My Coffee Tips
I know this isn't technology, but I think coffee and techies are spiritually related topics. I recently typed this up for a co-worker and I figured I should post it.
I've been working from home a lot more and have been tweaking my coffee brewing process for a few months now.
Here's some tips that I've gathered from these here interwebs to make a cup of coffee that will keep the keys clicking on your workstation.
1 - Get a coffee grinder. Only grind enough to make the amount of coffee that you're going to drink at that time; meaning one or two cups at a time. I bought this one after a fair amount of research
I bought the Capresso 565.05 Infinity Conical Burr Grinder, Stainless Steel and I'm very happy with it.
2 – Buy an AeroPress or a coffee press. The AeroPress is great if you want to travel and have coffee the same way you do at home. This thing needs the paper filters that are listed on the "frequently sold together" section
3 – Buy gourmet coffees, whole bean, not ground. Coffee has a short shelf life. Air, light, etc., cause the coffee to lose its flavor. Buy good coffee whole bean and get an air-proof container at the Container Store or even Wal Mart. Drink whatever you buy within 2-3 weeks.
Here's a list of good coffees for sale on Amazon.
Here's the one I'm currently drinking and I'm loving it. It's a medium roast. Shout out to Peru!
4 - Finally, here's a primer on coffee beans and roasts. It will help you to vary your tastes from light to dark roasts and everything in between. A relevant quote from the article is
"At lighter roasts, the coffee will exhibit more of its "origin character"—the flavors created by its variety, processing, altitude, soil content, and weather conditions in the location where it was grown.[9] As the seeds darken to a deep brown, the origin flavors of the bean are eclipsed by the flavors created by the roasting process itself. At darker roasts, the "roast flavor" is so dominant that it can be difficult to distinguish the origin of the beans used in the roast."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_roasting#Roasts
5 – I'm boiling the water to 120 degrees, grinding the beans to a coarse grind, and steeping for 3mn, 30 seconds. I find that I like the flavor better than when I go over 4 minutes.
If you think I'm being obsessive, then you don't know enough coffee drinkers that are also techies. Some guys buy their own roasters and get $1k espresso machines. Espresso machine maintenance is too much time for me. The above tips integrate nicely into my daily routine and don't require a ton of extra time, but it is definitely more time consuming that using a Keurig machine. I can't go back to that after grinding my own beans.
Happy caffeinating!