I think I'm qualified to provide some input here. I own a coffee plantation in central america. It's not my core business; it is on some land I bought. I have learned much about coffee in the past 8 years.
The most highly coveted commercially available coffee beans come from the Blue Mountain region of Jamaica (mon!). The highest price per pound coffee beans this past season came from costa rica. But there's much more to coffee then the beans and you don't have to go out and buy $40/ pound beans (or $400/ pound beans) to have good coffee. The big bag of 8 O'Clock coffee from your local grocery can and will make very good coffee if you put some planning and effort into it.
You can make very good tasting coffee at home by following some simple steps...
A major factor in the flavor of your coffee is the water. Shit water makes shit coffee. I have a reverse osmosis plant at my house and that's all I use for making coffee. If you like good coffee, you can get a RO plant for under $500.
For more flavor per quantity of beans, set your system to grind fine (espresso setting or similar). The finer you grind the beans the more flavor you get from them.
If you grind the beans immediately prior to brewing the coffee, that's much better then grinding the beans say a week in advance.
Don't be shy on how much beans you use. In South Beach we drink a shot at a local coffee bar (11th & Collins if you go there) that give you about a 3 day buzz! While you don't have to "get that high" on coffee, if you use more beans then most people use I think you'll find it's better tasting coffee.
Don't keep heating the coffee after you brew it. Continuing to "cook" the coffee is very bad for it.
I have a cuisinart machine that grinds whole beans immediately before brewing and the coffee goes right into an insulated thermos decanter; no warmer to ruin it and it stays very hot very long. I can program it the night before and it grinds the beans immediately before brewing; nothing better.
I paid $200 for mine at Macy's about 5 years ago at Christmas when this product had first come out. It still works great today. I see the price has come down.
http://www.cuisinart.com/catalog/product.php?product_id=14&item_id=34&cat_id=3
My RO plant is made by GE. They make "whole house" systems and they also make smaller systems, which I have. It is piped to my refrigerators (ice and drinking water in the doors) plus a RO spigot at each of five sinks. When a storm is coming I draw 10 gallons.
Cheers!
The most highly coveted commercially available coffee beans come from the Blue Mountain region of Jamaica (mon!). The highest price per pound coffee beans this past season came from costa rica. But there's much more to coffee then the beans and you don't have to go out and buy $40/ pound beans (or $400/ pound beans) to have good coffee. The big bag of 8 O'Clock coffee from your local grocery can and will make very good coffee if you put some planning and effort into it.
You can make very good tasting coffee at home by following some simple steps...
A major factor in the flavor of your coffee is the water. Shit water makes shit coffee. I have a reverse osmosis plant at my house and that's all I use for making coffee. If you like good coffee, you can get a RO plant for under $500.
For more flavor per quantity of beans, set your system to grind fine (espresso setting or similar). The finer you grind the beans the more flavor you get from them.
If you grind the beans immediately prior to brewing the coffee, that's much better then grinding the beans say a week in advance.
Don't be shy on how much beans you use. In South Beach we drink a shot at a local coffee bar (11th & Collins if you go there) that give you about a 3 day buzz! While you don't have to "get that high" on coffee, if you use more beans then most people use I think you'll find it's better tasting coffee.
Don't keep heating the coffee after you brew it. Continuing to "cook" the coffee is very bad for it.
I have a cuisinart machine that grinds whole beans immediately before brewing and the coffee goes right into an insulated thermos decanter; no warmer to ruin it and it stays very hot very long. I can program it the night before and it grinds the beans immediately before brewing; nothing better.
I paid $200 for mine at Macy's about 5 years ago at Christmas when this product had first come out. It still works great today. I see the price has come down.
http://www.cuisinart.com/catalog/product.php?product_id=14&item_id=34&cat_id=3
My RO plant is made by GE. They make "whole house" systems and they also make smaller systems, which I have. It is piped to my refrigerators (ice and drinking water in the doors) plus a RO spigot at each of five sinks. When a storm is coming I draw 10 gallons.
Cheers!
