Coffee - Brewed by the Infusion Method

[Scorpio]

Last week, I bought myself a French Coffee Press for my office so that I can brew my own fresh coffee (see pic), So far I have made Colombian, Blue Mountain and Italian coffee with it :)

By the way, this is called the infusion method of brewing coffee.

5365

[greall]

Hmmm...fancy dancy Nescafe... :laugh:

Greg

[vaio]

:congrats: scorpy i am sure that was money well spent

explain the infusion thing?

[Scorpio]

here you go vaio .....


http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/pages/infusioncoffeemaker



An Infusion Coffee Maker has two main parts to it, a carafe and a plunger.

The coffee gets "filtered", but without any paper to absorb some of the flavour oils away from the coffee, this method allows for more oils and suspended flavour particles in the coffee. It makes a denser coffee with more substance. Some people like the ceremony involved, which is a bit more elaborate than pressing a button on an electric drip-machine.

The plunger is a disk (sometimes referred to as a screen) attached to the bottom of metal rod that, at the top, has a knob on it. The metal rod goes through the centre of a lid, and has the disk at one end underneath the lid; the knob at the other end on top of the lid. The disk is a metal frame with a mesh screen cover on it. The mesh may be nylon or stainless steel; stainless steel lasts longer. The disk fits snugly into the carafe, so that as you push the plunger down, there's no space on the sides for coffee grounds to escape upwards along the sides. As you press the plunger down, the ground coffee gets trapped underneath the plunger, and driven down to the bottom of the coffee pot.

The carafe can be metal, plastic or glass, but is usually glass. It is shaped like a tall cylinder, with a pouring spout at the top front. Glass carafes sit in a metal frame, with a handle attached to the back, Glass carafes are very fragile -- many meet untimely ends by being vibrated off their resting places on top of fridges, or accidentally being brushed off a counter, leaving you with your plunger and stylish but now useless frame. They certainly aren't something you're going to want to take camping with it. Stainless steel carafes have the advantage of being unbreakable, and are usually insulated -- but the disadvantage is that you can't "see" how the coffee is coming along inside as you are brewing it.

Carafes come in different volumes, from personal to dinner-party size. A carafe won't hold the amount of water that it seems to say it will. One that says, for instance, that it holds 32 oz of water, may just hold 28 oz of water once you have the ground coffee in it as well.

You boil the water outside the pot, either in a kettle (electric or stovetop), or in an ordinary pot on the stove

It is best to warm the carafe, with the plunger in it, first with boiling water in it for 1 to 2 minutes. Then empty out the warming water, measure in the coffee, and pour in fresh hot water. Ideally, the water should be just a bit below the boiling point -- 195 to 205 F (90 to 96 C.) But admittedly, with all our electric kettles designed to tell us when the water has actually reached the boiling point, it's hard to know when it's less than that.

Some people like to stir it at this point before proceeding. Now, put the plunger in place, lid on, but only push the plunger down after the steeping time. Let coffee steep for 3 to 5 minutes, then push the plunger down slowly. If the plunger seems to get stuck and won't go any further without a lot of force, pull it back up again a little ways, then try again. If the plunger just won't go any further say than halfway down, you have either put in an insane amount of ground coffee, or have used coffee ground far too finely. When you press the plunger down when the jug has no coffee in it, the knob of the handle will come right down to the lid. When it has coffee in it, don't expect it to, or try to make it to -- it can't, because the ground coffee is occupying space at the bottom of the jug.

For an average person's taste, use 2 tablespoons of ground coffee per 6 oz (175 ml) of water. The coffee should be medium grind, similar to that for a drip machine, or medium-coarse.

You can now get electric ones. The coffee carafe itself is cordless, but it sits on a base that gets plugged in the wall. To use it, you fill the carafe with water, put it on the base, and turn it on, which causes the water to boil. Then when the water has boiled, you add your coffee, plunge and continue as usual.

Coffee won't stay warm long in a French Press. You can buy fabric covers which operate along the same principle as tea cozies designed to wrap around the sides, usually fastened with velcro, If you have one, put it on just before you pour the brewing water in, so that you are conserving the heat right from the start. If you don't, you may wish to consider transferring it as soon as it is done into a heated thermos coffee pot. This will both keep the coffee warm, and get it away from the coffee grounds, which cause it to keep on steeping to the point eventually of bitterness. Many advise to pour it even out of the insulated stainless steel ones once brewed.


(Copyright 2010 Practically Edible. All rights reserved and enforced.) Read more of this snippet here : http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/pages/infusioncoffeemaker#ixzz0wOh7aTjo

[vaio]

so i hadda read that whole thing???

summarise nuh :)

[Ali]

i don't drink coffee so i don't have to read it....heh

[vaio]

i don't drink coffee so i don't have to read it....heh

:o dat is juss so mean!

[lexbarker]

Last week, I bought myself a French Coffee Press for my office so that I can brew my own fresh coffee (see pic), So far I have made Colombian, Blue Mountain and Italian coffee with it :)

By the way, this is called the infusion method of brewing coffee.

5365
In the old days in TT the call it "Drawing the coffee."

[Scorpio]

no vaio, ah not summarising yuh too lazy:)

[Scorpio]

In the old days in TT the call it "Drawing the coffee."

With an infusion press ?

[vaio]

no vaio, ah not summarising yuh too lazy:)

yuh juss doh know how to summarise eh :wink:

[Solachica]

Vaio, in simple terms as lex say. Its drawing it.

Its done with teabags to. It have apparatus to leave yuh teabags in it.

Scorps just wha use big word on we.

Btw, scorps yuh does make me wonder abt you sometimes you know lol

[vaio]

you does wonder about him SOMETIMES?? i have a big question mark over him yes

:questionmark:

[JPersad]

Looking fancy .
I prefer Hing Wing ..pre set and percolated .

[lexbarker]

With an infusion press ?

With a good ole strainer. No fancy word for that.

[Scorpio]

yuh juss doh know how to summarise eh :wink:

steupslol

[Scorpio]

With a good ole strainer. No fancy word for that.

yuh joking, right ?:blink

[Kayley]

Have you ever tried the stove top espresso makers? They make really good espresso and very quick and easy to clean. Bialetti is the most popular brand I think.

The cafetieres are also very good, but do you find there is a bit of sediment at the bottom of your cup? Maybe the filter in mine is not fine enough.

[Scorpio]

Have you ever tried the stove top espresso makers? They make really good espresso and very quick and easy to clean. Bialetti is the most popular brand I think.

The cafetieres are also very good, but do you find there is a bit of sediment at the bottom of your cup? Maybe the filter in mine is not fine enough.

I have not tried the stove top expresso maker, maybe that will be my next adventure, thanks.. :)

Yes, there is some sediments, I think that is one of the downsides of the cafetiere, I am not sure you can ever eliminate that totally. I ask the coffee shop to grind my coffee for use in the cafetiere. They can adjust the "fineness" of how the coffee is ground, and that make a small difference.:)

[Kayley]

I have a couple coffee grinders at home. Electric and manual, they are both good for use in the espresso maker. I wouldn't recommend them as I'm sure the coffee shop can do it better.

Did you know you can use your used coffee grounds in both baking and mulch for plants? :)

[lexbarker]

yuh joking, right ?:blink

No joke. I have a fancy infuser too but the process is the same for infusion or drawing. The plunger is a screen and the strainer is a screen. Is there a big difference?

[draja]

Jus like dem Trini diehard, ah cyah do widout mih Hong Wing Coffee. Ah duza keep goin back for more.

http://www.hongwingcoffee.com/

[shaddeck]

Have you ever tried the stove top espresso makers? They make really good espresso and very quick and easy to clean. Bialetti is the most popular brand I think.

The cafetieres are also very good, but do you find there is a bit of sediment at the bottom of your cup? Maybe the filter in mine is not fine enough.

ah used tuh have one ah dem electrical all-in-one machines from Seico and it was good for ah few years, den ah got me one ah dem plungers from Bodum and put it away becaw ah din have ah mill, ah also have ah perculator fuh when ah have guests.

dis one below is my gas stovetop espresso maker and ah roast de beans in ah pot an den pong it up in ah kitchentop mortar and pestle, ah do not drain de coffee out of it becaw ah de dregs at de bottom.

de tip for using de dregs fuh de plants is good buh yuh hah tuh be carefull tuh leh it cool off fuss because when warm an thrown in ah plant root it does sometimes grow fungus which later attacks de plant, ah have had sensitive plants like dat