It's really quite strong.
The better to sharpen your perceptions and help you find that five dollars.
You can cold brew coffee in a French press, you know. Grounds, cold water, let steep overnight. Very smooth and tasty.
2: How would that be different, taste-wise, from hot brewing, pressing it, and then leaving it all day? I guess mine wasn't smoove.
How would that be different, taste-wise, from hot brewing, pressing it
According to wikipedia
Cold brewed coffee naturally seems sweeter due to its lower acidity. Because the coffee beans in cold-press coffee never come into contact with heated water, the process of leaching flavor from the beans produces a different chemical profile than conventional brewing methods.
Don't start down the road of being picky about coffee. Madness is the only end to that road.
I have one of those Aeropress coffee-doofers, and they recommend brewing the coffee at a lower temperature. I was a sceptic, but did a bit of experimenting and it really does taste smoother/sweeter. My wife, who scoffs at all kinds of geeking out like that, has become a total convert -- waiting with the thermometer until it's exactly 80 degrees, and so on.
I keep on meaning to try the cold brewed thing and forgetting it. And iced coffee season is pretty much over again.
7: Never a better reason to move to South America. Closer to (some of) the coffee, and it's almost Summer!
Speaking of cold coffee, sometimes I have old coffee that has been in the pot all night. I just microwave it and drink it. Is that safe?
How would I know? Do I look like coffee?
I do something like this almost every day. You can also just pour room temperature coffee from the press over ice, and it tastes good.
(But I do the same thing fairly often, and haven't died from it yet.)
How would that be different, taste-wise, from hot brewing, pressing it, and then leaving it all day? I guess mine wasn't smoove.
It wouldn't be all yucky? I shuddered when I read your post. You mean it sat in the grounds all day, right? Eeeeeew. Cold-brewed coffee is great, but once it is heated, I think it gets sludgy and bitter tasting if it sits with the grounds too long.
I do know that coffee will eventually mold and not to drink it if it has mold.
If Emerson were here, he'd be telling you not to be so closed-minded.
they recommend brewing the coffee at a lower temperature
I think this is the trick of those really expensive Moccamaster coffeemakers. There was one at a rental house we stayed in last spring, and man did it make tasty coffee. It made me almost be able to imagine paying $300 for a not-espresso-machine coffee maker.
But you shouldn't listen to Emerson on this.
I still occasionally shudder when I think of Emerson's ketchup/maggot story. I guess we all have different shudder points.
I'm going to shoot for the middle ground between Emerson's views and the views of the people who buy machines like those mentioned in 18.
I think you've got a pretty broad target there.
My view: if you brew a french press with coffee hot, let it sit out all day so that it cools to room temperature, and then pour it over ice, it tastes great.
I personally find that microwaving and reheating the same sat-out-all-day coffee makes it taste kinda nasty, but not undrinkable.
re: 18
The Aeropress thing is about 40 dollars, I think. It's not the miracle-worker some enthusiasts claim, but it makes nice coffee, easily.
I have one of those Aeropress coffee-doofers
The kind that looks like a penis pump? We got one, but found it too fiddly, so we sent it to k-sky, since being out in Cali we figured he'd be into it. I think he liked it, but his e-mail report about it probably got stuck in my spam filter.
I also found it aesthetically unpleasing, and that's kind of a dealbreaker with me. Too plasticy.
It'd be nice if it looked like a 1950s Gaggia, but even if I could afford one, no space.
We have an Aeropress thing and are basically happy with it but it's definitely more time and effort than one of those $300 machines, especially if you want to make any quantity.
It came free with some coffee we bought.
29: Yeah, they don't make penis pumps like they used to, that's for sure.
||
Report from Ground Zero OWS, via Richard Estes
Now the strange thing is, once the General Assembly starts, the prevailing demographics seem to shift rather dramatically. Overwhelmingly the people most involved in the General Assembly - the people who facilitate, who offer reports from working groups and who pose questions, are clearly of the professional classes, which is betrayed instantly by their appearance and communication style, their savviness in directing discussion and giving instructions, and by the preening, extroverted style that marks many of today's professionals from both working stiffs and their stodgier predecessors. In other words, they look exactly like the kind of people who went literally insane for Obama in 2008 and many, if not most, probably did.Though I find this class of people extremely unappealing as a matter of personal taste, their predominance, at least at this stage, is not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of them have genuinely wised up and, more importantly, have skills and resources that less advantaged people frequently don't have, as well as the patience for the grunt work side of revolt. But they also bring the baggage of their conformism, professional ambition and general trust in state authority, as well as religious faith in the inane strains of identity politics that have run interference for the ruling class since the 70s.
|>
Why would you want your coffee to taste sweeter? Unless you're going for Turkish coffee, anyway.
Oh.
As far as coffee goes, I use Folgers with a Mr Coffee drip machine. I deliberately make enough each morning so as to have a mug left over to microwave the following morning while the new pot brews. I did recently talk her into moving up a notch of robustness in the Folgers line.
re: 34
In my case I like strong, fairly robust coffee, but not harsh or bitter.* Sweet is maybe the wrong word. Not sour or thin.
* although my wife still insists I drink 'bitter' coffee.
Although I put milk and sugar in coffee, so I'm hardly some 'strong black coffee' purist.
US Intellectual History is all confused on the meaning of "bourgeois" in American discourse.
Commenter "nils" helps him out:
I don't think the term "bourgeois" as a cultural epithet is hard to understand, actually -- it refers, simply, to the use of material things to distinguish yourself socially, and, by extension, to the social imaginary of people who do this. Originally this was in contrast to an aristocracy, whose distinction derived not from possession or accomplishment, but from birth. (Hence the damning review, for example, of Cozzens's BY LOVE POSSESSED, which Macdonald quitely correctly perceived to be an uncritical exploration of the mores of this social set -- in contrast to, say, Flaubert, who also explored the mores of this social set, but with devastating intent.)The New York Intellectuals hated bourgeois culture, very simply, because they preferred a model of social distinction based on intellectual and aesthetic discernment. (This was made somewhat more complicated by their various overlapping leftist political commitments, but the core of this debate centered on a debate over aesthetics.) Thus they were dead-set against the kinds of books and movies and art preferred by people who defined their social distinction by their material position in American society.
"Aero-press?"
See what I mean about the dangers of taking coffee too seriously.
42: He wasn't certainly picky in the end.
Working class people, of course, don't have any sensual or aesthetic pleasures. No 'stuff' that they like. Arsehole.
Other than movies, ttaM. It's oppressive of you to ignore the working-class connection with art cinema.
Speaking of cold coffee, sometimes I have old coffee that has been in the pot all night. I just microwave it and drink it. Is that safe?
During the months I was procrastinating about getting the espresso machine fixed, I would use a moka pot for after dinner and then nervously drink the microwaved remains the next morning. My safety worry was about all the aluminium I was imagining had leached into the brew. Eventually I took the obvious step of decanting it. (Apparently the link between aluminium consumption and Alzheimer's has been discredited, but I still felt uneasy.)
they recommend brewing the coffee at a lower temperature. I was a sceptic, but did a bit of experimenting and it really does taste smoother/sweeter.
There appears to be a whole host of wisdom out there about the temperature at which various types of tea should be brewed. (Someone posted a link at Balloon Juice a while back, and blockquoted a relevant excerpt. I have no link now, and you'd think I have saved something somehow, but no.)
It made quite a bit of sense. Certainly I like green tea brewed with hot water that's cooled down a bit from a rapid boil much better. My housemate periodically tries to be helpy, and I find that when I've come out of the bathroom in the morning, he's cheerfully explaining that the kettle was boiling, so he poured the boiling water in my cup for me. Oh. Believe it or not, I'd rather you didn't do that ...
Contrariwise, what's with the practice of serving hot black tea in the form of a cup of previously-boiling-but-now-tepid water with a teabag on the side? I understand that it's meant to allow the customer to choose how strong he wants his tea, but IT DEFEATS THE PURPOSE BECAUSE THE TEA WON'T STEEP PROPERLY. ("No, I'm not being difficult, I was just trying to explain... Leave the shop? Now? OK, OK, just don't call the cops. Jeez.")
Hrm. I'm going to try this cold-brewing-in-French-press thing right now.
I've just made some bourgeois coffee, ready for the rugby. Stirred with the bones of the proletariat.
I take my bones of the proletariat straight, without the coffee.
I keep the workers down by controlling the beans of production.
Stanley is going to drive me to drink.
Oh well, I've got errands to run. Might as well drive to the coffee myself.
Stanley's mistake is what I normally do most days, except I try and remember to put the french press or just the coffee in the fridge overnight. I prefer it cold to reheated.
I have to say, this cold brewed french press coffee is fantastic. Thanks, Megan!
I've been thinking of getting a French press, but in the meantime I've been drinking instant coffee. At one point when I was stuck in Oregon I accidentally bought Folger's Crystals rather than the regular Folgers, and while I did go back and get the regular ground coffee later, I kept the crystals, which was good because my apartment here doesn't have a coffee maker. I guess you could say my taste in coffee is eclectic.
My great aunt drank instant coffee, so eventually I tried it. I was surprised to discover that Folgers tasted significantly better than Taster's Choice (or it might have been the other way around). I would have thought that they were completely interchangable.
Contrariwise, what's with the practice of serving hot black tea in the form of a cup of previously-boiling-but-now-tepid water with a teabag on the side?
It is to signify "we hate you for drinking this foreign 'tea' stuff instead of good honest US coffee instead."
Coffee makes you work longer and harder. It's like crystal meth but legal. Therefore it's the natural drink of capitalism; note that modern insurance, the London Stock Exchange and the Bank of England all started in coffee houses.
Beer makes you forget your pain and oppressed state; beer is therefore for feudal and slave societies. In ancient Egypt labourers received half their pay in beer.
Tea, on the other hand, makes you think. Workers in a capitalist society shouldn't think. Where do all the really good ideas about socialism and the dignity of man come from? Tea drinkers.
Oh god, I'm turning into McManus.
58: More like this, please. What about wine? And the various spirits and liqueurs?
60: DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT STEPPING ONTO MY TURF!
I have to say, this cold brewed french press coffee is fantastic. Thanks, Megan!
Yeah, I just tried it for the first time this summer. I was surprised I could tell a difference, because I try not to have a fancy palate. I'm glad you liked it. Cold brewed coffee is yummy.
I have to say, this cold brewed french press coffee is fantastic. Thanks, Megan!
Yeah, I just tried it for the first time this summer. I was surprised I could tell a difference, because I try not to have a fancy palate. I'm glad you liked it. Cold brewed coffee is yummy.
59: Chesterton: not only racist but wrong about tea.
http://www.tastearts.com/drinking-poem-feast-on-wine-or-fast-on-water-by-gilbert-keith-chesterton/
Wrong, too, about cocoa. But definitely right about fizzy stuff.
Wine, being inherently a small-scale product, is for elitists and localists - the "I've got mine, to hell with the rest of you" approach. Beer is at least industrial and therefore scalable. There's no reason why you can't increase your production of Deuchars IPA as far as the market demands; but the amount of Cotes du Rhone you can produce is limited by the geographical area of the Rhone valley.
Increasing the production of Deuchars IPA is a revolutionary program I can get behind.
Pretty sure hops need to be grown, too.
Wine, being inherently a small-scale product...
It's like you've never heard of Boone's Farm. Good wine, maybe, is not scalable.
re: 67
Yeah, but they aren't appellation d'origine contrôlée, or anything. You can make the same exact beer given raw materials from more or less anywhere. Wine is produced on pretty industrial scales, too, but it tends (here, anyway) to be marketed in terms of its origin/AOC rather than just as 'Red'. If I buy a bottle of wine and like it and want to buy the same again, I'm buying stuff from the same vinyard or appellation, rather than buying stuff that's the result of a particular standard process with bulk purchased ingredients.
Yeah, but they aren't appellation d'origine contrôlée, or anything. You can make the same exact beer given raw materials from more or less anywhere.
This isn't really true. At least, per the kind of beer nerds that d^2 despises it's not really true.
Deuchars IPA, it appears, uses four different kinds of hops, at least one of which is only grown in the Cascades in Oregon:
Hops - Styrian, Super Styrian, Fuggles and Willamette
Ready availability of cascade hops is, in fact, often a matter of some stress for makers of quality beer.
Yeah, but they aren't appellation d'origine contrôlée, or anything.
Nor is most wine sold around here.
Yeah. I think there's very little limiting the amount of shitty central valley california wine that could be (is) produced.
Hmm, that's interesting. Although I suppose you could grow the same hops elsewhere? I wonder why Deuchars get their hops from there? It's not like there's not a damp, temperate, occasionally chilly climate nearby.
I think there's very little limiting the amount of shitty central valley california wine that could be (is) produced.
I've been drinking wine from New York state, which is probably more limited in the sense that it is harder to grow grapes there.
73: they appear to have had some success growing them in Tasmania.
Also, they're apparently derived from English hops. Yeah, I dunno. Different soil, different weather patterns. Same reason the same wine grapes grown in California vs. Argentina vs. Italy produce different tasting wines.
Boy, I should have posted that on that other thread.
66: I picture one of those immense transUralic one-industry cities they used to have in the USSR with names like MAGNITOGORSK or ASBESTOVSK, except this one would be DEUCHARSTOUN.
IN SAUVIGNON BLOC, WINE MAKES YOU.
re: 76 and 79
Heh.
Deucharstoun could be built somewhere in the Bathgate/Livingston desert.
65: I'd like Chesterton so much if he wasn't so embarrassingly racist -- I'm used to cutting 19th/early 20th C authors slack, but he's so awful. And yet I'm very fond of his light verse.
Wine as a mass product is hardly an American-only thing, and wine at the lowest (but still drinkable, 2 buck chuck or the cheap Languedoc bottle you find in France) end is just as cheap or cheaper than beer. Wine as the small batch only snob drink is a particularly US and UK, and between those two particularly UK, notion.
re: 84
People here are just as likely to buy wine from big factory type wineries [Penfold's, Gallo, Hardy's, etc] as anywhere else. And if you want to, you can buy supermarket plonk with no region of origin.
Right (or, rather, I don't know); the point is that Ajays view of wine as the small-batch snob drink is a traditional Anglophone one, going back to the days when lords were unloading their claret, that doesn't remotely reflect reality.
re: 86
Well, yeah. But in terms of its market position, reputation, etc. Deuchars has much more in common with a mid-priced wine from a decent vinyard than it does with a 3 quid bottle of supermarket table red. I think the disparity in terms of potential scalability still holds, at least in some segments of the market, even if there are boutique small-batch brewers, and gigantic factory-like vinyards. Less disparity than ajay might be implying, though.
Also, my views on UK wine culture may have been unduly influenced by watching "James May's Road Trip."
MOGENDAVID 20 (clearly a radioactive waste zone)
This is as good of a place as any for me to mention that I have not liked every Belgian beer I have tried. I think I'm supposed to but I don't get it.
PORT LOKO
I DON"T KNOW WHAT GAME WE"RE PLAYING.
re: 91
I find a lot of them far too sugary. That said, I've also had some excellent ones. But I think my taste runs more to a drier German/Czech style of beer.
I find the sweeter Belgian beers I've had affirmatively disgusting, but I'm not really a beer guy generally.
I thought it was just me. because I'm a chick. I'm with ttaM on the German/Czech style of beer.
Ajays view of wine as the small-batch snob drink is a traditional Anglophone one, going back to the days when lords were unloading their claret, that doesn't remotely reflect reality.
Depressingly, this sentence would still be true with a lot of other phrases substituted for the words "wine as the small-batch snob drink".
I defend myself by stating that what I am doing in 58 et seq is cultural commentary, and, axiomatically, cultural commentary does not have to be based in anything as infra dig. as reality. In fact, Halford, it's a bit rude of you even to bring it up.
I usually drink Yuengling because when I can't say the name right, I know it is time to go home.
I tend to like either dry and fairly pale German/Czech style beers, or much heavier darker stout, porter or heavy (by which I mean 80 or 90 shilling, not 70 shilling) beers. But the stuff in between, whether that's the sugarier continental style beers, or most English real ales, are bogging (to my taste).
(by which I mean 80 or 90 shilling, not 70 shilling)
Is this an obsolete price range, or does it measure something about the beer in some units I'm not familiar with?
I don't understand most of 99, but Yuengling is fairly sweet as lagers go and I like most English real ales. Maybe it isn't the sugar I dislike in the Belgian beers.
I like a large majority of beers, but often do not care for belgians. On the other hand, our local bar recently had a belgian beer thing and the kegs were I think very fresh, and damn, they had some winners.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Scotland#Shilling_categories
It's a measure based on obsolete 19th century measures/prices, but all Scots will know what they mean as draught beers other than lager will be labelled that way. I much prefer 80/- or 90/- to 70/-. I was disappointed when this came up on an internet discussion elsewhere, recently, to find that the particular brand of 90/- I used to drink is no longer made.
Of course, Blume finds the beers I really like frankly appalling, so maybe I can't be trusted.
The shilling (70/- etc) measures in 99 were meant to qualify the term 'heavy' which has a specific meaning in Scots beer drinking. Not to qualify stout or porter.
I ... do not care for belgians.
Racist.
re: 106
The historical root is linked in 103. But yes, it's roughly correlated with gravity.
I'm not sure I understood the assignment.