Coffee Capers

Before our recent trip South, I took great care to pack my coffee grinder, beans, filters, teapot, special spoon, etc., etc.—everything I needed to make a proper cup of Joe.

So it was a big disappointment to find that in a last-minute bag rearrangement, I’d left the coffee and the cone filter at home. Fortunately, my father had a pound of Italian roast in his pantry—from 2008! And guess what? It was fine. We ground it and put it in an espresso machine and the coffee was great. Much better, in fact, than any of the colored water that passes for coffee in restaurants. (I get especially cranky if I’ve eaten a wonderful meal in a not-inexpensive food joint and the finishing touch—the coffee—is lackluster. For me, this taints the entire experience.

Today I thought I’d share a few tips from the road about coffee. (To the friend I’d promised to give lessons in brewing the perfect cup: Consider this the sidebar to your future instructions.)

1. The way you make your coffee is critical. One reason restaurant coffee is so awful—well, two reasons—is because it’s made in those dreadful coffee-makers that aren’t cleaned often enough, and the pots rest for extended periods on a warming plate. Acidity builds in both cases, warming plates ultimately burn the brew, and the coffee is undrinkable for discriminating palates. Almost any method of brewing coffee—cone filter, Swedish vacuum, French press, stovetop percolator—is superior to the easiest plug-in appliance. Serve coffee immediately while it’s at its hottest temperature.

2. When the tap water smells like algae, it will affect the taste of the coffee, but if made correctly, the coffee will still be worth drinking.

3. Old beans are better than no beans.

4. $_ _ _ _ _ _ _ $ $ell$ an in$tant e$pre$$o that makes a great travelling companion. If you find yourself craving the deep taste of home-brewed coffee while in an environment void of taste (for instance, a hospital, a nursing facility, a tea-drinker’s home*), simply ask for a cup of boiling water and get your fix. * That’s not to say tea-drinkers don’t have taste/aesthetics. I just couldn’t stop myself from writing it. My apologies to my tea-drinking friends.

[Illustration from Experimental Pharmacology and Materia Medica, by Dennis E. Jackson.]