Ground or beans?

by Paul ⌂, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 09:49 (507 days ago)

Recently my wife and I were invited to a friend's relaunching of his private coffee brand. We've known him for a long time and saw him start off his restaurant and launch his own brand of coffee and now he's really moving forward in both areas. Anyway, that got me contemplating international markets and such and to wondering about folks I know who DON'T live in Coffee Country. Do you buy coffee beans and grind them yourself "for the ultimate coffee experience", or do you buy preground coffee (plastic tub or other) or (horror of horrors) drink decaf or other form of instant?

Big coffee plastic tubs here.

by Hoot @, Diversityville, Liberal-sota, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 10:36 (507 days ago) @ Paul

Not because I like it above all others but it's convenient. We have, in the past, bought beans and ground our own as well as picked up pre-ground specialty coffees. Perhaps I should go back to that....

There's a lot to be said...

by Paul ⌂, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 10:43 (507 days ago) @ Hoot

for the utility of the big plastic tubs once they're emptied. :-D What I've discovered about coffee is that it's much like handgun grippystockhandlethingies. What tickles one person's fancy simply doesn't work for another. Our friend has gone the way of the Juan Valdez brand, which to me is an insipid swill or if brewed t0 strength is a bitter draught to swallow. Having been raised in an area where coffee was toasted black, ground in a wooden mortar and pestle type setup and prepared thick and sweet, what passes for coffee among "civilized" folks just doesn't cut the mustard. We buy a local brand here that is a fine dark roast and makes a lovely DARK cuppa joe when prepared right. We ended up with some Juan Valdez beans one time. I made one batch and then retoasted them in our air popcorn popper until they were properly dark. Made much better coffee that way.

I wouldn't know about that.... ;-)

by Hoot @, Diversityville, Liberal-sota, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 12:07 (507 days ago) @ Paul

[image]

Louisiana,Community Coffee,Sweet Sun Tea Green or Black

by E Sisk, Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 04:04 (506 days ago) @ Paul

.

I DRINK TEA

by JT, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 11:01 (507 days ago) @ Paul

TOO YOUNG FOR COFFEE

I DRINK TEA

by Paul ⌂, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 11:28 (507 days ago) @ JT

We have some good herbal teas around here. No decent "real tea", just the generic type tea bag stuff. My favorite is "capim santo" (holy grass) which is called "limoncillo" here. I think the English version is "lemon grass". Boil it up with a bit of "rapadura" (an unrefined brick type brown sugar called "panela" here) and it makes a great cold remedy, especially if you add a bit of real lemon or lime juice to it. I miss afavaca, a type of herbal tea we used to use in Brazil. It's available here in places, just not HERE.

Drank hot tea for the first time at 50.

by cas, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 16:51 (507 days ago) @ JT

Coffee for the first time at 52.


I always said "No grownup drinks for me." (coffee , tea or alcohol)

Been drinking black coffee for more than 60 years.

by JimT, Texas, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 17:00 (507 days ago) @ cas

Started when I was 15 or so.

--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Been drinking coffee since

by Paul ⌂, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 17:02 (507 days ago) @ JimT

my folks took us to Brazil, back in the last third of the 20th Century. Was told "It'll stunt your growth!" Sure am glad I ignored the warning. Life's enough of a challenge at my size. Can't imagine how it'd be if I weren't stunted.

Me ... in the mornings

by JimT, Texas, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 17:19 (507 days ago) @ Paul

[image]


[image]

--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

"Legend" has it I was 3.

by Hoot @, Diversityville, Liberal-sota, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 18:01 (507 days ago) @ JimT

My folks were serious coffee drinkers and, growing up, there was always, and I mean ALWAYS, a 30 cup pot, hot and ready no matter what time of day. My Mother would fix me a cup with loads of milk and sugar and apparently I loved it. A few years later I shucked off the milk and sugar and went with black and only black.

Ground Only.

by JimT, Texas, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 11:46 (507 days ago) @ Paul

My son-in-law is always trying coffee beans from exotic countries and little heard of places. Some are good. Some are awful. Most are in between.

I like Cowboy Coffee where you boil the grounds until they are ready, pour in a little cold water to settle the grounds somewhat and have your coffee. "Hot as hell, black as sin and strong enough to float a horseshoe." was the old saying. Recently a preacher here told us he likes his coffee "develish." When asked what that was he said, "Hot and bitter."

[image]

--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Ground or beans?

by RayLee, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 19:29 (507 days ago) @ Paul

Pre-ground Folgers in the red tub. "black silk" is the preferred variety when the contessa can find it, "columbian dark" when the silk is absent. I drink 20+ cups dark and strong during a 14 hour work shift. Yes, my shooting and needle & fishhook threading abilities suffer as you can imagine.

As for "coffee country", when I was below the equator in '88 & '93, you simply could not get a decent cup of brewed coffee. In those days, the argentine, peru, bolivia, chile and uruguay were referred to culinarily as the "nescafe society/culture" Instant coffee predominated even in places where the tablecloths were not checkered. Nobody could explain exactly why what with many tonnes of sacks of beans stacked on the docks awaiting export.

So I re-ask the contessa.....

by RayLee, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 19:51 (507 days ago) @ RayLee

after something like three decades re. the tendency to instant powder. Tradition rooted in economics and poverty was the reply. There was always water boiling on the stove. English type tea west of the andes and mate to the east were the preferred beverages. Breakfast = instant. los onces = tea. Afternoon tea/dinner/supper = tea unless the dulce course (dessert) needed the bitterness of coffee.

When we dropped down to Ecuador a few years ago...

by Paul ⌂, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 20:21 (507 days ago) @ RayLee

we stayed at a nice, cheap hotel somewhere along the route to Quito. Breakfast was included with the cost of the room. When we walked into the dining area we were greeted with "¿agua o leche?" (water or milk?). It caught us off guard and we had to request a repeat, at which point we were STILL in the dark as to what was being asked! No cultural context was the problem. It turned out they wanted to know if we wanted hot milk or hot water to mix our instant coffee in. We didn't have a decent cup of coffee the whole time we were visiting, nothing but instant granules were to be had. I guess I take our fortune of living in a top coffee producing region for granted.

Ground or beans?

by Paul ⌂, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 20:22 (507 days ago) @ RayLee

You can add Ecuador to that list, re: my note below.

In Mozambique, breakfast in the bush was a bread roll and

by JimT, Texas, Tuesday, May 02, 2023, 20:39 (507 days ago) @ Paul

hot instant coffee made thick and strong with condensed sweetened milk and 4 or 5 tablespoons of sugar. It was like drinking syrup. I always liked it when Heidi Baker was with us. She brought her French Press and Starbucks ground coffee. We had decent coffee then!

--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Café da manhã!

by Paul ⌂, Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 07:27 (506 days ago) @ JimT

Similar alimentary customs as Brazil, only we at least had brewed fresh coffee, black enough to not be able to see the bottom of the tiny cup, sweet enough to hike your blood sugar up and thick enough you had to cut a chunk off to swallow. The typical breads of the region were not wheat based but rather derived from manioc starch, broken rice or coarse corn meal - the last two varieties being made into "cuscus", steamed bread with no leavening. The best was when someone had made a kill and there were pan drippings and a bit of meat to go with it. But the usual was plain and served with the cafezinho. In the right season we'd have café con leite, the milk being what was stolen from the calves early in the morning before letting them all out to graze.

I am not sure of the 'slang' for "breakfast" in Brazil but

by JimT, Texas, Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 08:09 (506 days ago) @ Paul

in Mozambique it was "mata bichu" .. "kill the bug" literally :-)

--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Not sure about slang, the only thing I ever heard it called

by Paul ⌂, Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 15:37 (506 days ago) @ JimT

was café da manhã or quebra jejum, but the former was far more common than the latter.

MY caffiene comes from Diet Pepsis but the wife...

by Hobie ⌂ @, Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 06:32 (506 days ago) @ Paul

drinks coffee. Not being suitably motivated, we buy it in the now plastic cans. Mom used to buy 8 o'clock at the A&P and grind it at the store (remember that !?!) but I don't know of any place that still does that. Now that I do all the grocery buying I keep a couple of cans in reserve.

So, in this reply I've managed to give too much information and ignore the original question. :-D

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Sincerely,

Hobie

Out of the past

by Catoosa, Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 10:40 (506 days ago) @ Paul

When I was growing up in Chattanooga in the 1950s there was a coffee company in downtown that produced a brand called Fleetwood. Their factory was right across the street from the barber shop where Dad and I got our haircuts, and the smell of the roasting coffee was mesmerizing, even though at that time I was too young to appreciate the taste. As things usually go, the Fleetwood company was eventually bought out by a big food conglomerate and the brand disappeared from the market.

A few years ago a couple of fellows who were related to the original owners of the company discovered that the rights to the original roast process were available and bought them. The guys set up and began producing Fleetwood by the old, original process, and it is hands down the best tasting coffee I've found. Not easy to find, but worth it. Sitting at the confuser with a cup of it right now.

FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT

by JimT, Texas, Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 10:52 (506 days ago) @ Catoosa

from RAVENSBREW

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--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Both, mostly ground

by Slow Hand ⌂ @, Indiana, Thursday, May 04, 2023, 04:17 (505 days ago) @ Paul

I make a pot every night with our automatic pot set to brew right and as my alarm goes off. My wife and I have a big cup before heading into work for the day. She works in an office setting and sometimes will have another cup during. Day. On a rare occasion I will have a cup when I get home too. I often have an afternoon cup on the weekends, especially in the winter. For my afternoon cup, I try to enjoy it a bit more and will often grind beans. I wanted to explore ‘fancy’ coffe a couple years back so she bought me a little electric grinder and a glass French press. Not quite as fancy as Japanese tea ceremony, there is something to be said for grinding. Beans, heating the water and pouring it together then prepping the cup (with lots of sugar) and waiting for it to brew.

I also have one of the porcelain blue percolator pots I use on hunting/camping trips. There seems to be something special about that coffee but I know it’s just the location and situation that makes it special!

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