Any coffee dorks?

I like Vahalla Java. Advertised as having more caffeine than most coffees, and I personally like the taste.

I’ve been drinking this for years and years. Prices go up and down. I used to use it for espresso, now I use it on an aeropress.

It is very dark, French roast. You may find it too dark. They also have a non-biodynamic version which I have not tried.

How to describe the taste. I find most medium coffees too sour for me. Occasionally they are acceptable. I know all the complaints about charred beans. It just doesn’t matter to me. I apparently like the charr. (I think because I drink my coffee black it changes my perception. The fine medium/light roasts seem to pair well with milk but I don’t like them black.)

Tully’s French Roast in my Keurig.Just plain and simple suits me.

Folgers in my Black & Decker because like @schurem I like it nasty.

I’m going to try a bag of each. Currently I go with this. It makes a decent cup of joe for the price.:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N4JBH3X?th=1

I have a drip coffee maker so fancy ends up a little better but not crazy better. I could use a better drip coffee maker. That being said, Folgers has and always will be our backup coffee. It’s the same every time, and we always have a small container of it for when it’s too early to grind beans without waking up someone else. As much as we can be coffee dorks, we’re practical coffee dorks.

Actually come to think of it… I think that might be one of the few coffee methods I’ve never tried.

Hmmm…

I actually really like moka pot coffee. It’s my go-to for camping—the pot, plus a little alcohol burner and a foil windbreak, fit neatly into one of my pack’s pockets.

I have one of these (10 cup version, IIRC). It’s great. Per note, though, it is drip coffee, so has a different mouth feel than you get from an aeropress.

edit: the moka pots are great, and more likely the sort of coffee you’re looking for. They’re a bit more effort to use and clean than the Technivorms, though. Not bad, just worth keeping in mind that they’re not fire-and-forget like a drip.

Any idea why they don’t have one with a programmable timer? I mean, I get it, they are niche for awesome drip, but still?

Not sure; I’ve wondered that, too. Maybe they’re appeal to the “grind the beans immediately before brewing” crowd?

I do that or have done that. I figure I gave up a bit of that when I switched back to drip. But the option of a timer is such a low cost thing that it makes me question who made that as a design choice. Saying, “you don’t need a timer because you should be grinding and immediately making your coffee,” for a drip coffee pot? Eh, pretentious if you ask me. For my old super automatic, sure, or for anything where I’m going for a richer mouthfeel or decent crema.

Yeah, I tend to agree. I wish it had a timer even though I do still grind immediately before brewing. I don’t know what the actual reason is. That’s just all I can think of. Heck, it may be as simple as a minimalist design ethic. “Do this one thing and do it well, with no extras.”

There is certainly something to be said for doing one thing, extremely well.

I guess you could game it with a wall socket timer, maybe?

EDIT: I guess I should have read their website:

"Moccamaster does not recommend programmable timers for brewing at a later time. Leaving water in the reservoir or coffee in the brew-basket overnight causes the water to go flat and the coffee stale by morning. Good coffee starts with fresh water and fresh coffee.

It’s the first thing you look forward to in the morning, why not make it the best it can be? After all, it only takes 6-minutes to brew a full carafe of coffee."

Dear Pretentious People,
I’d rather use a timer. You should probably not sell models with a hot plate. After all, it only takes 6-minutes to brew a full carafe of coffee and any that sits on a hot plate more than five minutes tastes like complete ass.

Love,
Skipper

I had a conversation with a friend who worked for a hard drive company complaining why the external hard drive didn’t have a power switch. He told me a story a coworker told him. Years ago they had an external and they put in a power switch. Those things have a certain capacitance or whatever. Instead of a 500umf or whatever they put in a 1000 umf. Higher = better right? Anyway they experienced very high failure rates. The reason was that the switches are designed to be self cleaning from the spark of power on. The bigger one expected a bigger spark so it wouldn’t self clean. They oxidized and stopped working. The moral of the story is they don’t add features unless they really really have to (like when marketing makes shit up).

Yeah, totally agree about the hot plate. I got a model without one for exactly that reason.

Honestly, I wish I had the self discipline to use the moka pot, or even the french press, every morning. I just don’t. I’m tired and grumpy and I just want near zero effort decent coffee.

Good point about the extra feature aspects, too. Unintended consequences and all that.

An aeropress is a French press without the wait or the cleanup (well, not exactly, but close enough).

Wirecutter recommends OXO’s take on the Technivorm Moccamaster-style drip maker. OXO’s has a timer!

OXO is just great in general. Everything I buy from them is as close to perfect as can be.

I’ve been using this for about a year and a half. It’s perfectly lovely. And it doesn’t have a hot plate 😝

My only issue is that in the winter, my coffee was pretty cold very soon after brewing. I soon realized it’s because the stainless steel carafe was too chilly in the morning and needed to be primed by flushing it with hot water before I brewed. So I stopped using the timer in order to do that. But maybe it’s because I’m an energy conservation freak and I let the temp drop to 18C (64.4F) overnight in my house.