How to Brew Coffee Like I Brew Coffee

I gave up daily coffee in the 1990s. It was the time of the latte and I was living in the Pacific Northwest. But I didn't need the jolt first thing in the morning every morning. Not that I avoided the coffee shop - it's just that when I did have a latte, I really enjoyed it.

Having kids changed all that.

If you're doing something every day, you might as well get good at it, right? So now I am quite um, detailed, about my coffee brewing. The technique is simple and foolproof. It's a mix of a bunch of slightly different methods from Blue Bottle Coffee, Cook's Illustrated, and even Alton Brown's Good Eats (the Espresso episode). I follow this every weekend and holiday morning. And the coffee it makes is consistent and awesome.

Ingredients

  • 1 French Press
  • Coffee beans & a way to grind them; if you must buy pre-ground, you want a coarser grind for a French Press
  • A bamboo chopstick
  • A kitchen timer
  • Water & vessel to boil it in

Perparation

  1. Start water boiling. 
  2. Prep your press. For me this means putting it in the sink so grounds don't go all over the kitchen.
  3. When the water boils, remove it from heat. You want just less than boiling, so do a couple of things just before pouring. Like...
  4. Grind your beans and put the grounds in the press. 
  5. Pour the water. Get all the grounds wet.
  6. Stir well with the chopstick. Get all the grounds submerged. You should have a little light-brown froth at the top.
  7. Cover and wait 4 minutes. Yes, use the timer.
  8. Prep your cup(s). Now would be the time to add cream and/or sugar to the bottom of a waiting cup.
  9. Pour.
  10. Drink. I find the coffee gets awesome after another 2 or 3 minutes. About sip number three.

If you don't yet have a grinder, start with about 2 tablespoons per 6oz of water. Adjust up or down over time until you find your optimal amount. I use a burr grinder that has a setting for number of cups so I don't even think about it any more.

Yes, the bamboo chopstick makes a difference over a metal spoon.

There are plenty of places to get coffee beans. Keep trying until you find ones you like - find a local roaster and you will be rewarded.

Don't have the gear yet? Then buy what you're missing at my Amazon.com mini-store.

Remember your coffee grounds are compostable. Or if you have roses, azaleas, or camelias, rinse & drain your press in the garden. Your flowers will be super happy. Eventually, coffee grounds are supposed to make biodiesel. But that's another show.

Links

On Required Reading

A couple of years ago, I was home, doing the whole "late-thirties-cleaning-out-old-crap" thing at my mom's house and came across a cache of books from school. Most of them were tossable, but I came across The Great Gatsby and immediately felt guilty. Like many books during high school, I scanned Gatsby more than read. I used some weird speed-reading talents to get by versus truly understanding. And Gatsby, for some reason, was one I felt like I should revisit. Give it the real treatment. Attention.

I took it home, started it and didn't get very far. A few pages in and I was looking at words instead of reading them. Thinking about my day, issues at work, anything but what was on the page. Very odd.

Was it the style? The topic? Something subtler?

I put it aside and picked up another book that I was supposed to have read back then: Catcher in the Rye. I loved it. Back to Gatsby, then.

No dice. Nothing but distraction.

Why?

It took a bit, but I remembered that I never had Salinger assigned to read. 

I read a lot. All the time. Lots of magazines. Lots of books. Lots of websites. But why can't I read something I was told to read. Twenty-five years ago. I don't get it.

Here's the good news. Gatsby's copyright lapsed before the Hollywood-driven, perpetual copyright new order. So I now have a (free) copy of Gatsby on my Kindle ready for me to read.

Not because I have to.

Because I want to.

Reading is FUNdamental, after all.

 

I spent 3 hours today throwing out everything but the CDs in my CD collection...

I'm only about halfway done. Things that got recycled:
  • All the booklets & liner notes
  • All the jewel cases
  • All the back cards (yes, I opened each jewel case)
There were some with collector value - semi-rare Euro-singles, a couple of autographs, and some cool releases of interest. But I'd barely opened the drawers that hold my CDs in years except to find something that I didn't manage to have ripped yet.

It hurt a bit. But it was like ripping off a bandage. After a little momentum I was well on my way to getting rid of a lot of paper and plastic that had been moved from Atlanta, to Athens, to Atlanta, to Princeton Junction, to Portland, to Oakland, to San Francisco to Burlingame over the past 22 years. 

Most of what I buy now is digital. But I still do like (a bit) having a "final" backup. And very soon - before the end of this weekend - my 6+ drawers of CDs will be down to one. My recycle cart will have some nice bulk for this week. And I will have one less "stuff stressor" in my life.

Harry Potter and the Inevitable Reboot

Our household has returned to a full-fledged Harry Potter infection. Our 9-year-old has made it to book 5, we've just re-watched movie 6 (which means opening the book once again to check for differences) and the Harry Potter Lego game is on the Wii. C's ducked out to watch movie 7.1 while I prefer to watch all of The Hallows at once next year.

In a few years, after all the Pensieve-Edition-on-Fuscia-Ray discs come out and the revenue streams dry up, what will JK do? Will she allow a reboot? Does she have a choice?

Here's my modest proposal: make an animated serial.

With the exception of maybe the first book, the 2-to-5 hour format just isn't enough to build a completely satisfying story. So free yourself of the time constraints and make "more" from each book. Make as many half-hour episodes as needed. Yes there will still be edits - video is different from text. But there should be a way to welcome back Ludo Bagman, the Wronsky Feint, Winky the house elf, and S.P.E.W to an expanded Goblet of Fire (feel free to contact me with what we think is missing from the other books).

There are plenty of digital assets from the movies, so re-use them. I'm neutral on performance capture - but I don't feel the need for photo-realism. Do what makes sense. But while the principals are still with us at least throw them in a voice-recording studio. How can anyone ever be Snape other than Alan Rickman?

As for distribution, it's going to take at least 10 years for all this to play out. Warner Bros. will want to do something new for The Boy Who Lived, settle rights, and then get production started. By then I imagine we'll have settled how audiences will watch this version. But some mix of HBO & online streaming makes the most sense. Play it right on TV and you could string it out 4 or 5 years.

Meanwhile, I need to plan a trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando...