7 ms·

Ew. Glad the article ended on a no. Coffee at home is not expensive enough to justify such madness. A pound of coffee makes about 7 8 "cup" (5oz) pots. I tend t

by cpfohl 4y ago

Ew. Glad the article ended on a no. Coffee at home is not expensive enough to justify such madness. A pound of coffee makes about 7 8 "cup" (5oz) pots. I tend to get 4.5 mugs of coffee out of an 8 cup pot. Even overpriced Starbucks at $10/12oz (~$13/lb) means that each mug of coffee is still only costing me around $0.35. I'll brew with fresh grounds, thanks. You can _always_ add water if you want warm brown caffeinated water.

RajT88 4y ago
Buy cheap grounds in the biggest quantities you can store. I actually prefer Cafe Bustelo from local latino supermarkets (which is inexpensive, but not "cheap", it's really good!). Buy a coffee maker where no hot water touches plastic. Just glass and steel. You will find that this gets you most of the way to great coffee. I had this guy, and it lasted about 5 years. But you can do DIY pourover with similar results, electric or stovetop tea kettle + carafe with pourover: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076VVTRNM https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076VVTRNM Keep it simple, and good coffee is cheap. No need to re-use grounds. I do have one use case for grounds re-use: If I want something hot to drink in the afternoon. I have good tolerance for caffeine (I have never become physically dependent), but I just have to keep caffeine consumption to before 3pm, or I might have a hard time sleeping. A re-run of the morning's grounds (usually 3 scoops of grounds), gives me coffee flavor, but without too much caffeine.
- TheDong 4y ago
  > Buy cheap grounds in the biggest quantities you can store > Buy a coffee maker where no hot water touches plastic. Just glass and steel. > ... gets you most of the way to great coffee. James Hoffman, who's credentials include winning the "World Barista Championship", publishing multiple coffee books, running a coffee roasting company, and so on, has significantly different advice. When experimentally comparing the glass, plastic, and ceramic V60s, he found that the plastic was easier to preheat and sucked less heat out of the grounds, resulting in better brews (https://youtu.be/1oB1oDrDkHM?t=480 https://youtu.be/1oB1oDrDkHM?t=480). What reasoning do you have for avoiding plastic? How can it change the brew other than through its thermal properties (which are pretty clearly beneficial compared to glass and steel, right?) He also recommends getting grinding beans very shortly before brewing. I personally can easily taste the difference between freshly ground and stale grinds, and can notice the difference in extraction and flavor from varying grind size, so I'm personally quite dubious of your claims. I have yet to ever make "great coffee" from pre-ground beans bought from the super-market, only mediocre coffee. Can you not taste any different between fresh grinds and pre-ground coffee? From fiddling with the grind size to find the right extraction for what you personally prefer?
  - NLPlatypus 4y ago
    Probably the leeching and your health
  - schipplock 4y ago
    What reasoning do you have for avoiding plastic? BPA and BPS, I guess.
    - TheDong 4y ago
      You're brewing coffee at <100°C, and all the plastic coffee brewers I've used have been BPA+BPS free (i.e. polypropylene) Is there still any known issue? If they meant BPA, surely they could just say that?
      - schiffern 4y ago
        Not sure about polypropylene, but both nylon and PET are known to shed billions of micro/nano-plastic particles into 95 °C water. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b02540 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b02540 Note they studied mesh bags. Flat surfaces with less exposed area should have lower emission rates. Still not great. Edit: apparently polypropylene does too. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/19/bottle-fed-babies-swallow-millions-microplastics-day-study https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/19/bottle-f...
    - TurboHaskal 4y ago
      BPA is fine, but I'm more of a lead poisoning kind of guy.
jorgesborges 4y ago
I confess that sometimes for a quick coffee I use the same espresso from the morning. I don't always feel like grinding beans, cleaning the portafilter, and tamping again. It's not great but not terrible.
- alfiedotwtf 4y ago
  Even if you go 10g over a normal shot, you're over-extracting which would start to taste bitter. But using already-extracted grinds for a new cup? I guess if you add lots of sugar and milk you may not notice.
  - jorgesborges 4y ago
    I drink it black. Maybe I'm a masochist.
    - xiphias2 4y ago
      Masochists are the people adding sugar to things. There are lots of healthier options that taste almost the same if somebody craves sweetness.
      - erklik 4y ago
        > There are lots of healthier options that taste almost the same if somebody craves sweetness. Alright. Don't hesitate to share then. I can't give away my one sugar... would love options to swap with.
        xiphias2 4y ago
        I’m all in on eritritol (my favourite) and stevia, but I’m also lucky that I don’t feel the difference. I know that some people do though. Also just not eating sugar makes you more sensitive over the smaller amount of sugar food contains anyways.

by cpfohl 4y ago

RajT88 4y ago

Buy cheap grounds in the biggest quantities you can store. I actually prefer Cafe Bustelo from local latino supermarkets (which is inexpensive, but not "cheap", it's really good!). Buy a coffee maker where no hot water touches plastic. Just glass and steel. You will find that this gets you most of the way to great coffee. I had this guy, and it lasted about 5 years. But you can do DIY pourover with similar results, electric or stovetop tea kettle + carafe with pourover: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076VVTRNM https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076VVTRNM Keep it simple, and good coffee is cheap. No need to re-use grounds. I do have one use case for grounds re-use: If I want something hot to drink in the afternoon. I have good tolerance for caffeine (I have never become physically dependent), but I just have to keep caffeine consumption to before 3pm, or I might have a hard time sleeping. A re-run of the morning's grounds (usually 3 scoops of grounds), gives me coffee flavor, but without too much caffeine.

TheDong 4y ago
> Buy cheap grounds in the biggest quantities you can store > Buy a coffee maker where no hot water touches plastic. Just glass and steel. > ... gets you most of the way to great coffee. James Hoffman, who's credentials include winning the "World Barista Championship", publishing multiple coffee books, running a coffee roasting company, and so on, has significantly different advice. When experimentally comparing the glass, plastic, and ceramic V60s, he found that the plastic was easier to preheat and sucked less heat out of the grounds, resulting in better brews (https://youtu.be/1oB1oDrDkHM?t=480 https://youtu.be/1oB1oDrDkHM?t=480). What reasoning do you have for avoiding plastic? How can it change the brew other than through its thermal properties (which are pretty clearly beneficial compared to glass and steel, right?) He also recommends getting grinding beans very shortly before brewing. I personally can easily taste the difference between freshly ground and stale grinds, and can notice the difference in extraction and flavor from varying grind size, so I'm personally quite dubious of your claims. I have yet to ever make "great coffee" from pre-ground beans bought from the super-market, only mediocre coffee. Can you not taste any different between fresh grinds and pre-ground coffee? From fiddling with the grind size to find the right extraction for what you personally prefer?
- NLPlatypus 4y ago
  Probably the leeching and your health
- schipplock 4y ago
  What reasoning do you have for avoiding plastic? BPA and BPS, I guess.
  - TheDong 4y ago
    You're brewing coffee at <100°C, and all the plastic coffee brewers I've used have been BPA+BPS free (i.e. polypropylene) Is there still any known issue? If they meant BPA, surely they could just say that?
    - schiffern 4y ago
      Not sure about polypropylene, but both nylon and PET are known to shed billions of micro/nano-plastic particles into 95 °C water. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b02540 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b02540 Note they studied mesh bags. Flat surfaces with less exposed area should have lower emission rates. Still not great. Edit: apparently polypropylene does too. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/19/bottle-fed-babies-swallow-millions-microplastics-day-study https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/19/bottle-f...
  - TurboHaskal 4y ago
    BPA is fine, but I'm more of a lead poisoning kind of guy.

jorgesborges 4y ago

I confess that sometimes for a quick coffee I use the same espresso from the morning. I don't always feel like grinding beans, cleaning the portafilter, and tamping again. It's not great but not terrible.

alfiedotwtf 4y ago
Even if you go 10g over a normal shot, you're over-extracting which would start to taste bitter. But using already-extracted grinds for a new cup? I guess if you add lots of sugar and milk you may not notice.
- jorgesborges 4y ago
  I drink it black. Maybe I'm a masochist.
  - xiphias2 4y ago
    Masochists are the people adding sugar to things. There are lots of healthier options that taste almost the same if somebody craves sweetness.
    - erklik 4y ago
      > There are lots of healthier options that taste almost the same if somebody craves sweetness. Alright. Don't hesitate to share then. I can't give away my one sugar... would love options to swap with.
      - xiphias2 4y ago
        I’m all in on eritritol (my favourite) and stevia, but I’m also lucky that I don’t feel the difference. I know that some people do though. Also just not eating sugar makes you more sensitive over the smaller amount of sugar food contains anyways.