Coffee – Page 2

August 21, 2013November 19, 2022

Mason jar cold brew coffee

I’ve been experimenting with cold-brew coffee and have come up with something that I like. If you have a source of freshly roasted coffee beans (as in still warm from the roaster), all the better. I’ve only tried this starting with whole beans rather than pre-ground. YMMV.

60-65 g of your favourite whole bean coffee
1 quart sized mason jar
water

Grind the coffee beans and put them into the mason jar. The ground coffee usually ends up taking up about 1/3 of the jar.

FIll with water and put the lid on (not too tightly) and shake lightly to mix. The grounds will float up at the top for a while, but eventually will sink down to the bottom of the jar. Leave it in the fridge 1-2 days, but at least 8 hours or overnight. Give it a shake every now and then.

After a day or two, strain out the grounds. I use my coffee maker for this. Place a filter into the bowl like you normally would, and pour the coffee in. Most of the grounds will stay in the jar, which is a good thing. Let the coffee drip through into a coffee pot or some other suitable container.

Pour over ice and enjoy. You can drink it straight up, or dilute it a bit. I like to use chocolate milk in mine.

May 29, 2012November 19, 2022

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.

April 16, 2012November 19, 2022

Coffee roasting

On my way back after getting the struts replaced yesterday, I happened to see the doors open at Coastal Coffee Roasters, so I thought I’d stop in and say hi.

They’re normally not open Sundays, but Brad was in roasting some beans and having some more work done on the place. Got to see the new additions to the shop too. There’s a new art gallery in the space next door and they’ve added some kitchen space. Office space and restrooms were being worked on when I stopped in.

Brad let me hang out a bit and I got to help out with roasting a few batches of beans (and by “help” I mean I flipped a lever when he told me to). It was pretty cool watching the green coffee beans go in from the bucket and come out dark and roasty and all the stages in between. They don’t immediately have that roasted coffee smell when they come out of the roaster, but there’s a hint of it. I guess the aroma must develop over time.

Had a good time participating in the roasting process and learned a few more things. Thanks to Brad for letting me hang out and aiding my procrastinating.

July 9, 2011November 19, 2022

Penguins and coffee

Today’s Charleston Linux User Group meeting was held at the new Coastal Coffee Roasters in Summerville.

Brad’s roasting operation is in full gear and during the meeting we got to sample his iced coffee. It’s not just regular brewed coffee poured over ice. It’s a cold brew process that results in a remarkably tasty, non-bitter refreshing cold drink perfect for these hot summer days.

Today’s meeting covered the latest happenings with Summer PyGames, an update from the recent Southeast Linuxfest, a demo of a machine planned for use as a server for a new community computer lab, the new Makelab Charleston and various other miscellaneous topics.