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Coffee House
Are you confused about how to make a perfect cup of coffee? How can you tell if it is fresh and whats the best, pre-ground or grind yourself from beans? Follow my coffee explorations as I discover the exciting world of coffee!
5th August 2007 - My First Brew
Having raced out today to buy all the equipment as reccommended by listeners to the show, including Neal Foley. I was very impatient to make my first 'proper' coffee using beans. I bought a simple and cheap French Press for about £4.50 from Tesco and a handed cranked traditional grinder from Beales in Worthing for £15
Billy my youngest son displays the horrible smelling, his words, not mine, beans. These were Colobian Supremo Coffee Beans branded by Tescos and deemed to be middle of the road in flavour, so ideal for me to get a basic idea. I couldn't find a stamp on it that said when the beans were roasted as the guy at CoffeeGeek had suggested in his podcast.
Grinding the coffee beans was fun and Ilet Billy have the first go. If he broke the machine then it was his fault! I wondered if you turned the handle at different speeds whether it would make different sized coffee powder, but it didn't. At the end of the grinding proceedure, it was deposited in the little wooded tray and smelt devine!<
Next was to warm up the French Press and add the freshly ground powder in and add the hot, not completely boiling water. I was of course itching to push down the plunger, but I hade read some where that you have to allow the coffee and water to steep for a couple of minutes. It was at which point Billy suggested that I try eating a whole roasted bean. I did and wish I hadn't!
In time it was ready to slowly push the plunger down and watch the magic work.
And in to a warmed cup and a toast to the listeners before sampling the finished product.
I actually enjoyed it. Billy hated it. Bless him. The Tesco beans were not too bad and reasonally smooth. I am not sure what I was expecting, but I will definitely have another few cups of this, while I look for some more exciting beans! Cheers all!
Why not visit the Kent and Sussex web site to find out more about their fabulous selections of coffees!
Coffee House No. 2
12th August 2007 - The new Coffee Machine
My friend Peter Richardson has given me a wonderful coffee machine. He says he doesn't use it any more and offered it to me. I jumped at the chance!
So it is time for another brew!
I have bought some more coffee beans from the local supermarket to try the machine out with. As you can see these are a bit stronger than the last lot and I hope will give me a better flavour.
There is a small metal cup for the ground coffee to sit in and a holder to for that which all interlocks onto the coffee machine allowing the hot water to drip through.
pSo, the new beans first have to be ground and are placed in the hand grinder. You can see that these are a darker in colour than the others and I assume they have been roasted a lot longer.
Once ground they look like this. I have made sure that I haven't ground the coffee to fine and alowed for the CO2 release by making them ground a bit courser. They do have a great aroma that's for sure.
Once the water has recahed boiling point it starts to drip through the coffee in to the pot below to collect the coffee. Its looking good and I am getting thirsty./p>
The process doesn't take very long and at all and once finished I am ready to pour the beverage into a cup to enjoy. There is just enough here to make one cup.
Cheers, well there is another successful brew and I have decided not to add milk to this and drink it in the fresh state, although I will actually move it in to a cup.
Good luck with your own coffee making!
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Coffee House No.3
More fun playing with coffee
16th August 2007 - Ryan's Beans
Ryan has sent me by airmail two set of beans for me to try on the show. The first are green beans, unroasted and the second are roasted. The roasted beans are the one one I am going to try in this Coffee With Vobes audio show.
Ryan roasted and posted the beans himself. I am not sure what kind of roast they were set for, but they didn smell lovely and I got a rush of aroma as I opened the plastic bag they were sealed in. Yummy!
There is enough in here for a few cups of coffee and I hope I am going to like it. These will be the freshed coffee beans I have tried ever. They were roasted about 4 or 5 days ago.If sealed, they should be ok for about three weeks. Once ground, they will only be fresh for about an hour!
I have set my hand grinder to coarse. I just hope this is not too lumpy, maybe someone can advise me if it should be ground up a bit more. Remember I am still learning here!
This is what the beans looked like when ground and added to my French Press. There is quite a thick crust, anearly and inch! Does that look about right?
Coffee House No.4
Coffee House 4 - Roasting
Ryan's green coffee beans are roasted in a Wok by Jimmy and myself, allowed to approach the first pop and then cooled, ground and sampled. Find out if it was successful or a complete disaster! Listen to the audio from the above audio player.Meanwhile, here are the photos!
Copyright Richard Vobes 2008. All rights reserved