A math problem for you

[Thoughtful]

My office has no running water and no ice maker.
I have a water cooler, mini fridge, electric tea kettle, and a microwave.

I'm trying to learn coffee because it helps curb my sweet tooth and the metric tons of candy that are typically in my life.

I've been having a caramel frappe a day with an extra shot. It's helping my energy & focus, plus I want long term health benefits.

What's my best process to transition into something to make and drink at work?

I like frappe but not latte. Want to eventually get to black? (To spare the sugar.) A caramel macchiato was bearable. Bottled mocha cold brew made me gag.

Is there any kind of reality I could do with instant coffee? Instant hot w/ caramel syrup & whipped cream?

[alas]

My office has no running water and no ice maker.
I have a water cooler, mini fridge, electric tea kettle, and a microwave.

I'm trying to learn coffee because it helps curb my sweet tooth and the metric tons of candy that are typically in my life.

I've been having a caramel frappe a day with an extra shot. It's helping my energy & focus, plus I want long term health benefits.

What's my best process to transition into something to make and drink at work?

I like frappe but not latte. Want to eventually get to black? (To spare the sugar.) A caramel macchiato was bearable. Bottled mocha cold brew made me gag.

Is there any kind of reality I could do with instant coffee? Instant hot w/ caramel syrup & whipped cream?

I was one to gag on the flavor of coffee when I first started. Still cannot drink any commercial coffee. It is either terrible or loaded with sugar and my goal in starting coffee was to get to where I could drink it with no added sugar because I am diabetic and sugar is poison. And I wanted to get away from the artificial sweetener in diet soda. So, I started with medium roast so it doesn’t taste like badly burned chili. Hazelnut flavor was best for my taste. So, I started with cream and artificial sweetener, but you can start with sugar. I also started WEAK, adding three cups of water to the recommended coffee for one cup of coffee. I got acclimatized to that, then moved to slightly stronger with half & half. I tried cold brew and found I could drink it black if i made it weak enough. I found that you can purchase Kona coffee on the internet (or at a military commissary) for an arm and a leg and I switched to half hazelnut medium and half pure Kona. Right now, I can drink my half Kona half hazelnut at twice the water per cup, cold brew, but I can drink that black. I am moving to stronger and less of the pure Kona coffee and black. I will be satisfied if I can drink that full strength over ice.

So, take it gradual and find a flavored medium or light roast and spend a year or two getting used to the flavor. Try Kona coffee. Look it up on line and don’t choke at the price. It is still cheaper than Starbucks. Remember good coffee is not the cheap stuff. You will start to like it because you like how you feel after having some, and your body teaches your taste buds to like what it likes. I have been drinking coffee for about two years now and I have done a lot of experimenting with different flavors and types of coffee. You can take cold brew to work with you. At Bed Bath and Beyond, I found a cold brew plastic thermos that you can fill and put in the fridge overnight, then it is portable and ready to go in the morning.

I use coffee to self medicate ADD, and my TBM spouseman encourages my coffee consumption because he likes me not bouncing off the walls and forgetting which way is up.

[moksha]

Is there any kind of reality I could do with instant coffee? Instant hot w/ caramel syrup & whipped cream?

Go to an Asian Supermarket near you and pick up several packages of instant Thai coffee. Store them in your desk and pour one of the packets into a mug of hot water during your break.

[Dravin]

Is there any kind of reality I could do with instant coffee? Instant hot w/ caramel syrup & whipped cream?

It is more work than instant, but as there is a tea kettle you can always do a pour over coffee maker (they come in various sizes and materials, some are even collapsible) to give you a lot more options in your base coffee. As far as flavoring it, you can either do a shot of syrup and whipped cream (or just cream) like you suggest or take a short-cut with a caramel macchiato creamer. Personally my gateway to black coffee was a bit of hazelnut creamer to hazelnut flavored coffee to black.

You can take cold brew to work with you. At Bed Bath and Beyond, I found a cold brew plastic thermos that you can fill and put in the fridge overnight, then it is portable and ready to go in the morning.

Alternatively you can just use a coffee sock and a large mason jar, that's my approach to cold brew. I also got a funnel so I'll buy a gallon jug of water (because my tap water tastes like mud) use that to make the cold brew and then pour the finished product into the water jug. The end product is a jug of cold brew sitting in the fridge ready to be put into a thermos or glass with ice depending on how I'm feeling. Cold brew is nice because it is easier to control over extraction which results in overly bitter coffee, as if you brew it in the fridge instead of the counter you've got nice controlled variables (though if your house stays the same temp all the time counter-top is fairly consistent) so you can really dial in a time and coffee:water ratio that fits your preferences.

[Just This Guy]

I started adding a lot of sugar to my coffee when I started. I have been gradually reducing it over the last few years until I am at the point now where I only take a little, if any. So you can start heavily sugared and slowly tone it down over weeks and months ad you get used to it.

I tend to be able to handle less sugar with cold coffee. I can actually drink old brew and iced coffee black. I can't take it back if it's hot.

Check out some of the options for pre-made coffee drinks in your grocery store or convince store. Try a few that sound interesting.

Maybe pick up a french press. You can start a batch of cold brew when you leave work at the end of the day and have it ready for you when you come in in the morning.

Also check out the liquid creamers in your grocery store dairy cooler. There are quite a few flavors out there you can play around with. Avoid the shelf stable (non-refrigerated) ones.

Chocolate and caramel syrup should be easy to find and you can do a lot with those. You can also see if your grocery store has traditional coffee flavoring syrups. I actually have better luck finding coffee syrups at Walmart than the dedicated grocery stores in my are.

[Thoughtful]

I have switched from coffee shop to starbucks caramel macchiato in the dairy case. It isn't great but I can down it. Might get a Keurig and try a wide variety of pods to see what I can handle.

[moksha]

Espresso is fairly strong, but it does contain the essential nutrients of the coffee group.
This gets around the problem of no running water quite nicely.


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It would be great if some entrepreneurial Mormon could circumvent the Church's problem of drinking coffee via a much loved Mormon treat: Coffee-based Jello squares.

[wtfluff]

Might get a Keurig and try a wide variety of pods to see what I can handle.

Keurig is probably one of the worst ways to figure out coffee. You're getting tired, old, stale, dead coffee grounds in those little plastic pods, and adding way too much to the landfill.

Unless you get a re-usable pod/filter and grind your own beans...

[Thoughtful]

Espresso is fairly strong, but it does contain the essential nutrients of the coffee group.
This gets around the problem of no running water quite nicely.


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It would be great if some entrepreneurial Mormon could circumvent the Church's problem of drinking coffee via a much loved Mormon treat: Coffee-based Jello squares.

This is what I've been doing this week, but it's spendy so I want to figure out how to make my own. I don't mind the taste of it, it tastes a lot like the frappe I've been getting just without the frozen texture.

[Thoughtful]

Might get a Keurig and try a wide variety of pods to see what I can handle.

Keurig is probably one of the worst ways to figure out coffee. You're getting tired, old, stale, dead coffee grounds in those little plastic pods, and adding way too much to the landfill.

Unless you get a re-usable pod/filter and grind your own beans...

Yes, but...ain't nobody got time for that! I have a full time salary position, I'm managing a branch for a different company trying to get off the ground in my area (as a favor) and I'm a supervisor/mentor for three trainees. Plus I teach college. There is not time in the day for me to figure out coffee let alone grind beans, yanno? I need someone to tell me what to do and trust it will taste good, especially if it's going to be a time/money investment in one thing--which is why Keurig sample packs is appealing? I can try a bunch of flavors without buying 90000 packages of grounds, and if I hate something, I can leave it in my training room for my trainees to have, right?

So is the Keurig coffee really that gross then? Sigh....

[Dravin]

So is the Keurig coffee really that gross then? Sigh....

You may like them, but going Keurig is a bit like grabbing some Kraft cheese at the grocery store in the hopes of figuring out cheese. It may help you in some broad strokes but you'll be missing out on what there truly is out there to experience. Personally, I'd steer anyone towards cold brew using mid-shelf grocery store coffee (cold brew tends to be more forgiving of bean quality then hot brew) before a Keurig and pods if convinence was at a premium, spend 5-10 minutes a week (not counting passive brew time) making a large batch that you drink off of until the next brew day.

[Thoughtful]

So is the Keurig coffee really that gross then? Sigh....

You may like them, but going Keurig is a bit like grabbing some Kraft cheese at the grocery store in the hopes of figuring out cheese. It may help you in some broad strokes but you'll be missing out on what there truly is out there to experience. Personally, I'd steer anyone towards cold brew using mid-shelf grocery store coffee (cold brew tends to be more forgiving of bean quality then hot brew) before a Keurig and pods if convinence was at a premium, spend 5-10 minutes a week (not counting passive brew time) making a large batch that you drink off of until the next brew day.

Ok, I bought a machine on Amazon that has a coffee carafe and a K cup side. K cup has a reusable one too, so I can play around with all sorts of coffees and Spouseman likes the k cup hot choc as well.

[2bizE]

Do you not have a bathroom? Is you do, you can run a warer line from the water line to the toilet to your coffee maker

[Thoughtful]

Do you not have a bathroom? Is you do, you can run a warer line from the water line to the toilet to your coffee maker

I do not have a bathroom. I have to walk to another building, unfortunately. My office is one side of a portable work space, the other side is my training room. The other portables have bathrooms and sinks but not mine.