Some Dos and Don'ts for coffee enjoyment

As I was driving to work this morning, after posting that initial blog entry, I thought of some of the discussions I have recently had with people about coffee. The one message I seem to be conferring over and over is that "coffee is not candy." If you really want to enjoy coffee, you should not be drinking it with milk/creamer/creamer and/or sugar/sweetner. If that is what you like them that is fine, but it is not too much different from a coffee-flavored hot chocolate.

Most of the time I hear this from people who think that good coffee comes in the resealable red plastic container on the supermarket shelf. YUK! That is like saying that fine chocolate comes from Pennsylvania.

I would like to state a few things that I have found that can make coffee far more enjoyable, especially for those newbies out there. Not all of these will be agreed upon by everyone, but this is my take on coffee enjoyment Dos and Don'ts:

- Never (and I mean never) put your coffee in the refrigerator. That just dries it out and makes it taste like the stuff you get at the deli.

- Grind your coffee as you are ready to use it. This one is the quickest way to better coffee. Even moderately good beans which are freshly ground will make your coffee experience catapult to the next level

- Use a burr grinder. Those grinders with the rotating blade on the top are for grinding spices, not for coffee. They work great for cardamom if you like Indian cooking. Keep the coffee away.

- Roast your own, or at least get your coffee in small batches from a good roaster. I'll plug my favorite roaster below. If you are curious about roasting your own beans, my friend Adam swears by Sweet Marias for all of his roasting needs. He occassionally sends me fresh roasted beans and they are quite yummy!

- A permanent metal coffee filter will allow the oils from the ground coffee to get through and enhance your flavor far more than paper filters will. If you have to use paper filters, try to use the brown ones instead of the bleached ones.

I am including a link to an amazon store that will feature some of the things I have talked about here. I don't actually expect to make anything off of it, it is more of a guide to help out. I will continue to link to other places.

Here is the link: http://astore.amazon.com/coffeecoffeec-20

I hope these help some people out.

Lastly I want to plug my favorite coffee roaster. If you happen to live on Long Island and can get to Huntington, visit Georgio's. He is on Jericho Tpk, just west of Route 110. Here is a link to a review.

coffee coffee coffee???

What does it mean? I am a coffee addict. Like so many in my chosen profession (computer programmer), coffee is how a get through the day.

I wanted to make a place where I could tell coffee stories, share coffee tips and maybe even get a few if anyone reads this.

I discovered coffee as a teenager at the local deli while I was having breakfast instead of being in my second period class. In college, a couple of guys that lived down the hall from me (second floor Wilkeson dorm, SUNY Buffalo) in 1982 whose names I seem to remember being Adam and Chris, introduced me to Puerto Rican coffee. That was the first time I discovered that drinking coffee could truly be enjoyable.

I'll post more later on - I just wanted to get a first post up and get this rolling.