perpetual memory loss

Coffee. There is really nothing better than a good cup of coffee first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, most mornings I have to work and that means that I have to take what I can get at work (commuting via public trans makes it far too troublesome to stop at a Starbucks, Dunkin, or anywhere else). That means I should be enjoying my most enjoyable cups of coffee on the weekends. For years, however, I have been drinking regular ass drip coffee from a cheap Mr. Coffee I got from Wal-Mart. What I get from it is technically coffee but it has always tasted burnt and well not that great. It usually needed some type of creamer to give it a desirable flavor. As of late I’ve decided that trend had to stop so I spent the last few months researching coffee makers, beans, grinders, etc in search of making a great, fairly quick cup of coffee. Now after two months with my new method I can say with confidence that coffee aficionados should check it out (if they haven’t already).

Although at some point I will eventually get and aeropress or a french press for now I am sticking with my clever coffee dripper from Sweet Maria’s (or amazon). I settled on this brand because it combines the ease of a drip coffee machine with the taste and flexibility of a french press or aeropress and with an extremely quick and easy clean-up. How does it work?

It works much like a regular drip coffee maker, insert a #4 filter, rinse filter to get paper particles out, then dump in you coffee grounds:

Next pour in your hot/boiling water:

Then you stir the grounds at about the 1 minute and 4 minute mark. Then you take your clever coffee dripper and place it on your mug like so:

The first few times will be awkward and uneven as you search for the proper ratios of water and beans, but once you figure it out the process becomes routine and almost zen like. This is part of what appeals to me about this method of coffee-making. Making it first thing in the morning and using these exacting methods appeals to my personality and is a good way to start my mornings. Once I got it done I am able to make a cup in 10 minutes or less and when it’s done I know that I can look forward to an outstanding cup of coffee.  It’s smooth, bold with no (or rarely ever any) grains. Best of all I have yet to taste a cup that has even the slightest tinge of tasting burnt or bitter. Now of course this only works well if you need to make a cup or two at a time. If you are making coffee for 12 people every morning this isn’t really the method for you but neither are many others. This method is flexible enough though to make two cups rather quickly. For optimal coffee brewing I recommend grinding your own beans using a conical burr grinder. I use the Capresso Infinity which has been working fantastically for me. Clean-up takes a bit of an effort it’s not terrible. All told cleaning up the grinder and the dripper takes less than 5 minutes (although I recommend buying a real brush to clean-up the grinder as the one provided with it is anemic). Also some type of vacuum storage container should be used to store beans. The whole set up looks like this:

One other piece you will need is a kettle, and I use a glass kettle with purified water, which ensures that my water is clean and doesn’t take on a metallic taste that often happens with metal kettles. If you’re interested here are a few coffee resources that will help you in your search for a better cup of joe.

Gimme Coffee! 

Whole Latte Love

Coffee Geek

Sweet Maria’s

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