TaoMeow on Coffee

[thelerner]

Just found a wonderful little coffee shop in Evanston, The Coffee Lab. Every cup comes from beans ground after you order, then its a slow pour through process into a beaker. Beans are single sourced. Only one worker, takes a few minutes each cup. Classic kind of place.

 

<haven't made the egg coffee yet>

<edit> Just did.

 

Very good. I like Trader Joe's Instant coffee. It makes a dark, slightly burnt consistent cup that as easy as stirring water with a spoon. I put 2 eggs into a glass, stirred them up, slowly added water that was a minute off of a rapid boil, kept stirring then added instant coffee, a little agave, cinnamon, nutmeg and a little salt.

 

What nice thick glass of java. Not overly thick, you can't taste the egg, but there's a soothing creaminess to it. I liked the ghee and butter recipes, but those felt oily. This was perfect. Eggs are very yan, and nutritional powerhouses. I can see making this my go to breakfast drink.

 

I see there's a little sliminess at the bottom of the cup. Maybe needs a slower pour, or less hot water.

Edited October 4, 2013 by thelerner

[Taomeow]

Ok, I understand what you're saying. This is what I have. The whole thing tapers from the start, but it "necks down" quite a bit about halfway, then stays about the same width.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Turkish-Coffee-cezve-wooden-handle/dp/B003NQJGE4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380481725&sr=8-1&keywords=Turkish+Coffee+Pot+%28cezve%2Fibrik%29+with+wooden+handle+-+XL+14+oz

 

So it looks like 14oz.

 

Thanks!

 

Oh, so it is a huge ibrik. Good shape though. A perfect vehicle for making coffee for 2--3 people. Now I understand what happened.

 

For one person, for the recipe I offered, the ibrik would need to be half the size of yours or smaller than that. So, you have two options. Make coffee for at least two and roughly double the amount of everything -- 5-6t coffee, 2t sugar, and enough water to come to the narrow part and stop there. OR make two cups this way for yourself but don't drink both -- if you're not used to this strength, it's going to be too much. Refrigerate the second one, in a covered container (don't just let it sit in the open) and use for Café Glacé later, with Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream.

 

If you make it too strong for your taste by doubling the amounts, you can Americano it. I am not a fan of this method, but it might otherwise be a tad strong for someone new to this.

 

OR you can keep this one for the start of a future collection and get another one, half the size or smaller.

 

I have a modest collection of ibriks (a dozen or so), and use one of the smaller ones on a daily basis. (If I want two cups of coffee, I make it twice.) It's a handmade miracle from Armenia, which is decades old, stays new, and is made of something that may be either silver or high-silver-content pewter. The rest of mine are copper, brass, enameled, and stainless steel, but nothing comes close to the favorite. I wouldn't know where to buy something like this today, it's hard core vintage, practically antique, with the Soviet era price stamped right into the metal on the bottom -- can you imagine?.. It says 18 roubles, which used to be a lot before the collapse of the CCCP -- about as much as you paid monthly for a 2-bedroom apartment, e.g...

Edited October 9, 2013 by Taomeow

[i am]

Thank you!

 

Ok. So I'm not really filling it up the neck, with just enough room for it to foam? I'm filling it just high enough that it reaches the narrowing part?

 

I'll try doubling the coffee amount. So this is meant to be a very small cup of coffee? The way I was making it, it filled a regular size coffee mug.

 

When I was a coffee drinker, I liked it very strong and very dark. That's still the taste I go for, but my caffeine tolerance has gone down a bit..

 

I'll let you know how it turns out. And maybe consider a smaller pot.

[thelerner]

Thought this was humorous. To see full article go: http://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/coffee-snobs-29-types-of-coffee-drinkers?utm_content=feature&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Thrillist%20Weekender&utm_campaign=11.3.13%20WKNDR:%20There%20are%2029%20types%20of%20coffee%20drinkers.%20You%20are%20definitely%20one%20of%20them.

There are 29 types of coffee drinkers. You are definitely one of them.

By Dan Gentile

Coffee's a very personal thing. Some people will only drink at certain chains (whose caffeine counts are listed here!), others demand a bubble bath's worth of cappuccino foam, and then there are the aficionados who swear by sophisticated gadgetry like the "Aeropress" or the "drip coffee machine in the break room". Here's a comprehensive list of 29 of the most common coffee-drinker stereotypes, ranging from people you wish would die to people who will probably face an early death thanks to their choice of sweetener.

The gas station coffee evangelist
He just loves being one of the common people. And watching them buy their Skoal Bandits.

The unapologetic Starbucks patron
There's gotta be a reason there's 21,000 locations, right? Right?

Impatient businessman at Starbucks
Obviously on his way to an important meeting and has no time to tip. Cool Jawbone, bro.

Cool suburban dad at Starbucks
He also gets all of his Leonard Cohen CDs there.

The almond/rice milk guy
Congrats on finding a new and exciting way to ruin the taste of coffee.

• Sugar In The Raw snob
  

  The Ol' Dirty Bastard of coffee-drinkers.
  
  The late-night sipper
  Who cares if it's 10 at night? Caffeine doesn't affect him like it does everyone else. Rightseedoesn'taffecthmeatallI'mgonnajustwatchninehoursofTurnerClassicMoviesandmakeaquiltnow.
  
  The guy who only drinks coffee because he has a crush on the barista
  She doesn't care how your day was, and neither do the 10 people in line behind you. And now you've got acid reflux from all these "dates".
  
  The guy who insists that Dunkin' Donuts is the best coffee ever
  He takes it with milk and 400 eclairs' worth of sugar.

• 
  

  The McDonald's guy
  He thinks the lawsuit over the coffee being too hot was ridiculous, because that's the main reason he goes here.
  
  The Stevia addict
  This person deserves your sympathy because they'll soon have cancer. Thought we were gonna do the Breaking Bad spoiler? We're not gonna do the Breaking Bad spoiler! Wait, did we just do a Breaking Bad spoiler?
  
  The Chemex snob
  Yes, the glass Chemex brewer makes a great cup of coffee, but no, it does not belong in a contemporary art museum.
  
  French press hard-on guy
  Just choke down those grounds and tell people about how you stayed in a hostel in Nice that one time.

Edited November 4, 2013 by thelerner

[Spotless]

Yea.. I have a single metal cup that makes about 8 oz of coffee. I doubt it can make like an ibrik style coffee. I tried.

 

Anyways.. I found on some website about making turkish style coffee that the correct temeprature of foaming is about 158 degrees F (70 C).

 

After brewing coffee at this temperature I now think this is the optimal temperature to make coffee. I now drink coffee without sugar and I think this is the best way to make sugarless coffee without the bitterness. I used to make french press coffee all the time and thought this was optimal.. I always measured the temperature at 200 F, and brewed for 3-4 mins END QUOTE

 

-----------------------------

 

Finally someone brought up the single most important advice for good coffee - the temperature of the water!!!

 

You may find that many coffees you think are bitter are not bitter at all - the temp was too high.

195-205 is the ideal water temp for bringing out the best in the coffee you purchase.

 

Also - just a little known fact that is important for some of us: using a French press or filter less coffee rig will increase your cholesterol about 10 points on average. [url="http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/coffee

 

Its best to brew coffee with a paper filter to remove a substance that causes increases in LDL cholesterol (if you care about your cholesterol numbers)

 

If you suffer from herpes then coffee intake and any acidic foods or drinks can bring them on quite fast.

An alkaline diet can really reduce outbreaks.

 

If you are old enough to experience joint problems or have an inflamed condition - reducing or eliminating coffee can be very helpful often with immediate relief and benefits.

 

I grind my coffee to Turkish fine - brew with the water at 200 using a Melita natural cone filter

Dark French Roast - black no sugar no cream

Edited November 4, 2013 by Spotless

[Taomeow]

Coffee has wonderfully brain-protective antioxidant oils that a filter will filter out, together with much of the "real thing" taste and smell.

The whole cholesterol hoopla is one of the most bogus stories in medical history, however it's quite possible that non-organic coffee will very insignificantly raise one's cholesterol because one of cholesterol's many important functions in the body is to trap toxins to prevent them from circulating in the bloodstream and directly hitting vital organs. Coffee is one of the most heavily sprayed crops, alas, so some extra cholesterol may be working on inactivating the pesticides, has nothing to do with coffee itself. (There is no dietary source of cholesterol known to man that can raise it in the body by more than 5%. Toxic substances, however, do it easily -- the body invariably increases production of cholesterol trying to defend against those.)

Acid-alkaline line of thinking, while made popular a while ago by some amateurs trying to "translate" Ayurveda into Western science (unsuccessfully), has no biochemical reality behind it, since the Ph of vital fluids -- blood, lymph, hydrochloric acid in the stomach, intrarcellular fluid, bile, cerebrospinal fluid, amniotic fluid, synovial fluid, etc. -- is maintained at a very stable and precise level regardless of whether foods you eat are "acidic" or "alkaline," and is disrupted only by far more drastic interventions, which are usually medical emergencies even if the deviation is very small. Herpes can be brought out by some free-form amino acids it likes to use for its growth -- notably L-arginine -- also by RNA if you take chlorella or spirulina supplements -- but coffee is not a rich source of either (or rather, the brew may or may not have negligible amounts of the former and definitely none of the latter.)

As for temperature. Yes, absolutely, if you have the patience and the equipment, you can do it exactly right -- for this, you need a quartz sand heater, since it's not only the temperature but the even all-around top-bottom heating of the brew that matters. Coffee made like that in Yerevan was the best I ever had anywhere, oh god, the whole city smelled of it, they used to have those sand heaters on every corner, it was paradise... long ago, far away...

The next best thing would be to simply start with cold water (which I always do and always advocate -- don't do it any other way, this ain't no tea, folks!) and if you have the time and the patience, put your burner on the lowest setting and let it heat up very very slowly and gradually. I do it when I have the time and patience, and some of my friends (coffee fundamentalists like me some of them, but a couple of them even more radical than me) do it every single time. I applaud them, but my first morning cup of coffee is not made like that, I just can't wait. The second, however, is sometimes made like that.

Which brings me to the next point, a subtler set of perceptions you acquire as you cultivate your coffee skill. You learn to judge what's going on in your ibrik by the sound it makes. Coffee brewed on very low is silent at first, then it sings a bit, then it starts sounding like a tidal wave that is coming in slowly at first, then faster, then you know it's about to erupt onto the shore -- and if you have studied these noises well, you can make perfect coffee with your eyes closed -- even though you have no more than a fraction of a second to remove it from heat at just the right moment -- thrice.

Edited November 5, 2013 by Taomeow

[Spotless]

Correct temperature takes no patience and about $2 or less.

 

You can buy a thermometer the kind that give instantaneous read for cheap.

 

Now fill your water container that you usually use and boill the water.

Open the top and let it cool until it tests well -'you can even add a dash of cold water!

 

Within about a week of this you can boill the water add just the right amount of cold splash and immediately pour the water knowing you are zen with it.

Edited November 5, 2013 by Spotless

[Spotless]

If you are concerned about cholesterol - you will find the approximate 10 point increase in your number due to not using a filter is well documented by very good science.

 

Also - the general notion that one can view it as a health food (as it is normally served up in 999.99% of the cases) is gravely mistaken.

 

 

It is possible to mitigate certain pitfalls by purchasing organic fair trade coffee, switching to mild blends not roasted dark and the many other exciting things one can do - but if you happen to love a dark roast and don't mind not increasing your cholesterol - try brewing at 200 and using a drip.

Edited November 5, 2013 by Spotless

[Taomeow]

Spotless, you are about to convince me that all is lost and the world is really coming to an end.

[Taomeow]

There are 29 types of coffee drinkers. You are definitely one of them.

 

LOL... Did you find yourself among these?.. I didn't. Not even close.

 

And what do you think of George Carlin's... er... sweeping generalization: "The more complex the Starbucks's order, the bigger the asshole?"

Edited November 5, 2013 by Taomeow

[Spotless]

Spotless, you are about to convince me that all is lost and the world is really coming to an end.

 

 

[{( secretly - and you must tell no one - but I will in fact covertly return to these very pages and print out some of your suggestions and test them - I may even venture to pull out and dust off my ((((French)))) press)}]

 

[{(tell no one)}]

[i am]

I did not find myself among them...

 

What type is an ex-coffee drinker who enjoys the occasional cup of coffee when the situation is right? Or when someone makes a certain method sound so good he goes and buys a new grinder and special pot? I mean really...

 

If someone came over and I offered them a cup of coffee, they would immediately feel bad at how much work Im doing and stop me...hand grind the grounds...slow cook on the stove...let sit so the grounds drop out...one 10oz cup coming....uh...right up!

 

 

Ridiculous.

[thelerner]

LOL... Did you find yourself among these?.. I didn't. Not even close.

 

And what do you think of George Carlin's... er... sweeping generalization: "The more complex the Starbucks's order, the bigger the asshole?"

Not the most complete list. What really gets me is seeing kids at Starbucks ordering complex hi calorie, hi fat $6 drinks. Aargh. I'm generally either cheap or keeping it simple enough to order just a small coffee, though if its hot I like double espresso over ice. Maybe I'm the Suburban Dad, though I've never listened to Leonard Cohen. In the Chicago area our latest hot spot is a tiny place The Coffee Lab famous for its hand made pour overs. Everything tightly controlled with extra coffee poured in science beakers.

 

I've read the same thing as Spotless and that its the oil that floats on top of french press batch that lifts cholesterol. It also gives it so much more taste. I love going to my neighbors who's always quick to plunge a new batch.

[i am]

I'm lucky enough to have cholesterol levels which can easily handle a 10-point increase.

 

But I don't drink enough coffee for it to matter.

[Taomeow]

You didn't believe me when I said cholesterol stories are all bogus of course. When I have a moment, a "Taomeow on cholesterol" thread may be in order.

 

Starbucks -- I remember the times when I was asked to sign petitions to stop it from aggressively putting out of business all little mom and pop coffee shops that used to light up some neighborhoods, though the coffee situation in the US was already tragic when I first came. I worked in the center of this world, 3rd and Madison in NYC, and you could get a bite of anything you fancied during your lunch break within 100 feet of anywhere you went in the Four Directions, but coffee the real thing was already limited to one vendor, who was a lot like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld, in case you remember that episode where a rude psychotic chef made what everybody referred to as "the best soup in NYC." What Starbucks serves is a milk and sugar fix for the infantilized population, a tit to stick in the baby's mouth to get it to shut up. And the baby did.

 

Oils in coffee are precious, they safeguard against neuromuscular disorders (working in synergy with caffeine -- you can't accomplish it by popping caffeine pills, you have to have the real preventive medicinal herbal decoction for this, real coffee). The trick is to drink it right away because they are highly perishable and go rancid rather fast from exposure to light, heat and oxygen. So "coffee" that has been sitting there at Starbucks for hours is indeed safer for being dripped and filtered, who wants peroxidized oils. But these same oils start out as a fountain of health. (This is the method repeatedly used in bad studies -- substitute the denatured version of a time-sensitive substance and then announce that the rule applies to the real thing. This is how vitamin C was "debunked," by the way. It was administered in a solution prepared 24 hours in advance, and this is oxidizing instead of anitoxidant!)

 

Coffee oils stimulate the liver to increase production of superoxide dismutase, an enzyme that is the most powerful antioxidant known. (The largest amounts of it of all live creatures are produced by the bacterium radiodurans that lives in nuclear reactors -- it is what lets them -- it is this powerful.) This is why Gerson therapy and a bunch of other naturopathic traditions use coffee for detox enemas -- taken from the other end, it can increase superoxide dismutase release by 700%.

[Brian]

I look forward to a "Taomeow on Cholesterol" thread -- it is one of my pet peeves.

 

 

EDIT: Afterthought... There's good research, bad research and agenda-driven research...

Edited November 5, 2013 by Brian

[9th]

[i am]

Cholesterol is something I stopped worrying about years ago, so I don't pay too much attention to the newest research. If I believe what's written on my health screenings, I have great cholesterol levels, with my good cholesterol level putting me in some small fraction of the US with such a high level. But I'll stop bragging...

 

Good genetics save me from the worst of it. I don't know what to tell someone who has taken all the advice of doctors, and still has levels above 300...

 

I have good levels, regardless of what I eat, so I don't stress it. I do go out of my way to get plenty of nuts, avocado, eggs, fish and olive oil, though, to keep those healthy cholesterol levels up.

[thelerner]

You didn't believe me when I said cholesterol stories are all bogus of course. When I have a moment, a "Taomeow on cholesterol" thread may be in order.

I believe enough to withhold any firm opinion on the matter and enough to keep drinking dark oily brews. Course I would anyway cause its soo good.

[Taomeow]

[Taomeow]

[mantis]

just wanted to stop by and say i love using the ibrik. it was spotty at first but i am consistently making good coffee now. i made the mistake of buying some mcdonalds coffee in a rush one day and well it's alarming to think people consider that good coffee or coffee at all, even. there is the hours old dunkin donuts coffee too...

[Taomeow]

Cool! I'm feeling less and less alone in my ivory tower of good coffee.

 

And, yes, the downside of mastering good coffee is, the world suddenly fills up to the brim with bad coffee.

That's your Laozi 101: nothing is "bad" until there's "good."

[9th]

some mcdonalds coffee

 

*shudder*

[Taomeow]

For those who are experimenting with the Bulletproof recipe (butter in coffee): I found an ideal contraption to make it. It's an old-fashioned device that used to be popular for milkshakes, I'm guessing globally because it was quite prominent in my childhood overseas too. Here it is:

 

 

SInce what I use it for is a hot drink rather than a cold one, and splashy rather than gooey, some minor modifications to the process shown in the video are required:

 

I made a lid for the cup out of a piece of folded foil, with a hole for the "toothpick" to go through, and cover the cup with that, 'cause the first time I used the device and didn't, I got some hot coffee splash out onto my hand (ouch); and the cup actually needs to be held by hand when it is not filled up full enough to give it more stability, so I hold it with a small hand towel ( a couple of folded paper towels work too). Other than that -- perfect.

 

If you are going to use this, please make sure you realize you're dealing with an off-label use of the device (mixing a hot drink rather than a cold one), and take all the above-mentioned precautions to heart.

Edited November 15, 2013 by Taomeow