coffee

[cellio]

Dear LJ Brain Trust,

We recently received a Keurig coffee maker as a gift. This is one of those gizmos that takes individual packets for making coffee (or tea or cocoa). Pour in water, put in individual packet, push the button, and out comes a cup of hot drink a couple minutes later. As the pitch goes, if you and your spouse like very different things, this gadget's for you.

To my surprise, I have found a coffee-based drink that was actually pleasant. This is a first, so I turn to you, o brain trust, to guide my further explorations. Because while this was fine, it isn't exactly healthy. Also, I'd kind of like to know about non-dairy options (for meat meals), assuming any exist that I'd like. For this experiment I started with Dani's mantra that coffee is a good source of calcium.

What worked: a French vanilla packet turned into 8oz of coffee (the gadget supports 6-10), about 4oz (!) of half-and-half (didn't have cream in the house), and about two heaping tableteaspoons of sugar (ack). These were added incrementally, alternating half-and-half and sugar in small quantities until it tasted good. So possibly a better answer is more milk product/no sugar, and I don't know how cream versus half-and-half will play out. There is also the question of other coffee bases to try, particularly if I can find them in variety packs or something so I'm not committing to a whole box of something we turn out not to like. I am categorically uninterested in decaffeinated coffees (defeats the purpose of coffee for me).

For calibration, I also like most black teas. For a "regular" tea I default to English breakfast. I do not care for Early Grey but Lady Grey is ok. I like most strongly-flavored or spiced teas, so my instinct is to look for coffees with some flavor additive. (This is why I gravitated to the French vanilla, and I have my eye on the hazelnut packet.) I think what this all means is that I don't like bitter flavors. What does that imply about coffee roast types? I see a variety of descriptors in that space but I don't know what they tend to mean for flavor. And how should I be thinking about the trade-off between stronger coffee flavors and brew strength?

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

Sounds like you want a light roast, like a Viennese. These are hard to come by because Starbucks has trained the US to like (heavily burnt) dark roasts, so you'll probably have to go to a non-chain to get some (or online). Mediums might be okay; I like the Costa Rica Peaberry variant from Gevalia.

Not overcooking it is important too. When you hear the last gurgle from the machine, turn the burner off. The longer it sits on the hot burner the more bitter and burnt it gets.

I tend towards non-packet systems. It's convenient, but you have little control over the brewing, or over the varieties of coffee. For the absolute control-freak you want to boil your water separately to a particular temperature and use something like a French press, but I'm okay with a standard cheap drip coffee maker.

[sue-n-julia.livejournal.com]

I believe the Keurig also does teas.

S

[dsrtao]

How do you feel about liqueurs?

The fact is, most flavored coffees have the cheapest, nastiest artificial flavors sprayed on them, and because these beans are destined for such chemical crap, they use the lowest quality beans.

Whereas if you start out with a nice cup of a decent, low acid, light roasted bean, you can add one of:

- a drop of real vanilla, or a sprinkling of ground vanilla bean pod
- a tablespoon of liqueur
- a glug of a flavored syrup

to add the flavor you feel like.

Beans that fit this profile:

Brazilian Santos
El Salvador Cerros Las Ranas (Lake of Frogs)
Ethiopian Yirgacheffe
Panama Boquete
Sumatra Mandheling

These are all typically light-roasted, with low to moderate acidity levels.

Another thing you can try to get low acid extraction is cold brewing coffee.

Not helping here

[hlinspjalda.livejournal.com]

What worked: a French vanilla packet turned into 8oz of coffee (the gadget supports 6-10), about 4oz (!) of half-and-half (didn't have cream in the house), and about two heaping tablespoons of sugar (ack).

That's what my jarl calls "candy bar coffee." ;-D

[alienor.livejournal.com]

I notice that some comments are giving you alternate brewing methods and such, but I'm guessing that you want to know how to get what you want with the Keurig?

I looked through their offerings. Most of what I could identify as what I'm guessing you would like (your tastes sound similar to mine for coffee) are labeled as Breakfast Blend, so that would give you one place to start.

People who add a lot of additives can get away with less additives by using a light roast since it's milder. Folks who don't add much are generally trying to get the STRONG coffee taste, and that's when they want a dark roast.

As far as the specific additives, I'm not sure how you feel about artificial sweeteners. My standard coffee flavoring is a Splenda sweetened Torani almond syrup (http://www.torani.com/products/sugar-free-almond-syrup). They have a huge range of flavors (both in real sugar and splenda versions). I'm not sure what vendors are available to you (and shipping the bottles is prohibitive), but I buy mine at World Market.

As far as non-dairy options, I know the vegans on the tea boards I frequent use a variety of milk-substitutes (almond milk, soy milk, etc). You're probably more familiar with them than I am. I imagine that they would work for coffee. Coconut milk may be especially interesting for flavor. (mmm, now I'm going to have to try that!)

As a random data point, I also like dumping a half a packet of hot chocolate into my coffee, but that's not particularly helpful on the "make it more healthy" quest! :-)

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

While not all dark roasts bring out bitter notes in coffee -- e.g. Trader Joe's does some dark roasts I really like, as opposed to Charbux -- a light to medium roast is more likely to get you less bitterness. Also of great importance is the quality of the beans. The "robusta" beans, which tend to be cheaper, tend to have more bitterness and less harmonious flavor in general. This is why "100% arabica" actually has some value as a selling point (though not as much as the marketers and ad-folks would have you believe, but that's typical for marketers and advertisers).

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

I'm a little confused... you're new to coffee? It sounds like you've discovered that coffee is a lot more pleasant with a lot of rich milk. In fact, I personally think that most of what distinguishes "good" coffee from "bad" coffee is what you put in to lighten it. Cream will make any coffee taste wonnnnnnnderful. ;-) Half and half will too.

The grocery store sells fat-free half and half that I enjoy quite a bit and is healthier for you than the regular stuff, but I don't think it has fewer calories. Personally I don't think coffee adds much to your caloric intake -- I think what you're describing is about 50 calories, and with the caffeine you won't want more than 2-3 a day. 2 tsp of sugar isn't bad; you can probably make it with less if you make a smaller beverage (ie. 4 oz coffee/2 oz milk). Sugar in the raw works best. You'll want to put in the sugar first so that it distributes evenly before you cool it with the cream.

For non-dairy, there's Rich's creamer, no doubt familiar to you from shul: http://www.allinkosher.com/p-43563-richs-coffee-rich-non-dairy-creamer-16-oz-parve.aspx -- I guess it's fine.

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

I like Green Mountain Golden French Toast (unfortunately seasonal) with real cream and sugar. I don't drink it often. I also like their Donut House coffee, when I don't want flavoring -- I generally keep that for guests.

I bought a big box of Land o'Lakes MiniMoos, which are shelf-stable half and half creamer cups, so I don't have to worry about keeping cream in the house.

[siderea]

To my surprise, I have found a coffee-based drink that was actually pleasant.

NOOOOOOO!! SAVE YOURSELF NOW!!!

What worked: a French vanilla packet turned into 8oz of coffee (the gadget supports 6-10), about 4oz (!) of half-and-half (didn't have cream in the house), and about two heaping teaspoons of sugar (ack). These were added incrementally, alternating half-and-half and sugar in small quantities until it tasted good. So possibly a better answer is more milk product/no sugar, and I don't know how cream versus half-and-half will play out.

Or at that point you could try leaving the coffee out. :}

I think what this all means is that I don't like bitter flavors.

OK, so you need to know that "dark roast" and "french roast" and "italian roast" mean "paint strippers", and should be avoided like the plague. Should you be inclined to non-gadgeted coffee, I highly recommend Equal Exchange brand "Organic Breakfast Blend" (and possibly "Organic Breakfast Blend Dark" which I seem to recall isn't much of a dark roast).

Also, if you have occasion to try cold-water process brewed coffee, do. It's a process of preparing coffee which leaves almost no bitterness; it's quite scrumptious.