Help make me delicious coffee

[bacon]

I usually buy the 'taste the difference' Costa rican instant which is one of the best coffees I can find.

Want to make coffee from beans. My father used to make his own mix and then hand grind but I'm not willing to do this. I want to buy grinded beans and make coffee with a cafeteria or percolator. with the same taste and depth of the instant but better. I dont want it too strong or too rich.

Can anyone help me?

Bialetti Brikka coffee pot, using Lavazza coffee. Heaven.

Aeropress looks fiddly but is really easy when you've used it a couple of times. It's lightweight, the filters can be reused and it makes fabulous coffee. No I don't work there :)

We use a cafetiere and grind beans from whole: it takes two seconds with one of these: www.amazon.co.uk/Krups-Twin-Blade-Coffee-Mill/dp/B00004SPEU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314006199&sr=8-1

We buy no more than one vacuum sealed bag of beans at a time so it doesn't go stale, and store it in one of those lock&lock containers with an airtight seal in the cupboard. I think purists say after 2 weeks a bag of beans is past its prime but I don't notice any difference until about a month after it's been opened.

When we put the ground coffee in our 1L cafetiere, it's usually a bit less than an inch of coffee in the bottom - then pour over water that's boiled but we've let sit for about 30 seconds (DH sometimes pours it out of the kettle just at the boil like you would for tea but it smells burned to me). Then stir with a spoon, put the press on, let sit for a couple of minutes, and press the filter down really slowly, pour immediately.

And to burnish our bleeding heart liberal credentials, when we can we buy fairtrade shade-grown coffee to help the birds as well as the farmers

After trying almost every coffee maker known to man or woman we have concluded that the normal coffee filter papers and plastic filter you can buy in the best supermkts or health food shops makes the very best coffee. It's also the cheapest way (but that isn't why we do it!!)

IMO to guarantee superb flavour beans or ground buy Arabica. I buy ground decaff fairtrade like tylperion!! organic. DH buys and grinds freshly Bolivian organic (I know this sounds like we are so up ourselves but we do like the best flavour) It is best to put the filtered water in just before it comes to the boil. And never reheat.

I admit it I am a complete coffee snob I have tried filter machine - quickly tastes burnt, cafetiere - ready ground even kept in air tight container in fridge quickly looses punch, buying beans from supermarket don't even get me started. I will accept that buying beans from a specialist supplier keeping them in the freezer grinding from frozen and then making in cafetiere gives a good coffee, but the faff. Don't even get me started on instant it is not coffee.
So after 20 years of trying things I have come down to the Nespresso maker yes per cup it is more expensive than all of the above ways, but it has got rid of my weekly Starbucks habit that was £9 a week so in the long run is a cost saving. Plus I can have a proper latte, expresso or capuccino in a couple of minutes.
Finally as previously said, you should always use filtered water.

Cheers!!!

My water is currently raw - with the friendly little creatures. So no need to filter as no chemicals.

So where do you source your beans from then?

What do you do with the milk - is it full fat, frothy, etc?

I use those little filter things too they are great and easy. Went to a friend's house once who put condensed milk in her coffee, it tasted lovely!

You can get a good selection of beans from waitrose or health food shops. If you fancy a trip to London (they do mail order and have a website as well) the Algerian Coffee store in Old Compton street, Soho is an Aladdin's cave and an experience in itself ;the smells are enough to send you to coffee heaven !! it has the most fab coffees,teas, chocolates known to man.

IMO milk is a very personal thing 'cos i make a cappuccino i use frothy soya milk (You will grimace at that bacon!) but it froths more than cows cos it has no fat. DH uses cream.

The CafeDirect Machu Picchu one is fab - hint of chocolate.
I use the ready-ground one in a cafetiere and keep it rolled up in an elastic band in the fridge and the flavour keeps very well for a couple months.

Seconding the Old Compton St shop.

Oh i forgot bacon the leftover coffee and grounds are both a great plant food (we have a completely healthy 20 yr old indoor cheese plant fed almost entirely on leftover coffee!!) and the grounds keep snails and slugs off yr best flowers and or baby veg.(they hate the caffeine and texture apparently!)

I get my coffee beans from Hasbean and they are much nicer than supermarket ones; really, really good coffee. I grind them in a burr grinder and use Italian espresso machine (actually I have trained my dd to be my personal barister!) It's a lovely part of my morning routine. Am considering buying a bean roaster and roasting green coffee beans at home...[goes off in a coffee daydream...]

Like Clockface said, If you do ever decide to go all out, I really recommend grinding your own immediately before using a good espresso machine. We've been doing this daily for 7 years and "cost per cup" is now teeny (where once it was eye watering in the beginning). It takes no longer than making an instant and actually is an enjoyable process. And oh my, I can't actually drink instant any more, the difference in quality has changed my taste entirely.

Tbh Bacon if I were you I'd get a grinder and grind your own beans (literally 1 or 2 mins a day) then use a cafitiere. Just make sure that the water is not boiling but just off-boiling, as it's boiling water that makes the coffee taste burnt. I was hosting a coffee morning which usually serves bought-ground coffee brewed in a percolator but I used my own machine and ground the beans on the morning - everyone said it was much better coffee than normal. Maybe I'm a bit of a coffee snob too!

Buy grinder, gaggia is excellent and reasonably priced, E bay good port of call, Why gaggia?, because it grinds bean to perfection, base for good coffee.
Invest in a good stainless steel cafitiere and use you freshly ground "Lavazza"red crema gusto or already ground "Lavazza" red crema gusto, we also find "House of Harrogate" lazy sunday, superb.
Tip, always warm cafitiere with boiling water for 20 to 30 sec, prior to making coffee.

Yes i second the gaggia grinder; ours is fab and it has lasted for years maybe costs more than most but you get what you pay for IMO.

I would still choose paper filters and the plastic holder above all the cafetieres and mind bogglingly techie barista machines for flavour. strict we used to drink Lavvazza but the Arabica beans, especially the Bolivian ones from The Algerian Coffee stores are better !!

I have just had the nicest coffee ever, home and away, from the Krups nespresso machine and matching aeroccino milk frother that arrived this morning. Proper thick frothy milk without having to wait five minutes for the espresso machine to recover itself! If I can keep myself out of cafes for the next, er, two months, it'll have paid for itself.

Cafetiere is good if used right with single estate coffee. You need a blend for an espresso machine. If i didn't want any faff I'd go the Nespresso route.

I buy Lavazza - the one in the red/blue packet. Amazing.

As far as milk's concerned, the best flavour is unpasteurised whole milk but the best froth is skimmed.