How do you make coffee at home?

[Bosterson]

You can fake an espresso in an Aeropress by grinding extra fine and then putting filters both below and above the grounds, tamping it with something, and filling your water to the 2 rather than the 4. Less water + finer grind + more pressure needed to force water through it = "espresso."

[texasbb]

For my money, all AeroPress coffee should be made with very fine grounds. It probably requires a reasonably capable grinder, though, or you get a mixture of fine-to-course stuff. I adjust the grind so it takes about 30 seconds to push the water through with a good heavy force on the plunger. And ignore all those number markings on the side of the thing and fill it to the tip top.

I look at my watch as I start to pour. After filling to the top, I immediately stir vigorously (but carefully so as not to spill over the top) with the little paddle. Then I start pushing the plunger at 50 to 55 seconds after I started pouring.

You'll still have to cut it with some hot water to fill your mug all the way up. With a good fine grind, you should end up with a heavy slurry of coffee in the device, almost none of which will drip through without pressure. Heaven.

Also, I use the permanent stainless filter, just because it's easier and less mess. I find I have to adjust the grind a bit coarser to use the paper filters or they clog and I can't plunge.

Can you tell where I am in my "recovery"?

[teachpdx]

The coffee here, by the way, is amazing.

Is it the freshness of the beans, or the way it is prepared?

It’s very fresh, of course… but it’s mostly that Costa Rica generally has small plantations that just specialize in really high quality coffee. And it’s expensive even compared to US standards. I have a couple kg packed in the backpack and returning home with me. The preparation is the same that you’d find in any ‘fancy’ Portland coffee shop… choose your roast, pick from 8-12 brew methods (siphon, Chemex, Aeropress, etc.), and fork over a few thousand colones and enjoy.

[wildcat]

I no longer drink coffee (well, maybe a cuppa a month at work, if that) but when I did I had a early 2000s Starcocks automatic drip machine with insulated (Thermos-type) carafe; OEM by either Malitta or Mr Coffee, IIRC.

I'd get the cheap Kivu light roast beans from Fred's. Usually I'd grind the beans extra-fine like espresso. A 32-ounce cup of that, with a couple tablespoons of sugar and some 1% milk; sometimes if I was feeling really fancy I'd use 1/2 cup of Swiss Miss hot chocolate mix instead of sugar, or smash up half of a Hershey bar. Add milk as usual. And that's what I had with brekky for at least a good 15 years. Cooper and Janeway would have hated my guts.

That concoction was like several swift kicks in the ass, which is why I ended up dropping coffee altogether and now mainly drink cold tea. I'm not a spring chicken and at almost 40, I can't really abuse caffeine the way I did as a teenager and 20-something. It'd be like rocket fuel and might send my blood pressure through the roof if I were to try that now. Though a 16-ounce Red Bull is still an essential component of my refuel/anti-bonk kit for centuries, ride-to-hikes and triathlons.

[Charley]

I voted other:
I boil water and add that water to a cup with some amount of Winco Instant Coffee in it. Then I let it sit until I've forgotten it, and then I drink it room temperature. I'm a heathen, what can I say?

[Limey]

I also checked other. You can count me among the heathens. I use a vintage stainless Farberware electric perc. and (gasp) Folgers. Makes really hot coffee. I was gifted a french press about 25 years ago, never use it.

[happilyretired]

I went down the whole roast-beans-grind-weigh everything-measure water temp etc etc route a few years ago.

I discovered that for my tastes it isn't worth the effort.

Nowadays I toss a couple of scoops of Cafe Bustelo in a french press, add water from an instant hot water dispenser, let it sit five minutes or so, and drink.

Perhaps the fact that I got addicted 55 years ago in junior high school permanently ruined my taste buds.