60% of coffee species threatened with extinction

[so lucky]

This is a little off subject, but not so far as to call it a "hijack." I have been using a Melitta coffee cone for the last year or so, and really like the taste of the coffee it makes.
My DH started using it too, and we thought since we are both using "real coffee" now, we may as well buy a drip coffee maker so we can make more than a cup at a time.
Well, I can't believe the difference in the taste of the coffee once it goes through Mr Coffee. Doesn't smell or taste nearly as good as the coffee made with the simple drip Melitta. What process can the coffee go through inside that machine to change the taste and smell that much? It was that way from the start, so I know it wasn't a built up of chemicals or coffee oils. We have used the pretty new red Mr Coffee machine a little over a month, and now the last two mornings we just reverted back to the Melitta.
Do you suppose the process of heating the water inside the machine scorches it? We have a ton of calcium in our water. Maybe it is the stench of burned calcium. The coffee maker comes with a charcoal filter that I am supposed to replace monthly, but I realized they charge about 6 bucks for them, so I don't think that is a go. Taste is not better with the filter, possibly worse. Ick!

 

[thistlebloom]

So Lucky, does the filter come with instructions to soak it for 15 minutes or so before use? When we had a Brita water filter the new filters were supposed to be soaked before you installed them in the pitcher.
Taste has something to do with it.

I think coffee made in a coffee press is better than any other way I have made it. But if you want more than one cup it's too much of a process for me.
I have been using a stainless steel percolator for a few years, mostly because I
don't like the plastic in drip coffee makers.

There. That might be a hijack.

 

[baymule]

Doesn't Yaupon make you vomit if you drink significant quantities of it?

I never drank a lot of it. It grows all over the place. I have picked the leaves, let them dry, then toasted in the oven. It makes a good tea, but as long as I can buy coffee, that's my go to for caffeine. LOL

 

[baymule]

The natives used to use Yaupon in their ceremonies to purge themselves. When we took the Boy Scouts camping we'd teach them what Yaupon looked like and told them to not handle it or use the wood in the campfires. Of course some would not listen. It usually wasn't that bad.

You can use many different things to make tea. Some have "medicinal" effects, some are just for flavor. I guess it depends on why you drink tea. Yeah, volume probably has a lot to do with the effects. Or maybe concentration.

The traditional New Orleans coffee is a mixture if chicory and coffee, very strong. Some like it black. Cafe au lait, a favorite non-alcohol drink, is about 50% of this chickory coffee and 50% hot milk. Many people add a lot of sugar, some don't. At Cafe du Monde in the French Quarter cafe au lait and beignets are the go-to items. Decades ago when I as single my roommate and I would bike about 5 miles to Cafe du Monde in the French Quarter on a Sunday morning, eat beignets and drink cafe au lait, read the Sunday paper, and laugh at the tourists with their hangovers.

Why not use the wood in campfires? I have cut and piled it up and burned it, never noticed anything wrong. The green leaves flare like a torch, kinda fun.

 

[flowerbug]

So Lucky, does the filter come with instructions to soak it for 15 minutes or so before use? When we had a Brita water filter the new filters were supposed to be soaked before you installed them in the pitcher.
Taste has something to do with it.

I think coffee made in a coffee press is better than any other way I have made it. But if you want more than one cup it's too much of a process for me.
I have been using a stainless steel percolator for a few years, mostly because I
don't like the plastic in drip coffee makers.

There. That might be a hijack.

get a bigger press!

we are heathens here now with using instant coffee almost all the time... but when i was into it more the temperature of the water has a lot to do with what is extracted from whatever beans/blend/roast/grind you are using.

calcium will affect the flavor too, but like @thistlebloom says here i also object more to the plastic odd flavors/smells than anything so i would always use a glass and stainless steel basket French press. that way i could control temperature the way i wanted plus could let it steep without it cooking more (which i also hated in coffee).

i don't like charcoal filters because after a while they just pass things through and can also be a place for bacteria/fungi to grow. if i want pure water i would use an RO unit and store the water in clear glass jars (out of the sun). i don't actually like to drink RO water (i think some minerals are important to bone health and there are issues if you are going to drink only RO water).

some people put a pinch of salt in their coffee. i never did. we don't normally cook with salt so any time it gets added to things i really notice it.

most of the time our water here is pretty good, it can have a little iron/iron sulfide at times but i'm used to it and if i run the faucet i hardly smell it at all. i can taste the iron but in coffee i can't taste it at all.

 

[thejenx]

I once walked into a Starbucks with others, I needed to use the bathroom. Since I was with customers, no problems. When I came back I looked at offered flavors. Hard as I looked I could not find a flavor called "cup of coffee".

A few winters back, I had to travel by bicycle from the train station. My lock was frozen and usually I could just blow some hot breath in it and I could unlock it. This time it wouldn't budge, it was early in the morning and the only open place was Starbucks, so I asked for a cup of hot water to defrost the lock. When I asked what do I owe you? I got the reply it's free, hot water is not on the list so I don't have a price for it!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Why not use the wood in campfires? I have cut and piled it up and burned it, never noticed anything wrong. The green leaves flare like a torch, kinda fun.

Yaupon (Ilex vomitoria Aiton) berries can cause vomiting when ingested. When I was a scout leader I was told by other scout leaders that the wood smoke from burning it or just handling the leaves could also cause vomiting if you breathed or ingested that. I was probably misinformed about the smoke and leaves. We never had any kid have a problem that could be linked to handling yaupon. Although we made them do their own cooking we really had very few to ever have stomach problems.

I think you are fine with burning wood and leaves, just beware the berries.

 

[canesisters]

hehehe "Beware The Berries"

 

[so lucky]

So Lucky, does the filter come with instructions to soak it for 15 minutes or so before use? When we had a Brita water filter the new filters were supposed to be soaked before you installed them in the pitcher.
Taste has something to do with it.

I think coffee made in a coffee press is better than any other way I have made it. But if you want more than one cup it's too much of a process for me.
I have been using a stainless steel percolator for a few years, mostly because I
don't like the plastic in drip coffee makers.

There. That might be a hijack.

No, the instructions just say to rinse it before each use. It doesn't seem to me that the taste is plastic; the melitta cone is plastic. Although I think I have seen them in ceramic.

 

[thistlebloom]

get a bigger press!

I drink my coffee so slowly that whatever might be left in a press would be tepid.
I like my coffee hot!