I've been roasting my own beans for about 5 years. It's pretty easy once you get it dialed in. I buy green beans from Sweet Maria's. You can get any kind that you want, all organic, and they are considerably cheaper than store bought roasted beans. You can control how dark you roast them. I highly recommend it.
Wendell use to do this. I wish he still would. And that is exactly where he use to buy his raw beans! Sweet Marias!! Ahhhh the 100% Kona beans were SO GOOD.?ÿ ?? :silly: ?ÿ
?ÿ
This is my current favorite. ?ÿFresh ground for each batch and brewed in a Moka
?ÿ
my sister had one of those when she lived in Alexandria. The first couple of mornings I drank two full pots then had shortness of breath and weird heart rhythms. The thing seems to super extract the caffeine. Then went to one pot and cut it 50% with hot water from the tea kettle. I OD'd on coffee LOL.
?ÿ
Various manual coffee making technologies. The one on the left is my favorite, the siphon. We have a stainless steel moka pot here somewhere but don??t know where since we moved.
I used to hate coffee until i was 23.?ÿ I decided to get into the upward trending coffee wave in '93. Spent a month with an Italian guy named Gianni learning the ins and outs and this's and that's of the complex process of dialing in the grind for my newly purchased fancy pants $10k espresso machine I was going to become rich with. I burned through about 50lbs of beans and got schooled.
I love coffee now like i never understood. That being said.....
I visited Japan 3 times now.?ÿ I can't understand the swill we drink everywhere else in the world after being indoctrinated to the Japan quality of coffee.?ÿ They Buy up the vast majority of the entire Jamaican coffee supply, every year.?ÿ Anyone that can prove me wrong please do, I want more options.......
😐
?ÿ
?ÿ
I stray occasionally but I keep going back to Starbucks Sumatra. I only do Folgers at the hotel freebie breakfast bar.
There two kinds of coffee beans, Robusta and Arabica. The generic brands like Folgers and nearly all of your diner drip coffees are going to be Robusta beans. Robusta coffee bushes are not as picky about where it will grow and is much more forgiving with temperature and elevations and hence less expensive and grown on a much larger scale. I've had some decent Robusta beans but they are few and far in between and they tend to be bitter. Arabica however, is much pickier about where it will grow and all of your Starbucks and other popular gourmet coffees are Arabica almost exclusively, however a lot of sellers mix them to save money and still charge gourmet prices, so caviat emptor. Personally I think Kona coffee is overrated and retailing at something like $40 a pound, a little rich for my cheap surveyor blood. The best bang for the buck in my most humble opinion is Costco's freshly roasted Sumatran Arabic beans, followed closely by Ethiopian beans (if you can find them) and then Kenyan beans. They must be freshly ground but not too fine and brewed with fresh cold well, spring or filtered water and consumed promptly. The best coffee I've ever tasted comes from the highlands of Yemen where coffee is thought to have originated. Won't find it at Costco but maybe here: http://www.thecoffeebeanmenu.com/yemen-coffee-beans/?ÿ?ÿ
?ÿ
The Arabic coffee i was served in Kuwait was on par with the Japanese. Thank you for jarring my memory of that. It was truly a bizarre trip....
Yes Kona is good.?ÿ I had went and forgot about it but I had several cups of Kona and it was very good.
Some good ones mentioned here.?ÿ I've been known to drink Trader Joe's Bay Blend all the time.?ÿ Lately I've been hooked on SF Bay Fog Chaser?ÿCoffee.
?ÿ
Personally I think Kona coffee is overrated and retailing at something like $40 a pound, a little rich for my cheap surveyor blood. The best bang for the buck in my most humble opinion is Costco's freshly roasted Sumatran Arabic beans, followed closely by Ethiopian beans (if you can find them) and then Kenyan beans. They must be freshly ground but not too fine and brewed with fresh cold well, spring or filtered water and consumed promptly. The best coffee I've ever tasted comes from the highlands of Yemen where coffee is thought to have originated. Won't find it at Costco but maybe here: http://www.thecoffeebeanmenu.com/yemen-coffee-beans/?ÿ?ÿ
I can get the 100% Kona Coffee for about $15 a pound at Trader Joes, when they have it. Or if I go to Hawaii.?ÿ
I do get the Sumatran beans from Costco. Great price and they're delicious!! ?????ÿ
?ÿ
Started grinding my own beans, probably 4-5 years ago.?ÿ My selection of sources in small town Shelbyville is limited if I do not do online shopping.?ÿ Kroger Private Selection whole bean coffee includes several varieties.?ÿ I have been mixing Kona with Sumatran, both medium roast, and have lately discovered that their Guatemalan Antigua is more to my taste than the Sumatran, which has an acidic bite to it.?ÿ Strong (by my taste) and brewed in my relatively new coffee Ninja, which I have found to be the best coffee maker I have had, aside from the fact that the carafe is on the small side.?ÿ It makes enough for my needs so that's okay.
This: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_luwak
Must admit I have not tried but maybe someday. At $500 a kilo I'm willing to wait.
Kona beans, $20 for 7 ounces?
@williwaw
$20 for "Royal Kona" is reasonable. There are a few different "100% Kona" coffee makers. The best one I have ever had was the little mom and pop 100% Kona. Man...that was some good coffee!! ??
Wendell and I had the chance to try Kopi at a coffee roaster thing. We passed. I don't care HOW good it tastes, I just cannot fathom trying it!!!!! ???????
Look at what was delivered to me today by surprise from one of you, my fine internet friends.
A happy day!
Thank you Beer Leg dot com.
Fellow Beerlegger, you know who you are.
EDIT ~ now I need to buy a grinder...
so since coffee is my only real "daytime" addiction source anymore (eliminated all other sources of caffeine and all nicotine, and haven't been able to properly function on THC since about the time i got my license...), i don't cut myself short on coffee.?ÿ was always kind of a "meh- whatever" when it came to coffee until a family trip to guatemala 5 or 6 years ago.?ÿ which qualified on the level of "epiphany" in terms of understanding what coffee could be vs. what i was used to drinking.
so now i only buy whole bean stuff that's been roasted as recently as possible.?ÿ and roasted lightly.?ÿ that's the first thing guatemala indicated- the baseline for how american coffee is roasted could best be described as "well done".?ÿ like crispy steak well done...
priviliged as i am- for the last year i've been buying a week's worth at a time from whole foods- ethiopan suke q'uto.?ÿ that said- i don't know how available that stuff is even across whole foods, as i'm shopping at the HQ store, which is decidedly more opulent than any other whole foods i've ever set foot in.?ÿ?ÿ
the best coffee i've ever had (and it's not close) was this stuff: https://fincaelinjerto.com/products/guatemala-el-injerto-bourbon they'll ship from guatemala, and surprisingly quickly, but i bet that's a bit weird right now.?ÿ i don't know.?ÿ stumptown sells this too, but they over-roast the hell out of it and effectively ruin it.
bottom line for me: if i can, i get it locally roasted.?ÿ light roasted.?ÿ as fresh as possible.?ÿ then french press it.?ÿ
?ÿ
and just found this: https://www.allegrocoffee.com/shop/coffee/organic-ethiopia-suke-quto-2-5lb/ ?ÿ that's it.?ÿ 2.5 pounds goes a little longer than i'd like to keep it around, but if you have a friend who'll go in with you, or you don't mind it lasting a few weeks, then this stuff is- as the kids say- the bomb.?ÿ ymmv, though.
I use this one
Come on gang.?ÿ I prefer Folgers crystals, you know they replaced the beans at the finest restaurants and coffee houses.?ÿ
Actually, my got to morning is fresh ground in the aero press. Currently I've been using Costco French roast as the daily driver.
SFBCC has been superb in their offerings, and my better half deeply enjoys the French Roast exclusively sinceI introduced her to it.
