Coffee Coffee Coffee

[Sam Vickery]

Calling all coffee lovers,

My wife and I just returned from a wonderful week at Catalina. Weather was great, sailing was great (it's an Ericison right?) Island people were great, cooking on the boat was fine, but coffee..................not so much. This is a very small issue in the overall picture, but coffee in the am is REALLY important to us. We have tried the French Press, Nice but coffee cools too quickly. Tried the one cup drip, not a fan. When sailing locally, we make coffee at home and store in a thermos. Any suggestions short of a pinch of grounds between cheek and gum is appreciated.

Thanks,

Sam
86 32-3

 

[ref_123]

Coffee...

Well, so far I have 3 options.

The first one is the instant coffee - Nestle makes a pretty decent one, particularly if you commit two packs per cup. The second one is Greek/Turkish coffee that you can brew on a propane stove. A third one - if you can find the equipment - is a stove-top percolator. Quite common in Europe and Asia, and I am yet to see them in US. May be I've been looking in wrong places.

Frequently I am thinking about an inverter powerful enough to feed out Nespresso machine .

Regards,
Stan

 

[robjpowell]

Sam,
We can definitely sympathize. We have used French Press and espresso makers at home since the late 80's. We have never owned an electric drip maker and wouldn't thank you for one. At home we have fully automatic espresso makers (Saeco) in the kitchen and my home office. Afloat we have tried all sorts of things. In the end we have settled for a 2 pronged approach.

When on the hook or in calm conditions we use a 12c Moka espresso pot (http://tinyurl.com/3b6f3xl). We would use this more often but it only just fits on our stove element and is too small for the potholders. When it has cooled off we just tap out the dry grounds and fill it up ready to go again. Every few cups we rinse the top conpartment. We have found the brand of coffee used is critical in taste. Our preference is for Illy but I would advise you to try several before settling.

When the weather is up or I am shorthanded I revert to the lesser, in my opinion, drip coffee directly into a thermos. The particular stainless vacuum pot we use has a built in thermometer in the lid (bought at Macy's a few years ago, similar to http://tinyurl.com/3d64nes) and is sized so a No.4 drip filter holder sits directly in the neck making this a one step brewing process. For this maker we can't use the Illy and instead use Peets or Starbucks freshly ground. While I am not a fan of drip coffee I find that my preference is a 2nd, 3rd, 4th or even 5th cup out of the thermos and not from an increasingly bitter insulated french press (it also only held temp for a short time, tried 3 different brands, single serve and communal). The other big advantage over the french press is the ease of cleaning up.

Certainly the coffee is not as good as the freshly ground and brewed at home but it is far better than the alternatives we tried on board (percolator pot, french-press, cowboy, instant (if you can call that even coffee)).

Good luck in your search.

 

[bayhoss]

Folgers has coffee singles that look just like a tea bag. You can make the coffee as strong or as weak as you like by leaving it in the water longer. Not too bad.

Best,
Frank

 

[mherrcat]

Use the French Press then empty it into a thermos or insulated carafe; that's how I do it at home. Keeps the coffee plenty hot.

 

[Sven]

We have a similar craving (I think Swedes are the highest per capita coffee consumers in the world ?).

We use one of these on Senta-II .

Let it perk for about 7 minutes and we're in heaven. The coffee brand does matter and we've gotten addicted to the CostCo store brand. Gevalia is better but CostCo's will do.

I used to make an insert for the basket out of round coffee filters to control the fine grounds and keep them where they belong but then we happened to find pre-made inserts by "Western Family" at the Isthmus so now we buy those instead (just picked up another four 55-packs last weekend).



-Sven

 

[D & DM Cahill]

Coffee

Well, people will probably call us old fashioned, which is probably better than just being called old, but we use an old camp percolator and make caffinated coffee in the morning pot which is poured into a thermos to be used all day. In the evening, we use decaffinated coffee which is poured into the thermos to be used until bedtime. We usually use Starbucks or one of our local coffee roasters. Thanks. Dave

 

[Akavishon]

Turkish ... but, only in the mornings. In the afternoon, I switch to mint tea.

 

[AleksT]

I have an older stove top expresso/capuccino maker. Put water and coffee grounds into it, close all the valves and heat. Open one valve which forces the steam through the grounds and spits out coffee. The other valve shoots out pure steam. It does not have a big capacity (4 shots or two small cups of coffee) but it is compact (about the size of a large french press).
It is all metal so I am not worried about it breaking

 

[Guy Stevens]

What we use for espresso every morning.



Still available from a variety of sources, makes a good americano, espresso, or mocha!

Guy

 

[SurabyaKid]

I second Guy's choice. I have one that I use on Pronto regularly.PatE26-> Pronto

 

[toddster]

I have a pressurized percolator/espresso maker similar to the one in robjpowell's link. But $41 plus shipping! Yikes! They can be found in most supermarkets in europe for about $5. They come in lots of different sizes. The key to using these, I've found, is to get one that makes all the coffee you want (2 cups, 4 cups, whatever) in one brew. Re-loading can be tricky, as the parts are very HOT and if stray grounds get into the threads, it won't seal correctly. You have to basically wash it up before you can re-load.

Ah, Amazon has lots of other options at more reasonable prices. Search for "espresso pot."

 

[robjpowell]

Don't worry 'toddster' I certainly did not pay that much for any of the three different sizes we have. That was just the first photo I linked to.

Rob

 

[Emerald]

Wow - based on the responses, coffee might be almost as important as sails on our boats

I'm with Sven on this - a nice indestructible perk on the boat works well, cleans well, and once you figure out the right combination of coffee and brew time, tastes pretty good also. I DO want good coffee, so flavor is important. The perkolator can produce some vile stuff if you use cheap coffee and let it go too long, so you might have to play with it to get it down. On a side note, everyone in our area was without electricity for several days after Hurricane Irene went up the East Coast. It was so nice going down to Emerald (I keep her at a neighborhood marina a couple blocks from my house) to brew up a nice fresh pot of java. It looked like I was the only with hot coffee that morning, and I felt no guilt at all

 

[Jeff Asbury]

I mainly use a Melitta 1 Cup drip, and fill about a half a thermos for about 3 cups worth. But then again, I'm usually with no more than 3 people at the most. I also have a Espresso 1 Cup maker that works really well and it's kinda fun. You can also steam milk with it.

 

[bayhoss]

And more coffee still...

I agree with Sven. The Swedish people are the coffee drinkers of the world. I have friends that are Swedish, if a drop of rain falls, they have coffee, if a bird flies by and they see it, they have coffee, if nothing happens - they have coffee. In between all of this - they have coffee.

Best Always
Frank

 

[Sven]

In between all of this - they have coffee.

It's the first thing you offer whenever someone comes to your boat or home ... En kaffetår ?



-Sven

 

[bayhoss]

Sven, all (almost) you need with the coffee is the chess pieces!

Best Always,
Frank

 

[Cory B]

Insulated Frenchpress

We've used a stainless insulated frenchpress in the past. Coffee will stay hot for 2 hours, drinkably warm for 3-4 hours. My wife has at times decanted it into one of those fancy "vacuum seal" thermos, which will keep it warm for later in the day.

 

[John Butler]

We also use an insulated french press. It keeps the coffee warm long enough for us. We buy whole bean coffee and grind it in the store on the coarsest setting.
John