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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.
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 . . .