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Entries from Talk tagged with 'coffee'
Roasting Green Coffee at Home
Yesterday I picked up some green coffee beans at an Ethiopian grocery. I roasted and brewed a coffee pot's worth. I used a Turkish coffee maker, but have heard of people using hot air popcorn makers. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Who has a good online site to order coffee?
I could go for days without oxygen, but not without coffee. I've discovered numerous online coffee ordering sites but I'm overwhelmed with jittery excitement to know where to begin. Does anyone have a trusted online source for good coffee?
Indonesia's finest coffee: beans plucked from the droppings of wild civets
Boingboing pointed me to a great story in the LA Times:
Indonesian kopi luwak is a rare kind of coffee that apparently goes for $30/cup in some fancy Hong Kong hotels. The secret to its reportedly fine flavor is that the beans are collected, swallowed, and crapped back out by wild civets, small, arboreal mammals that are currently endangered. Today's Los Angeles Times tells the story of the $600/pound coffee. The article quotes Canadian food scientist Massimo Marcone, author of a new book that sounds fascinating: In Bad Taste?: The Science and Adventures Behind Food Delicacies. From the Los Angeles Times:
In the animals' stomachs, enzymes in the gastric juices massage the beans, smoothing off the harsh edges that make coffee bitter and produce caffeine jitters. Humans then separate the greenish-brown beans from the rest of the dung, and once a thin outer layer is removed, they are ready for roasting....
Days before the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck, Marcone was in Indonesia's Sumatran rain forest, where he collected about 10 pounds of civet droppings laced with coffee beans. He now uses it as "the gold standard" to rate other kopi luwaks in his lab at the University of Guelph in Ontario.
Like a forensic scientist reading a bullet's markings, Marcone stares at kopi luwak under an electron microscope, searching for striations that tell him that a civet excreted it. His studies found that kopi luwak drinkers need to be careful to avoid being duped.
"About 42% of all the kopi luwaks that are presently on sale are either adulterated or complete fakes, unfortunately," he said.
Real kopi luwak has a top note of rich, dark chocolate, with secondary notes that are musty and earthy, the scientist said. An Indonesian coffee lover described the scent as the smell of moist earth after a rainfall, with hints of vanilla, that teases the palate for hours after the cup is empty.
Static Electricity and My Coffee
OK, I've got one of those burr mill coffee grinders. It seems to be doing what it's intended to do. But, the grinding process imparts a lot of static electricity to the grounds. When it's time to transfer them, they like nothing better than to fly around all over the place. Or, paradoxically, adhere to the little plastic box. Annoying and messy.
Short of cranking up the humidity, how can I fix this? Is this one of the unspoken downsides of grinding coffee?
Do you prefer cocoa or coffee in the morning?
I really like my hot cocoa
Black coffee during dinner: your thoughts?
that's the question - does it destroy the flavors - would depend on the entree, right?
