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Amulet's Coffee

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by Amulet, Dec 12, 2018.

  1. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

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    This following video was requested by @SpritualSoul
     
  2. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

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    Why the emphasis on "filter" in Filter Coffee ?

    In South Indian Restaurants they will have "Filter" Coffee on the Menu board, just to tell the customers that their decoction is made the traditional way, before it gets mixed in with milk, tossed up and served, whether it be in a SS Tumbler-Dabara set or a Cup and Saucer. Those who do not mention Filter, may as well be serving you instant coffee -- already brewed, freeze dried coffee granules redissolved in hot milky water.

    In households also these two kinds of coffee are found. Reaching for a Bru or a Nescafe granules is a lot easier in a busy life. And if the loss of a filter-coffee is not a critical event in one's daily life, then it is easier to give that up. Grandmother came back from Benares, and the one thing she gave up, as tradition would demand it, was not filter coffee. She was already not eating too many other things for various penances. If the daily coffee was denied her, she'd have been a walking dead. She (RIP) used to say that she wanted everyone at her death bead, queuing up, to place a drop of a good first decoction coffee in her mouth before she would smile and move on out.

    There are homes where they make the classic "Cow Boy" coffee. We have seen these in western movies. There'd be this water kettle, and the cook will toss a couple of spoons of coffee powder into it, and set it back on the camp fire. When the spout started steaming, the kettle will be taken out, and set aside to cool off a bit. This would settle the hot water soaked powder a little, and before the thing is completely settled, those who hold out a tin cup, would get a coffee poured in it. That is about the size of that.

    In many Tamil Nadu homes, this same thing is done, except the water is the tail end of the hot water that remained in the large brass (Sn-Kalai coated) idly steamer. That water would be somewhat milky already - the spill of batter drops, cooked white idli debris, and flotsam in that water all contributing to the "white" aspect of the simmering water. A few spoons of coffee powder will be tossed into that, the water may still be simmering hot, or not, and after a little bit of time, couple of ladle full of that slurry would be filtered through a cloth (also containing idli debris from idli making) filter. That coffee will assume the light brown color due to the rice-urad dissolved debris in the water. No milk or less added milk needed for that kind of coffee. A positive thing! Even though this coffee making involved a "filter" it is certainly not filter coffee.

    My brothers who had playmates in the street drank such coffees at their homes. Occasionally they will go to their mates' homes, and the ladies over there will press them to drink some coffee. When they come home and tell us how they persevered, we'd laugh and laugh, and feel sorry for them.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2018
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  3. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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  4. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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    I wish to add a rejoinder.
    Six decades and a half ago After walking with dad a couple of miles through paddy fields and muddy in early morning from village to kumbakonam town big STREET ARYABHAVAN, DAD AND I Had a sigh of relief after ordering some snacks and Cow's milk filter coffee.
    After snacks when coffee in brass dabra tumbler with fizz placed before us it was heavenly.
    There is nothing to beat cow's milk filter coffee for coffee veterans. The all time best of beverages - coffee matha ki jai.
    Regards to all feedbackies and to author of the OP.
     
  5. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

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    IMG_1354 <== click the link or the image below to see coffee roasting.
    [​IMG]
    Even though it says "IMG", it is really a video that is about 20 seconds long, of coffee beans rotating counterclockwise and levitating in the popcorn maker's hot well. Because coffee is heavier than popcorn, and has no "wings" to fly out, it just levitates, and does not go out.

    The roasting may be stopped now, as one can just see the surface sheen forming on the coffee beans, or let go another 30 seconds of merry go round in hot air to emphasize the sheen.

    [ Ignore the beeps towards the end; that came out of the washing machine:hmmm:]
     
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2018
  6. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

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    Institutional Coffee
    There are many parents in IL community who are raising children in the west. Fortunately many of the migrants from India are reasonably affluent, and know the value of education as well. They naturally think education of their children is very important. These parents do not permit their teenage children (still in HS years) to get part-time employment. One of the more prevalent part-time occupations for HS, and post-HS children is in Food Service.

    It is a lot easier to work on college campus (in dorm kitchen/dining, or in large cafeterias and such) than in off-campus private businesses. Mistakes are more tolerated on campus than off campus.

    Making coffee, and carrying the hot coffee across a dining area to service clients may seem like easy jobs, but in reality not so in big food service operations. Work crew supervisors would even train part-timers on how to carry a typical Bunn Coffee Carafe, that is filled with hot liquid, that can sting/stain when spilled. Firm small steps, protect your coffee, and the elbow of the arm that is carrying the coffee carafe, and carry a wet-not-dripping folded towel in the other hand holding the bottom of the coffee. And how to transit the service doorway. It is easier to skate on ice, than to be constantly mindful in the kitchen and dining area of a restaurant.

    In many inexpensive coffee self-service counters of America, the coffee they have is usually rancid and over-heated. College, and Restaurant coffees are of a much better quality, because many places will require workers to label the time when the coffee was loaded and machine switched on. After a specific number of minutes, the remainder of the coffee is usually dumped in the sink, and a new coffee pot started, and labelled with starting time.

    A few years ago, in Chennai, we walked from the hotel (I think it was Wellcome or Savera on Radhakrishnan Road) in the morning, and visited Stella Maris College, and walked farther towards the beach, and on the way found a Saravanabhavan restaurant. We went in there, and my kids were quite affected by the nature of the service work in that joint. I think they had reminisced about their own campus work, and compared. We all ate some tiffin items, and had coffee (double decoction, half the milk, no sugar). Very good coffee for such a large operation. I told the kids of the life as waitstaff in a family restaurant like that. That "going out for coffee" turned out to be a teaching and thanksgiving moment.
     
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  7. Amica

    Amica IL Hall of Fame

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    Whoa! A thesis on coffee! @Amulet, you are a rockstar!

    I had tossed my hot air popcorn maker on the Freecycle pile in our garage a couple days ago, and had to retrieve it after reading your bean-roasting trick. :thumbsup:

    I thought melamine was only a problem with the pretty silk pyramidal tea bags? :confused:

    Soon after we got married, we found ourselves hosting a parade of house guests. The one thing that saved my sanity was a tip from an experienced hostess: Place coffee paraphernalia in the guest room. Guests become surprisingly easy to deal with when they have caffeine on tap in the privacy of their bedrooms.

    My neighbor, a self-styled coffee connoisseur, swears by kopi luwak and urges me to try a cup. I have resisted thus far. Have you tried it? and what's your verdict?
     
  8. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

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    This is the reason you can easily buy such things in garage-sales, or from the local thrift stores like goodwill. If you are a regular coffee roaster using one of these units, then, once a month you'd need to clean out the well of the unit. The best method is to simply put one table spoon of popping corn, and let it go. The corn will go around, wipe all the walls clean and spew itself out through its chute.
    upload_2018-12-15_11-23-12.png
    When I use the "coffee bean roaster" it sits within a large pot or wok under the kitchen hood, with a colander on top. I put in just enough coffee (it expands in volume after roasting) so that the beans can go around and around when the unit is switched on. Some chaff will fly out of the machine and get directed by the colander to fall into the skillet. See the wine bottles (repurposed as cooking oil containers) for scale. The video linked in post#25 is towards the end of the roast (all the chaff gone already, the colander is off)

    Wet-strength comes from melamine crosslinking of cellulosics, like paper. Occasionally in "office coffee machines", people would use two layers of paper towels in the coffee-grounds basket. This is not healthy.
    Yes; you must try a cup, when it comes you way so easy.

    @Amica, I had been to Bali a couple of times, and Bintan (day trip from Singapore, @kkrish) more often than that. Kopi luwak is not worth the hype for several reasons:
    1. Very difficult to get green, unroasted, Luwak beans outside of Indonesi. [If the bean is already roasted, the clock on its conversion to dead wood had already begun. Once roasted, coffee has a limited shelf life.]
    2. Years ago people went to the woods to look for Luwak-scat. And rummaged through them, to collect the beans, washed them in streams, roasted, ground, and made coffee. And likely thought it good. When such a lot of process steps (how much to roast, how fine to grind, how to brew the decoction, and what else to put in the coffee) are involved, and variations are stacked (statistically speaking), the chance of getting the coffee you like from a Luwak-gut-processed bean is as good as getting it from another bean.
    3. Luwak coffee is no longer gathered from the natural habitats of the civet cat. The animals are caught, caged, and fed nothing but coffee berries most of the time. In nature, the cats choose to eat what they deem good berries. In captivity, they have to eat what their captors feed them, or go hungry. There is no balanced meals, with other stuff a cat would want. In coffee estate tours in Bali, you can get to see the poor things. Enough for you to want to boycott Luwak beans. And besides, in those tours, you will get served coffee from Luwak beans -- and realize that it is possible to ruin a coffee even with the best touted beans. This is the reason I would recommend that you taste the Neighbour's Luwak coffee and be the judge.
    4. In my opinion, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans are the best in the world. The Plantation-A coffee beans from Mysore are no slouches either. The density of the bean (weigh 10 beans on a kitchen scale, and compare one type vs. another) is what makes it yield a good decoction, when roasted to the first sheen, ground and brewed within one day of roasting, and done in a drip filter, like a Madras or Vietnamese contraption.
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2018
  9. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

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    @Viswamitra
    If you are keen about getting back to your mother's formulation for a filter coffee, you go at it in two steps, after acquiring the basic paraphernalia.

    Step 1. Buy already roasted coffee(1), and chicory(2), a coffee beans grinder, a vietnamese/madras coffee filter. Mix (3) and grind together into a fine powder, and make coffee in a vietnamese coffee drip filter.

    (1) Trader Joe, Costco, Amazon.com
    (2) Amazon.com, Community Coffee
    (3) 90:10, 70:30 coffee:chicory ratio will give you distinct taste differences.
    Repeat coffee making/driking until you are comfortable with the process, and enjoying the taste. Shop for a hotair popcorn maker -- you'd easily find one in the neighbourhood garage sales if you walked around on a weekend. People are always tossing one out, because they had enough, or they had broken the top plastic chute by dropping it on the kitchen floor, and stepping on it.

    Step 2: Buy green coffee beans (coffeebeandirect/dot/com) of the type Monsooned Malabar (equivalent to Plantation-A Arabica), Tanzanian Peaberry (equivalent to the Nilgiris peaberry coffee we'd get from TUCS stores in Madras). Roast these two separately in small lots in a Hotair Popcorn maker. Cool the roasted coffee on a ceramic (dinner plate), and when cool to touch, grind with chicory (9:1, and 7:3 ratios), and repeat coffee decoction making for taste test. Chicory comes already roasted, and has a long shelf life in the original bag, if sealed and stored in the fridge.

    How far to roast? : See the reflective sheen on the fresh roasted coffee cooling in a ceramic plate; this is the coffee's oil content just coming off to the surface. Too much roasting beyond this stage would rancidify(is this even a word?) these oils. Stopping just before this happens is also fine. Rather conveniently, every hotair popcorn maker is designed to stop when overheated, they will do this every minute or two. You can easily inspect the beans at that time:
    upload_2018-12-15_12-59-14.png
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2018
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  10. sneha1985

    sneha1985 Gold IL'ite

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    I think it's the chicory that makes the difference. Otherwise I have tried many freshly grinded coffee in here both dark and medium roast. I love the smell of coffee and would like to drink it daily, but for some reason it doesn't suit my body. I suffer from heart burn after drinking black coffee and constipation from coffee with milk... :pensive:

    I have tried most of the coffee in US and also Nescafe instant coffee from India.
     
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