Coffee Redux

Hate making coffee in the morning, but gotta have it. Sometimes it's the only thing that gets me outta bed. Must. have. coffee. Wife bought me a K-cup machine. The only problem is sometimes you gotta add water to the damn thing! Did I mention I hate making coffee in the morning?

I wonder if it would be possible to use one of those popcorn poppers with the crank to roast coffee, constantly stirring the coffee as it roasts....cooks? I think I have one of those somewhere, and a grinder I use for spices/ All i'd need is (raw?) coffee. I have some of the little k-cups you can fill yourself.
 
Long time back, I got me a drip coffee maker with a timer so I could have some when I got up. I set it for 6 am and refilled it for the next morning before I left. Then there was this big recall and news report of automated timer drip coffee makers catching fire. That's all it took... out the door it went!
 
Hate making coffee in the morning, but gotta have it. Sometimes it's the only thing that gets me outta bed. Must. have. coffee. Wife bought me a K-cup machine. The only problem is sometimes you gotta add water to the damn thing! Did I mention I hate making coffee in the morning?

I wonder if it would be possible to use one of those popcorn poppers with the crank to roast coffee, constantly stirring the coffee as it roasts....cooks? I think I have one of those somewhere, and a grinder I use for spices/ All i'd need is (raw?) coffee. I have some of the little k-cups you can fill yourself.

Oh yeah... There's a ton of hot air rosters on the market. Hit up Amazon for a selection.
 
Well.. my K-Cup coffeemaker arrived this afternoon - some 3 weeks ahead of the projected delivery date. The K-Cup assortment arrived last week - 4 weeks ahead. Not too bad for a Christmas-rush pandemicly-overloaded system, eh..?

After setting things up and making one dry run - disposing of the first cup of water - I pulled out one K-Cup at random. Paul Newman's Own Organic - never heard of it. One minute later I was sipping some good tastin' java.

The assortment I got includes a lot of flavored stuff and I'm not sure how I'm going to like them, as I have historically preferred straight coffee. But they can't be all that bad, right..? I'll chalk it all up to the holiday season and live with it. If nothing else, I'll discover one or two I really like and just reorder those next time around.
 
They do make little plastic refillable pods. Good to have in a pinch when you discover you're fresh out of k-cups and the show must go on.
 
That's good to know because if I decide to go with a specific coffee I can use that to save a few bucks.
 
I did a Google search for "why do k-cups taste so good" and every result was about why they taste so BAD.

I will say, IMO, most of the flavored ones seem to have the same basic flavor profile. No matter what tastes are named on the cup, they all seem to be either vanilla or hazelnut flavorings - one or the other or a combination. So the 'Guy Fieri '56 Studebaker U-joint Deep Roast' has the same flavor as 'Donut Shop Paper Plate Medium Roast' - VANILLA. The straight coffee cups are also pretty much the same no matter which roast or brew - but those taste very good.. to me.

All the Google results get around to mentioning how pod coffees taste weak and watered down and you have to brew 2 or 3 back-to-back using minimum water levels into the same coffee cup to even approach an acceptable cup of coffee - which they would certainly drink, but would never pay money for in a shop.

I must have sensitive taste buds because I like the strength of these pods just fine and would think if they were 3 times stronger I'd be sipping espresso. Or tar.

One good thing though.. since none of these are a big standout flavor-wise, I can just go with the least expensive when I buy replacements. YAY!
 
We drink too much coffee to consider K-cups a realistic but when I was working they had one of those in the [computer] lab where I spent my last couple years, and it was far better than the swill brewed in the giant pots in the break room.
If you have a Sam's or Costco membership, buying the giant boxes of K-cups there is probably what I'd do. (That's what was in the lab.)
 
Well, it's been just about 6 months now and I'm diggin' my K-Cup coffee maker.

I began with an assortment of K-Cups which really helped me zoom in on the flavor I liked. @Mick Doobie - I did eventually buy one of those plastic refillable cups after I switched to preground coffees available at my grocery store. The ground coffees have been sitting around for who knows how long, but the K-Cups may have been sitting around for months.. or years! So the bags of ground coffee are somewhat fresher and wayyy less expensive, and taste just fine to me.

There were a couple flavored coffees in the initial assortment that I liked well enough but it's the basic stuff that really satisfies me. Like the breakfast, house or original blends - I've just been buying whatever is on a BOGO sale.. usually works out to around $3.50 for a 12 oz bag, and I get nearly 40 cups per bag. I like my coffee to taste and feel almost like hot chocolate made with whole milk. Sweet, creamy and smooth. I use 4.5 tsp ground coffee to 8 oz water - about half full in my regular ceramic mug. I dump in 2 packets of sweetener and several Tbsp of non-dairy creamer.Once in a while, I even add 1 or 2 tsp of Dark Cocoa Powder.
 
I had to make the switch to decaf...ack!.jpg

Not all bad though. I only have to drink that most of the time and can dip into my "real" coffee once in a while - just not on a regular basis.

So at the same time, I got this bug for frothy milk topping my coffee and bought a milk frother. It's an el-cheapo, battery powered, hand-held unit that comes with a milk frother and an egg whisker attachment - not sure I'm gonna whisk any eggs with it, but.. maybe something.

My first shot outta the gate, I whipped up some evaporated milk with some sweetener, then put that in the coffee cup under the K-Cup maker and ran some coffee.

I whisked that milk for at least 5 minutes and it did get frothy. It didn't look frothy after whipping, but it looked frothy when it floated up with the coffee. I was expecting it to be a little thicker. I didn't want to run the batteries that much on it's maiden voyage so I stopped at 5 minutes and went with that. Next time I'll try some heavy cream.

The first thing I noticed right off the bat, I sweetened the milk while whisking, and that tasted great.. but virtually none of that sweetness made it into the coffee. So as long as the froth holds out, a little of that with each sip helps sweeten the brew, but the froth goes before the coffee and I'm left with some unsweetened coffee until near the end when the froth deflates into the brew and it tastes better.

It's a little puzzle that needs solving to get the mixture just right. Especially since I don't take a sip and put it down, then repeat later. I continually sip, one after the other like a chain smoker until it's all gone.

frother.jpg
 
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