I do most of my listening in the afternoon.... so I drink a double shot of espresso. Or two.
Besides, there's no coffee table in our living room. so not much space to put a drink.
Besides, there's no coffee table in our living room. so not much space to put a drink.
Ha ha, funny you wrote that Tony. I've just been listening after having a double shot of my current favourite from a local small roaster, Brewed Awakening - their 'Amazon Mist' single origin coffee. Lovely!
As it happens, my brother (a retired restaurateur) keeps himself busy working for another coffee roaster run by an old school friend of mine, so I have good options. This is a much larger enterprise.
https://www.leafbeanmachine.com.au/
As it happens, my brother (a retired restaurateur) keeps himself busy working for another coffee roaster run by an old school friend of mine, so I have good options. This is a much larger enterprise.
https://www.leafbeanmachine.com.au/
I treat my coffee like my turntable. Only one at a time.
Currently we use a Profitec 500 with a Eureka Mignon Libra grinder. For drip we use a "normal" Cuissinart with a Bataza Virtuoso grinder. Over the years we've found out that the grinder is as important as the coffee machine, just as the electronic preamp is as important as the electro-mechanic al turntable. For coffee we use Lavatza and Illy, for drip we use the Costco "green" bag "roasted by Starbucks".
We found that the coffee is to grinder to to machine as the LP is to the preamp is to the turntable..... the best the grinder/machine is the better it can extract the goodness in the coffee... just as feeding a MoFi 45RPM can be astonishing.
Right now I'm on my second cup of drip... the Profitec is warming up... we give it about an hour. Then we grind 19.5 gm directly into the portafilter.. and follow the routine. My madness did stop, for the time being, at buying an automatic damper. They were on sale last weekend...
Currently we use a Profitec 500 with a Eureka Mignon Libra grinder. For drip we use a "normal" Cuissinart with a Bataza Virtuoso grinder. Over the years we've found out that the grinder is as important as the coffee machine, just as the electronic preamp is as important as the electro-mechanic al turntable. For coffee we use Lavatza and Illy, for drip we use the Costco "green" bag "roasted by Starbucks".
We found that the coffee is to grinder to to machine as the LP is to the preamp is to the turntable..... the best the grinder/machine is the better it can extract the goodness in the coffee... just as feeding a MoFi 45RPM can be astonishing.
Right now I'm on my second cup of drip... the Profitec is warming up... we give it about an hour. Then we grind 19.5 gm directly into the portafilter.. and follow the routine. My madness did stop, for the time being, at buying an automatic damper. They were on sale last weekend...
I 'm drinking Pacifico Clara - I used to drink IPAs (Sierra Nevada Torpedo was my fave at the time), but the lower alcohol in Mexican beers (4.4% vs. 7.5% for the Torpedo) is better for my overall health. I'm 71 after all, and it's a privilege to be able to wake up each morning.
Pacifico Clara is a great beer on a hot afternoon... goes wonderfully with chips and salsa and carnitas. I make sure not to bring lemons or limes anywhere close to my Mexican "clear" beers though... ugh!
The other one that we drink at home is Negra Modelo.
IPAs are an acquired test. Myself I prefer 9% and above.. you might want to try Lagunitas IPA which is 6.5 or so. All the taste, less alcohol.
I'll be 66 soon. 71 is nothing nowdays.
I wonder, at 66, will I become the Anti-Messiah? When I turned 33, I realized I wasn't the Messiah so I had kids....
What does the Anti-Messiah drink? Blood red orange juice and cheap vodka?
The other one that we drink at home is Negra Modelo.
IPAs are an acquired test. Myself I prefer 9% and above.. you might want to try Lagunitas IPA which is 6.5 or so. All the taste, less alcohol.
I'll be 66 soon. 71 is nothing nowdays.
I wonder, at 66, will I become the Anti-Messiah? When I turned 33, I realized I wasn't the Messiah so I had kids....
What does the Anti-Messiah drink? Blood red orange juice and cheap vodka?
I do not drink often while listening, but when I drink it's this :
La Liqueur des Pères Chartreux : both exquisite and healing !
T
La Liqueur des Pères Chartreux : both exquisite and healing !
T
A funny detail from the good ole times ...
Before Sweden entering EU, the rules what and how much you could bring to Sweden was strictly limited: 1 litre of strong alcoholic drinks, 1 litre wine and 2 litres of beer. The thing was a bit to go for the %. But there was an upper limit of 65% (can be +/- a few%) so the thing was to bring as much alcohol as possible and Chartreux was the way to go.
Yesterday evening:
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I dont know anything about coffee, so anything any good would probably be wasted on me. I buy whatever "Grocery Outlet" is selling and stock up on Starbucks in a freezer for lean times when they have nothing to offer that week, which is more often than not lately. Luckily I grind using a stops busted off Cuisinart "toy" grinder to get a little finer, so I can make use of the whole bean offerings.
I'm down to 1 cup a day on most days; had two today as I bought a second at the Sunday incarnation of the open mic. I use a standard Starbucks machine, but with the guts hogged out of the portafilter making it "naked" - the basket bottom fully exposed. Neither machine will die it seems. I have backups. The counter area where I prepare is perpetually a mess.
I'm down to 1 cup a day on most days; had two today as I bought a second at the Sunday incarnation of the open mic. I use a standard Starbucks machine, but with the guts hogged out of the portafilter making it "naked" - the basket bottom fully exposed. Neither machine will die it seems. I have backups. The counter area where I prepare is perpetually a mess.
I encountered Voodoo Ranger IPA (9%) when I bought it on sale at my local grocer. I was wondering why I was getting messed up after just a couple of bottles until I took a look and noticed the alcohol content... It doesn't really taste all that nice, either. My fave is still Sierra Nevada Torpedo, which is nice and hoppy and still tolerable at 7.5%.
Any beer with the name "Voodoo" in it. A fellow player turned me onto "Dark Star" which they have at the open mic cafe. 8% - he says "It's like drinking two beers in one!".
I bought a naked portafilter off Aliexpress, believe it or not, and it was of excellent quality.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005102824412.html
My son-in-law recently gave me a bottle of Balvenie 14 Caribbean Cask scotch that someone had given him. I'm not typically a scotch drinker, but damn this stuff is fine!
Tonight is Pierre Ferrand Cognac while watching Keira Knightley's new series.
Tonight is Pierre Ferrand Cognac while watching Keira Knightley's new series.
( not today ) But on Friday night I got into some Vodka with a selection of real juices.
I have discovered a really good Australian Made Vodka that is charcoal filtered and triple distilled.
Not only am I supporting 'Australian Made', but it also fits my very low level of income. It is called NOSTROVIA 🙂
I have discovered a really good Australian Made Vodka that is charcoal filtered and triple distilled.
Not only am I supporting 'Australian Made', but it also fits my very low level of income. It is called NOSTROVIA 🙂
I love Voodoo Ranger IPA. I got a case of it at home.
Sierra Nevada Torpedo is also very good. I got two six packs in the garage drinks fridge.
I find that it all becomes moot if you have a nice double vodka martini or tonic before dinner. The beer then is just an accomplice for the meal and you don't get (any more) buzzed.
;-)
We got three portafilters... single, double and a bottomless with a triple basket. Our machine is an E61 group head affair with three gauges, a PID display and two levers and two knobs, plus the wands for hot water and steam.
The grinder is an entirely complimentary affair with build in scale, display, knob, etc...
With it, I can grind perfectly weighted and ground doses and manually control the pull flow profile.
Manual, baby, manual... just like my stereo... lights, switches, knobs, levers, chrome, gauges...
The end result is espresso porn... you ought to see it when the sunlight hits the machine from the right, through the window. Coffee porn. I take videos of it.
Our coffee making stations ( drip and espresso ) are spotless.
I drink three cups of drip and two double shots per day. I have no issue with drinking a double shot of espresso at 4PM and going to sleep at 11PM.
What is a "standard Starbucks machine"? My sister is a big shot (*) at Starbucks HQ and she has the fancy "standard" machines which don't hold a candle to mine.
(*) Hmm... that is a pun, huh? But, yeah, sometimes she deals directly with the CEO. No kidding. The drip at her house is delicious but she's not much into espresso. Her Starbucks branded machine is just so so...
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I'd sure like to see some pics, or a link to the video if you have it. I guess the std Starbucks machines I have are the rebranded Saeco build, similar to this one;
I cant remember if I've ever had one die. I was pushing on the current in use machine by running the boiler hot (as you would for steam), then using that hotter water for a "pull". The machine itself got so hot and I'd miss the few minute window to come up more often than not, so I gave up on the let's try to kill the machine idea, which I didnt; still working fine.
To add to the bizarre, I use any "milk" I can get my hands on, besides cow. Usually almond, sometimes coconut, or cashew.