If I am consistent about anything in my life, which now convincingly is not updating my blog, its consuming delicious coffee in the morning. No I am not one of those give-me-my-coffee-now or I will burn-this-house-down kind of people. If I don't get it, I simply will not have the happiness born from its roasty goodness, nor will I have the energy to prevent me from missing a beat or two throughout the day.
I have not always been in love with the intricate process of crafting and the delightful imbibing a solid cup of Joe. Less than a year ago, to me coffee was synonymous with what ends up in the cleaning bucket after a grade school teacher washes a chalk-ridden blackboard. It was also similar to what you would hypothetically get if you were so possessed to combine shredded cardboard and tap water. By the way, if you have ever made such a beverage and enjoyed it... its not a beverage, you are sick, and are in need of help.
1 year ago...
cof·fee noun
1 substance formed from the rapid grinding of cardboard mixed with water from sewage runoff:
I'll take a tall cardboard wat... sorry, I mean coffee.
2 a drink surely to have no taste at all
The absence of taste in this coffee is tremendous!
Present...
cof·fee noun | cough-ee |
1 a drink derived from a rich, flavorful blend of roasted tropical beans
I'll take a coffee, the best thing on the menu of course!
2 a concoction of flavorful aromas and delicious plethoras of caffeinated bliss
3 a drink, its consumption of which can yield tremendous and infinite powers
I drink coffee, therefore, I am better than you.
Michelle, my lovely wife scoffs at my present definition, but according to number three, she doesn't know what she is talking about.
My journey into the world of coffee was not gradual by any means. It was as rapid as a Discovery shuttle's journey from Earth to space.
Back in February, while at the Chicago Tribune, you would find me doing market research and experimenting with coffee, using my trustworthy, puny $15 Mr. Coffee from Target. I worked with a guy named Ed Ney, whom, unbeknownst to me at the time, was, by his terms, a coffee snob. So when I, the noisy little research intern, tell him that we can make coffee in the morning with my little coffee contraption, I think I'm right at home in this "coffee club," while he is questioning my membership and more considering my candidacy as a lunatic.
Ed was the reason why I ducked around the introductory stages of coffee and space shuttled right into drinking the "good stuff," which to me back then still tasted like "bad stuff."
He showed me how to make coffee using a French press. By the way, a French press is not as French as some of us think. It was created and patented by a Milanese designer named Atillio Calimani, whom is very much Italian. The only thing French about a French press is the fact that the press was first used within the country borderlines of France. Whoop de doo.
A "French" press is also called cafetiere, press pot, and coffee plunger, a term they use in South Africa. The last one would seem fitting with my previous attitude, where I would consider using a toilet plunger to yield the same, if not better, result.
The process Ed used to create coffee was very intricate, using multiple devices, that more or less turned our boring break room into an interesting, attention grabbing laboratory.
The first step is to begin with whole bean coffee. If you use finely ground coffee, you will still get coffee, but it will look more like Turkish coffee, which pretty much sludge. If that's your thing, more power to you.
The next step is to grind the beans with a coffee grinder to a point where you want coarse chunks instead of powder. I have a Cuisinart 15-setting burr-mill grinder that has various settings depending how fine or course you wish to grind your coffee. It is quite loud, but this is a necessary sacrifice that I have gotten used to. It actually has become quite entertaining because when I turn it on, my cat, being quite skittish, jumps a foot in the air and runs away into the living room, hitting a wall or tripping over something in the process.
In the press canister, I mix the grinds with boiling water and the brewing process begins, looking like a science experiment. Using boiling water was the most popular method of making coffee until the 1930s, where the filtrated method swiftly took its place at the top. The idea is to boil water and immediately combine the grounds to begin the brewing process with the water at around 205 degrees Fahrenheit, which releases aromatic oils from the beans. Any hotter, and you'll get a bitter taste. Any colder, and it will feel like you are drinking bean water thats hot. Not preferable.
Let the process take place for four minutes, and finally, press the filter down the canister to separate the grounds from the water to create... coffee! Enjoy its roasty deliciousness.
Also, you want to know what goes great with a cup of French pressed coffee? A Macbook!
Oh, now to the topic of my blog post. Many coffee enthusiasts (snobs) say that putting your coffee in the microwave is up there with putting ketchup on a Chicago-style hot dog. If your coffee is cold, want to know what I say? Do it! What is your alternative? Are you seriously going to dump out all that hard work and effort you put in to make such a surreal and eloquent brew? I didn't think so. Yes, you will lose a little bit of taste, but who cares!
A little love from the microwave never hurt anybody. Moral of the story.
And that coffee makes you a better person. BOOM, roasted! (Literally.)
Alex
