Slashdot Mirror
Optical Feedback For Perfect Coffee
FOLICOR writes "One man's quest for the perfect cup of joe leads to
a new coffee maker" Somehow I have to hope that this is fake, but it looks like he's using an led to make sure his coffee is brewed reliably. I brew mine on my stove in a syphon cheerfully referred to as The Coffee Bong. Super primitive.
only in the US could somebody send a light beam through coffee, try that with a real Italian espresso. ;-)
American coffee is like making love in a boat - f*cking close to water... ;)
This invention only makes sure it always tastes of the same sweet nothing. Get a nice Italian or Swiss made Espresso machine to feel the difference. :)
There was a patent issued in the UK a couple of months back for an internet connected toaster that put the weather forecast on your toast. Toasted the bread to a light colour and then put a weather symbol mask in between the element and the toast for the final minute (or however long) so that you had a darker weather symbol actually on the toast. The weather information was obtained over the internet connection.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
Maybe he should connect a clock and teach it to make stronger coffee in the morning and progressively weaker coffee as the day progressed as that you could still sleep at night.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
Anyone that thinks Columbian coffee is he 'best coffee' needs to stop using chock-full-o-nuts, and grab a half pound of Jamacian Blue at your local beanery...
Well, we'll find out just how evil. Australians have had a serious espresso culture for quite a few years now, well before any American franchises got into the act. (I gotta say it was a shock to get to the US and find that we were well ahead of a cultural trend :) ).Starbucks, however, has just opened its first Australian store. Moreover, they've stuck their head straight into the lion's mouth, as they've chosen Lygon Street in inner Melbourne, arguably the place where Australians first discovered proper coffee, as the place to open their first store. Bring on the challenger . . .
Go you big red fire engine!
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Then his patents will fall under via prior art if he ever tries to enforce them. While it is fun on Slashdot to talk about people patenting the wheel, etc., there are quite a lot of checks (though perhaps not enough...) to ensure that even though you might get a patent, it might not be worth the bits that compose the digits that define it if you tried to do anything about it.
I've an old percolator here with a little knob on the bottom you can turn from "weaker" to "stronger" - I think all it is is a thermostat.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
My office has these thermos-based coffee brewers - they work pretty well but you never know how much coffee is actually left in the pot! Now if only I could get them to use a better quality coffee :-( I am sure you can get purchase such coffee makers in North America although I have to admit that I haven't seen them in the retail stores. The standard glass carafe and heating element type brewer are undoubtedly cheaper - but they really do ruin the coffee if it sits around on the heating element for more than a few minutes. It would seem that many Americas are simply used to rotten tasting coffee.
My coffee maker turns the cone with the filter in a circle while it makes the coffee so you can filter all of the grounds instead of just the grounds in the center, giving you a true cup of coffee for the grounds you toss into the thing.
Now, a spinning filter tray and an LED? Perhaps a little too much. :)
"It's here, but no one wants it." - The Sugar Speaker
Even a good coffee shop will throw away coffee sitting on the warmer for some time, because it taste awful!!! Coffee will turn acidic and burnt under constant heat.
A sig is redundant.
I didn't know they grew pot on the Blue Mountain in Jamaica. . .too busy growing coffee on it. . . .
I'm gonna cop it for this, but frankly, _nothing_ amuses me more than coffee snobs. Not a damned thing. Makes me laugh every time I come across it.
--Gfunk
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
The Gaggia Classic is what I'm going to be getting. It has most of the guts of their commercial machines: the group and portafilters, anyway. It's all electric pump for the espresso, and it comes with a sleeve on the wand for the amateurs, which is removable for anyone who knows what they're doing.
Boiling water impares the taste - Too cold and you don;t extract all thr flavour.
The grind of the beans and the relative humidity also affects the flavour. High humid days and a small grind can result in the coffee tasting burnt.
skribe
Blog
Sure, if you like it oily and heavy, you cheese-eating surrender monkey.
Hands in my pocket
This guy loves coffee way too much! You'd think he'd be happy with one of those combo grinder/coffee pots and some Brita water.
--
Steve Jackson
Intelligent Life on Earth
No boiling water, huh? I use those coffee bags for ultimate convenience, and find that when I let the kettle scream nice and loud, the coffee tastes better.
--
Steve Jackson
Intelligent Life on Earth
pretty sure it was Dennis Leary...
I'm surprised slashdot ran the story considering the guy has patents on it. Intellectual property, patents, evil, un-American, blah blah blah, etc.
That was Denis Leary.
He also said: "i didn't quit drugs because they were bad for me, its because i didn't want to build anything."
Or something like that.
I find it weird how everyone speaks about coffee machines. It is not the machine that makes the coffee, it is how you use the machine to make your coffee. A good espresso is reliant on how good you are at using your tools (such as a machine).
;) (there goes my karma)
Oh, and as for percolators, filters and plungers, they don't make coffee. They make murky water. The only real coffee is espresso
Nevrar
- He is inventing coffee technology but can't spell espresso
- He thinks that coffee gets darker as it gets less fresh
- He doesn't take into account the dirtiness of the water or the pot
Yeah, this oughta work real well.
Free beer software. Even RMS likes it.
...where's the ethernet interface?
That would explain why Cheach Martin is endorsing it.
Why is it so hot? Where am I going? What am I doing in this handbasket?
> 93 degrees centigrate at 18 bar pressure will produce the ultimate coffee.
Do you really mean that? 18 bar == approx 18 atmospheres, or the pressure at 170m below sea level. Where the blazes do you work/live? Or do you have a coffee machine that creates a seal then pumps up the pressure before it makes the brew? I'm fascinated, please tell this wasn't a typo - it'd be so disappointing.
Alex W
--
> Yes, it's commonly called an espresso machine...
Mea culpa, sorry didn't think of that one, not a coffee drinker myself.
Thanks
Alex W
Nope, but this one comes close!
actually, Krups did manufacture such toaster some years ago. (and it used the IR light from the heating element for this (why use another illumination source, if it's already there?!?))
Indeed, its pricetag killed it...
If you look at the ingrediants on most of those "bags", they are 40%-60% instant coffee. Always read the labels before purchasing. =)
I'm sure that this device, when activated, invariably provides a plastic cup filled with a liquid that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.
Dude, don't use PVC! It gives off fumes when exposed to heat, and isn't very good for you over the long term. Stick with glass...works for me!
Never play leapfrog with a unicorn.
So, while yeah, your law is valid, there are certain adjustments that can be made. Ofbiouvlsy, you can't get anything stronger than your grinds with no water, but you can get a strength closer to what you want with less water, if you put in less grounds, or more water if you put in more grounds. Sound kosher?
--------
Never call a man a fool. Borrow from him.
he's an ex-coke head [that's cocaine, not the sugar drink]
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
If the led can see through the coffee it ain't coffee.
> You've gotta sin to get saved.
what is a toddy? I am fascinated by this cold brewing process, please provide more detail... E.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
Personally, I make my coffee probably as simply as Taco does - boil 300 ml of water, and pour it through a Melitta #2 filter in the appropriate simple plastic cone. I use a standard stainless steel coffee measurer from Lechter's to measure out some Eight O'Clock 100% Colombian Coffee. This either goes into a travel mug for the journey to work, or my Tux Mug.
I was wondering, I have found Border's Mocha au Lait to be something of a taste of heaven, and was wondering if there is a similar item at Starbuck's - I haven't checked. It is coffee w/Mocha, and steamed milk - accounting for the needs of sweetness and smoothness.
This comment was written whilst drinking a cup of Starbuck's House Blend at a college coffee shop.
Investigations determined that the cause of this was due to pot users looking for 'construction materials'.
Drug paraphenalia, indeed.
Sparks:Gadget:Beer Maker
This is serious milestone cutting edge coffee technology we're talking about here!
You may begin rioting... now.
"Hopefully by the end of your visit you will understand the operation better and appreciate the utility of this invention." You only need to look at the grainy photograph and all becomes clear. There is nothing staggeringly complicated about this invention. I'd be surprised if someone hasn't already done this somewhere. It disappoints me to see multiple patents being applied for this. And I wonder if the device is calibrated to a particular variety of coffee. I wouldn't want to drink the same brand every day - which rules out home use. Besides, the idea of brewing both espresso and filter coffee from the same type of beans doesn't appeal. - unsui
semper ubi sub ubi
Neat. For next year's April Fools, someone needs to implement RFC2324 using this ... it could certainly be done.
sulli
RTFJ.
I guess that makes me an 'unceremonious coffee bean muncher' :)
Blancmange
You just described my Krups coffeemaker. :-)
:-(
The nice thing about Krups and Braun machines is that they dispense hot water at around 90 degrees Celsius, which extracts out the most in coffee flavor. The problem with American machines is that the dispense hot water more like 75 degrees Celsius, which results in not-so-great coffee.
Wrongo. :-)
It really depends on the type of bean and level of grind of the coffee itself.
Most good coffee should be served on a drip-style coffeemaker using cone filters and near-boiling hot water (the latter is common on Krups and Braun coffeemakers).
While I agree that's true if you're talking espresso-style coffee, for regular coffee I would recommend a coffeemaker that 1) dispenses hot water at around 90-93 degrees Celsius and 2) uses a cone-style filter (and use the permanent gold-plated filter as much as possible). Most German coffeemakers (Krups and Braun) are made this way, hence their popularity worldwide (I have a Krups myself).
If you grind the coffee beans at the correct consistency, a top-line drip machine can make great coffee. And drip coffee has a very strong buzz, too--80 mg of caffeine per 6 oz. of liquid.
Besides, brown bread looks much the same, whereas white bread changes significantly.
If it was cheap and trivial, it would have been done. Instead, manufacturers concentrate on the cheap solution (a 555 monostable timer is the most complicated toaster circuit I've seen).
But instead, the guy could put the light barrier near the top of the coffee pot so more coffee can be brewed in the same size coffee machine without spillage (the liquid breaking the infrared light would stop the brewing). Additionally, the coffee machine could make a beeping noise when the barrier is broken to indicate that the coffee is ready. I for one would find this useful, as I always forget I put the coffee machine on.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Gee, you were all rational right up until the last bit.
Quite simply, anyone can write a book about ANYTHING. I've seen books that declare (alternatly) that there is no God, that God exists, that we live in the greatest country on earth, and that we live in the next Rome.
And now that I've responded to that, I might as well rebut your reasons for being a Vegan... especially since you got all "militant vegan" at the end, and I can't stand those.
1: I know exactly where my food comes from, and I don't care. I would prefer it if some of the sources changed, but the world is rarely as I would prefer it.
2: Hi! I like to eat meat. Meat tastes good. I'm happy with my life, just as I am.
3: Sure, animals suffer in the animal industry. And lawyers suffer in the law industry. But by halting your consumption of meat, you're no longer the industry's customer, so they DON'T CARE what you think, and you really don't do a darn thing to stop the cruelty to animals--so stop pretending.
4: If everyone was vegan, the meat industry would dissappear--and cows, who aren't exactly man's favorite pet, would quickly go down in numbers. If everyone was a vegetarian cows might still get by, but pigs would soon be greatly reduced in number.
5: Life is suffering. Man, either rightly or wrongly, has achieved dominaiton over the earth and all its creatures. Given the choice between making animals suffer and people suffer, man (from his heights) causes animals to suffer. (What suffering? Why, denial of man's craving for meat, of course.)
You do have a point that suffering of animals is wrong--but as I said before, you don't do a SINGLE DARN THING to stop it. Everyone will not become Vegan one day. The Meat industry will not listen to you if you are not a customer.
However, I am a customer. Find me some information about how I can encourage the industry to treat the animals without unnecessary suffering, and I will to the best of my (sadly limited) capability.
Coffee dude must be for real, he's got a poster presentation ready to go... that makes it real "research".
What's all this about 18 bar pressure and using IR sensors to determine the reflected wavelength of your hot java. Gimme a cup of fresh McDonald's coffee anyday. The mystery of the flavor gives it a great appeal. Much like espresso its dark and thick. However unlike espresso, its probably not made from beans. What do they make their burgers from anyway? -tooth
-dr. layyze f. tooth PhD
So if we're unhealthy being vegetarian, then so are cows.
I forgot where I got the preceding quoted thing (I had just saved it in a text file for a use such as this one), but I read it in various incarnations in many different places.
The FDA backs vegetarianism as healthy absolutely, provided some important vitamins and minerals are supplemented that it would take more careful vegetarian selection to acquire. (I take iron in my vitamin pill every day, which is a lot simpler than making sure to eat some spinach every week, for instance, which is one of the few rich-in-iron sources.) And now:
My reasons for being vegan.
Oh, and PS. I'm posting at +2 cuz' I'm at 50 karma. Off-topic? Hell yes. Don't even ask about my IQ. And you are...let me get this straight...an a/c who needs to use words like "cheesy". You could not read two books upon the subject without deferring to my point of view. Although I doubt you read. Man, I've already won.
~
Maybe you should write The Idiot's Guide to Coffee. Cuz' next to you, let's face it, we're all idiots. Here I was thinking my 7 USD *$s coffee was worth a turd. What must have I been thinking?
~
or a fucking JOKE you fucking LOSER!!!!!
~
I have to agree - whilst I'm very partial to a smooth blended espresso, I've recently taken to Turkish/Greek coffee after a friend fired up a Turkish coffee pot on the stove and dumped in a pile of grounds. For one minute, I was left thinking 'what the hell is this guy doing' but the taste was nothing less than amazing!
You gotta try it, at least once, and you'll understand that no food or drink should set you back $1500 before you even have a mouthful.
-Nano.
Nah, I brew mine with cold water in the refrigerator. I put 1/2 lb coffee in a toddy and let it sit in my fridge for 24 hours.... makes about a half gallon or so of the best damn coffee I've ever had. Using cold water prevents (or so I've been told) prevents as many of the acids from being extracted from the beans and (supposedly) that's what gives coffee a bitter taste.
Some people will use a whole pound and then dilute their coffee, but watering down coffee seems.... wrong somehow....
A toddy is basically a big plastic container that's big enough to hold about 1/2 lb of coffee and a half gallon of water (they do make larger ones of course. it has a hole in the bottom of it that you place a cork into while you're brewing it and there's a re-usable filter that fits just above the cork hole. The coffee should be ground coarsely for this brewing... I think that's to make it easier to drain. For more info: http://www.thecajunconnection.com/toddy.html
For perfect coffee one would have to use an espresso at least, its always better than filter, due to the temperature and pressure and finer grind of coffee used.
My problem is I don't know what strength I want, and I don't know how much sugar I want and I don't know how much milk I want. My wife makes me the perfect cup of coffee, but that's because she spent years trying different combinations and thereby adjusting her own internal feedback loop, until she got a "feel" for how much of each setting made for the best cup of coffee.
So since your wife spent years tweaking your brew, you spent years drinking experimental coffee? It's simple -- add cream and sugar, then taste and adjust. This is either a troll or the most pathetic example of kitchen ineptitude I've seen since my father asked where we keep the ice.
I must be missing something here. If I put in a small amount of coffee grinds, and dial in strong coffee, how in the hell is pouring more water over the grinds going to ever make the coffee sufficiently strong? Coffee makers only extract so much from the grinds
Exactly, my friend. If you put less coffee in, it will cut off the water supply earlier, giving you LESS coffee, but of the desired strength. It pours less water through the grounds, not more.
"You know, the golf course is the only place he isn't handicapped."
I spent a year in Iraq looking for WMD and all I found was this lousy sig.
"You know, the golf course is the only place he isn't handicapped."
I spent a year in Iraq looking for WMD and all I found was this lousy sig.
Where automated optical feedback would be (IMHO)most helpful would be in *home roasting* the beans. One can get very nice results with the alpenroast, various fluid bed devices, or even a stovetop popcorn popper ... but it's hard to get commerical level consistency ... a varient of this guys LED device might do the trick.
Damnit, Jim, I'm an anarchist, not a F@#$!^& doctor!
Damnit, Jim, I'm an anarchist, not a F@#$!^& doctor!
Sun Microsystems should be interested in this! We can take this a step further to laser-assisted torrefaction. For the future I see a nano-grinder in every bean, activated by a microwave signal..., sort of like hi-tech Mexican jumping beans. Great for digestion too!! Of course, everything will be powered by a mini-Linux distro customized for wireless.
Rien n'est plus beau que le creux du 0.
There's a well known technique for measuring turbidity (how much suspended stuff is in liquids) by putting a beam of light through a liquid that has been around for decades. Beverage plants that have used this for quality control for years will have issues with a patents like this that:
1/ Get a patent for applying old technology to a very specific situation
2/ Apply as broad a brush as possible to encompass things that are already in use
Here's something already in use for quality control of beverages by this technique:
http://www.kerncoinstr.com/watqmet.htm
I like to ask chemists how they would measure the strength of coffee. I get a surprising variety of answers, from chromatography or spectrometry, to boiling it down and weighing the dry solids. Some ask whether or not I'm interested in the caffeine content. One, who is now into patent law, suggested optical density. I'll have to send her a link to the article.
Obligatory personal preference remark: The inventor seemed preoccupied with staleness. I like my coffee best about an hour old. Before you 250-psi espresso weenies start throwing stones, please consider that the coffee I drink may be punishment enough. :)
You take exactly enough water for one cup of coffee, and boil it in a little can that's shaped perfectly well for this purpose. Then, when it's boiling, put on a little bit of the very finely grinded coffee grounds (so, directly in the water). It starts foaming even though the can is now off the stove. It forms little bubbles a bit comparable to the bubbles on Guiness. If you drink sugar in it, remember to boil the sugar along with the water.
First I found it a bit weird, and kept spitting out little pieces of coffee gunk coz I drank too hastily. After learning how to avoid this, and getting used to the taste... *mmmmmmmm* yum yum. The caffeine flows!
The first cup of 'regular' coffee after a few weeks of this tasted REMARKABLY tasteless, like drinking dishwasher water almost. If you haven't drank coffee the before described way, you don't know what COFFEE is. Roast your own beans, too, and your coffee life will never be the same anymore :)))
Besides that, it is said that you can read the future in the patterns the coffeegrounds make on the inside of the cup after you have drank your coffee and turned the cup upside down.
How are patents un-maerican? I would like to own a few myself. They give reasons for people to innovate. If you invent something and can't claim it as your own, what is to stop someone else from making money off your idea(in the short run.) In the long run, idea should be open(and they are) for the rest of the world but atleast let them make some money off of it before the rest of the world does.
----
Just because a bunch of people believe or do something stupid, doesn't make it any less stupid.
I've never heard of a cold brew (and growing up in Kenya, you'd think I'd know a thing or two about coffee, you'd be wrong of course, but you'd think...). Do you then heat the coffee when you want to drink it, or do you drink it cold (like making cold-brew iced tea).
French Press is the best way to drink coffee.
There is one way to get the caffeine rush you need much more quickly. You can either do an acid/base extraction of the caffeine or go to the local head shop and get the "pharmaceutical" grade caffeine already prepared. Once you've got it to that stage, smoke it just like you would Crystal Meth. It makes for quite a buzz if you are persistent enough about it.
How do I know this works? Easy! I ran out of dope one night and figured I'd give it a shot. DAMN.
Post rehab, though, I prefer the French press method.
>Stop buying stale coffee at stores and ``gourmet'' shops.
This does a disservice to at least one shop near me where the good people running them always have at least 3 options on the 'roasted this morning' board - they even do them as whole bean, rough or fine grind. They'll even grind it for you as you wait if you ask nicely and if your lucky and go in the day when its quieter you might even get a cup.
So give these places a chance, you gotta buy your beans somewhere and if they can save you some bother with roasting and grinding why the hell not!
*$s does taste like vomit though! and you do need a decent machine...
It's true, although it refers to the pump pressure created to force the water through the coffee grains. Whether this is actually a scientifically acurare use of the word, I cannot tell. Perhaps that's why I work in a restaurant!
Take a look at The Daily Grind round-up for details.
- - Sha la la la . . .
If the beer is slightly a different color than is expected you can dismiss the bottle. The train of thought is that if it is a different color there is something different. i.e. unwanted additive or too much or to less of a product, so throw it away.
The theory is you don't have to actually open the bottle to taste test it and it is more reliable to use a machine then a human to spot the difference.
Actually, there's a Rival coffeemaker with (fancy-looking mirrored) thermal carafe that I absolutely love.
It's been churning out tasty hot coffee for the office for years, at both my last (failed) startup and my current one--the same unit, not just the same model. My best guess is that it's made upwards of 800 pots, and it works just as well as when it was brand new.
I think it's cheaper than an equivalent Krups, at least in the US. Downside is its small capacity--it uses #2 cone filters and only makes 8 cups. But it's so good.
spawn_of_yog_sothoth
All he really needs is a decent thermal pot, so he can scrap the heating element entirely (not to mention the cost of his product). A good thermal pot will keep the coffee hot for hours, without that after taste associated with glass carafes. What use is an LED to measure just how bad your coffee is? As long as it's sitting on a warmer some time, bad coffee is basically inevitable. I haven't really read about his brewing technique, but using a sensor to monitor the badness of bad coffee seems almost comedic.
Oh, one thing's more amusing than a coffee snob on a rant. A martini snob on a rant!
Yeah, yeah... Just admit that you like plain gin straight up.
Chelloveck
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
Worst coffee (anywhere): the Toronto to Chicago Amtrak. :)
Worst method: Greek / Turkish. At that point, why not just suck on the damn beans?
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Somthing to regulate the temperature would be better.
Even consumer level espresso machines do this. Ours does anyway, so this doesn't even approach being a holy grail.
Now, a consumer espresso machine where the steamer had some semblance of power in it? That's a holy grail.
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
a telephone handset (think about it!)
Whoa! Dead mobile phone, I even have one around.
Make no mistake, you are the one.
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
In this limited space we cannot do justice to the complex chemistry occuring during roasting and brewing but can supply a simplified primer and encourage the interested reader to delve further into the subject.
[...]Clearly, the cellulosic components (hemicellulose, celullose and lignin) are little effected by the roasting process as are the ash (mineral) and fat components (fatty acids, trigylcerides, waxs) since the roasting temperatures are low relative to their decomposition temperatures. Whereas the sugars, organic acids and proteins are dramatically reduced upon roasting. So it is apparent that the rich aroma and pigmentation occurs because of chemistry occuring to and between these components, the sugars, proteins and organic acids (chlorogenic acid). Indeed non-enzymatic browning reactions, called Maillard reactions involve interactions of amino groups of amino acids of proteins and other compounds and reducing sugars to form glycosamines(2,4,5). These condensation reactions with subsequent fission produces aliphatic and aromatic volatiles comprising the aroma. Much of the distinctive aroma arises due to the presence of sulfur and oxygen bearing aromatic (heterocyclic) compounds such as furans, furfurylthiol or furfurylmethyl sulphides and a host of other similar compounds. As of 1985, some 660 separate compounds in the aroma of a roasted coffee have been identified by gas chromotography and mass spectrometry.
[...] the heavier molecular weight components possess varying degreees of extended conjugation [...]. These components which have a molecular weight distribution from 5000-25,000 (1) or greater have energetically closely spaced highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (HOMO-LUMO) which leads to a myriad of optical transitions spanning the uv-visible range into the near infrared. As a result of the great multiplicity and heterogeneity of the associated compounds the optical absorption spectrum of a brewed coffee is smooth and monotonically decreasing from the far ultraviolet (uv) to the near infrared wavelengths.
Isn't unecessarily complex language one of the signs of a bad patent?
Excuse the long quote, but my intent was to pick out a few sentences that uniquely illustrated that the author is obviously trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes by distracting them with big words. Unfortunately, the whole "simplified primer" is such an exercise in 10$ words for 10cent concepts that I had a hard time choosing just one or two examples.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
The circuit cuts the water supply when the coffee reaches the desired strength. I skimmed the pages to find that one tidbit in the first place, because I wanted to see how he regulated coffee strength. It's pretty simple: a partial feedback loop... kinda.
I'm pretty sure that I didn't see anything about pouring more/b> water over the grinds, and you didn't quote or point to anything that suggested this.
Many good espresso machines have high pressure pumps that can sustain 15+ bars, but the extra pressure is for headroom: The machines are engineered to deliver 8 to 9 bars of pressure to the compressed coffee puck, assuming proper packing. Higher pressure can leach undesirable flavor compounds from the coffee and is to be avoided.
For more, see David Schomer's "Factors in a Perfect Cup (of espresso)" or for deep coverage read Illy and Viani's Espresso Coffee : The Chemistry of Quality.
Easy, automatic testing for Perl.
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
The espresso machine uses steam head to generate the ~18bar pressure (ideal) to force the water through the coffee. I froth a mean pitcher of milk... mmm, foamy..
Check out the rec.drugs.caffeine FAQ (or rec.foods.coffee, perhaps). What happened to the usenet people? :)
..don't panic
....is a well established science. Surprisingly accurate.
....iometry name, but there is proper apparatus to do this - you calibrate with stock solutions using a lightbox and coloured filters, then use it to measure test solutions.
Can't remember the fancy
Why doen't someone make a toaster with optical feedback? The perfect toast colour is at a critical point as the drkness makes it absorb more heat and get blackened.
To quote the Dr. Rev. Dennis Leary:
"Duuude! I made a bong out of my head!!! Put the pot in this ear, suck on the other! Give it a hit, man!"
Or something to that effect...
--Fesh
--Fesh
Kill -9 'em all, let root@localhost sort 'em out.
My God, they've realised that to defeat the rabid hordes of Linux geeks it may be necessary to patent coffee!
404 Not Found: No such file or resource as '.sig'
From his description of how it works: "This method of optical feedback makes for very reproducible coffee strength, independent of the amount of coffee grinds used"
I must be missing something here. If I put in a small amount of coffee grinds, and dial in strong coffee, how in the hell is pouring more water over the grinds going to ever make the coffee sufficiently strong? Coffee makers only extract so much from the grinds. I know this, because I've tried reusing grinds in the past, when really desparate (and broke..). All that you will end up with is lots of weak, crappy tasting coffee. Even percolators, which continuously flow the partially made coffee back over the grinds can only achieve certain strength coffee based on a set amount of grinds.
What it boils down to (no pun intended) is that you _must_ put in enough grinds for whatever strength brew you are looking for.
That, my friends, is the law of conservation of coffee.
I love the smell, but I can't stand the taste.
BlackNova Traders
"One man's quest for the perfect cup of joe leads to a new coffee maker"
Speaking of Joe and coffee, your coffee will have more caffeine in it (i.e. it will be better) if you use Water Joe instead of regular water.
---
DOOR!!
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
For perfect coffee, don't use a coffee maker! FRENCH PRESS!!!!
Seems all those reports in the media about Australians having a 'coffee culture' that couldn't be displaced by a US import were as shitty as our apparent taste in coffee.
Those who know me can attest to this;
As I have maintained for the better part of 1/3rd of my life, It aint Coffee, Nor is it beer if you can shine a 1mw neon laser through the mug and see it on the other side.
chris
This communication is secured using Rot-26 Encryption Algorithm, Unauthorized decryption will be subject to laughter.
Seriously, brewing just seems like a slow, agonizing, skunky way to make ground coffee fester.
Make mine an Americano.
*Glares at LinuxHam*
You can NEVER love coffee too much! Bow before the URN, infidel!
My sig does not apply when coffee is involved
He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. - "Big Al" Einstein
(Ironic note: turn off java before going to their website.)
sulli
RTFJ.
I strongly prefer a good drip maker, and really good coffee - preferably Sulawesi or Kenya AA. It depends on the year, though: this year's Starbucks Gazebo Blend is amazing.
sulli
RTFJ.
--
BACKNEXTFINISHCANCEL
Well, that explains Jesus then...
"Shit man, like these fish, they're so totally huge, they could feed like five thousand."
"Nah, screw that dude, I feel so light I bet I could walk across that water over there, then float away on a cloud!" "Yeah bro, I dig what you're saying. All these glowing joints [later recorded as coals] in our mouths and it feels like I can understand every language there ever was!"
In the now lost final book of the new testament, they went on to talk interminably about Star Wars as all stoners seem to do, thinking their every word pure genius. Understandably, when they came down, they realised how stupid it was and destroyed it.
The "inventors" have not bothered to learn much about coffee and how to make it. They propose to regulate the strength of the coffee by adjusting the amount of water passed through the grounds, but this method is guaranteed to produce an unpalatable drink. If, for some misguided reason, it is necessary to create weak coffee, one first makes normal coffee (espresso) and adds hot water. Exposing the grounds to water for too long extracts undesirable flavor components.
The ESPRESSO is the answer! poster had some good points, but he should know that "bitterness" is one of the main flavor components of coffee and is not considered undesirable, in the proper measure.
At first I read "biofeedback" for "Optical Feedback" in the title "Optical Feedback For Perfect Coffee", which immediately set off in my mind the idea that you have a feedback loop to adjust the amount of sugar and cream in your coffee, as well as its "strength" (the slidable thing that looks like the sliding scale on your toaster [y'know "bread/charcoal"] ). This isn't what the article actually is, the article just makes sure that there's a 1:1 correlation between the strength you ask for and the strength you get. My problem is I don't know what strength I want, and I don't know how much sugar I want and I don't know how much milk I want. My wife makes me the perfect cup of coffee, but that's because she spent years trying different combinations and thereby adjusting her own internal feedback loop, until she got a "feel" for how much of each setting made for the best cup of coffee.
:]) -- think "alpha channel", where RGB is coffee-strength/sugar level/milk level.
Now if in addition to this new machine in the article, which makes sure that the setting specified is the setting received, there were a second machine that adjusted this setting, and also doled sugar and cream out for you, based on a feedback loop whereby after each cup you would specify 1) how much you liked it. Or, for advanced users, 2) whether it was too sweet for you or too bitter and 3) whether it was too strong for you or too dull. (Too hard coffee or too hard cream). The beauty of this is that with even the most modest OS and statistical software the first variable alone (how much you liked it -- even if you don't know why you did or did not like it) would let the average user approach PerfectCup after about 7 cups (rough estimate) of more grossly suboptimal coffee.
Further tweaks could perfect the milk/cream ratio ("Half and half" is just such a ball-park estimate
Of course each coffee bean would be associated with a particular set of settings, and each member of your household would also. (Just don't let Microsoft find out or you'll need a Passport(R) to get your morning cup of joe.:])
Oh, and you could sometimes ask for something more jolty and sometimes something more sweet. Like one bean for one person might have a "morning" (jolty), "meal" (nice good cup) and "desert" (rather sweet, milder) setting. What do we say, gang? Worth starting on sourceforge?
this reminds me. Tell someone "Say boast three times fast." ("okay. boast, boast, boast.") "Now what do you put in a toaster?" ("toast") "No, you mentally deficient individual, you put bread in. Toast is what you take out." [joint polite laugh.]
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Disclaimer: I am vegan. I would exploit the above software to get me a decent cup of coffee with real-non-dairy-creamer (the kind that isn't laced with whey) or else with soy milk. The real reason I want to make the OS opensource is so I could compile me these custom mods. That and ssh'ing into my coffee maker. ("What are you doing?" "Oh I'm just logging onto my coffee server [ha] to set the timer for a nice big cup of coffee when I get back home. Wait a minute lemme check the web cam to see if I left my mug in. Yep." How cool is that?)
~
Have the US patent examiners never read the ingredients list on a jar of instant coffee? Antioxidants have been added to nearly all processed foodstuffs (including coffee) for decades.
Better pay him a royalty for the cup I'm drinking now...
Okay. That link shows the Capresso machines. Wanting to know more, I found them at capresso.com.
What I don't get is why the C1000 is a dead ringer for the Krups Orchestro (with that form factor they've got to have the same guts), but costs a good $100 more.
Besides, if it doesn't have a genuflecting duck on it, it ain't really an espresso machine...
--Blair
In my humble opinion, what makes a great cup of coffee is what one is used to drinking.
Different brands probably would have different translumination coefficients. Things like particle size of coffee grounds also would effect this....
Coffee bags? What kind of philistine are you? :-) I tried those once...they're hella nasty. (You are talking about the ones you brew like tea, right?)
There's no substitute for proper brewing (drip) of freshly-ground beans. Ideally, you use a coffee maker that takes a cone-shaped filter (nearly the only kind you'll find in Europe; the inferior basket-type coffee makers are much more common in the States), and a permanent filter (one of the gold-plated thingies) won't impart flavors in the way that paper filters can. With the same beans (Colombian supremos), I noticed a big difference going from a 4-cup Mr. Coffee with paper filters to a regular-sized Krups with a permanent filter; the latter rig produces a smoother cup.
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
In the 1970's my father made a visit to Brazil, where
as you know they are serious about coffee. He
invented a coffee strength tool using the same principle, but
somewhat simpler, no computer required -- you just take a plastic ruler
and dip it into the coffee, and then read off the
strength by seeing where the last tick on the ruler is that you can still see. A manual optical
strength meter.
Or do you have a coffee machine that creates a seal then pumps up the pressure before it makes the brew?
Yes, it's commonly called an espresso machine...
More from Denis Leary: http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~hades/ncfc.html
I never got into the whole Starbucks thing. I like good coffee and I like coffee made right, but I can do it pretty simply.
First of all, you start with good coffee. Most people can get it at their grocery store (I'm not talking Folgers). Second, you get a coffee maker. Even a Mr. Coffee is fine, but I prefer a percolator myself. Once the coffee is made, you put it in a thermos. The only thing that makes good coffee go bad is to let it cook.
I may be a simple person, but just like I know good beer and wine, I know good coffee, and the mechanics don't make much of a difference.
A friend of mine did the "teaspoon test" on every cup he made. If you can see the bottom of the teaspoon it's too weak. He is VERY particular about his coffee. When he drops in for a visit he brings his own device and supply with him. He stopped just short of growing his own beans.
That's all the optical feedback I need.
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Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
I find that putting the same amount of good quality coffee (e.g., beans from my local organic coffee shop, or from Peet's and filtered water makes for a good pot of coffee every time. Put garbage in, and you'll get garbage out. If you're worried about the coffee getting stale, put it in a thermos to keep it hot so it doesn't get that skanky burned taste that leaving it on the hot pot can give. It uses less electricty that way, and you can take it with you to your computer^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H breakfast table with you, too. My sister in Germany has a coffee pot where the carafe is a thermos, and it shuts off the heating element as soon as the coffee is brewed.
I don't care what he's using to brew his coffee, but using a glass carafe and keeping it warm on a hot plate is quickest and easiest way to get bad coffee. If he was serious, he'd at least use a thermal/insulated coffee pot and scrap the heating element. A good thermal pot can keep your coffee hot for hours. Of course, Krups seems to be the only decent manufacturer of thermal coffee brewers that sells in the US and there is some kind of import restriction against that product :(
PS: If anyone knows of an online retailer that sells Krups thermal coffee brewers (without that new fangled "Aroma" crap), please reply! Thanks
- US05724882
- US05956151
- US06228410
I reckon the best thing about is that it will probably sell as the marketing guys will love the idea. I suppose it is up there with fuzzy logic washing machines, which were a big hit in JapanJumpstart the tartan drive.
Someone should tell this guy that if he's looking for the ultimate coffee he ain't going to get it from a drip method.
Coffee needs to have its flavour force extracted by water at about 18 bar pressure....
Take a look at:
Gaggia
Capresso
Seaeco
and remember, the more money you spend - the better it gets. Or go to your local coffee emporium, but remember kids - Starbucks are evil!
...technology that DESERVES to be patented!
"And like that
Who was it who said that "the problem with marijuana isn't that it leads to other drugs, the problem with marijuana is that it leads to fucking carpentry"?
rark!
Let me be blunt: If you aren't drinking espresso -- good espresso -- you haven't tasted coffee. And I mean espresso, not cappuccino, not latte, not frapparichinomochalaloopy. That's the kind of stuff you make when you want to cover up the taste of bad espresso.
Good espresso is nothing like the over-roasted, over-extracted, bitter and charred-tasting stuff you've had when you finally worked up the courage to try an ``espresso'' at *$s or some other gourmet coffee chain. If you're lucky, they gave you 3 or 4 ounces of unspeakably bitter drek. If you weren't lucky,... Well, I'm just thankful that you're still with us.
Good espresso is like heaven in a cup. Deep, rich, dark, and luxurious, good espresso has no bitterness. Its potent perfume only hints at the depth of complexity that awaits you upon the first sip. Creamy, caramelly, exploding with flavor, with a touch of sweetness on the tongue: This is what good espresso tastes like. No need to add sugar, the real stuff is quaffed straight.
Oh, and does espresso help your coding? You betcha! Nothing cuts through code fog like a double ristretto. Fires up the brain into smooth working condition. Clarity? You own clarity. With espresso cup in hand, ease in to the Captain's Chair: You are in command.
Face it, you need the real stuff. Here's how to get it:
- Stop buying stale coffee at stores and ``gourmet'' shops.
- Get an old hot-air popcorn popper and start homeroasting.
It's cheap, it's easy, and it's so worth it. You won't
believe how much better truly fresh coffee tastes. If you go no
farther than this and get a french press and a cheap grinder, you'll
have better coffee at home than you'll be able to find anywhere else.
- Get a decent espresso machine. No steam toys. Read the
user-contributed reviews on www.coffeekid.com. Plan on
spending at least 250 USD for a decent machine. Spend the money:
you'll pay for it in under a year from your coffee-chain savings.
- Get a good grinder. You can't make real espresso without
one. This is the one that people skimp on and later wonder why their
fancy 1000-USD espresso machine can't make good espresso. Plan on
another 200 USD, minimum. Again, it pays for itself.
- Lurk in alt.coffee
and drink in the wisdom. Learn how to pull a ristretto that extracts the deep, beautiful essence of
15g of freshly ground, freshly roasted coffee into 1.75ounces
of pure bliss. Once you've had a "god shot", you'll never be able to go back to bad coffee again.
Do it. It will change your life.P.S. Here's a good starting roast/blend for espresso: 2 parts brazillian cerrado, 1 part sumatra mandheling, 1/2 part monsooned malabar, 1/2 part monsooned cherry aa robusta. Roast each part individually, just a bit into the second crack. Blend and store in an airtight glass container. The next morning, open the container and try to contain your amazement at how great the stuff is.
Easy, automatic testing for Perl.
Thinking about that...
Basically, a coffee percolator is an inverted bong, as the heat comes from the bottom, forcing the water around instead of suction forcing air around.
Thinking along those lines two weeks ago I took an old percolator, and with the help of some duct tape and a hacksaw I made a bong! The top, where the glass knob normally is where you can see the coffee bubbling, has been replaced by a bowl, which leads down into the former coffee chamber that has been sealed airtight except for the tube leading down into the water.
There's a pipe-tube-hookah thing leading into the spout, also sealed airtight. The pipe is built with a little tiny piece of plastic PVC so it's easy to disconnect it and put it inside for safekeeping.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, ANYTHING can become pot smoking paraphenalia. Just be creative!
My other pipes include an old wireless Nintendo controller (where the thumbpad was,a bowl is now) and a telephone handset (think about it!).
Enjoy, and study plenty at four twenty.
Is it RFC 2324 compliant?
sulli
RTFJ.
My friends and I were doing something similar for potheads all over the world. Ours was a regular straight-pipe bong with a red LED and a CdS photo-detector. This controlled a small air-pump near the top of the bong. One started, the airpump would shutoff once the voltage dropped to a sufficient level due to the smoke in the chamber.
Somthing to regulate the temperature would be better. Boiling water impares the taste - Too cold and you don;t extract all thr flavour.
93 degrees centigrate at 18 bar pressure will produce the ultimate coffee.
Also, I would imagine that the use of different beans would create variations in colour which this machine could never deal with.
- - Sha la la la . . .