I was at a house party last night and around 3am Peter suggested we have coffee. There was some Carte Noire instant, and Peter said “that coffee was written about on Velvet Liquid”.
I replied “What’s Velvet Liquid?”
well of course this is Velvet Liquid! I’ve neglected this blog so much I didn’t even recognize it’s name.
oh well, I’ll keep posting in the future!
People can be snobby about instant coffee as much as they like, but when it comes down to it; coffee is sometimes drunk for the caffeine hit. And a damn good caffeine hit at that.
Instant coffee is generally made from low quality Vietnamese Robosta, to which an arabica coffee flavour is added. An enourmous quantity of coffee is brewed in an enourmous vat, which is then freeeze dried. The “Freeze dried” bit means something like; the coffee changes state instantly, and the water in it is never steam. I’d be glad if somebody with more scientific knowledge could correct me.
I appreciate good coffee; from an espresso machine, a cafetiere or even an Ibrik. But that is when coffee is being drunk for pleasure, when a caffeine hit is needed, and needed quickly; instant coffee is the answer.
When making an instant coffee, at school or in the morning, I like to add around 3 to 4 tea spoons of sugar to cover up the bitterness. It seems to do the trick well and make a “supercharge” drink. I can last nicely up until 3:25 PM on only 3 hours of sleep on such a drink.
So don’t turn your nose up at instant coffee. Drink for porpose not for pleasure. One should never enjoy a cup of nescafe, but be thankful for the benefits of it.
On a final note; If you end up buying instant coffee, I’d recomend “Carte Noir”, it’s 100% Arabica (Which I think is a waste for instant), so it’s much more palatible, and with sugar; you’ll be able to sip without cringing and feel the brilliant effects of caffeine. All of course, brewed in less than 30 seconds.
It’s not so often that I write about tea, but to me it is still something quite important. Rooibos tea is fairly different to any other teas I’ve tasted before. Looking below you can see the difference clearly between the leaves. Rooibos is very red.
When brewed, Rooibos is however quite hard to tell from Black Tea.
Rooibos tea is sometimes marketed as “Red Brush Tea” or “Red Bush Tea”. It is high in antioxidants and I guess that means it’s good for you. I would suggest drinking without milk and adding a little honey.
I have decided that I am going to start selling Chocoshock on an online store. This will be chocoshock.tk. Before you rush over there, you’re probably not going to see anything at all until my exams are over.
The Chocoshock store will stock:
They’ll also be a “create your own” bit where people can select the chocolate they’ll use, (Dark, Milk or White), the coffee they’ll use probably (Mocha, Colombian, Santos & Java and Espresso) and they grind (Turkish, Fine, Coarse or Whole beans).
I think that I’m going to use Lindt chocolate, either that or I will source from another high quality supplier.
This is early days, I’m not so sure yet, so we’ll see how it develops. Tell me what you think!
You would have to drink around 6.5 gallons of coffee in one sitting to get enough caffeine to die from an overdose.
thanks to CCafe at Coffeforums for that one
I have recently come across a new line of “coffee”; instant capuccino, Instant mocha and Instant espresso. You just add hot water, stir like mad and hey presto- you are left with a tepid looking drink similar in appearance to Milo.
I personally find this pretty disturbing as it’s simply leading customers into thinking they’re purchasing something they’re not. Cappuccino is 1/3 Espresso, 1/3 Steamed milk and 1/3 foamed milk. Espresso is a process pushing steam through coffee at a high pressure. How this can be packed into a sachet, I do not know!
Whilst doing this the people producing the so called “coffee” like to make it worse with slogans such as “enjoy coffehouse coffee at home”. I”d personally beware of any magical, instant coffee drinks. In order to try and imitate the flavor, they probably include ingredients like hydrogenated oils and possibly even high-fructose corn syrup – ingredients not conducive to a long and healthy life. What’s more, it simply isn’t coffee for that matter.
5 truths about Starbucks.
I’ve decided to write this after having the worst double espresso in my life! Who would have thought that it would come from Starbucks? Next time you want some coffee and you’re out, DON’T go to Starbucks.
Pure elegance in itself. In my opinion there’s little more full fulling than seeing that golden liquid fountain out of that metal pillar. Now, you all probably think I’ve gone crazy or something, but the Moka pot is really that beautiful. This method of brewing coffee is popular in Italian households as the beverage produced is espresso. The drink produced is espresso because steam is forced through compact coffee. If you don’t already have a moka pot you can get them from Whitards or failing that they’ll make you pay a lot more at a department store.
Once dismatled, fill the bottom of the Moka pot with cold water, this water should be as pure as possible so I would recommend filtering it. Then put the middle compartment into the bottom compartment as shown below.
Now fill the middle compartment with ground coffee. This coffee should be finely ground because it’s espresso that’s being made. The fact that it’s finely ground increases its surface area which means that more flavors will be extracted, this is nescessary because the extraction time is quite small in comparison with other brewing methods.
Now enjoy what in my opinion is a perfect breakfast. It’s an infusion of French and Italian culture. Simply beautiful
My brothers friend had a go at making some choco-shock, this time with Galaxy and GROUND Illy Espresso coffee. The main difference this time, being that the coffee is ground. At first I was very skeptical as to how it would all turn out, I just didn’t think ground coffee would be any good.
This time, the “coarsest” setting on the grinder was used, next time I’d like to use an espresso grind.
Overall this is certainly an improvement on the first batch. This could possibly take years to perfect, but it’s certainly getting better.
Here I am back on the blogroll after a month or so, writing about grinding. This christmas I managed to recieve enough money to purchase a Burr grinder. There are many different brewing methods for coffee and for each brew method their is a different grind which is appropriate.
Turkish coffee requires very very very fine grinds, and in my opinion it’s not possible to get this fine grind on an everyday coffee grinder be it home or commercial. You will need Degirmen, this will grind up the coffe fine enough. It will be almost powderlike. Espresso is only extracted for around 30 seconds therefore the surface area of the grinds must be relatively big. This means grinding up the beans quite fine. I wouldn’t go for the finest setting on the grinder but almost the finest. Dripped coffee should be medium ground. Pressed coffee should be in my opinion ground in between the medium and coarse. The grinds need to be coarse because they’re sitting in the pot for between 3 and 5 minuites.
It’s important to remember that grinding the coffe too fine will result in a bitter brew whilst coffee ground to coarse will result in a weak brew, so it’s important to find a happy medium. At the end of the day it’s upto you to find which suits your taste buds the most, but the journey of experimentation should be nevertheless enjoyable. Remember if you’rte going to bother with a grinder make sure it’s a Burr one of it’s simply not worth it. The grinds need to be of equal and uniform size. This can simply be not archieved without a Burr grinder. Also, it’s important to know that if you’re grinder has a plastic been compartment, it’s important not to put in all the beens at once. As cool as it may look the beens will be damaged by the light.
