How do you make your coffee? (and Keurig Qs)

I use an inexpensive drip maker and grind the coffee fresh for each pot. Pretty good coffee, as long as it's fresh. I also have an espresso maker that I use on occasion. I had a French press a long time ago, but after using it about 5 times, it broke and I never replaced it. I fell in love with Bob Ross's Jura machine when I was there for the Jeebus last May. The idea of a fresh cup of coffee in a minute at the push of a button is great, however, they are too expensive for my blood. So, that means that I'm curious about the Keurig machines. I have yet to have a cup of coffee from one. From what I understand one can use fresh ground coffee in them, but is that a big hassle? Some friends have a Keurig and they love it, however, my son's lady friend got one for Christmas and complained that the coffee is very weak, so she doesn't use it any more. Could there be something wrong with her machine or could she be doing something wrong? As I'm typing this with the morning news on in the background, they just announced that some of the off brands of the Keurig-type of coffee makers are being recalled for spraying people with hot water and burning them and that some brands of the coffee packets are also being recalled for burning people. http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Tassimo-coffee-makers-recalled-over-burn-risk-3178779.php

One of my daughter's clients has one at her cabin outside of Flagstaff (we stay there during horse shows). It makes ok coffee, but there are a few factors that prevent me from buying one (I even turned down a freebie). It only makes a small amount at one time (around 8-10 oz). You can vary the strength, but only changes the amount of water pumped through the grounds, so a strong setting results in a smaller cup of coffee.

My coffee cups are 16 oz size - I'd have to run through two K-cups (or refill the resuable adapter) to make my morning coffee. At that point, it's easier and cheaper to just use the drip.

I just filter -- manually at home, Melitta filter and funnel. At work I have an automatic filter machine that I got from Gevalia.

Not really tempted to make my regular coffee any other way but recently I tasted "Nespresso" and really liked it. I looked into the machine and the cups, though, and every part of it is too expensive. You would think someone would come up with a "razor blade" theory -- Gillette used to practically give away the safety razors, and then you would be hooked for years buying their blades. If you are going to charge me $2 for the little cups, then don't charge me $300 for the machine that uses them!

We use an old Krups 12 cup drip coffee maker. It was rated #1 by Consumer Reports when we bought it about 15 years ago. It does a fine job. While we usually make only 6 or 7 cups, we always use fresh, locally roasted beans from Dublin Roaster just down the road in Frederick MD. (I do have a bag of Starbucks as a backup just in case we run out of our usual.) We do have a small French press for making one cup, which is usually decaf for Liz. The Krups does not do well when making fewer than 4 or 5 cups so that's when we bring out the French press. I have no intention of buying one of the newer coffee makers with the little sealed capsules of coffee - but not because of the cost: there's too much packaging to throw away and I don't think any of it is compostable or recyclable.

As folks have already said, Keurigs are just okay coffee, and once you get past the technogimmick appeal, feh. Nespresso is much the better machine and makes much the better coffee---I think it may have to do with greater pressure and therefore more of an espresso-like experience, but not sure.

Neither replaces or improves upon either a real espresso machine, a French Press or good old drip coffee. Both are sacrifices for convenience.

We almost always use drip, sometimes a French Press.

Mr. Coffee, with an on-off switch.
I use coffee from Hardisty's, a local store that stocks and grinds good coffee. I buy half a pound once a week or so, and keep changing the variety.

John

We use the same system Frank does and have done it for decades; even when running a B&B. The Keurig system is great for waiting rooms, but I can't see it at home. If you can use your own coffee that would be OK for people on the run. Otherwise pay $30 a lb for coffee at home is ridiculous.

I like to have a couple of large mugs of coffee in the morning, so we go with drip coffee from a Moccamaster. It's a very expensive unit for a drip coffee maker but it does make the best coffee of any automatic drip machine I've ever had. It's an extravagance although not at the level of a Jura or one of the other superautomatics. I make a ten cup pot each morning that covers what I drink, what my wife drinks, and just recently, what our 13 year old drinks. We also have a French press but it's too small for our morning needs. I'll use it once in a while if I want a smaller batch. Because of the volume of coffee I make every morning, I haven't considered a Keurig or a Nespresso. I also have a natural aversion to getting something that requires me to rely on a supply of capsules, although they seem to have caught on well enough that they'll keep making them for the foreseeable future.

I wouldn't mind having an espresso maker, but mostly in order to offer it to guests after meals. I've found that I just won't drink it on a regular basis.

I'm pretty much in Frank's boat: Melitta drip at home (and manual grinder), French press at work (and an electric Braun burr grinder). My objection to automated coffee makers is that none IME get the water quite hot enough for a really good cuppa.

Mark Lipton

I boil my bottled water by the cup in a "Hot Shot" and drain it into a small Pyrex measuring cup to cool a bit, grind my beans and use the Melitta funnel and filter. The only time I make it at home is Saturday and Sunday.

At the office we have a Keurig and I find that if I make the smaller of the 2 sizes the coffee is great to my taste. Generally use Green Mountain Breakfast Blend.

[Robin Garr]

We almost never make coffee at home any more, preferring to combine a daily power walk (or two), 3/4 mile round trip to our neighborhood espresso shop.

When we do make coffee at home, we grind hipster beans sourced from local coffee shops and run them through a French press.

Thanks everyone, for your responses. It doesn't seem like a Keurig will be in my future.

We almost never make coffee at home any more, preferring to combine a daily power walk (or two), 3/4 mile round trip to our neighborhood espresso shop.

When we do make coffee at home, we grind hipster beans sourced from local coffee shops and run them through a French press.

Man, that's the life. I'd give anything to have a couple of hours free in the morning to walk to a cafe and have some coffee there. Years ago, I worked a 10AM - 7PM shift and having that time in the morning was a real joy. (Of course, I still needed a big starter cup to get me out the door!)

[Robin Garr]

Man, that's the life. I'd give anything to have a couple of hours free in the morning to walk to a cafe and have some coffee there. Years ago, I worked a 10AM - 7PM shift and having that time in the morning was a real joy. (Of course, I still needed a big starter cup to get me out the door!)

Well, for the record, it's about 45 minutes, and it fits into a highly flexible but busy work day than can range from about six to 12 hours on any given day. Being your own boss allows flexibility, but ou work for a stern taskmaster.

Being your own boss allows flexibility, but ou work for a stern taskmaster.

Wow, as someone who has been self-employed on and off several times over the years, that is sooooooo true. Your boss always knows when you're slacking and never gives you a paid day off!

I make coffee in a French press - when I make it, which isn't all that often since I've been trying to cut back on caffeine. Stuart drinks about 2 pots a day from a machine that I received as a gift some years ago, a 10 cup Cuisinart Grind and Brew Thermal.

Being your own boss allows flexibility, but ou work for a stern taskmaster.

Wow, as someone who has been self-employed on and off several times over the years, that is sooooooo true. Your boss always knows when you're slacking and never gives you a paid day off!

Yeah, there is that. As a self-employed friend told me years ago, "It's great! You work any 24 hour day any seven days of the week that you want."

Pan roasted single-origin beans and a (simple) single chamber espresso machine (aiming for the southern European near-standard of 25 to 30 ml volume extracted in 25 to 30 seconds)... made as a latte. To my tastes, nothing beats the extraction of the espresso for purity of expression - which is what one wants with single-origin beans.

Gaggia for us - the old fashioned style, not a bean to cup machine

When not using that, it's the Rombouts style filters that you place on top of the mug and add hot water to. Effectively this is our 'instant coffee', with granules having been banished many years ago.

Finally, the brains of the operation has a collection of 4-5 stovetop Italian 'kettles' (i.e. the Bialetti style). Useful when we want to serve a number of people with cappuccini or macchiati at the same time, as the coffee comes from the stovetops and the frothed milk from the Gaggia.

regards
Ian

I've got various coffee gizmos: A 10 cup Zojirushi drip coffee maker with thermal carafe, a french press (not used much anymore) and a Grimac Baby Grace espresso machine with a IberItal Challenge burr grinder. With some recently roasted beans I can make a pretty good shot of espresso, almost bordering on coffee geek quality. The espresso machine is an inexpensive pump unit (using the rather standard Ulka pump found in most decent consumer machines) that I picked up off Craigslist for $100. It is a pretty well made Italian unit with a nice brass group/portafilter for which I found a non-pressurized basket. After wasting beans and time with a cheap burr grinder, I bought the IberItal and am now a firm believer in the rule of thumb that you cannot spend less than $200 for the grinder if you expect to make good espresso.

This is one of the rules of thumb on coffee geek boards: spend more on your grinder than on the machine. Another is: don't waste your time with beans that were roasted more than a couple weeks ago, which includes just about any imported or pre-packaged coffee (to the vexation of Illy partisans...).

Howie, if you want to use your own beans, then I wouldn't even think about the Keurig. It also smacks of something that will be obsolete in a few years when they come up with the next big thing.

...Howie, if you want to use your own beans, then I wouldn't even think about the Keurig. It also smacks of something that will be obsolete in a few years when they come up with the next big thing.

Thanks Joe. That's pretty much what I figured. I was so enthralled with Bob Ross's Jura, that I was thinking a Keurig might be a reasonable alternative to having the ability to put a cup in place, press a button and get a good, fresh cup of coffee. I had my first cup from a Keurig earlier tonight at a friend's - it was OK (better than drip Folgers). I agree with you about the age of the beans after roasting. I buy mine from a roaster about a mile from my home and go through about 2 pounds per week. However, I sometimes roast my own coffee beans and have found that they actually taste and smell better about 3-4 days after roasting.

Howie,

One thing I learned from trying to make proper espresso is that you do want to let the beans rest for several days after roasting. Presumably they are slowly emitting CO2 that has built up in the bean during the roasting process. If you make espresso with these beans you will often get too much "crema" - the desirable light froth that tops the liquid in your cup.

BTW, most consumer espresso machines have what is known as a pressurized portafilter (the basket where you put the ground coffee prior to brewing). What this is is a little valve that pops open after a certain pressure builds up during brewing. Its purpose is to simulate the crema that one gets from using a commercial machine which lacks this valve. If you replace the portafilter with a non-pressurized one, you will find that you need a proper grinder and fresh beans to get a decent result.

Keurig is better than weak drip coffee. As with any techno-coffee, just go for the smaller setting to get stronger coffee (I take the 6 oz setting out of the offered panel of 4-6-8-10 oz).

Good drip is better. French press is better. As I'm the only coffee drinker, I often go out to a nearby French place for their dark roast (I think their house brand is Colombe). If I do my own I have a Melitta cone.

Yesterday we picked up some full-fat unpasteurised milk from a farm next door to some friends we were visiting. The first thing I made with it was a Cappuccino and it was amazing to see how it filled out the flavour profile. True I'd probably go for a drop more coffee next time, but it made it a much more pleasurable drink.

I'm definitely questioning why we get semi-skimmed homogenised milk and it makes the milky coffees taste very hollow. In truth I never wanted homogenised milk and I doubt any others did, but the market decided we did

regards

Ian

[Jenise]

Burr ground locally roasted beans in individual Bodum French press mugs. Fantastic coffee that's entirely portable and stays hot for two hours, or until you finish it. Wouldn't buy Keurig (or equivalent) for home use, but love it at the car dealership and my dentist's waiting room!