Poll: How strong do you like your coffee/tea?

I chose "strong", even though the past month or so I've been brewing it weaker. I guess I would have chosen "very strong" before. I've been using a bit more grounds, and 3 minutes of brew time rather than 4. It ends up smoother and more subtle.

Oh, by the way, for you coffee lovers, throw away your coffee pot. They make terrible coffee. They brew at too low of a temperature and they make coffee with no body. Get a french press and each cup of coffee from scratch. It's more work, but once you try it, you'll fall in love. Sooo good.

And roast your own beans, damnit. It only takes a popcorn popper and a 15 minutes of work every few weeks. Plus, the beans are half-priced compared to pre-roasted, and they're a lot fresher. Absolutely world-class coffee is $7-8 per pound. And get a burr grinder. Much more even of a grind.

That is all.

Huh.� I've never found a French press I like using for coffee.� I've used Bodum, Veritas' EuroPress, and the cheapie thing I found at the drugstore, and I just don't like the taste.� �Plus, I always wind up with a pasty sediment, even if I plunge and then pour it all into another pot immediately after the brewing time.� (I know, I know, coffee is supposed to be consumed within 5 minutes of brewing, but I don't necessarily feel like brewing coffee 5 times a day.)

These pots work great for straining tea though.� :D

For coffee, because of the too-low temperature thing with automatic pots, I use manual drip method.� (Automatic coffee pots heat water only to @190F).� I bring water almost to a boil, then pour it over the grounds in a filter basket.� When the water's hotter it releases more of the oils, which make the flavor much richer.

Josh, where do you get the�unroasted beans?� And how do you regulate the roasting in a popper?� I'd be afraid of burning the beans.�

> I always wind up with a pasty sediment

This is where the burr grinder comes in handy. Always use a coarse grind - regular coffee grind just won't work for this. A burr grinder will make even-sized particles that won't fit through the wire mesh of a french press, as opposed to the dust that blade grinders create as they whack the beans apart.

> even if I plunge and then pour it all into another pot immediately after
> the brewing time.

Definitely do pour after the plunge, yeah. Bitterbrew is no fun.

> I know, coffee is supposed to be consumed within 5 minutes of brewing

If all else fails, get a big french press and a nice insulated thermos. I've got one that'll keep it piping hot all morning. I used to do that more often, but I've gotten down to one cup in the morning and maybe one in the afternoon. Coffee pot warmer burners are the devil.

> These pots work great for straining tea though. :D

They certainly do. :)

> I use manual drip method. (Automatic coffee pots heat water only to @190F).

Actually, 190-195 is where you want it, and is probably about what you're doing with manual drip. Most coffee pots actually only reach 170 or so.

> Josh, where do you get the unroasted beans? And how do you regulate
> the roasting in a popper?

Sweet Maria's is the best website ever. They have a massive selection of green beans. They have honest reviews (they rate their most expensive coffees fairly low). Their African coffees in particular are absolutely jaw-dropping. I just roasted up some of the Yirgacheffe Lot 4453 yesterday and it's beautiful.

As for controlling the roasting, it's easy. The temperature is a non-issue, as long as you have the correct type of popper, the temperature is right. The key is knowing when to stop roasting, and this depends on your taste. I like mine at a light full city roast. There are two phases of "cracks" - they'll start snapping a few minutes into the roast, and this will continue for a few minutes. This is first crack. Then there's a break for about a minute, and the second cracking phase will begin. I stop my roast right at this point for a full-city roast. The beans will just be starting to have a lightly oily surface at this point.

The extra-heavy roast that Charbucks has popularized is just plain wrong. The business genius of it is that they can use absolute crap coffee, because it all tastes the same when taken to this dark of a roast. Most people are used to a dark roast because cheap coffee tastes like crap on lighter roasts. Once you've tasted a city roasted quality Kenyan or Ethiopian coffee, life will never be the same. :)

omg.� harken unto what he said about the burr grinder.� i got one sunday, used it for the first time today.� perfect grind.� full-bodied non-sedimenty coffee.� mmmmmmmm.� *goes back for another cup*�

I only drink one cup of coffee in the morning...it has to be strong and unadulterated. Maybe later I'll have another one for dessert, with cream and sugar. I drink tea all day long, without sugar.

i am a wuss. in the morning at work, i drink one cup of 1/2 cappucion, 1/2 hot chocolate. yumyumyum. and if i have tea or coffee at home or at a restaurant, i have to add cream or milk and sugar.

I picked normal because I like all types of coffee, but� I can't drink it until it cools down considerably.� I love iced coffee even more.�

Very strong coffee, because I drink it with lots of milk.� Normal to weak tea.� I use 2 teabags or 1 heaping�teaspoon per 5-cup pot.�

normal coffee, strong-very strong tea.

I usually put an obscene amount of leaves in my tea. I like it very strong, and (if it's not one of my favorite flavors) without sugar or honey.

I don't believe there's such as thing as coffee that's too strong. It just keep getting better the stronger it is :-D
And I can't stand milk/cream/sugar/added flavoring (I don't mind it when the beans themselves are flavored), so it's always very strong, black, coffee.

And people seem to think this is odd ;-)
What can I say, I just love the taste of coffee

Ugh....for some reason I can't stand flavored coffee (from flavored coffee beans)...although I do like flavored coffee creamer when I want a treat.

...crisp.

sorry.. I just had to *sheepish grin*

now that's the one form of coffee I loathe. too dern sweet.

Toffee Crisp, on the other hand, rocks my world.

aww. you got to it first, I was waiting to read to the end of comments before I posted it. :p

*hugs* of course, now i just love you more... which before I didn't think possible. so there ya go.

coffee with cream, I prefer 10% but 18% will do the trick, it just tastes too heavy.

here in Germany I'm making do with full milk, as my other options are whipping cream or coffee cream, which is high fat condensed milk, and just isn't quite the same.

I will sometimes drink my coffee black, there's no rhyme or reason to it, sometimes I just want black coffee.

oh. and I picked very strong.

tea with milk that is if it's a black tea, any sort or milk will do, no cream, I'd rather have it black than with cream.

never sugar in either, if it ends up in there, by means of a well meaning individual, then I'll drink it anyway, but I'd never put it in there myself.

As I am the only one drinking coffee here in the morning I usually fire up the expresso machine, filling the boiler but not quite filling the basket. And then I add milk and sometimes sugar as if it was regular coffee. So its pretty strong coffee. I used to make a latte every day but I'm trying to cut down on my milk consumption a bit.

Tea is usually normal strength, what I put into it depends on the tea and my mood and the availability of certain things (lemons particularly)

Coffeeeeee... hmmmmmm!!!

I couldn't imagine to live without coffee, but sometimes the stuff sold in snack bars or fast food shops KILLS me. Maybe it's strong, but it tastes like Diesel oil and I am convinced you can lubricate your car engine with it or remove dirt from your tablecloth, but you CAN'T drink it.

I have figured out that fresh ground, pressure-brewed strong coffee (like Italian espresso) is pretty good stuff. That's the real�thing... VERY STRONG with a real coffee flavour!

Considering the sheer amount of coffee I drink during the day I don't like it too strong. But cinnamon/hazenlnut flavoured coffee makes my day (And I prefer 100% arabica)
But the first thing I drink in the morning is a mug of hot chocolate...

well anyway.

I LooOOoOOove coffee. super strong now adays because caffeine is my best friend when I work the hours I do... but I think thats gonna change since I'm out of a job as of the end of march. ... ... I prefer to have just a bit of cream in mine.