• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

The Coffee Thread

Floyd1 said:
I did give coffee up last year, but am thinking of returning to it.
This is my favourite.
Click to expand...
After a family catastrophe I accidentally brought home a big tub of decaf instant instead of whatever I normally bought.
It lasted weeks, and as we were all so miserable, nobody noticed.

Can't exactly recommend that method of giving up caffeine but it did get us all off it for a while.
 
Anyway
 

Attachments

  • coffee and cats.jpeg
    coffee and cats.jpeg
    58.8 KB · Views: 18
Victory said:
Question for coffee lovers:

I am new to coffee (tea drinker from my youth).

Any tips?
Click to expand...
I have had coffee since I was little. My mom would make instant with milk (whole) and sugar for us. I had it in my thermos for school.

When I was married, we received a drip coffee maker as a wedding gift. I've never gone back to instant.

I have had Turkish (fairly strong flavour as it is boiled in a pot with grounds directly in it), drip (same as pour over that coffeeshops are trying to pretend is new), French press, percolated.

Getting the best beans that you can or want to pay for will give you better flavour. I like dark roast, but this is a taste I've developed. I wouldn't suggest starting with it unless you like robust and slightly acidic flavour. Apparently a French press is a good method for darker roasts.

Start with the method you are most familiar with whether drip, French press or whatever. You don't have to go all out on cost. My French press makes only one cup and you just boil water and pour over the grinds in the press and wait a couple of minutes before pouring. The coffee grounds for a French press will be a little courser than say an Aeropress as mentioned by Max. The faster the water is expressed through the coffee, the finer the grounds.

A little sugar to start (you can always add but not take away) and milk or cream. I use cream with no sugar, but this is after many years of drinking coffee and fine tuning my preferences.

I have a little cream because it takes away some of the bitterness and edge of the dark roasted coffee and makes a smooth coffee flavour. I now don't particularly like medium roast because it is a little too blah for me. The light roasts are disgusting - no flavour at all.

I would not try any flavoured coffees as, to me, they take away the coffee flavour and taste chemical like.

@Floyd1 mentioned cardamom. I discovered this spice from a friend of mine who is Iraqi Canadian. It's use stems from his middle eastern background. It has a sweet flavour.

But to start, I would say keep it simple.

And lastly, if you don't like the coffee flavour, you may never like coffee. I have tried to get a couple of my nieces and nephews to drink coffee when they were younger (sneaking it past their parents:evillaugh:) and only about half of them like coffee.
 
I use a simple pour through when traveling, and have an electric pour through (it heats the water and dribbles it through the grounds) on a counter in my kitchen. Idiot-proof.
 
Victory said:
Tried Maca Powder about five years ago, put it on cereal, mixed it into smoothies.
Tasked quite nice, and it really helps you move your bowels.

@maximus otter @Mungoman @ChasFink @Sid @charliebrown @ramonmercado

Question for coffee lovers:

I am new to coffee (tea drinker from my youth).

I read about its health benefits, so am trying a few cups a week to start with.

I bought some ground coffee powder, and a metal reusable filter to use the "Pour Over" technique.

I have drunk a few cups, different amounts of the coffee in the filter, to produce different strengths.

Have had them neat, black.

So far I have not enjoyed the stuff.

Any tips?
Click to expand...

G'day Victory.

I personally drink coffee ante meridian, and tea, post meridian - it is quite rare for me to have a coffee in the arvo.

I drink coffee black, in espresso form from a stovetop Mocha pot first thing in the morning before I walk the hounds, then two more espresso's after breakfast.

I like Vittoria beans, which are 100% Arabica - and preferably an Italian blend.

I grind the beans with an old hand grinder made in West Germany, set on fine...which suits me.

I like my coffee salty in taste, and bitter - a personal preference.

If you don't like the taste of coffee I would not persevere with it - Nowt wrong wi' tea tha' knowest.
 
Victory said:
Thank you!

@Endlessly Amazed @Spookdaddy @Floyd1 @blessmycottonsocks @ramonmercado @maximus otter @Erinaceus @brownmane
@Coal @Mungoman

Clear fro your replies that that Coffee is not just a drink, it's a culture and an art.

I have copied and pasted your responses and over the next year am going to try different methods and blends of coffee.

I hope to produce a concise report in my adventures in coffee land and let you know on this thread what I think.
Click to expand...

Chuck some whisky in it too, helps take to edge off.
 
More good news.

Have you had your first cup of coffee this morning? You might have just slashed your risk of diabetes.

Drinking coffee has several benefits and it looks like there’s another one we’re just learning about. Higher blood caffeine levels may help people stay slim and cut their risk of diabetes, new evidence suggests.

A new study found that the rate at which we process caffeine may have an impact on our weight, though further research will be needed to work out whether drinking more coffee is actually good for us.

Dr Dipender Gill, a clinical scientist at Imperial College London, worked on the new research published in the journal BMJ Medicine. He thinks that existing studies had not been able to show a causal effect between caffeine and weight, but the new study looked at genetics, making the findings more robust.

He told the PA news agency that “95% of your caffeine is metabolised by an enzyme” and that two genes called CYP1A2 and AHR affect the function and level of that enzyme.

“So, using these genetic variants that cause people to metabolise caffeine faster or slower, we found that slower metabolisers have higher plasma (blood) caffeine levels, and those with higher plasma caffeine levels go on to have a lower body mass index and a lower risk of diabetes,” he adds. “It’s the plasma caffeine that’s doing that.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/en...y-just-discovered_uk_641191dae4b01ea5cd8b3f9c
 
I was surprised to learn that Buckingham Place had a dedicated “ coffee room “ and the Queen drank coffee at times.

I was also surprised to read that the Queen usually had a simple breakfast of “ Special K cold cereal “ and toast a with marmalade.

If the Queen had eggs or ham that usually went to her corgis.

I assume wrongly that the Queen was strictly tea.
 
charliebrown said:
I was surprised to learn that Buckingham Place had a dedicated “ coffee room “ and the Queen drank coffee at times.

I was also surprised to read that the Queen usually had a simple breakfast of “ Special K cold cereal “ and toast a with marmalade.

If the Queen had eggs or ham that usually went to her corgis.

I assume wrongly that the Queen was strictly tea.
Click to expand...
I assume it must have been a bit windy when in the vicinity of the corgis at times?
 
I am quite partial to caffeine and have for years drunk cup after cup of coffee all day. I'm also partial to a good, strong cup of tea and drink a number of these each day too.
After a visit to a neurologist last week, I have been advised to try to limit my coffee intake to 2 cups a day. I am presently deciding whether I will follow this advice or not (so far I am not).
 
Lord Lucan said:
I am quite partial to caffeine and have for years drunk cup after cup of coffee all day. I'm also partial to a good, strong cup of tea and drink a number of these each day too.
After a visit to a neurologist last week, I have been advised to try to limit my coffee intake to 2 cups a day. I am presently deciding whether I will follow this advice or not (so far I am not).
Click to expand...
Apparently Caffeine itself is said to be mildly addictive, so it wouldn't hurt to 'try' and limit your intake a bit each day.
I too like my Coffee & Tea during the day, one cup of ground Coffee in the morning, and a few cups of tea, or instant Coffee thereafter during the day. I also love 'Mango & Orange' (favourite) dilute drink from the big 'T' which is a good way to have an alternative drink at anytime of the day, all-be-it that it also has some drawback additives, some good, some not so!
 
Lord Lucan said:
I am quite partial to caffeine and have for years drunk cup after cup of coffee all day. I'm also partial to a good, strong cup of tea and drink a number of these each day too.
After a visit to a neurologist last week, I have been advised to try to limit my coffee intake to 2 cups a day. I am presently deciding whether I will follow this advice or not (so far I am not).
Click to expand...
I cut down my coffee intake years ago. No reason other than not sleeping well and feeling jittery at times.

I went from 4-5 cups daily, to 2-3 daily now. I went to decaffeinated for a whole week to wean off and knew I would have withdrawal symptoms.

I treated myself to a real coffee at the end of the week. I had had the usual headache and tiredness.
But, my shoulders had been achy throughout the week and I just thought that it was due to physical activity. I realized that about half hour after drinking the real coffee, my shoulders were no longer achy.

I don't really drink cola because of caffeine making me jittery and not able to sleep at night.

I once had an overnight with a friend in high school and that night, I drank 3 colas. I didn't sleep at all. I've never done that since.

I, also once, bought a decongestant that stated it was "24 hrs". My nose was clear, but I was also wide awake all night. Checking with a pharmacist later, I was told that the 24 hr ones have caffeine. Never again.

I don't have anything with caffeine past 1800 hr because it will not allow me to sleep.

So, if you are cutting down on your caffeine (tea also has caffeine), just take it slow.
 
Supposedly a home remedy for asthma and congestion in the lungs is drinking any caffeinated drink.

Caffeine dilates the lungs.

I tried it myself, but I don’t know if Coke-a-Cola has enough caffeine, so I don’t know ?

Coke didn’t give me the results I was hoping.
 
Druk said:
Had some nice coffee’s but the best genuine bean to cup as the marketing blurb now goes was actually tree to cup.
View attachment 70230View attachment 70231View attachment 70232View attachment 70233View attachment 70234View attachment 70235View attachment 70236View attachment 70237
Click to expand...

I recognise those photos in a way! Someone's been to Nepal (possibly Gandaki district/Pokhara?) and had 'garden coffee', and I'm guessing it's @Druk :)
We call it 'garden coffee' as it's often just a thing that people do there with a spare corner of the garden, like GB people do with runner beans!

One thing you notice if you've been to Nepal, or to areas in the UK with Nepalese residents, is that any spare bit of land or even corners on concrete, is they try to grow something - vegetables, flowers in pots. I can spot Nepali front gardens in Woolwich and Plumstead in SE London by the cobbled-up bits of scrap wood supporting cucumbers, or beans or pumpkins, within spitting distance of The South Circular Road.

The airport at Kathmandu is the only one I've ever visited that had flower beds and people watering the bedding plants...

If Nepal could capitalise on its foothills climate, coffee could really help farmers up out of the grind (no pun intended). Same goes for Goat dairy produce (goats are normally kept solely for meat). Unfortunately Nepal is still an economic and political corruption-riven basket case. If you can find commercially-available Nepalese coffee it's very good, very expensive and a lovely flavour.
 
Last edited:
Lord Lucan said:
I am quite partial to caffeine and have for years drunk cup after cup of coffee all day. I'm also partial to a good, strong cup of tea and drink a number of these each day too.
After a visit to a neurologist last week, I have been advised to try to limit my coffee intake to 2 cups a day. I am presently deciding whether I will follow this advice or not (so far I am not).
Click to expand...

On what grounds? (pun not intended but kept anyway)

I drink 2-3 strong/very strong mugs of coffee a day, most usually in the morning. Have been somewhat "shaky" for portions of the day in recent months. I'm pretty certain the coffee has contributed if not caused it.
 
Ogdred Weary said:
On what grounds? (pun not intended but kept anyway)

I drink 2-3 strong/very strong mugs of coffee a day, most usually in the morning. Have been somewhat "shaky" for portions of the day in recent months. I'm pretty certain the coffee has contributed if not caused it.
Click to expand...

To keep headaches at bay. Over the years, I can't honestly say that I can see any correlation between my caffeine intake and headaches.
At times I've drunk more (I once owned a cafe') and at times I've drunk less. Either way, my headaches are cyclic and every 3-4 weeks I';; go through a week or so where they are bad to extreme.
I've had (over the years) every test under the sun and nothing has ever shown anything sinister as the cause. I've just had a CAT scan of the brain and will be shortly having an MRI of the same.
I'm just a person prone to headaches, have been since I was 15/16.
 
Lord Lucan said:
To keep headaches at bay. Over the years, I can't honestly say that I can see any correlation between my caffeine intake and headaches.
At times I've drunk more (I once owned a cafe') and at times I've drunk less. Either way, my headaches are cyclic and every 3-4 weeks I';; go through a week or so where they are bad to extreme.
I've had (over the years) every test under the sun and nothing has ever shown anything sinister as the cause. I've just had a CAT scan of the brain and will be shortly having an MRI of the same.
I'm just a person prone to headaches, have been since I was 15/16.
Click to expand...
When I was younger they said that coffee caused headaches.

Last I heard was a Dr saying that he had a banging headache that morning so he took a paracetamol and an Ibruprofen with a strong cup of coffee.
 
Lord Lucan said:
To keep headaches at bay. Over the years, I can't honestly say that I can see any correlation between my caffeine intake and headaches.
At times I've drunk more (I once owned a cafe') and at times I've drunk less. Either way, my headaches are cyclic and every 3-4 weeks I';; go through a week or so where they are bad to extreme.
I've had (over the years) every test under the sun and nothing has ever shown anything sinister as the cause. I've just had a CAT scan of the brain and will be shortly having an MRI of the same.
I'm just a person prone to headaches, have been since I was 15/16.
Click to expand...
Migraine?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top