That reminds me, c.i. When I am older, I hope I live close enough to walk over to such a coffeehouse to read and have some good coffee. In many university towns there are bakery/deli/coffeehouses where newspapers and magazines are stocked and the tables, chairs - even couches are plentiful. Now that would be a sweet way to get the morning cuppa! Just hope that when I am of circumstances to have such a habit, that the closest places are not McDonalds or Hardees or somesuch. Cannot stand what those franchises call coffee!
timber -
so true. reminds me of mornings in the alps with the little italian percolator with the patiobitch in our second summer together, sitting on the tarp outside the tent, watching the morning alpenglow light up the cliff faces as if from the inside, laughing at the all the weird german motorcycle guys stumbling around in their bikini briefs. just like trout, coffee is always better without a roof.
cobalt, The only good thing about McDonald's coffee is their senior's price. It's about .27c for a cuppa.
c.i.
Several people here have mentioned manual grinders. Other than a bit of nostalgia, do they provide any benefit over an automatic grinder?
Less physical strength needed at such and early hour perhaps?
fishin', I'm not sure manual grinders are better, but I'm so used to mine that I like to think they are. When I try an electric grinder, everything happens so fast! But I guess that's the point...I suppose if it's set to the right grind, an electric one would be quite the thing!
But as a sometime Luddite, I'll stick with my manual machine...
The reason I've been told that electric grinders are not as good is that they might (might) overheat the beans through high-speed friction. For that reason you are supposed to "pulse" an electric grinder.
It depends also on what kind of grinder you have. If you have a manual one on which you can set the grind (i.e. espresso vs. perc), it's going to do better job than one of the automatic ones with the spinning blade, which tends to give an uneven grind. If, on the other hand, you've got a fancy electric burr grinder, well, it's gonna work pretty good.
I know which one's going to work best when the power's out, though...
