Slate.com: How to make amazing coffee at home, even if you're cheap and lazy

#1: Post by **keno** » July 19th, 2013, 5:47 pm

Pretty good and amusing article:

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/drin ... _lazy.html

Seth Colter Walls wrote:Today's elite roasters don't do much to undermine popular conceptions about coffee connoisseurship: note the dandified presentation that appears to be mandatory for Stumptown baristas, or the very name of Intelligentsia Coffee. But that's all marketing, which a person can-and often should-choose to ignore. Coffee evangelists also undermine their own cause by making the brewing process appear too fussy.

(cont'd)

#2: Post by **endlesscycles** » July 20th, 2013, 6:17 pm

keno wrote:Pretty good and amusing article:

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/drin ... _lazy.html

Good for amusement, maybe... terrible recipe! He has no business writing about coffee.

July 20th, 2013, 7:12 pm

What's so terrible about his advice? His suggestions are: use top quality coffee, get a conical burr grinder, use a simple pour over method, and measure carefully. Seems pretty reasonable to me as far as providing your average Starbucks drinker with advice about how to produce much better coffee without spending a fortune or fussing too much.

#4: Post by **TheSunInsideYou** » July 20th, 2013, 8:44 pm

endlesscycles wrote:Good for amusement, maybe... terrible recipe! He has no business writing about coffee.

keno wrote:What's so terrible about his advice?

I have to agree with Keno on this one. I think his recipe did exactly what he was claiming to do: give a solid starting point, devoid of pretension and light on the complications, for someone who wants to save money and drink better coffee.

-Dave-

July 20th, 2013, 9:34 pm

85g/L is not a solid starting point. He would have been aided by the pretension of actually knowing what he was talking about, or rather avoided putting to print advice on topics he doesn't.

July 20th, 2013, 9:57 pm

It appears that he got the ratios from Stumptown.

http://stumptowncoffee.com/brew-guides/melitta/

So I guess they don't know what they are talking about? If only they had your pretension, perhaps they might know how to make coffee.

July 20th, 2013, 11:08 pm

Damn. That's insane they are the source of that bad ratio. That's just nuts.

#8: Post by **RapidCoffee** » July 20th, 2013, 11:55 pm

Note that Stumptown actually recommends 1:15 for the coffee grinds to brew water ratio (23g to 12oz). The ratio of coffee grinds to brewed coffee (23g to 8oz) is 1:10 because the grinds absorb some of the liquid, and a couple of ounces get dumped at the end of the brew.

#9: Post by **varnex** » July 21st, 2013, 12:19 am

Either this is a ploy to get customers to use and buy more beans through crazy updosed coffee, or the writer is not aware of how simpler(and more economical) drip recipes work.

July 21st, 2013, 8:22 am

endlesscycles wrote:85g/L is not a solid starting point. He would have been aided by the pretension of actually knowing what he was talking about, or rather avoided putting to print advice on topics he doesn't.

Fair enough. I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I didn't actually check the ratio before I wrote that. I was tired and spoke after a quick read through. Sorry about that. Besides his coffee-water ratio, the rest isn't bad, but the rest doesn't really matter if you're starting with WAY too much coffee.

-Dave-