I love those cup/glass top Vietnamese coffee filters! It makes it a lot less healthy, but the condensed milk at the bottom takes it to 11.
Sadly, most of the Pho places I go to pre-make their coffee drinks now, which is a sure sign that it is going to be average, at best, and usually vile.
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It’s quite easy - you boil water, put two tb of ground coffee in, put the screen on top, pour in a little water to bloom, and then fill it all the way up. It’s done when it stops dripping.
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Thanks a lot, now I have to add another piece of coffee gear.
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I love the Viet filter – it’s exactly like the South Indian one, except that comes with its own receptacle at the bottom to collect the coffee “liquor”.
(I use South Indian coffee powder & Cafe du monde interchangeably – both have about the same proportion of chicory.)
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Just curious… Do you think there’s anything special about Cafe du Monde canned coffee in this style of maker? I’ve had it in NOLA several times, and I never thought it was even the equal of their beignets.
This great eBay find for about a quarter of what they are usually offered makes the best non-espresso coffee of anything I have ever used.
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Ceramic moka pot?
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It is a simple pour over that requires no filter, but it also has a diffuser at the top. If I use a fairly coarse grind, very few fines make their way into the coffee.
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it’s a kind of drip-o-lator, yes?
Well, it looks like one might look, having that upper chamber like a Bialetti, but it is 100% drip. Using it is a pour-over experience, but the top piece distributes the water over all the coffee a bit more gently than a pour-over does. As a result you don’t get as much turbidity during the extraction. The result is an extremely rich extraction. I once had a Melitta pour-over. I like the results from this one better. The difference is noticeable.
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when i say “drip o later” that’s what I meant, i hope i didn’t use the word wrong. I use it to describe a fully manual vintage contraption (pour boiling water over a thing that has holes in, no paper or metal filter, no boiling on the stove or via electricity. let it drip down.)
Gotcha. When I hear or read “o-lator” my mind runs straight to percolator.
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I finally broke down and bought a bag of the house brand coffee beans at BJ’s club. I didn’t have high hopes for it, but I had enough hope: specifically, that I could get my coffee consumption to align with my budget by sourcing cheaper beans that produced coffee I’d be willing to drink.
First trial today (freshly ground and brewed as always in my vintage electric percolator) produced what I think was too-weak coffee (vs unacceptable quality.) I’ll try again tomorrow with another small scoop of grounds.
I think the 4-lb bag of beans was $17, so if I can’t make a good cup with it, that’s my loss.
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And now that I know what a drip-o-lator is, the answer is, “Yes.”
Update on the BJ’s house brand coffee beans:
First brew was a bit weak, so I just increased the amount of grounds by about 15%. That did the trick. The result is perfectly drinkable.
I’ll likely still treat myself to fancy coffee from time to time, but this will be a nice savings for me.
Buying four lbs of beans at a time does introduce the need for a storage solution, however.
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I’ve never had their coffee in the New Orleans shop but I’ve gotten a couple cans from World Market along with the beignets mix because I had to try it. I haven’t made the beignets yet, I hope it’s still good! I’m not too thrilled about the Cafe du Monde coffee after all. It’s got an extra bitterness to it that I don’t mind but I don’t think it’s that great. I make it in a French Press. I drink it when I make this sandwich that’s a cross between a Croque Monsieur and Monte Cristo. I don’t think I will buy it anymore, though.
I’ve had some big changes lately in the making of coffee for me. One of the Tassimos stopped working, husband has yet to investigate, but it’s getting harder to find t-discs for it anyway at reasonable cost. I will never purchase a Keurig, blech!
I’ve learned a lot about coffee, read a ton, have seen a lot of youtube, especially James Hoffman videos.
First thing I got was a French Press, I found one at TJ Maxx, double wall glass, which I really like. It would be perfect if the top lid didn’t have plastic around the rim. But it’s good enough for $17. I pretty much follow James Hoffman’s video for “Ultimate French Press”. And I must say it works, because the second cup tastes even smoother than the first so no need to decant into something else. I cut out a regular paper filter with this, too, to cut the oils. I also find the French Press useful in making Thai iced tea.
One thing I’ve decided is not to do manual espresso at home. I’ve determined it’s too complicated for me in “dialing it in” and all that and I don’t even drink espresso straight, always as a cappuccino or latte. So, I ended up getting two Bialetti moka express pots, 3 cup for regular, 6 cup for an indulgent decaf. I drink coffee for the taste, not necessarily the caffeine, plus caffeine can give me indigestion. I use an Aero Press filter in them also and it fits fine in both. They’ve been really good, and I’ve been pleased with what comes out of them and use an Aero latte wand for a poor man’s latte and it’s fine for me.
My go to everyday coffee is a glass Hario Switch 03, and I follow one guy’s recipe and I never tried anything else except once I did it opposite in the beginning and for whatever reason, it didn’t taste as good. https://youtu.be/68ZOXrXbVHc?si=h6g_WPfpbahbexZm I don’t need to measure anything anymore, I know what I’m scooping. For me, it’s first pour, I very briefly give a stir with a wood popsicle stick, then let drip, then second pour, let steep for the time depending on roast.
I’ve learned about temperature and time depending on the roast of the coffee that I didn’t know before. Light roasts need boiling, or else I find it sour, medium are below that, and dark I brew at 190F. Light roasts brew close to 5 minutes, medium about 4, dark just over 2 minutes. Then there’s grind if you’re using whole bean, courser for dark, etc.
I got an electric coffee grinder also. I had my husband clean up this antique box grinder from my grandmother and it works. But I find the grind only good for light roasts, it’s pretty fine. So I ended up getting an Oxo burr grinder. I was going to get a Baratza Encore ESP but two things made me decide against it. One, I’m not dialing in for espresso. two, the Oxo has a stainless steel cup and I have no static cling. It’s good enough for me and my needs. Also, it fits. in my space I got a decent deal on it at W-S with a price match and my annual b-day gift of $25. I did get a bellows for it, too. So far so good. I know a lot of people have manual grinders but one manual is enough for me. I found a coffee grind guide for this grinder that is helpful for my various coffee makers. Also, a Coffee Compass chart that helped me get started.
I use reverse osmosis water so I don’t have any need to descale any of my pots and the moka pots get rinsed out with same water. I get jugs of it for a quarter but one day I might get it installed like my parents had. I think my coffee and tea taste better, too, and I drink it on its own, too.
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Ziplock bag(s), or the bag they came in if it seals, in the freezer.
