Done with Maxwell House!

Roger Tulk

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Location
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Yesterday I put a Maxwell House Dark Roast Tassimo thingy in the machine, and tried to drink it. Dark Roast?! It tasted like it had been filtered through cigar ashes. I nearly tossed it back up, and had to pour the lousy stuff down the sink. What a fraud on the name of coffee they are! Maxwell House has never been my favorite, but this is the last straw. If I ever find I have to drink Maxwell House, I'll shoot myself first. If Maxwell House was the last brand of coffee on the planet, I'd grind up dandelion roots and brew them, or even (shudder!) drink herbal teas. Never, never, never again!


OK, OK, I just wanted to get in on the fun... :dunno:
 
:rofl:

Hey properly roasted dandelion root mixed with toasted grains is not all that bad!!! Add in some chickory and you've got something resembling a beverage. Lacks the chemical impetus of the maxwell house product though.

True connoisseurs of course roast thier own (not actually that hard, hit me up if you're interested :D)
 
Hoooowwweeeeee

I have been a kerig coffee fan for a few years now.

I buy the k-cups at around .50 per cup.

GREAT coffee

Maxwell house never knew coffee could be so good.

WAY better than Dunkin Donuts OR Tim Horton -- WAY better.

Sooo - it costs a little more money - so what?

GREAT coffee will cost a little more.

I would rather pay a little more for a GREAT cup of coffee that save .25 and dump it down the drain cause I didn't like it.

Ohh - and I do like the dark roast extra bold. YUM
 
Well i dont get it. Dont get the Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Keurig, Tassimo et al.
Me...kiss principle, 1 teaspoon Nescafe instant, hot water, one small spoon sugar, milk and voila my , I guess, 15 cents perfect cup of coffee. I thunk ya all been brainwashed to part with your money for these "coffee's" .
Who says marketing and advertising dont work. :)

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...1 teaspoon Nescafe instant, hot water, one small spoon sugar, milk and voila my , I guess, 15 cents perfect cup of coffee...

Instant coffee (of any sort) is generally horrible, Rob, and milk and sugar just makes it worse.

I'm with Leo on the K-cups. I prefer Neumans, or Tim Hortons. Another good one is the "Daily Grind" French Roast that's a 'house brand' at Sam's Club. I drink it BLACK, and I generally drink 6 or more cups of it per day.
 
Hehe, K cups are genius - who'd a thunk you could get people to pay $50/lb of coffee and be plumb happy about it. Pure genius.

Personally I don't think they're actually that good of coffee either (a step up from instant perhaps which - sorry Rob :wave: - is really pretty uggy tasting imho) but not nearly as good as what you can get cheaper and arguably simpler other ways.

If you want a decent cup of coffee at a reasonable price with relatively minimal hassle I might suggest trying this:
  • Get some decent medium roast coffee doesn't have to be super high end, the "cheaper" it is to better off you are going a bit darker on the roast (try to keep it kind of fresh; over about 3-4 weeks past being roasted it'll start going rancid - the darker its roasted the slower this happens which is why most commercial coffee is sold on the far side of burnt).
  • Coarse grind enough to fill a french press about 1/2 full and then fill to the top with COLD water.
  • Put the press with the mix in the fridge for 24-48 hours (you can also use a mason jar and pour back into the press or just pour it through a filter).
  • press out the "juice" and put the juice into a mason jar - back into the fridge with the mason jar.
  • When you want a cup of joe heat up some water (we have one of them electric kettles and for a new fangled invention it ain't half bad at getting water hot fast) put 2+- tbps of the concentrate into your cup and top with hot water.

It might not be the absolute best coffee you've ever had if you're a connoisseur but its a heck of a long way from the worst and about as easy as it gets (minus a little up front planning).

LOML recently switched to using the aeropress which makes a decent cup as well, not as good as a vacuum pot (again imho) but quicker and single "shot" which is nice. You can make better with a pour over funnel but it takes more technique and believe me before she's had her first cup of joe in the morning technique is NOT on the menu.
 
I'm a dark roast kind of guy. Give me the dark roast beans from Costco, freshly ground on a burr grinder and then just brewed in my little cuisinart drip machine. Does the trick.

To my taste, the freshly ground part is the key to the whole thing.

But since I pretty much trust Ryan's judgement on all things brewing, I'm going to have to give his technique a try.
 
But since I pretty much trust Ryan's judgement on all things brewing, I'm going to have to give his technique a try.

:D

The cold extract is an extremely smooth brew because most of the "sharper" (acidic) flavors are extracted by higher heat - so if you like the sharp acidic flavors then cold extract might not punch your ticket as much. If you're a dark roast person though odds are its going to be up your alley since darker roasted coffees tend to have less acidic flavors to start with and the cold press will extract even less of that flavor. You might find you enjoy a somewhat lighter roast with this technique than you do with drip since it allows some of the other flavors to come through without being overly acidic (try it with your regular beans and if you like it try something in a full city or even city roast just to see).

The acid level is also largely why espresso needs to be a quite dark roast because otherwise the heat pulls out a lot of ick flavors (drip depends on the type of drip setup, but generally tends somewhat towards a somewhat darker roast being preferable).

You're also correct on fresh ground :thumb: ;)
 
I only drink coffee if I can put enough cream, sugar, and chocolate in it to hide the coffee flavor. :D Then I go find some walls to bounce off of. :bounce:
 
I once heard some supposedly famous chef on TV tell the audience ... the brand of coffee doesn't matter, it's how you brew it that counts.
Not sure what that means, but I've had the Keurig, it's okay, I've got a Mister Coffee, $19.95 drip make... it's okay, we used to have both the electric and the stove top percolator... I think they made the best coffee, but were more trouble than the drip kind... I liked the KISS comment, simple is always better.
When I was working, I had a cup of black coffee sitting on my desk from the time I arrived in the morning until I left in the evening... often as late as 10 or 11 pm... ( I had some loooooooong work days).. I even had one of those little hot plates you sat your cup on... can't stand cold coffee in a cup... although I do like iced coffee sometimes. Now a days I usually only drink one or two cups in the morning.
 
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