Food & Drink What are you currently drinking?

Perrier

 

For what it costs I'm incredibly impressed. I find it very light and reasonably sweet myself. It smells very flowery, and I pick up on a lot of cinnamon and caramel running through it. It's definitely something I'd buy again, as it seems it would be light enough to be to most people's tastes should I have company, and also has its sweet notes, which is definitely where my tastes lie.

£27 minus the decorative cage as far as I remember, will probably be a bit cheaper most places by now. Not bad!

 

Unfortunately swallowing anything more than a liquid is an issue. But Marmite with anything is great if memory serves.

 

I am currently drinking Dunking Donuts Hazelnut coffee

 

Sarsaparilla..........because yums.

 

Sat at my office desk drinking paint thinner wrapped in a brown paper bag.

Things are going downhill rapidly...

 

Sounds delightful........

Another day of winning then?

 

I can't...........I........even...........can't.........

 

Not enough blood in the alcohol stream following Saturday night's soiree. My liver wants a body transplant.

 

Organic loose leaf green tea. Just the cheap stuff I have at work because I cannot control water quality or temperature there.

At home I would have a good Sencha or Mao Feng. Or Silver Needle, or a quality China Yunnan depending on my mood.

 

I'm going to take a wild shot and say that you use a fair bunch of esoteric tea-making paraphernalia with a comment like that.

 

Gin and It 50/50 with a jalapeño stuffed olive.

 

Nowt wrong with that. Infact I'd quite like to stay a while in the Nexxo abode once before I die.

So far I'm on instant coffee while I decide on a better brewing method for myself (finally!)- what press/ brewer do I buy? What beans to begin with?

I'm also wishing I had another bottle of AnCnoc. The last one went down a treat and I'd definitely like to try some of their more exotic bottles this time around!

 

If you're just starting to drink coffee then I recommend a simple cafetiere (French press) last time I bought one it was £5 at asda. It didn't let silt through, it came apart and went back together as expected for cleaning and when it received a minor dose of over exuberant alcohol fueled dish washing (got smashed) I picked up another for £5 and have now have a spare filter. Larger ones for larger groups of coffee drinkers.

I bought my better half an aeropress recently; yes it's great, quick, easy. But plastic. I'm not a fan of plastic. So easy to clean though! It says it makes up to four cups, I take three in one mug, the lady takes two + hot water + milk. I feel it's a one filter, one person device - which makes batch supply of coffee slow, or requiring multiple presses.

Coffee for a cafetiere is very, very, very widely available and quality varies as you would expect. Aeropresses take a finer grind, though you can get away with grounds prepared for a cafetiere you'll probably find it weaker than normal and end up adding more coffee to make up for this - I know I do. You can use coffee ground for espresso machines in an aeropress - haven't tried it myself so can't comment, but I'd imagine the inverse would be true compared to a cafetiere grind. However, it generally looks like there's a lesser selection of espresso ground coffees in supermarkets - not having an espresso maker I don't really pay a lot of attention to them.

My favourite coffee varies between Blue Sumatran, Colombian and a blend of the two. My partner prefers Monsoon Malabar, but most regularly takes illy coffee (espresso grind) in an aeropress. We're quite lucky to live close (25 miles) from a very fine tea and coffee merchant who roast on the premises in small(ish) batches, which is nice. But I wasn't dissapointed with Taylors of Harrogate's Rich Italian.

Cleanliness is a the thing, if you choose a cafetiere take it apart completely each time, wash it thoroughly and rinse it thoroughly. The only thing worse than coffee with yesterdays oils mixed in is coffee with yesterdays soapsuds! Aeropresses are much easier to clean thanks to the way they're engineered the plunger and filter base being the only bits that are important to get clean each time.

If you're just starting drinking coffee seriously I wouldn't bother with beans and a grinder (oops!) it's an added complication, something else to clean (did I mention thoroughly!) and frankly can be a bit of a pest. Invest in some sellotape (other brands of clear adhesive tape are available) and as many sealing jars as you need, get as much air out of the coffee pack, as you can, tape it shut, and pile as many into a jar as you can. Personally I can't taste the difference between coffee ground and immediately filtered and stuff that's been carefully packed away for a week - and buying only 100g at a time it doesn't last me much longer than that... I am at the mercy of the cleanliness of McBeans grinder, and after hammering on about cleanliness it sounds silly letting them grind Blue Sumatra (or worse still the time I decided to sample Jamaican Blue) not knowing if the previous customer had bought Java or some more powerful brew. At worst it stops the coffee tasting identical each time (no bad thing I think) and their machine doesn't have time for oils to go stale during the day, then it gets cleaned each night.

And to stay within topic; a sweet (I'm sorry Nexxo), milky (I'm so, so, sorry) earl grey, from a chipped mug

 

Thank you! My first port of call was definitely going to be an aeropress, but what actually put me off (even though it really shouldn't because it's such a fine point) is that even with the inverted method, there's still a lot of part brewed liquid that comes out before you start pressing in to the cup.

 

Different amounts leek depending on how fine a grind you have, cafetiere coffee tends to piddle about half of an aeropress cup (or a sixth of an asura cup) before I start pressing, the illy coffee only dribbles out a few millilitres. I haven't tried (or touched on) Turkish/G(r)eek coffee in an aeropress, but I imagine you'd loose even less liquid. If you're that fussed about it just use two cups on a tray infuse on one, and press on the other, pour out the watery stuff and wipe over the tray. However, as I mentioned above, my partner adds hot water to what she gets out of the aeropress, so it's horses for courses.

I only use the aeropress if I'm in a rush - I don't like leaving a dirty cafetiere laying around - as it's so quick to clean. I can taste the difference, and frankly I prefer the taste of coffee from a cafetiere compared to that from an aeropress - controversial! And really like the communal drinking of coffee brewed in a big pot, probably what I miss most about university.

If you're springing for an aeropress, you may as well also pick up a cheep cafetiere, if only for the (subtle) variation in taste and preparation method. Even if you only use it once, it's no more of a financial burden than ordering two cappuccinos. And at a pinch you can use it to infuse loose leaf tea if Nexxo ever swings round the Kid-ary...

 

I've got all my separate tea making gear. Need to get back in to my coffee though!

Thanks very much for all of the advice anyway. Definitely a lot for me to read through a few times over and ingest!

 

A Bialetti moka pot is a very useful piece of design art. Mine (the six-cup) gets a lot of use.

Easy to use, easy to clean, easy to service - all parts are cheaply and widely available - and it makes great coffee

 

I can wholeheartedly recommend the 22yo - I was massively surprised that I had somehow not had that in my life before when I first tried it. I'm pretty sure my bottle is running on fumes now, though.