[Closed] Coffee Question

You may want to try somewhere a bit more 'specialized'. The fact it was ground before you travelled would loose a good deal of the magic.

I'm pretty sure Whittards do a Dom Rep bean, and if you ask them nicely they will grind it, too. It'll not necessarily be fresh though.

Hasbean.co.uk is a good place to start. I'm not sure they do Dom Rep, but they do a range of Americas to dabble with.

whatever you do keep it in the freezer

Coffee doesn't quite work like that. It'd be like insisting on wine from Bordeaux, since one bottle you had from Bordeaux was the best ever.

There are two varieties of coffee bean (as opposed to dozens of grape varieties) - arabica and robusta. Robusta is cheap and not good, so you're looking at arabica. That ends up tasting completely different depending on where it's grown - the various regions (Central America, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Australia) have distinctive general flavours, but the quality will vary from estate to estate. So a bad Costa Rica will taste somewhat like a good Costa Rica but nothing like as nice.

Also they use different roasts depending on the bean - whatever gets the best out of it. African coffee tends to be a light roast, for instance.

So the reason your Dom Rep coffee was so good was because it was fresh and good quality, not because it was from the Dom Rep 🙂

And don't keep it in the freezer either - too humid. Best is to keep it with as little air as possible. A vacuum packing machine is best, but I'm putting it in sealed bags with the air squashed out inside an airtight jar on the worktop. Going well so far 🙂

And don't keep it in the freezer either - too humid

Ha ha ha. Too humid... You kill me molgrips. This might have made sense about 20 years ago but almost all freezers are frost free, they take any spare mositure out.

Otherwise freeze your beans boy, but keep in airtight containers to stop any other flavours in the freezer getting in...

Smart arse.

Let's hear it then.

Oh, a quick google also suggests that a glass jar is not ideal. Must change that.

see my edit above..

(There is some other stuff around about not freezing beans, which I think is bollocks, but has nothing to do with humidity)

this is interesting [url= http://www.home-barista.com/store-coffee-in-freezer-conclusions.html ]click[/url]

whats the problem with glass then? (aside from obvious freezing problems)

Apparently light degrades the coffee too.

http://www.ncausa.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=70

It is important not to refrigerate or freeze your daily supply of coffee because contact with moisture will cause it to deteriorate.

Seems to be that you can put it in the freezer to keep it there, but if you take it in and out to use it it's bad. So if you get a load say shipped in, the freezer is indeed the place for it til you want to drink it.

yeah but you just keep it in the fridge? its dark in there when the door is closed..

Yes but it's very humid in the fridge. Plus, if you put it in the fridge it gets cold, you take it out in the open air, moisture condenses on beans, put it back in the fridge and there's even more moisture in there.

Cheers for the link scottchegg, will look into that.

I ran a coffee shop for a couple of years in a previous life so I know a fair bit about the theory of it all. The reason I wanted Dominican coffee was partially the flavour thing, like you say it has that not too acidic island coffee taste, but more because Ive seen the poor people that the money goes to and want to contribute through what I buy.

I agree with what you say about freshness, we always put our beans into bags with a valve on then squeezed all the air out, never tried freezing any though. And yeah if you grind it just before you use it then the taste will be a bit better, however I am not really looking to spend much money and so far I have bought a cafetiere from the pound shop and increased the quality of the coffee I am drinking (from instant, rarely drink it at all at home) by about 1 million percent. Any further purchases, grinders, espresso machines, etc are going to cost much more for smaller percentage gains in quality.

As for the Arabica vs Robusta, where I worked the blend was 7 types of arabica to 1 type robusta. As far as I was aware the only reason for using any robusta coffee at all was to up the caffeine content of the coffee, absolutely not for the flavour - it's bitter and disgusting.

Thanks for your help guys

The best improvement in my cofee, for least money was when I got an aeropress, Ok it cost twice as much as a cafetiere, but its polycarbonate and wont break, I was breaking a cafetiere every week or two. And the coffee is much better, not espresso, but not a kick in the pants off it.

yeah but you just keep it in the fridge? its dark in there when the door is closed.

How do you know for sure, dude?

I was breaking a cafetiere every week or two

What on earth were you doing with them?!

Dropping them, by the sound of it 🙂

I ran a coffee shop for a couple of years in a previous life so I know a fair bit about the theory of it all. The reason I wanted Dominican coffee was partially the flavour thing, like you say it has that not too acidic island coffee taste, but more because Ive seen the poor people that the money goes to and want to contribute through what I buy.

I suspect (without any real evidence to back it up) that most coffee growers are poor people, the real profit comes further up the chain...

Yeah - but if you believe the Fair-trade people, some are less poor than others.

Yeah - but if you believe the Fair-trade people, some are less poor than others.

Quite possibly, I'm inclined to believe them - there's too much vigilance these days for them to lie about it, even if they were so inclined - but buying only Dominican coffee because the growers are poor, and not buying (for example) Columbian, doesn't strike me as being particuarly logical.
(Buying it because you liked it, liked the people, and had a great holiday there are perfectly valid reasons, I was only arguing with the implied assertion that they were poorer than the others!)

I find a lot of Columbian products stimulating....

on topic, however, I actually bought my own coffee machine earlier this year, after about 30 years of relying on other peoples, as with all things, it really depends on your taste, but the best, (easily available), I have so far is waitroses "French continental blend" I'll be looking into hasbean later though, cheers!

I might sound naive but... Costa Coffee always have fresh beans. Get friendly with one of the girls there and buy some beans from a freshly opened store bag. When I worked at Hammersmith several years ago we went through some 7.5kgs of beans daily, it was never old.

Getting fresh beans is easy - keeping them fresh whilst you use them up is the problem 🙂

I suspect that the OP's liking for the Dominican stuff is similar to the liking for a €2 bottle of rosé I had at just above freezing in hot humid SW France a few years ago. Funnily enough, in mild Bristol, I struggled to replicate the sensation.

molgrips says: Apparently light degrades the coffee too.

Never gets a chance to here, it gets used/drunk too quickly 🙂

That's then the perfect situation. I drink about 2-3 cups a week max, which means it doesn't go down very fast.

I got some from Whittard in the end.

Also I wasn't suggesting that the Dominican people are poorer/as poor as other coffee growers, just that I had met some of them and as such feel more connected to them than to the guys in other countries I have never been to.

Agreed than maybe not much money filters down to the growers but they will get more than if I buy coffee from elsewhere.

There are two varieties of coffee bean (as opposed to dozens of grape varieties) - arabica and robusta

arabica and robusta are separate species, there are different varieties of both

miketually - Member

yeah but you just keep it in the fridge? its dark in there when the door is closed.

How do you know for sure, dude?

Mike I've been in there with the door closed, its not difficult, and quite pleasant.
(NB I couldn't do it now as I'm 14 stone, but I did it at uni when I was 10 stone)

there are different varieties of both

Varieties as well as provenances?

EDIT: Well I never. Although I should've realised based on the names of some coffees I've drunk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coffee_varieties

Merely pointing out the comparison with grape varieties was misleading.
And teaching myself to do the quote thingie.

I wasn't meant to be sarky in my reply.. you are quite right 🙂

Well I was in the fridge today at work, in order to scare a colleague. The light did indeed go out

I keep my beans in an old Illy tin. I buy as much as I need in a week. (about 250g) best, cheapest option for properly good tasting coffee is a stove top mocha. After that you're into quite a lot of money for a proper espresso machine, and good ones are expensive.

Use your coffee, then you don't have worry about freezing it...

What is the general view on Starbucks coffee, ground in house?

What is the general view on Starbucks coffee, ground in house?

poor compared to coffee from square mile, monmouth, has-bean etc.

(there are other good coffee suppliers out there, to be a good one they have to do their own roasting and ensure that the coffee doesn't hang around too long)

Ta MrSmith.

Got to find a local roaster since Hill and Valley seems to have gone. Nude Espresso in Brick Lane have recently opened and seem to be getting good reviews as well.

however I am not really looking to spend much money and so far I have bought a cafetiere from the pound shop and increased the quality of the coffee I am drinking (from instant, rarely drink it at all at home) by about 1 million percent. Any further purchases, grinders, espresso machines, etc are going to cost much more for smaller percentage gains in quality.

Was in tk max the other week and they had a wide and varied selection of stove top expresso pots for between £5-15, got a nice 10 cup stainless one for twelve quid

"Got to find a local roaster since Hill and Valley seems to have gone. Nude Espresso in Brick Lane have recently opened and seem to be getting good reviews as well"

if you don't have your own grinder you can get square mile coffee ground for your machine of choice at espresso room grt ormond st, monmouth or at flat white/milk bar.
i get mine from espresso room. Gwilym's cart in witecross street is not far from brick lane but i don't know if he sells ground coffee. dose in long lane sell square mile but they will not sell it ground.

Got to find a local roaster since Hill and Valley seems to have gone

Try [url= http://www.Hasbean.co.uk ]Hasbean[/url]