides the privilege of selectivity. 

 

 

 

 

Well. Consider this an admonishment. Half-full gas station pots? Danger will robinson. Remember what they told you in High School chemistry; whiff, don't sniff. 
Secondly, perhaps I'm a snob, but I would *never* consider an 8 hour trip without either sourcing known good coffee or making my own travel mix before leaving. 

Nothing 8 hours away can be *that* desperate. 

[docc]

38 minutes ago, Pressureangle said:

Nothing 8 hours away can be *that* desperate. 

Yes, well, I had to get myself from a graveside memorial service to a Mother's Day thing.

So, yes: pertinent, at the very least. 

I could have done it without the bad coffee and awful baloney. Probably should have "fasted" .  .  .  

[Gmc28]

What an entertaining thread!

With the Aussies on this forum, things could really go off the rails when it comes to good espresso talk.  Oz, and dare i say the US(?), have really done some beautiful work with espresso in recent years, surpassing the old country originators of our favorite motor-oil like morning beverage.  Some of the barista threads I watch can get real entertaining, going well beyond even a motor oil thread on a moto forum, and often have Aussies deep in the mix. 

In a twisted way i relish the travel coffee, the brutal brown water served at most hotels and travel stops, as a way to embrace what Forest Gump said, “the sweet just ain’t as sweet without the sour”. 

That said, had an excellent couple of espresso shots this morning at Steam Dot espresso in Anchorage AK….great roasts, great grinders (key), the Slayer espresso machine, and a good barista.  Making me look forward to tomorrow morning!

 pressureangles quote: “nothing 8hrs away can be that desperate”…. Amen!

[guzzler]

Well, I enjoyed mine without the smoky aftertaste this morning.....

Cheers 

[p6x]

Good coffee is difficult to find nowadays, like a lot of other things, such as real honey or real chocolate.

Fortunately, when it comes to personal taste, everybody has his own appreciation.

Without wanting to offend anybody here or there, I never thought the USA were interested in consuming the best coffee. Most people and not circumvented to the USA seem to be satisfied with that big chain's beverage that taste awful to me.

Nestle introduced Nespresso in the early 90's. One has to understand that even with a Nespresso machine, you don't get the real thing. The capsule system is simply a way to make it easy and quick.

I learned about coffee when I got transferred to Italy, in 1981. Back then, I thought French knew all there was to know about coffee. I discovered that I was wrong. In these days, no matter where you were in Italy, no matter how small the bar, the village, how remote, you would get good coffee. Simply because in Italy, coffee, or the Italian espresso, is a religion. If you owned a bar, and did not have good coffee, your bar would be empty.

Good coffee is expensive, and coffee machines are extremely expensives! getting a tasty espresso or black coffee at home may not come cheap if you purchase the necessary equipment.

If you walked into a bar in the 80's, you would invariably find a La Cimbali espresso machine. In those days, there were nothing automatic, and making coffee, required a little bit of practice and understanding. But in any case required good coffee.

Wherever I go, I purchase the second-best solution to acceptable coffee: the Bialetti stove top brewer. You could literally go to every house in Italy, and be certain they have one. Even using the Bialetti the proper way requires knowledge.... and good coffee.

Personally, I always go (for my BialettI) with Illy coffee. It comes in tins, ground as it should be, under vacuum and outrageously expensive!

If you really want to get into making fantastic coffee, I recommend you purchase a La Cimbali M21 Junior. It is not cheap, but you will become an artist. With it, you will need a equally expensive grinder, and again, good coffee! by the way, La Cimbali has competition, and you could find a similar espresso machine to the M21 for less with other brands.

If you are not interested in learning how to make coffee or cappuccino, then La Cimbali has automated espresso machines too.

If you want another alternative, you may also want to check out Turkish Coffee. The equipment is a lot cheaper, and you need to find good Turkish coffee too.

Time for me to make myself a coffee! and don't even try to Folgers me!!!!!

[Pressureangle]

1 hour ago, p6x said:

 

I learned about coffee when I got transferred to Italy, in 1981. Back then, I thought French knew all there was to know about coffee. I discovered that I was wrong. In these days, no matter where you were in Italy, no matter how small the bar, the village, how remote, you would get good coffee. Simply because in Italy, coffee, or the Italian espresso, is a religion. If you owned a bar, and did not have good coffee, your bar would be empty.

 

Wherever I go, I purchase the second-best solution to acceptable coffee: the Bialetti stove top brewer. You could literally go to every house in Italy, and be certain they have one. Even using the Bialetti the proper way requires knowledge.... and good coffee.

Personally, I always go (for my BialettI) with Illy coffee. It comes in tins, ground as it should be, under vacuum and outrageously expensive!

 

Best cup of coffee I ever had, never since come close, was a couple years ago in Rome; just a cafe with a partial view of the Coloseum. Perhaps it was the history, the scene, the fact that my son misread our midnight transfer as noon and we weren't supposed to be there at all. Cappucino served by a beautiful waitress in a beautiful place. I remember wondering how it could taste so much better than anything else. I still don't quite understand. 

I have 3 Bialetti of different sizes. I typically use Bustelo, having been introduced to Cuban coffee in the '90s- but since giving up sugar it's much less frequent, and Bustelo is pretty brutal otherwise. I'll pick up some Illy today, coffee was on my grocery list.

If only I had a steamer...

[GuzziMoto]

I have no use for coffee, but my wife is pretty deep into it. At one point she worked in a coffee shop because she wanted the experience. She avoids the big brands, and prefers local specialty shops. I believe she also uses a French Press most of the time to make her coffee.

It is funny how strong peoples opinions can be on the subject of coffee. It is worse then the subject of oil.

No doubt where you had a given cup of coffee and the overall experience of it would surely influence your judgement of how good said cup of coffee was. For me the same can be true of alcohol.