Coffee Thread

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by D as in David

Thanks for sharing! I drink my morning coffee black partly because I don't want to break my fast until lunchtime so I'm curious about options for flavour enhancing. Cinnamon or cocoa isn't cutting it.

My memory is a little foggy and I didn't get a repeatable flavored cold brew I liked (winged it, couldn't replicate it), but if I recall correctly... I started off by emulating things that had been combined with coffee successfully in other recipes and extrapolated from there.

The challenge is there's little in between even with very sensitive and very basic palate. Either the taste is barely noticeable/barely varied or there's some seriously clashing flavors/an added layer of a missing part of the taste. You can add stuff to the brew process, but that's more challenging than figuring out how to create these flavors in a separate cold liquid and combining it with a completed cold brew (ie: old fashioned type simple syrup or boiling a flavor in water and cooling the strained liquid).

If emulating the autumn spice flavors like nutmeg, cinnamon, cocoa, ginger, cloves etc. Over spicing and under spicing is a challenge, but also having it differentiate from the black coffee is part of it too. It was more noticeable if combined with milk and sugar (ie: Horchata, pumpkin spice, hot chocolate/mocha) or sugar (ie: Cinnamon sugar donuts). It kinda needed milk and/or sugar to make those flavors stick out and synergize with the coffee.

If adding flavoring with tea leaves, again you need milk and sugar to enhance and balance the flavors on each side. Basically, I was emulating Hong Kong styled coffee milk tea. How concentrated the tea flavor was (ie: Steeping/temp and duration in water) or strong (ie: amount of tea leaves) heavily affected one side and the way the coffee cold brew concentration and strength was affected the other. But because these two flavors seem to be so similar yet different, it's like attempting to pick out the flavors on each side after mixing rum and whiskey together. You might be able to pick out flavors associated with a specific side, but it's not really a varied amount of flavors going on. But add in the milk, sugar and aeration (tannins) and then the drink can be a lot more varied in flavors. It feels like the sugar and milk allow you to go back and forth between the taste of a latte and milk tea which is nice. Aeration and sugar can allow for you to notice minute flavors and also occasionally whether the taste is just in your mouth, or if it can end up lingering in the throat. Keep in mind that tea is a very light flavor vs a strong flavor of coffee. You really need something strong or unique in tea flavor to kinda peek around the gaps where the coffee flavor doesn't fill up your palate.

Crazy enough, it can get even more complicated if emulating a chai spiced coffee since you're basically combining both of the above.


Your situation might be quite a bit more challenging if you're trying not to break your fast but are trying to add flavors. I don't know if you mean breaking a fast in terms of no calories (ie: zero calories sweetener etc. is OK) or basically nothing at all (ie: intermittent fasting).

If no calories, then a milk or whitener is probably out, leaving just toying with sweetener, salt and aeration to experiment with. If intermittent fasting, then I guess aeration and salt are what can be experimented with.

Playing with spices, perhaps look up pumpkin spice latte, cider etc. recipes and look at the specific spices and quantities vs liquid ratio to try?

For tea, brew a hot tea, chill it then kinda play around with ratios with the cold brew to see what happens? Worst case, add sugar, lemon and ice (rum optional) and enjoy that?

If zero calories (ie: 16/8) vs IF(ie: eat stop eat), maybe combine with zero calories cola? (Coke has a cola coffee beverage for sale in the energy drink aisle). Cold brew coffee soda is also apparently a thing.

If IF, if citrus is allowed, a little bit of lemon juice and salt and aeration/soda water might be able to help amplify or mute the flavors in the cold brew and/or the spices you add to it. I don't really have advice on figuring out ratios. But I did do a brew that tasted pretty good that had ginger peel and cinnamon in it. I couldn't emulate this one though. I don't know which grinds I use (flavor profile) and ratio I used. Ginger lemon was something that was recommended to me to try, but I didn't like it, or I just messed it up so bad it was disgusting.

Basically, if someone enjoys the taste of some of the crazy health drink flavors (ie: kombucha, tumeric health drink etc.) I think such an individual might run into a lot of stuff that wasn't as bad as expected. Most of us though will probably invent a whole bunch of terrible ways to mess up a cold brew trying to add different flavors to it.

Good luck though. If you do succeed in finding something that works, definitely share what you discovered.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

My memory is a little foggy and I didn't get a repeatable flavored cold brew I liked (winged it, couldn't replicate it), but if I recall correctly... I started off by emulating things that had been combined with coffee successfully in other recipes and extrapolated from there.

The challenge is there's little in between even with very sensitive and very basic palate. Either the taste is barely noticeable/barely varied or there's some seriously clashing flavors/an added layer of a missing part of the taste. You can add stuff to the brew process, but that's more challenging than figuring out how to create these flavors in a separate cold liquid and combining it with a completed cold brew (ie: old fashioned type simple syrup or boiling a flavor in water and cooling the strained liquid).

If emulating the autumn spice flavors like nutmeg, cinnamon, cocoa, ginger, cloves etc. Over spicing and under spicing is a challenge, but also having it differentiate from the black coffee is part of it too. It was more noticeable if combined with milk and sugar (ie: Horchata, pumpkin spice, hot chocolate/mocha) or sugar (ie: Cinnamon sugar donuts). It kinda needed milk and/or sugar to make those flavors stick out and synergize with the coffee.

If adding flavoring with tea leaves, again you need milk and sugar to enhance and balance the flavors on each side. Basically, I was emulating Hong Kong styled coffee milk tea. How concentrated the tea flavor was (ie: Steeping/temp and duration in water) or strong (ie: amount of tea leaves) heavily affected one side and the way the coffee cold brew concentration and strength was affected the other. But because these two flavors seem to be so similar yet different, it's like attempting to pick out the flavors on each side after mixing rum and whiskey together. You might be able to pick out flavors associated with a specific side, but it's not really a varied amount of flavors going on. But add in the milk, sugar and aeration (tannins) and then the drink can be a lot more varied in flavors. It feels like the sugar and milk allow you to go back and forth between the taste of a latte and milk tea which is nice. Aeration and sugar can allow for you to notice minute flavors and also occasionally whether the taste is just in your mouth, or if it can end up lingering in the throat. Keep in mind that tea is a very light flavor vs a strong flavor of coffee. You really need something strong or unique in tea flavor to kinda peek around the gaps where the coffee flavor doesn't fill up your palate.

Crazy enough, it can get even more complicated if emulating a chai spiced coffee since you're basically combining both of the above.


Your situation might be quite a bit more challenging if you're trying not to break your fast but are trying to add flavors. I don't know if you mean breaking a fast in terms of no calories (ie: zero calories sweetener etc. is OK) or basically nothing at all (ie: intermittent fasting).

If no calories, then a milk or whitener is probably out, leaving just toying with sweetener, salt and aeration to experiment with. If intermittent fasting, then I guess aeration and salt are what can be experimented with.

Playing with spices, perhaps look up pumpkin spice latte, cider etc. recipes and look at the specific spices and quantities vs liquid ratio to try?

For tea, brew a hot tea, chill it then kinda play around with ratios with the cold brew to see what happens? Worst case, add sugar, lemon and ice (rum optional) and enjoy that?

If zero calories (ie: 16/8) vs IF(ie: eat stop eat), maybe combine with zero calories cola? (Coke has a cola coffee beverage for sale in the energy drink aisle). Cold brew coffee soda is also apparently a thing.

If IF, if citrus is allowed, a little bit of lemon juice and salt and aeration/soda water might be able to help amplify or mute the flavors in the cold brew and/or the spices you add to it. I don't really have advice on figuring out ratios. But I did do a brew that tasted pretty good that had ginger peel and cinnamon in it. I couldn't emulate this one though. I don't know which grinds I use (flavor profile) and ratio I used. Ginger lemon was something that was recommended to me to try, but I didn't like it, or I just messed it up so bad it was disgusting.

Basically, if someone enjoys the taste of some of the crazy health drink flavors (ie: kombucha, tumeric health drink etc.) I think such an individual might run into a lot of stuff that wasn't as bad as expected. Most of us though will probably invent a whole bunch of terrible ways to mess up a cold brew trying to add different flavors to it.

Good luck though. If you do succeed in finding something that works, definitely share what you discovered.

Thank you for the detailed response - definitely a lot here to try. And, yes, intermittent fasting so it limits the options significantly.

[DoubleF]

If anyone is aiming for a nutty flavor in their cold brew, I find that Vietnamese coffee seems to be pretty good at imparting this flavor.

I've tried two different Trung Nguyen brand pre ground coffee beans so far. 10-15% of the cold brew was Trung Nguyen coffee grinds and the remainder was a Starbucks dark roast. The outcome was something of a really distinct coconut/hazelnut after taste. I do not know how much of this flavor also relies on the burnt taste from the Starbucks coffee grinds, but I can say it's a nice additional flavor added to the brew I made with only the Starbucks coffee grinds.

I also can't really say how much of the main flavor body of the cold brew was influenced by the Vietnamese coffee grinds. If there's something there, I barely notice it or I'm so focused on the nutty after taste I just miss it. I also don't know how much of that has to do with the fact the Starbucks beans dominate due to the fact it's a dark roast and due to the fact the ratio of the Starbucks beans are significantly higher than the Vietnamese coffee grinds. I'm pretty sure Vietnamese coffee is traditionally dark roast though, so I could see some of the flavors it imparts into the main body being identical to the Starbucks dark roast. I do not have enough coffee grinds left to try a pure Vietnamese coffee cold brew any time soon.

Worth an experiment if anyone is bored. I don't believe Trung Nguyen coffee is very expensive when you find it.

[TSXCman]

Originally Posted by D as in David

Thanks for sharing! I drink my morning coffee black partly because I don't want to break my fast until lunchtime so I'm curious about options for flavour enhancing. Cinnamon or cocoa isn't cutting it.

I have been having morning coffee for years with cinnamon, monk fruit/erythrotol mix, whipping cream, and salt. Tastes great. Never gone to the flavoured stuff, as this mix works and I don't break my fast

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by TSXCman

I have been having morning coffee for years with cinnamon, monk fruit/erythrotol mix, whipping cream, and salt. Tastes great. Never gone to the flavoured stuff, as this mix works and I don't break my fast

Dumb question, but how does the whipping cream help to avoid the fast? The others make sense because they're zero or negligible calories. But I'm not sure how whipping cream or even coffee whitener could constitute zero calories.

I think the closest I looked up was almond milk at around 40 calories per cup. But I have no clue if almond milk could mess up an intermittent fast.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

Dumb question, but how does the whipping cream help to avoid the fast? The others make sense because they're zero or negligible calories. But I'm not sure how whipping cream or even coffee whitener could constitute zero calories.

I think the closest I looked up was almond milk at around 40 calories per cup. But I have no clue if almond milk could mess up an intermittent fast.

I think the same goes for monk fruit/erythritol or any sugar substitute. Avoiding triggering (any) insulin is one of the primary reasons for fasting.

[EldrickOnIce]

I think doublef is on the right track with trying different blends. Myself, personally, I find straight up Costco Columbian medium roast delicious as is, and I am a previous heavy cream and sugar with coffee drinker. But obviously will be each to their own
For size

Spoiler!

[aaronck]

Slightly off topic- my old-ish Brevelle BES840XL is starting to do weird things- Random timed pours, maybe low pressure- Has anyone found a good local place to get machines serviced?

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by aaronck

Slightly off topic- my old-ish Brevelle BES840XL is starting to do weird things- Random timed pours, maybe low pressure- Has anyone found a good local place to get machines serviced?

https://coffeemachinerepair.ca/contact/

I was happy with the service I received from this guy who did some work on one of my machines back in 2020. He works out of his home in Evergreen but his website now says he serves various areas around Calgary.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by aaronck

Slightly off topic- my old-ish Brevelle BES840XL is starting to do weird things- Random timed pours, maybe low pressure- Has anyone found a good local place to get machines serviced?

Run a descaling solution about 2-3 times before taking it in to get checked out. Minerals from water in the internals could be slowing/blocking the flow and lowering the pressure. It'll probably cost you $5-15 in solution (ie: Citric acid or a concentrated vinegar solution).

Usually you just do it periodically, but you want to do 2-3 times to eliminate it as a possibility because you're already at the performance reduction phase.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by aaronck

Slightly off topic- my old-ish Brevelle BES840XL is starting to do weird things- Random timed pours, maybe low pressure- Has anyone found a good local place to get machines serviced?

Have you given it a good descaling? That's usually a good place to start. Mine does weird things when it's been awhile. I use a teaspoon of citric acid in the reservoir, vinegar isn't strong enough. But you may want to see what your specific machine recommends.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Have you given it a good descaling? That's usually a good place to start. Mine does weird things when it's been awhile. I use a teaspoon of citric acid in the reservoir, vinegar isn't strong enough. But you may want to see what your specific machine recommends.

I like citric acid or lemon juice. It works better than normal white vinegar. It also potentially leaves behind a hint of flavor that isn't awful in coffee.

But it doesn't work as fast as this stuff:
https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/Allen-s...B&gclsrc=aw.ds

I have a vacuum kettle. It can get really gnarly in terms of scaling. With citric acid, I can leave it overnight and there's still some scaling left. For the double strength vinegar, I pour about 500 ml at the bottom at full concentration to work through the thickest scaling and to work on the scaling in the internal sections. After about 30-45 minutes, I can typically see a difference, and then I'll add water to the max fill line to allow a diluted solution to do its thing on the scaling on the sides.

Usually within 2-3 hours with this concentrated vinegar it's clean as a whistle. I cannot accomplish the same thing with citric acid after about 2-3 days.

Just make sure not to accidentally buy a version that is pine scented or whatever. Someone made that mistake once and it took like 12 flushes before the pine hint started to fade (not gone).

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

I think doublef is on the right track with trying different blends. Myself, personally, I find straight up Costco Columbian medium roast delicious as is, and I am a previous heavy cream and sugar with coffee drinker. But obviously will be each to their own
For size

Spoiler!

I'll admit that the Vietnamese coffee imparting a nutty flavor was pure dumb luck. I had just topped up a hot coffee batch with it (running out of the other grind) and it turned out pretty good so I did the same mix but cold brew. Flavors hot brew vs cold brew were totally different.

In the past, I'd try and identify the flavors and blend similar flavors, but now I'm not sure if that's accurate. I assumed that a coffee that's heavy toffee, vanilla, spice, earthy etc. might not blend well with one that is more sour, fresh fruit, floral etc. type of flavors. But, I might need to look up how whiskeys are blended when I have time to see the philosophy on how flavor blending works. It might give me insight into adding tea or other things into cold brew as an infusion vs blindly shooting in the dark and hoping it works out.

Originally Posted by D as in David

I think the same goes for monk fruit/erythritol or any sugar substitute. Avoiding triggering (any) insulin is one of the primary reasons for fasting.

I don't know about erythritol or others like Stevia, but monk fruit isn't supposed to trigger insulin and is often used by diabetics. That being said, sometimes you have to test it yourself to ensure this is true (for diabetics).

However, it's not to say these sweeteners will not mess up a fast. I'm just saying that the method it messes up the fast may not be insulin. It doesn't really affect me, so I probably won't try too hard on figuring out an answer for this. I'd be focused on other stuff instead (ie: blending flavors or infusion).

[aaronck]

Thanks for all the replies! I do a vinegar through it every time it prompts me for a cleaning (once per month) so I thought I was ok- It's been acting odd for a while, not doing the one or 2 shot presets which is fine as I usually do long pours but it now just keeps stopping after 4 or 5 seconds.

I'll grab some Citric Acid and double strength vinegar first and then contact the repair guy

Aaron

[Fuzz]

For Calgary's hard water, regular vinegar just might not cut it. I think that machine also has a 3 way solenoid, do you do the backflush to clean that?

[EldrickOnIce]

For several reasons, the drinking water RO system/taps we installed are outstanding. No more bottled water in our house, no more scale.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

For Calgary's hard water, regular vinegar just might not cut it. I think that machine also has a 3 way solenoid, do you do the backflush to clean that?

Agreed. With a vacuum kettle that was on every work day for years, we'd end up with scaling that would look like shards of mica if we didn't clean it out every 6-8 months. Some pieces of scaling larger than a Loonie.

Once it got bad, regular vinegar, citric acid and lemon juice didn't cut it. I could even hit the scaling or scrape it with a wooden spoon and it wouldn't do anything. The scaling was white on the edges from the vinegar and turned black from the citric acid/lemon juice.

Double strength vinegar is the only thing I've ever used that has allowed me to see this 10+ year old vacuum kettle devoid of scaling on the bottom. It took leaving the vinegar at full strength overnight twice to address the scaling on the bottom. TBH I was also concerned it might react with the metal from the kettle and I might have to throw it out (but it was borderline close to that throw away range even before that). It took several cleans at full strength but in the end, it got the internals looking really clean. Not bad for about $4-5 of cleaning vinegar with some left over.

Internal piping might be a little tricky, but if you can get the solution in there in the right concentrations, it'll do its job.

[cracher]

Apologies for the necrobump.

Flames channel Chasing 1000. I can't quite make out what Backs said was the make/brand of that Netherlands origin coffee maker. Was shopping for a superautomatic machine, but now I really really want the same coffee maker as Backs. Appreciate any intel.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by cracher

Apologies for the necrobump.

Flames channel Chasing 1000. I can't quite make out what Backs said was the make/brand of that Netherlands origin coffee maker. Was shopping for a superautomatic machine, but now I really really want the same coffee maker as Backs. Appreciate any intel.

Technivorm Moccamaster. Looks like this is the single-cup brewer he has: https://acecoffeeroasters.com/collec...master-cup-one

[cracher]

Perfect, thank you. On amazon for $332. Likely can get a 10-15X aeroplan bonus on it for black friday.