Saturday 12 July 2014

Fresh Coffee Beans make a difference!

I've never really been a 'Coffee Drinker'.  Not really.  But that was because instant coffee tastes so insipid to me.  I cannot think of a single time that I actually enjoyed a cup of instant coffee.

Percolated, drip filtered and pot boiled coffee on the other hand I have enjoyed, along with the usual espresso flavoured milk drinks like cappuccino, flat white and latte.  But it took regular visits to a friend who actually enjoyed not only drinking coffee, but making it, for me to develop a taste for the stuff.  I'm still not a coffee expert and hope never to be, but I now know what I personally enjoy in a coffee.



At least, I thought I knew.  I have been making coffee using a variety of second hand coffee machines for some time.  I started off using pre ground coffee, then discovered the difference grinding beans myself made.  I got to the point where with my little Krubs Espresso Bravo 871 boiler machines to make the espresso and my big Breville 800ES to steam the milk while the Krups was building up pressure, I had the best of both and a really nice drink.  I thought.

Last week I accidentally bought a bag of coffee beans from out local coffee  plantation.  I had planned to get some next time I drove up there, but at over a hundred kilometres away I had been putting it off.  I had the opportunity when I was out taking photos of local scenery, to stop at a little place where they use this particular coffee.  They had recently got new stock, and I know the plantation roasts regularly so the turnover is fresh.  It is considerably dearer than the beans I normally buy at the supermarket, but still works out less than a dollar a cup.

I decided to try it out.  The first cup I brewed in the Krups.  I could see as soon as I ground it, there was a difference, but when the brew began running slowly into the cup it was so completely different.  The cup filled over about 30 seconds with a beautiful rich brown foam that began to settle out until there was a dark espresso and about 6 or 8mm of fine gold crema on top. 

I sipped the espresso.  The difference between the nice tasting espresso I usually get from the Krups, and this delicious syrupy taste was amazing.  It was so good in fact, that I wondered how it would be in the Breville.

So later I made a cup in the Breville 800ES.  It doesn't matter what I do, the Krups seems to make the nicest coffee, but for once, the Breville made an espresso that was tasty and drinkable straight from the machine.  Bot as 'syrupy' tasting as the Krups, but at least as good as the Krups makes with supermarket beans.

Now I am beginning to understand what the people on sites like Coffee Geek and Coffee Snob are on about when they talk about the difference in taste with fresh coffee beans.

For anyone who has a coffee machine and is already grinding beans, try getting hold of some real fresh roasted beans.  Preferably no more than a few weeks after roasting.  If you enjoy coffee, and want to get the most out of your coffee machine, it is worth every cent of the small extra amount you will pay.

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