What are important factors to consider for a bean-to-cup machine? I'm advocating for my office to purchase a bean-to-cup coffee machine to replace an auto-drip machine. What factors should I consider before suggesting a particular bean-to-cup machine? I'd be happy to hear anything from general warnings to full-fledged product recommendations.

My primary hope is for this to be as pleasant and pain-free as possible, both for consumers of the coffee (e.g., produces a good cup), and for maintainers of the machine (reasonable to service/maintain). This is for a small office, "medium duty" -- perhaps 100 cups per day. I'm hoping to avoid pod-based machines, for less waste and better freshness.

I'm primarily interested in drip-strength machines, but perhaps this is a terrible idea for this kind of machine. I hoped that there might be a small number of obvious choices, but I'm seeing a dizzying array of offerings. I fear that I'm missing something crucial. Noise? Quality? Ease of cleaning the hopper? User-empty-able bin? Quality of grinder? ...?

I see a few reviews that were decent, but not entirely what I'm looking for:

This one, which seems really to be super-auto espresso machines;
This one with similar offerings;
This one that is all over the map but is for small-scale / home market;
This one, with some office-oriented questions to ask, but is more heavy-weight than I'm seeking ("is tech support going to site-visit before the under-caffeinated masses revolt?")

Does anyone have experience with particular machines? If you've used these machines, what is the worst or best feature about the machine in your office? Are there other important considerations that I'm missing?

Some major factors for consideration:
1) Manufacturer and warranty - with more integrated parts I've had to return or replace my fair share of these (and finally moved to separate machines for better taste and performance at the cost of convenience).
2) Capacity - how much are you brewing and for whom?
3) Adjustability - ability to vary the grind based on the bean / strength of coffee you desire.
4) "Cleanability" - how easy is it to disassemble the machine to clean it - with these integrated machines it is essential that you break them down and clean them frequently to maintain good taste and performance.


Scratches on the upper chamber of newly mochapot! I have just got my mocha pot for the first time by enthusiasm but look what i have found! Deep scratches, not one or two, a lot! It almost looks like someone did this intentionally while producing. Why this would be happened? Is it safe for using and normal?
I have already been a little suspicious by going to use 'aluminum' pot, and then seeing this added spice to it.
Could you please navigate me considering heavy metal-health effect, if i should return this and paid back or not?
Thanks indeed.

Return it. Forget about heavy metal poisoning. That's not a big concern. The bigger concern is that you'll never be able to clean inside those scratches. It'll make your brew taste terrible with time and use, and risk of disease (fungus in particular) will rise with time.


Should I change my coffee drinking habits when using braces? I'm getting braces tomorrow and this is a life or death situation: can I still have coffee with braces??! I drink it hot and cold and I would also like how it would affect me if I did drink it (hot and cold)

Thanks!

Coffee should be fine (unless you've heard otherwise from your dentist or other health care people of course!). There should be no additional concern about coffee, e.g., its acidity or temperature (other than normal caution).

There are some foods to avoid, but I don't see coffee or anything similar on any list of foods to avoid; here's a few curated lists:

Dental Associates, a practice in Wisconsin, US
Oral B, a manufacturer of dental products

In general, the recommendations are to avoid hard foods (e.g., crusty bread, ice cubes, popcorn) or sticky foods (e.g., gum, hard candy, caramels), and to be careful of sweets in general (which can promote tooth decay in general but can be more difficult to clean-out with braces.)

If anything, take less sugar with your coffee! Otherwise, continue to enjoy your coffee.


Vietnamese coffee from concentrate? I was in a banh mi shop today and ordered a hot Vietnamese coffee. The shopkeeper put some refrigerated concentrate and condensed milk in the cup, and then added hot water. Is this a standard method for selling large volumes of Vietnamese coffee? And if so, how is the concentrate made? Is it a cold brew method like this, or do they do it some other way?

NB: I'm in the US, if it matters.

Apparently they used some sort of a pour over method, I'm not very sure about it though because they wouldn't expose their trade secrets to me ;).

What I am sure is it is common practice for the Vietnamese to sell from concentrate, because they brew a batch in one go then refrigerate it until it is used, not unlike cold brews. If you're a fan of espresso, you can drink the concentrate straight up.

Source: A Vietnamese coffee seller during a trip


I made a mistake ordering ground coffee - will Expresso ground coffee work for a French Press? Can someone tell me the difference between Expresso ground coffee and French Press ground coffee? I placed an order for this ground coffee, but only realised after arrival that I should have chosen the French Press option. I have a French Press. I don't have a Expresso machine. I don't drink coffee, hence the mistake. I run an Airbnb and it's for my guests.

I'm not sure what to do with it if it's not usable for a French Press. It's not returnable to Amazon. Perhaps let some future guests have it?

Ideally from a business setting
Order new coffee and give the grounds away to someone who can make espresso from it. You could offer it as a gift to guests or others.
If you do end up using it for the guests, make sure you indicate the problem. If possible, try one of the methods below yourself first.
On actually using the coffee
I wouldn't be too worried about the grounds coming through the mesh, they almost certainly will. This is easily solved by pouring your coffee through a paper filter. I know don't normally do that for French press, but in this case it seems sensible to do so.
I'd be more worried about extraction time and taste. When I make French press, I grind as fine as possible without it becoming to bitter, with a consistent time the particles are still larger than holes in the mesh.
Since the coffee is already ground, you can play with two factors: time and dose. You probably want to use less time then you're used to. The dose is difficult, if you use too little coffee, you won't get a full body. If you use too much, it will taste very bitter.
Alternatively, you can try to make turkish-coffee in a pan. The espresso grounds will be alright, but a bit on the big size for that.


How often do I need to change the filter on a siphon? Many siphons use a small piece of metal wrapped into a fine cloth. The piece of metal makes them robust, and it seems to me they can be used for a long time. The piece of cloth is usually of enough quality to remain in good condition for long. A piece of cloth can however get dirty, rough, etc.

How long do you recommend to use a siphon filter? What would be the criteria to drive for change?

I've typically used the same cloth filter on a hario syphon for several (2 - 3 probably) months of continuous use (1 or 2 syphons daily). We clean the cloth after each use using a mild detergent, hot water and a soft scrubbing brush. Rinse very well after each wash. Typically, after a week or so we soak the cloth in oxyclean or similar for a couple of hours to get it super clean and then follow this up with a normal wash and thorough rinse. The coffee will stain the cloths after the first use, so don't expect it to return to the same colour it was originally no matter how often or well you wash it.

When we first bought a syphon about five years ago we were recommended to store the filter in a glass jar of water in the fridge to prevent it drying out between uses. If we aren't planning to use the filter for a while, we toss the cloth, clean the metal part and let it dry.

You can also clean the filter (with or without the cloth) in the dishwasher but I'd still recommend giving it a thorough rinse afterwards.

The cloths are fairly cheap and in my experience easy to find online so use your judgement - if you think it's time to switch cloths, it's probably time to use a new cloth!


How much does keeping beans vacuum sealed matter? I use a moka pot (makineta) to make coffee, and I keep the beans in a bag (not sealed) in the freezer.

I keep getting people saying that in order to get to best aroma and the most fresh coffee the beans must be kept in vacuum after roasting until use, and due to this fact there is no escape but using the sealed Nespresso capsules and their machine (or any other capsule espresso machine equivalent).

How much does it matter? How much of the aroma/freshness is lost if the beans are not kept in vacuum? (but are being ground only prior to making a cup)

Coffee beans are freshest from about 12 to 48 hours after roasting until maybe one or two weeks later when stored properly in an airtight container.  During the early portion of this period (immediately after roasting to three or four days later) beans will be still giving off some gases, thus the reason for one way valves on coffee bags.  That being the case, vaccuum sealing can extend that time some, but not indefinitely.  Storing your coffee in the freezer actually makes the problem worse since the freeze thaw cycle drys the beans out and forces the oils to separate out of the beans.


Safety concern regarding aluminum foil inside a moka pot My moka pot is sputtering coffee instead of pouring flowing coffee so i try to find a solution on how to fix this issue and stumbled upon this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yGinq5NaCA&t (Basically the issue here is that the filter is a bit loose thus the heated gas doesn't transfer properly so he tapped some PFTE tape on the filter to make it tighter).
Now my father saw this and said that aluminium foil would work better because it's meant to be put on food. I am no expert and just want to be safe but would there be some hazardous side effect thay may occur by using aluminium foil?

With the moka pot being made of aluminum itself, there isn't really any health effects from using foil. If there is a worry about ingesting tiny flakes of aluminum, you'd a worse time eating that leftover lasagna.
The only caveat is if you use too much and it wedges the funnel into the basin and you can't remove it. As a side note, with the pot being much thicker than the funnel, it would also be pretty much impossible to crack it doing this.
If you have followed his advice and made sure the gasket is in good shape and not indented too much. The lip around the funnel could be out of shape, and like he showed sits deeper than what the gasket can seal.


What does wetting the coffee for 30 seconds do? What does wetting the coffee for 30 seconds do? What will happen if I pour in all the hot water and wait for 5 minutes rather than wetting it and waiting for 30 seconds?

  Wet the coffee and wait for 30 seconds if you’re using fresh coffee

Why should I pour remaining water in batches anyway?

  Pour half of the remaining water over a 30-second duration
  Pour the rest of the water in three or four smaller increments

https://driftaway.coffee/nomaker/

Making coffee is all about extraction. The compounds you find in coffee beans that add flavor dissolve at different moments of the process. Some dissolve almost instantly when the coffee grounds come in contact with water. Like for example caffein and the more acidic compounds. Others take a while before the water dissolves them, like bitter compounds and sugars. The goal is to have an even extraction. To get the best possible flavor out of the coffee. You want some sugars in there to give it sweetness, but you don't want too much bitterness. You want fruitiness and acidity, but you don't want it as sour as lemon juice. So you need to balance the extraction.

There are different variables influencing this process, but they all come down to how fast and much extraction is happening. The grind size, the water temperature (and mineral content) and the brewing time just to name the most important ones.

Wetting the grounds, or blooming, is preparing them for the extraction. When coffee is roasted CO2 gas is trapped inside the beans. Wetting the grounds, without water passing through the filter (for drip coffee where blooming is most important, certainly more than for full immersion techniques like French press) has the effect of the CO2 being released to ensure an even extraction when you are brewing. There are several straight forward reasons for that and some more technical ones.

Blooming prevents channeling of the water (the phenomena that all the water will flow through small holes of grounds instead of saturating all of them)
If you don't bloom the gas in the beans will bubble upwards pushing the water away from the grounds which results in channeling and uneven extraction of the particles that are trapped inside the gas bubbles.
Imagine your grind, it's made up of particles of different sizes with most of them somewhere hovering around the size you actually wanted. So when you start pouring water without blooming the small particles will soak up the water faster than the bigger ones and will obviously start extracting earlier. In the end that will result in over extracted small particles and very under extracted bigger particles. By pre infusing the grounds you even that out a little bit. By adding just enough water to infuse all of the grounds without already extracting, you start from a more even level. The smaller particles will still extract more than the bigger ones, but the extraction levels are evened out, because the starting point is more leveled and extraction begins at the same moment for all grounds.

"Why should I pour remaining water in batches anyway?"

This is more a matter of style. Some Baristi prefer it that way and others pour continuously. More important is that you don't brew excessively long or short. Between 2,5 min. and 3 min. is a good time (for Hario V60, different for other pour over methods). Some say that pouring in batches helps being consistent, but it's not something that's necessary. I brew very consistent (measurably with a refractometer that measures total dissolved solids or TDS) and I pour continuously.


How much weight reduction occurs after roasting coffee beans? Does the roasting process lead to weight reduction? If so, what are determining factors? type of coffee? type of roast(dark, medium etc) ?

If you have X lbs of unroasted coffee beans, how much (average) roasted coffee beans you get after roasting?

The roasting process leads to water loss in all types of beans. Most beans start off at about 10-12% moisture and end up around 3%.
My experience gives about 15% weight loss (shrinkage) for light roasts and around 20% on dark roast profiles.

Example of a dark roast weight loss in my roasterie would be:
Starting weight: 240#
Roasted weight: 195#
Shrinkage = 195/240 = 81% of start weight so 19% loss.

I can't seem to find any online documentation of this. Just daily experience of being a professional roaster.


Fix my Breville coffee machine filter holder Ok, so basically 6 years ago I bought a Breville Venezia espresso coffee maker.
I am really happy with the machine, as it still works after 6 years of relatively frequent use. But recently out of the blue, my filter holder had an issue where the flow divider just burst free.
The next picture shows the parts I'm referring to:

I tried fixing it back, it stuck for a couple of minutes and then burst out again. I tried fixing it hard, but as soon as I pushed the filter eject button, the whole structure burst out again. I tried looking for new ones, but as it often happens with coffee machines, the spare parts end up costing almost the same as the coffee machine.
I found some options on ebay, but the average price went around 60-70 USD for the filter holder, and for a machine that cost me about 250 USD, I am not sure if it's worth it.
Is it feasible to stick the flow divider with silicone or some kind of glue? I mean the filter has some clipping mechanisms, but I think they no longer hold, so would a permanent glue / fixing work for this? Is there some health risk related to the glue / silicone and the coffee? I mean the flow divider has small tubes that exit the whole metal structure and where the ejector button is, there's a small rubber isolation.
If I had the budget I would probably look for something more Pro level, but it's not an option at the moment and as I mentioned earlier, it works fine, except for this tiny issue.

I had been using an espresso maker for several years, but the group head on that is a lot less complicated.
If I understand the picture, the small part with spring sits on top of the grey clamp at the bottom of the group head, and the diverter sits on top of the spring, then the actual filter basket (pressurized?) is on top of this diverter? Sounds like this diverter can't get fasten to the group head anymore, so the spring pushes it out to burst as you said.
I don't quite understand the point of the spring. The group head on my old machine looks like this:
https://images.saymedia-content.com/.image/t_share/MTc0NjIwODYwMDg5NTc1NDE0/review-of-the-oster-prima-latte-espresso-cappuccino-and-latte-maker.jpg
Maybe you can skip the spring part, and put this filter holder in just to make sure the two exit holes align well, then use the machine as usual? You may need to take things apart to clean after each use.. but sounds like that shouldn't be too hard?


Do you need to use ice water in a Bruer slow drip coffee maker? In the instructions for the Bruer, it says to use ice water (http://www.bruer.co/pages/instuctions).

I'm wondering how important is that for the brewing process? I'd like to leave it in the office overnight to brew, but don't have access to ice here. We do have one of those taps that chills water, would that be good enough?

I have no specific experience with this cold brew device but a general understanding of how extraction works and experience with other devices. In short, you can definitely use water at room temperature to make cold brew (I think it is better), but there seem to be some specific issues with this cold brew maker.

In general the colder the water, the slower it will extract the solid compounds from the coffee. This is the main thing you have to keep in mind, because you will have to adjust some other variables in order to reach the right extraction. In their instructions they suggest you use a medium grind level. This is one variable you could change. Instead of a medium grind level I would use a medium to coarse grind. Another variable that you could change is the brew time. They set the device to 1 drop per second but you could increase that a little to speed up the brewing process, resulting in less extraction.

Specifically with this device there seems to be the problem, that air bubbles block the valve (see the FAQ on the website). They argue that the changing water temperature is responsible for the bubbles to appear. However if you brew at room temperature the water temperature should be much more consistent than with ice water which will obviously melt eventually and then the water will warm up. So I'm not quite sure about their logic (unless you are supposed to add ice until the brewing is over).

I suggest you go ahead and try it at room temperature, adjusting the other variables. Make sure you pre infuse properly so the grounds degas as much as possible, that should prevent too much gas blocking the valve. Alternatively you could use refrigerated water and brew it in the fridge.
Hope this helps, in the end it's a lot of trial and error anyways. Have fun brewing.


How to order Caffe Macchiato and be sure you get one? I think this question pertains mostly to the USA.

I travel often and like to stop at local coffee shops. My beverage of choice is a Caffe Macchiato. In the US, there seems to be the issue that a "Macchiato" at Starbucks is something different from an actual Macchiato.

From Wikipedia, this is what I consider a Macchiato:

  Caffè macchiato, sometimes called espresso macchiato, is an espresso coffee drink with a small amount of milk, usually foamed.
  [...] The caffè macchiato has the highest ratio of espresso to milk of any drink made with those ingredients.

I have run into this a few times, even at coffee shops that seem to make a big deal about their coffee knowledge etc. I order a Macchiato, and receive a huge cup with mostly milk and some espresso.

I would like to be clear as to what I want when I order, but I also want to avoid sounding like a jerk if I specify exactly what I want, or sounding dumb if I describe the drink rather than ordering by its name. What is a good way of achieving this?

The problem with ordering a "Macchiato" is that it's only half of the name of a traditional coffee drink.

"Macchiato" means "stained" or "flecked" and not more.

In Italy, you have either

Latte macchiato: *Milk "stained" with coffee (more precisely caffè or espresso) or
Espresso macchiato: Espresso (or caffè) "stained" with a spoonful of milk foam.

If you order a "Macciato" without qualifier, you will either get what the chain defines as such (for Starbucks, a lot of milk and foam with one or multiple shots of espresso) or what your barista thinks of first - and that would often be a (latte) macchiato, i.e. a glass of milk and foam with an espresso layer inbetween.

So my recommendation is:

If you want a serving of espresso with a bit of milk, order an espresso macchiato. I just double-checked with the Starbucks US website and yes, they do have espresso macchiato on the menu. Any decent barista from the (self proclaimed) high-end places you mention should be familiar with these terms anyway. The fine difference between "coffee" and "caffè" (see below) might be "lost in translation" and they will be using an espresso machine in 99% of all cases anyway.

Comment re. your Wikipedia link:

Please note the spelling: caffè is not the same as American coffee! The former is what you get when you use a stovetop moka pot, which creates a brew similar (but not identical) to espresso. Both are served in rather small serving units and for coffee drinks used somewhat interchangeably. Espresso shots in a bar or coffee shop, caffè often in a domestic setting (no need for fancy machinery).


Why does commercially brewed coffee taste so much better? I've been trying to figure out why coffee brewed with commercial machines taste so damn good compared to what I do at home. Whenever I'm out and about I always take note of the machines that are used in the brewing and some examples are WMF 1500S, Thermoplan Black & White and Franke A1000.

I'm talking solely about black brewed coffee - no espressos or lattes. Whereas the coffee I get from these machines is aromatic and just the right amount of strong, the coffee I do at home is usually way too acidic and with a very long and overbearing aftertaste.

While I've certainly tasted bad coffee from these high-end machines it is never as bad as the coffee I do at home. I've tried researching how these machines work with the brew head and all but as I'm not an engineer I found that sorta stuff hard to understand.

What I've tried so far:
- 6-7 grams of coffee per 100 ml water
- Waiting 15-60 seconds after boil to allow water to cool down before pouring
- Different types of beans, usually pretty expensive (locally roasted, organic, non-organic, dark, medium, light, etc)
- Different ground levels for pour over
- Different brewing times (1 - 4 min)
- Probably a bunch of other stuff

My kit is:
- Full Hario V60 pour over kit (w/ dripper, server, filters and kettle)
- Melitta pour over dripper
- Kitchen scale
- Wilfa electric grinder (cleaned regularly)
- Bodum french press
- Good water source

The funny thing is that people seem to think that pour-over is better and more gourmet but I've found the case to be the opposite. I'm almost to the point where I'm thinking of buying an expensive fully automatic bean-to-cup machine...
What do I do here guys? I'm very thankful for any insight into this matter!

TL;DR - title

I think there could be a few extra factors, besides grind type effecting your final cup.

Are you trying to match the taste you get from an auto drip brewer by making your coffee with a v-60?

Brewing method will change the taste.

It's good to see you are using a scale too. When I make coffee I like to follow this chart for ratio.

I use 21 grams of coffee to 12 ounces of water. It's important to note whenever the word "cup" is mentioned usually that means 6 ounces of water.

Another thing I wonder about is the beans that the coffee house is using. You might be purchasing beans that are not giving you the flavor you are looking for.

Personally, I like single origin coffee for pour overs and drip machines more than I like blended coffee.

You might find this post helpful for selecting the right kind of beans.

Good luck on making a great cup!


Is coffee blocking the body from absorbing nutrients? Is it true that if you drink coffee with food, then the coffee would prevent the body absorbing the nutrients contained in the food?

In a collaborative study at Creighton University in Nebraska and the University of Miami, Florida, researchers showed that caffeine may interfere with vitamin D absorption. The results, published in the "Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology," demonstrated that the higher the level of caffeine, the more it interfered with vitamin D absorption. The study suggested that caffeine did this by reducing the expression of vitamin D receptors on osteoblasts in the body -- the cells responsible for producing bone.

http://www.direct-ms.org/pdf/VitDGenScience/Caffeine%20Vit%20D%20receptor%2007.pdf


How should I store my aeropress? I've heard that storing an Aeropress with the plunger inside the main cylinder will eventually damage the plunger, because the rubber is stored compressed.

Is there any truth to this? What's the best way to store an aeropress?

According to the Aeropress manual:

  Remove the cap and set it aside.  Push the plunger to eject the "puck"
  of spent grounds into the trash.  Rinse and/or brush away any grounds
  left on the rubber seal.  The seal has already wiped your chamber
  clean, so no further cleanup is needed.

  Always eject the puck right after brewing, and store your Aeropress
  with the plunger pushed all the way through or completely removed.
  Storing the seal uncompressed will keep your seal airtight for years.

  (source [pdf])


How to preserve crema when pouring a shot into a drink? To make a long black, you pour espresso on top of hot water. There are a variety of reasons for this, but a primary one is to avoid dissipating crema by pouring hot water over it (which is an americano).

But how do you preserve the crema when pouring it into the water? To me, the act of pouring appears to break the up crema entirely.

This link from Seasoned Advice might help you. The accepted answer recommends to use an espresso brew pitcher and how to use it. The answer suggests two main things:

a vessel with a pour spout helps with retaining the crema;
the speed of the pour is important.

See more information at that link. It suggests that if you pour it in too fast, you ruin the foam. Too slow and the foam gets stuck. Practice sounds important here.


Corrosion in espresso filter holder I have thoroughly cleaned my espresso coffee machine, and found signs of corrosion under the layer of tar inside the filter holder:

Judging by the weight of the holder and corrosion type, it's aluminum.

What should I do? Leave it? Scrape it off? Get a replacement?

Is  there a way to prevent this in the future? I suppose getting less sour coffee would help, but unfortunately that's not the kind I like.

Although I have not a real answer as for is hard to tell without specifically knowing the metal/metal treatment/alloy, posting to Chemistry SE might help. To me it looks like a plated Aluminum that got oxidized where the protection dropped.  Aluminum oxide is self protecting so you should not worry much, your filter cup has still a very long lifetime.


What grind setting should I use for french press using a Capresso Infinity conical burr grinder? After years of suffering through with a blade grinder, I have finally bought a Capresso Infinity conical burr grinder. Now I need to figure out the settings to get the best cup of coffee I can from my French press.

So I know that I need a coarse grind for a French press. There are four coarse settings on the grinder. I also know that there are a lot of dependencies (especially brew time, types of beans, etc.). What experience have people had with the coarse settings of this particular grinder, and are there any good rules of thumb here?

I'm a coffee lover, but am new to the finer points of coffee making (just switched to a French press from drip in the last year) and am looking for any advice that may be pertinent. Many thanks in advance.

I would recommend looking for which coarse setting seems to produce the most even grind. Really, the only potential danger you have is grinding so fine that you can't push the screen down.

The reason I recommend this is, like you mentioned, because everything else can be altered to your coffee's grind - the water temperature and extraction time. So you'll want to dial in a grind that's going to be evenly extracted. If your most coarse setting gives you big chunks and a lot of fine particles as well, then you're either going to over extract the fine and under extract the coarse, or vice versa depending on your brew time.

I hesitate to give you a dogmatic answer because I don't want to mislead you, but I also understand that it takes time to recognize even grinding and the grind size that is appropriate for the brew method. So I'll say that somewhere around medium to medium-coarse is going to be better. With smaller burr grinders, the coarsest setting has pretty uneven results.

Also, try playing with the extraction time. Start with two minutes, then try 3, on up to 5. If you keep everything consistent, you should be able to find exactly what works/tastes best for your situation.


Where can I go to find importers? I am from Ethiopia. I have a Coffee Export License from Ethiopia for the World market. How can I go about getting buyers? Where is the best place to find potential importers of my coffee?

The first recommendation would be to go to a Chamber of Commerce or a Board of Trade locally and to make a request to help with the contacts of potential importers.

Quick googling directed me to website of the Chamber of Commerce in Ethiopia: http://www.ethiopianchamber.com/

The Government of Ethiopia also hosted World Coffee Conference, so you may find additional information on event, and may be some useful contacts to start with.

The second option would be to get in touch with biggest Coffee Associations or to participate in coffee conferences/shows:

The International Coffee Organization (ICO)
Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA)
Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE)
Different coffee shows, conferences and festivals (here's the calendar and links with additional information can be found)


Coffee will make you lean? I'm 25 , Coffee lover, I always start my day with my coffee like many of you. I will have at least 3 cups of coffee a day. I am very lean but not weak. Few people of my circle and some internet articles says that coffee will make us lean even though we eat healthy. Can someone throw light on this ? Is it true?

I think caffeine can´t make you lean if you eat well & health food, and of course doing some exercises, gym, jogging etc. Caffeine is most consumed psychoactive drug, legal of course(more at wiki). Also, I like to start day with warm cup of coffee. :)

Btw, about year ago I use caffeine pills (200mg pure caffeine per pill , it really have effect, adrenaline increases, you feel energy). Than and today, when I don´t consumed this pills anymore, I have almost same weight.
A suggest you to eat food which contains proteins, avoid too much (white) sugar etc.


Sweating due to coffee intake I sweat a lot. I have tried so many methods to combat sweating but none of it worked. Antiperspirants and other home remedies didn't work at all. I don't have enough money to go for botox or other expensive treatments as I'm saving it for something else.

I am a coffee addict. I can't function without at least 5 cups of coffee daily. Is it true that coffee consumption will result in sweating? If yes, how can I reduce my coffee intake? (I'm not a fan of decaf).

Coffee can cause some sweating when consumed in very high dosages. Your core temperature increases because of central nervous system activation and your body tries to regulate temperature. However 5 cups a day don't seem close to an overdose unless your caffeine tolerance is very low and studies have shown that normal dosages of caffeine intake don't alter core temperature or increase sweating to an extent where it would affect your hydration (see e.g. McLellan et. al 2016 for a Review). It still might be noticeable if you sweat a lot in general. I would just trial and error it by not drinking coffee for a few days. You might notice increased sweating for a day or two from withdrawal but that should pass after a couple of days. However these "health" websites have a lot of misinformation on them that are not scientifically supported.

References:

McLellan, T. M., Caldwell, J. A., & Lieberman, H. R. (2016). A review of caffeine’s effects on cognitive, physical and occupational performance. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 71, 294-312.


How much caffeine is in an espresso shot? Many people seem to think that a 0.85oz shot of espresso has the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee. Is there any validity to this?

According to caffeineinformer, there is 77 mg of caffeine in 1½ shots of espresso.

Comparatively, an 8 oz. cup of brewed coffee comes in at 163 mg of caffeine.

There is roughly 1/2 as much caffeine in 1.5 shots as there is in 8 oz. of brewed coffee.


Good quality espresso / cappuccino maker that doesn't leak or break within 18 months of use I have been buying de Longhi coffee machines for a while now and they seem to be getting worse.  I started on a Delonghi EC152 which was low cost and pretty reliable.  Then when my 2nd one died, I tried to order a replacement but it had been discontinued and so equivalent model was a EC146.B which was really poor.  As luck would have it, or so I thought, I received another de Longhi as a present, an EC 270.  But this leaks like crazy after only a few weeks.  If you fiddle with the valve on the  water vessel it stops leaking for a few  hours.

So I would like to buy a coffee maker which doesn't leak and which will last.

Willing to spend a reasonable amount to get something that will last.

I am looking for a home use machine for say 1-2 cups per day.  Our cooker is an electric hob - so not sure the stove types would work.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

I think I put a new gasket in the Vesuviana once, but I find it more of a pain to clean than I like. Still, gotta be pushing 50 years old, pretty reliable.

Also a stovetop device, but purported espresso. Espresso snobs may say it's not real espresso.

For cappuccino there are similar stovetop devices to make steam with.


Why isn't coffee commonly sold in sachets, like tea bags? I was wondering why single serving coffee sachets never really took off the way tea bags have. The only explanation I could find was that steeping coffee too long makes the coffee taste bad, but it seems like that could be avoided by removing the bag.

Why would the end result be terribly different than a french press, Turkish brew, or cowboy coffee?

As a matter of fact, coffee is "commonly" sold in some kind of sachets.

In Japan, there is what is called "one-drip bag coffee". It consists of a flat sachet that you can unfold to deploy a small scaffold. The scaffold adapts to any mug-like cups. It unveils a filter containing ground coffee, as it unfolds. You just need to pour hot water in the filter to get a decent cup of coffee.

I will not link to any maker or brand, but most coffee dealers in Japan offer these bags---pretty convenient and offering a decent cup for the price. These bags seem somewhat popular in Japan.

I am not sure about global availability, though. Several countries do not sell them (e.g. Europe, perhaps because of the French / Italian influences).


Storing cream in my office I have a coffee maker in my office, but no fridge for my cream!  Unfortunately, even a mini/bar fridge would be too big for my office.

What other options do I have for keeping cream good for 8-10 hours?  I can bring just what I'll use for the day in the morning.  The room is kept at 20-22C all day.  How long can cream be stored at room temperature before it is risky to use?

Companies (including Nestle) make creamers that do not require refrigeration.  They are likely available in your local grocer, you just need to check the label and make sure refrigeration isn't required.

If you are paranoid about potential bacterial growth or contamination (like me) you may check into bulk buying the single serving creamers that they use at restaurants.  They require no refrigeration either and are sealed until use.

If you are looking to keep "real cream" cold for 8 to 10 hours, you may want to look into some sort of freezable lunch bag or small ice chest that will stay cold and takes up less space than a mini-fridge.  This would require substantially more effort, but may be worth it if you are particular about your cream.  Also from the comments below, you may look into a double wall vacuum thermos.  They are increasingly popular and come in a wide variety of qualities and prices, so do your research before buying.


What makes coffee from a coffee shop/cafe better than the coffee I make at home? Depending on the coffee shop I go to I often find I like the coffee more than the coffee I make at home or that I have at other peoples homes. Of course cafes and shops have bigger and more fancy looking machines and often their own blends, but what is it that the machines do that home coffee machines can't match?

At home I have a Delonghi Dedica machine which  has good reviews for quality coffee and I have used all sort of different coffee blends including ones from coffee shops themselves.

Three things contribute to a good cup of coffee.

The coffee itself.
The tools used to prepare the coffee.
The skills of the person making the coffee.

Unless you're talking about espresso or espresso based drinks (cappuccino) the skill involved is easily developed.

Do you use a burr grinder or a blade to grind your coffee? Or do you use pre-ground coffee? This, believe it or not, makes a huge difference. Coffee shops use a burr grinder to get a consistent grind.

Without knowing the coffee shops you're referring to (as well as your own brewing habits) it's hard to give a reasoned answer. It may simply be the coffee used and the amount of coffee used.


French Press: Does "plunge speed" affect taste? Recently at the office a fellow co-worker of mine got a french press. I see that he slowly plunges the grinds down to the bottom as the roast brews.

Does this really affect the flavor of the coffee?

Plunging speed will only change the flavour in a minor way. Plunging slowly/carefully will prevent more sediment from getting through the filter as you push it down. Change in amount of sediment in your cup will change the mouth feel of your coffee, and may influence the flavour a little bit. I.e.: If there is too much sediment it may be more bitter.

I have found I do not even need to plunge at all when making French Press, I have started simply carefully pouring the coffee out through the filter without plunging.

Link to cat video performing the French Press method described above.

See answers to a previously posted question on this topic as well!


Butter coffee taste and effects? I have heard of people putting grass fed unsalted butter in their coffee and I have heard its pretty good. I was wondering if anyone has tried it and would like to describe the taste and how effective it was.

I do not know if this will be a good answer for you but here it goes.

When I lived in France (small rural community), I used to put grass fed unsalted butter into my coffee all the time. I got the idea from reading articles about Tibetans putting yak butter into their black tea.

Personally I enjoy it. It is an acquired taste because it is has a very rich and heavy flavor. Do not put milk or cream into your coffee as it will completely change your perspective on this great coffee idea. For myself, I prefer not to drink it just as it, safe the bottom of the barrel sort of speaking. I generally would dunk my rather dense bread (sometimes biscuits) into it at breakfast time and have enjoyed doing this as such for many years.

For myself I only do this in the mornings.


General inquiries of cold brew I'm a big fan of cold brew and I'm planning to start up my own business, so I'm wondering:

What other equipment can I use instead of toddy commercial?
Which coffee origin will give a dark chocolate and spices flavor?
How do you calculate the ratio of water to coffee, say if I want to produce 10 litres of cold brew?
Is 12 hours the optimal peak?

I mainly used Toddy and other full immersion techniques.

In the place I work we just use the Toddy. For big batches it is in my opinion the best alternative. We have a drip stand (Hario or some other fancy wooden thing) as well, but it's just not as good, because the water is dripping on the same spot of coffee grounds constantly. You can mitigate that by placing a round paper filter on the grounds (from Aeropress e.g.), however there will still be some uneven extraction. An alternative is the Filtron system, which is basically the same thing. What you could do as well is just brew it in big jars or barrels and then filter it in 3 levels with a restrainer, cheese cloth and coffee filters.
Here is a nice little comparison by Stumptown coffee, that places the Filtron and Toddy system on the top.
To be honest, cold brew works best with washed Ethiopian/Kenian light roasted coffees in my opinion, which really brings out a lot of sweetness and a nice floral flavor. Cold brew generally reduces acidity, so it works well with high acidity (african) coffees. Sumatran coffees, which would match your flavor requests, are already very low in acidity so the cold brew method can't really shine here. You can also try natural processed african coffees, they would be more full bodied, chocolaty and with notes of red berries (had an amazing ethiopian natural that tasted incredibly like strawberries). They are not really my thing though, a bit flavor overkill most of the times.
Central American coffees usually work quite well as well, with a bit more nutty, caramel and chocolaty flavors.
I've written something on this in this question already. In any case I use very high coffee to water ratios and don't dilute the concentrate (just served on a lot if ice). However for many people that is too strong and they dilute it with water or even add a little milk, which works quite well with this kind of concentrate.
Depends on your taste and the best recommendation anyone can give you here is to try a lot of different coffees and recipes until you find your style. You should definitely do some testing before you sell, so you actually like what you are selling and understand what it is. Generally longer contact time means higher extraction, 12 to 14 hours is what I do at home (in a mason jar) and I like it most. In the shop we do faster brews though.

Well I hope that helped, I'm happy about comments and suggestions how to improve the post.


Upward size limit for espresso makers In my, somewhat limited, experience with espresso machines they generally only produce a few shots of espresso per load.

Is this a technical limitation of espresso making or is it just that the manufactures expect normal, healthy, people to only drink a shot or two at a time?

To put it another way:

Are there machines out there that are capable of producing a pot of espresso or does the process require small batches?

The key here is extraction from the espresso coffee. Only so much desirable flavor and body can be pulled from a puck of coffee. So, then you might say, why not make the puck bigger? Well then that would force the water through a thicker puck, causing the extraction to be slower and longer, giving bitter flavors. The amount of pressure needed to make a desirable "pot of espresso" with a larger "puck" (or probably more accurately, a "slab" in this case) would be a wild safety hazard, since the pressure would be too immense for any cost-effective equipment to handle.

So, is it a technical limitation? Yes and no. I think it has more to do with being a tried process that gives repeatable, scientific results.


What's the minimum recommended age for drinking a coffee? Is there any minimum recommended age for drinking a coffee?

In example for ground or instant (in case there is any difference)? I would assume there are no limits for a decaf coffee?

In short: there is no minimum recommended age for drinking coffee, but on the other hand it's not good idea to have kids drink coffee all day long.

It is discussed in depth in the parenting site of Stack Exchange and the top answer thee states:

  The bottom line is that caffeine is generally safe, but it does have significant effects in children as well as adults. Note that children are much more likely to encounter caffeine in a soft drink than in tea or coffee; that's what you have to worry about, I think, not Starbucks. A cup of green tea contains ~15-25 mg of caffeine, which is around the limit where there were no noteworthy affects for a 50 kg child, so if they want to hang out at a cafe, they don't even have to limit themselves to strictly caffeine-free options

Personally I'm not going to allow my children to have coffee before they are in highschool - that's the age where they can start to decide on things affecting their health.


Are robusta and arabica the only bean varieties? On this site, and virtually everywhere, I hear people speaking about coffee in terms of "arabica" or "robusta". I know these are two coffee varieties, but are there others as well? Why aren't those as popular? Where can they be found?

Coffea Arabica and Coffea Canephora are the only two species of plants whose beans we use to make coffee - Arabica and Robusta respectively.

However, you may have heard of other 'types' of coffee that might be confusing. For example Peaberry Coffee is not actually a separate bean type. 5-10% of harvested coffee berries contain only one bean (instead of two). These are usually discarded, but sometimes are collected and sold separately. They are normally Arabica beans.

Furthermore, since 2008, 9 new species of coffee plant have been discovered. These are not currently cultivated for beans though, as far as I can tell (though some species contain traits which would be desirable1 - self-pollination and caffeine-free beans).

1. Desirable for some people...


Is a Keurig K-Cafe "shot" really an espresso shot? I've been trying a Keurig K-Cafe, which includes a "Shot" feature that slowly produces what looks like a shot of espresso from a regular ("coffee") K-cup.  What is the machine doing to produce that, and is the resulting liquid comparable to "real" espresso?

(I'm not enough of a connoisseur to tell the difference between straight espresso and these K-Cafe Shots.  I understand that "real" espresso is made by passing water through the grounds under high pressure.  I can't see that the K-Cafe has a mechanism to accomplish that.)

No, sadly it's absolutely not an espresso shot.

To get a real espresso shot the ideal settings are to have freshly ground coffee into a portefilter basket leveled and compressed using about 15kgf of force. The amount of coffee should be around 14g-18g (for a double shot) as an input, the output should be like 28-36g (we are talking about a tradtional espresso with a 1/2 ratio). All of this should be done under around 9 bar pressure. A Keurig simply doesn't respect any of theses parameters.


What am I doing wrong if the used grounds in the filter basket are like wet sand? I have a relatively cheap (<£100) espresso machine. Sometimes I find that after making a drink, I remove the handle and find the filter basket has lots of water in, so rather than tapping out a dry, compacted lump of coffee grounds into the bin, I have to wash a sloppy mess down the sink.

Sometimes I get it right, but I haven't worked out what I'm doing inconsistently to make this happen.

I have seen this happen due to the age of the coffee being used. I believe that fresh coffee, something roasted within a week of use may cause the soupy puck you are experiencing. The rule of thumb is if the coffee tastes good, don't work about the puck.


Will cold water result in cooler coffee with drip coffeemaker? In electric drip coffeemakers, water is pushed up by boiling a portion of it at a time, right?

My friend told me that unless he uses warm of hot water in the coffeemaker tank, the resulting coffee will be much cooler. I find this very hard to believe as I always use cold water and the coffee comes out hot.

All the water will travel past a heating element, and steam "bubbles" will push the water on the top where it will "drip". BUT is it possible that in cheaper coffeemakers the cold water can slip past the heating element un-heated and travel up with the following bubble, cooling down the outcome? Is this where the watts will really come into play?

I am not asking if cold water should be used, but rather if such a scenario is possible. I do not have a precise thermometer or a cheap coffeemaker to test this. Also, I found this very hard question to google, as the only keywords I can think of are "cold, water, drip, coffee".

I hardly believe this is directly related to coffee. Still, as a more than 15 year experienced engineer, I would like to answer this question.

The answer is simply and clearly "no".

For the water to be able to travel to the top of the drip coffeemaker machine, it requires to gain some latent heat by changing its state to gas phase first. That's It simply means, it needs to be vaporized first.

Then, just at the top of the coffee and filter, there is a condensation space. At that space the gas (vapor) returns back to liquid phase (water) and starts to drip. Therefore, you obtain a slow flow of heated (to the near evaporation point) dripping water.

I cannot think any other way of bypassing this flow. Even in cheaper drip filter coffee makers.


If I only occasionally brew at home, should I keep instant or grounds (or something else)? Related: Is it a good idea to keep a coffeemaker if I only occasionally drink coffee?

At home, I produce less than 2 cups of coffee per week. Lately, I've been using instant to keep the hassle-payout ratio favorable. (hassle such as the actual process of producing one cup, as well as storing the requisite equipment)

If I were to buy ground coffee, it would take me months (or longer) to finish even a 10oz tin.

Is it better to keep fairly old coffee grounds for that occasional cup, or to use instant coffee?

I've been that person - I kept ground coffee forever. The difference in taste between fresh and old ground coffee is enormous, but so is the difference between old grounds and instant. It's just a completely different beverage, so I would say if these are your two options, it's just a matter of personal taste (I would go for old grounds).

If you're up for it, I would buy a small manual grinder and keep whole beans, it makes a world of a difference in taste and you can keep the beans for months without deterioration. Adds a bit of work to the process though, and depending on your coffee maker would require a grinder with different abilities (espresso would require much finer grinding degree than let's say a mokka express).


What preparation method yields the most caffeine? I want to make the most caffeinated coffee possible. What method should I use to yield the most caffeine content per liter?

The first thing you want to do is choose the right bean and the right roast.

Longer roasting removes some of the caffeine from the bean, so a lighter roast would be preferred. Additionally you should chose Robusta beans, since their inherent caffeine content is higher than that of arabica beans.

The next step is the grinding. The smaller you grind, the easier it is to extract "material" from the ground. This is due to the additional surface area you expose.

Then the last step is the extraction. The longer you expose the ground to water, the more substances you absorb. The extraction roughly has three steps:

Extraction of Acidity
Extraction of Sweetness
Extraction of Bitterness

Usually you try to stop extraction after the second step, to have the coffee taste nicely. By that point in time most of the caffeine is already extracted.

If you'd want to get all the caffeine out of a ground, you'd have to go through with extracting the bitterness, too. But for general purpose drinkable coffee it's definitely preferrable to stop after extracting the sweetness


What is the background of brewing coffee with eggs? I hope the question isn't too broad or fuzzy. But quite a while ago, I stumbled across coffee that was prepared with eggs. The basic recipe involved mixing ground coffee with raw eggs (I think even with their shells), then cooking that mix with water and filtering it afterwards. The end result of that was in consistence and taste not much different from classic (drip, so to say) coffee, but had a notable and interesting by-taste of egg.

This was quite bit unusual to me and I didn't ever encounter this recipe again (yet am not an expert on the topic either). So I would first and foremost like to know if that preparation method is some kind of established or regional variation of coffee and how that actually developed or what the reasons/advantages for this somehow unusual combination are, be they nutritional, historical or just because it tastes good.

So I did a bit of research, and found a number of regional claims to 'egg coffee', including  Swedish, Norwegian, Vietnamese and the American Mid-West. Of course I also found an article on Putting Weird Things In Coffee, which should be taken with a pinch of salt1.
There seem to be a variety of approaches, but they seem to fall into three main camps:

Add just the white and the shell
Add just the yolk and the shell
Add the whole egg, including the shell

Across the different techniques, adding the shell was the only real unifying theme! It's said to reduce bitterness (I imagine because the shell is essentially calcium-carbonate, which is basic). The technique is to just crush up the shell, mix it and the egg contents with the coffee and pour over boiling water.
The grounds will bind with the egg protein and sink in the cup. They can then be strained off.
The only other recipe I found is specifically for Vietnamese egg coffee, which I found here:

Ingredients

1 egg
3 teaspoons of Vietnamese coffee powder
2 teaspoons of sweetened condensed milk
Boiling water

Directions
Brew a small cup of Vietnamese coffee. Crack
an egg and discard the whites. Put the yolk and the sweetened
condensed milk in a small, deep bowl and whisk vigorously until you
end up with a frothy, fluffy mixture like the one above. Add a
tablespoon of the brewed coffee and whisk it in. In a clear coffee cup
(we’re going for aesthetics here), pour in your brewed coffee, then
add the fluffy egg mixture on top. Presto. Egg coffee.

1: No, not like that.


Get the best from a Gaggia Unica coffee machine I have a Gaggia Unica bean-to-cup machine and I want to use this machine to get the best quality coffee possible.

How should I use and maintain/clean the machine to ensure the highest standard of coffee possible?

I suggest your first port of call should be the operators manual. Here is an excerpt:
• Empty and clean the coffee grounds drawer daily, with the machine turned on.
• After having removed the coffee grounds drawer, remove the liquids from the tray placed under the brew group.
Note: We recommend emptying the container if the machine is not going to be used for some days.
After brewing milk beverages, dispense hot water from the steam wand (Pannarello, if supplied) to obtain a thorough cleaning.

Every day, after heating the milk, remove the external part of the Pannarello (if supplied) and wash it with fresh drinking water.

Clean the steam wand weekly. To do this, the following operations have to
be performed:

Remove the external part of the Pannarello (for standard cleaning);

Remove the upper part of the Pannarello from the steam wand;

Wash the upper part of the Pannarello with fresh drinking water;

Wash the steam wand with a wet cloth and remove any milk residues;

Replace the upper part in the steam wand (make sure it is completely inserted).
Reassemble the external part of the Pannarello.

It is recommended to clean the water tank daily. For an easier removal of the
water tank, move the steam wand / Pannarello upwards:

Remove the small white filter in the water tank and wash it under running drinking water.

Reposition the small white filter in its housing by gently pressing and turning it at the same time.

Fill the tank with fresh drinking water.

Empty and clean the drip tray daily. Perform this operation also when the float is raised.


Beans for Qatar-type coffee? I have seen coffee prepared as in Qatar: It was mixed with cardamon, and had a light brown colour. The taste was excellent. I was told that the coffee beans were roasted only very little. Which kind of coffee beans are typically used for this coffee in Qatar, and can one get them in Europe?

I can read Arabic and also I prepare Arabian coffee as you want, so here comes the recipe

1- you have to get a very fine ground, light roasted plain coffee 1 tps / 80 ml water

2- ground cardamom 1/8 tps

3- saffron

4- 1:2 cloves / 80 ml

5- rose water 1/2 tps / 80 ml

A lot of Arabs drink it plain. Instead of sugar they eat dates along with it but you can add sugar if you wish; set your pot on a very very low heat, let it boil.

Turn the heat off and transfer it to another pot, wait until the grounds settle down the pot and pour, have fun.


Which major coffee shop has the freshest coffee? Is there a particular coffee shop where one may attain the freshest java ?

By Major, are you referring to exclusively things like Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, etc, etc?

If so, then I think I would have to go with Denny's actually. Yes, they will leave a pot on all day, but I've never been in a Denny's that wouldn't immediately pull it and start up a fresh one if you asked for it out of the gate.

In places like Starbucks, Coffee & Tea, etc, there seems to be trick words or a menu item that tells them to grind and brew fresh, but that's something that one has to learn.


What influence do the dry residuals of previous coffee in the cup have on the drinking experience? At work I usually drink coffee (multiple times daily) from a metallic cup which I actually never ever wash on the inside. This leads to the building of interesting dust-like coffee residuals. While this started out of mere laziness, I meanwhile deliberately refrain from washing it as the result is visually quite appealing and an interesting long-term endeavour to see how that coffee cup evolves over the years.

I am however wondering if those residuals actually have any kind of influence on the fresh coffee drank from this cup. Now of course there isn't anything moulding, it's an entirely dry thin dust layer, and I don't really make out any taste difference to a clean cup (as the coffee isn't too much of a high quality product in the first place and I'm not a big tasting expert either). So this might be a stupid question. But for example I heard somewhere (though, that's entirely anecdotal hearsay, too) that you shouldn't wash a tea can with dishwasher but only with water because of some flavoury reasons. So maybe there is actual proper or even scientifically grounded reasoning that the dry residuals of previous coffee in the cup have any kind of influence on the coffee drinking experience, however small and imperceptible, be that flavour-wise or regarding other effects, advantageous or defective.

You're actually asking two different questions.

The minute amount of coffee left to evaporate in the bottom of a cup will have completely oxidized and lost virtually all of its volatile compounds (i.e. It probably wouldn't taste very good if you reconstituted it on its own). So when you add more fresh coffee to that cup, yes, you are essentially adding a minute amount of an external (and somewhat off) flavor component to your brew.

Now whether that flavor component contributes to any any perceptible change in flavor is highly debatable. Line up 100 coffee drinkers in a blind tasting, and I suspect there would be no statistically significant detection between "100% fresh" and "Christian's 0.083% dust-like coffee residuals."

Your analogy to washing tea cans in a dishwasher is a bit off. Washing containers in a dishwasher is generally known to leave a perceptible taste of soap on the container. Soap is completely foreign to the coffee-tasking experience so it is easily tasted if it is present. But the residuals you are leaving behind in your unwashed-coffee-cup study are still essentially coffee (somewhat off coffee, but coffee nonetheless). So mixing the equivalent of "a few drops" of off coffee in a hot cup of fresh I suspect will have no perceptible effect on taste.

I also suspect that your coffee cup experiment is not evolving over the years. The metallic cup is likely stainless steel or perhaps aluminum (and most coffee cups are made of ceramic). In either case, the cup is largely stainless, so you are not likely building up any patina… so you are essentially "washing away" the previous day's experiment each time you add a fresh cup of hot coffee. There should be no substantial, cumulative effect.


Using Arabica coffee beans for making instant coffee I saw in this article that instant coffee is usually entirely consisting of Robusta beans. Would making a instant coffee of Arabica beans make a better quality instant coffee? Would the process making instant coffee with Arabica beans be the same?

The process should be quite the same. At least, according to this wholeseller's website.

As far as I understand this company sells 100% Arabica or Robusta OEM instant coffee.

For example, the well-known Nescafe has several brands for different blends. (I cannot reference these as they are based on many years of aggregated information of myself. I cannot even remember when I first hear some of them.)

Nescafe Classic is pure Robusta, but this claim is hidden recently. Still, if you Google it with keywords as "%100 percent robusta Nescafe" you may see old web pages.
Nescafe Gold is a blend, ratios are unknown.
More recent Nescafe Dolce Gusto is 30% Arabica, 70% Robusta. So, I doubt the Arabica ratio of Gold is less than 30%.


Getting large volume lattes So, I'm usually a pourover-coffee drinker, and I know a little bit more about that side of the spectrum … but lately (somewhat to my own shame) I've gotten into Starbucks lattes. Like, ‘more than one a day,’ into. I've got an old Nespresso machine from when I first started drinking coffee and espresso, and didn't know which I'd like more (I took both straight at the time.)

I've started trying to make my own lattes at home with the Nespresso, to save money and time, but I have no idea what I'm doing, and I'm having terrible results. Most importantly, I can't figure out how a Starbucks barista is getting twenty ounces of final product, from two shots of espresso. When I'm using the Nespresso (pull one ‘latte’, pull a second ‘lungo’ into the latte), I get maybe 9oz of coffee-product; and that's stretching the phrase, as it's basically slightly-coffee-tainted steamed-milk. (It's barely even brown!)

Help me get from where I am, to having a drinkable 20+oz beverage, without having to pull like 6 shots of espresso (and 450mg of caffeine) into my travel mug? /=

Assuming you are not planning to buy a lot more machinery, you can simply use the Nespresso to make espresso - depending on your preferred strength, two to three shots should be what you need for your 20 oz mug. A Starbucks “Venti” is named for the twenty oz volume and contains three shots.

But that's basically a puddle in your mug:
You need to fill the other 16 oz. and you do that with steamed (foamy) milk. If you wanted to do this "correctly", you would use the steam wand of your espresso machine - which the Nespresso doesn't have, I presume.

If you have an immersion blender, preferably with a disk, heat (not boil!) your milk and whizz it until you get soft foam.
Other options are a stovetop or electric milk frother - the manual pump-action ones are available for the price of four to five Starbucks coffees, the electric ones cost a bit more.
Do not buy one of these teeny-tiny hand-held flimsy wire-whisk stirrers, they are a funny gadget but not sturdy enough for daily use and large volumes of milk.

The milk-to-foam-to-espresso ratio is up to you, find what you like best. I suggest starting somewhere at about two thirds milk / one third foam plus three shots and tweak your drink until you find your preferred recipe.

For more inspiration, see this answer over at Seasoned Advice.


What's the big deal about pour-over coffee? For the last ten years or so, I think, pour-over coffee has been very trendy (and, usually, expensive). You often see these filter racks in coffee shops:

As far as I can tell this is identical to the coffee brewing method I grew up with: the plastic Melitta cone.

We were not really fancy coffee people. The cones were quick and easy (and storable in a cupboard, unlike a coffee machine). The coffee was tasty. For that matter, I still use a Melitta cone when I go camping. So my question is: why did pour-over coffee become such a big deal? Is it just that the barista is making you a bespoke cup from scratch instead of pouring it from the urn? Or has there been some advancement in the state of the art in the last thirty years?

Pour over systems give you the ability to control the water flow through the coffee grounds with a high level of precision whereas a drip brewer does not.

I will admit, this is a bit of a trend, but there are very real differences in the taste of a pour over versus a drip brewed cup of coffee.

Blooming -- Gets rid of trapped Co2.  Easy to do in a pour over, whereas in a drip brewer, I don't believe the grounds are allowed to bloom.  If you don't let the Co2 offgas, you get metallic flavors in the cup.  Typically not really a problem since the majority of the gas is gone inside 12-24 hours anyways, but pour over allows you to completely optimize this.
Cleanliness of cup -- pour overs are known for producing a very clean cup of coffee, that allows you to highlight the top notes in a coffee like florals or fruit flavors.  This is the polar opposite from French Press, and drip brewers either use paper filters that aren't pre-soaked so may relay a papery flavor to the coffee, or use a metal filter which will allow quite a bit more coffee oil through the filter and thus muddy the cup (slightly).
Grounds saturation -- Typically drip brewers don't have a very good spray head in the drip brewer, so many times you can get a filter of grounds where the center is indented after brewing and the outer grounds may not even be wet in some cases.  Obviously, grounds not wet is a bad thing.  The indentation is also a bad thing.  It basically means that more water is being passed through the center of the filter than elsewhere which means you don't get even extraction.
Timing -- You don't want to pass water through the grounds too fast, nor too slow.  The reasoning for this is variable solubility rates of different compounds in the coffee.  Case in point, if you grind really coarse and 'brew' your coffee in 1 minute, what's going to happen is the citric and malic acids in the coffee grounds will extract very easily and the other more complex flavor compounds will stay in the ground.  This is going to produce a sour cup of coffee.  Pour over allows you to make minute adjustments to ground saturation timing that can produce some wild flavors in a cup of coffee.

All this being said.. I still use a drip brewer for my morning cup of coffee because I'm usually running out the front door trying to get to work.  Does my drip brewer produce a good cup of coffee?  Absolutely.  Can I get a better cup of coffee with a pour over?  Probably.  It's simply a quality / time trade off.


How to clean an Iberital MC2/Challenge grinder that is stuck? I have an Iberital MC2/Challenge grinder which got stuck today while grinding. Not sure what happened.

In the manual, I can't see how I can clean the inside of the grinding mechanism. Does anyone know how to take of the top grinding plate so that I can clean all residue from it?

A couple useful posts found in a thread linked below.  Text below is two user posts.  LeeWardles post seems to have been accepted by the original poster as being correct information, but you can check out the whole thread below.

CoffeeForumsUK

awlred posted:

  I have an MC2 and recently pulled it out after my newer grinder
  breaking down. You can pop the top bit off the grinder (The black
  plastic part) and unscrew the worm-drive mounting. Doing this makes it
  very easy to get access to the top burr plate and unscrew it until it
  comes away. After that use a stiff bristled toothbrush or small
  paintbrush to remove all the ground coffee etc and clean the housing
  out entirely.

  Assembly is the opposite of dismantling. As a rule of thumb I tighten
  until the burrs meet (the lower burr moves with the upper) and then
  loosen off about 1/8th of a full turn.

  Point to note The wormdrive, while being annoyingly slow to adjust
  needs to be in place for the grinder to remain dialed at any setting.

  While on the subject, an easy hack to make adjustments quicker is a
  set of locking pliers (welders pliers) either around the knob or
  straight on the bar. Which makes the whole process a LOT quicker, if
  slightly less elegant.

LeeWardle posted:

  just needs a strip down. From what you have said it sounds like the
  grind is set to course (after you wound it back) so the noise is bean
  fragments. Also could be that one if the screws has come loose so the
  blde is loose on its mount.

  Hold the button down that holds the step ring and unscrew the ring.
  This will leave you with the plastic ring and an cast alu mount for
  the top blade. Use a wire brush and clean this blade. Remove it and
  clean the mount, put it back. Next remove the lower blade. To do this
  safely unplug from the mains. To stop the motor turning while you
  unscrew place a large flat blade driver next to one of the fins. Clean
  it all and put it all back together.

  Next set the grind to the right courseness. Dose a little onto your
  hand and rub the grouds with your figer. The grouds should be uniform.
  If not you need new blades. These shouldnt cost you anymore than
  £15-20. Makesure you get the right blades as some are right handed &
  some are left. Don't forget, this grinder is made by Cunill and
  re-badged iberital so you can get blades from anyone. If your having
  trouble sourcing new blades leave your number and i'll get a supplier
  to ring you ASAP.


What's the history and content of Coffee Cantata from Johann Sebastian Bach? A few days ago, I have seen the title Coffee Cantata from Johann Sebastian Bach will be staged soon in the opera house. I wonder, what is this cantata about?

Coffee Cantata is also known as "Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht (Be still, stop chattering) or BWV 211.

It is composed around 1732-1735 by Bach in Leipzig.

It is known as a cantata, but actually it has a story and looks like a mini opera. In the opera, the father tries to stop her daughter from drinking coffee. However, the daughter loves coffee and sings nice lyrical praises to coffee. A well-known sentence is this: "If I couldn't, three times a day, be allowed to drink my little cup of coffee, in my anguish I will turn into a shriveled-up roast goat".

More info on history of the cantata can be found on its Wikipedia page.

You may listen the Coffee Cantata from Youtube.


Is there any way to overcome cycling with a moka on an induction stove? In my eternal quest to make a decent cup of coffee at my parents' house, with an induction stove and moka, I recently discovered an interesting problem.

Having found a good heat setting for the hob (that doesn't superheat the water instantly and boil it dry in ~20 seconds), I found that the hob attempts to maintain thermostatis by cycling the power on and off. This may work fine for a large pot of boiling water, but for the moka pot this means I get a few seconds of extraction, followed by a few seconds of water being sucked back down the wrong way as the pressure decreases, then forwards, then back, etc.

Is there any way of overcoming this? Is it even likely to cause a problem with the extraction?

As far as my experience with Moka pots, I don't have them on the stove for long. Something that I got in that habit of doing when using moka pots is to boil the water before I put it in the Moka pot, then introducing it to heat, then removing shortly after it starts to percolate. Stumptown illustrates a similar method.
As for the induction stove cycling to maintain a steady temp, if you set the temperature over boiling(212F, but may differ by altitude) it likely won't cycle. This is because water will not exceed boiling point, under most circumstances, in a liquid state. For instance water is often used to prevent things from burning, because it keeps the temperature below the boiling temperature until all the water is evaporated. So if you set the induction stove to above the water's boiling point it will likely not exceed that temperature. It might take a bit to find a sweet spot. Though I'm not sure, I have never used an induction stove with a moka pot.
UPDATE:
Something I had not considered is the boiling point increases with pressure. So it might be worth turning the heat up quite a bit beyond 212F/100C. Its pretty difficult to burn water. Then again if you're using an induction stove to avoid heat pollution on the moka pot, then you can just use a traditional stove with the method I described and avoid the need to use an induction stove.


How many milligrams of caffeine are in a fresh coffee bean? how much caffeine in a raw coffee bean? As in, raw, freshly picked, just remove hard outer shell and eat the rest.

There are about 6 mg of caffeine in one coffee bean. Darker roasts may have 10-15% less.

  ...dark roasts have a stronger taste, but the roasting procedure they experience decreases their caffeine content by 10 to 15 percent. If you prefer dark roasted beans, congratulations! They basically contain 15% to 20% less caffeine than the lightly roasted ones.

In the answers to this Question there is plenty of information about this subject.


Iced (cold) coffee stronger than hot? Generally, it is a fact that hot drinks make us calm. That is the suggestion from doctors - to drink a hot drink before going to bed. So, is iced coffee stronger because that triggers our metabolism?

From the sources so far (searching on cold VS hot coffee) I have found this:

  Grab a cold-brewed coffee before going to the gym. Yes – coffee made
  from cold water. Surprisingly, cold brew coffee contains many
  antioxidants and healthy body boosters for better workouts. Skip the
  shakes and vitamin waters – simply power-up with a cold brew and head
  for the gym.

The link is given here:
http://www.madescolabs.com/accelerate-your-weight-loss-goals-with-cold-brew-coffee/

I am guessing the cold coffee is stronger because of the temperature (metabolism trigger) and not because of a chemical reaction with the substances.

PS: Some examples of cold (iced) coffee can be:

a) The greek frappe which is instant coffee (nescafe mainly), shaken with water and with extra ice cubes added.

b) Freddo Espresso (cold Espresso) which is a double Espresso coffee. It is then blended for 8-10 seconds with 3 big ice cubes. That releases some flavours and the final result is poured into a glass with 1-2 ice cubes.

Stronger: No. Subltle differences: Yes.

For people who tolerate caffeine, want the longevity benefits, and looking for something gentler on your stomach with slightly less caffeine, cold brew is your cup of joe.

Hot brewed coffee has more anti-oxidants and a lower pH.  Cold-brewed has less acid and thus for many palates is 'milder'.  The caffeine content of the 2 is basically the same.

In summary:

'Hot brewed coffee could be better for you than cold, since heating it could increase the availability of antioxidants in your cup — but more research is needed to determine if the benefits are significant enough to warrant making the switch.' The individual's palate so for should be the final arbiter.

https://coach.nine.com.au/2017/09/20/09/51/cold-brew-coffee-health-benefits
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/is-cold-brew-coffee-better-for-you-than-regular-coffee


What is this brewing equipment and how it is used? I have encountered an old and interesting looking coffee brewing equipment on the Internet. It looks like a syphon, but as far as I see, it has an electric inlet on the right side.

Could anybody identify this device and know how it functions?

It looks like an old syphon or vacuum coffee brewer.  The coil on the bottom vessel heats the water to boiling and is forced up thru the center to the top vessel where the ground coffee is placed.  Two interesting things are what looks like a plug to seal the pour spout in the center ring to hold in the pressure and something I haven't seen is a sealed top vessel that has what looks like a whistle to the right of the lid.  I guess that is to let the person know when the water is completely in the upper chamber and the coffee has started to steep and to turn off the heat so the bottom vessel can cool drawing the brewed coffee into the bottom vessel.  Clever idea if it worked.


Bialetti Moka Express Pot Hi all! I am a new owner of a Bialetti Moka Express Pot! I have only had this little guy for maybe a month, and I am noticing that the water chamber is starting to look like this. Does anyone have any advice on fixing this issue or what I should be doing differently?

This may be an anecdotal answer, but it's coming from a friend that really cares that their aluminium moka pot stays in a prime condition as long as possible:
If you want to minimize visual changes in your moka pot, make sure to rinse it (do not use soap) right after use, wipe it with a dry cloth afterwards, and do not reassemble it until it's dry (as it will trap the remaining moisture in the chamber which causes the aluminium to oxidise, changing the colour). That should slow down the process significantly.


Why do barista's keep activating the doser whilst grinding coffee I notice that some barista's keep whacking the doser on the coffee grinder when they fill the espresso holder. What's the theory behind this?

I would've thought that the fact that the coffee is being ground and falling into the holder that it is being aerated enough already so why do this?

This may be something to do with specific grinder models, it may be just the lever to release coffee, I don't know but would like to hear from someone who knows better than me.

Short reason: Tradition conflicting with modern brewing practices.

Long reason: This is more a result of an industry-wide legacy when purchasing equipment, where coffee shop owners will pick up mechanically dosed grinders instead of doserless, or electrically metered models because "that's how it's been done," or because the technology simply wasn't  affordable until simple microcontrollers became cheap.

Traditionally, you would grind enough coffee to fill the doser, dispensing grounds for brewing as needed and refilling the doser when the level dropped too low.  Dosers exist to allow for predictably size quantities of grounds to be dispensed into the portafilter, and that's basically it.

This, however, conflicts with the "Third Wave" coffee culture, where flavor and texture are paramount.  In this new culture, coffee beans are ground for immediate use, rather than drawing from a bin.  The moment beans are ground, the gasses contained within (gasses that are the reason Crema exist) are allowed every opportunity to escape.  The longer they sit, the less gasses will be left behind by the time they're used to brew.

So when a Third Wave coffee shop grinds using a doser, the Barista rapid-fires the dosing lever, essentially moving the coffee straight into the portafilter.

A better plan is just to use a direct-dosing grinder where the grounds are metered by time or weight straight into the filter.  Advances in the packaging options for load cell sensors and simple controllers have made this somewhat common in both consumer and commercial equipment.


Is there a stainless steel thermal carafe that will fit a Bunn BTX-BT brewer other than the one that comes with it? The carafe that comes with this brewer is not designed well. Coffee splatters in all directions while pouring, especially towards the end of the pot. I like the brewer so I am looking for a different carafe to use with it.

I have this exact brewer. This may seem counterintuitive, but I would suggest removing the lid from the carafe before pouring. The lid has a narrow rectangular notch through which the coffee passes during pour, and it is the shape of the notch that causes the splash.

Bunn has actually had a couple of versions of the BTX-BT carafe, and the current design is focused on maximum thermal retention. Unfortunately, the trade-off is difficult pour control.


Should the filter capacity be matched to the brew amount? I understand the of course the filter must be able to contain at least the amount of grounds for the cups you intend to brew.

However, I am using an 8-12 cup machine even though I live alone and generally only make 2-4 cups in the morning (sometimes 6 if I take some to work). My filters are thus also that size. I use this coffee.

After a recent trip to India and having enjoyed filter coffee, I started paying a bit more attention to try to get closer to that style (hence the chicory coffee).

Compression appears to be key for this style of coffee. With a flat-bottom, 8-12 cup filter with only 3 tbsp of grounds, the grounds appear to be very loose (obviously).
I then try to stamp it down a bit with the tablespoon, but this makes the layer quite thin in my very non-expert opinion.
After the brewing is done and I dispose of the filter, I notice that there is a hole in the middle of the grounds where you can directly see the filter (no hole through the filter itself).

I'm not so picky about taste, but this made me think that perhaps such a wide filter may not be suited for the small amounts I'm brewing. Is this true?

I would agree with you.  With the thin flat layer of coffee the hot water is just pushing a hole right through it.  You are not getting nearly the contact time of a full size brew.

If it was conical or V shaped filter then it would better accommodate different size batches.

On that pot it does not look like you could just simply use a different filter size.


What are these spots on the inside of my moka pot? Do I need to remove them? I've got these spots on the inside the bottom section of my Bialetti Moka Express:

They are placed pretty evenly around the ridgy part toward the edge of the bottom of the circle, with a few toward the middle. They are only on the bottom of the pot as far as I can tell, not the sides. They look sort of like black mold, but I gave the pot a gentle scrub with warm water and a mild soap and they didn't budge.

I don't normally use soap on my pot. Generally I make a cup of coffee, rinse all components, and allow them to air dry. Sometimes when I'm pressed for time, the just-used pot sits in the sink for a few hours without getting disassembled or rinsed. I have a hunch that that moisture may be contributing here. I use filtered water, so I don't think they are mineral deposits (unlike in this case). The pot is pretty new. It's been used 1-3 times per day for about three weeks.

So what are these spots? If they aren't affecting the flavor of the result, do I need to worry about them? If so, how can they be removed?

Short story: They are probably aluminum oxide, but almost certainly some kind of metal oxide. You don't need to take any action unless they're affecting the taste of your coffee, and it shouldn't be. You probably can't (or shouldn't) really permanently remove them even if you wanted to.

Longer story...

This is a classic Bialetti model, and a classic Bialetti symptom. The vessel is probably made out of alumin[i]um alloy (though there are similar models that are made of stainless steel, your picture seems to be looking down into the bottom heating vessel, and it looks like the classic aluminum species). Unfortunately the symptoms you're seeing, from my perspective, is a classic failure of the Bialetti design. Aluminum tarnishes (oxidizes) somewhat readily, especially when it is hot and in contact with water. Correspondingly, the only way to use this thing is, indeed, to heat it with water.

The vessel, especially, needs to be rinsed and dried thoroughly in The Right Way. The "care" page for Bialetti (follow that link, then click on the "Care Use" tab; I can't figure a direct link) suggests to dry thoroughly and most tellingly "Do not reassemble the product until all parts are completely dry to avoid oxidation." Even if you're meticulously drying the thing, it's still going to be a little hot and a little damp; this is going to invite oxidation.

Standard ways of removing tarnish are even more damaging in the long term than just leaving them alone. Aluminum oxide generally protects the metal from further oxidation (unlike rust -- iron oxide -- which flakes off and facilitates further oxidation).

I have a stainless steel moka pot, and it's terribly tarnished on the outside from heating on a gas burner hundreds of times, but the inside is clean (and cleanable) as the metaphorical "whistle".

For completeness: It's also possible that they are mineral deposits; this answer to the other question that you linked has some additional info about that possibility. It would come from a buildup ("scale") from using "hard" water, and more so when nearly boiling dry (also not a good idea); filtered or distilled water is much less likely to do this. However, I think it's unlikely that you'd see scale buildup over the span of a couple dozen uses.


Steam-Powered Espresso Machine: Crema? Hi there fellow coffee lovers! So, I recently decided to purchase my first ever espresso machine (well, kind of)! Its a steam espresso machine made my Mr. Coffee®. I know its a beginner machine, so I plan on upgrading to a pump machine in the future.

So, it surprisingly makes pretty good espresso! It takes really pleasant, but its missing on major element of a good espresso shot: the crema!! I simply fill the portafilter with espresso ground coffee up to the appropriate level. It seems like I grind about 2 and a half tablespoons for two ounces of water. I then "tamp" the coffee down with a flat spoon. I put it into my machine, turn it on, and wait like a minute for the hot espresso to come out. It sort of gives something similar to crema, but it seems for just like foam, and it doesn't last very long either.

Is there a way to generate crema using a steam espresso machine, or is it really not possible? Am I doing something wrong? Any feedback is appreciated! Thanks!

There are a few reasons why you might not get a good crema:

Stale coffee
Coffee not ground fine enough
Pressure too low

With a steam-powered espresso machine (especially if it's an entry level machine), you will typically not reach high enough pressure to get a proper crema. The crema is formed by oils extracted from the ground coffee, which needs high pressure (something like 9 bars). Your steam-powered machine will probably not produce more than ~3 bars of pressure.

Tamping with a spoon also seems not ideal, because it will be very difficult to achieve an even tamp. I cannot comment on how important that is for this particular machine, but with higher end pump machines it might lead to channeling and uneven extraction.


What is the difference between the terms percolation and brewing in English? Percolation and brewing seem used quite interchangeably in English, in many contexts, but not all. For example, I can often see "percolation time" in technical documents or Wikipedia entries, but often hear "brewing time" as well.

Is there any usage guidelines for these words in the English coffee world?

The problem is that percolation and brewing are not just about coffee: Both terms are generic. Percolation sounds more technical and focusing on liquid getting through a filter. Brewing seems focusing more on "solid into hot water", without involving necessarily a filter. This lets me think the words usage can be made quite accurate.

Please note that the scope is "restricted" to English, as percolation is a Latin word, and it seems usage differs in English.

Brewing is a part of every coffee preparation method: it's the time when the water (or steam) is in contact with the grounds. It is a generic term.

Percolation however, would only be used when making percolator coffee. You would not talk about percolation time when making espresso, for example. I would not use it as a generic term.


Coffee in Breaking Bad There's a part of the popular Breaking Bad TV show where they discuss making very good coffee in an advanced drug laboratory.  They mention a specific temperature and you can see some apparatus.  Does anyone here know how accurate that segment of the show is, and whether there is a specific optimum process for making coffee which would ensure perfect coffee, even if it's not something you'd necessarily be able to reproduce at home?

All coffee preparations can be improved with an application of science! Simply by monitoring and carefully controlling conditions such as water temperature, brew-time, grind etc., you can improve the taste of your coffee. No doubt with the array of instruments available to them in Breaking Bad they could have done a fine job of this!

As for the aparatus, this Chemistry Stack Exchange answer goes into a lot of detail. It seems a vacuum pump is being used to boil the water at a lower temperature than otherwise. This setup might be a bit beyond what non-chemists are able to construct though!

If you want to pretend you're in Breaking Bad while making your cup of coffee without a PhD in Chemistry, the closest you're going to get is with a Chemex flask:

It's basically pour-over drip coffee, albeit with proprietary, thicker filters that change the taste of the coffee (by removing more of the oils).


Do Hand Ground Beans Work for a Moka Pot? I'm thinking of buying a hand grinder but can't seem to find enough information to ensure that I'll be able to make good coffee in my Moka pot, i.e., that the size of the grind will be adequate.
Can I make decent coffee in a Moka Pot with beans ground in a hand grinder?

Yes. I've used manual grinders for many brew methods, including moka pot, Aeropress, and pour over, and it has worked well with all of them. Make sure to get one with a good range of adjustment for the burrs. Steel vs. ceramic burrs doesn't matter in my experience.


What is the Roasterie's city of fountains blend? I eat roasted coffee beans on occasion, and usually all taste about the same. But I have noticed that beans from the Roasterie's City of Fountains blend have a rather burnt flavor. I turns out the only place that they have been found is at Costco; even the cafés don't carry it. Does anybody have any experience with this? Are the beans just burnt leftovers?

Beans that are sold by giant retailers aren't known for being great.  Most companies moving such a significant amount of coffee (and mostly cheaply) are mainly looking for a supplier who can provide a large volume and quality secondarily.  Dark roasting such beans effectively hides the origin flavors (or lack thereof) and provides a certain level of uniformity (you will consistently get the roast tastes).  It's unlikely the beans are "burnt leftovers" since that kind of sorting or sale to another company after over roast accidents would only add to the cost and complexity of getting the product to market.


How do I keep slime from collecting in my drip tray? My espresso machine has a pretty impressive drip tray, at just around 1.5 liters in capacity, it holds quite a bit.

The problem is, if I empty it only when full, the bottom part of it has this really slippery, rather slimy surface which is extremely difficult to scrub. To be clear, it comes off easy enough, but tends to collect in nooks and corners.

I've tried adding a cap full of vinegar to the tray after cleaning and replacing it, this didn't make a noticeable difference. Even if I empty the tray when it's half full, there's still a bit of build up.

Is there anything else I can put in the bottom of the tray that wouldn't come with any competing odors to the coffee I'm brewing, but help keep this (as far as I can tell) 'water gunk' from forming? I'd really like to avoid dumping and cleaning the tray daily, as it is a bit of a chore.

If what you're seeing is mold or algae you may want to add a few table spoons of salt to the drip pan.

I'm guessing that your slime is probably a fungus of some kind, rather than an algae. It has found a rather nice living arrangement for a fungi. Plenty of warm water and decomposing coffee, with very little light.

Salt should in most cases prevent fungal growth, this may sound odd but it will dehydrate the cells even when they're immersed in water, sort of a "water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink".

If you would rather get high tech with it, you could try a UV light, similar to the ones used in AC systems. The harsh UV rays will kill most molds and prevent them from colonizing.


Eureka Mignon grinders and dosing cups? Do the Eureka Mignon grinders (Silenzio, Specialita) work well with a dosing cup such as the Rhinowares?

Yes they do, provided you remove the portafilter holder and don't put dosing cup too far away from the hole, it is only as wide as a portafilter after all so there could be some spilt grounds if it's not close enough.
I found a small wooden brick that fits in front of the Mignon and has the perfect height for my dosing cup. I just coloured it black and now it looks as if it's a part of the grinder.


How to make coffee candy to eat later? When I drink coffee with my stomach not very full, I usually don't feel very well later on. Because of this, I tried to start eating the coffee instead!

I've been trying to make some kind of coffee candy with just sugar and coffee, sometimes I try adding some oil, but it's not getting in the way I want it too.

I'm using raw grounds into it (When I'm lazy I just eat the grounds with sugar ^^'), and I wanted it to become more solid, kinda like chocolate, but from coffee.

What I'm doing for now is:

Melting sugar in low heat with very little water, mixing the grounds in the molten sugar, then let it cook for some time while mixing it, and then I take it out from the fire into a plastic container.

I tried mixing the sugar and the coffee before melting too, and I've tried mixing some oil on it before and after melting the sugar.

Do anyone know any recipe for this, preferably with the raw grounds?
(I made some research, coffee grounds have lots of anti-oxidants fibers and other good things, so I want to keep using it xD)

I was at a new restaurant in my area the other day, and they had this ingenious little snack: Chocolate-covered coffee beans. The beans are left as they would be just prior to grinding them into grounds, and covered in a layer of chocolate, with a nice crunch to them. It's really as simple as it sounds.

I've been working on finding them in local supermarkets. Gourmet and specialty grocers such as Trader Joe's or Whole Foods might have them; I'm not sure.


Espresso machine stops working after making 2 cups I've had the DeLonghi EC680 for about a year now. It is still working, but there is something wrong with it. It is able to make two cups of coffee in a row, but when I am trying to make the third one, the noise from the machine becomes quieter and no coffee is coming out. Then, when I turn off the machine for a bit and try again, it works just fine. I descaled it recently and cleaned the filter, but the problem is still there. What could be the problem and what could I do to fix it? Thanks for any help.

A machine turning itself off and working fine after a resting period sounds like a protective mechanism jumping in. If pulling multiple cups was fine in the past and now isn’t, it seems like some piece of the inner machinery gets too hot, and lime scale may or may not be the explanation. If you have a particular heavy buildup, it’s possible that one regular descaling cycle has been not strong enough to fully break down the deposits.

My first step would be to run the descaling at least once more and if possible extend the “soaking” time. That should also deal with particles floating in the system that were loosened in the first descaling and may now have wandered around and create a blockage. Rinse well afterwards, not only to get rid of the acidic cleaner, but also because of lime scale chips.

If that doesn’t help, it’s time to contact a repair service.


Does brewing a larger pot of coffee change the taste, even if you keep the ratios the same? I always use the same ratio of coffee to water when brewing, but it seems that there is a difference in taste between a single cup pour-over, a 12 cup pot, and a 96 oz urn. And the smaller the batch, the better it tastes. What could be the reason for this?

The extraction time will be longer for the larger pot, changing the taste, not necessarily for the better.