Coffee challenge, Freeze dried versus pod crap

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Breville and fresh unground beans

At home we use a steel double walled french press. We find that to messy to clean on the boat. Now we use a breville. We pour the beans in choose strong for a grind and don't brew more tahn 8 cups and we get a great strong cup of coffee. It brews into a big carafe so even better.... it stays warm for the second cup. We love it.
It uses a little bit of power but only for the 8 minutes it's brewing and we NEED a great cup of quality coffee in the morning so it's totally worth it.
Cheers to coffee snobs:))
 
O C Diver said:
While I'm not a big fan or many uses for plastic, couldn't imagine eliminating consumption of anything that touched plastic.
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+1.... My biggest gripe against plastic is its use on anything disposable. I have to say that it is the most economical way to manufacture appliance housings, business machine housings, auto parts, boat hulls, car fenders, blister packaging, eye glasses, etc. You name it, without plastics we would be paying one hell of a lot more for literally thousands of products. (Yes, I was in the plastic business ever since I saw the movie, "The Graduate.") :hide:
 
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rsn48 said:
I'm just throwing this out there from a wee bit of a coffee snob and I know most of you are aware of this, but I also know not all of you know this. How strong a coffee is concerning caffeine content is only marginally affected by the bean. How strong a caffeine content of coffee is relies more on the amount of time the bean or grind is in contact with the water.

So the strongest coffee (caffeine) is the old cowboy perc coffee on the campfire. This coffee was left on the fire for a long time, and perc'd the ever loving life out of the bean and was at maximum caffeine strength. And one of the least strong coffee's (caffeine) is espresso. I will use the Starbucks timing for espresso, I think it is around 23 - 26 seconds from beginning to end of the "push." I know people say they get all jittery from this type of coffee but its all in the head. Pod coffee will have less caffeine than the same bean in cowboy coffee or cone/carafe coffee, again these two brewing methods have the longest water/bean timings.
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I'm not sure I'm buying all of this. I would accept that for the same coarseness of grounds, to a point, the longer they are in contact with the water, the stronger and higher the caffeine content gets.

There certainly is a limit and from the initial peak, the rate is rapidly declining. A drip coffee system that takes 10 minutes to make a cup, isn't going to have anything like 10 times the caffeine of a system that takes 1 minute to make a cup. I frankly doubt it would be even double.

Also the grind can be quite different from drip to espresso. It would seem pretty logical to assume that the majority of the caffeine comes out of the espresso grind much faster as it is less dense.

Two things to remember about the cowboy coffee pot analogy, the grind was much coarser which required the additional time to get much of the caffeine out, and secondly a goodly portion of the water evaporated off in the long process which further concentrated what remained.

Ted
 
O C Diver said:
Well that's commendable.

I assume you don't ever eat out or get something to drink while you're out. Pretty much eliminates most prepared food, carryout, and most meat sold in supermarkets. That eliminates most beverages and condiments.

While I'm not a big fan or many uses for plastic, couldn't imagine eliminating consumption of anything that touched plastic.

Ted
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While it’s impossible to eliminate completely, we do limit plastic exposure to the best degree we can without going overboard.
So yes we do go out to eat but get what we pay for...
Went fishing today and took plastic water bottles, so by no means crazy about it but do try to limit exposure.

Probably 80% or more of the meat we consume I have dragged out of the swamp with a rope at the end of a successful hunt.
I try to harvest 8-10 deer/wild pigs each year and store them in my freezers.
Vegetables come from our garden or our local farmers market.
Honey from our hives.
Shrimp from a local captain that never uses nitrites or other preservatives.
Fish straight from the river.
I used to argue with her but she’s been right too many times.
Costs a little more and takes a little bit more effort but all of the above tastes better anyway.

Worst case scenario she’s wrong and it’s all for nothing but that risk really doesn’t worry me.
 
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RLKramer said:
...I love the Nespresso, but dont want to be beholden to the company for refills and when travelling in the bahamas, etc its impossible to get refills plus at about $1.50 per cup, it leaves a bitter taste!
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Yesterday I saw "Nespresso compatible" capsules advertised by a big supermarket chain. $4 for 10 capsules. Still happy to grind fresh for the espresso machine, at home or onboard.
 
BruceK said:
Yesterday I saw "Nespresso compatible" capsules advertised by a big supermarket chain. $4 for 10 capsules. Still happy to grind fresh for the espresso machine, at home or onboard.
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Stumbled out of the bedroom this morning at 6 am. 90 seconds later I was sipping my first Nespresso. Speed and convenience come at a price.

Ted
 
Wifey,
One would need to “chew” the tea to “have” tea w/o the water.

We mostly drink tea on the boat. “Wanna cup of tea” over and over again. We probably get too much tannic acid. And if we were to drink coffee on the boat w’ed prolly do the cowboy coffee.

Life is hazardous ...

While working on a gold dredge in Alaska about 1960 we all drank “camp coffee”. Big 10 cup coffee pot w the perk stuff taken out and no lid. Bring water to dredge from nearby creek using a small wood boat and a sculling oar. Carried two 5 gallon cans w a shoulder yoke. Put water in coffee pot and put the pot on wood stove. Stir coffee fairly close to continuously to keep the grounds from getting singed. We used Hill’s Bros coarse grind coffee exclusively. Takes a long time to boil that much water and stirring every 20 seconds or so is very labor intensive coffee. I was the “bull cook”. Get a cup of cold water ready and the moment the coffee comes to a rolling boil remove from stove and slop in the cold water to settle the grounds. Pour off the coffee into cups just as the dredge crew arrives at coffee time. As you can see it’s all about timing and other important things.

Believe it or not it was the best coffee ever. But the timing and all the other details were so important I could never make coffee that way after leaving the gold mine. Too many details to duplicate. Came close though.
 
tomhanaway said:
Steve, glad to reply as I am totally envious of your Marcozzo.
The E8 nestles nicely in the corner of the galley.
No downsides other than minor convenience that the hopper doesn’t hold as Many beans as I might like.
We have a 3000 watt Xantrex inverter and the machine runs fine off that so no need for generator.
We don’t make any fancy drinks just coffee and espresso.
If you do go with Jura, they have a new model for around $999. D something. Stay away from that unit. We tried it and the construction was of a clearly lesser state than their other machines.
Tom H
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Good to know on the cheaper Jura - I will stay away from that one. The S8 is actually the model I had been looking at recently, which is a superautomatic with the milk frother add on.
 
K-pods too weak?

ragin cajun said:
Keurig makes a too weak cup for my taste. Being a coffee snob my first choice is a French drip cup of Community Coffee dark roast (local). For special occasions Jamaican Blue Mountain gets a 100.
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Really? I use Peet's, dark roast Major Dickason's Blend Keurig pods. Plenty dark enough for me. I am definitely not a coffee snob, and just want my 1-cup in the morning to stimulate the gray matter to awake mode. Bad enough that it requires the generator. T'would be nice if I could get that easily, without a lot of snobby labor, or generator time. It's just coffee, for "Peets" sake!
 
I'm not going to read through the entire thread but for rsn, here is my experience.


We have used Kuerig machines almost exclusively at home and on the boat for a number of years. I think the taste and convenience is great.


Not all pods are created equal but in general if you get a pod labeled "Bold" or "Extra Bold" it has more coffee in it than the non-bold version of the same ground.


Currently, we have found that we really like pods from a CA company called Angelino's (angelinos.com) and like the extra bold French Roast. The advantage of the Kuerig is that you always have a freshly made cup of coffee.



We have also had good luck with the Keurig machines. We had one fail us at home after using daily for 10 years. Not too bad.
 
dhays said:
The advantage of the Kuerig is that you always have a freshly made cup of coffee.
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That's not 'freshly made'. That's just freshly boiled water dripped through bean that may have been ground months ago.

So, yeah, it's better than cheap ground bean run through a drip machine and left sitting on a warmer to get overheated... but it's not 'freshly made'.
 
Actually no one has taken the challenge but you could be the first. Now you need to try and find the best freeze dried coffee that suits your taste and compare the pod coffee versus the freeze dried.
 
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