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Coffee 101
Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2018 4:31 pm
by GoodBoy
How to interpret the Starbucks menu options:
Almost all of the drinks that I didn't understand are made with espresso. Espresso is a quickly made, and very concentrated coffee made by forcing hot water at very high pressure through very finely ground coffee. HIgh pressures are required because the coffee beans are ground to a flour-like consistency and low pressures can't get water through it. You can drink espresso plain if you are hard core, or the barista (coffee maker person) adds that shot of espresso to milk, foamed milk, cream, chocolate, etc.
Italians were the first ones to get fancy with the espresso, thus all these coffee terms are just mostly Italian words. Example: espresso = express (because espresso can be made fairly quickly), breve = short, caffe = coffee.
Also:
* Latte means milk (espresso with hot milk added).
* Macchiato means marked or stained (espresso that has been marked with a dallop of foamed milk).
* Americano means American. American GI's just wanted a regular cup of coffee so they just added hot water to espresso to dilute it.
* Cappuccino is named after the Capuchin monks who wore a tan robe/garment and a cappuccino is a light brown color (espresso with milk and foamed milk). This is the one that they can make fancy patterns in while adding the foamed milk.
* Crema means cream but it isn't cream. It is the cream-like substance made by carbon dioxide that comes from the ground coffee but was dissolved at the high pressures that espresso is made at. The CO2 comes out when it comes to atmospheric pressure. So it's has no bearing on the taste of espresso at all, but many customers just want to see it.
* Mocha isn't Italian, but is an old word associated with coffee that just came to mean "with chocolate and milk". In fact, you can make a mocha by adding a hot chocolate packet to a cup of regular coffee.
* au lait = French for "with milk". I don't think this is different from a latte, except that maybe au lait may not be made with espresso.
When you use foreign words it sounds so much more exotic and that you should be willing to pay more for it. For example: "caffe latte" sounds so much sexier than "milk coffee", and 'macchiato" is so much more exotic than "foamy milk coffee".
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2018 5:00 pm
by Thoughtful
GoodBoy wrote: ↑Sat Dec 08, 2018 4:31 pm
How to interpret the Starbucks menu options:
Almost all of the drinks that I didn't understand are made with espresso. Espresso is a quickly made, and very concentrated coffee made by forcing hot water at very high pressure through very finely ground coffee. HIgh pressures are required because the coffee beans are ground to a flour-like consistency and low pressures can't get water through it. You can drink espresso plain if you are hard core, or the barista (coffee maker person) adds that shot of espresso to milk, foamed milk, cream, chocolate, etc.
Italians were the first ones to get fancy with the espresso, thus all these coffee terms are just mostly Italian words. Example: espresso = express (because espresso can be made fairly quickly), breve = short, caffe = coffee.
Also:
* Latte means milk (espresso with hot milk added).
* Macchiato means marked or stained (espresso that has been marked with a dallop of foamed milk).
* Americano means American. American GI's just wanted a regular cup of coffee so they just added hot water to espresso to dilute it.
* Cappuccino is named after the Capuchin monks who wore a tan robe/garment and a cappuccino is a light brown color (espresso with milk and foamed milk). This is the one that they can make fancy patterns in while adding the foamed milk.
* Crema means cream but it isn't cream. It is the cream-like substance made by carbon dioxide that comes from the ground coffee but was dissolved at the high pressures that espresso is made at. The CO2 comes out when it comes to atmospheric pressure. So it's has no bearing on the taste of espresso at all, but many customers just want to see it.
* Mocha isn't Italian, but is an old word associated with coffee that just came to mean "with chocolate and milk". In fact, you can make a mocha by adding a hot chocolate packet to a cup of regular coffee.
* au lait = French for "with milk". I don't think this is different from a latte, except that maybe au lait may not be made with espresso.
When you use foreign words it sounds so much more exotic and that you should be willing to pay more for it. For example: "caffe latte" sounds so much sexier than "milk coffee", and 'macchiato" is so much more exotic than "foamy milk coffee".
Breve is like a cappuccino but with half and half instead of milk.
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2018 8:31 pm
by glass shelf
This is a good list. All of those years of studying French and Italian helped me out when I started drinking coffe and wine. haha Not worthless after all.
Cafe au lait is with regular coffee (although French people make it much stronger than most Americans) and a latte is milk with expresso. Either way--delicious!
Mocha comes from a port in the middle east that they used to ship the cocoa beans through.
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2018 8:37 pm
by glass shelf
So, I just looked that up because I wondered if I remembered that incorrectly. Mocha was the port, but it was where coffee beans came through not cocoa beans. It then started to mean coffee grown in that region of Yemen. And now I finally understand why Italian moka pots are called that and have nothing to do with chocolate.
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 11:30 am
by No Tof
Resigning, now all this coffee talk; you may have to change your name "Goodboy"
Thanks for the map through Starbucks.
Coffee by any name still tastes as good.......
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 9:55 pm
by Hagoth
I'm pretty simple: I hand grind beans and steep them in a french press. Milk and stevia.
I needed this post last week when I was wandering around a medical center while my wife was having a procedure and found myself stupefied in front of a Starbuck's menu. When it was my turn to order I panicked and randomly picked caramel macchiato. They lady said I couldn't go wrong with that one. She was right.
My discovery about coffee is that I'm kinda ADHD but I can focus much better with a belly full of brew. I would have expected the opposite.
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 12:25 am
by Anon70
So interesting! Thanks for the info. I hated the taste I tried a few months ago. But I am tempted to try again.
Hagoth wrote: ↑Mon Dec 10, 2018 9:55 pm.My discovery about coffee is that I'm kinda ADHD but I can focus much better with a belly full of brew. I would have expected the opposite.
I’m ADD too Hagoth and I’ve wondered if the caffeine would make me better or worse....
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 6:27 am
by Just This Guy
One question for everyone. Recommendations on cleaning a stainless steel carafe? Mine had been picking up a bit of a stain and normal washing methods are not helping it.
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 7:48 am
by Dravin
Just This Guy wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 6:27 am
One question for everyone. Recommendations on cleaning a stainless steel carafe? Mine had been picking up a bit of a stain and normal washing methods are not helping it.
Baking soda or vinegar in hot water soaks are traditional methods. If those don't work you can do a bit of a gentle scrub with an OxiClean or baking soda paste or even use something like Bar Keeper's Friend.
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 8:19 am
by wtfluff
Hagoth wrote: ↑Mon Dec 10, 2018 9:55 pmMy discovery about coffee is that I'm kinda ADHD but I can focus much better with a belly full of brew. I would have expected the opposite.
Anon70 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 12:25 am
I’m ADD too Hagoth and I’ve wondered if the caffeine would make me better or worse....
OK, let's get this out in the open for everyone to hear:
Coffee is basically a wonder-drug for most everyone with ADD/ADHD. Everyone I know with ADD/ADHD who drinks coffee has mentioned this. Coffee basically has the opposite effect on ADD/ADHD folks that it does on "normal" folks. It makes the ADD/ADHD symptoms better, not worse.
Just This Guy wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 6:27 am
One question for everyone. Recommendations on cleaning a stainless steel carafe? Mine had been picking up a bit of a stain and normal washing methods are not helping it.
If what Dravin mentioned doesn't work, then... Bleach. I know that your instructions for your carafe likely say to NOT use bleach, but use just a tiny bit, with some water. Don't let it "soak", give it a good scrub with the bleach solution, then instantly wash it out the "normal" way. Kinda like whitening your teeth. Too much is... Well, too much.
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 8:44 am
by Hagoth
wtfluff wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 8:19 am
OK, let's get this out in the open for everyone to hear:
Coffee is basically a wonder-drug for most everyone with ADD/ADHD. Everyone I know with ADD/ADHD who drinks coffee has mentioned this. Coffee basically has the opposite effect on ADD/ADHD folks that it does on "normal" folks. It makes the ADD/ADHD symptoms better, not worse.
I'm almost 61 and I didn't know this. In fact, I just figured out that I have ADD or ADHD or something. Never diagnosed, but suddenly it makes sense why I have started countless books and finished fewer than half of them, and why I couldn't get through a simple chapter book until I was in 9th grade, even when I REALLY wanted to read them. Why I start so many projects and can't finish them, why my Netflix list is full of shows that are 1/8 watched. Why I have to take breaks every 15 minutes or so from almost everything I do. Why I can't stick with a hobby.
And then coffee. All of a sudden I can sit down and focus on a research paper for HOURS. Amazing. You know, if coffee wasn't prohibited I might have been able to sit through three hours of church.
Thank you God or Satan or whoever is responsible for this marvelous elixir.
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 2:55 pm
by Red Ryder
Carmel Machiatto is my Starbucks drug of choice. Love it hot or cold.
As for office coffee, I pick the French vanilla medium roast, with 2 sugars, and 2 Irish Cream.
Not sure if that's mixing international races or not.
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 3:22 pm
by Corsair
Coffee could fight Parkinson's disease, study says
Tauren Dyson, writing for United Press International, wrote:
The findings, published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that fatty acid derivatives of the neurotransmitter serotonin that coats coffee beans, known as Eicosanoyl-5-hydroxytryptamide, or EHT, helped protect the brains of mice against abnormal protein accumulation linked to Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia.
Researchers from Rutgers University gave mice small amounts of both caffeine and EHT. Individually, each compound had no effect, but combined, they activated the portion of the rodents' brains that fights the build-up of proteins that cause Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia.
Coffee: is there anything it can't do?
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 3:46 pm
by Red Ryder
Corsair wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 3:22 pm
Coffee: is there anything it can't do?
It can't bring your testimony back!
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 3:58 pm
by MerrieMiss
Hagoth wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 8:44 am
Why I can't stick with a hobby.
It seems like you share the same hobby most of us have...Mormonism.
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 4:12 pm
by wtfluff
Red Ryder wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 3:46 pm
Corsair wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 3:22 pm
Coffee: is there anything it can't do?
It can't bring your testimony back!
"I'd like to bury my testimony of coffee..."
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 4:29 pm
by A New Name
Hagoth wrote: ↑Mon Dec 10, 2018 9:55 pm
My discovery about coffee is that I'm kinda ADHD but I can focus much better with a belly full of brew. I would have expected the opposite.
There was a lady on NOM years ago that had ADHD. Her Dr perscribed coffee, and she said is much better drinking the coffee that the drugs she was on.
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2018 10:17 am
by Hagoth
MerrieMiss wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 3:58 pm
Hagoth wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 8:44 am
Why I can't stick with a hobby.
It seems like you share the same hobby most of us have...Mormonism.
In the same sense that Tippi Hedren in Hitchcock's movie is a bird enthusiast or Sisyphus enjoys repetitive athletic challenges!
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2018 10:43 am
by moksha
Thai coffee is like a delicious liquid dessert.
Re: Coffee 101
Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 5:26 pm
by GoodBoy
No Tof wrote: ↑Mon Dec 10, 2018 11:30 am
Resigning, now all this coffee talk; you may have to change your name "Goodboy"
Thanks for the map through Starbucks.
Coffee by any name still tastes as good.......
Haha! I think you're right! I've been a little more naughty with all my coffee drinking lately.