Coffee Drinkers Anonymous

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
One of the hotels I stayed in far too many times had a set western breakfast that included an omelette. The omelette was ok though I make better but it was always doused in tomato catsup. No matter how many times or how many ways I asked for the delete option it came out smothered. I would always scrape off as much as possible and leave the detritus festering on the plate but next day it was back.

Office coffee was watery black drizzle with plastic containers of uht milk. Took me a while to realise I could get green tea instead.

However the endless glasses of cold water and the almost endless supply of hot towels with the meal meant all was forgiven.
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
I love the hot towel.

There's a very old lady + husband that run a ramen + coffee shop at one of the ski fields. Her coffee is unbelievable. Simple pour over, 10/10 every time. I've watched her and she is just using a big bag of preground ucc coffee...something hidden in her technique because it is so much better than it should be.


Also a great part of flying Singapore Air. That and their on board cocktails. Fuck I even had a Cognac on the plane! Felt wierd drinking it from a plastic cup, but Cognac!
 

cooki_monsta

Likes Dirt
It is more likely powdered milk or (as Dale mentioned) UHT. Though fresh milk here tastes a little funky too. I think it is pasteurized at a higher temp than in Australia. But I am wildly speculating.

With the powdered milk I read a while ago that it used to be import taxed differently if it was "pure" vs blended with sugar. We have a free trade agreement with them (Thanks Tony) that I think includes dairy. Powdered milk is easier to transport...

When I was a kid I used to put scoops of powdered milk on my wheat bix. I enjoy the malty caramel taste and that is prominent in a lot of the cans.




Easy...Lets not confuse cold brew with cold drip.
Ooo you caught me. Yes cold drip ;)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

poita

Likes Dirt
^ there is a variety of "creamer" type options in those little UHT peel back containers floating around. Given the price of them I can't get my head around why milk isn't more popular. I'm not confident that many of the creamer options are dairy either.

When I first started coming here (not really that long ago) the pour over or American drip machine type coffee was everywhere. The commercial automatic (very bad) "espresso" machines are quite common now and rarely used well. I'd much rather the old style and often go looking for that style if cafe when I'm in Tokyo. You know the sort I mean...a key coffee sign by the door, no windows, ash trays everywhere, a few hundred yen for the morning set (boiled egg, slice of buttery sweet white toast, coleslaw or potato salad, and a black tar coffee...). I found one in ueno last year...the owner gave me a boiled egg with my coffee like a cafe at home might give you a choc coated coffee bean. It was bliss.
Pretty sure the creamers contain zero of anything that was/is ever dairy. A Japanese friend smuggles those wretched dairy farmers 30mL cup things you get at shit motels back every time they visit for that reason. I'm convinced there is some kind of elaborate Japanese Dairy lobby that forbids anything but Japanese "fresh" milk products. Everything else is heat treated to oblivion. Check the import restrictions on anything remotely resembling milk or dairy products for a laugh.

And +1 for those old school coffee and smoking shops. If you can still find them.
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Never enough of them around. Found one last year - coffee and cigars. Must smoke a cigar to drink a coffee...I couldn't do it. The air was like a Dutch oven of extreme power.
 

tobbogonist

a registered member
Used to be a somewhat regular at a bar in Collingwood a few years ago, bartender would add a shot of whiskey to my 7/11 coffee when it was cold out.
Didnt get much bettet then that.
 

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
So yesterday I decided to buy a Bellman Cappuccino CX-25P for camping. The Wacaco pump unit makes decent espresso but warming the milk in a saucepan on the stove and then aerating it was a bit (lot) shit. Probably could have gotten away with the Bellman steamer but thought why not get one machine to conquer them all?

Did the clean and steralisation yesterday and made the first coffee this morning.

Easy to use though boiling the water first speeds things up considerably. Used my Mazzer grinder for expediency but I know I can get the same grind from my camping Rhino hand grinder. I put 35g of coffee into the brew basket. I followed the utube video from Alternative Brewing rather than the instructions (?!) and didn't use the reducers.

Put 3 cups worth of hot water in and then put the unit onto the gas. Reached pressure fairly quickly and I cut off the heat and poured at around 0.9bar (0.5 - 1.2bar recommended). Pour was good with good crema though it does spurt a little until the flow steadies. So I need to look at that and maybe scrap the first flow. Measured out a shot glass of espresso and then fired up the gas again until the unit got to just under 2bar (1.2-2bar recommended). Dropped the gas flame to low, purged the steam wand and started steaming the moo. Very easy to steam the milk and it did a top job.



So what did it taste like? Way too strong for me but I am a woos. I need to probably draw at a lower pressure and/or draw less. I will run my house machine again and check quantities.

Will it work camping? Absolutely. If I cannot get the brew right I can always use the Wacaco for the espresso and use this as a steamer but there is no reason why I cannot experiment and get it right. The advantage with the Bellman is you can stack the basket and draw two or more coffees in a single brew, the Wacaco is strictly one at a time. Anyway thought I would share in case anyone else is looking for a camping brewer. At $259 good value for money I think.
 

born-again-biker

Is looking for a 16" bar
What an awesome little jigger.
I'm definitely bookmarking that. I spend wayy too much time farting around with coffee when we're camping.
 

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
@creaky it is good actually, the handle gives you plenty of control, I left it on the trivet pulling the shot and steaming the milk. No issues. Mind you the camper kitchen is stainless so if I had to I would sit it on that. You need to keep the gas on when steaming because it drops pressure quickly.

Clean up was easy too. Rinse and done.
 

FigBo0T

Puts verniers on his headtube
I got one of those Japanese cans of cold coffee from a servo recently (latte, not the iced long black).

Easily the most disgusting coffee I’ve ever tasted.
I raise you one of these. $2.50 on special at Woolies. I'm brave. Pic shows how much I drank.

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