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  • 3 weeks later...

Here's an interesting detail:

I got up last Thursday (17th) at 5:30 am. I kept right on working until 4:00 am on Friday (18th). I had to be somewhere at 7 am, therfore it made little sense to go home to sleep, as I'd ahve gotten perhaps 40 minutes. So I stayed in the office and dozed for about 2 hours (dozed means I kept drifting off and waking up).

Comes 6 am I drove to the appointment. I arived 20 minutes early, so I had a chance to get a lousy cup of 7-Eleven coffee. That one cup woke me right up. It's amazing how coffe can perk you up even when you're dead tired. Maybe 7-Eleven puts a stronger brew that early in the morning (unlikely).

Then I drove elsewhere to drop off some VIPs (Very Important Papers, of course), get some breakfast and more coffee. Finally I went home and slept from 10 am to 1 pm. Then it was back to work until 8 pm. I'm gald we don't get many stretches of work that heavy (one time I did 60 hours straight with maybe 4 hours sleep tucked away here and there). But we do stay late often. Were ti not for the black bean elixir I don't know how I'd make it. That and diet Coke.

Caffeine, nature's enabler for the workaholic and the poorly organized :P

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I currently live on Oahu. The 7-eleven and McDonalds both serve blends with Kona coffee beans, one of the most expensive and sought-after coffees in the world. If I go downtown I can get a cup of 100% Kona peaberry. It is awesome black, no cream no sugar.

I love Kona coffee (one of the few things I like about Hawaii)! Kona and Colombian are the only types I really enjoy. I've been drinking more espresso than coffee lately.

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That sounds really awful.

It's not as bad as it sounds.

It's a great deal worse.

Nothing but an emergency could make me work like that. It would be torture. I would probably shows signs of psychosis.

No emergency, just deadlines. That's what our work is: a series of deadlines with tons of labor in between. Sometimes it becomes literally unmanageable.

So we wind up working up to the deadline. And since we turn things in on time, evenif just barely, the boss figures we can hack it as it is and we don't need more help.

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  • 1 month later...

New son the coffee front. We had a alot of vanilla extract and natural vanilla flavoring left over from a previous work adventure, so I decided to try adding a little vanilla to my coffee. The results are mixed.

If you ever tasted vanilla straight out the bottle you know it tastes bitter and foul. That's because it's in concentrated form, so you're tasting the alcohol and other solvents (and sometimes tiny amounts of sugar or fructose) used int he product. If you see the directions you find you're supposed to use tiny amounts of extract for large amounts of whatever you're baking, cooking or mixing. So for a cup of coffee the amount needed is very small.

If you add too much, it will taste more like vanilla with coffee, and has a solvent after-taste that's bitter and foul. If you add too little it just tastes like somewhat off coffe (by too little I mean less than a teardrop's worth). When you add the right amount, the result tastes like coffee with a hint of vanilla.

The problem lies in pouring just enough on a teaspoon before adding it to the coffee. I'll try using an eye-dropper next.

Some years back we had leftover whole cinnamon "branches" (they're actually pieces of rolled tree bark) and a coworker would put a piece of branch in the coffee maker cone. I dind't care for the result. I like cinnamon, but not with coffee (except with cappuccino, and then only a little sprinkled on top). Cinnamon mixes better with fruity teas anyway. I also love it on pastries.

So next on the agenda is another try at coffee jello (note jello is generic whereas Jell-O is a registered trademark, ha ha). I plan to brew coffee and add it whole to the flavorless jello. maybe I'll add vanilla, too. If that works well, the next step will be a creamy coffee jello. Assuming I ever find the time.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had a partial success with the coffe jell-o. I brewed two cups (measuring cups, not coffe cups) in a French press, added some Splenda and precisely one drop of vanilla extract. I tasted that then mixed it up with flavorless gelatin and placed it in the fridge.

The jell-o came out fine and tasted exactly like a nice cup of coffee. That's the problem. A cup of coffee is not dessert. The jell-o needs more sweetener and perhaps a bit more vanilla (maybe two drops). Maybe also some cream. At least the consistency was fine for coffee, a point I had doubts about. I'll try again next week.

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For those of you who have access to real maple syrup, I think this is a very yummy addition. I started putting about half a teaspoon of maple syrup in my coffee along with my regular milk and sugar for sweetening, and it is delicious. You only need a tiny amount to taste it (and don't add too much cause it'll be gross).

I think there's probably certain kinds of maple flavors for coffee, but I don't think they taste as good as the actual pure maple syrup itself. Most of the time it's just maple flavoring added to regular syrup, which sucks compared to the real stuff.

Try it some time if you can get it!

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I think there's probably certain kinds of maple flavors for coffee, but I don't think they taste as good as the actual pure maple syrup itself. Most of the time it's just maple flavoring added to regular syrup, which sucks compared to the real stuff.

I've tried flavored syrups now and then at coffee stores. They're not bad, but they're mostly sugar. I prefer to get flavoring extracts, either synthetic or natural, such as those used in baking. The trouble is finding them for home use. I can get them for industrial/comissary use, but what would I do with a gallon of mint essence :D

I've seen natural maple syrup in stores a few times, but they're always outrageosly expensive.

Sometimes I order mocha, which is usually made with Hershey's chocolate syrup. Sometimes they use powdered chocolate milk mix. They're not bad, but again they're high in sugar (given that even hot mocha tends to be served with whipped cream, I can see the point). I would like to try it with confectioner powdered cocoa, no sugar.

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Yeah, maple syrup is ridiculously expensive in most places. Even in north carolina it used to be almost 10 dollars for maybe half a pint... up here in new hampshire it is much cheaper, about a third of the price as far as I can tell because it is made close by. You only need a tiny bit, though, so I still recommend it if you can find it for a good price somewhere =) But that may not be a possibility in certain locations.

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  • 1 month later...

I tried to make mocha again using brewed coffee and Hershey's baking powdered cocoa (no sugar added!) The results were quite good with or without vanilla.

Next, assuming I do leave work early as promsed, I'll try this recipe:

1 packet flavorless jello (7 grams)

1 cup double strenght hot coffee (that is coffe for two cups made with one cup of water)

1 cup warm evaporated milk (low fat)

1/4 cup granulated Splenda (that's the cooking/baking version of Splenda)

2 drops vanilla extract.

That's a theoretical adaptation of a more conventional milky jello recipe. I expect to waste a lot of coffee and sundries perfecting a nice recipe.

Here's another one:

2 packets flavorless jello

1 cup coffee ice cream

1 cup skim milk

1/2 cup granualted splenda

2 tablespoons hershey's baking powdered cocoa

2 drops vanilla extract

I'll let you know how it goes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Success!

Here's the recipe:

1 packet flavorless jello (7 grams)

1 cup double strong coffee (two standard coffee scoops with one cup boiling water)

1 cup evaporated milk

4 tablespoons granulated Splenda™

First make the coffee by your preferred means. I used a french press, if you do then also use a strainer when you pour the coffee (next time I'm using a cone filter).

Next put the evaporated milk in a saucepan and heat it, always stirring it with something (milk burns easily). Add the Splenda™ or sugar and keep stirring. Next add the coffee (use a strainer to minimize coffee solids). Finally add the flavorless jello. Stir until that dissolves, pour into individual cups or a mold, let it cool and place in the fridge.

Yes, I forgot to add vanilla. I'll try that tomorrow. Also perhaps more coffee should be used, as the results were a little weak. Say 2.5 scoops, maybe three. Lastly it may be best to dissolve the jello first with boiling water. But this one worked so well I'll be making a larger one in a mold to share around at the office.

Next week I'll be experimenting with black coffee jello (no milk) and mocha jello (with Hersheys™ baker's cocoa). If that works I'll try coffee marshmallows next (actually I'm thinking coffee, vanilla, chocolate and cinnamon marshmallows, but that assumes I can even make them to begin with, plus finding a good cinnamon essence).

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So, if you look at when coffee became widespread in Europe - does it correspond with the Rennaissance? The Enlightenment? Would modern productivity be possible without coffee?

The Enlightenment was helped along with the arrival of new non-alcoholic beverages tea, coffee and hot chocolate, and the new coffee shops and tea parlors where people would gather to consume them and discuss news and ideas (soberly).

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So, if you look at when coffee became widespread in Europe - does it correspond with the Rennaissance? The Enlightenment?

Don't know.

Would modern productivity be possible without coffee?

Don't care.

Coffee is good because it tastes good, it can be used in a variety of drinks and deserts, and it has that caffeine kick to help non-morning people along (I'm a non-morning person myself). It needs no further justification.

Just a question.

Just an answer :rolleyes:

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  • 1 year later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Good turkish coffee is my favorite, but it's hard to find.

For home brewing, I am a HUGE fan of the single cup machines, especially the Tassimo. My kids are too young to drink coffee, and my wife abstains, so 1 cup at a time works.

If I am in need of a pick me up, I will do 6 shots of espresso over ice at my local Starbucks.

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  • 7 months later...

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