I've never liked coffee up until recently when I started drinking Mocha's from Starbucks. I can't keep spending 4 bucks on a cup of coffee. I'm so picky though I hate the gas station cappuccinos (too Sweet) and can;t do regular coffee ( too bitter). I'm thinking that I've just never had "good" regular coffee. So I want to try to make something I like at home. I don't want to add straight sugar but creamer/milk is ok . Any suggestions on what brand/flavor coffee to brew and maybe a flavored creamer?
Community Medium Roast has been my favorite for the last couple of years. The coffee snobs are going to descend and say you must grind your own freshly roasted beans and run them through a french press. Whatever.
SAChick, I started drinking coffee about 3 years. I visited a friend of mine and he made a really good cup of coffee. For our wedding, he ended up buying us this coffee maker below as well as a grinder. It wasn't on our registry (we didn't have a coffee maker between us and didn't have one on the registry either) but it makes a great cup. I generally use preground beans. I sometimes buy whole beans but I tend to grind up enough to last at least a week. I know some people don't clean the grinder after every use but we do. So I don't want to grind beans every day and clean it every day. But there are some preground beans (Community Coffee Medium Roast, Stewarts Private Blend, Lola Savannah...) that I think make great cups of coffee. And I drink my coffee black, no sugar or cream. As for the basics, you need a coffee maker, filter (mine uses #4 and I use the brown ones instead of bleached white), ground beans, and water. I use 1/2 tbsp for every "cup" that it has on the caraffe but I forget how many cups that really is. This coffee maker has a timer which we use every morning. It has a filter on it but we use filtered water from our sink (we have a filtered water spout) so we took out the filter from Krups. It also has a feature that lets you make coffee for 1-3 cups instead of just an entire pot which is neat. Not bad for the price. As for french press,... baby steps. Start off with a regular coffee maker and go from there. ago.krups
Community coffee is great. I'll drink just about any coffee though, and actually dislike fourbucks cause I don't know wtf some of that crap is. . Right now I am drinking Maxwell House and it works just fine for me. Coffee snobs annoy me, little do they know all of the bean growers in Columbia are locked in to these contracts with Folgers and Maxwell House so those big companies get the good beans. Fourbucks gets the left over beans, kind of like aggy with football recruiting. Therefore, Starbucks is aggy.
I love Kona coffee, but don't buy the preground bags because they only contain a percent of actual Kona. It is mild and not bitter. It seems expensive, but if you only drink occasionally and not every day it will last in the refrigerator for months and is worth the money. If you are looking for an everyday coffee the previous suggestions should be good. Also try using some of the flavored creamers like french vanilla or hazlenut. Sounds gay, but I use those from time to time and it adds a lot of flavor. If you go to the bulk food area at Central Market and speak with a coffee person they can help you out. They have all sorts of coffee and will let you sample just about anything you want. I am pretty sure they'll even brew some up for you to taste if you ask.
Community Coffee is probably the best value in coffee out there. If I were you I would just use that and a regular old coffee pot at home. If you can't take just black coffee then use sugar and some cream or some flavoured Italian syrups if you like that type of thing. The bottom line it make what tastes good to you. It doesn't have to be fancy, just enjoyable for you.
Man, I read the original question, and was going to answer with Community Coffee. So did everyone else. I have been making a coffee drink lately with Community Medium Roast, a little Carnation French Vanilla Creamer-- liquid(or Community brand creamer if you can find it), a little sugar, and an ice cube to cool it slightly. Excellent.
A couple of things 1) My wife hates Chicory and hates Community coffee. This is a constant source of friction in our relationship 2) Buy this coffe maker
Get a $16 Bodum French Press from Target, and a bag of Dunkin Donuts Original grind- which is a really mild/smooth blend. Boil water on the stove (in lieu of an electric kettle) and you're set. You can try to trick it up, but it's really that simple.
Being Vietnamese, I favor Vietnamese style coffee. I bought one of these for about 4 bucks. I use about a teaspoon and a half of Cafe Du Monde Coffee. Obviously you pour the water in and let it filter. While I wait for the water to boil though, I spoon about a 1.5-2 teaspoons of Condensed Milk into the cup. Put the filter on top and let it drip onto the milk. When its done dripping, I mix it all up and then i add in ice to make it cold. I now have a nice full glass of vietnamese style ice coffee. Glorious. You could also refer to this The Link
Like you, I never drank coffee much either, but enjoyed Lattes from Starbucks. I went the French Press route for a while and it makes a great cup of regular coffee. I finally broke down and bought an espresso machine, a cheap Mr Coffee one that wasn't that expensive at all. Now I can make a latte that tastes exactly like Starbucks if I use their syrups and beans. I've since moved on to better beans, but I still prefer the Starbucks syrups.
I've been drinking Newman's Own Special Blend for a while now and really like it. It also has the advantage of being not only organic but fair trade certified.
I am also addicted to starbucks and am TERRIBLE at making coffee at home. I have like a mental block or something. Anyway, what tastes good to me is getting some good coffee (sounds like Community Coffee is a good choice), and then adding some half and half and one of the Splenda flavor pouches. They have mocha, french vanilla, hazelnut, probably some others. That way you can change up your flavors every day (without having to buy a bunch of different flavored creamers) and don't have to add so much cream to get the flavor. Hope that helps.
I'm sure I qualify as a "coffee snob" in these parts, but I'll try to keep it sensible while still providing you an excellent cup of coffee. Making outstanding coffee is my hobby and I do go to great lengths to brew the perfect cup, but for me it's worth it. Coffee should never be bitter, but unfortunately much of it is. Good coffee will have any number of pleasant flavors and aromas, but bitterness is not one of them. Coffee: Buy whole bean coffee and grind it just prior to brewing. This is one of the most basic of requirements for good coffee. Get a burr grinder, not one of the cheap blade grinders. It makes a noticeable difference. I roast my own coffee and use only the very best beans available, but I realize that's not for everybody. I suggest you find a local roaster where you can buy beans that have been roasted within the preceding 48 hours. Buy 2-3 weeks' worth at a time. Put half into a tightly sealed container, the smaller the better, and store at room temperature. Seal the rest in another container and freeze it until the room temperature beans are running low. If you can vacuum seal them, even better. Avoid opening the frozen container until it's come to room temperature. I recommend you select medium roasted beans from Kenya and/or Guatemala to get started. Both produce outstanding beans for the most part. If there is oil on the roasted beans they're almost certainly over-roasted. Dark oily beans are an attempt by the roaster to conceal inferior beans. The exception to this is most espresso roasts, but that's another topic. Be sure to use enough ground coffee. Start with a tablespoon per 6 oz of water and adjust from there for your taste. Generally, the more the better to get a rich flavor. If finding a local roaster is too much trouble, consider whole bean Starbucks Breakfast Blend. It's their only choice which is not over-roasted. As much as I despise Starbucks I find it drinkable in a pinch. Water: Use good-tasting drinking water. Most tap water does not meet this requirement. Get bottled water or filter your tap water. This can make a huge difference, especially if your tap water has any significant taste defects, and most do. Brewer: As has been pointed out, a French press is among the best and least expensive methods of brewing. The critical requirement is water temperature. It must be higher than 195F when in contact with the ground coffee and, unfortunately, most drip brewers on the market do not achieve this temperature. The temperature is mandatory to extract the oils and flavors from the coffee, otherwise it will be flat and flavorless. Among the best automatic brewers are the Krups Moka Brew (available on ebay) which is a unique coffee maker that makes an outstanding cup of coffee. Another outstanding one is Technivorm. You probably realize that many of Starbucks' drinks are espresso-based, not brewed coffee. Espresso is another topic that you may want to tackle one day, but for now work on making an excellent cup of brewed coffee and you'll be set for a while.
oh, and i also have one of those bodum glass french presses, a burr grinder, and a kettle but i usually only do that on weekends or if i wake up really early.
I much prefer a French Press to a coffee maker - I think it's easier and makes for a much better cup of coffee. My roommate just started drinking Cuban-style coffee and it is awesome. It's similar to espresso, where you grind the beans extremely fine and only drink a small cup, but you use coffee beans in lieu of espresso beans. It's really smooth with no bitterness.
The best coffee I've ever had is the fresh roasted stuff at Costco. Costo buys the raw beans and roasts them onsite. If you can get them right after roasted you'll experience some wonderful coffee. We are drinking a costa rican dark roast right now that is awesome.
Good suggestion about Costco. They do have fresh roasted coffee that is pretty good at a modest price. Their beans are decent, but they're not the best, either. (The vast majority of coffee beans are ordinary. Only a small percentage of each year's crop is exceptional and most of that is expensive and goes to specialty roasters.) Also, they don't sample and cup their roast to find the optimal roast for each particular bean which is something a specialty roaster does. Your observation does, however, underscore the importance of fresh-roasted coffee. The problem for most people is that Costco only sells in large bags that are too big for most home coffee drinkers. At room temperature roasted coffee beans go stale within 1 or 2 weeks after roasting. Therefore, if you go the Costco route, freeze the beans in containers of a week's worth of beans and take them out of the freezer as needed. The best choice for freezing is a vacuum sealer if you have one or want to invest in one. Freezing slows down the staling process enough to still give you decent coffee even after a few weeks in the freezer. In addition, vacuum sealing removes most of the oxygen that is responsible for the chemical reaction that causes the beans to go stale. BTW, anyone who thinks chicory enhances coffee has never had good coffee. Chicory was used as a coffee substitute during periods of coffee shortage, especially during the Civil War when the Confederate soldiers couldn't get coffee. It was just a better substitute than peanuts, acorns, okra, or any number of other alternatives, but that's not saying much.
I have the bodum santos vacuum brewer and a frech press. Both make great cups. But, on a day-to-day basis, I have resorted to the Kreug pod thingy. We have one at work at I finally got one for home. Damn, it is so easy and we don't waste a drop by having to make a whole pot. We can each get exactly what we want, decaf or not, flavor or not, when we want it. No mess. No cleanup. No hassle. We love it. Yeah, I know it's not as good as the french press, but it's good enough and better than most.
[qote]If finding a local roaster is too much trouble, consider whole bean Starbucks Breakfast Blend. It's their only choice which is not over-roasted.
Cuvee Coffee out of Houston is probably the best in Texas. They roast to order every week and will overnight/two day you the beans. A couple of the best shops in Austin use them. Of course everyone has personal taste preferences, but I just can't see anyone recommending Community, Starbucks, or similar types after they have had a truly fantastic cup of coffee. The above poster is right - especially with the amount of time going stale after roasting and varying the roast for each bean type. The guys at Coffee Geek are pretty knowledgeable, if you're into that stuff. For home use I prefer the French Press. Look into upgrading your blade grinder to one of the decent burr grinders if want a consistant grind.
If you like Starbucks then take some dog **** and throw it straight into a filter then get some water from a puddle outside and use that. Should be huge upgrade for you.
