Too Much Coffee

With that paper filter taking away the oils... I don't get it. More or less all other brewing methods are OK with me. But filtered coffee... what's the point? Can anyone tell me. My guitarist, who loves coffee, also loves filtered coffee. And so does my french colleauge, although he seems to remember that his mom's coffee was better than his own cause she did roast at home and she used a metal filter.

Anyway, this is not to insult anyone (more than necessary ) but merely a question. I have come to understand that there might be health benefits cause without the oils the coffee does not raise you cholesterol level.

I think this filter-coffee-thing comes from germany - IIRC Melitta invented the filter. Beforehand, there was not yet French Press (also IIRC), and people got used to the "easy made" filter coffee. Also, it allowed the big roasters to "optimize" their roastings, because when you make filtered coffee, quality doesn't matter that much ... or am I completely wrong here?

--
Lukas

Try getting a person used to filter drip and supermarket coffee to use any other preparation method, and they will think it is very messy. "Gosh, you need to clean the filter or even the pot afterwards? Bleah, look at that black goo!"
Plus, since they will use the same old bag of *€#¿@:( coffee, they will suddenly feel what it really tastes: *€#¿@:(. It is a Catch-22 working in favour of the Big Players, unless you can convince the drip drinker otherwise by making them taste some of your homeroasted. I guess those gold metal filters are better, but I haven't tried them.
P.S. Yes, I think that filter drip with homeroasted (or merely freshly ground) coffee tastes heavenly compared to supermarket coffee. But all the other methods are better IMNSHO. D.S.

Edit: P.P.S. The coffee oils are good for us, unlike that low-fat margarine stuff which is very dangerous. I mean, look at what it does to those super models. They are fading away! D.D.S.

And a lot of the taste is in those volatile oils, by the way. We want them!

zix wrote:And a lot of the taste is in those volatile oils, by the way. We want them!

I know. This is the main reason I'm going for moderate roast these days. I noticed the oil on the plate I pour the hot beans on to cool them off and to blow off the chaff. And you get much more of that on the plate if you roast the beans heavily and they really start to sweat and get shiny.

Why would I want the plate to have all the oils? What good is it doing to the plate? Can the plate eat the oils?

It is never too late
to be good to your plate
- U.N. Owen

You really don't want to get me started on the French use of filter/drip coffee machines...
Nobody has mentioned the ritual of leaving the coffee to steam slowly for a good half hour on the hot plate before drinking the stale remains
commonly referred to as "jus de chaussettes"

Well, that's appereantly not only a french syndrom. Here, at work, it is often like this: "you drink a coffee?" - "yea, why not" - .... [one hour later] - "oh, well, coffee is ready, didn't I mention?" ...

Honestly, I think nobody can prefer filtered. But you can be ignorant, forced or left drinking filtered. Your office might only have a filter-coffee maker so you prefer that to running out for you coffee, or you dont want a lever machine in your sailboat. Those who work on the road often have to buy their coffee cup and túrning up your nose on filtered leaves you drinkin tea. Or you are too stretched financially to invest in espresso equipment.
But NO WAY anybody could really say filtered is tastier.
Take my mother: she sat in the kitchen drinking the first cappa I lovingly prepared for her, went quiet and said "this is a new expericence entirely, I didn´t know coffee can be THIS good"

Are you talking filtered or any non-espresso-based preparation method?

If you are I invite you to taste vac-potted brewed coffee. I have a superb espresso machine but I never use it for my Kenyans, Costa Ricans etc. They go in the vac pot. I can never get the same delicacy and subtlety of flavour in an americano.

Tomorrow I'm going to be drinking some lovely La Minita (thanks Pete!). It's going straight in the Cona.

I meant filtered (dripped, if you will). That is the most common method of producing hellish bitter black fuel for finnish coffee-addicts
What is a vac pot??

Filtered is at least quick and not so messy. And far better as Phil said , for Kenyans or Costa Ricans. But a vac pot is better still.

actually a lot of people at work(and i work at a coffeeroaster) prefer drip filter coffee, probably because they dont really like coffee.
it has a more weak taste to it and indeed its a lot easier and less messy to prepare.

they also prefer the coffee to be at least 15 min old, so they might be crazy:)

I love filter and I like coffee !!! (I also know lots of other coffee tpyes who do too). Filter is more delicate and you can taste the subtleties that is had to offer that espresso can kill. Also filter coffee can help immensely when developing an espresso blend so you know what it has to bring to the blend.

Steve

I'm with Steve here, the first thing I do when stumbling into the coffee shed of a weekday morning is fire up a 3 pint (1.8litre for those inclined) drip filter machine with a filter paper and 50g of filter ground coffee - normally something tasty - darker roast and I'm getting into the woody notes of RFA at the moment. Given I have set up 2 group commercials, commercial bean to cup and even Jura bean to cup then the espresso option could be filled by any number of methods - but they all stay off because a mug of filter will do me and staff until tea becomes an option mid morning. Over the years I have found too great an emphasis on espresso leaves me far to wired to be an effective worker - zebbadie is fine if you have no aim - but if you aim to work then drip coffee fills the caffeine gap without taking your head off in the process.

Too much coffee you can't have - but too much espresso can turn you into a raving lunatic - cluck cluck, gibber - I haven't slept in a year styllee.....

Vac Pot I presume is mocha pot or stove top espresso - a three tier pot to be be used on an cooker ring where water is filled in the base, espresso ground coffee is filled in the filter cavity and the boiling water from the base is forced through the coffee in the filter into a receiving chamber to be poured out as espresso.

Jumper - at the shed we all work with coffee on a daily basis - and on the whole we like drip - not because we do not like coffee or the taste of it - but a 1floz espresso does not quench the thirst of your average Yorkshireman - while a 10oz mug of drip does (well after three or four mugs) If we had three or four mugs of espresso grade coffee then work would soon turn into a less organised version of Wiggles (you really need kids to understand what I mean)

Anyway drinking all that drip coffee today has worn off so I need to sleep - play nice boys and girls......