Bobberman
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2437
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2010 10:31 pm
Location: Latrobe Pa.

Started drinking coffee this past year!

I never liked coffee except to dip buttered toast in it when I was in High school! Since then I never drank it much till now . The reason I started drinking it is it is suppose to be a laxative and it seems to work! I was drinking it with the coffee mate milk type mixes like hazelnut or French vanilla. After reading about the hydrogenated oils in the mix I started just using milk and honey. That still made it taste terrible to me and sugar helped some but just lately I added brown sugar and now its pretty good. What do you add to you coffee? I make mine in the microwave with instant decaf! One cup in the morning is enough for me! Starting to drink coffee at a regular basis at age 70 must be a first!

User avatar
webmaster
Site Admin
Posts: 9478
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2004 12:59 pm
Location: Amherst, MA USDA Zone 5a

I suspect the reason people add sugar and cream to coffee is because it doesn't taste good and that it doesn't taste good because the coffee isn't really coffee or of a poor quality. The instant stuff isn't really coffee. It's a coffee blend with other stuff in it like chicory root and goodness knows what.

The first time I had espresso I was surprised at how little there was in the tiny cup and when I tasted it I have to confess to feeling confused and unsure and taken aback at the concentrated taste. I almost didn't take another sip. It was confusing because it was the first time I had ever experienced the true flavor of coffee, what coffee is supposed to taste like.

We buy an el cheapo (similar to Trader Joes) light roast coffee ($4.99/lb) by the beans and grind it on the espresso setting at the store. Light roast has more caffeine in it. I've done side by side tasting of more expensive beans and can attest there is no difference. I suspect they're the same high quality roasted beans but packaged as the store brand's house label.

My wife drinks it with a little milk in it. I drink it straight beause I enjoy the flavor of good coffee. :)

I heard a comic remark about those Frappucino-type drinks, calling them milkshakes. I think there's been a lot of tricks played to get us to drink coffee by disguising it as something else and giving it a fancy name. But really, coffee can taste good on it's own and doesn't need to be buried in a milkshake to be enjoyed.

That said, I have to confess to enjoying an Italian treat called an Affogato, which is a small dollop of ice cream with hot espresso poured over it. I first discovered it thirty years ago at an Italian cafe in North Beach in San Francisco. Refreshing on a warm summer day when you need a little kick!

valley
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1335
Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:25 am
Location: ranches in sierra nevada mountains California & Navada high desert

Greetings, Make a good cup of coffee, a real cup OF. If enough coffee is brewed,{ enough per cup] there isn't need for sugar.
Eating something with the coffee is the, piece de resistance. Something like halva or paklava is perfect, but anything with a bit of sweet to it will round up the flavor.

My first love is Armenian Coffee. The beans ground fine as flower. brewed in a surgaman {a special pot}.

But mostly we use a good coffee maker, grinding in the manor described above. Here I use a Brewmatic Diplomat II, at the Nevada ranch a equally good machine: the water has to be hot enough.

Instant coffee, isn't coffee, not in the true sense of the word.

First time we/I were in Australia, I wasn't able to wake up for days. They drink tea, would you rather have coffee? wife's auntie asked me, Yes, yes please. She brought out instant coffee, I drank a cup, but I had to say: " isn't coffee" yes, its coffee, she said.
It wasn't until, by the river in Brisbane at a shop built for the World Fair. I asked do you have coffee? Yes!, Let me see the beans. I was permitted inside where they had the makings, showed me the machine. With the cup of, freshly made, sitting by the river, I guarded the cup, from the familie children dancing round. I woke up, after nearly two week, to the sound of the Brisbane River, the birds and joined the happy people gathered there.

Coffee was at the time $18 a small can, looked like less than a pound, it is considered a luxury in Oz.

Oh! sorry you didn't ask for that. I was on Jupiter for a moment and just typed what I was thinking.

Richard

User avatar
Cola82
Green Thumb
Posts: 381
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2013 1:05 pm
Location: McMinnville, Oregon, Zone 8b

We buy fresh beans, but I keep telling the boyfriend he has to get the pre-packed kind with the bag that lets out the CO2. He always just gets beans from a dispenser in a paper bag, and they go stale pretty much immediately. You get maybe one good pot depending on how long the beans were in the humid plastic dispenser at the market. When they pack them at the processing plant in the bag with the valve, they stay much fresher.

As for espresso, I've only ever had one truly drinkable cup of espresso. I've gotten it all over, even at some very fancy roasters in Portland who serve it with a shot-glass of seltzer water to wash it down. The only one that I actually liked so much that I could sip it was at a place here in Mac called Community Plate. The food was extremely overrated, very bland. It's the satellite restaurant of this very, uh, hip foodie--the conceit is that he set it up for people who couldn't afford his main restaurant. Honestly, it doesn't inspire me to go to any of his restaurants ever again unless I'm in the mood for sipable espresso. It was light, faintly sweet, and had that coffee taste you get in coffee ice cream or something, not the acrid note from a pot that gets a lot of use. It had a nice, thin, dense foamy head to it. It didn't need anything added at all.

I've been drinking coffee since I was five years old. Before you blast my parents or anything, I kept insisting. Letting me have the odd cup of coffee was kind of like showing your friends that weird trick your kid can do. I would beg for coffee, mostly probably because I always wanted to sit at the grown ups' table and listen to them talk. I was always political and opinionated and I wanted them to take me seriously. Coffee was probably part of that. Although I never had the faintest interest in smoking. By the time I was ten I was sneaking off with my friends to a coffee house and getting milky way mochas and other blended coffee drinks.

It hasn't engendered a really sophisticated appreciation of coffee, but I know a good cup when I drink one.

valley
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1335
Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:25 am
Location: ranches in sierra nevada mountains California & Navada high desert

Hi Cola, We get beans in pack, like you say, with valves. Once you open the pack no more valve. Coffee can last a long time. In the Caucasus we bought coffee from open barrels, when ground it was full and rich. Once ground it will lose quickly. Father told me this when I was young, young but I ground a large volume anyway, he was right again, even in a closed container it died.

We grind coffee just before each cup/cups if made in a surgaman or each pot if made with a machine. We get coffee at large stores where it is sold in the 3 or 5lb plastic with valves. They have coffee mills there and I see people grinding several pounds at a time, I never do that.

Small bur mills can be gotten inexpensively, blade mills are a last resort.

Richard

Bobberman
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2437
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2010 10:31 pm
Location: Latrobe Pa.

I drink decaf because I am afraid to become attached to the caffeine. Are you sure its the coffee you like or the high you get from the caffeine!

User avatar
PunkRotten
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1989
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:48 pm
Location: Monterey, CA.

I don't drink coffee the caffeine wires me up. You can buy roasted Dandelion root and it taste similar to coffee, but no caffeine and it is detoxifying to boot. I use coconut sugar or this other organic, unbleached, raw sugar that still has some molasses in it. Both give it a slight caramel taste.

valley
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1335
Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:25 am
Location: ranches in sierra nevada mountains California & Navada high desert

At the time of the Australia the caffeine was surly in play. Right now I drink decaf except sometimes in the morning.

Uncle Arnold didn't notice the difference when he came to the visit at the Nevada ranch.


Richard

User avatar
Cola82
Green Thumb
Posts: 381
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2013 1:05 pm
Location: McMinnville, Oregon, Zone 8b

I don't get decaf. I think if you don't want coffee, tea is just fine. I love tea, man. It's hot, and you can control the caffeine content without sacrificing deliciousness.

User avatar
rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Yeah, I don't quite see the point of starting to drink coffee if you don't really like the taste and you don't want the caffeine. I make lots of yummy herbal tea blends from my garden herbs.

Sweyn
Senior Member
Posts: 211
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:15 am
Location: UK

Bobberman wrote:I never liked coffee except to dip buttered toast in it when I was in High school! Since then I never drank it much till now . The reason I started drinking it is it is suppose to be a laxative and it seems to work!
Olive oil is much more effective for that purpose. If you drink a spoonful, either a teaspoon or a tablespoon, it doesn't matter; on its own. It tastes bad but, it gets things moving. You can get rid of the taste by drinking water, immediately afterwards.

It has another, interesting use. For people who have problems with excessive ear wax, it is a very effective treatment. Just tilt your head and put a tiny bit of olive oil in your ear. Let it sit for a minute or two with your head tilted, then wipe out the ear with a bit of twisted tissue. It breaks up the wax even more effectively than substances that can be acquired from chemists/pharmacies.

MB3
Full Member
Posts: 50
Joined: Tue Feb 11, 2014 9:18 pm
Location: Cbus, Ohio

I love good coffee. but I also love tea.
sometimes I can't take the caffeine in coffee, also, and my tummy can't always take it in general.

Sweyn
Senior Member
Posts: 211
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:15 am
Location: UK

MB3 wrote:I love good coffee. but I also love tea.
sometimes I can't take the caffeine in coffee, also, and my tummy can't always take it in general.
It's worth remembering that coffee is a laxative.

Bobberman
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2437
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2010 10:31 pm
Location: Latrobe Pa.

Well I think I found the perfect taste of coffee for me. I tried the coffee mate and some of the other sweeteners but they are bad for your liver. I now use honey and brown sugar and it taste great along with some regular milk! Not BAD!

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13999
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Actually, I rarely drink coffee, but when I do, I drink it black. But, as others have said you do need to get a quality cup of coffee. Decaf coffee has been treated and it will always not taste as good as the real thing. Unless you can drink a whole pot of brewed coffee, decaf turns bitter sooner. You can get a French press and make a smaller amount.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B4n-iUW_wI

If you have to make more than one cup, then freeze the rest immediately. It won't be bitter that way. It freezes well in an ice cube tray and you can make iced coffee that way.

One cup of coffee shouldn't keep you wired, especially if you drink it in the morning.

I only drink coffee when I want to stay awake or warm. It is not the coffee that keeps me awake , it is the stomach ache. Coffee is a mild diuretic, but since I am lactose intolerant, if I put cream in, it will have a laxative effect.

There are better ways to do that. Exercise regularly (preferably in the garden), or do a lot of walking (get a dog, it will need to be walked regularly), eat your greens for the fiber and reduce the amount of meat you eat. Eat lots of frui: papaya, prunes and figs are great for keeping you regular.

User avatar
shadylane
Green Thumb
Posts: 456
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:42 am
Location: North Central Illinois

Thanks Imafan, for the coffee making lesson for a French press. That is a far better way to have coffee. I purchased one years ago, when Mr. Coffee left us out and dry for mechanical reasons.

I like the bold taste with cream and sugar. I read an article "Get Jazzed About Java" from "Eating Well" magazine. The American Heart Association found that coffee boosted their blood flow, and reduces your risk of having a heart attack, heart disease and stroke. Stating that caffeine opens up blood vessels and has anti-inflammatory properties.
The American Journal of Epidemiology states...It can cut your risk of oral cancer...developing in the throat or mouth, having two cups daily and those drinking four cups states your chances are even higher cutting cancer by 50%.

I like the taste never thought it was good for me. :-()

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13999
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Yeah, when people had heart attacks they would eliminate all of their caffeine from their diet. But, for some people the stress of caffeine withdrawal was just as bad. I think in the end, the consensus was that one cup of coffee in the morning was not going to irreparably harm anyone and a little stimulation in the morning helps a body get moving. It is a better alternative to the amounts of caffeine in Jolt or 5-hour energy. Of course we are talking about a regular cup of coffee, not the extra large version.

Chocolate and tea also have some caffeine as well, unless you get a non-stimulant herbal tea. Sodas, energy drinks, I'm a Spammer and just wasted my time - Delete this thread, breath fresheners, sunflower seeds, morning spark instant oatmeal, and yes even decaf coffee (not all of it is removed. It does have less than regular coffee though)



Return to “Non-Gardening Related Hoo-ha and Foo”