How are your coffee beans lately? Mine are AWFUL!

[Optimark]

Getting back to coffee, sort of. On Wednesday I visited Aldi and picked up an Aeropress coffee making unit, made in the USA.

So far, this is very, very good. I've been using beans ground in my Espresso machine grinder, but will be picking up a hand grinder with a ceramic grinder mechanism. This will complete my power less camping travelling coffee making hardware.

Mick.

[FenceFurniture]

The American style peanut butter from Aldi, made in the USA, has 374mg per 100g. This is the smooth version, which I believe is the best tasting peanut butter around.

Choice magazine did a test on peanut butters sometime ago, the Aldi USA smooth version came out top of the lot.

Mick.

Yep, that's the one. Crunchy for me, which may reduce the salt a little (there is LOTS of crunch!). The inclusion of a small hit of molasses is a master stroke.

[Ironwood]

Getting back to coffee, sort of. On Wednesday I visited Aldi and picked up an Aeropress coffee making unit, made in the USA.

So far, this is very, very good. I've been using beans ground in my Espresso machine grinder, but will be picking up a hand grinder with a ceramic grinder mechanism. This will complete my power less camping travelling coffee making hardware.

Mick.

I just bought one of these as well, hoping to make a decent coffee while I am away for work.
I got the Rhino handgrinder as part of a kit from “ Alternative Brewing “ , it takes a while to grind up the beans ( compared to my electric grinder at home at least) .
Still experimenting with different recipes for making a cuppa, but so far am impressed with it. Better than my plunger and preground coffee that I have been using for when I am away from home anyway.
So far have only used the dark roast beans that I get fresh from a local roaster that I like for my morning expresso’s, but just got a kilo of fresh medium roast beans to try, as most recipes online, seem to use medium roast.
Be interested to hear your thoughts once you use yours.

[FenceFurniture]

Not quite sure what the Aeropress is, but it sounds like battery powered or summink for non-240v use?

Beans update: so a week later I've been having mainly Campos beans which are pretty good, but not particularly any better than the brew I used to be able to get from Aldi's Dark beans, and certainly nowhere nearl 4x better (price).

My personal taste is that Campos ($45) is better than Illy's ($60), and they are both waaay better than Lavazza Qualita Ora ($32).

Macro Organic (Woolworths) is tasteless rubbish. (I forget the price, but not cheap)
Brasil from Aldi is desperately ordinary ($13)
I still have the remains of the last Dark shight batch and will make a brew in a few days (after over a week away from it).

I'm hoping that it may have just been (bean?) one or two bad bags of the Dark, and I'll try another bag in a few weeks.

Certainly I can now eliminate water, coffee pot, grinder, and my palate, as the cause.

[rwbuild]

Give Delice Coffee at Canowindra a ring, ask for the owner, roasts and grinds his own for sale, best I have ever come across +61 473 479 184

[Optimark]

I just bought one of these as well, hoping to make a decent coffee while I am away for work.
I got the Rhino handgrinder as part of a kit from “ Alternative Brewing “ , it takes a while to grind up the beans ( compared to my electric grinder at home at least) .
Still experimenting with different recipes for making a cuppa, but so far am impressed with it. Better than my plunger and preground coffee that I have been using for when I am away from home anyway.
So far have only used the dark roast beans that I get fresh from a local roaster that I like for my morning expresso’s, but just got a kilo of fresh medium roast beans to try, as most recipes online, seem to use medium roast.
Be interested to hear your thoughts once you use yours.

Brad, so far it has been excellent, but not fabulous, if you know what I mean. It is way better than anything else I have that is not from a completely manual espresso machine.

I have had 6 cups from the Aeropress with the last two pretty much up there with the quality as I've zeroed in; but I was missing something. The coffee flavour was very good, but it sort of feels clinical. I reached out to a friend in WA who has had a manual espresso machine for about 20 years; he also has an Aeropress which he has had for around 4 years which he uses when camping.

His suggestion was to ditch the paper filters and get the metal disc that replaces the paper filters. Firstly it is better for the environment, secondly it allows oils to pass into the cup. Apparently the paper element restricts oils very well, letting some oils get through using the stainless steel filter, makes for a richer slightly oiled up coffee according to him.

To that end, today I purchased a stainless steel filter and a Porzex Mini II manual grinder. They have been dispatched and I should have them next week. Still in lock down here so cannot head out to the shops.

For Fence Furniture and others, here is the inventor of the Aeropress demonstrating the Aeropress unit. Very simple and quite efficient.

Brewing with Inventor Alan Adler (Single Cup) - YouTube

Mick.

[dmorse]

Wow. Is that just coincidence or did we all just see the same blog post about the Aeropress? I just ordered one from Amazon yesterday.

[Lappa]

My son got me into an Aeropress years ago. One thing I did later on was buy the stainless filter so I didn’t have to use the paper filters. Much better on trips.

BTW I preferred the inverted method of brewing

[FenceFurniture]

It looks like the Aeropress is a vastly improved variation of the Plunger. I've never owned a plunger ('coz I've never had a decent coffee out of one, and almost always lukewarm), but it would seem that the Aeropress variations have pleased the punters who like a good brew.

Certainly I can accept the idea of making up a stronger coffee liquor to be diluted and reheated. The purists may cringe, but with my stove-top coffee maker (what are these things called???) I very often - more than once a day - have a the remaining brewed contents some hours later. Quite regularly it stands overnight. Some of these reheats have yielded quite the best coffees. Maybe it's something along the lines of a curry needing to mature overnight, because there is certainly such a thing as an "immature" curry. If the initial brew was a little weak, then standing for a while improves that too.

[woodPixel]

FYI - just bought 3 lots of the four-bag samplers (250g x 4) from Sicilia Coffee | Freshly Roasted | Buy Online | Delivery Aus Wide

A-MAZ-ING

Ive been drinking a lot of Grinders (Melbourne) many types and Harris Smooth and Strong types. These are all very good and give a great coffee.

This week I was spammed on Instagram with an offer on Sicilia. I NEVER click on ads, never.... but this one I did and ordered the samplers.

Wow. Really happy so far. They are great.

A good price too ~$19 to $22 for 4 x 250 and only $5 for delivery of the 3kg.... Sicilia Coffee Sampler Packs | Best value Australia wide

[woodPixel]

Certainly I can accept the idea of making up a stronger coffee liquor to be diluted and reheated. The purists may cringe, but with my stove-top coffee maker (what are these things called???) I very often - more than once a day - have a the remaining brewed contents some hours later. Quite regularly it stands overnight. Some of these reheats have yielded quite the best coffees. Maybe it's something along the lines of a curry needing to mature overnight, because there is certainly such a thing as an "immature" curry. If the initial brew was a little weak, then standing for a while improves that too.

Bialetti.

Love a Bialetti, but its coffeezilla. It makes me reach for the aspirin/digitalis!

On the cold coffee, you aren't nuts. I see a lot of promotion being done by the cold-brew aficionados. They use a drip device that looks more like a mini meth lab. No heat.

I'm reasonably sure they pop it full in the fridge overnight to seep down.

[Ironwood]

Brad, so far it has been excellent, but not fabulous, if you know what I mean. It is way better than anything else I have that is not from a completely manual espresso machine.

I have had 6 cups from the Aeropress with the last two pretty much up there with the quality as I've zeroed in; but I was missing something. The coffee flavour was very good, but it sort of feels clinical. I reached out to a friend in WA who has had a manual espresso machine for about 20 years; he also has an Aeropress which he has had for around 4 years which he uses when camping.

His suggestion was to ditch the paper filters and get the metal disc that replaces the paper filters. Firstly it is better for the environment, secondly it allows oils to pass into the cup. Apparently the paper element restricts oils very well, letting some oils get through using the stainless steel filter, makes for a richer slightly oiled up coffee according to him.

To that end, today I purchased a stainless steel filter and a Porzex Mini II manual grinder. They have been dispatched and I should have them next week. Still in lock down here so cannot head out to the shops.

For Fence Furniture and others, here is the inventor of the Aeropress demonstrating the Aeropress unit. Very simple and quite efficient.

Brewing with Inventor Alan Adler (Single Cup) - YouTube

Mick.

Cheers Mick, I got the stainless filter as part of my kit, also 350 paper filters, I haven’t used the metal one yet, but have read that it does let the oils and more flavour through than the paper discs. Will give it a try at some stage.
I have been too busy to do any more experimenting with my Aeropress, opting for my standard double expresso with a bit of aerated milk. Hopefully next week I will be able to get it back out and play with it.

Maybe we need an Aeropress thread

[FenceFurniture]

Bialetti.

Nah, that's a brand, named after the inventor Alfonso Bialetti. The device is a Moka Pot.

[FenceFurniture]

A good price too ~$19 to $22 for 4 x 250 and only $5 for delivery of the 3kg.... Sicilia Coffee Sampler Packs | Best value Australia wide

Might have to give that a run I think.


I've been wondering if it's Grinders that supply Aldi.

[FenceFurniture]

I've now had about 10 days or more away from the Aldi Dark beans - just made one now, and it's definitely the beans. Bloody taste of tea in there!