Java, the language, is named after the Indonesian island where coffee is
grown. Coffee is known as the addictive drug of choice of computer programmers.
Java product names typically play on both the Indonesian and coffee themes. Here
is the best way I have discovered to prepare coffee.
Coffee Makers
 |
| Melitta filter coffee maker |
 |
| Bodum aka French Press |
Paper filter coffee (Melitta
style) makes the best tasting coffee, though other techniques such as
percolating create better room aroma. Percolators fill the air with wonderful
coffee smell, but leave little flavour in the coffee, and tend to be bitter. A
Bodum (aka French Press) tends to create a cloudy rich peasant coffee. The
instructions that come with a Bodom tell you to stir in with a long thin plastic
spoon, not metal, to avoid scratching the glass. I have scoured stores. I could
not find one. Instead I used a wooden chopstick, then replaced it with a thin
Trudeau seamless silicone spatula.
 |
| Trudeau silcone spatula |
Recipe
Add a pinch of salt to the dry coffee grounds. The trick is to make concentrated
coffee then water it down, rather than filtering all the water through the
coffee grinds. This avoids leaching out the bitterer components of the coffee.
Of course, you must grind the beans freshly. The odour of the beans is far more
intoxicating than the final beverage.
I find the milder, cheaper beans such as Mocha Java, Brazilian, Guatemalan,
Kenyan and Kona make a mellower coffee. Add a little Dark French if you want to
give it a Starbucks bite.
To make the perfect cup of coffee, make sure you wipe out the grinder with a
Kleenex after use so you will have no coffee grounds going stale to spoil the
next batch.
Adding a subliminal pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove or ginger or a drop of
organic vanilla or orange juice can add a little interest. Be subtle. People
should just barely be able to tell the coffee is different, not how.
Wipe a touch of orange essence around the rim of the cup, and watch eyes pop
with delight.
Of course you want to use fair trade coffee, both
because you get the higher quality beans that way, and to play fair with the
people who grow the beans for you.
Preserving Flavour
 |
| Thermos carafe |
If you don’t serve the coffee right away, put
it in a Thermos carafe. If you leave the coffee exposed to the air it will
rapidly oxidise and get that all-night diner taste. It will keep a remarkably
long time in a sealed Thermos. Coffee makers with warming trays under a glass
pot turn out horrible coffee by oxidising it.
Personal
When I was young, my rebellion into the drug world consisted of learning to
recognise the various types of coffee, much like a wine connosieur. I would buy
100 grams of beans at a time to try out all the possibilities. I hid coffee
making equipment in the back of my closet. I did manage to pull off a Wire
Paladin/James Bond thing a few times, surprising people by telling them what was
in their personal blend. Age has taken away my unusually keen sense of smell, so
I doubt I could do it now.
Starbucks Coffee Sizes
| Starbucks Coffee Sizes |
|---|
| ml |
oz |
Size |
Notes |
|---|
| 237 |
8 |
short |
To get it you must ask for short, not small. |
| 355 |
12 |
tall |
What you get if you ask for a small or regular. |
| 473 |
16 |
grande |
pronounced grawnday, Italian for big. |
| 592 |
20 |
venti |
applies to hot drinks. Italian for twenty. |
| 710 |
24 |
venti |
applies to cold drinks. |
Cutting Back
If you claim you can’t afford fair trade coffee, just cut back on your
consumption. The easiest way to do that is to scale back on the size of your cup:
venti ( 0.71 litres (1½ US pints)
) ⇒ grande ( 473 mls (2 US cups)
) ⇒ tall ( 355 mls (1½ US cups)
) ⇒ mug ( 250 mls (1.06 US cups)
) ⇒ short ( 237 mls (1 US cups)
) ⇒ small cup ( 150 mls (0.63 US cups)
) ⇒ demitasse ( 75 mls (0.32 US cups)
). You don’t know how big you cup is? Fill it with water and pour it into
a kitchen measuring cup.
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