Yes, it was a tad cool, although it's lovely now. But I will take a jacket or wrap when we go to a concert at U/A this evening!http://forums.macosxhints.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

ewwwww... 64!

We're gettin' down into the thirties at night - tonight a hard frost is expected... Low 50's in the day. That said, it's a tad unusual for October here...

That's part of why I left Connecticut. ;) Another part is the weather during December, January, February, March... and the price of heating oil!

So... in regards to coffee. For those who are not roasting at home, what brand of beans do you use?

Here in Tucson the best beans I can find are Starbucks beans. Which is just sad. They're not good beans. Of course I can order beans online, which is what I do every once in a while. Maybe a home roaster would be a good thing to have...

Are there any Sunflower Markets in Tucson? We have them all over Phoenix. They have excellent roasted beans at a great price (under $5/pound). Huge selection too.

I don't know if they have good ones, but I would try Trader Joe's just because they do usually have good quality products of all kinds (Speedway & Wilmot, and that new one up Northeast).

There is a new Sunflower market that just opened not too long ago. My friends have been there, I haven't. But my friends have brought over some baked goods from Sunflower, and they've all been excellent. So it wouldn't surprise me that they have excellent coffee, too.

Most of the time I get my beans from Trader Joe's. They're acceptable, but not great. Note that I'm comparing TJ's beans to Torrefazione (which I can no longer get delivered (grr)), Espresso Vivace, and ... one other company I can't remember the name of right now. (Stupid work, interrupting my coffee ruminations)

But I'll try Sunflower, thanks for the suggestion.

I am more of a tea drinker than coffee thank to my Russian folks. But I did work at Caribou Coffee for two years and learned alot about coffee and drank my fair share. I must say I enjoy only the dark dark darkest coffee. French Roast and Espresso are my favorites.

The thing no one seems to know about coffee (not you guys of course, mostly refering the "that guy" that starts the pot in the morning) is how much coffee to put in. it's 2-3 teaspoons of coffee PER CUP. Not 5-6 tea spoons PER POT. Me being a person who likes my coffee as dark as possible, I get real upset when I get this watered down garbage at work. I alway have to make a fresh pot for myself.

Of course I make ultra strong black coffee and drink it with lots of cream and sugar :D

Minnesota, huh? I spent a century there one decade. I worked for MPI (now Seagate) in the heyday of big arse SMD hard drives (physical, not capacity. :)).

I agree about strong coffee, but I drink mine black. The casino bars here charge as much for a cup of coffee as a mixed drink and serve them in those glass cups that loose the heat so quick. If I can see any light at all through the cup, I send it back and demand a real cup of coffee. At times, I'll make up for the price a bit by ordering it with a shot of Jack in it, but it better still be dark. Yuck! Nothing worse than a cup of hot water!

I agree about weak coffee - nothing worse! As to brew strength... we all have our "tastes"... I use one coffee scoop (that comes with every machine) of whole beans per coffee pot "cup", of course we all use mugs and that will give me my three jolts and a top off or two.

I too love my tea, and the cold weather will see a lot more consumed... Ceylon is fine for me.

For those that like non-Espresso coffee, you really have to try a vac pot. This is a system where water is heated in a base pot and forced into the top top pot by the expansion pressure, mixed with the coffee. Once all the water is force up, the heat is removed and a vacuum forms as the air cools in the bottom, pulling the coffee down through a mesh screen and leaving the grounds up top.

Sure beats your standard drip machine.

Mine is made by Bodum, and Black & Decker surprisingly made a very good one.

Coffee Rush and Nordstroms has the best Coffee.
 

I love coffee with a little bit of cream and 4 packages of sugars in a 16 oz. cup. I normally get two servers. So I drink roughly 32 oz in about an hour an a half. That is all I can take.

I normally buy my coffee either at Coffee Rush in Chandler because of the social crowd or I get my coffee at Nordstroms.

Believe it or not, Nordstroms has the best coffee that I have ever bought at a coffee shop. So I am letting you all in on my secret.

If anyone on this list is from the Phoenix area, you should definitely visit coffee Rush on Ray and Dobson. It is right next to Blockbuster and has a great view of a small lake.

Of course you can visit Nordstroms just about anywhere since they are located in most big malls.

thx
RLC

last xmas i received, two coffee machines as gifts, as my lust for the liquid is well known, i had tremendous fun the subsequent week making all sorts of fancy coffees etc.
however i find that the machines are not as automated as one would have thought, they do require a bit of operation, and the novelty of pretending to work in starbucks, starts to make you want a minimum wage just for making yourself a coffee.

i think the only way to make a good espresso, is with the little stovetop can,
where the coffee is filtering up and being pressurised though the coffee, thus ensuring you get a fine opaque syrup, instead of a strong wattery coffee.

my favourite brand has got to be lavazza, its perfect, it can be so strong it verges into dark chocolate territory, however recently i have been sampling the delights of the premium ranges available in "whittards of chelsea" tea shop, at the moment i have been drinking one of theirs its a vietnamese dalat, its a dark little number, a bit spiky , but you feel like you are drinking somthing "grown up" 6 consecutive cups of that give you a fairly decent thump.

i have a penchant for a nice almond or vanilla syrup to pour in also, my frien orders these online from a french company, the name escapes me, they do a damn fine ginger bread one, great in the winter.
anyway, i'm off to make a pot (on the stove!)

I love espresso the most! I hardly ever drink regular coffee these days...

Yeah, it's a well-kept secret that they have fantastic coffee. Plus, you can go into Chandler mall via their store, grab coffee, and head to the Apple store. If you bring extra coffee you can get superb service at the Genius bar...

Yeah, I have been eyeing various appliances in order to have the fun of roasting, grinding and brewing. The goal of course is to enjoy a cup of espresso; but the work one has to put into this! This is just not feasible at 6 a.m. And the maintenance!!:eek: Backflushing, defrosting or whatever...So, I use a stovetop thing, but the coffee is not quite as good as when you hit a (good) espresso shop. I guess there is no such thing as free lunch:cool:

A stovetop Mokka pot is certainly a good device, but does not produce the same thing as a proper espresso machine, not even close. Neither is better than the other, that's a taste thing, but they are vastly different.

The work doesn't need to be done on the morning of usage. You should be roasting well ahead of time, as the beans should sit 24-48 hours before use. You can keep them in the bean well of the grinder, then just turn on the grinder when coffee is needed.

Of course, there are the auto systems, which we have. The machine contains the beans in a hopper. When you press a button (various programmable buttons for strength/quantity), it grinds the beans, measures, tamps, and brews automatically. It then dumps the grounds into a hopper, ready to make more coffee. You can literally make another cup every 25 seconds. About once a week it prompts us to empty the old grounds and add more water. It rinses itself daily to stay clean by itself.

I second Carlos on the Automatic espresso makers. They really do work! Really takes all the "work" out of making esspresso/capuccino. Although you still need to froth the milk for the capuccino....

There's a nice super-auto espresso machine over at the Sonoma kitchen stores that has a thermal container for milk, and auto-froths on order. It can be yours for only $3300.

At that price I may just as well get two --one in red and one in blue-- as get only one!

Yeah... I've been in the Williams Sonona stores many, many times, and they have some really hard core kitchen toys. When I win the lottery one of those "super" espresso makers is mine!!:D :D