Coffee Press Offers End to my Coffee Woes - Soon

A Coffee Press

Among all my recent coffee woes, there is some exciting news.  About 2 weeks ago, I found a coffee press in perfect condition in a thrift shop for $2!  I bought it without a second thought.  Coffee presses make amazing coffee, and they're also very easy to use and versatile. For example, you can easily use one to make good tea, and use the press to keep the leaves out of your cup (without violating the integrity of your coffee maker or creating a mess that's hard to clean up.) Also, there's not much that can go wrong with them, unless you have a habit of dropping glass things.

There are only two problems with my coffee habit.  One is that I'm in Mexico (as of Wednesday) and I now have to be content with Nescafe (which is superior Folgers beyond a doubt) for 2 and a half weeks until I get back.  The good thing is that they have regular coffee maker at work, and I bought some good Mexican coffee to use there.  I'm still trying to figure out the right measurement since I'm not used to using a drip pot anymore.

Moka Pot

The other problem is that when I get back, at least half a kilo of Folgers is waiting for me.  Folgers doesn't taste any better in a coffee press.  It also doesn't taste any better in a moka pot (those little stove-top coffee makers that make really strong coffee which many people stove-top espresso machines.)  I tried everything.

When I get back, I'll have to get a bit of good coffee just to enjoy my coffee press - just once.  Then I'll suffer through the Folgers.

Folgers Coffee, Again ...

Early on writing this blog, I wrote a complaint of how one of my favourite morning routines of all times was soured because a well-meaning friend decided to change her locally roasted, delicious Mexican coffee for Folgers; "It's American, and it's from Walmart - it must be good," was the reasoning. (See Coffee, Wonderful Coffee!)

About a week and a half ago, I did the unthinkable and bought a kilo of Folgers coffee.  It was on special for $5 at Walmart!! Even at that price, I hesitated.  However, we were have a large number of guests over (see Baptism of Our Twins), and so someone managed to convince me that it was a good idea, especially at a time of tighter budget constraints.  I now regret the decision; I could have bought a much smaller container of better quality coffee for only a bit more and still had enough.

I am now paying the price.  At the gathering we used about 1/10 of the can.  That leaves us with the rest to use up on our own.

Even my wife, who cannot tell the difference between butter and margarine, between real whipped cream and the edible oil product version or even between real artisan Mexican coffee and Nescafe has said she has trouble getting a whole cup of Folgers coffee down.  (In fact, even way back 6 years ago in Cuernavaca when that friend duped us with Folgers coffee, my wife was in pain trying to finish the cup out of politeness; this friend had made it very strong as well!)

This is a really bad sign when even my wife has trouble getting it down.  She has no taste for quality or "food elitism."

We've realized that if we make it just the right strength and drink it fresh it's doable.  However, if it sits even half an hour, the re-heated product simply won't go down.  We feed it to the plants. (The plants can't complain!)

To make things even worse, this morning I was opening up my green bin (the spacial garbage can for organic waste.)  Normally smells of decomposing fruit waste and meat scraps blend with that of week-old dog droppings.  Today I'm sure that it was the smell of Folgers coffee grounds that came wafting out.  I still can't decide if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

Roasting My Own Coffee

My home-roasted coffee

As of this weekend, I just discovered a very nice way to have very good, freshly roasted coffee at home all the time; roast your own coffee.  Especially in Playa del Carmen, where there are no coffee roasters (as in Cuernavaca, Mexico City or Toronto.)  The best I had found here so far was a coffee from Chiapas, but was pre-roasted and pre-ground; it was good, but, you know, there's nothing like coffee that was roasted this same day. (To be fair, there are excellent grocery store brands too, but I almost never go to the grocery store, so I don't feel it's worth the time walking through the whole store, going through the check-out line, etc.)

On Sunday, having found out that the coffee vendor had moved to a new spot inside the municipal market, I went through the market to find him.  On the way, however, stopping by a shop that sells bee propolis (the pollen that the bees collect from flowers, before they turn it into honey, which is good for sore throats and colds.)  Just out of curiosity, I asked if he happened to sell coffee; I felt that since my other coffee supplier moved his shop, I was justified in shopping around.

He didn't sell coffee, but he did sell the green coffee beans, he told me.  The coffee was also from Chiapas, and it was less expensive (about $10 CDN / kg or about $4.50 a pound.)  I remembered that my wife had bought a little coffee grinder (to grind grain for the baby.)  Roasting my own coffee would be fun, I thought.  So I bought a quarter kilo (about half a pound) and was happily on my way home to roast and grind my own beans.  The result has been amazingly good coffee!

Here are pictures of the process:

The shop where I bought the green coffee beans

Another view of the shop (with me on the other side)

The green coffee beans

Coffee beans roasting - about half-way done.

Me stirring the coffee beans (about halfway done)

 

When the coffee is almost done, it will fill your house with smoke.  Beautiful smell.  My wife wasn't impressed.

Cleaning some of the left over husks off the coffee beans; I'm not sure if this is necessary, or perhaps it should be done when they're still green?.

The ground beans, ready to brew

Brewing ...

The finished product - delicious, home-roasted coffee!

Mexican Coffee in Toronto

Ideal Cafe - Outside

Another post on the theme of coffee.

I first got into the habit of carefully selecting my coffee when I lived in Toronto.  Anyone who knows Toronto will know that Kensington Market, a little neighbourhood that was home to just about every group of immigrants to Toronto, also has the biggest concentration of coffee roasters.  Some of them are nice little cafes with a rustic atmosphere that, in addition to roasting their own coffee, also serve bakery items and some food.  My favourite of these was the Moonbean Cafe, because of it's atmosphere and it's variety of coffees.  I think I've visited everytime I've been back to Canada.

Others were more purely roasters, and had some makeshift seating around the entrance.  My favourite of these was Ideal Coffee.  The makeshift seating wasn't so great (although it's definitely a part of the alternative atmosphere their regulars like,) and one of my friends actually accused them of being snobby; it wouldn't surprise me, but to be perfectly honest, I was always to enthralled by the smell of the roasting coffee to take any notice of the people who worked there. The only things I remember about the place are the stacks of coffee back behind the bar, the espresso maker, which was operated by a hand pump instead of electronic pressure, and that, as good as the lattes were, it was too inconvenient to enjoy them there, since the few seats were usually taken, and they were too uncomfortable anyway.  The people - even the ones filling the seats - don't figure into my memory.

Moonbean Cafe

BUT the coffee was (and still is, I hope) amazing.  At that time, at least it was from Veracruz, Mexico.  I had discovered this coffee before I met the Mexican friends who would eventually prompt my sudden and unplanned move to Mexico (the prompting wasn't very active - mostly my doing on the great things they told and later showed me.)  This coffee, however, was one of my first Mexican experiences which little by little grew on me and fall in love with this wonderful country and all the great things it offers.

Having now lived in Mexico, I realize there was absolutely nothing Mexican about Ideal Cafe except the coffee.

When I first lived in Cuernavaca and began buying my coffee from the roaster in the local market, I realized some important things.  First of all, the coffee in Cuernavaca was just as good, if not superior.  Another is that the coffee in Kensington was sold for about 3 times as much; this makes since it's imported, and it was bought fair-trade organic, although it couldn't be sold as organic, since the shops hadn't been certified.  Also, the people in Kensington - especially Ideal - were hippies, punks or some kind of people who wore shabby clothes, but could afford to pay $10 for a pound of coffee or $3 for a cup. (I endured the price and forced myself to drink less coffee, simply since it was so good, and well worth sacrificing quantity for quality. I almost never bought the coffee to drink there for budget reasons.)  The people in Cuernavaca's market wore just about anything, mostly just plain jeans and a t-shirt, but paid $6 for a kilo of coffee (less than $3 a pound), and less than $1 for a cup.

I was thrilled to find this little coffee roaster.  It was purely practical for practical buyers, and for that reason offered low prices.  They had 5 different roasts and ground the coffee to your specifications.  It was delivered in typical two little transparent plastic bags - to ensure freshness, I was told - as opposed to the elegantly rustic brown paper of the shops in Toronto. (Mexico also has its trendy coffee shops, but not so much in Cuernavaca; places in Mexico City - I believe Condesa and, especially, Coyoacan - have some very nice little shops with amazing coffee, and I believe a number of them roast their own. Obviously a little pricier than Cuernavaca's market, but a nicer atmosphere than Ideal and still better prices. Mexico City also has enough shops that are purely roasters of its own - one of them is where my mother-in-law buys her annual gifts of coffee for us.)

Ideal Cafe Inside

I never begrudged Kensington Market for charging me 3x as much; as I mentioned above, I still go back there when in Canada.  They were my first experience with Mexican coffee, and that alone is something to be grateful for.

Thank you Mexico for wonderful coffee - and thank you Kensington Market for roasting it and selling it to Canadians!

By the way, if you live in Toronto, my recommendations are:  If you want to sit down for a coffee and a snack, go to Moonbean - I'm not sure if Moonbean's coffee is Mexican, but it's good.  If you want to buy grounds to brew at home, go to Ideal.

(As I've said before, Playa del Carmen is still missing a coffee roaster, but the Chiapas coffee I buy in a little shop in the old working-class neighbourhood seems fairly fresh - it also comes in plastic bags.  Then again, everything in Mexico comes in plastic bags, even orange juice.)

If you want to read more about coffee, try these:

Cafe de Olla - One of my Favorites!
Coffee, Wonderful Coffee!

A Gift of Coffee
"How Many Germans Does it Take To ...

Enough writing about coffee I'm going to go make myself one!

A Gift of Coffee

My Coffee from Veracruz
(I still need to buy an opaque jar or can.)

On more than one occasion, I have received gifts of coffee from various parts of the world.  On every occasion, I have been delighted!

Today was another such occasion.  A neighbor who had been visiting his family in Veracruz in December, suddenly remembered that he had brought a little packet of fresh coffee back for me.  I have wonderful friends and neighbours; he knows that  I love coffee. I often show up outside on the front lawn while the kids and the dogs are playing with a coffee in my hand, and I talk about it often enough.  But I was very pleasantly surprised that he was thoughtful enough to pick up a

package of coffee for me!

Tonight, while browsing posts on Facebook and other blogs, and waiting for my baby to wake up to give him the bottle, I tried out a cup.

First I smelt it.  Wonderful, rich and strong aroma!

Then I looked at it.  A moderately dark roast, and a just-below-medium grind, and very clean - very little of that powder that sifts through all but the best paper filters.  Perfect for my moka pot coffee maker! (See this post for a picture: Coffee, Wonderful Coffee!)

(I took my time for all of this; you will see why the process of selecting coffee in a store could take so long - see "How Many Germans Does it Take To ....)

Then I prepared my little moka pot, and enjoyed a very rich, strong coffee that in no way left me disappointed.  For the past week or so, I've found myself preferring my coffee black.  It was wonderful.

I love coffee, and I'm always excited to receive a gift of coffee!  Notable mentions include a package of Canadian maple coffee my brother once gave me, a very large bag of very dark and delicious coffee brought from Merida, but originally from an unknown destination, the coffee my mother-in-law brings from Mexico City every time she visits - again, I don't know the origin, but the roasters in Mexico City and the surrounding area know what they're doing - and a bag of green coffee beans my wife's grandpa was going to send with us once, but we choose not to take because of transportation difficulties.

Again, thanks to my neighbour for this gift of coffee!  One of the few things better than good coffee is having good friends!

(For a recipe on how to make a delicious traditional kind of Mexican coffee, read Cafe de Olla - One of my Favorites!)

"How Many Germans Does it Take To ...

... to buy a bottle of wine?"
Answer: 2 hours - or so my sister-in-law says. (Entered tonight on Facebook as her status)

How long would you take to choose a package of coffee, for instance, or a bottle of wine?

An important point to start; we're not really Germans, at least not like the ones who live in Germany.  I like to think we're kind of breed of our own. You're probably wondering who "we" are.  That's my family.  We don't like to rush things.  We like rushing much less than any other Canadians, or even Germans, I've ever met.  Germans are relentlessly punctual.  We are not; that would require hurrying.

My wife, who has learned to do everything quickly, has been quite frustrated by this point.  While my sisters-in-law have been similarly frustrated with my brothers, my wife is in a different category, since she comes from a place where almost everyone does almost everything fast.  Mexicans in general aren't rushed people, but in Mexico City in particular, people learn to do everything really quickly.  Most of the population eats no breakfast, or if the do, it's eaten on the run.  From the moment people wake up till get out the door can be a matter of minutes; heavy traffic and a fast-paced life requires you to make the most of your precious sleep hours, not wasting them to get up early and sit down for a meal.

(In contrast to everything that doctors here say about beans, coffee and chili, I believe this is one of the major causes of gastritis, since people don't eat properly until well into the afternoon, and then they eat greasy Mexican fast food - very tasty mind you; read Vitamin T - The Mexican Special for more info.)

She was in disbelief the first time she saw me get up in the morning, and, after my shower, take an hour and a half to prepare a full breakfast and sit down to eat it.  She thought it must have been because I was on holidays.  Little did she know that this wasn't slow at all.

The first time we went to Canada to visit my family, she was in similar disbelief when she saw my younger brother take 10 minutes to measure the coffee into the filter.  She later told me she felt an almost overwhelming urge to take the coffee away from him and do it herself.  She also said that she finally understood a little more about me, realizing that this was much more than a bad habit.

Members of my family, myself included, do take their time to do just about everything we can take our time to do.  Having to rush through something can be as frustrating for us as it is for our wives to have to watch us do it slowly.

On the other hand, my wife really does enjoy the results when I take my time to do things right.  When we make our own sandwiches, she has her sandwich ready in about 2 minutes.  Mine will take a bit longer (she claims 15 minutes - I thinks it's a little closer to 5-10, but at least 3 times as long as she does, in any case.)  However, when she sees my sandwich, she looks at hers, if anything is left of it, with disappointment on her face, feeling that mine just looks that much tastier.  I used to always end up giving her my sandwich (or whatever it was I had prepared) and making myself another one.  Now I've learned to ignore whatever she says, and just make two in the first place.

She also likes the the coffee & cinnamon hot chocolate I make from scratch; it's much slower than her instant chocolate milk, but 100 times better.  She doesn't have the patients to do stuff like that, as much as she likes it.

Some things she can't appreciate.  Like taking 15 minutes to choose the right kind of coffee.  Or, in the case of my brothers, an hour to choose the right wine or beer. Clearly my sister-in-law can't appreciate the delicacy of this kind of choice either!

I don't know if my sisters-in-law are fast people (faster than average) or if just being average is enough to be really frustrated with my family.  But I know that my wife is really from a pace of life that is much faster than normal.  For her, my pace of doing things was just unreal.  The same vice-versa.

We balance each other.  Sometimes she sits down to watch me do stuff, as though it's a show.  Other times she hurries me up.  Just as often, I slow her down.  In this way, we're perfect for each other.

For other contrasts between my wife and me, read:

• Have you ever flushed your phone down the toilet?

Cafe de Olla - One of my Favorites!

A Typical Clay Pot with Hot Coffee

It's been too long since I've written about coffee.  One of my favorite types of coffee anywhere is the Mexican "Cafe de Olla."  It's a strong, dark and delicious kind of coffee that is very traditional in Mexico.  These are the ingredients:

• 1/2 Cinnamon Stick (ground cinnamon doesn't work as well)
• "Piloncillo" - this is a hard cone of raw sugar (see picture); in it's absence you can replace this with about 1/2 cup of raw sugar
• 4 liters of water
• 10 tablespoons of ground coffee; I've usually seen that they use a dark roast, medium grind; but I've also made it with fine grind
• A clay pot, if available - see picture. (If not, any pot will do; the word "olla," actually refers to the fact that it's made in a pot rather than a coffee maker)

             (These are the quantities I use; they can be reduced, or adjusted to taste, but if you're using the piloncillo, it's really hard to cut.)

"Piloncillo," Cones of Raw Sugar

• Place the cinnamon stick (broken up into pieces) and the piloncillo or raw sugar in the pot of cold water.
• Bring the water to a boil, stirring occasionally until the sugar is entirely dissolved. (At this point your kitchen will have a wonderful cinnamon aroma, and in fact it could be drunk this way as a cinnamon tea!)
• Add the coffee while the water is still boiling, and turn off immediately, covering with a lid.
• Let the coffee "brew" for a about 4-5 minutes, or until the coffee settles to the bottom. I've found that stirring it once after about 3 minutes, and leaving for a few minutes more helps it settle.  After the grounds settle, DO NOT STIR IT. You want to make sure the grounds and the cinnamon stay at the bottom.
• Served with a ladle as soon as the grounds settle, being sure to scoop out only the liquid, not disturbing grounds from the bottom.  (Of course, you'll probably get a ground or two in the coffee, but if you're careful, this can be pretty much nothing.)

Traditionally, it's served in little clay cups, which are very typical in rural areas in central Mexico (see picture.)

A traditional clay cup.

Although it breaks one of the basic rules of coffee, that water shouldn't be exposed to grounds for more than 4 or 5 minutes, it's a very delicious kind of coffee!  Every rule has at least one exception; Greek and Arabic coffee likewise break this rule.  Some people also add cloves, I guess along with the cinnamon and sugar at the beginning.

Give it a try at home. If you like coffee, I'm sure you'll like this variation.

Tomorrow, or another day, I'll write about the places where I first tried "cafe de olla."

Coffee, Wonderful Coffee!

Moka Pot

I love coffee; I'm a little picky about coffee styles, but in the absence of my favorite kinds of coffee, I'll drink just about any kind of coffee (with less enjoyment.)  The coffee I like best are dark roasts, brewed strongly.  Now and then I like espresso, but what I drink most often is the strong coffee made in the stove-top coffee makers known as Mokka pots (see the picture.)  For homemade coffee, I also like press coffee makers.  Of course, the standard drip-pot coffee makers do the trick as well.

In Mexico, I've used all three with Mexican coffee.  Mexican coffee suits my tastes really well.  Most that I've tried is dark roast and has a really rich flavor.  Flavors vary from region to region as well - Veracruz and Chiapas are two of my favorites.  On top of being delicious, it's priced really  inexpensive; one reason for this is that it's produced within Mexico, and not very commercialized.  The other reason is that many Mexicans (although definitely not all) have a prejudice against their own domestic produce - an assumption that what's foreign is better.

This is were I enjoyed my morning coffee in Cuernavaca

This attitude led to one of the biggest absurdities I've ever encountered.  When we lived in Cuernavaca, a smaller city just south of Mexico City, my wife's boss would make a cup of coffee for us every morning when we arrived at her work (a historic photo archive). She would brew a wonderful dark roast which she bought in a nearby tourist village called Tepoztlan (where we got married).  The coffee was amazing!   Then one day we arrived to the news that she had bought better coffee. When we tried it, we found it so bitter and harsh, we could hardly finish our cups.  Of course, being polite, we forced it all down. After my wife and I had thrown some concerned looks at each other, she asked her boss about her magical new discovery.  Delighted, excited and proud, she pulled out a large can of Folgers.

FOLGERS!  Can you believe it?  I almost died of shock.  For one thing, I couldn't believe that this was her improvement.  No offense if you drink Folgers, but it just doesn't match up in any way to the small-production Mexican coffees.  If you do make it, you simply cannot make it that strong, it's just too bitter.  Another thing was the horror that if I continued to accept her morning coffees, every morning my expectations of having some of the best coffee I had ever tried, would be disappointed by Folgers.  The morning coffee visits had become a pleasurable part of my daily routine, sitting down in a very relaxing natural setting with my wife, her boss and an expert on colonial churches for some good conversation.  (This was after finishing my morning shift of teaching English classes around 10:30). Later that day my wife, who had investigated this change for the worse in depth, explained that her boss was certain that it was much better coffee; it was from the States.  How couldn't it better?  I lost some faith in humanity at that moment ... (well, OK, not really, but I was disappointed!)  I did keep going for the visits, but I  started "cutting down on caffeine," taking only half a cup.

The Market in Cuernavaca where I used to buy my Coffee

While we lived in Cuernavaca, I bought my coffee in the central market; there was little shop where they received green coffee in big bags from Veracruz.  They roasted the coffee fresh every day, and the aroma near that part of the market was one of my favorite parts of  my weekly shopping trips!  The only other place where I remember the smell of freshly roasted coffee so strong and rich is one corner of Kensington Market in Toronto where there are several roasters.  The shop in Cuernavaca sold various grinds (fine, medium, course) and tones (light, medium, dark.)  I bought the medium grind, dark roast for my moka pot, or fine dark roast for "cafe de olla," a traditional Mexican style of brewing coffee.  It cost about $7/kilo, which converts to about $3/pound.  Virtually the same coffee in Kensington Market, Toronto (also imported green from Veracruz and roasted on site) cost $10/pound.  I don't believe that even a giant can of Folgers in Walmart would cost much less then $7/kilo, and even if it did, it's a price I'd be very willing to pay.

These days I buy little packets of ground coffee from a vendor who has a little stand set up on the back of his pickup near the city's main hospital (a common way of running business in Mexico).  It's good coffee, but I miss the experience of the aroma of roasting coffee.  If anyone ever opens a coffee roasting shop in Playa del Carmen, that person will eternally be my hero.

I could write much more about coffee, or just coffee in Mexico, but I'll have to save those for another day.  In the future you can look forward to a post about "cafe de olla" as well as the home-grown, home-roasted coffee on my wife's grandpa's farm.

What's the best coffee you've ever had?  Just don't say Folgers! (Sorry for picking on Folgers, but that experience in Cuernavaca has left it branded eternally as the coffee I hate.)