To add to cabmeurer's answer, I think a big reason for the lower levels of acidity in your drip coffee when compared with other methods (pour-over, Aeropress, etc.) comes down to temperature. This post shows the results of sticking a temperature probe below the shower screen in a Cuisinart drip coffee machine similar to the one you have: when the water tank is filled with cold (15°C) tap water, the resulting brew is made with water that is 88°C or colder. Meanwhile, the brew temperature of a pour-over or Aeropress made with water fresh off the boil will be much higher, closer to 95°C. Brewing at higher temperatures might be what allows you to get more of the acidity you desire.
Luckily, that same post shows that using hot (45°C) tap water to fill the water tank of the drip machine can help to increase its brewing temperature. With cold water in the tank, it takes a full 6 minutes for the water leaving the shower screen to reach 88°C; with hot tap water instead it takes just 1 minute, and the brew temperature eventually reaches 95°C. Still maybe not as hot as other brewing methods, but perhaps an improvement on what you've got at the moment. Good luck!


What is the history and significance of the "Anthora" coffee cup?

According to Wikipedia,

  The Anthora is a paper coffee cup design that has become iconic of New York City daily life. Its name is a play on the word amphora.

  The cup was originally designed by Leslie Buck of the Sherri Cup Co. in 1963, to appeal to Greek-owned coffee shops in New York City, and was later much copied by other companies. The original Anthora depicts an image of an Ancient Greek amphora, a Greek key design on the top and bottom rim, and the words "WE ARE HAPPY TO SERVE YOU" in an angular typeface resembling ancient Greek, for example with an E resembling a capital sigma ("Σ", a letter pronounced like English "s"). The blue and white colors were inspired by the flag of Greece. The cup subsequently became the metropolitan area's definitive coffee-to-go cup.

  Sales of the cup reached 500 million in 1994 (when it was by far the most popular design for the company's cups), but had fallen to about 200 million cups annually by 2005.

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthora

I also found this article about its history and cultural significance posted on May 16, 2017 By Devin Gannon  at  www.6sqft.com:

https://www.6sqft.com/the-history-behind-the-iconic-nyc-anthora-coffee-cups/

Notable extracts:

  In a city full of symbolism, from bright yellow taxis to black-and-white cookies, New Yorkers also find comfort and nostalgia in a certain cardboard coffee cup. Known as the Anthora, the blue-and-white drinking vessel first became an icon of New York City in 1963 when Leslie Buck, a Czech-American immigrant, designed the first ever to-go coffee cup to appeal to Greek-owned coffee shops and diners (...) The height of sales was in 1994 when Sherri sold over 500 million cups.

  After the Solo Cup Company bought Sherri in 2005, about 200 million cups per year were sold. A year later, with sales at a standstill, Solo Cup decided to halt its large-scale distribution. The company kept the design alive by selling its licenses to souvenir shops and restaurants. For example, MoMA’s gift store sells a ceramic version designed by Graham Hill in 2003, and many online stores like Amazon and UncommonGoods sell similar products. And it’s been seen in multiple movies and television shows set in New York; actors held the famous Anthora in hit shows like the Sopranos, NYPD Blue, Mad Men, and Law & Order.

  The cup made an official comeback to the city in 2015, after the Dart Container company received many requests to bring it back to New York.

The triumphant return of the Anthora cup to New York was announced in this article dated 12/17/2015 at https://www.dartcontainer.com/news/news-archives/news-stories/2015/12/the-comeback-cup-an-iconic-product-returns-to-the-new-york-city-market/:

  The Comeback Cup: An iconic product returns to the New York City market

  The original is back! The Anthora cup – once dubbed perhaps the most successful cup in history by The New York Times – returned in July as a regular stock item in the New York City market (...) “We had some competitors in the market who were selling knock-offs of the print and our sales people asked us to bring this cup back” (...) The cup and its retro look is expected to appeal to coffee-shop veterans who are familiar with its history as well as young customers who may be seeing it for the first time (...) Coffee sellers and drinkers don’t have to settle for pretenders anymore. The true Anthora – called iconic, ubiquitous and symbolic in its heyday – is ready to take its place as the comeback cup.

The replica ceramic cup is also mentioned and pictured in this blog post: https://blog.retroplanet.com/nyc-greek-ceramic-coffee-mug/ [Last updated: Feb 01, 2010]

  The cups not only caught on quickly, but have become so symbolic of New York City life that they have been recreated in a ceramic version. Now a 10-ounce reusable cup is available that looks exactly like the original paper version.

(source: retroplanet.com)

Yes, this is the pattern of the ceramic cup my cousin brought back as a souvenir from New York a few years ago.


Yes, heating milk does have a perceptible effect on its taste.

That slightly sweet richness we perceive in milk is largely due to lactose. Lactose is the "milk sugar" which is a disaccharide of glucose and galactose in solution in the milk. But lactose is also less soluble than sucrose (common table sugar) so it is perceived as less sweet.

By increasing the temperature of the milk, you are increasing the solubility of the milk sugars which also increases its perceived sweetness.

If you were steaming the milk (common with lattes and cappuccinos), you would also be incorporating air to create a thicker, creamier consistency, which brings into play the fats and the proteins in the milk, all which play a part in the perceived richness of the beverage.


Nutrition information of roasting coffee in butter oil

To answer your question, it all depends on what oil is used during the process, which can be found by just flipping the label over. Sugar is also used; it is very similar to searing something on a pan so there is no exact way to measure what % of the ingredients you used will be "absorbed" into the beans. The oil here is used to glaze the beans, which would then mix consistently when ground and brewed. I would refer to this answer similarly asked under Cooking-Exchange

  ....The... beans are generally roasted in what is referred to as "butter oil", which may or may not be actual clarified butter oil. Occasionally vegetable oils are used, and historically, traditional "home-grown" coffee roasting style involves creating almost a caramel-like coating effect with the use of a small amount of sugar, oil, and generally a touch of vanilla or cocoa. This coating blackens in the roast and the beans wind up with almost a thin, hard shell. Why is this done? Robusta beans are uniquely slow to ripen on the bush, and often pickers pick unripe beans along with ripe beans. The traditional coating gives all the beans a similar color. The presence of a few unripe beans does not hurt the overall taste effect of the blend. However, modern growers pick only ripe beans despite the extra labor, and do not feature this coating in their roasting, opting simple for a little oil to keep the beans easy to turn in the slow roasting process.

Here you will find more information on how the technique for the beans are roasted.

I hope helps answer your question


Short answer: Yes - up to a point

Long answer:

Ignoring things like Kopi Luwak etc, there is a cost associated with growing, harvesting and transporting arabica beans in a timely manner, roasting them while they're fresh, and getting them to somewhere you can buy them.

If you go below this price, corners will be cut. You may get cheaper robusta beans, or a mix. You will get older, staler beans. You will get the poor end of the harvest.

However, go above that price and you're needlessly spending extra cash. You're now spending on marketing for the people you're buying it from. You're paying for a fancier bag, better branding etc. This may actually make it taste bette - psychology is a powerful thing, but the beans you're getting won't be significantly different.

The problem is, this magic price-point is impossible to find, fluctuates wildly, and it's in the interests of suppliers to obfusticate it as much as possible.

My advice would be to try a variety of coffees that you can afford and find one you like.


What is the hexagon funnel shaped thing that came with my aeropress for?

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize the purpose of this hexagon shaped funnel, so I am sharing this via a self posted answer.

The hexagon funnel has three purposes:

It is a funnel to make it easier to pour your ground coffee into the aeropress opening.
It is a funnel for cups with a small opening at the top. The image shows a shot-glass as an example. Trying to use an aeropress with a cup that is too small sucks.
It is a stand, so when your aeropress is stowed, it all neatly stacks together.


How do I make a cup of coffee using coffee pods meant for a pod coffee machine, without one?

For now I've been using single-use white paper filters for tea. I cut open the tops of the pods with an office paper knife and pour out the contents into the paper bag. Then I pour hot water into the bag while holding it directly over the cup, careful not to burn your fingers (maybe use kitchen clamps to hold the bag if it's too hot).

From what I've seen in videos showing the disassembled insides of pod coffee maker machines, the contents of the pod don't really spend much time in contact with the water, so this method is a close enough approximation of how the machine works, and the resulting brew tastes good enough to me.

For illustration, here's an image of a tea filter. You can probably use coffee filters just as well if you have them, I just happened to already have tea filters at home and didn't feel like spending extra.


Book recommendation: a guide about coffee to a beginner?

I recommend Hoffman's "The World Atlas of Coffee."
 He gives you history, tells you about different methods of brewing, roasting, and teaches about growing and processing as well.  A very well rounded introduction.

The World Atlas of Coffee

So far as a book focussed more on brewing, I recommend Rao's "The Professional Barista's Handbook."  His blog (also linked below) is also a tremendous source.

The Professional Barista's Handbook


Methods to get a better taste out of iced coffee

Iced coffee, specifically drip brewed coffee poured over ice has a few things to consider with respect to taste.

It has the acidity of regular coffee, often making it harsh(er) to drink, cold brewing can reduce this acidity by 70% but also potentially leave some of the flavor a behind in the coffee
It will be diluted since the ice will melt leaving you with a weaker tasting drink. Often this is compensated for by doubling the strength of the hot brew and letting the ice dilute to normal strength
Supposedly (although I've never tried it), the Japanese iced coffee method is a middle ground between iced and cold brewed coffees. In this method, hot coffee is brewed directly over ice instantly cooling it locking in the full flavor of hot coffee, but oxidizing much less.

Often it comes down to taste what in particular might work to make your iced coffee better. A different bean type or roast level, maybe on that is slightly less acidic or more bold may give you the flavor you are looking for.


Effect of Sugar on Perceived Bitterness in Coffee

If you are asking whether the science can be trusted, I would say yes.  The effect is already well known.  You even understand it insomuch as you apparently don't drink more concentrated brews (espresso, aerpresso) without a "masking" agent.

All this study is doing is finding a more specific reason for the already acknowledged effect.  People commonly believe that sugar or salt "masks" the bitterness from caffeine.  This study is saying that sugar or salt are not just masking the bitterness, but actually changing the chemical properties of the caffeine in solution, thus changing the flavor.


Yes...tea and wine too.  Hydrogen peroxide and baking soda can remove coffee stains from enamel.  Organic bits of the plants stain enamel over time.


Do all Chemex brand filters fit all Chemex brewers the same?

According to the official website for the Chemex products, the filters available for the Chemex are:

CHEMEX BONDED FILTERS PRE-FOLDED CIRCLES (FC-100)
CHEMEX BONDED FILTERS PRE-FOLDED SQUARES (FS-100)
CHEMEX BONDED FILTERS PRE-FOLDED SQUARES (NATURAL) (FSU-100)
CHEMEX BONDED FILTERS UNFOLDED HALF MOON (FP-2)

The 10 cups Chemexes, are:
 - TEN CUP GLASS HANDLE CHEMEX (CM-10GH)
 - TEN CUP CLASSIC CHEMEX (CM-10A)

which both uses the same filters:
 Use CHEMEX Bonded Filters FP-1, FC-100, FS-100, FSU-100

The dimensions for both Chemex are the same (at least, height and diameter), so the shape should be the same. My opinion is that it's just an illusion that feels like the filters fit in a different way. Maybe you can put a filter both side to side and compare them :P

I prefer the FS-100 (the square corners comes very handy when removing the filter), but given that all filters have the same size (when it comes to filtering area), all of them should behave equally (except the natural vs bleached).


NS Oscar II should I drain the boiler before storage?

The Oscar 1 has a brass plug that can be removed with a wrench. You can then pick the machine up and tip it over a drain. Some water might remain in the heat exchanger and tubes, but that will get almost all water out. I don't know whether the boiler design on the Oscar 2 is the same, but it wouldn't be surprising.

If there is any possibility of storage temperatures going below freezing, you must drain it. I would drain the machine regardless.


Good quality espresso / cappuccino maker that doesn't leak or break within 18 months of use

I think I put a new gasket in the Vesuviana once, but I find it more of a pain to clean than I like. Still, gotta be pushing 50 years old, pretty reliable.

Also a stovetop device, but purported espresso. Espresso snobs may say it's not real espresso.

For cappuccino there are similar stovetop devices to make steam with.


Whats the purpose of preheating a coffee roaster?

Preheating your Gene Cafe lets you choose between life cycle of the roaster and roasting consistency.  By preheating your roaster, you should be able to get more consistent roast times.  In my case my garage is sometimes 50F and sometimes 80F, so a preheat cycle would certainly probably help.  I don't do it though.  Any machine has a finite number of cycles, and you are shorting that window by preheating your machine.

I roast one and a half pounds a week (a half pound for work, and one pound for home).  The half pound is always done by itself from a cold start.  When I do the pound for home, I do two half pound batches, the first is from a cold start and the second is done immediately following on a "preheated" machine.  I try to aim for the same roast level on each of the batches and the second one consistently needs less time to reach the same level.  I generally set a timer and come back 14 minutes after the start.  This allows me to fine tune the last portion of the batch, on cold batches I generally add a bit of time, and on the preheated ones I end up subtracting a bit (to get the same roast).  I am fine with this as it saves me a cycle and will prolong the life of my roaster.  However, I can see that some folks would want the roast length of two such batches to be much closer to the same at the cost of that extra cycle.  For them it may make sense.


How long should I steep an AeroPress (inverted)?

I typically aim to finish plunging at 2:30, using a fine grind and 200F water. But I'm always experimenting when it comes to the Aeropress, and would probably have a different answer in a month.

I found it helpful when I first started with the Aeropress to try out some of the recipes from the World Aeropress Championships.


There is a goodish guide for your roaster here.

I'd also keep in mind that coffee has a cooling period after you "stop" roasting, where it will generally still roast to a darker level (or two). You need to try to finish your roast at a level or so lighter than what you are aiming for and let the coffee "cool" into your desired roast.

I might suggest that you roast at a lower level (lower heat) so that the beans move through the stages more slowly.  This will badly suck up your time, but will also allow you greater chance of stopping the roast at the roast level you are aiming for.

Keep in mind that many of the descriptions you read for green coffee are done by people with extremely refined palates.  No matter what coffee you roast, those fruit type descriptions are still hints and notes in the coffee, not it's overall flavor.  Additionally the quality of the green beans you are roasting will affect the final quality of your roast. It's impossible to make poor green beans great by perfectly roasting them.  You can, however, ruin high quality green beans with a poor roast.

When I started roasting, I was "lucky" enough to start with a cheap air popper.  The advantage of that is that with a popper it is very easy to hear the "cracks" associated with roasting.  My personal opinion is that the "cracks" are one of the few constants with beans that actually consistently indicate roast level. While there are other gauges out there (darkness and smell), they can vary with different varieties of beans.  Eventually I moved to a machine where I couldn't hear the cracking at all, but by then, I had learned enough of the other cues that it didn't matter as much.


What was the cause for the current overwhelming popularity in the brighter, more acidic coffees?

I think there are a number of factors influencing the current situation.

The rise of micro/small and home roasters.  This allows people access to fresher coffee.  The acidic and bright notes in coffees tend to fade quicker than roast notes.  Meaning these bright notes are more readily available to the consumer.
Changes in coffee processing.  Different process methods favor different flavor profiles.  Dry Process (the oldest) favors less bright and more bodied flavors.  Newer processing methods enhance bright flavor profiles.
The rise and market dominance of large chain roasters.  These companies tend to roast dark because it is easier to hit a consistent flavor profile which lasts longer (important for shipping), but it sacrifices the origin flavors which are varied greatly and available.  They have given dark roasts a more McDonald's character among consumers (consistent, but not high quality).

This is not to say that dark roasts are bad.  But they have partially been given a bad rep by large chains who are using them to maximize profit, and not flavor.  Home and microroasters now also have unprecedented access to a HUGE variety of beans that years back would have been out of reach.  This means that companies can cheaply distribute very high quality beans with extraordinary flavor profiles when roasted at a lighter level.


How should I make multiple batches quickly with a moka pot?

Here's what I do:

Boil a kettle with as much water as you're going to need for everyone
Fill the sink with cold water
Make your pot of coffee as normal: using boiling water
After you've made the coffee and poured it out, dunk the pot in the sink of cold water
It should cool down within a few seconds, allowing you to unscrew it, clean it out, and reset (it helps if you have a second sink to do the cleaning in)
Fill with coffee/boiling water again, and repeat until everyone has coffee


How can I cost-effectively improve the coffee supply in my company break room?

The easiest step would be to swap out the Maxwell House coffee for something of higher quality.  If there are local roasters nearby, check to see if they do wholesale or bulk orders, and then order some 5lb. bags of coffee from them.  Since the idea is to keep costs low, they should be able to grind it for you ahead of time so that you won't have to add the cost of a grinder for the time being.


Caffeine overdoses and even fatalities linked to caffeine overdoses have been reported and a quick google scholar search will show that it is still an active field of research and new cases are being found.
A good overview of caffeine overdose can be found on healthline. Some outakes:

Caffeine overdose may occur if you ingest more than [...] 400mg.
12 oz. black coffee has 260mg of caffeine

Early symptoms:

dizziness
diarrhea
increased thirst
insomnia
headache
fever
irritability

Severe symptoms:

trouble breathing
vomiting
hallucinations
confusion
chest pain
irregular or fast heartbeat
uncontrollable muscle movements
convulsions

Prevention is kinda obvious, but I will quote it for completeness:

To prevent a caffeine overdose, avoid consuming excessive amounts of
caffeine. In most cases, you shouldn’t have more than 400 mg of
caffeine per day and even less if you’re particularly sensitive to
caffeine.

The short answer to your last two questions is that one can be addicted to or dependent on caffeine. In a 2012 study investigating caffeine dependence they found that a staggering 96% of subjects had withdrawal symptoms when taken off caffeine and thus had a physical dependence. The article goes into a lot more detail for each of your questions and has a few more good references. So if you want to investigate further that I would suggest that as a good jumping of point.


How does hard water affect the brew and how to compensate for hard water?

Water is complex in terms of coffee, and the answer is "it depends" in terms of how it will affect your coffee. Every coffee roaster tastes their coffee with a certain water, and it's likely the coffee tastes best with the water it was roasted against. You might experience the opposite problem from what you described with some roasts.

There are multiple things you'll want to account for. There are many undesirable flavors you can get from heavy metals, or chlorine-tasting water (so at a minimum you want your water to taste good). Beyond that, you really care about the amount of Calcium, Magnesium, and buffer (generally HCO3) in your water.

Based on what you said of your water, I suspect you have quite a bit more bi-carbonate hardness (HCO3 or buffer) in your water. This kind of hardness will rip out the acids in the coffee very well, but will also push the pH level of the final cup to a balanced state. Your friend's water likely lacks enough to bring the coffee's pH to a balanced state where it's enjoyable (fun hack, add ~2g/L of baking soda to water, a source of bi-carbonate, and add this in increments to the final coffee, you can fix the acidity!)

Calcium and Magnesium also work together to bring out acids and other taste-y bits to your coffee. Calcium + Bi-carbonate is why your kettle is scaling quickly. You can filter your water (a cheap Brita filter will remove Ca and Mg from your water).

I personally mix my water up from distilled for brewing to a specific ppm of Ca, Mg, and Bi-carbonate.

You can increase your total hardness of water if you get a better system by simply adding baking soda to the water, or other mineral salts. I would be careful about this however and ensure you are still creating something that is safe to drink.

If you want measure your water, you can use various titration kits to quantify your house water. If you want to do more research on water and coffee, this is the popular book on it. It's very hard to find, I got lucky enough to pick up a copy.

Hope this helps.


What are the reasons to roast coffee yourself?

You have already listed most of the main points and hit them correctly, but I'll add some additional.

Pros:
You can get things not available commercially, and generally a much wider variety of coffee.  For instance, almost all Sumatran coffee is traditionally dark roasted by companies.  However, light roasted Sumatran coffee has a truly unique set of flavors that is fairly distinct from anything else, without light roasting some yourself, you'd be hard pressed (or French pressed if you are into that) to ever find it fresh.  Tastes are remarkably individual and it's highly likely that you like may really like some random type of coffee that either isn't a big seller and available, or isn't traditionally roasted how you prefer.

Cons:
Time.  Roasting takes some amount of your time.  It takes far more when you start (I can now roast a pound of coffee in roughly 5 minutes of my time, because the machine does most of the work and I have a system).  Depending on your equipment and learning curve, this can vary widely.  With the equipment I started with and my initial knowledge, a pound of coffee would have taken me a full hour to roast.

Snobbery.  You will likely get to the point were most other coffee that's commercially produced will be unthinkable to you.  I can't drink coffee at any restaurant without cream (I normally drink it black).  I have a few friends who roast and their coffee is the exception.  But, more or less, home roasting may ruin "other" coffee for you.  Along these lines, you may get to the point where you don't enjoy roasting as much anymore, you just want the coffee.  If your time curve is fine, then it works out.  If it's not you might be left with the terrible choice between doing something you don't love or buying less good coffee.


Typical set up/menu for farmer's market coffee stand?

Off the top of my head (by no means exhaustive):
A two-group double boiler espresso machine
You want two groups in case something goes wrong with one of them, you're not out of business. You also want to be able to use the steam wands while extracting, so the need for each group to have a double boiler is pretty big.
Instead of one machine that costs a ton, you can get two machines (each with one group and a double boiler) that cost anywhere from $1000 to $3500 instead. Try not to go with home appliances - even though I have nothing but great things to say about Breville, they aren't designed for that kind of continuous duty cycle.
Redundancy is not all that's important, you need to be able to make more than one drink at a time :)
At least two burr grinders with dose control
Dose control gives you consistency. And you need to be able to grind as many beans as you plan to offer without cleaning grinders each time. These can get insanely expensive as you get into features like auto tamping - the biggest thing to look for is accurate dose control.
I recommend a model that fires once you stick a portafilter under it, with a button to extract into a pitcher. They sometimes come with a small stand to tamp, if not, grab some of them (if not auto-tamping).
Refrigeration
I don't recommend using a cooler with ice for dairy - it's going to start off as too cold and work its way up to being too warm. A small dorm-size fridge would be better, and cheap enough that you can have a backup you can run home to get if you need it. Get a good fridge thermometer to figure out the ideal setting for the fridge (usually a dial between 0 and 9), mark it with a sharpie once you get around 35 degrees Fahrenheit (don't buy one that won't go below 40 degrees). Remember that fridges have cold spots, so measure at the bottom as well as near the coils (where the ice lives).
You also need refrigeration for you, too. Nothing says gross like sweat falling into coffee! An evaporative air cooler, or at least some fans really help.
Misc Equipment
Your pour-over setup, some presses, tables, rubber mats, pitchers, various kinds of spoons, condiment / syrup dispensers, napkins, etc. Don't forget cups, sleeves, alternative sweeteners (be nice, buy honey from a vendor there, helps business). Also, don't forget corrugated trays (recycled) for large orders.
You can also never have enough cotton bar mop rags. Don't forget a camping stove or induction cooker, and if you use an induction cooker, make sure everything you need to put on it will work.
If you're going to be blending stuff, get a good blender that can eat through ice easily. Another thing that's nice to have two of in case one breaks.
Don't forget, you need to be able to wash your hands. Sanitizer is good, but having a basin and bucket is also helpful.
And, don't forget whack-buckets, trash cans, etc.
Ticket Handling System
This is really important. Imagine you have 20 people lined up and 10 orders going. Make sure you know what people ordered, what needs to go out next, and that the tickets are clear. Soy instead of whole milk? Make sure the person making the drink knows that, and that it goes to the right person.
POS (point of sale) systems are increasingly cheap and really help with this. But old fashioned pen and paper tickets work well too, if you have a system in place. This is a really bad way a great setup can fail if you don't get it right.
Water
You're going to need some big plastic bladders full of clean filtered water. You'll also need to make sure it's possible to get that water into the coffee machines easily :) Transporting that much water can be a challenge because it can get so heavy that applying the breaks in a normal vehicle takes on a whole new dynamic. Got a place that delivers it?
Testing
Make sure you do a dry run, that's the only way you'll be sure you have everything you need.
Everything else is pretty unique to what you want to offer, but if you keep it simple it's not too bad. If you're going to offer cakes and snacks, have a way to keep them fresh.
Menu Items
Keep it simple and keep it confined to what you can make consistently well. Tell people they're welcome to ask, but avoid anything super complicated from becoming a permanent fixture on the menu.
Cost your drinks
You should charge 3x your cost to be safe, 2 - 2.5x if you want or need to be really competitive. 3x is pretty certain to cover your costs, overhead, and profit. You need to know how much it costs you to make every single thing, how much it costs to just open and tear down, and everything else. Another great reason for keeping a simple (10 things is good) menu.


Why are commercial coffee machines significantly more expensive than consumer machines?

Disclaimer: I have no coffee maker designing or manufacturing experience.  This answer is based on internet research and professional experience.  This answer addresses some of the product design challenges and less of the real engineering challenges, but a lead into the engineering challenges. Based on the question and comment I believe OP is interested in designing a coffee maker.

From a business standpoint most organizations strive to service segments of the market that organizations believe they have a competitive advantage. These organizations also try to offer products to meet opening (OPP), mid (MPP) and High (HPP) price points. Also branding place a significant part in product pricing.

Assumption: US dollar = Euro (Approximately, 1 Euro = 1.09 US$)

Coffee Maker Product Landscape
Based on the above I did some research on food services warehouse and selected Grindmaster for this analysis. Base on list price following are the price point classification (Dollars $)

OPP: 1000 - 2600
MPP: 3500 - 4700
HPP: 6000 - 10,000

Below is a table for OPP, MPP, and HPP price segmentation (April 6th, 2015)

Lets assume the following as customer segments

OPP: Small office break room coffee machine
MPP: Large office cafeteria
HPP: High traffic coffee shop, Panera, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts…

Requirements Analysis:
Flow rate was chosen to keep the analysis simple

OPP:  4 - 15 gl/hr
MPP: 15 - 32 gl/hr
HPP:  32 - 50 gl/hr

Engineering Analysis

Product Design
Consider the Motor (Rotor, Stator, Casting) or the heating element from the BOM. Each of the price points (PP) most like need a different type of component. The component price to meet the above flow rate specification can be significantly different. Also the product volume is each PP is different thus for HPP or even MPP product it is highly unlikely to obtain volume base pricing that OPP might enjoy. Thus explains the cost of components.

Product Testing, Validation and Manufacturing
The cost of testing, validation and manufacturing will be much higher for MPP and HPP product because the consumer demands for higher quality product compared to OPP products.  Thus the non-recurring engineering (NRE) cost per machine will much higher for MPP and HPP product than the OPP products.

Product Serviceability and Support
An OPP price point product needs very little from a serviceability and after sale support compared to MPP or HPP product. An OPP customer is most likely replace a defective coffee maker with a new coffee make where is MPP or HPP customer will consider maintenance. Also consider a customer like Starbuck or Panera, they demand for high quality, and zero downtime. Therefore the components used in MPP or HPP coffee makers of significantly higher quality than the OPP coffee makers.

Product Pricing VS BOM price -> General rule of thumb is BOM cost is 1/5 the Product Price. I believe this is a good starting point to figure what take to compete in the intended the coffee maker market. It appears that the coffee maker market is a red ocean. Therefore it important identify the point of differentiation.

References:

Blue Ocean Strategy
Example Coffee Maker BOM
Example Coffee Maker Landscape
Performance Improvement Analysis
Coffee Maker Product Design
Grindmaster Single brew coffee maker product offering example


Georgia coffee has both canned coffee and plastic bottle coffees. Max comes in both styles and it is VERY SWEET.
Not all coffees in Japan are sweet though. Max coffee can only be found in certain regions in Japan where the people there prefer this taste. Usually, ready-to-drink coffees come in all levels of sweetness from black to Max coffee level.


The way I look at it, what you add into coffee doesn't change the "type" of coffee.  The act of adding sugar to something doesn't change the type.

Drip coffee refers to coffee made by dripping water over grinds
Espresso is water and pressure and fine grind coffee
Americano refers to coffee made by adding hot water to an espresso
Cappuccino refers to coffee made by adding steamed milk to an espresso

Adding sugar to any of these drinks doesn't change what type of drink it is.  A coffee snob might say that the "traditional" method is have it black, no sweetener but that doesn't make sense.  I get americano's and sometimes get it with milk and sometimes with sweetener.


What qualities do I need from an espresso machine or steam wand in order to produce good latte art?

In my experience, it is difficult to achieve perfect microfoam with a home brewing espresso machine.

Essentially what you need is a 15 bar pump and a boiler chamber big enough to hold enough steam to have higher pressure and volumes of steam.

Unfortunately, this usually means you need to buy a bigger espresso machine which means it is going to be a bit more pricey.

Since manufacturers don't always give technical specifications on what size boilers they use, you may have to rely on customer reviews for this aspect. They should always give the strength of the pump though.

In my own personal experience, the smallest espresso machine with which I have been able to achieve perfect microfoam is this. However, I was professionally trained in a coffee shop for two years using an industrial machine.  For you, I might recommend that you go up a size or two. Breville is an excellent brand and has good machines that make good foam.

Aside from that, you do want a 360 degree rotational steam wand so you can control your milk. Also, you want your steam wand to just be plain and simple and not have one of those 'frothing helpers' for beginners. Most come with it but are removable. You will need to learn how to control air injection on your own.


Though caffeine's action as a diuretic is hotly debated, recently it seems the scientific consensus is that caffeine in normal doses is a weak diuretic in caffeine-naive individuals only (those without a tolerance), and only in doses exceeding 250-300 mg, or 2-3 cups of coffee. To go even further,

  A profound tolerance to the diuretic and other effects of caffeine
  develops, however, and the actions are much diminished in individuals
  who regularly consume tea or coffee.

And from the same review of the literature:

  Doses of caffeine equivalent to the amount normally found in standard
  servings of tea, coffee and carbonated soft drinks appear to have no
  diuretic action.

The New York Times exposed this myth in this article:

  Researchers found no significant differences in levels of excreted
  electrolytes or urine volume [between those given caffeine and a placebo].

Here is another good resource for answering these questions in a clear, FAQ-style and features a good list of references on the topic.


Reroasting coffee beans after a couple of years - is it worth it?

Honestly, I would discard them. The flavor is developed by roasting, but once it’s gone, it’s gone. We are talking about volatile aromatic compounds, that likely have degraded or evaporated (yes, it may even happen in mostly airtight containers).
Re-roasting may create some more, but assuming that the original roast was “as intended”, you would likely create unwelcome notes, like bitterness or burnt flavors.
There’s also a good chance that the oils have oxidized, i.e. gone rancid.
There’s nothing wrong with giving it a try, but I wouldn’t expect results worth the effort.


In general, aim for 2 to 2.5 times the amount of beverage in your cup to the used coffee. If you use 9g of coffee in, aim for 18-23g out. The brew time stays the same. If you compare a single basket to a regular double basket you can see that it's narrower at the bottom, this is intended to restrict flow so you have approximately the same brew time using the same grind size but less coffee.
A brew time of 25-30 seconds is what you should aim for but it's not something you absolutely have to follow. It very well may be that your coffee tastes great at 36 or 23 seconds, it's just a ballpark.
From your question it seems that you're somewhat familiar with brewing espresso but still a beginner. There are a lot of good YouTube videos on this, made by people far more competent and eloquent than me. I think this video series on understanding each variable in brewing espresso is a good start if you're interested.


It is important to have in mind that altitude is not the only feature that allows one to differentiate the coffee beans. Temperature is perhaps even more important (altitude influences in the temperatures suffered by a coffee plant, but not all the same altitudes mean the same temperature profiles).

As a brief summary (taken from [1]), we can say that:

Lower elevations (Robusta species) mean a more intensely coffee flavoured bean (more caffeine).
Higher elevations (Arabica species) mean more acid and complex taste.

So, the main factor is the species of coffee. The elevation and temperature only tell you what of the varieties of these species you can successfully grow and how you can harvest it.

According to this source [2]: The Effect of Altitude on Coffee Flavor, that relates only to the Arabica species, can be summarized as follows:

Altitude contributes to a coffee taste profile.
Ideal growing conditions for the coffee tree:

At the coffee belt (a band extending approximately 30° north and south of equator).
At high elevations, between 3,000 feet (914.4 meters) and 6,000 feet (1828,8 meters) and beyond.
These conditions provide a frost-free climate.
Averaging 60°F (15.56°C) to 70°F (21.11°C) year round.

Cooler mountains provide a slower growth cycle for coffee tree.

This means deeper and more interesting flavours (due to a longer maturation process).

Better drainage of soils means less water in the fruit.

Further concentration of flavours.

More fertile the soil, the better.

A volcanic soil is often preferred.

The farther we are from the coffee belt, the less elevation we must grow coffee tree in order to avoid low temperatures.

As a more specific summary:

Generally speaking, more elevation implies a more pronounced and distinctive flavour profile:

From the simple, mild and subtle of those grown at 2,000 feet (609,6 meters).
To a fruit, spice, floral profile for those grown at 5,000 feet (1524 meters) or above (when possible).

This other source [3]: Bean Basics: Planting & Growing Coffee deals with how altitude affects the planting and harvesting of coffee tree, not about its features.

[1]: What’s So Important About High-Altitude Coffee?
[2]: The Effect of Altitude on Coffee Flavor
[3]: Bean Basics: Planting & Growing Coffee


Capsule coffee machine for home for one person: is it worth it to go for an expensive one?

If saving money is a priority, you can get a single-serving capsule coffee machine for about $20. This will do fine for a cup or two a day. You have to add water to the machine before brewing each cup, which may be a bit repetitive for more than a few cups a day. It does, however ensure you put fresh water in there for each brew as opposed to letting the water sit in the reservoir going stale.

If you like larger servings, make sure your machine supports more than just the usual 12 ounces per brew; many machines offer 12 ounces as the "large" serving.

If you want your brew made for you automatically at a specified time (waking up to a fresh cup of coffee is certainly a plus in the morning), your expenses will start going up for machines with clocks and timers.

If refilling the single-serving water reservoir becomes a chore due to increased coffee consumption, get a model that has a larger reservoir, so the only thing you have to attend to is the capsule. The machine will tell you when it needs the water tank refilled.

Some machines add more bells and whistles such as a milk frother; if those extra features and accessories appeal to you, you are looking at spending in the three digit price range.

I recommend getting a machine that can make both capsule-based and ground coffee. This will provide more flavor options as not every coffee is sold in capsule form.

As far as quality is concerned, the aforementioned cheap single-cup machines tend to be made from cheap plastic parts and they may start malfunctioning sooner. The lid mechanisms are the first ones to go (moving parts usually are), and if you have a dual-purpose machine, the cheap plastic filter may start to deteriorate.

Do not neglect to change the water filter in the reservoir at the manufacturer recommended intervals.
To answer the other part of your question, with the same amount of water and the same capsule, you will be hard pressed to notice any differences in taste when going up in price.


What's a good small hand / electric grinder available on the market?

I was nearly sure that I have already read the answer somewhere here. I couldn't find it. There might be a duplicate somewhere, or distributed among several answers. Anyway...

Hand grinders could be the first option. They're way cheaper, smaller in size, easier to carry, and not noisy in action (nice property for office space). I could mention three nice grinders that I know of. Probably more people may want to add many more nice grinders, but these are the first three I could name. So, no offense please.

Hario has a nice small one. Skerton ceramic must be the model, I assume.
Zassenhaus has a very nice hand grinder. I opt for this as it can grind as fine as Turkish. Zassenhaus Havanna is the model name.
Of course, Sözen is a very very nice hand grinder that you can use for centuries. They have just two models for decades; a carry-on and a table model with the same inner structure.

Then, you can think of electric grinders. Lately, I have heard of Baratza Encore a bit too much on the low end side. You may have a look at that.

For sure, there are specialized web sites just for choosing grinders such as this.


Pouring technique for drip/pour over coffee

From this site:

  Start with a grind size around that of coarse sugar. (Think Sugar in the Raw.)

  How much: Most pourover drippers work best when they're between one
  half to two-thirds full of coffee grounds. Any less than that, and
  there won't be enough coffee to restrict the flow. Any more, and your
  dripper may overflow. You'll also want to make sure you're dripping
  into a large enough vessel. If you're the more precise-measurement
  type, a good coffee-to-water ratio is between 60-70 grams of coffee
  per liter of water (a mass ratio between 1:16 and 1:14.)

  Get your clean (filtered if you need it) brew water ready. You'll be using water that's about 30 seconds off boil if you're pouring
  straight out of your boiling kettle, or immediately off boil if you're
  pouring into a second pouring kettle. I like about 207°F for medium to
  light roasts, and about 10° lower for dark roasts.
  Start your clock and add enough water to soak all of the coffee (a little premature dripping is okay). Wait for the coffee bed to stop
  the initial swelling (about 30 seconds) before adding more water.
  Continue your brew. Try to pour quickly, gently, and evenly across the surface of the coffee, pausing between pours to pace your brew to
  your target brew time (see below). The distance that your brew water
  drops can affect brew temperatures, as well as increase or decrease
  the amount of agitation that the falling water creates wherever it
  falls in the coffee bed. In general, the lower you pour from, the
  better, if for no other reason than it's the easiest to create and
  maintain consistency.

  When you stop adding water, your dripper will continue to drip for
  between 20 and 60 seconds.

  Your target total brew time is about 2.5 to 3 minutes for dark roasted
  coffee, and 3 to 4 minutes for medium to light roasted coffees. This
  includes the dripping time after you stop adding water.


What are the common Ethiopia Sidamo roast suggestions?

Actually it depends where you want to use your coffee.

If you are using you coffee in an espresso machine, you may want to prefer a darker roast, maybe Vienna Roast. Just a bit darker than medium. This will keep acidity at lower values.

If you are using French press, your cup will not be as acidic as in espresso. So, to taste the fruity flavors, it is better to roast lighter, somewhere around Light Roast to City Roast may be preferable.

Final words: it is up to your taste.

A guideline for roast naming is here.


How can I figure out how much caffeine is in my cup?

I read everyone's answer and did some of my own research to find an estimation method that satisfies me and might be helpful to others too. I think it should be roughly ±20% accurate.

For any amount of "good strength" American-style coffee by any brew method, weigh the dry coffee in grams and multiply by 0.008, or 80mg of caffeine for each 10g of dry coffee.

Weakly extracted coffee might yield 0.6% of its weight in caffeine and very strongly extracted coffee might get close to 1% caffeine.

These numbers are for typical 100% Arabica or mostly Arabica blends. 100% Robusta beans (uncommon) could be about double the caffeine.

Explanation below:

Maximum caffeine content

Typical premium roasted Arabica coffee beans like mine contain close to 1% caffeine by mass when measured by spectrophotometer (p 311)
though Robusta (less common and usually blended with Arabica in cheaper coffees) has
roughly twice that
much.

If you have a health concern like wanting to stay under the 300 mg guideline for pregnant women, you should be able to use this as the upper limit: each 10g of Arabica coffee contains about 100mg of caffeine.

I use a 2 Tbsp scoop to measure beans before I grind them. One scoop of
beans weighs about 12 grams (yes I tared the scoop, but I did only weigh
once and am not comparing light or dark roasts which will vary in weight
and volume).

So if I eat that scoop of beans or grind them finely and drink them
with any amount of water I will be consuming the 120 mg (1% of 12g) of caffeine
present in them. That should be an upper limit to this estimation
exercise. The strongest or biggest/weakest cup of coffee I can brew with
that scoop of beans will have no more than 120mg caffeine.

How strong is my cup?

Typical American-style brewing methods and water ratios result in
1% (weak) to 1.65% (too strong) disolved coffee solids, with 1.25%
considered optimal whereas
"a typical espresso will contain on average 1.8-2.2%"
solids

So 1 fl oz of brewed coffee or espresso weighs almost the same as water
(29.57 g) and contains 1-2% coffee solids (so about 300-600mg, or 380mg solids for optimal brewed coffee and 600mg solids for espresso). That would be the upper limit if the coffee solids were pure caffeine, but they can't be.

On the other hand,the caffeine is probably more soluble than the other parts of the bean,so even though it's only 1% of the mass of the beans it's probably more than 1% of the dissolved solids. That's the hard part. Coffeechemistry.com says brewed coffee ends up with 8-15 mg caffeine per oz and espresso 30-50 mg caffeine per oz. That's a pretty huge range. It means caffeine is 2.5-4.0% of the solids (380 mg) in an ounce of "optimal" brewed coffee or 5.0-8.3% of the solids (600 mg) in an ounce of espresso.

So: I typically make a nice strong 10 oz cup of coffee with my 12g of
beans containing a maximum of 120mg (or 1% of the coffee mass) caffeine. So let's say this maximum 12 mg caffeine per each oz of coffee corresponds to 1.65% or 500 mg solids (1.65% of 29.57 gr = 500 mg). In this case the 12 mg caffeine is 2.4% of the solids. If I brew it "too weak" and it ends up 1% solids (or 300 mg per oz) I would guess I'd proportionally get no more than 60% of the max caffeine, 7.2 mg (again 2.4% of the solids) per oz or 72 mg for a 10oz cup. So that narrows the range to 72-120 mg of caffeine in my cup depending on the brew strength.

I'm guessing a good cup ends up somewhere in the middle, so I'm going to estimate my typical cup contains around 100 mg of caffeine from its 12g dry coffee, or about 80% of the maximum caffeine present in the beans. From this I would suggest a decent rule of thumb for "optimal" strength American-style brewed coffee is around 0.8% (or 0.008) of the mass of the beans used, or 80mg of caffeine for each 10g of dry coffee.

Bonus corollary/sanity check

Using the same method, a shot of espresso made with 7g of ground
coffee maxes out around 70mg caffeine (77mg if 10% Robusta sometimes typical for Espresso blends), but the serving size and strength are more standardized than brewed coffee, so the 64mg/shot reported by the USDA and others also ends up being 80-90% of the caffeine present in the beans.


I have the grinder myself too, and from what I recall (haven't used it for a while) the number scale doesn't correspond with a specific grind size. I haven't taken it apart, but when I would thoroughly clean it (mostly taking out residue coffee dust with a vacuum cleaner), I think I had to set it a bit finer (maybe 2 or 3 on the number scale) to achieve the same results.
Seeing that you took the grinding mechanism itself apart as well, I wouldn't be surprised if the number scale is a bit further off compared to what you were used to.
To see if you can achieve the same grind size you used before, I'd simply grind finer until you get there. If you get down to the lowest setting and the grind isn't getting to the desired level (which you previously did get from the same machine) then there's probably a problem with the way the machine was reassembled.


Additions to decaff coffee to complement taste

It is complicated. You may try adding cream, milk, salt (for masking up the aftertaste), but I don't recall any barista adding any other stuff for improving the decaf taste.

You will hardly get it as good as a regular caffeinated coffee. The point is that the roasteries are often neglecting any improvements in their decaffeination process.

For me, what worked out was checking any local roasteries which would actually perform the method called "Swiss Water Process" for decaf. This one is quite ok for a lot of people, and if your local roastery is committed to doing it right, then it is all good.

Besides, have you tried any different brewing method?


How acidic is Liberica compared to Arabica and Robusta?

Today I had a coffee tasting of Liberica on various roast levels.
I can say that Liberica is totally different from Arabica and Robusta.

Arabica generally is bitter with a lack of after taste
Robusta is generally strong with and lack of after taste
Liberica is less bitter, but full of aftertaste (bitter, coco, sweet and a bit of berry taste)

I would say Robusta lover may not prefer Liberica, but if you found Arabica and Robusta is too bitter, you may love Liberica wich is full of aftertaste flavours if roasted right. A mid range Liberica is comparable to a high grade Arabica.
An Arabica or Robusta blend with Liberica would complete a full coffee flavour.

Liberica is rare because it was almost extinct due to coffee rust disease and it is very expensive due to scarcity.


What is the process for roasting and preparing chicory for coffee?

As the page in @InstantCoffeeJedi's comment points out:

Mince the roots into equal particles with a knife. The roots are sturdy, so you’ll need a sharp knife, especially since the pieces shouldn’t be longer than 1 inch. If you don’t cut them in the same size, there’s a chance that they will not roast evenly.
Roast the chicory pieces. Arrange them on a shallow baking pan or a baking sheet and place them into the oven. Toast them at 350 degrees until their color changes to golden brown. If you can sense a coffee-like smell, this means they are finished.
Grind the roots. Place the roasted chicory roots into your burr grinder and grind them with the same coarseness as you grind your coffee beans. Ideally, it should be a fine grind if you’ll brew them in an espresso machine or a coarser grind if you have a French press, etc.
Mix chicory with ground coffee. The ratio is up to you. If you want the taste of coffee without the caffeine stimulation, you can try with a 4:1 ratio of chicory to coffee. Sometimes a 2:3 chicory-to-coffee blend of is good if you want to gradually reduce your caffeine intake. If you want to spread out your coffee supply over a longer period, adding four-fifths of chicory would be enough. Alternatively, you don’t have to add coffee at all for a true chicory coffee.
Grind the roots. Place the roasted chicory roots into your burr grinder and grind them wit.
Brew your coffee. Use the chicory and coffee powder mix to make the coffee as you regularly would. All the other factors such as time or technique should be the same.
Add some foamed milk, toppings, or flavorings to enhance the aroma and serve your chicory root coffee.

Basically you roast the chicory in the oven at 350°F (or 177°C) until they turn brown and after cooling them you mix 20-40% of their grounds with coffee grounds. Mixing chicory in doesn't really yield gourmet coffee so imprecise recipes are to be expected.


After cleaning a bean to cup machine can I reinsert the same filter?

I don't know the machine you're using but it seems like the water filters have a lifetime counted in water litters so you don't have to change it everytime , just when it filtered the amount of water it's designed to.

I think you should try at least once to tell the machine you're removing the filter to see if it remembers how old the filter is but you should probably wait to be near to your filter end to do so because if it doesn't remember how old it is you can just change it for a new one. But you should try to tell the machine , you'd rather loose a filter than bug your machine !


Did you follow recipe procedures (with all due respect)?

up the amount of coffee to water ratio. Cold brews will use at about double the amount of a hot brew.
grind beans for cold brew? I've heard that you can go as fine as drip maker or as coarse as French press. If you feel that the ratio is correct and that you feel that the results are still weak, then you will want a more finer grind - but the suggestion is not to go finer than drip.
use an arabica bean. Again with all due respect, cold brews work well to tone down some of the bitterness while retaining the other aromas. This translates to using arabica over a robusta.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out? And I actually like the Starbucks cold brews.


How's the grind on your coffee? It should be pretty fine, if not the water will move through the puck very quickly. Have you tried using a little finer coffee?

Also recommended method is to use already boiling water, add it to the bottom of the moka pot and use a towel to tighten. This way you don't heat the actual ground coffee and burn it before water even gets up there.


How many different sizes should a shop serve for a flat white?

It is common for a shop to offer only one size of flat white because a flat is a very basic drink. It's a shot of espresso with foam added. That's all.

If you further dilute a flat white by adding milk, you have a latte. If you multiply a flat white by using two or more shots of espresso, you end up with two or more flat whites.

If you run a shop and the flat white is a popular drink, add a double size and see how it fares. Go from there based on product performance. I'd not go more than a triple though because three shots of espresso in one drink is getting a little bananas.


Is reheating coffee in the microwave a bad idea?

Although coffee generally becomes staler with time, heating coffee up in the microwave does not produce any harmful chemicals - as long as the container you are microwaving it in is microwave-safe.

The microwaves emitted inside the microwave are a relatively safe form of radiation that cause the water molecules in the coffee to move faster, thus creating heat. This is relatively harmless.

As far as taste goes, you may consider just making a new coffee, as this will always taste better, in my opinion!


General How-To: Arduino Based PID for Saeco Aroma

I have seen many people playing with their Arduino's for robot control, industrial control and even for architectural projects. It seems easy to play with Raspberry Pi and Arduino for such projects.

So after I've seen this question here, I have take a look at it.

I found a useful demo here. It has some links including the libraries and the code in German in the video explanation. Unfortunately, the links are broken. Maybe you can try to e-mail them.

Anyhow, if you start a garage project, it should not be that difficult (in theory). There must be a few sensors; some actuators to pump the water through heaters; as well as a µC or a cheap good-old µP like Motorola 68k or an Arduino-like µP recently.


What can I use to clean my machine as a substitute for original cleaners?

In case you're still searching for alternative cleaning materials, I would recommend citric acid. You can easily find it pretty cheap on Amazon. Its the same concept as vinegar, but without the smell - vinegar will stink up your house and the machine, so I would recommend against it.


Coffee similar in taste to Dallmayr Prodomo

As Dallmayr is a german company you can try odering from their online shop, which promises to deliver to european countries.
Shop is found here: http://www.dallmayr-versand.de/epages/Dallmayr.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Dallmayr/Categories/KaffeeUndTee/Kaffee/Prodomo

Or you can try your luck with amazon and if it isn't available in your country's amazon, you can order it from the german amazon page: for a 12-pack https://www.amazon.de/Dallmayr-prodomo-gemahlen-500g-12er/dp/B000UGGVJI


As a disclaimer, I've never done this, but here's the way I would do it if I were you:

First, determine how you like your coffee when its a regular cup of joe.  Once you know how much milk you use to however much coffee, determine how much powdered milk reconstitutes to the equivalent amount of regular milk.  Then determine how much instant coffee in a glass of hot water makes a comparably sized cup of regular black coffee.  When you've done that, you should have measurements for how much instant coffee and how much powdered milk you need for one cup of coffee.  (Be sure to make a test cup!)

Then for ease of use on the trail I would scale up the amounts based on how long of a trip and how many cups of coffee you think you'll want and combine the coffee and milk powders.  Thoroughly mixed, they can be stored in a single container, and since you know how much instant coffee and how much powdered milk to use separately in a given amount of hot water, you can add those amounts to know how much of the mix to put in your cup on the trail.

I would do powder mix first, then hot water, and stir to combine/dissolve completely.


Burning your mouth is obviously the biggest risk when drinking piping-hot coffee. Burning your tongue can lead to destroying taste buds and if you burn it badly enough, you could get an infection on that burn. Further, if I remember correctly, drinking very hot liquids often can contribute to higher levels of mouth cancer.

HERE is some research I found through a quick google.


Note All information below is entirely based on my adjustment to make 11 be a french press / cupping grind thus normalizing the rest of the settings.  How I came up with the adjustment was because at the time I had my home grinder configured for french press and was using it daily, and I simply did a comparison of grind levels until the adjustment appeared to be the same size.  Given a normalized 11 setting, everything else should match up.

When I first purchased my EK43, I felt that it did not allow coarse enough grinding to get to French press level grinds.  I pulled the tap screws on the grind adjustment knob and and loosened the burrs equivalent of 2 grind units (effectively making grind level 3 originally a 1).  This adjusted the grinder such that an 11 was a French press grind.

Once this is configured, and presuming you are using the 'new' EK43 burrs, I use the following settings:

11 - French Press and cupping samples

7.5-8 - Drip brew and Keurig depending on desired strength.  This setting will also work with Bunn brewers IF the user uses the proper amount of grounds, which almost no one does.. For 110oz airpots we were using 175g grounds at a 7.5.

4.5 - For those stubborn people who use half as many grounds as they are supposed to on Bunn brewers..  I've got a few companies like this, and have to grind fine, otherwise the coffee comes out underextracted.  I wish I could just tell them to double the amount of coffee they put in the machine but.. oh well.

This setup is basically useless for espresso grinding.  It works halfway decent if you are using a pressurized portafilter (like an EC155 or something) If someone asked for an espresso level grind on this setup, I would give them a 1 and it would be quite fine, but probably wouldn't be clumping at all. No one discerning enough to know the differences in espresso grinds is going to ask for it pre-ground anyways so I just ignore this bit.

All of these settings are with basically brand new burrs.. of course as they wear, I will have to adjust accordingly.


Is stale coffee less healthy for you than fresh coffee?

Disclaimer: Lately, I was checking some unanswered questions. This one stands for a while. So, I decided to use the advantages of sitting in an academic office and sought the academic databases I can think of. Some of them are only accessible by abstract. However, I will try to copy the essence of them here without disturbing copyright rules of the publishers.

First things first, I tried to understand the effect of going stale to the amount of antioxidants in coffee. It seems not.

My first reference is "Antioxidant capacity, phenolic acids and caffeine contents of some commercial coffees available on the Romanian market." by Trandafir I., Nour V, and Ionica M.E. which you can read its abstract here. According to this article, total amount of antioxidants in a regular coffee sold in the market is changing in between 19.8 to 41.9 mg per gram coffee.

My second reference is "Recovery of Natural Antioxidants from Spent Coffee Grounds" by Alessia Panusa, Antonio Zuorro, Roberto Lavecchia, Giancarlo Marrosu, and Rita Petrucci which you can read its abstract here. According to this article, total amount of antioxidants in the remains of the spent espresso waste is changing in between 17.07 to 35.52 mg per gram coffee.

I conclude that, even after brewing (chemically speaking; extraction or leaching) the antioxidant amount is not changing much.

Then, I tried to understand what changes the antioxidant level in coffee, if there exist something. Yes, there is one; here comes the third reference by Ayelign and Sabally, "Determination of Chlorogenic Acids (CGA) in Coffee Beans using HPLC" which you can download a copy of it from here. In this study, it is shown that the level of CGAs (an antioxidant) is dropped from 46.144 mg to 0.981 mg per gram coffee, more the coffee is roasted.


Disclaimer: This will be a long answer. I expect that it wont be as good as I want at first. I may make corrections/additions afterwards. I am a native Turkish, drinking kgs of coffee each week and from a coffee addicted family for generations. Therefore, I count myself as a Turkish-coffee hobbyist.

I believe to understand the two or three times boiling mystery of Turkish coffee, you must understand the whole Turkish-style extraction process. I tell you the whole story.

The chemistry is simple: we are extracting some oils from the beans. Two known ways out there, pressure or heat. Turkish extraction is the traditional, genuine, historical heating way. Actually, it is probably the first and easiest way manhood used in history to prepare coffee (I believe both in Africa and then in Ottoman Empire).

When you heat the beans to extract, you need lots of surface to extract efficiently. That's why you grind the beans as fine as possible. The electrical grinders are not always perfect. You may want to use a mortar after the grinding process to be sure if you don't have a Turkish grinder. (This is another topic, I think.)

Then, the aromatic oils you are trying to extract are not of one kind. There are several kinds. The drink you consume under the name of coffee is delicious if it includes many of them. So, you are trying to jail all of them into the water during the brewing process. But, wait... Some of them start to be released from the bean at 75 degrees Celsius, but some others have been already vaporized at 70 degrees Celsius! There must be a way of collecting all of them.

Bingo! You are right. It is the double (triple, quadruple, ...) heating process.

You should heat the water up to some point, extract a subset of the oils, separate them to your fincan (cup). Then repeat the process at a higher degree. Three times is the best practice among Turks. You may define your own temperature slots and repetition count but I think the algorithm is clear now.

Talking about best practice, let me show you a best practice.

Get you cezve (pot). Mine is stainless steel and thick. Your coffee should not boil on the edges first, it must start to boil from the center. (If this is not the case, either your cezve or your fire is problematic.)

If you have a hand grinder, set it to the finest.

Measure the water with fincan (cup) (I prefer soft spring water) and fill your cezve. Traditional fincans are quite thin (in contrast to espresso cups) and porcelain.

After you fill in your cezve with water, add coffee on top. About one teaspoon per fincan is quite OK. (You may change). I don't recommend sugar for any kind of coffee, but it is your taste. If you want to add sugar, it is now or never.

You will see that fine grounded coffee will float and sink in time. Fire up and let the coffee sink by itself. Do not touch or stir. The amount of fire has little or no affect to the taste of Turkish coffee to my experience. There is an urban legend that states that Turkish coffee is best made in wood fire or very slowly in low temperatures, etc. It's nonsense. Then, every aromatic oil will evaporate eventually. You should be quick. These are just romantic/melancholic scenes for old days heard from grandfathers. This was my setting.

After a while, all coffee will eventually sink. This is an indicator. Your coffee is somewhat homogeneously distributed in water. Also you have a nice grease remains already on top of water. However, they cannot form a foam yet. Cause, we didn't stir it.

Start stirring.

Now, stop. Please check the foam. You have a quite nice foam already. Very very light color. No bubbles at all. It is not mature yet. If you want to be experienced in Turkish-style coffee brewing, look at that foam a lot. Follow its color and forms.

Stir again. For about a minute. Stirring keeps the foam intact. You may stop from time to time to check the color and then continue. It gets mature when you first see the red/fire color.

Check the second image. Could you see the firefox there? Could you? Ok, now it is time for the first shot. Actually, I would like you to compare the second foam image with the one above. Try to figure out the differences. We started with light color, it turned out to red/fire color. We started with no bubbles, it has bubbles now.

We'll pour some of the coffee to our fincans. I pour the foamy part and fill about 2/5 of my fincans.

Still, I have enough foam and lots of oils to extract in my ground beans. I continue to heat and stir. Don't forget to stir and keep foam intact. This time the foam turns from red/fire to brown/coffee-bean-color. Still, I'm very far from boiling. Fill another 2/5 of your fincans. The fincans are nearly full.

I would like to keep your attention to one point. At this point, you see the famous marbled foam of Turkish coffee for the first time. The reason is, you've mixed two different subsets of oils for the first time. Our final destination is to produce a coffee foam marbled with three colors.

Now, we hardly have any foam left in our cezve. We are heating the coffee for the last shot. This will be very close to the boiling point. You can hardly see any foam now, but mostly bubbles. At one point, the boiling starts in the middle. Take the cezve out of the fire very quickly to prevent burning the coffee and pour the rest of the coffee to the fincans.

(You really need to be quick, so I couldn't find time to focus and burnt the coffee a bit. Still, you can sense the boiling center. Sorry, for this picture and also I cannot provide a triple marbled foam for now as it burnt.)

Normally, there shouldn't be any grounds remain in cezve. Everything must be dissolved homogeneously in water.

Traditionally, we prefer to serve Turkish coffee with half a sip of liquor of sharp tastes. Like mint, quince, sour cherry or bitter almond. This time, it was hazelnut liquor.

A correctly prepared Turkish coffee is not a suspension of coffee grounds in water. Coffee grounds lay at the bottom and never fill in your mouth. The drinkable part stays on top.

Final words: This is it. I hope both theoretic and practical part helps people. Please leave comments so I can further advance this answer in time.


How to judge time between cracks when roasting

Distinguishing between end of first crack and the start of second crack can be very tricky. A lot has to do with the variety of beans being roasted and your heat application.

What I think happened to you was that you lost control of your heat. At first crack your beans become exothermic (give off heat) and you didn't reduce your heat. What happened then is that you had too much heat at raced through the "development" time in your roast profile.
To correct this you should reduce your heat at the start of first crack and develop the flavor by how much/long  you let the beans go for before taking them off the heat.
This is a critical time for your roast because your are developing the flavor in your roast by time and roast level. How you apply heat changes from variety to variety and darkness.
Take the time to read up on roasting theory.

Here is a good basic guide: A basic roast profile guide for home coffee roasters.

Good luck


Is it possible to grow plants in used coffee ground so that they get coffee flavor?

Adding coffee grounds to a planting medium (e.g. soil) adds fatty acids, essential oils and nutrients that enrich soil which can help the growth of the plant and it may also affect the colour. One thing to be careful of is that some coffee grounds increase the acidity of the soil. However, I can't find anything indicating that it will affect the flavour of the plant. So, by all means, grow your plants in coffee grounds, but don't expect any difference in flavour.


Why do I need to warm a french press before using it?

To keep the brewing temperature as stable as possible.

When using glassware during brewing as in French-press, V60 or Chemex, it is important to warm up the gadgets prior to brewing. Normally, the water temperature is set just below boiling point (around 95 degrees Celsius) for a good brew. When you start with cold glassware, your nicely prepared close-to-boiling-point water may cool down a few degrees, which is crucial in the taste of the final cup of coffee.

Additional note: Moreover, after brewing, pouring the prepared coffee to a cold cup may decrease the temperature a few additional degrees, which renders your beverage at most warm, instead of hot.  This is mostly visible in espresso as its volume is relatively small. As a result, it is also recommended to keep the cups warmed. Some home espresso machines have additional heating trays on top to keep the cups warm before pulling an espresso shot.


Yes, high end grinders are generally adjustable. Some even have macro and micro adjustments. For example the Baratza Vario grinder

Hand grinders are also adjustable, and provide a good grind. See the Hario range

The larger commercial grinders are sometimes aimed more at bulk output than at a precise and consistent grind. They grind the coffee very quickly, which may not be the quality you are looking for. Some people prefer grinders that operate at a lower speed so that the temperature of the burrs stays low, reducing the chance of the grind getting over roasted

Here's a list of mid to high end grinders. You will notice that they all have adjustments.


Why do my Arabica beans smell and taste of burnt rubber?

First thing to keep in mind is that taste varies from person, so you may try other beans/brews that have similar descriptions, so you can learn about your own taste perception.

That been said, would be nice to know your equipment, in order to help you more. If you are using an espresso machine, maybe is time to have it cleaned. Mine was dirty a while ago and any beans would taste like burnt rubber, even light roasted ones. If you are using some infusion method (inverted aeropress or french press), try reducing the brewing time.


Advantages and disadvantages of French press

It depends on the press. I personally use a double-walled (which means air-insulated) press with very very fine screens in the plunger. This means my coffee stays hot for quite some time, and I don't commonly have issues with grounds at the bottom of the second cup (it's a 2-cup press).

I also spent over $300 for it, hand made in Japan by expert crafters with some beautiful stainless steel hardware framing it. It's actually guaranteed to resonate at a certain frequency if you wet your finger and run it around the rim. I digress.

Most presses can have some or all of the following issues:

Grinds leak through the screen on the plunger quite easily, even with a good coarse grind
Coffee can fall below serving temp before you plunge it if you're not careful
They are a bit of a pain to clean, most can't go near a dishwasher
They tend to be rather fragile
They can stain with certain kinds of water, depending on the glass used
Some argue that the taste of a coarse grind is inferior to finer grinds (a matter of taste is difficult to document)

The actual mechanics of making the coffee is very simple. Mix the grinds and water, then using a screen, separate the grinds from the water. The taste is going to depend more on how clean the press is, the quality and temperature of the water, the quality of the bean, grind, how long you let it brew, etc. The same holds true for pour-over brews, provided that the filter is decent and doesn't add its own taste.

I personally prefer my press, but it's really a matter of preference. I don't mind cleaning it, in fact one of the reasons I went with a press a while back was in hopes that the prospect of needing to clean it would slow down my consumption. Didn't work.  I love the consistently-good brews I get out of mine, and I love that it keeps my second cup hot long enough for me to enjoy the first.

Some people do mind the quirks, and prefer not to use them. Something decent usually starts at around $40, so they're not prohibitively expensive for experimentation. All I can say is try both and see what you think.


What is the best time to drink a cup of coffee?

Right Time = Any time. Unless caffeine is something that keeps you up at night. In that case, in the morning after you wake up is a good time to have a cup or 3.


The instructions have poor wording, instead use 7g PER 180ml of water, and make as many cups as you like / your french press can hold.

Personally I use an 8 cup french press, I use roughly 50g of coffee, and fill with water high enough to be full when in full bloom (about 30 seconds after you add water and the coffee is expanding, and letting off c02) After about 45 seconds, I give it a quick stir, and top the french press up with about another ounce or so of water and cover for 4 minutes.

The ratio of coffee per water is a suggestion ONLY.  Typically I recommend 8-9g per 120g of water (If I recall, SCAA standard is 9g per 120g water?)  Use it as a starting place, and adjust based on your taste, and how much coffee you want to brew.

Just a note, I go lighter than my suggested ratios in a french press because it brews stronger.  The 8-9g works well with a drip brewer.

Oh.. one other thing!  You are going to have a hard time making dangerous coffee, unless you consider tasting bad dangerous, so don't worry about it being a risk if you are adding too much coffee.  If you stick to the rough suggestions in this post, and other comments on this thread, you are going to get in the ballpark of where you are wanting to go, and then you just fine tune to your personal preference.  And if you manage to make truly dangerous coffee.. make sure to repost the recipe.. I think I could use some of that right about now!!


Try putting a couple of drops of water in your coffee beans before putting them in the grinder's hopper. Known as the Ross Droplet Technique.


How can I produce better espresso shots with my Gaggia Classic?

The standard parameters of producing a decent espresso is previously discussed here: What are the standard espresso parameters (dose, mass/volume, time, etc.)?

As you can see from this answer, assuming that you have a semi-automatic home type espresso machine, if you want to stick with pre-ground coffee and cannot change the grind size, all you can change is the following three:

dose
time
tamping

Dosage is more or less stable in between 6 to 8 grams. Time is mostly the variable that decides either you produce a spectrum of drinks from ristretto to cafe creme. Thus, you should study on tamping. Illy suggests 20 kgf vertical force. But I assume your home-type machine may not handle such tight pellets. So, try to find the best by experience. (By the way, such devices are designed as 15 bars, but while they are in action they are automatically regulated to 9 bars.)

Some previous discussions on tamping is here:

What is essential for a proper tamp?
How do I know how hard to tamp my coffee?
How important is tamping coffee for an espresso machine
All discussions on tamping


When making pour over coffee, why does it sometimes take a very, very long time to drip out of the filter?

The problem could very well be what Stephie was touching on; very fine coffee dust restricting the flow.
I was having the same issue with my setup and was just going to live with it. That is, until I took off the hopper off of my grinder and saw really finely ground coffee stuck between the splines of the burrs. After brushing out the powder and a couple firm taps it was back to normal.
Depending on the different beans along with their level of oil, grinds can build up on the the burrs and internals of the grinder rather quickly. After a bit of time the caked on and powdered grounds give way and fall down into the stuff you just grounded. When you try to brew a cup, the smaller lighter coffee grinds/dust flow down to the surface of the filter restricting the flow by blocking all of it's pores.


How can I determine the origins of coffee beans in a blend?

The short answer is no.  Short of genetic testing, it is near impossible to determine the origin of beans.

You may be able to make an educated guess at the whether or not Robusta beans are in the blend based the shapes of the beans and caffeine content.  But that would require a trained eye as as there is a great amount of variation in beans and it might be possible to mix up robusta, natural peaberrys, etc.  Robusta will raise the caffeine content, but depending on the blended amount, it may be hard to detect.


How many scoops of non-espresso coffee beans should I grind for 1 AeroPress cup?

Can anyone confirm what is considered standard practice for the number of scoops of beans for a normal cup of coffee (non americano, non-espresso beans)?

The are both ill-defined terms. A better measure is brew ratio, which describes the water to coffee ratio in mass units. On handground.com, there are a lot of recipes for AeroPress with brew ratios ranging from 17:1 at the weakest up to 8:1 at the strongest.

I'd suggest starting somewhere in the middle and adjusting based on the results. Since you're already getting a weak cup, the next step should have a slightly lower brew ratio.

You can either switch to mass units (grams or Imperial units with a simple kitchen scale work fine). The benefits of weight units are twofold:

They're more precise. Most kitchen scales are accurate to the gram or even a tenth of a gram. With scoops, you may need to use something like a little bit less than a full scoop and you'll have difficulty reproducing that exactly, even more so when you want to adjust a little bit.
The units translate to different coffees as well. Suppose you have a coffee with a different roast level, then its density may also vary. As such, a volumetric scoop of one coffee contain more or less coffee than a different variety of coffee. This is more of a factor when working with whole beans, but if you buy pre-ground the grind size will also have an impact when using volumetric scoops.

So I'd suggest switching to mass units and keeping track of adjustments and taste. If you don't like to get into the whole ratio thing, you can just fix the water content and increase the amount of coffee to get a stronger cup. The only time when you need to change the amount of water is when you want to adjust how much liquid you get in your final cup.


Why does instant coffee foam when stirring it?

I have noticed the same thing. I believe it occurs because minute gas particles in the instant coffee, trapped during the production process, are suddenly released. This gas (air or something inert) rises to the top and bubbles or foams. It dissipates immediately, unlike crema.

I don't think it's caused by any physical chemistry stuff, like heat from dissolution or any actual reaction, though I do notice it more with very hot water.


This is a fairly general question, so pardon me for a slightly generic answer.

First thing you'll want to consider is the quality of the coffee itself.  Typically, the more expensive a coffee is, the higher quality it will be.  It's the age old phrase, 'You get what you pay for".

Secondly, the less steps from it being picked to it being in your cup, the better.  Packaged, ground coffee has more steps (Packaging, grinding) before being brewed.  Whole bean coffee has less.

Third, the longer it's been ground, the longer it has had to degrade.  You'll want to grind your whole-bean coffee as close to the time of brew as possible.  Oxygen will erode the flavor of the coffee over time.  Ground coffee has more surface area to be exposed to oxygen.

I hope this addresses what you were asking properly.


First, the effects you observe are known as caffeine withdrawal and discussed here.

Coffee addiction is previously discussed here.

However, it is not discussed how to get rid of a coffee addiction. First, you should understand if overcoming this addiction is necessary. I assume, most people who are members of Coffee SE are not likely to think that.

Here is a general link that explains how to get rid of any addiction in three steps:

Decide to quit. (Think positive future effects, write a commitment to yourself,
etc.)
Make a plan to quit. (Set a date, set your environment, overcome the triggers, seek professional help, etc.)
Handle withdrawal. (Fill your time with new habits, keep clear of triggers, don't find rationalizations to start again, celebrate accomplishments, etc.)


Is it possible to get crema from brewing espresso beans in a french press?

To answer this it's important to understand what Crema actually is. Roasted coffee consists of somewhere around a thousand different substances, among which are aromatic oils, sugars, caffein, fiber and carbon dioxide trapped inside the beans.

Crema consists mainly of those oils, sugars, some proteins and importantly the CO2 gas trapped inside the bean. When an espresso machine pushes water through the grounds with high pressure, it emulsifies the fats/oils, dissolves some sugars and traps it all in little CO2 bubbles. The CO2 is forced out of the grounds through the high pressure. That's why you have considerably less crema if you use old, stale coffee. Because most of the CO2 trapped inside has evaporated already.

Now to your actual question. For the obvious reason, that is the lack of pressure in a French Press, Crema can not form. There can be some kind of foam, just as with pour overs, but it's not crema. It's not going to last long and will usually dissolve very quickly. If you were to create such a pressure in a French Press (which I highly doubt is technically even possible, since after all you want to brewed coffee to go through the mesh filter, but not the grounds), you would likely have crema forming on the bottom where the grounds settled and then rising to the top, just as it does when you pull a shot of espresso. Order an espresso shot in a transparent shot glass once and observe how the coffee flows out in the beginning as a mixture of coffee and crema and then observe the crema rising to the top, I heard people call it Guinness effect.


Is there a "caffeine metabolism curve", understood by general public?

Most medications approved by the FDA and used in a medical setting have such statistics.  Caffeine is no exception.  Most drug databases have listed pharmacokinetics for caffeine.  Onset is listed as 15 to 45 minutes with peak concentrations as 30 minutes in adults.  Half life for caffeine varies based on a number of factors.  For adults it is listed as 4 to 5 hours, however, studies suggest it is generally less for smokers.  It is much much longer for infants (52 to 96 hours) but generally by nine months of age, those numbers have dropped to similar levels seen in adults.


This sounds Cortado or Noisette to me. Still, additional water makes it a bit interesting. I assume you may simply order your coffee based on lungo instead of doppio.

Again, lungo based Cappucino Scuro may be another alternative. However, it also has foam on top of steamed milk.

This answer includes so much terminology. So, let me make a glossary.

Espresso: 30 ml shot of beverage made with 8 grams of beans out of espresso machine. Our main unit.
Doppio: 60 ml of beverage made with 16 grams of beans. Double shot espresso.
Lungo: ~60 ml of beverage made with 8 grams of beans. Long shot single espresso.
Cortado: A bit of steamed milk (~30 ml) is added on top of doppio.
Noisette: A bit of hot milk (~30 ml) is added on top of doppio.
Cappucino: A bit of steamed milk (~60 ml) then some foamed milk (~60 ml) is added on top of doppio.
Cappucino Scuro: Same cappucino, less milk (~30 ml each). Sometimes only with foamed milk (~60 ml).


why does coffee make some people sleepy?

Disclaimer: I'm not a physician, so here are only guesses based on my experience.

Besides coffeine, there are other substances to be taken into account, plus some non-chemical effects:

Sugar and milk by themselves can have relaxing effects. It is a well known fact that sugar can induce sleepiness, and hot milk is often drunk before going to bed. I've started drinking black coffee (no sugar) after lunch because of this.
Milk and coffee together are particularly hard to process by the stomach. This can bring a sort of after-lunch drowsiness.
There may be a psychological effect related to the assumption of coffee, or any other drink that is associated with relax and calm in your mind.
Warmth can have a relaxing effect by itself


Do Hand Ground Beans Work for a Moka Pot?

Yes. I've used manual grinders for many brew methods, including moka pot, Aeropress, and pour over, and it has worked well with all of them. Make sure to get one with a good range of adjustment for the burrs. Steel vs. ceramic burrs doesn't matter in my experience.


Which creates the strongest (and/or better quality) coffee? Espresso Maker vs. French Press

If you are making just a regular black coffee, French Press would be a superior brewing method.  There are a lot of different camps on this, but rarely does an espresso machine get listed as a preferred method of brewing a cup of coffee (technically you are making Americanos I suppose since you would be diluting the espresso extract with water?)

As for a discussion of preferred brewing methods, it depends on what you are after.  French Press tends to lend additional body and heaviness to a cup of coffee. This is predominantly due to the fact that the water is in extended contact with the grounds (4-5 minutes) which allows less soluble molecules to extract from the grounds.  These less soluble molecules tend to have higher atomic weight, which lends a heavier mouthfeel (Modulating the Roast touches on this).  Additionally, french press doesn't filter out fines.  This adds body, but also muddles lighter flavors in the coffee.

If you are after a cleaner more defined cup of coffee, then I would point you to pour over or even a high quality drip brewer (Bonavita makes great coffee imo).  You are going to get better extract filtration, and the timing with water touching grounds tends to highlight the more delicate flavors in the coffee.

Right now I am sipping on a cup of Ethiopian that has a strong raspberry flavor to it even to the untrained palette.  If I were to have brewed this in a French Press, that high note in the coffee would be obscured.

One more note and I'll stop rambling.. as for energy boost, I feel like espresso makes you crash and traditional brewing methods don't.  That is my experience at least.


How to clean an Iberital MC2/Challenge grinder that is stuck?

A couple useful posts found in a thread linked below.  Text below is two user posts.  LeeWardles post seems to have been accepted by the original poster as being correct information, but you can check out the whole thread below.

CoffeeForumsUK

awlred posted:

  I have an MC2 and recently pulled it out after my newer grinder
  breaking down. You can pop the top bit off the grinder (The black
  plastic part) and unscrew the worm-drive mounting. Doing this makes it
  very easy to get access to the top burr plate and unscrew it until it
  comes away. After that use a stiff bristled toothbrush or small
  paintbrush to remove all the ground coffee etc and clean the housing
  out entirely.

  Assembly is the opposite of dismantling. As a rule of thumb I tighten
  until the burrs meet (the lower burr moves with the upper) and then
  loosen off about 1/8th of a full turn.

  Point to note The wormdrive, while being annoyingly slow to adjust
  needs to be in place for the grinder to remain dialed at any setting.

  While on the subject, an easy hack to make adjustments quicker is a
  set of locking pliers (welders pliers) either around the knob or
  straight on the bar. Which makes the whole process a LOT quicker, if
  slightly less elegant.

LeeWardle posted:

  just needs a strip down. From what you have said it sounds like the
  grind is set to course (after you wound it back) so the noise is bean
  fragments. Also could be that one if the screws has come loose so the
  blde is loose on its mount.

  Hold the button down that holds the step ring and unscrew the ring.
  This will leave you with the plastic ring and an cast alu mount for
  the top blade. Use a wire brush and clean this blade. Remove it and
  clean the mount, put it back. Next remove the lower blade. To do this
  safely unplug from the mains. To stop the motor turning while you
  unscrew place a large flat blade driver next to one of the fins. Clean
  it all and put it all back together.

  Next set the grind to the right courseness. Dose a little onto your
  hand and rub the grouds with your figer. The grouds should be uniform.
  If not you need new blades. These shouldnt cost you anymore than
  £15-20. Makesure you get the right blades as some are right handed &
  some are left. Don't forget, this grinder is made by Cunill and
  re-badged iberital so you can get blades from anyone. If your having
  trouble sourcing new blades leave your number and i'll get a supplier
  to ring you ASAP.


Though I can't find any recent evidence, it seems that research at one time shows that caffeine can be used as an insecticide. However, due to the fact that natural light exposure degrades caffeine, it probably wouldn't make for a very good long-term solution.


Pour over coffee is too bland or too acid

It sounds like the main thing you're not carefully controlling for is temperature.  I have found that if I use cooler temperatures (80-92 degrees celsius) for my pour-over, I get very bright/acidic tones.  Hotter water (92-100 degrees celsius) always gives me more bitterness and earthy flavors.  I use an electric kettle with a thermometer to maintain the temperature accurately so I can keep a temperature in the middle, in order to get both sets of flavors.  I would guess that by 2:45, your water is too cool and you're just extracting the acidic notes.  Try keeping your water hotter (and measure to see what temperature you're using).

I might also suggest giving your coffee a nice 60 second bloom time (pour enough water over them to get them wet, then wait for the gas to escape).  That helps you extract everything (complex and bitter notes included) from the grounds.

You could also consider letting your coffee age a bit longer.  Sometimes, beans are best 7+ days after roasting.

Good luck!


What is the name of the coffee, of which beans are collected from cat poop?

Civet coffee, also known as Kopi Luwak.

Here are some excerpts from the Wikipedia entry:

  refers to the coffee that includes part-digested coffee cherries eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet.

And this:

  in the coffee industry, kopi luwak is widely regarded as a gimmick or
  novelty item...
  "general consensus within the industry ... it just tastes bad"

And:

  It would appear that the Luwak processing diminishes good acidity and
  flavor and adds smoothness to the body, which is what many people seem
  to note as a positive to the coffee.

The gist of it: The animal is supposed to pick the ripest beans and eat them. So its only getting good ripe beans. The animal partially digested the beans, and that process is supposed to improve the flavor.

Edit: source Wikipedia: Kopi Luwak / Civet coffee


I found a youtube video for this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLwO2ylP6T4

And a post explaining the process: http://www.padhuskitchen.com/2012/05/south-indian-filter-coffee-how-to-make.html

So from the above site:

Put 3 tbsp of coffee powder in the upper container, fix it on top of the lower container and tap the container gently, so that the powder will settle evenly.
Bring water to rolling boil and pour it over the coffee powder. Close it with a lid and leave it undisturbed for 10-15 minutes.
The coffee decoction will get collected in the lower container (See picture 3).
Boil milk and simmer for a few minutes stirring continuously. Pour needed decoction in a cup and add milk and sugar to taste. If you want it strong, add more decoction, if you prefer mild coffee, add less decoction. Serve hot and frothy in tumbler and davara. Enjoy the aroma and the taste of South Indian filter coffee.


If your budget is $500 and below then you can afford a real semi-professional espresso machine, including Gaggia or Lelit, for example.