The aroma. The taste. The ritual of the preparation, and the anticipation. It’s more than just a drink.
Coffee is an integral part of cycling and cyclists lifestyles. But, like Campa versus Shimano, or white socks versus black, the way we imbibe the magic bean can be just as polarising.
We received an email from a reader with a suggestion for The Rules. Rob infers that anyone partaking in a soy-based brew, or a ‘lite’ milk additive, should be ceremonially beaten. “Harsh but fair” he believes, such as we always imply with The Rules.
Already I am receiving unflattering, downright tempestuous emails from my fellow Keepers regarding my soy intake confession. Yes, I unashamedly admit to this ‘foam pas’ and will accept any abuse like a man. A soy-drinking man, dammit!
But no matter how you enjoy your bean, there’s one thing for certain; coffee is good. Some say it should only be consumed black, sans sugar, in a ceramic cup. Others, like Rob, suggest it can be enhanced with a small amount of milk, i.e macchiato. While everyone has different tastes, I’m sure most of us would agree that caramel, butterscotch and excessive amounts of foam, sprinklings and flavourings have no place in any cup.
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Not at all, they're fine names - I'm just putting two and two together.
@minion
Sweet pickup - grats!
Now you're in the experimentation phase, where you have to sort out how this particular machine works? Grind courseness, coffee amount, water flow, tamping pressure. Means a lot of taste testing, and a permanant buzz for a few days.
Good times; have fun.
Word, I've had four so far this morning before I are anything. Still have to buy some beans to get though the grinder, only have ground coffee to play with for now. Had a very cool conversation with a barista at a place called la Mason in Welly over tamping pressure, he pretty much gave me all his tricks that make the cheaper toys work as well as the more expensive ones.
Coolios. I have a brother and a siter who have worked lots in food and bev - they helped me lots. Now I just push a button, though, and adjust dials depending on the beans I'm using. Seems like cheating. But then, indexed gears seemed like it took something away from the art of shifting friction gears, thought some. I never thought this.
I may have to look in to this...not because I like my espresso particularly sweet, but I'm willing to try anything to make the brew from the office machine as bearable to my taste buds as the cost is to my wallet (free coffee, who can argue?).
Whoa, that was a bad idea trying that one out. Have you seen my website, steampunkiswhyimfat.com?
Domains are cheap. Any desire to start a sister site devoted specifically to coffee and cycling? Ha!
What is the trick to making a good cup with one of these?
@RedRanger
You can't, really. The very premis of how it makes coffee means you won't get espresso and you'll likely just get a strong cup of (burnt) coffee.
A real espresso machine uses pressure, not steam, to make the coffee, so the beans don't get so hot while the water moves through them, absorbing all the goodness from the ground beans. When it's steam that's moving through the grounds, they get burnt on the way through and that leads to bitter coffee. (A lot of coffee houses burn their espresso as well, by using too fine a grind which also makes the water take too long to pull through the grounds. Good espresso is not bitter.)
The best way to counter the burnt taste is to use a coarser grind and accept the fact that you'll just have strong coffee and not espresso; all your efforts to make a drinkable cup should be focussed on getting the steam through the grounds as quickly as you can while still having them stay in there long enough to pick up enough flavor. It's an art.
To make a real shot of espresso, you'll need a machine that can produce a lot of pressure, like a Rancilio Silva. Even then, it's an artform.
Or you can get one of these. I have an espresso-ologist friend who, reluctantly, thought my little machine made a quite nice espresso. Maybe he was just being nice, but he didn't come across as patronizing, so I believed him. Anyway, works for me.