Complicated Coffee: Do You Do It?
 

This piece popped up on Serious Eats today:
Having It Your Way: Is Too Much Choice Ruining Coffee? | Serious Eats

http://newyork.seriouseats.com/image...ptown-menu.jpg

Minimal menu at Stumptown in New York City. [Photograph: Erin Zimmer]

One of my favorite comments was this one:
I thought this user made a good point. I'm not a big fan of elaborate coffee drinks, to be honest. About as froufrou as I get is an iced latte in summer. Of course, as the above said--this totally depends on the coffee. If my only option is Starbucks, I'll usually have them add a shot of vanilla or caramel if I'm getting a latte, but even then, I usually opt for drip. Why would I order coffee only to disguise the coffee's flavor?

So how about you? How do you like your cup of joe?

Black with a metric ton of sugar. If it's good coffee, only a half a ton.

My cold coffee drinks are simple, soy milk, sugar, cold coffee concentrate.

Then again, I rarely drink coffee.

It's all about the con panna.
http://coffeeacademy.exteen.com/imag...on%20panna.jpg

Except I like mine in reverse: whipped cream with a shot poured over. Basically a desert.

That reminds me of one of my favorite coffee drinks not mentioned in the piece: affogato.

http://activeculturepdx.com/yahoo_si...111208_std.jpg

Our gelateria here lets you pick whatever flavor you like, and there are many flavors that marry well with espresso.

Iced chai this summer, otherwise just chai. I work(ed) for a coffee company that makes insanely good flavored coffees, so if I really want coffee (not usually a good idea, since the caffeine is ridiculous for me), I make some of their Highlander Grog and just add plenty of milk and sugar to taste.

I've never gotten into fancy coffees, largely because I don't know what a lot of the terms mean, so I would have no idea what I'm ordering..

Variety is the spice of life.

I like:
Americano
Cafe au lait
Caffe latte
Cafe mocha
Cappuccino
Irish coffee
Macchiato

Also:
French pressed
Drip brew
Espresso

And there are several other things I still have yet to try. I recently started making Cafe Cubanos, which are basically espresso, but with cane sugar added to the cup before pressing it.

I like it black, I like it with cream no sugar, I like it "double double."

I like it with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and in the evening. I like it any time.

Coffee, your the devil.

I order a medium double sugar single cream when at a Timmies, double double when I'm in some other chain joint.

Any reasonable coffee place that seems to make proper coffee (Starbucks is included here) either I ask for a small dark or an americano with room for cream - and then I adulterate it with sugar and cream to taste. Those coffee shops seem to use American sizes - a small is almost the same size as a Canadian medium or large.

My Lady's brother has a nice espresso machine, so I drink double espresso with a small spoon of sugar when visiting. The only other time I really drank much espresso was in France. They didn't make North American coffee where I was.

My Lady had me try a couple of lattes and such like stuff - it tastes thin, almost wrong. Any flavour shots add to the wrongness in my opinion. Flavours are for ice cream.

Haven't had a tea for years, even though I used to drink 3 or 4 cups a day.


oooh man - just had to note the "your" Baraka :no:

mmmmm coffee

I actually get so overwhelmed when I see all the choices that I end up with a regular coffee, milk and sugar. There are way too many things to pick from. I just take the easy way out.

Occasionally, I will get a cafe mocha from Starbucks, but only when I have a gift card.

I like those dark bitter beans you grind up and add to very hot water for a few minutes before pushing down on the pressing mechanism. Sometimes I add sugar.

I'm proud to say I have no idea what a latte is.

Might I point out your negligence in leaving out not one but two commas to indicate a direct address?

If your going to chastise me, at least get your punctuation straight while doing it. :thumbsup:

I do not drink coffee for the taste, I've never had one that I could stand. I drink it for the caffeine and it includes a boat load of sugar and milk/creamer

that said, some of them still taste like crap no matter what you put in it, so my go to coffee is either from Waffle House or Dunkin Donuts

I just like my coffee black and murky...

...yeah it may be boring but I just can't get into...hell I don't have a clue what anything on the menu in the op actually is. I'd probably stand there staring at trying to figure out which is the plain old coffee, only to order and be handed some giant mug full of whipped cream, sprinkles and fire crackers or some shit and be left wondering "d, do I drink it it or use a spoon?" I'm just fine with a 50 cent cup of sludge from a greasy spoon, at least I know what I'm getting.

I got to do it.

I like coffee with no cream or sugar. And if I visit Starbucks during the week I get a Venti Cafe Americano black, while on weekends I may get a Venti White Chocolate Mocha with two shots of expresso, just for kicks. I just have to ignore the fact that a Venti White Chocolate Mocha with whipped cream has at least 630 calories with 29 grams of fat.

I take my Stumptown grand cru, freshly roasted and shipped to my house less than 24 hours later, grind what I need, seal the rest in air tight container, brew to precisely 210*F in the DeLonghi and pour into a cup with one Splenda or a teaspoon of light agave nectar. Is that complicated?

Usually just with cream or milk but I do enjoy a cappuccino when i'm feeling indulgent or it's on offer. I find a cappuccino to be a really nice way to finish a meal when at a nice restaurant.

I don't add sugar or syrups and stay away from flavoured varieties because I find them too cloying.

Will, I'm surprised by your pride in ignorance. It,s just a drink.

Yeah, it's a shame because it's a good drink.

I mean, I love 80+% cocoa dark chocolate....but I also love German chocolate cake.

No, that's beautiful.

Do you use a burr or blade grinder? I switched up to a burr grinder last year and I've never been happier.

I love strong roast espresso - large sized, hot and strong.

At work I drink instant coffee black and large sized, probably about 150% stronger than most people like.

Burr grinder only, snowy.
It's awesome. Set at 29 for the Kenyan grand cru, 31 when we have Yirgacheffe, and 28 with most other kinds.

QFT

I don't like milk, nor sweetness in coffee.. So that reduces my options a lot. But I like it that way, since I get to taste the coffee itself :). The only variation for me is the brewing method. I don't like drip coffee much... But espresso / french press / turkish / pourover are all good.

Although, I do get an espresso con panna once a year maybe :).

I like 2 shots of espresso over ice with peligrino. Kind of like a sparkling americano. Otherwise, just black is fine...if it's not good enough to drink black, I don't want it.

Hmmm coffee, peligrino and ice? That actually doesn't sound half bad right now.

Yes, I'm intrigued.

Indeed, if only I had coffee, peligrino and ice on hand I might give it a shot.

It's like the Guinness of coffee!

Well you can't go wrong with that, the Guinness of anything pretty much means I'll be consuming it somehow :D Can you use just plain old folgers coffee or do you need something specific?

(oddly enough I just cracked open a Guinness at the very second I read that how bizarre)

Wes, if you make it really strong, you could probably use regular coffee. I use espresso shots so it isn't so diluted.

So how much peligrino are we talking here? What's the approximate ratio?

Ice in a large cup (size of the Starbucks large), add two shots, fill the rest of the way up. So...1:4 or 1:5?

never.

I don't like to pay that much for a cup of coffee. In Europe, I enjoy their coffee much better than the "dirty brown water" we have here. Here, I enjoy a cup of coffee on the weekends from time to time.

Simple, coffee regular.

Just a side note. I was a manager for *$ in Seattle, and man, can people there get really feckin uptight about their drinks. I constantly told my staff "It's only coffee...". One thing the HQ always threw at us was that Japan *$ always hit exactly on the service time standards... always... everytime... So now I live in Japan and I know why. The Japanese order strictly off the menu. Oh, maybe occasionally someone gets a wild hair and orders a double shot, but by and large, it's no-brainer, off the menu, do it in your sleep coffee orders off the menu. Feck... let those J-baristas try a week in a Seattle *$... they'd go postal...

Interesting anecdote, Ratman! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, I'll give it a shot! :)

Gold Coast Blend beans, ground Turkish (typically the finest adjustment on industrial grinders).
Five scoops (~10 tablespoons) in a #4 Melitta cone
Pour in just under 2 cups of near boiling water
Catch in mug
Drink

occasional option: little splash of whole milk


PS: I've tried all sorts of beans from roasters around the country, but these Starbucks Gold Coast Blend beans have been my favorite for about the last couple years. It's nice and strong and this method seems to bring out the natural sweetness and smoothness, sugar is never needed.

For me, a cup of coffee is like a cigarette (back when I smoked regularly). When I need one, I'll take pretty much whatever I can get, including gas station coffee and church brown-water. When given the choice, I prefer a freshly brewed cup of anything made from freshly ground whole beans. In the warmer months, it's iced anything, but especially cold press. I usually take it black or with a bit of soy or rice milk.

I think that coffeeshops that aren't willing to modify their drinks for their customers are lame, though I understand why they don't want to modify their drinks.

I know a guy (Yosef) at work who returns to Ethiopia each Christmas to be with his parents. His parents are coffee farmers, so Yosef always brings back a few bags of green beans. Since I help him out in the gym setting up (he's blind as well) He brings me baggies of the good stuff.

So we always have a mason jar full of freshly roasted beans straight from a farm in Ethiopia. Since we roast them ourselves on a cookie sheet in the oven, they are usually done a little bit dark and end up tasting rich like an Americano.

I also like to spend 2 dollars on a small coffee at this place:

Coffee Shop | JetFuel Coffee Shop


The Jet Fuel Coffee Shop in Cabbagetown. Their small coffee is an Americano with some really nice crema.

coffee; hot and black. when i need fancy, 2 shots of espresso. That's is, soooooooooo boring i know!!

Update:

Before: (that's all espresso + ice in starbuck's biggest iced cup)
http://imgur.com/Myf6m.jpg

After:
http://imgur.com/FV7g2.jpg
(excuse the bad lighting, you can ALMOST see the 1" or so of head on top)

If you like black coffee, you can drink it with nothing added, otherwise add some milk--it doesn't need any sugar, even if you normally put sugar in your coffee, the carbonation in concert with milk takes care of that for you.