So, in the meantime, do you like coffee? Why or why not?
I really like good coffee, and am enough of a coffee whore to tolerate most mediocre to bad coffee. When I was a kid, I LOVED the smell in the house, and used to taste it every so often, figuring it smelled so good it HAD to taste good. But it wasn't until I got coffee heaped with flavorings from a sweetheart in college (she was all about the General Foods International Coffees) that I could bear it; it gradually grew to a like/love.
How do you like it? Black? With cream or sugar?
Good coffee, black. Bad coffee, with cream, creamer, flavored creamer, whatever. Not usually sugar (except what's in the flavored creamer).
After reading Consumer Reports' blind taste-tests on coffee, I stopped buying the fanciest special blends, and bought some of their #1 recommended 8 o'clock coffee; I tend to be a big fan of the 8 O'clock French Roast, unground, and grind it myself in the morning.
Do you like it prepared a certain way, say on the stove in and old-fashioned percolator, or in a french press? What makes this method superior?
I learned off Good Eats, so it's carafe, filter (permanent gold) inside cone. Ground 7 scoops of it, pour the water through about 15 seconds off the boil. I've found it to be more flavorful. I think french press is a resonably close second; my honey makes it that way sometimes.
At first, I just did that on weekends for my honey; then I realized how much I was spending at Espresso Royale in the morning on the way to work and went to 7 days a week at home.
And if I "need" a second dose, I will drink the work crap, laden with fake creamer.
Do you have a favorite "froofy" drink when you go out to a coffee shop?
Probably a mocha.
Which coffee shops make the best coffee and which are over-rated?
I have kinda a thing for Dunkin' Donuts coffee ... though usually with something I should not be eating ... also Tim Horton's fires up my Canadian blood. I used to have a thing for the old Cava Java in Ann Arbor too.
Have you tried to cut down on caffeine, and how successful were you?
Yep, moved to Ann Arbor, started working in Randall Lab on Central Campus ... maybe 100 yards or less from Cava Java. Bought a big huge one of their mugs first day there (I'm guessing 24-36 oz., definitely WAY more than 16), and if I needed a few minutes of walk and think, I'd go refill it ... maybe four times a day. One day I had a busy day at work, didn't make it there, and thought I had the 'flu. Falling asleep by 6pm, achey, pounding headache. I had a talk on the phone with a friend who correctly diagnosed me.
I did cut back to one mug a day then, though on and off random amounts of caffeinated cola.
Did you used to dislike coffee but acquired a taste for it?
See above.
What do you think about flavored coffees?
I enjoy them -- I usually have some 8 O'Clock Hazelnut at home to make.
no subject
I really like good coffee, and am enough of a coffee whore to tolerate most mediocre to bad coffee. When I was a kid, I LOVED the smell in the house, and used to taste it every so often, figuring it smelled so good it HAD to taste good. But it wasn't until I got coffee heaped with flavorings from a sweetheart in college (she was all about the General Foods International Coffees) that I could bear it; it gradually grew to a like/love.
Good coffee, black. Bad coffee, with cream, creamer, flavored creamer, whatever. Not usually sugar (except what's in the flavored creamer).
After reading Consumer Reports' blind taste-tests on coffee, I stopped buying the fanciest special blends, and bought some of their #1 recommended 8 o'clock coffee; I tend to be a big fan of the 8 O'clock French Roast, unground, and grind it myself in the morning.
I learned off Good Eats, so it's carafe, filter (permanent gold) inside cone. Ground 7 scoops of it, pour the water through about 15 seconds off the boil. I've found it to be more flavorful. I think french press is a resonably close second; my honey makes it that way sometimes.
At first, I just did that on weekends for my honey; then I realized how much I was spending at Espresso Royale in the morning on the way to work and went to 7 days a week at home.
And if I "need" a second dose, I will drink the work crap, laden with fake creamer.
Probably a mocha.
I have kinda a thing for Dunkin' Donuts coffee ... though usually with something I should not be eating ... also Tim Horton's fires up my Canadian blood. I used to have a thing for the old Cava Java in Ann Arbor too.
Yep, moved to Ann Arbor, started working in Randall Lab on Central Campus ... maybe 100 yards or less from Cava Java. Bought a big huge one of their mugs first day there (I'm guessing 24-36 oz., definitely WAY more than 16), and if I needed a few minutes of walk and think, I'd go refill it ... maybe four times a day. One day I had a busy day at work, didn't make it there, and thought I had the 'flu. Falling asleep by 6pm, achey, pounding headache. I had a talk on the phone with a friend who correctly diagnosed me.
I did cut back to one mug a day then, though on and off random amounts of caffeinated cola.
See above.
I enjoy them -- I usually have some 8 O'Clock Hazelnut at home to make.