Coffee upgrade presents suggestions

Last year I bought my bride a grinder. She uses it, but does not appreciate the extra work.
We have a French press that gets twice daily use.
She generally uses La Colombe beans if we remember to get them.

Looking for ideas on how to upgrade her coffee experience without causing extra time in preparation. (Note: An upgraded grinder would not go down well - I knew that's what you were thinking, so let's just knock that one off now )

Suggestions welcome!

If it was a hand grinder, I was going to suggest upgrading it a la Alton Brown's pepper grinder.



I don't know what would cut down on grinding time if upgrading grinders isn't an option. You could look at another coffee gadget. Aeropress or Chemex maybe.

Not to be that guy, but grinding beans only takes a few seconds. Your wife must be an extremely busy lady

She is. And she prefers store-ground, but that was my first upgrade last year. She's not the type of person who would willingly hand grind beans while the kettle boils...
Usually she, or rather we, are prepping food, feeding kids, making lunches, getting kids dressed and out, seeing to dog, checking fridge for the night's dinner, compiling the homework that was not done the night before, emptying the dishwasher, filling the dishwasher, washing the non-dishwasher dishes, tidying up from all the previous.

Haggises said:

She is. And she prefers store-ground

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Can't understand that myself given how quickly ground coffee stales but you always have to consider the recipient. Instant, canned or a pod/capsule machine might be an upgrade for her.

Tony,

There are some fresh roasted bean companies online that do a "roast a week" subscription thing that sounds great. I roast my own so I can't list them, but I'm sure they're easily googleable. Offering her a pour over solution as a change up from FP is another idea. The Chemex with chemex brand filters is highly recommended as is the Clever immersion dripper which combines immersion with pour over.
mark

Kauai Coffee is by far one of the best you'll find with a subscription service. Especially their Estate Coffee's.

http://kauaicoffee.com/kauai-estate-coffee-club/

At the time of ordering, you can specify whole bean, ground or espresso ground.

Folgers,in your cup.this from an old trucker.

oakeshott said:

Tony,

There are some fresh roasted bean companies online that do a "roast a week" subscription thing that sounds great. I roast my own so I can't list them, but I'm sure they're easily googleable. Offering her a pour over solution as a change up from FP is another idea. The Chemex with chemex brand filters is highly recommended as is the Clever immersion dripper which combines immersion with pour over.
mark

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dgreen92807 said:

Kauai Coffee is by far one of the best you'll find with a subscription service. Especially their Estate Coffee's.

http://kauaicoffee.com/kauai-estate-coffee-club/

At the time of ordering, you can specify whole bean, ground or espresso ground.

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Thanks! Appreciate it!

Edcculus said:

You could look at another coffee gadget. Aeropress or Chemex maybe.

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Thanks fellow Whovian.

Of course a truly loving husband would buy some green beans and roast them himself in a cast iron pan for his bride. Hand roasted with love.

Hand roasted with love, and possibly some bacon fat.

That's enough of that kind of talk, friend.

How does Chemex compare to French Press?

Haggises said:

How doe Chemex compare to French Press?

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I'll have first hand experience after Thanksgiving since a gossipy birdie tells me I'm getting a chemex as a b'day present.

It's the difference between immersion brewing and pourover. More body, oils and mouthfeel in immersion; brighter and "cleaner" with pourover. Or so they say.

As in all things, you need both.

Thanks. It's definitely a possibility.

Not sure if you are asking for alternative brewing options, or how to make the french press better. My response is about potentially improving the FP.

Getting a better grinder is the best way to improve things. Something like a Baratza Virtuoso supports timed grinding, so after twisting the knob, one can walk away and do other things while the coffee is grinding (other grinders can automatically shut off after reaching a certain weight). Either will save time/effort and produce a better grind. It is difficult to use a blade grinder with a french press since the particle distribution is wider, one has to be careful to give the right number and length of pulses.

If not upgrading the grinder, then visiting the local coffee shop to get some freshly roasted coffee for the week, getting it ground specifically for press might be the next best option.

Using a thermally insulated press pot and a variable temperature kettle will also make it easier to consistently get a good brew.

oakeshott said:

Of course a truly loving husband would buy some green beans and roast them himself in a cast iron pan for his bride. Hand roasted with love.

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And grind them and make the coffee, too.

But if you somehow can't manage to upgrade yourself--since you're the one that seems bent on better coffee--then perhaps it's time to upgrade the bride.

Haggises said:

Hand roasted with love, and possibly some bacon fat.

That's enough of that kind of talk, friend.

Click to expand...

ROFL I love this place!

Hmm, a Clever Coffee Dripper might be a thought. It's an immersion devices like the press, but uses a paper filter so it'll produce a cleaner cup, and to use it you steep the coffee in the dripper and then put it over the cup or your coffee server to drain out the results. I used to use one and I'd use 450 ml of water for two 200 ml cups. I think the simplicity and the consistency of this brewer are great.

Nowadays I use fancier glass and metal toys. I have a Kalita Wave 185 carafe which takes expensive little paper filters and makes up to 600 ml of coffee and I have a Chemex for lager batches either with the thick Chemex paper (which really makes a clean cup, maybe slightly muted) or with a metal Kone filter for a more bodyfull cup more like press pot. I didn't recommend either of these as your next step as I think they work best with a nice pouring kettle, which you probably don't already have if you're using a french press. I found an old olive oil kettle in a thrift store that has a great, narrow gooseneck spout but there's plenty of good (and sometimes expensive) coffee pouring kettles out there including electric kettles with a gooseneck spout.

My recommendations are often batch sized based, for one cup an Aeropress is great, and you can get a metal filter for more body. For two cups, the Clever is great. Three calls for a Kalita 185, or maybe a Chemex 3 cup, more than that you can get a Chemex 6, 8, 10, etc. brewer.

But the thing I didn't mention is that I usually use the Behmor BraZen Plus brewer for making large pots of coffee, lately with the metal filter basket for more body. Having a household of five with sometimes four coffee drinkers makes having coffee on hand in the morning with a manual method more difficult and the BraZen works great with very good water dispersion and temperature control. The Bonavita drip brewer is highly thought of and less costly.

I'd better stop now, tl;dr for two cups try a Clever.

Did you ever decide on anything?

If you have a Baratza grinder I would suggest the weight based attachment. Nothing speeds up coffee making like one of those. Just walk up to the grinder, press the button, walk away and it grinds the correct amount AND turns off.... Takes a fraction of second to move your finger on and off of the button to get your ground coffee.

Another tip to speed up coffee making is use the microwave for your press water. 3-4 minutes in the microwave and you are brewing.

I am done and drinking coffee within 6-7 minutes of deciding I want a cup of coffee (using a press)

I have not found a faster good cup of coffee than the french press.