This is Tech

Grad Student Chris Chatam at the University of Colorado has written a comprehensive user’s guide for caffeine. Chatam’s article breaks down caffeine use from a scientific perspective, and is a must read for caffeine addicted techies like myself. Read on for an excerpt and link:

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Last month I posted an article about the best way to store coffee beans for maximum freshness. One of the commenters on that story suggested that storing the unroasted beans and then roasting as needed was in fact the best way to ensure fresh beans for brewing. Yesterday I saw an article on Lifehacker describing how to roast your own coffee on the cheap using an old popcorn popper. Excerpt below:

Roll Your Own Coffee Roaster On-the-Cheap [Clever Uses]: ”

Love the taste of fresh-roasted coffee but don’t feel like shelling out $100+ for your own home roaster? The Cool Tools weblog details how to use an old popcorn popper (the author bought his for $3 at a thrift store) to roast your coffee beans. His method, which works virtually the same way as popping popcorn with the gadget, is simple, and the results look promising. If you’re a coffee connoisseur you may eventually want to go all out and purchase a more expensive roaster, but if you just want to try it out, the popcorn-popper-as-roaster looks effective.

Popcorn Popper as Coffee Roaster [Cool Tools]

(Via Lifehacker.)

The New York Times has an in-depth photo spread of the Japanese siphon coffee machine mentioned in my earlier post. Link below

The $20,000 Coffee Maker, Step by Step - The New York Times > Dining & Wine > Slide Show > Slide 1 of 11: “”

(Via http://www.nytimes.com.)

Japanese coffee brewing maching: ”
San Francisco’s new Blue Bottle Café brews its coffee in an ultra-engineered ’siphon bar’ from Japan. The Steampunk-looking machine uses halogen bulbs to heat the water. The grounds are hand-stirred into the perfect whirlpool using bamboo paddles. Apparently, the siphon bar is the only one of its kind in the United States. The cost to buy and import it? $20,000. Yesterday’s New York Times featured an article on the resurgence in brewed coffee and a slideshow of coffeemaker fetish photos by Peter DaSilva showing how the siphon bar works. From the New York Times (click image for full photo):

Could this be the age of brewed coffee? ‘We’re right there at the threshold,’ said George Howell of Terroir Coffee, a retailer of roasted and green beans. ‘Coffee has never been a noble beverage because the means to perfectly produce it haven’t existed,’ said Mr. Howell, who is also a founder of the Cup of Excellence, an annual competition that seeks to identify the best beans in each coffee-producing nation.

But, he said, with recent advances in coffee-making technology, ‘now you can get perfect extraction.’

(Blue Bottle Cafe owner James) Freeman is not trying to end the era of espresso. He still starts his days with a cappuccino, and his cafe serves drinks mostly from espresso machines, including a lovingly refurbished San Marco from the 1980s. But he’s excited by the possibilities of brewed coffee.

‘Siphon coffee is very delicate,’ he said. ‘It’s sweeter and juicier, and the flavors change as the temperature changes. Sometimes it has a texture so light it’s almost moussey.’

Link (via Laughing Squid)

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(Via Boing Boing.)

Handpresso gets unboxed: how did we ever get by without?: “

Filed under: Household

Actually, that headline is a bit misleading, since we’d never actually subscribe to a method of coffee production that required any sort of effort before the coffee is actually in our body — clearly defeating the purpose — but this Handpresso thing is still quite the little gizmo in its own right. It works pretty much exactly like you’d expect: pump the handle to the right pressure level, add an espresso pod and hot water, flip the switch and blammo, you’ve got a few waking hours in a cup. Apparently the box is all fancy too, which is always nice.

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(Via Engadget.)

Store Coffee for Maximum Freshness [How To]: ”

The Unclutterer blog rounds up the advice of some pretty knowledgeable minds (including go-to food science guru Harold McGee) on the best ways to store coffee, whether as whole beans or ground. The take-away is to never put coffee in your refrigerator, and only store your coffee in the freezer if you can’t use it within two weeks. Otherwise:

From the Joy of Cooking: ‘The best way to store coffee beans, ground or whole, is in an opaque airtight canister at room temperature.’

McGee’s wisdom is to only place whole beans in the freezer, as ground coffee gets stale more quickly in any environment. For more tips on getting your best cup every day, see these tips from a ‘coffee snob.’

(Via Lifehacker.)