Viewing 40 posts - 81 through 120 (of 131 total)
  • So then, what this forum was originally designed for: Coffee…
  • coffeeking
    Free Member

    If you put it on too hot, the coffee’s bitter. Don’t you mind bitter coffee?

    You’d struggle to get the coffee from a stove top to be too hot – the method by which it works is evapouration of the water (which happens at a fixed temp of 100 assuming relatively low pressure) and it is then cooled as it passes through the filter/support arrangement and through the coffee, meaning that unless you’re vastly over-heating the base with some sort of mental heating system, it’ll be a very consistent temperature. I’ll measure it for you if you like, with high and low stove temps, and we can identify what the difference is.

    I’ve never had bitter coffee from my stove-top, regardless of whether I’ve had it on full chat or just bubbling away slowly. Maybe I’m just lucky?

    Surf-mat – the metal stove-tops won’t work with induction hobs as they are normally alloys of alu, rather than ferritic materials. If a magnet sticks to your pot, it’ll work. That said, the glowy type of hobs are usually halogen hobs – these will work with any.

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    Believe it or not but coffee is actually quite a tricky subject, and is very sensitive to temperature. Studies have shown that temperatures above 92°C gives the coffee a burnt taste..therefore your just off 99°C is too hot..

    I know this but the point being – a stovetop works when the water boils and rises through the tube. Turn the heat down to get cooler water and it won’t boil and rise through the tube. I just don’t see how you can scald coffee using one – they operate in a very simple and linear manner.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    I don’t see how a stovetop can make a bad coffee by having too hot water.

    Er, it’s well known that coffee needs water at 93 ish degrees to avoid burning the coffee. If you just whack the pot on full heat you can get boiling water and steam flying out of the hole. As happened when I did this. Bear in mind that the coffee is not in the upper compartment, it’s down right near the boiling water.

    If you don’t boil the water you get much much better coffee (again from experience) and yes it does still work because the air above the coffee expands enough.

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    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    Coffeeking understands what I am saying (and already said 😉 )

    Perhaps if you put loads of salt in your water to increase the boiling point you could scald the coffee but then it wouldn’t taste very nice (assuming any salt escapes in the evaporation process)

    🙂

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    If you just whack the pot on full heat you can get boiling water and steam flying out of the hole. As happened when I did this.

    The only way I can make my stovetop do that is if I don’t put any coffee in the hopper.

    Perhaps you have hotter gas around your way 😉

    Surf-Mat
    Free Member

    CK – cheers. It’s just a halogen hob.

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    If you don’t boil the water you get much much better coffee (again from experience) and yes it does still work because the air above the coffee expands enough.

    You can’t not boil the water, without the water boiling it would not rise through the coffee.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Or maybe you like scalded coffee. I don’t 🙂

    You can’t not boil the water, without the water boiling it would not rise through the coffee.

    You can. I have sat there and watched non boiling water rise through coffee.

    iDave
    Free Member

    you have a see-through stove top?

    molgrips
    Free Member

    From the first google link:

    There is an art to making coffee in a Moka Pot that includes the amount of water, the amount and grind of the coffee, the compactness of the coffee grounds in the filter and the heat of the water used to brew it.

    If using a stovetop moka pot, place it on the stove on medium to medium-high heat. When hot, the air and water trapped inside the bottom tank expand due to the heat being applied the device. As this happens, it pushes the hot water up a tube, through the coffee grinds, and out of the spout into the top chamber of the pot.

    Seems like I’m not alone in my opinion 🙂

    molgrips
    Free Member

    you have a see-through stove top?

    No I open the lid to see coffee coming through very slowly. Boiling water makes it spurt out with steam.

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    Many times I have left my stovetop on a low heat and gone off to do stuff and when I have returned I don’t have coffee. Not until the water boils does it function.

    I think the only way you could get nasty coffee is by leaving it to boil dry and leaving the heat on. But I am guessing now.

    Ahh, seems I was right…
    The steam eventually reaches a high enough pressure to gradually force the surrounding boiling water up the funnel through the coffee powder and into the upper chamber (C), where the coffee is collected. When the lower chamber is almost empty, steam bubbles mix with the upstreaming water, producing a characteristic gurgling noise.
    As with percolators, the pot should not be left on the stove so long that the coffee boils. Ideally, with a little practice, it should be removed from the heat before it actually starts gurgling – usually, when only about half of the top chamber has been filled.

    So are you simply leaving it on boil for too long Mol???

    iDave
    Free Member

    that’s a sure fire way to get blinded by volcanically hot coffee. someone call H&S

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Many times I have left my stovetop on a low heat and gone off to do stuff and when I have returned I don’t have coffee. Not until the water boils does it function.

    Then that was too low. You need enough heat to make it brew, and not so much that you scald the coffee. Again I don’t like scalded coffee, you may do.

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    You can. I have sat there and watched non boiling water rise through coffee.

    You’ve no idea what’s happening in the base. How exactly do you think the water rises without turning to steam first?

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    See above amend Mol…

    anotherdeadhero
    Free Member

    No I open the lid to see coffee coming through very slowly.

    Amazing, thats what I’ve managed to do for years and years, without ever having to be told how to do it, becuase the contraption is so simple, you can only operate it in the correct manner.

    Why would you try to flash boil the water in the bottom? I honestly think people enjoy over-complicating their lives.

    I don’t think mol should be allowed near naked flames, or sharp edges.

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    Thinking about what you are saying Molgrips, the above italics describe exactly what you describe as the problem you find. I think your problem is simply when you boil yours too quickly you get caught out and don’t take it off the heat quickly enough so you boil it (yes, you still have to boil it) slightly slower so you have more chance of getting it off the heat before the ‘gurgle’.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    You’ve no idea what’s happening in the base. How exactly do you think the water rises without turning to steam first?

    As I said, the air above the water gets hot. Parts of the water in contact with the bottom of the pot boil creating some steam above the water, which is enough to push the remaining non boiling water through the coffee (since the intake is not exactly on the bottom.

    ADH – you can vary the coffee you get by adjusting many things including the amount of heat.

    I do enjoy complicating my life – I get a kick of of as deep an understanding of the world around me as I can. The amount of heat changes the coffee you make, I suggest you try it. I have found through personal experience that coaxing the coffee through with gentle heat produces very strong but mild tasting coffee which I prefer to the thin scalded taste got from boiling it.

    No matter how much some blokes on the net try to tell me I’m wrong because they have thought about it LESS than I have, I will not erase the results of my own experiments from my brain. Thanks tho 🙂

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    It does boil at the end, it always does. And it tastes fine! The funnel only comes to about half the depth of the water in the base. That said, I’ve never yet managed to get bitter coffee from one, so either it works flawlessly every time or I’ve mysteriously managed to avoid mistakes in the last 5 years of coffee making!

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    No matter how much some blokes on the net try to tell me I’m wrong

    And stop (with a perfect coffee) for a minute to think others may not need telling your way is correct either.

    nickc
    Full Member

    Jeez, molgrips it’s the simplest thing in the world, bung on the stove, whack on the heat take off as it starts gurgling, it finishes off the heat.

    non-burnt coffee everytime.

    d’you want my 12yr lad to come round and show you how it’s done? (he makes mine in the morning and gets it right)

    anotherdeadhero
    Free Member

    molgrips is the kind of person who buys electron alignment crystals for his hifi and has confused a vervent imagination for an exemplary palate.

    _tom_
    Free Member

    Nespresso is ok, but the last one I had from a blue “pod” tasted absolutely rank – like cigarettes and not very nice ones at that! I like the gold ones.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    molgrips is the kind of person who buys electron alignment crystals for his hifi and has confused a vervent imagination for an exemplary palate.

    No I’m not.

    d’you want my 12yr lad to come round and show you how it’s done?

    Clearly not.

    You stupid sods are obviously missing the entire point which is that we don’t share the same definition of what ‘right’ is.

    Now bugger off*

    * please note the angry tone of this post is due to things happening in real life at the same time as this.

    EDIT: plus, whilst we’re at it, I am sick of people telling me I’m stupid or wrong-headed just for paying more attention to detail then they do. It’s been happening all my life. Maybe I should get part of my brain removed to be like everyone else?*

    * again this rant is really about something else happening in real life

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    You stupid sods are obviously missing the entire point which is that we don’t share the same definition of what ‘right’ is.

    That’s not the point at all. The point is I don’t seem to get any variation in flavour regardless of how I treat the mocha pot – so how do you end up with scalded coffee to class it as different and requiring careful process?

    I do, however, happily accept, and indeed encourage, your right to over-complicate matters.

    Surf-Mat
    Free Member

    Would Molgrips care to enlighten us on the correct way to boil an electric kettle full of water too?

    anotherdeadhero
    Free Member

    RichPenny
    Free Member

    I agree with Molgrips. You lot clearly don’t understand what good coffee tastes like.

    stevomcd
    Free Member

    Entering this debate late, water boils at 95° for me, so I’m sorted. 😛

    Just got into coffee myselfover the last couple of years (since I’ve been living out in France!). Starting to think I’d like something to make some decent stuff at home, but not sure what. My other half doesn’t like coffee at all, so looking for something cheap and minimal fuss to make a cup for myself now and then. I like espresso, black with a bit of sugar. Nothing milky (bleeurgh!).

    Thinking a wee stove-top is probably the best solution.

    Smudger666
    Full Member

    Another late entry to the thread, said it before and I’ll say it again….

    Jura FTW (see page 1 of thread) and

    not cheap but it gives a fantastic Coffee EVERY time at the touch of a button.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Well thanks for not getting offended when I posted a mardy post there. Work are trying to suck ALL the life out of me now instead of just most of it.

    The point is I don’t seem to get any variation in flavour regardless of how I treat the mocha pot – so how do you end up with scalded coffee to class it as different and requiring careful process?

    If coffee is scalded then it tastes bitter. I thought this was widely known, I’ve experienced it certainly. As a summary, Wiki has this to say:

    Almost all methods of preparing coffee require the beans to be ground and mixed with hot water for long enough to extract the flavor, but without boiling for more than an instant; boiling develops an unpleasant “cooked” flavor.

    So the temperature of water is important. As it is with tea.

    In the case of the Moka pot, the heat used also affects the speed of transit of the water through the coffee, which also affects the end product. I like to have the coffee just trickling down the spout, not spurting.

    nickc
    Full Member

    I like to have the coffee just trickling down the spout, not spurting.

    Is this a euphemism?

    Are you really worried about something else entirely and you’re just ‘transferring’ that towards coffee…hmmmmm?

    iDave
    Free Member

    my face is still waiting to be moisturised 😐

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Lol 🙂

    Divagirl
    Free Member

    Still waiting for my espresso 😛

    Militant_biker
    Full Member

    Ok, so it’s not an indoor solution to making coffee (although, come to think of it, why not..?) but this guy’s quest for a good, repeatable cup of coffee on the go is worth reading 😉

    http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/30/perfecting-my-travel.html

    stevomcd
    Free Member

    Staying in a rented appartment in Paris this week and lo and behold they have a Nespresso machine. Pretty good, makes nice coffee quickly and conveniently.

    iDave
    Free Member

    I suspect we’ve been waiting in different locations.

    Where would you like your next espresso?

    Divagirl
    Free Member

    Simonofbarnes gave me a good one last night, really strong 🙂

Viewing 40 posts - 81 through 120 (of 131 total)

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