http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/dining/23coff.htmlI by no means am a frequent coffee drinker, once a week at best. Yet, I do love the taste of quality coffee, and am willing to pay a premium for such a luxury. I don't really mess w/ starbucks/second cup because I am not hooked on caffeine, it's purely a taste experience for me. For the record, I like it brack.Has anyone experienced the joy of a cup brewed by the Clover ($11,000). If you haven't, prease to seek out this machine in your local morning experience. I have not had a better tasting cup of coffee ever.For Toronto folks, Manic Coffee (college & bathurst) is the only spot in our fair city w/ a Clover (beans via
Intelligentsia). Honourable mentions goes to Dark Horse & Mercury.
Aser
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I have yet to hear anyone offer me a reasonable explanation of how a cup of coffee - ground and brewed to order by hand - is going to get outclassed by a $10,000 machine that still requires a skilled barista to work it. I'm not suggesting that science can't improve upon something normally done by hand but places like Blue Bottle and especially Philz have done just fine prior to investing in a Clover.
I'm not saying the machine is shit...but I'm still waiting to have a cup brewed on one impress me as being any different than a hand-made one.
I'm surprised a Clover hasn't shown up Westside yet.
Also - I've had Japanese style siphon coffee (albeit, not on a $20,000 bar)...it also seemed much ado about nada.
Grind.
Brew.
Drink.
It's not rocket science!
Frankly, I'm just amazed more cafes don't follow Philz example (yeah, I'm a booster, but for good reason) and just do it by hand. It's classy enough to have a hand-brewed cup without having to resort to a machine to do it.
All this said, I do like that coffee drinking is moving back to brewed after so many years of espresso-jocking.
I am lucky, my local shop seems to put great care into the brewing process. Finally the machine can only do so much. At the end of the day you still need great beans. Check to see where your shop sources their beans from.
This is what I don't get. If I'm paying I>$10,000[/i] for a coffee maker, not only should that shit work on auto-pilot and turn out some perfect coffee every time, I'm also expecting it to ring up the customer and handout change.
My feeling is that, right now, the Clover is better at attracting business by gawkers than it is at making a superior cup of joe. Shit, worked on me!
SBUX hasn't had a new gimmick in a while, so they are testing these machines in a few stores. I hope it works out and the Clover guys get that Howard Schultz money.
I haven't tried it yet since we are super
We used to get it for free from a friend who managed the plantation but she moved to Guyana!
that one is still there (by my spot) but now they have a new bigger one downtown (with the siphon machine).
what does this mean? "by hand" meaning putting the little thing in place and then banging out the wet grinds at the end? versus the starbucks model where they just push a button? I'm disconnected from the terminology.
to each his own. brewed coffee doesn't have the same effect AT ALL on my body.
cosign, the best investment for pure coffee drinking, plus its an energy saver. Its what makes me want to get up in the morning.
You can equate it to something like Microwave. The machine aids in creativity, rather than being the source.
I still got love for these though...
Yeah, that's a hand-brewed cup of drip coffee. They scoop the beans, grind them, put them in a filter, pour hot water, wait. Voila!
It's basically "Melita-style" (add that to your dictionary). It's not fancy but you get a really nice, fresh cup of coffee. If I'm going to believe in the Clover, I'd need a taste test that shows me, side by side, how the same original bean would taste different by these two methods.
That's interesting since espresso isn't supposed to extract the same amount of caffeine because it doesn't brew as long. By that standard, I guess a French press would get out the most caffeine but personally, I like the simplicity of a Melita over a French press even though it's not as efficient.
At the end of the day, the method of brewing doesn't really matter so long as you're drinking brewed coffee vs. espresso (since the latter doesn't lend itself to the new micro-coffee movement).
I bout' brought a Philz fedora back to Kentucky. Good Place.
Question: how much coffee do you use? I never seem to get the proportions right which is partially why I stick to the Melita.
I've heard that too. I can't explain it. filter coffee gives me a headache and backs me up.
It took me a few times but I finally figured out one reason why their coffee tastes so damn good...besides his choice in beans:
If you get cream and sugar, they use *heavy* cream. It makes a huge difference over 1/2 and 1/2. They also use brown sugar which adds a slightly more molasses quality to the sweetness.
The #1 w/ or w/o sugar and cream is the jammy jam. I always buy 1/2 lb when I'm back in the Yay.
honestly i just eyeball the whole thing. if i were to guess its usually about 4 scoops of grounds and about 2 cups coffee. i think.
i take my coffee with milk. i find that u can taste the coffee more with a lil milk.
Major
if it's too burnt' then you're brewing it at too high a temperature - its meant to perculate through fairly slowly, i.e not like a firehouse
There is subtlety involved here, as well as a developed taste. It starts with understanding the difference between Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora. If you're the type of person who interrupts the drip coffee maker because you can't wait or orders coffee at the corner gas station forget everything because you may as well drink piss that's puddled in a pickle jar.
My barista dude at Grumpy, just watching him make a coffee is a joy. He also takes great care to make a lovely unique shape on top of each cup with the steamed milk. I've seen him dutifully reprimand fools who ask why their cappuccino isn't in a 32 oz. cup. For him, I've endured 15-20 waiting lines.
Notable Coffee Experiences:[/b]
Most recently, I had a pound of premier Italian coffee flown to me from a friend who is enjoying a Rome Prize. Beautiful amber heaven in a cup.
On a winter trip to Mexico, I befriended a Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast who was a fountain of obscure knowledge, including views on coffee that he was willing to fight about. Not only did he hook us up with some black market wild bore, but he schooled me on the delicious brews Mexico has to offer. So great!
I paid out the ass for Kopi Luak, which is a Sumatran coffee that is harvested by feeding the coffee cherry fruit to luak (palm civet) and waiting for it to shit. The luak turds are picked by the villagers. The odor kopi luak produces while roasting dramatically reminds us of its intestinal journey from fruit to bean, the taste in the cup does not. I'm not a fan of Sumatra, but I will always gladly partake in drinking some luak shit water! Yes! $300 a pound.
I really enjoy Jamaican Blue Mountain now and again. At $40/lbs, it's a treat more than a routine.
For the holidays a few years ago, I got Ts*ga and I a few pounds of an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe blend that was part of an African competition to see which local independent farmer could produce the best beans, judged by a panelist of coffee experts around the world. The best crop was chosen and the beans were expensive, but all the money paid went back to the local village (I believe the village that won bought an ambulance (as they were many miles from the nearest hospital) with their winnings). That was a coffee that was both good to taste and purchase.
Staying in the apartment of a wealthy bank owner in Naples, where he personally made me a shot of Neapolitan coffee (that Shig claims tastes burnt?!). The whole time I was assuring him that it was no trouble, I knew how it was done, and not to bother. He insisted. Made the shot, poured it, waited for me to sip, and asked, "Is good... no?" And then showed me again, drinking the second shot himself. I spent the rest of the week there making my own coffee, following his directions precisely, yet my shots weren't nearly as good. At the end of the trip I conceded and praised his native southern Italian wisdom.
I used to special order from Lowry's in Washington state. They had a Seattle blend called Elliott Bay Fogcutter that was perhaps the best drip coffee I've ever tasted.
Still, for my money, having traveled all up and down Italy, walking in to any random coffee bar and getting an espresso or cappuccino is the best. 9 times out of 10 it is top notch.
Over the years I've developed a taste for very strong coffee. Outside of my man at Grumpy, I usually don't fuck with outsiders. I brew it myself. The local choice for homebrewing is an Extra Dark French Roast. Such severe roasting reduces the beans weight by 75%, so a dense, rich bean from the world's highest region is required. Tasty. But if you're not accustomed, it will act as a diarrheic and you'll spend your morning pissing out your ass.
Aser, foodsnob that you are, I bet you would enjoy the Premier Rock Forum coffee recipe:
1) A doppio ristretto of freshly ground coffee. Specifically, coffee from Balangera Saluzzo, Via Spielberg, Cuneo, Italy. I will often (though not necessarily) add approximately 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon to the coffee before I draw the shot.
2) Steam 10 oz whole milk, to which I add approximately 2 teaspoons of maple syrup.
3) Pour the coffee into the milk, but don't stir. This leaves the foam intact, with a lovely abstract design in the top. I make a habit of trying to interpret these designs as though they were intentional whenever I make a coffee for someone else. The presentation is usually something like this: "I've made you a coffee, and I put a little caricature of Blixa Bargeld riding a Clydesdale on it for you." Or, "Here's your coffee. I hope you're not offended by the illustration of the assasination of the Romanovs I made on the top -- I thought you'd be amused by the super-imposition of Rollie Fingers playing the role of the ghost of Rasputin. Please ignore the copulating Oliver Stone/Cicciolina/Popeye menage in the background -- that was a doodle."
I will occcasionally, when there is only skim milk, enrich it by melting a pat of butter in the milk. This is met with universal disgust by my co-workers, whose tastes are as plain and conservative as they come. Just be thankful my puree of foie-gras experiment didn't amount to anything.
and these days, this:
and don't get started on the croissants, oh man....
Better than Tartine's?
(and once again, a Soulstrut thread descends into Bay Area food talk)
Speaking of which: Tomales Bay gets love from L.A.
first sip of mocha I ever had -- and I wasn't madd at it!
I imagine you typing that up while fondling a bag of hacienda la esmeralda.
There's a way in which Bam says this that translates into: "all the rest of you are a bunch of Folgers-sipping-batches so STFU and learn you something."
Yo - I tried that, brewed with a Clover, in downtown L.A.
MAD TEPID (and I'm not talking in temp)
b/w
I blame the barista.