Coffee

[Leothebear]

Can someone recommend a ground coffee (suitable for a cafetiere) ? Hopefully something readily available in most supermarkets.
I like a full flavour without the bitterness. I'm tired of my own crap stuff.

[Sobraon]

I am not a coffee connoisseur but for instant I really like Nescafe Gold Alta Rica.

My eldest daughter gave me a Cuisinart DGB1U Bean-to-Cup machine (really good!) two years ago which makes single cups ( I am the only coffee drinker in the family). I know I like the coffee the Cuisinart makes because I continue to use it every other day or so.

In the Cuisinart I use Alcafe Columbian Whole Bean 5 (must be 5) from Aldi at £1.89 for 200g which beats the Nescafe, not sure if they have a ground version. For my taste a lot of beans and filter coffee sold in supermarkets is not as good as the Nescafe Instant ( see ... said I wasn't a coffee connoisseur!).

Looking forward to other posts!

[bungeejumper]

We've tried rather a lot of ground coffees over the years, and although we like Arabica-heavy blends best, a good many of the popular brands (especially Dutch ones) aren't really roasted quite high enough to get me started in the mornings. You can always add strength with a small Robusta quotient, of course, but overdoing it can result on coarseness.

Short conclusion: we have now settled on Sainsburys' Taste the Difference Italian blend, which is a level 4. Some Robusta, mostly Arabica. Works for us, both in the espresso machine and in the cafetiere.

BJ

[PhaseThree]

I like the Taylors Rich Italian Coffee, I haven't tried the ground version but their whole bean stuff works well for me.
It's 100% Arabica with a deep roast (4), currently £6 for 2x227gm at Tesco.

[bungeejumper]

I have been given coffee that has apparently passed through the digestive system of a Balinese rodent.

Apparently it is quite expensive and delicious.

It remains unopened.

A cat, not a rodent, I believe. They say it's best if you civet before you drink it. Wikipedia:

Kopi luwak, or civet coffee, is coffee that includes partially digested coffee cherries, eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet. Fermentation occurs as the cherries pass through a civet's intestines, and after being defecated with other fecal matter, they are collected

BJ

[redsturgeon]

Illy coffee is my favourite for a supermarket available brand. Not cheap but tastes the best to me.

John

[djbenedict]

I like coffee made in a cafetière. My view is that any ground coffee is basically fine, but it goes stale very quickly, by which I mean a day or two at most. (It is the staleness which translates to a bitter flavour in the drink, I believe). To avoid vast amounts of waste, therefore, I buy coffee beans and grind just enough at a time to make a cafetière-ful. Interestingly, if you do this, I also find that you don't need to allow the coffee to steep at all - just add the hot water, press and pour. Presumably that is because ground-at-home grounds are much fresher than ground-and-bagged grounds can ever be. In terms of beans, I just buy Waitrose "French blend" beans which seem fine for this approach. Perhaps worth a try?

[redsturgeon]

I like coffee made in a cafetière. My view is that any ground coffee is basically fine, but it goes stale very quickly, by which I mean a day or two at most. (It is the staleness which translates to a bitter flavour in the drink, I believe). To avoid vast amounts of waste, therefore, I buy coffee beans and grind just enough at a time to make a cafetière-ful. Interestingly, if you do this, I also find that you don't need to allow the coffee to steep at all - just add the hot water, press and pour. Presumably that is because ground-at-home grounds are much fresher than ground-and-bagged grounds can ever be. In terms of beans, I just buy Waitrose "French blend" beans which seem fine for this approach. Perhaps worth a try?

I'd agree with this in terms of freshness, I grind my beans right before making my espresso, it is also key how long ago they were roasted, I like my beans to have been roasted no more than a week or two before purchase and then I only buy small amounts.

The OP asked for a supermarket brand though and this is not possible. Illy use tin cans manufactured by themselves to try to ensure freshness though.

John

[XFool]

I have been given coffee that has apparently passed through the digestive system of a Balinese rodent.

Apparently it is quite expensive and delicious.

It remains unopened.

Grasp tail firmly and pull?

[genou]

I have been given coffee that has apparently passed through the digestive system of a Balinese rodent.

Apparently it is quite expensive and delicious.

It remains unopened.

If it hasn't died of old age, you really should try it. It is very good.

[bungeejumper]

I'd agree with this in terms of freshness, I grind my beans right before making my espresso, it is also key how long ago they were roasted, I like my beans to have been roasted no more than a week or two before purchase and then I only buy small amounts.

The OP asked for a supermarket brand though and this is not possible. Illy use tin cans manufactured by themselves to try to ensure freshness though.

I'd agree with all of that. Coffee does lose a little of its freshness, and quite a bit of its initial aroma, if you leave it too long between grinding and drinking. My problem is that I'm too darned busy to want to spend whole minutes creating an ear-splitting racket in the kitchen every time I fancy a brew. Or at any time at all, for that matter.

When I lived in cold-war Germany ("Kinder/Küche/Kirche/Kaffeeklatsch"**), all the supermarkets had coffee grinders in the aisles, where you could select your bag of beans, grind them to your preferred texture, then decant the coffee back into the bag that had contained the beans, and then seal it up and take it to the till. The noise in the shop was dreadful, but it did make it possible to buy smallish amounts of coffee on a regular basis. And the Hausfraus could get through half a kilo in a weekend, no problem....

Nearly 50 years later, I am still using the airtight coffee tin that I bought back in Berlin. Still works well enough for me. I might be converted if there's a silent coffee grinder

BJ

(** "Children, kitchen, church, coffee morning". My word, I hope women are getting a better deal than that these days?)

[genou]

I might be converted if there's a silent coffee grinder

Here you go - https://www.hario.co.uk/products/hario- ... ee-grinder ( tis available elsewhere ) . Not silent, but as near as you are going to get.

[bungeejumper]

When I lived in cold-war Germany ("Kinder/Küche/Kirche/Kaffeeklatsch"**), all the supermarkets had coffee grinders in the aisles, where you could select your bag of beans, grind them to your preferred texture, then decant the coffee back into the bag that had contained the beans, and then seal it up and take it to the till. The noise in the shop was dreadful, but it did make it possible to buy smallish amounts of coffee on a regular basis.

LOL, I've just answered my own question. It seems that the supermarket grinders were generally discontinued in most countries for health and safety reasons. People were using them to grind nuts and wholegrains (imagine the chances of copping a fatal peanut in your coffee?), and some loonies were even trying to mince beef in them.

Meanwhile, the world's children had cottoned onto the idea that you could put anything you liked through the grinder while your mum's back was turned. Pasta, dried peas, boiled sweets, ballpoint pens.

BJ

[tjh290633]

There used to be a shop in Gloucester, Westgate Street near the cross, which roasted coffee. One of the sights and smells before you got to the clock with the quarter boys.

Needless to say, in those days we had Camp Coffee. Is it still available?

TJH

[XFool]

...It is still available. Often used in baking.

[Sobraon]

.. and does make an excellent iced milky coffee in the summer ( still not a coffee connoisseur)

[djbenedict]

I have been given coffee that has apparently passed through the digestive system of a Balinese rodent.

Apparently it is quite expensive and delicious.

It remains unopened.

A cat, not a rodent, I believe. They say it's best if you civet before you drink it. Wikipedia:

Kopi luwak, or civet coffee, is coffee that includes partially digested coffee cherries, eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet. Fermentation occurs as the cherries pass through a civet's intestines, and after being defecated with other fecal matter, they are collected

The Wikipedia article is well worth a full read, in particular the section on animal welfare:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_luwak#Animal_welfare

[djbenedict]

I like coffee made in a cafetière. My view is that any ground coffee is basically fine, but it goes stale very quickly, by which I mean a day or two at most. (It is the staleness which translates to a bitter flavour in the drink, I believe). To avoid vast amounts of waste, therefore, I buy coffee beans and grind just enough at a time to make a cafetière-ful. Interestingly, if you do this, I also find that you don't need to allow the coffee to steep at all - just add the hot water, press and pour. Presumably that is because ground-at-home grounds are much fresher than ground-and-bagged grounds can ever be. In terms of beans, I just buy Waitrose "French blend" beans which seem fine for this approach. Perhaps worth a try?

I'd agree with this in terms of freshness, I grind my beans right before making my espresso, it is also key how long ago they were roasted, I like my beans to have been roasted no more than a week or two before purchase and then I only buy small amounts.

The OP asked for a supermarket brand though and this is not possible. Illy use tin cans manufactured by themselves to try to ensure freshness though.

Diminishing returns, though, don't you think? There is a very significant benefit in reducing grind to brew time. A smaller benefit in reducing roast to grind time. An even smaller benefit in reducing harvest to roast time. And perhaps then, holding these factors constant, one can start to compare more esoteric factors such as origin.

Otherwise, it's like trying to compare wines by opening a bottle, pouring a glass into a plastic bag and then tasting it three weeks later. Yes, there will (perhaps) be appreciable differences. More, maybe, to do with how the flavour profile deteriorates than what it is originally, which is all quite interesting technically, not to mention commercially. But if you are interested in drinking something pleasant, the more significant difference comes from opening the bottle and tasting it directly.

[todthedog]

I find lidl columbian ground quite acceptable, stored in air tight tin.

[bungeejumper]

Interesting, thanks. So I'll ask the £500 question. Are any of these bean-to-cup coffee machines as good as doing it the hard way? Any recs?

Admittedly, it'll take a lot to part me from my trusty Krups 963, , which has been getting me out of bed in the mornings for some 35 years now, but I'm listening carefully.

Maybe I should say that Krups are presumably joking when they say it makes four cups? I find that an entire Krups jugfull (about half a pint) goes down in one large breakfast mugfull of latte in this house, and then I probably won't have another hot drink all day after that. (I never really got the hang of drinking tea.)

Am I overdosing? C'mon, If I'd put the same volume of ground coffee (heaped tablespoon) into a cafetiere, nobody would have turned a hair at me downing a frothy mugfull of it. Would they?

BJ