Adventures in Coffeeland

I have never really been much of a coffee drinker. Cafeteria coffee got me through exam week all-nighters and thesis writing during undergrad and grad school, but aside from that, drinking coffee was just a very rare thing I did when other primary caffeine sources were unavailable (or too much work to obtain).

Lately, driven mainly by late nights staying up trying to write papers, the easy availability of freshly roasted coffee beans (as in still-warm-from-roasting fresh), a recent introduction to the Aeropress and my usual curiosity, I’ve taken to experimenting with coffee the same way I experiment with new food recipes.

Having a couple of coffee shops within walking distance of the house hasn’t helped either.

I’m still pretty much a coffee noob. For the most part, there really aren’t a whole lot of differences between different beans or roasts at this point. Depending on how long this current coffee fixation lasts, that will probably change.

The latest thing I’ve been playing with is iced coffee, and the Aeropress makes it super easy to do. Following the coffee:water proportions used in the CoffeeGeek guide produced a pretty decent cup. Add chocolate milk and it’s a cup full of yum. Perfect for those hot days.

I also experimented with a small batch of cold brewed coffee yesterday. It was about 60 g of a fairly dark roast coffee to 250 mL water that I used for my first batch. Put it into a jar, stirred it a few times and let it sit for about 12 hours. Ended up with a pretty potent brew that had me buzzing for most of the morning, but wasn’t too bad. A little bit of bitterness from the dark roast, but not horrible.

Now I’m out of coffee beans and need to restock before I can experiment some more.