The other adult beverage.....

Wolfgang wrote:

"Conan The Librarian" wrote in message
...

Did you ever get one of those little Ikea espresso maker thingies like
I had at my campsite?

Nah, I haven't gotten one. Espresso is something I like every once in a
great while.....not enough to justify buying apparatus for making it. I've
found that mooching off of fishing companions suits my needs perfectly.


That's cool. I also enjoyed mooching your advice and that Pass
Lake. :-)

Now if Wolfgang can just forgive me for using Starbucks (aka,
"Charbucks") in the thing. :-}

The one nice thing about Starbucks is that you can use any of their beans to
make espresso. No, it won't be good, but none of it will be worse than any
other.

It's sort of the McDonalds of the coffee world in that respect.

And to tie in with another part of this thread: McDonalds in
Canuckistan have been serving pretty decent coffee for quite a while. I
never drink coffee at convenience stores or fast food restaurants, but
Carol told me to try some one day and I was surprised at how much it
tasted like real coffee. :-}

Chuck Vance (who admits to knowing next to nothing at all about
coffee, except it goes nicely with a cig when sitting by the Little River
on a cool morning)

Yeah, that was good.

Indeed. And I hope to repeat that scene this year. Nothing
finalized yet, but it looks like Carol has resigned herself to the fact
that I plan to make the trip again. She even got me some new speakers
for my car for xmas, saying if I was gonna be driving all those miles, I
should at least have some decent sound in there. :-)

So I should be back about the same time of year (early May), and I
plan to camp in the same spot if possible.

I'll bring my coffee maker ... you bring the beans. :-)


Chuck Vance (and a few Pass Lakes)

"jeff miller" wrote in message
...
Wolfgang wrote:

wrote in message
My favorite is the
drip method.....through unbleached paper, thank you very much, none of
the reusable (reuseless, if you ask me) wire mesh crap. Grew up drinking
it that way.....well, from age 7 to 10 or so. I'll still do that once in
a while. Or, even better, plop a nice big gob of ice cream in it! But
that's not coffee. That's just a coffee flavored dessert.

Wolfgang

ditto on the drip...i have a bunn coffeemaker...it uses a different spray
of the hot water over the grounds, instead of the usual drip. unbleached
filters at times seem to change the coffee taste for me...a paper-y
taste...i like the bleached filters better.

Interesting. I've never really noted any flavor imparted by the
filter.....except when forced to use a paper towel in emergency situations.
I always opted for the unfiltered purely on the basis of environmental
considerations. Ah well, yet another set of experiments to conduct.


Wolfgang

"Steve" wrote in message
ews.com...
On Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:46:22 -0600, "Wolfgang"
wrote:

So, acidity? I
think maybe I don't know enough about the nuances of coffee to say just
what
it is I like about this one. I THOUGHT it was the LACK of acidity. But
the
descriptions of the East African coffees at the site above make much of
their acidity being one of their stong features. I dunno. Got a lot left
to learn, I guess.

Acidity when used to describe coffee is different from bitter.
Check this out, if you are interested
http://coffeereview.com/reference.cfm

Thanks, Steve, I'll check it out.

Every group has it's jargon. I mean, come on, we're really fling
fisherman aren't we?

Give us enough coffee......or other adult beverages......and we fly!


Wolfgang

On Jan 11, 10:57*am, "Wolfgang" wrote:

Give us enough coffee......or other adult beverages......and we fly!


Or ursine encouragement. :-)

B

"rw" wrote in message
m...
Steve wrote:
On Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:27:23 -0700, rw
wrote:


I buy nearly all my coffee from Peet's. No stinking valves. :-)


I also like Peets Coffee,
Have you tried the Major Dickerson's blend? Good stuff.
I know you mentioned about freezing the beans over a long period of time.
I believe you said; freeze for 1 yr. and you wouldn't be able to tell the
difference against fresh batch of unfrozen for taste.
Coffee beans will eventually absorbed moisture and they will break down,
unless it was vacuum sealed.
Next time you're in Peets, ask them how often they turn-around their
incoming coffee beans...I think you'll be surprised.
-tom

wrote:

Hey, you and I made some shelves together the other day.

I'm doing
some custom cabinetry for a little remodeling I'm doing in my
kitchen. Did a pull out pantry unit in oak and fired up that SWEET
3/4 dado plane you sent me. That thing is THE BOMB! Best part is, I
can think "hey, this is the one I got from Chuck..." as I'm cranking
out the cross-grain curlies.

Glad I could help. :-) That is a sweet plane, no? I can't believe
I gave it away to you like I did. ;-)

So we expect pics.

Hope all is well down south,

Pretty good, actually. I got out on the water for the first time in
a long while other day. Went to a gorgeous hill country creek about 45
minutes from my house. It's no more than 20-30' feet wide in most
places, and totally surrounded by huge cypress trees. Pretty much no
room for a backcast at all.

The water is so clear you can see every little movement of the fish
.... and of course they can see you. Some decent bass in there, as well
as various sunfish. I had a couple of halfhearted rises from some
sunnies, with the best one being just as I was starting to rollcast back
upstream. I almost pulled the guy out of the water on my forward cast.
:-)

On the woodworking front: Bought a nice mesquite slab from a local
place the other day. It's got a sweet natural edge, and I'm gonna turn
it into a display shelf for odds-and-ends. I jointed the cut edge and
chiseled/rasped away the bark from the natural edge.

Then I set to work on removing the bandsaw marks. Tearout city as
the grain changed every couple of inches. So I grabbed a card scraper
and set to work. Lovely, meditative work ... and the grain is really
starting to shine. Can't wait to hit it with some oil ... maybe an
oil/beeswax mix.

Oh, and the price ... ~$8/bf for 12" wide semi-clear 5/4 stock.
*meep* *meep*


Chuck Vance (so how's things up nawth?)

Steve wrote:
On Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:55:46 -0700, rw
wrote:


My companion and I decided we needed a cup of tea to warm up,
so we stopped into a "tea tasting" place.


We'll be in The City this weekend.
Would you share the name of this place?

I don't remember the name but it's on the east side of Grant Ave in
Chinatown.

They recommended a sushi restaurant named, I believe, Sushi Roc
(excellent) which was down the street, I believe on Pine St. just to the
right off Grant. If you go there they may be able to point you to the
tea place.

I think their tea prices are way out of line, so don't buy much.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

"Tom Littleton" wrote in message
news:K_whj.18718$Xo1.15470@trnddc06...


never have bothered to roast the stuff myself(and, yet, I have frequently
roasted peanuts and other beans, so I figure it isn't beyond
comprehension).

Peanuts, sure. What other beans does one roast?

However, I do, whenever possible grind my own blends and try a lot of
different roasted beans. The real Blue Mountain is nice, several African
beans I have had are unique tasting, sort of winey in flavor. I do often
mix the latter with some sort of Central American arabica into a blend
that suits my none-too-sophisticated palate. At any rate, simply going
fresh-ground beats the crap in cans, so I would imagine that roasting
would add something as well, along with the usual do it yourself sort of
satisfaction with the process.

Aside from the self-evident freshness (and granting that fresh is
better.....which no one here has contested) factor, roasting also adds one
degree or another of ritual, a consideration easily dismissed by some, but
important to many others.

Wolfgang

Surfing a few espresso and "moka" explanations, it does sound like
espresso machines operate at below-boiling-point temperatures --
around 90C is claimed to be optimal, _well_ below boiling at the very
high pressures involved. Most web sites get it right, that _water_ is
being forced through the grounds, but some mistakenly claim it is
steam.

Plenty of sites describe the "moka" contraptions as operating at
higher temps, and given that the water is reaching its boiling point
at slightly higher than atmospheric pressure, they must be. So the
wikipedia explanation for moka machines must be correct.

The claims of espresso sites that temps much higher than 90C ruin the
brewing process seem to contradict the moka brewing process -- the
only explanation I see is that the chemistry changes quite a bit at
the espresso pressures. Moka pressures are only slighty above
atmospheric.

Jon.
Not replacing my Mr. Coffee anytime soon...

"jeff miller" wrote in message
...


well alrighty then!! another thing to look forward to when next we go
a-fishin.

As easily said as done! Well, if we invite Mr. Baker so that we can use the
electrical appliances......otherwise we have to roast in a pan over a
campfire and grind the beans by hand with twelve pounds of mortar and
pestle.

Wolfgang