The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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I promised @Muninn I'd post an update on my new coffee hobby. I don't have much of interest to say, but here it is.
At long last I got my coffee bean grinder (remind me not to order from 'remote warehouses' that happen to be located in other countries again). I had already tried out my Chemex (glass handle, 3 cup size) with proprietary filters for a week with mediocre pre-ground Arabica coffee from the grocery store. I pretty much only got a stereotypical 'coffee' smell and taste from it, which was satisfying enough to fill the home with in the mornings. I enjoyed a pleasant buzz from the caffeine in the first few days - a better buzz than ever before in my life from coffee, it seemed. That may have had something to with a noob impression that my body quickly got used to, and/or it may be because I added some L-theanine to the cups during those days. Anyway, I liked the experience of brewing and drinking the pre-ground stuff, but it more or less needed cream and sugar added to be really pleasant. Not that it was bad without those additions, but it didn't have much depth. In either case: way better than insta-coffee.
I tried Ethiophian Yirgacheffe and Rwandan Rugori specialty beans today. They're not super exclusive or anything, but they cost a lot more than the mass-produced Arabica stuff.
The grinder (Krups Silent Vortex; blades) is not that great. It does its job, but the coffee ends up ground to different sized bits. There's some light brown bits that are clearly much bigger and are thus perhaps not infused to the same degree into the liquid, compared to the tinier bits...? The smell from these beans was impressive after grinding them though. I expected a taste to match this impression, but far less nuance remained in the liquid. The taste was not all that special. I was whelmed. The Yirgacheffe clearly tastes better than pre-ground Arabica, but not that much different. There's a few subtle notes of perhaps fruit or a spicy flower or something, but it's all a bit too subtle for my untrained, somewhat aged palate. Pleasant to drink though. I don't need cream or sugar when brewing this one. The Rugori was even less impressive though. It was far too close to a totally average cup of coffee. I used ~16 grams of beans each time. Water heated to 90 C. I pre-soak the filter, pre-heating the Chemex at the same time before emptying that water out. Then I divide the pouring in two or three pours before then leaving it until everything had dripped down.
You could get a burr grinder from China. Something like an 1zpresso Q2 or something, they are cheap and will make marked difference in your cups. That said, it's your call. I for one have fallen too deep into this pit.
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