Coffee - Your Current Brew
- Thread starter john_pifer
- Start date
That looks interesting! I'm going to do a search for it.
GON
$150 Site Donor 2025
PT, the Nescafe and like brands here have a huge amount of sugar in them. What I am drinking is just dehydrated black coffee
GON
$150 Site Donor 2025
When is was in Afghanistan in 2002, the Korean coffee packs were a huge pleasure. I have no idea how much sugar was in the Korean coffee packs, but it was a huge amount.
This is today's purchase:
I enjoyed their Kenya quite a bit, and this African blend is an even more popular choice, so I decided to give it a try.
I still have a small amount of Kenya remaining, so I might try a side-by-side comparison. One interesting note: the online price is $3.00 more than what I paid in the store.
https://www.catahoulacoffee.com/buy-coffee/rwanda
I enjoyed their Kenya quite a bit, and this African blend is an even more popular choice, so I decided to give it a try.
I still have a small amount of Kenya remaining, so I might try a side-by-side comparison. One interesting note: the online price is $3.00 more than what I paid in the store.
https://www.catahoulacoffee.com/buy-coffee/rwanda
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I was at TJ's this morning and since traffic was heavy and the weather was nasty, I decided not to drive to Catahoula for beans and, instead, picked this up. I've had it before and liked it, so it seemed like a reasonable choice. It'll be interesting to see if I still like it after so long of an absence.
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2006
- Messages
- 29,558
One of these days I'm going to splurge and buy a can of Illy Espresso Roast. It's almost $20 a can here.
The coffee I purchased at Trader Joe's a few days ago, (noted in message #868 here) was a big disappointment. I remember liking it quite a bit some years ago, but I guess my palate and preferences have changed. So, this morning, I went back to Catahoula and picked up another bag of the Kenya blend:
They also offer small bags of all their blends at good prices in order to promote sampling and I grabbed a 6-oz bag of their Costa Rica blend, which should be very different from the Kenya. Looking forward to trying it.
They also offer small bags of all their blends at good prices in order to promote sampling and I grabbed a 6-oz bag of their Costa Rica blend, which should be very different from the Kenya. Looking forward to trying it.
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Never tried. What were the dislike details? Thanks
G'morning ... the simplest way to describe it is that the brew was thin in flavor, kind of watery in regards to the mouthfeel, and lacking in depth.
I brewed three cups over a period of two days, one using my usual measurements, another with a slightly greater percentage of grounds, and the third cup with about 30% more grounds than usual. Even though the coffee was stronger, it still seemed thin in taste and mouthfeel.
When I've brewed the Catahoula blends (and to a similar extent the Philz coffee), using a French press, I always get a little "crema" floating on top of the coffee, as one would expect from a well-brewed espresso. This crema was completely absent on any of the TJ's blends I've tried recently.
I'll paraphrase from a Wikipedia page to describe the effect for those who don't know what crema is, or who have never experienced it.
Crema is a flavorful, aromatic, reddish-brown froth that rests on top of a shot of espresso. It is formed when air bubbles combine with fine-ground coffee's soluble oils. Some people refer to this as the "Guinness effect" because it mimics the head on a pour of the popular Irish stout.
The strong presence of crema in an espresso shot indicates a quality, well-ground coffee and a skilled barista. Crema helps give espresso a fuller flavor and longer aftertaste than drip coffee.
It appears that the Catahoula blends that I've tried have more soluble oils that provide flavor and mouthfeel. The flavor also lingers more with the Catahoula. These characteristics suggest that the Catahoula is more carefully roasted and that the beans may be of better quality.
I'm drinking the Costa Rica blend right now. To me, it doesn't have quite the depth and mouthfeel of the Kenya and the Rwanda blends, but much more than the recent TJ's coffees I've tried. There is definitely a long-lasting taste to the coffee.
Thus far I've tried three Catahoula blends and each has been what I'd call top quality. A couple of notches above any of my recent Peet's purchases and in an entirely different class from the TJ's blends.
Had I not had the experience of drinking and brewing some very good quality coffee, as was the case several years ago, I'd probably find the TJ's offering acceptable. It now reminds me of the coffee I had on my trip to HPL where I purchased McDonald's and Starbuck's coffee at drive-throughs. However, the TJ's coffees have usually been about 2/3 the cost of Catahoula, Philz, and Peet's. I'd suggest that it's a good value. But every time I buy for value rather than quality, I'm disappointed.
I'd like to suggest that you try a purchase of three six-ounce bags from Catahoula. They are called Journey Packs.
https://www.catahoulacoffee.com/buy-coffee/journey-packs
I hope this little "treatise" has been helpful. Happy New Year!
A single origin Guatemala medium roast (more on the light/medium spectrum) from a local roaster here in Ohio. Whole beans ground to an 18-20 grind level with my Baratza Encore (w/ M2 burr) and brewed with my Moccamaster.
Really like this coffee, it has a bright cherry note to start things off, with some hazelnut/almond/amaretto type character on the finish. Nice brightness/acidity. Light roast on the finish. Interesting profile, I dig it.
Really like this coffee, it has a bright cherry note to start things off, with some hazelnut/almond/amaretto type character on the finish. Nice brightness/acidity. Light roast on the finish. Interesting profile, I dig it.
Looks really interesting. Some questions;A single origin Guatemala medium roast (more on the light/medium spectrum) from a local roaster here in Ohio. Whole beans ground to an 18-20 grind level with my Baratza Encore (w/ M2 burr) and brewed with my Moccamaster.
Really like this coffee, it has a bright cherry note to start things off, with some hazelnut/almond/amaretto type character on the finish. Nice brightness/acidity. Light roast on the finish. Interesting profile, I dig it.
Was the M2 burr upgrade a significant improvement?
Do you do any pre-infusion interruption, stirring of grounds?
I drank only the Nescafé Classico stuff. There are so many brands of 3 in 1, 5 in 1, and so forth that it starts to not be coffee at some point. We would buy the package of 288 sachets at a time. That would last maybe a couple of weeks in the house. Fortunately when we did our big shopping in the larger city I could get Illy in the cans. They had Lavazza and one local brand that was quite good but availability was sketchy.
To be honest, when I bought the grinder is when I bought the M2 burr. So I immediately upgraded out of the box, so I don't have a comparison of before/after. I just figured it was worth the relatively cheap cost to upgrade it (and took me all of about 1 minute to swap burrs). Simply used an impact to remove the M3 burr without having to break down the machine any. But it grinds at a nice rate and a very nice, consistent grind.
I do stir the grounds once during brewing just to make sure all is saturated. No infusion interruption or anything else.
Frenchpresscoffee.com is where I got it.
https://www.frenchpresscoffee.com/products/baratza-m2-cone-burr-part-6175
As far as what it does for me? As mentioned, I have no comparison directly as I upgraded right out of the box. When looking for a burr grinder, it was between the Encore and Virtuoso for me. The Virtuoso primarily has the M2 burr, which is supposedly superior for finer grinding and grinding beans at a higher rate of speed. It also has a different casing, timer feature and is supposed to be a little quieter and whatnot (which I don't really care about). When researching, I found out you could just swap burrs. So I went that route, as it was a $35 upgrade, versus the ~$100ish upgrade between units. I figured a nice middle ground.
AH finer grind. Thanks!
Doan really need. The video was good too, but **** cut or comb and wash that hair. Gross.
I've found my Encore to be extremely consistent with grind(ground??) size. It is a bit noisy and definitely slower than other grinders I have or had...but I've no problem with noise or speed. I also have a Delonghi Ariete grinder in our other home. It too is extremely consistent but faster and quieter.
