Cold Brewed Coffee Part 2

I'm going to give this cold brewed coffee a big thumbs up! My wife enjoyed her first cup of coffee in about a week and suffered no ill effects. I took these photos late yesterday morning but didn't get around to doing anything with them till this afternoon. One bit of advice, the brewing time is 12 hours, so don't be a moron like me, pay attention to what time you start the process. I started it at one o'clock in the afternoon. Luckily I was still awake 12 hours later.

This is what you get with 12 ounces of ground coffee. It's coffee concentrate so it'll last my wife a good while. The concentrate can be kept in the fridge for up to two weeks.

My wife mixed about 1 part concentrate to 2 parts water. It was a little weak for me but perfect for her. As I'm typing this today I'm drinking a cup mixed 50/ 50. It's really good.

Cold Brewed Coffee Part 1

I suppose that if I don't have a bike related subject to post about, writing anything related to coffee is a good substitute. It just so happens that we received a package from Williams-Sonoma yesterday with our new Toddy Cold Brew System. My wife loves coffee but her stomach is very sensitive. She has had to limit herself to one cup every few days. The Toddy system claims to brew coffee with 67% less acid than a regular cup of coffee. Hopefully this will once again allow us to partake in our beloved morning ritual, sitting in bed together, enjoying a cup of coffee while the kids are sound asleep.

This is what comes in the box; a white plastic bucket with a hole in the bottom, a stopper for that hole, two filters good for about ten brews each, and a glass decanter with a plastic lid.

Don't forget to plug the hole with the stopper before you begin. You place a filter in the bottom of the bucket and pour in a cup of water. You then pour in about six ounces of course ground coffee, pour in more water then more coffee.

Once you've got all the water and coffee added into the bucket you use the back of a spoon to gently pat the coffee into the water making sure that all of the grounds are wet. Don't Stir! Stirring is supposed to produce a weak brew and clog up the filter.

This is it as far as preparation is concerned. You just put the bucket aside for twelve hours and allow the brewing process to complete.

I'll try to report on the results tomorrow.

Keurig Elite B40

If there is one thing that I love as much as riding my bike its good coffee. Usually I'll brew a 10-12 cup pot of coffee first thing in the morning. I'll have a cup and then I'll usually get distracted for a couple of hours. That next cup never tastes as good. I usually end up pouring out the rest of the pot. I was thinking that a single serve coffee maker would serve my family pretty well.

I've come across a couple of websites devoted to single serve coffeemakers and coffees. The Keurig home coffee brewers seemed to be some of the highest rated single serve coffee makers and appear to have the largest selection of coffee available. The Keurig brewers use coffee that is prepackaged in K-Cups. You can buy the K-Cups online or in local stores (Target, World Market, Sears, Macy's, Bed Bath and Beyond, and many others) for anywhere from $10.00 to $15.00 for a pack of 25. Keurig also makes the "My K-Cup" which is a reusable filter assembly that you can fill with ground coffee of your choice. Using your own coffee should bring down the cost per cup.

The brewers come in three models, the Elite B40 for $99.95, the Special Edition B60, and the B70 for 199.95, and the new Keurig Mini B30 for $79.00. I'm always trying to get the biggest bang for my buck whether its bike components or coffee makers, so after comparing features of the three coffee makers I picked up the B40 from Target.

Setting up and priming the coffee maker for first use was easy. The coffee maker comes with a free 18 cup variety pack. We've had our coffee maker for about 12 hours now. So far I've been impressed with the machine and the coffee we've tried. Its nice to have a fresh cup of coffee when you want it. I'm also interested to see how long we can make a pound of coffee last using My K-Cup.

More on Starbucks "Free" Wi-Fi

Here are a couple of excerpts from the free wi-fi discussion at MyStarbucksIdea.com. It seams that Starbucks Employee Kevin and customer Brodave have been going back and forth for awhile over Starbucks definition of "free".

First we have Employee Kevin's response to Brodave's previous questions:

brodave-

You are absolutely, 100% correct that this is not a FREE Wi-Fi offering and I don't want you thinking that is how we are positioning it. I want to be as upfront as possible because there are barriers that you point out...you have to register and use a Starbucks Card monthly, you will have to sign up for an AT&T Wi-Fi account and you will have to agree to receive 4 emails a year from AT&T.

I am listening to everyone's comments here and taking the feedback up to management. The 2 complimentary hours of Wi-Fi offer will be available very soon and I look forward to hearing your thoughts once it is available.

Best,
Kevin

And now Brodave's response:

Well Kevin, let me see if I understand the plan.
At almost all establishments offering their customers free wifi, I go in, turn on my laptop, open my browser and surf the Internet free for as long as I like.
At Starbucks I go in, turn on my laptop, get a Starbucks card, register it, sign up for an AT&T account, register my card, link it to the AT&T account, login with my username and password, click connect and if I have used this service within 30 days I can then open my browser and surf the Internet free for 2 whole hours.
You are making your competitors very, very appealing and probably very, very happy. Truly weird marketing approach?

I think I'll just keep spending my money at Panera.

Starbucks Wi-fi

I used to drink Starbucks coffee on a daily basis just because there are so many stores around making it the most convenient way to get a decent cup of coffee. A few weeks ago I bought a new laptop and stopped by the Starbucks just down the road from my office. It never occurred to me that you would have to sign up with T-Mobile to be able to access the internet. I now go out of my way to any local coffeehouse that offers free wi-fi. It's not that I don't like the mom and pop coffeehouses, I prefer them, it's a time and convenience issue. I was in a hurry the other day so I stopped at a Starbucks, bought a cup of coffee and noticed some cards directing you to MyStarbucksIdea.com. I figured I'd put in my two cents about the whole internet situation. After going to the website I was happily surprised to see thousands of people complaining about this issue. According to their website Starbucks has decided to provide two hours of free internet per visit to customers with a registerd Starbucks card. We'll see how this works out.