Any coffee geeks out there?

[Garrdor]

Sorry bout the disturbing pic. That's usually the face I make during orgasm, or when I'm getting the back of my neck shaved @ the Barber Shop.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Months of mad scientist type experimentation and really, the secret to good coffee is the grind, and the grind affects the flavor of the coffee almost more than the coffee.

I got a fancy burr grinder for Xmas, and it made the best damn coffee for about 3 months until it just kinda fell apart. Even some of the $1000 ones are made out of cheap plastic. Everything is just cheap nowadays. I bought my wife this kitchenaid mixer that I thought was overpriced until I look at it and thought, shit, this thing is going to last 20 years.

So in my quest for the ultimate coffee, meet my new baby:




Put any halfway decent beans in this thing and never go back to Starbuck's.

[Harlowe]

That looks awesome!

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Thanks. I got the nickel colored one because the black one was $20 more for some reason, and I thought there was going to be a fight with the missus. Turned out to be "ooooh it's kitchenaid? we can put it next to the mixer!".

I looked at the shipping weight and it's almost as heavy as the mixer. Kitchenaid makes good stuff. Amazon's free shipping is a scam. If I order something from newegg they don't treat it any different if it's free shipping. Amazon with the free shipping wouldn't have my grinder here until almost April, so I passed on the free shipping, like the probably figured most people would. Spend 20 bucks and suddenly it'll be here Wednesday. Too bad newegg doesn't sell more kitchen stuff.

And some people don't understand that cooking is a manly pursuit. I put the same care into picking out my pots and pans as I do my tools in the garage. I can talk snapon and matco all day with my mechanic friends, but they clam up when it turns to all-clad hehe. Stainless steel saucepans are tools dammit, and shitty tools = shitty food.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Ugh. I gave up all coffee for lent...

The headaches suck.

[Embar Angylwrath]

Ugh. I gave up all coffee for lent...

The headaches suck.

You might want to keep the coffee next time, and give up being a dick next time around.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

That would be impossible, I work with too many idiots.

[Ddrak]

I bet there's some awesome grinders in chemical labs that could really get the coffee fine. Wonder if Ara knows any...

Dd

[Freecare Spiritwise]

The burr grinding is some pretty good technology. The beans are actually crushed against each other and not ground per se. It makes for 100% consistency of the grind size. If some of the granules are a different size it creates channels in the "puck" and the coffee doesn't taste anywhere near as good.

You could probably use a mortar and pestle but you don't get control over the granularity. You could get the fine powder for Turkish coffee but that's about it. The wife uses a very coarse grind for her french press and the burr grinder even makes her plain coffee kick ass.

So the burr grinders are so expensive because the technology is probably inherited from research/industrial applications. The problem is that the mechanisms are great but the housing they put them in always seem to be cheap plastic. So it'll probably do 100,000 grinds but the unit falls apart long before that. Hopefully that will change with the new one.

We don't even drink regular coffee anymore from a drip coffee pot. I'm going to retire the coffee pot, and when I want regular coffee I either have the wife french press it or I just drink cafe americana, which is espresso and boiling water.

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

I'm still using a drip pot and a Breakfast blend with sugar and creamer lol. I would really love to get into some other ideas, however I'm always broke is the problem (much like using my pots and pans from Walmart, because my ex kept my good Calphalon set after the divorce lol) so what i have is adequate but not great. I've heard the regular ole percolators also make better coffee then drip pots.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

I'm still using a drip pot and a Breakfast blend with sugar and creamer lol. I would really love to get into some other ideas, however I'm always broke is the problem (much like using my pots and pans from Walmart, because my ex kept my good Calphalon set after the divorce lol) so what i have is adequate but not great. I've heard the regular ole percolators also make better coffee then drip pots.

Get a french press. There's nothing to burn out or fall off or go wrong. It's cheaper than a coffee pot and it makes much better coffee. Then you need a really coarse grind. Go to the fancy beans section of the grocery store, take a little bit and put it in the grinder on the most coarse setting it has.

Then experiment to find out what type of beans and roast you like. You can do that a little bit at a time with maybe a dollar or two's worth each time so you're not stuck with something you don't like. Maybe start with a medium roast or something that says "house blend".

Boil some water, put it all in the french press and see how you like it.

We used to go through coffee pots like socks - they'd only last a couple of months even if we bought the $200 office models. So we just said screw it and went with a simple low-tech french press. It's a little extra work but if you like coffee it's worth it.

EDIT: And if you like making real coffee then buy a $15 bladed bean grinder (buy that instead of a coffee pot) so you don't have to stand in the isle of the grocery store to get fresh coffee. The bladed ones aren't quite as good as the burr grinders but a cheap bladed grinder with decent beans will make a cup of Joe that blows away foldgers drip-brewed.

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

I will try that ! Thanks =)

[Freecare Spiritwise]

I think this is the one my wife uses, and gives you a good idea of what it is and what it looks like. It's so simple even I can use it:

[Klast Brell]

I have one of those and can vouch for the improvement in the taste of the coffee.

They are easy to use, and you never need to buy filters.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Yeah french press rules for regular coffee. It's simple, cheap, elegant and idiot proof. In the 6 months since the wife has been using it, we would've gone through 2 coffee pots.

Woo hoo I got my grinder /happy dance. Other than being a piece of shit, the last one made a pretty good grind. I wasn't expecting to see any difference (other than durability), but man, with this thing I'm pulling espresso shots as good as a fancy Italian resturant.

Kitchenaid just plain rules, and I'm a fanboy now. We have a KA diswasher which I think is ugly but it's been a champ. It came with the house, and when we were in escrow I had asked the inspector if he could be so kind as to find something wrong with the dishwasher so I could ask the seller to replace it with a less uglier one and he said "nuh uh man, that's the exact one I would buy."

So I'm sold on the low-tech-looking, bulletproof better than it needs to be but kinda clunky mindset that is Kitchenaid. This coffee grinder will probably outlive me.

EDIT: This thing totally reminds me of my other preciouusss:

[Select]

Speaking of drills, I have a cheap, crappy one on sale from Home Depot. What are some good drills and good bits? The Phillips bits in the set that came with it started to get stripped D: I'm just starting to learn about this stuff now that I'm in an apartment that was super run down. We've done well with it I don't think I'd want an 18v. They're sooo much heavier and I have little arms/wrists. Maybe a strong 12v?

[Ddrak]

Get the 18V. Yeah, they're heavier but the extra power means you don't have to work as hard to get what you want done.

Dd

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Yeah, unless you're going to be holding it above your head all day. And you have to be really careful of the torque on these higher end models. My sister got a hairline fracture with her 24v model when the drill bit caught. Now that's torque. Hold them as loosely as you can!

But yeah get the 18v and get a fairly cheap one if you'll only be using it twice a year.

[Klast Brell]

Speaking of drills, I have a cheap, crappy one on sale from Home Depot. What are some good drills and good bits? The Phillips bits in the set that came with it started to get stripped D: I'm just starting to learn about this stuff now that I'm in an apartment that was super run down. We've done well with it I don't think I'd want an 18v. They're sooo much heavier and I have little arms/wrists. Maybe a strong 12v?

Other than the stripped bits is there anything that you use it for that it can't do? New bits are dirt cheap. A more powerful drill will be more effective at stripping bits than your current one. Drop 5 bucks on a packet of bits at home depot. At that price you can strip them every few months and not give a shit.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

True, but a more powerful one will have usually a clutch so you can set it to a lower setting and you won't snap off or strip anything. That's what made me go to a more expensive drill in the first place - the cheap one kept snapping off screws.

Though bits have to be total crap to strip. The screws sure....

I use my cordless screwdriver much more than my drill. Sounds like that's what you need Select. I use my screwdriver as a screwdriver and my drill as a drill, though I'll use the drill to drive those giant deck screws and such. It's a heavy ass screwdriver though.