Coffee

Have you had coffee from a siphon? While you may have seen siphon coffee makers popping up at more and more specialty coffee shops and retailers, the trend of vacuum coffee makers is nothing new. A siphon coffee maker brews coffee using two chambers where vapor pressure and gravity produce coffee. In fact the concept dates back to the mid 1800s, when people were in agreement that boiling their coffee killed the taste, and so were experimenting with vacuums and vapor pressure.

It was also the fastest method!

While not everyone is a lover of the French press, it’s one of the most classic methods of brewing coffee, and if you do it right, it can produce a great cup. Want to perfect your morning French press? Avoid these three common mistakes and you’ll be sure to get the best brew every time. The beauty of a French press is in its simplicity — grind your coffee, add water, and go.

Plus, how to make each at home.

Whether we’re headed across campus for class or into the office for work, chances are that most of us have a travel mug of something caffeinated in our hands. According to the National Coffee Association, Americans drink an estimated 517 million cups of coffee per day, and 43 percent of those cups are either lattes, cappuccinos, or macchiatos. That means nearly half of all coffee consumed in the United States involves some variation of coffee + milk + foam.

If you’re anything like me, the emergence from bed in the morning is propelled by the thought of that first cup of coffee, steaming hot, that warms your hands and gets the day perked up. Here’s a little habit I’ve fallen into lately to make that first cup of coffee stay hotter longer. We keep our kitchen pretty chilly in the wintertime, and I was noticing that my coffee mug felt positively frosty when I pulled it out of the drawer.

It's time to learn more about that drink you love so much.

And, it's super-easy to make.

Its the easiest and most delicious way to shake up your morning routine.

Want to really master coffee at home? Start here.

How my 11-year old discovered that our coffee frother was the secret to soft, fluffy eggs.

Here's everything you need to know about espresso powder — what it actually is, how to use it, and what to use if you don't have any on hand!

The recipe includes the usual suspects (flour, sugar, eggs, butter, cocoa powder), but there's one extra ingredient in both the cake and the frosting.

Up until the last few years — when pour-over coffee started garnering cult status in the specialty coffee world, making filter coffee cool again — espresso had often been deemed by many as the “best” way to drink coffee. When it was introduced in the United States, a country where we had become used to drinking drip coffee, it was an entirely new way to experience coffee.

I used to be a caffeine junkie. Any lull in my day called for a cup of coffee (or three). I once felt actual rage at a friend’s island house, far from a grocery store or coffee shop, because the only available caffeine was in the form of a full sugar soda, and I couldn’t handle the sugar. I was near tears in a restaurant with my children when I realized the only diet soda they served was also caffeine free. And by “near tears,” I mean that I wanted to kill someone.

Would you pour coffee into a sippy cup? Probably not. Culturally, childhood consumption of coffee is usually avoided — at least during the very early years. But as children grow older into adolescence, the world of lattes and macchiatos can be hard to resist. So, how young is too young? We asked a few experts to weigh in. As coffee shops become places where adolescents hang out and congregate, thinking about their caffeine consumption is increasingly important.

Plus three other ways to use it to amp up your drinks.

Surprisingly, it wasn't cold brew!

You need this in your pantry.

This is about to save you so much time!

If you’re making something chocolaty – crinkle cookies, chocolate mousse, brownies, fudge – and really want to turn up the chocolate flavor, there’s a simple trick you can use with just about any recipe. Do you know the secret ingredient?It’s espresso! A shot or two of straight espresso or a few tablespoons of very dark coffee along with the liquids in your recipe have the effect of enhancing the chocolate without adding much discernible coffee flavor.

I’m going to level with you and let you in on an important crafting secret. While you might see easy DIYs making the rounds on Pinterest, a lot of them don’t always work. One in particular? That idea to use a Sharpie or a paint pen to personalize a mug. While it might be tempting to draw something onto a mug for your favorite coworker or your kid’s teacher, it’s incredibly difficult to have it last for the long haul.

Coffee and Instagram seem to be meant for each other. Even those who aren’t obsessed with coffee have probably posted a caffeinated photo or two at some point in their Instagram career. If you’re looking for visual coffee inspiration, here are 10 great coffee Instagram accounts to follow.

Is your daily dose of coffee just not enough for you? Are you looking for something a little extra? Perhaps some coffee education? Or the latest gossip in the coffee industry? Then a coffee blog just might be for you. If you’re a coffee lover, coffee geek, coffee nerd, or just someone looking for more information about coffee, here are my favorite online coffee resources. Brew a fresh batch and start reading.

Spice up your morning with this Yemeni spice blend.

Make your next batch your best batch.

We really need to eat more vegetables. The vast majority of us are not eating as many vegetables as we should be, and most of us know it too. The obvious answer to the problem would be to cook one of the many delicious vegetable-heavy recipes out there more often. But that’s not working, and because of that we now live in a world in which broccoli coffee exists.

I’ll admit it, I was a bit of a coffee snob. So it never occurred to me that instant coffee might actually, actually be the secret of some of the best coffee drinks on the planet. While working on my cookbook (and culinary guide to Queens), I learned that instant coffee was the secret to making Greek frappés. Hailed as the national coffee of Greece, the frappé is a frothy concoction of coffee granulates and water, made foamy thanks to a frappé machine.

If adults could still earn merit badges — and I think we should be able to — I would have every award for drinking absurd quantities of coffee. I am an expert at acquiring coffee and getting it into my body. In my town, I know the gas station with a two-for-one deal and when the hipster coffee shop gives free refills, and I never miss a Double Star day.

When I was little, I was obsessed with knowing my future. What would I become? How tall would I be? Where would I live? Who would I marry? My parents indulged my curiosity by allowing me to go to fortune tellers, buy crystal balls, and borrow books from the library on how to read palms. My father told me that when I was old enough to drink coffee, I could have a Kafedzou read my future. He explained to me that a Kafedzou is a Greek woman who knows how to read your fortune in a coffee cup.

Because your morning cup should be delicious.

Instant coffee starts off as, well, coffee! But how does it get from freshly-brewed cuppa to powdery flake? Therein lies the science…There are actually two methods for making instant coffee. In the first, liquid coffee is sprayed in a fine mist through very hot, very dry air. By the time the coffee droplets land, they have dried into a powder.The second method is freeze-drying, where the liquid is forced from the frozen coffee through chemical sublimation.

Here’s an interesting tidbit of food science I ran across this week and thought was worth sharing with you. Even if you’re a coffee-lover, as I am, the caffeine jolt that first cup provides is admittedly as important as Fair Trade sourcing and the range of berry and floral notes. But science tells us that, while you may rush to the coffee pot (or pour over station) first thing in the morning, it’s better to wait. Here’s why.

If you’re a coffee lover, then you look forward to that moment when you take your first morning sip of deep, dark goodness. Even when you’re sleepily going through every other motion, if you have that coffee cup in your hand, you know everything is going to be ok. So there’s nothing more disappointing than a bad cup of coffee, especially when you’ve been looking forward to it since the night before. Do you feel like your morning coffee just isn’t up to par?

When you’re making coffee for yourself in the morning, your routine is simple. Serving coffee to a crowd, however, is a whole other story, with a few extra things to remember and the necessity of having the right tools at your disposal. Let’s be honest: coffee that has been sitting for an hour on the warmer of the coffee machine isn’t any good, which means the easy coffee machine option is out.

There are those who will tell you that putting milk and a sweetener in good coffee is practically sacrilegious. I agree. That being said, I do have one exception: fancy café drinks. Because come on, they’re tasty things, especially when they’re iced and you’re sipping one on warm spring or summer days.

Whether it’s a French press, a Bialetti or a latte, if you have a love for coffee, there’s a high chance that it’s a fierce love. An all consuming love. An “I can’t live without you” love. Sure, you may take a break every now and then, but once you’ve fallen in love with coffee, it’s hard to ever really commit to a long term separation.

While we may think a lot about what coffee we buy and how we brew it, most of us are pretty disconnected from the coffee production process. Coffee has become such an everyday item that we forget to even think about where it comes from and how it came to be, but in fact, the quality of a coffee is even more important than what you do with it when it finally reaches your kitchen. Today we’re going to take a look at coffee production, and how it goes from seed to cup.

If you’re a lover of coffee drinks with milk, then it’s safe to assume that at some point you’ve been handed a cup, looked at the formation made by the combination of coffee and milk and thought to yourself, “how did they do that?” Here are a few facts about latte art that just might make you respect that cup even more. Recently I had my own chance to try my hand at doing latte art. Let’s put it this way: it’s not at all easy.

A common question for people looking to jump into the world of French press is, “What kind of coffee should I brew?” Is there one right answer to this? Do some coffee beans taste better when brewed in the French press? To answer that let’s step back for a moment and ask: Why are so many people in love with the French press? Of course, French press coffee brewers are often beautiful objects. Be it glass or stainless steel, the French press always maintains a beautiful shape.

The only thing better than a kitchen with freshly brewed coffee is a kitchen with a coffee print, and no matter what your brew preference is, there’s probably a poster for you. Here are nine creative prints that will brighten up any kitchen and remind anyone that visits how much you love your favorite drink. Life Begins After Coffee, $15.

Serving up a big dinner sometime during the holiday season? While you may have your menu all planned out, have you thought about coffee yet? In some parts of the world (France and Italy, for example), not having coffee after a long, drawn-out meal would be unthinkable. And while even in those places there are people who will opt out of after-dinner coffee, you’re always offered a small black cup to round out your meal.

To say that the world of coffee is a complex thing would be an understatement, which means we need some help in understanding it. From the history of coffee to perfect brew methods, there are some excellent resource books out there. For any coffee lover, here are some essential titles to put on your bookshelf. Understanding the world of coffee requires a little more knowledge than nailing the difference between a French press and a Bialetti.

First thing in the morning, I am nothing without my steaming hot mug of coffee. Truth be told, you’d have to pry it out of my hands to get me to give it up! However, I have a one mug-a-day limit — any more caffeine throughout the day starts messing with my mood and sleep, and the acid isn’t so great for my tummy either. When I want the warm, comforting sensation of a cup of coffee without the acid and caffeine, I reach for one of these four substitutes instead.

It’s no surprise that technology and coffee go hand in hand. While the act of brewing can be a very simple thing Technology can in fact help you to make better coffee. For all you tech and coffee lovers out there, here are nine different apps that are all coffee-related, from helping you make coffee to helping you find the best cafe wherever you are. 1.

If you’ve switched to manual brewing at home, you know that there are a few things to nail down in order to ensure a good cup. In this column, we have previously discussed the importance using freshly roasted beans, getting your grind right, and figuring out the right water to coffee ratio. All of these things are part of ensuring that you end up with the best cup possible.

While the coffee beans you buy and make your morning cup with are brown, they don’t start out that way. I’ve had many a person in the coffee industry tell me how shocked they are to realize how many people think coffee beans are just picked off the coffee tree as-is. So we’re here today to break down that myth, in case there are any of you who think someone just picks the beans and makes a cup.

There are many ways to get into the coffee profession, from roaster to coffee journalist (yes, that exists!) to green coffee buyer. But probably the most common is becoming a barista. Of course, there was a time when getting a job in coffee was as easy as walking into a cafe, dropping off a resume, and giving a good smile. Oh how times have changed!

There are a lot of questions when it comes to buying and storing coffee, but there’s an easy answer. In fact, the answer is much the same to buying fresh food: buy small amounts and buy regularly. While it may seem time-efficient to stock up on six months of coffee at a time, that isn’t doing your coffee beans any justice. But obviously we don’t go and buy fresh beans every other day, nor do most people consume coffee in those kinds of quantities.

As a drink that so many of us love, it’s easy to geek out on coffee. But what do you really know about your favorite drink? Here are seven facts about coffee that maybe weren’t on your radar, and you can now use as party trivia. Because of your body’s natural clock (aka the circadian clock), you naturally produce cortisol — a hormone linked to alertness — when you wake up.

Certainly some baristas come off as more pretentious than others, but at the end of the day, it’s because they are passionate about what they do, and they don’t always get the respect that they deserve. Neither do their drinks. With that in mind, here are eight things your barista may wish you knew about coffee. If you order a triple macchiato with a raspberry shot and extra foam, your barista probably isn’t going to flinch. But inside they just may be screaming.

Many of us associate coffee with mornings. It’s the thing that we need to kickstart the day. But it has been shown that the best time to drink coffee isn’t even right when you get up. Because of the chemistry in your brain, it’s actually a few hours later, when the coffee gives you its full effects. So, why did we even start drinking coffee in the morning?

I, like many children, hated naps. I remember being put to bed after lunch, only to lie in bed and listen for the calming sound of my mother pouring coffee beans into the grinder, this the holy moment of her day when she was child-free and had a moment to herself. I was so attuned to the sound of those beans falling into the grinder that one time, when she poured some M&Ms into a glass bowl, I apparently shouted from my bedroom, “What are you eating?” I was a precocious (obnoxious?

As an ingredient, coffee is most relegated to the sweet category. (Who doesn’t love a good tiramisu?) But coffee is versatile; it’s just as good in savory dishes as sweet ones. Certainly you can make an espresso to drink after dinner, but why not also bring coffee onto your dinner plate? Here are seven ways to incorporate coffee into your evening meal. Need a little pre-dinner appetizer? Use brewed coffee to make these coffee crackers, which pair well with aged cheese.

There are many things you can do to ensure you brew a good cup of coffee at home, but the essential is, of course, to start with great beans, and great beans should be fresh beans. But not all of us live within close proximity to a roaster, and even if we do, there might be other roasters we want to try out. For that, there are coffee subscriptions. With the rise of specialty coffee culture, nowadays there are many different subscription services.

What does a coffee buyer do? This might seem like a silly question to ask. “Buy coffee,” is the easy, most obvious answer. But in the coffee world, a green coffee buyer’s role is complex and multifaceted. Green coffee buyers are the ones who travel to origin countries to source coffees — “green coffee” to be precise, as it’s the coffee which hasn’t been roasted yet.

I remember my first time using an Aeropress. It was about eight or so years ago, and my roommate Laura, a ceramicist, had one. She used it every morning on top one of her beautiful handmade mugs, frothed some warm milk on the side, and ended up with a simple homemade latte every single morning. I thought it was magic. Fast forward to this year, when I went to my first ever Aeropress championships.

You know what’s great about this time of year? It’s cold brew coffee season. Easy to drink and addictively refreshing, it’s no surprise that cold brew has become a summer drink of choice for many. Cold brew is different from traditional iced coffee — which is just hot brewed coffee poured over ice — in that it’s made by mixing coffee grounds and cold water and letting it sit for a much longer extraction time.

There’s only one thing better than iced coffee: iced coffee with bubbles. When it’s hot out, who doesn’t want a caffeinated, fizzy drink? What kind of bubbles are we talking about? Tonic water, of course. While tonic and coffee might seem odd together, it’s a combination that has risen to popularity in the specialty coffee world, providing a refreshing, caffeinated kick to drinkers in search for something different than just a regular cup of coffee or espresso.

You got distracted earlier this morning and left your precious mug of coffee to sit out for a few hours — now it’s cold, but you’d like to reheat it. Is microwaving the way to go? Ask around, and the answer is usually a resounding “no.” But why? When we are talking about reheating a cup of coffee in the microwave, the first concern is the level of freshness, which is going to affect taste.