care-tags.org

probably a strange question, but does anyone know of a coffee grinder that either

(a) has a crank that is just a knob
(b) is solar powered [as in charges via sunlight]
(c) looks like a grinder that teens use for pot

#visitcalifornia

here is a collage of all the bags of coffee I drank in 2015.

27 bags total
9620 grams total (roughly, some of the flight bags were 16oz but I can't remember which)
I use 17grams for each cup using aeropress so that equates to roughly 545 cups of brewed coffee. I used AP on weekdays, chemex and FP on weekends.



George Howell's Kenya Mamuto AA is hands down the best kenyan and my favorite coffee in the world. tastes great any way you brew it.

Ceremony's Brazil Santa Lucia smelled exactly like strawberries.

Flight Coffee is a local roaster and would give you 16oz bags for the price of 12oz if you picked up! Love all of their stuff, their Kenyan Karani AA was my favorite though.

I've been drinking cold brew most days of the week now for several months now, and it's a difficult for me to drink anything else. This stuff is fire. However, many times I've had cold brew that has been too water-y (not because of the water dilution but the inherent cold brew itself) and sometimes not "rich" enough in flavor. I've had the DM at Starbucks call me and explain that brewing cold brew is from what I've understand is a meticulous and intricate process, and that there are many steps that can go wrong when brewing. I've been told that it takes 18 hours (?) to brew and that if they use the wrong beans which can alter the flavor. I've just felt like a dick that I've had to complain about 8 times about cold brew. Independent coffee shops don't get it right either. /rant /amicoffeesnobnow?

starbucks have dungeon masters??

DM??? "drip" manager?

"Drewmaster"? what could dm possibly mean

district manager??

I've thought that too but there are lines on the Sbux cup to follow when pouring the cold brew concentrate and then diluting with water. When the cold new tastes water-y it looks light in color. I've watched them in the pouring process and have had replacements with the same water-y deal.

.

I hate my mesh clamp thing.

Literally everywhere on earth that you can get tea from has these teapots:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Stump-teap ... mp+tea+pot

And they seem decent.

i just put the tea leaves in my cup and add water and drink, assumed everyone else did this too

That's barbaric. Pay twenty pounds for a teapot you savage.

there's a nice tea shop near my campus so i've been going there more often lately to try new teas, develop my palate and all. for some reason all of their wulongs and reds have a buttery taste to them. i still haven't figured out what the right ratio is for tea leaf to water, especially since the amount that they expand is so variable. i'd ask the lady at the shop but i really don't think i have the jargon required for that level of communication.

also i'm really bad at scraping leaves out of my cup once i'm done drinking without just pouring them out while rinsing the cup; my roommate says i can't put the leaves down the drain. but i can't exactly pour out leaves AND water directly into the trash can. so i've been just been pouring it all out into the sink, with the drain stopped, and then picking up individual leaves and putting them in the trash.

also realizing that i don't know how exactly any of the chinese names for these teas translate into english? green tea is green, that makes sense, but why is red tea called black tea? and then there isn't even a word in english for the qing in qing cha, so how is that translated? actually does anyone even know what qing cha is and what makes it different from green tea? also what's puer? i tried it once in a tea house and it kind of smelled/tasted/felt like sitting around a campfire, i need to find some more of that

maybe purchasing one of these is in order? Feel like you'd really benefit.

not relevant

Pour in just enough water to help loosen the leaves and rinse them out so you can pour them into the garbage, nothing more.

I don't know man this doesn't seem that difficult.

Over the course of my household's switch from coffee to tea, I've learned my room mate is actually an uncivilized maniac who drinks Red Rose or other breakfast/afternoon black teas WITHOUT milk. And the teapot lid has mysteriously disappeared, so now we've got saucers pulling double duty. These are trying times.


Also, who knew that Japanese green teas were so seaweed-y compared to Chinese greens?

I got a Kalita dripper so I can make coffee in my dorm and not have to make the trip to sbux or dunkin. I love it so much, I think I'm spending more on coffee now actually which kinda sucks but it's become so much more convenient and I'm having fun experimenting with everything. I started to love making my pourover every morning, and I'm looking forward to next semester since I'll be in an apartment so I won't have to do everything on my desk and I'm also saving for an espresso/cappuccino machine so I can get fancy~

I'm hooked

Personally I think pourover is better than espresso, the tools are cheaper/more straightforward and the paper filter cuts out a lot of the oils which can really do a number on my digestive system. I also find it quite meditative to make (never tried making espresso)

I also like the flavour but there's no such thing as objective flavours.

Yeah, I think I can say I love it for the same reasons you do, esp. for how simple the whole system is. The pouring is meditative, but grinding through enough beans to fill me thermos with coffee can be a pain in the ass some mornings.

I did more research and I think what will suit my needs would be a moka pot. I'm deciding rn between the bialetti original or the brikka, but the brikka looks more fun so I'm leaning towards that. I'm home for the weekend and I live near a pretty hip town so hopefully touring the cafes I can find someone to talk to more about it. If anyone has either though I'd love to hear your experiences
I'm also really excited to wake up tomorrow since I got batteries for a scale I bought a while ago. So now I get to spend the weekend aggressively experimenting with rec pourover ratios and grinds so come monday I can discover objective flavor

sent me some wrecking ball coffee!! this is the best columbian i have ever had. good cocoa notes and I get an interesting sweet taste at the back of my tongue. (description says lime?) my favorite way to drink it is french press but it's great any way you drink it!

Can we create a Care Tags coffee exchange? Smaller local roasters have the best stuff sometimes.

i haven't cold brewed in forever because i found a better way of making iced coffee (imo). pour over ice, it makes for a more complex cup. i think brewing hot helps create a larger difference in diffusion rates of particles. hence being able to have flavors of hot coffee (maybe less active) without the subtle chocolatey-bittersweetness and caffeine extraction you might find in cold brew. so you end up getting a bright cup of cold coffee, which is quite interesting

try it out! it's goood

yup. but you account for it by adjusting your ratio. i found a good place to start is the ratio you brew hot, but now the mass of the water includes ice. ofc it'll take some more adjustments like water to ice ratio, but is kinda a nice place to start

So, there seemed to be at least some interest in this COFFEE EXCHANGE. Here's how it'll work.

You fill out the form.

I match you with someone and send you their preferences.

You purchase a 1 lb. (or 12 oz. or whatever's standard for the roaster!) bag of delicious (locally roasted!) coffee, taking into account their preferences.

You send them that coffee.

You receive some coffee

We all geek out here about flavor profiles and preparation methods.

DISCLAIMERS:
I will TRY to match you with someone a good deal away from you. I may not be able to due to numbers, reasons, etc. You're still going to get awesome coffee.
I think I'm going to have to make this USA ONLY, for my sanity, for shipping standardization, food import taxes, etc. If it goes well, I'm open to expansion!
I take no liability/make no promises. Dropouts will be publicly shamed, replacements will be dealt with in the usual democratic Care Tags way.

The form will stay open for ONE WEEK. Not trying to make this a huge thing. I think that TWO WEEKS is a fair time to find some coffee, so the goal would be for everyone to SHIP BEFORE APRIL 4.

FORM:

Does it gotta be 1lb? Lots of places only do 12oz bags.

I feel like I'm taking over this thread, apologies for that. Coffee exchange matches have been sent, if you didn't receive one and you think you should have, PM me.