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points by troyvit 3 days ago | 0 comments

Huh, cool. If you want to save a few bucks you can go with a stainless steel French press or a mason jar if you're into cold brews. You're symbolizing a different kind of status though.

This summer was sunny and hot in Colorado, so every morning I'd make a jar of sun coffee. I'd leave it out through the day and overnight. The next morning I'd pull it in, filter it, refill it with grounds and water and take it outside again. It was cool enough to enjoy and really smooth.

[–] throwaway81523 3 days ago

French press coffee isn't so healthy either because of stuff like cafestols in the fines (small diameter grounds) that slip through the french press screen. To get rid of those you want a brewing scheme with a paper filter. The simplest no-plastic approach is a Chemex. They have a history and they also look cool as heck. Unfortunately, since they are made of glass, they can break if you're not careful. https://chemexcoffeemaker.com/

[–] Barbing 3 days ago

Nice lazy method: overnight cold brew + pour into a [glass] pourover w/paper filter.

Make a lot to only use a couple paper filters a week. Most days, your coffee is already ready in the fridge, no wait (unless you wanna microwave it or something).

Make it really strong and dilute with a lot of [non-dairy] milk to go easy on the stomach.

[–] krferriter 2 days ago

This is what I do in the summer for cold coffee. Just throw a few tbsp of grounds and fill it up with water to the 32oz line and leave it overnight. Pour through a hario v60 with a chemex filter in the morning. You can also do it in batches and pour the filtered coffee into a larger jug and put that in the fridge and serve on demand from that. Filtered cold brew should stay good in the fridge for a while.

[–] littlecranky67 3 days ago

How do you heat it up then? Or is it supposed to be drank cold?

[–] jghn 2 days ago

I drink my cold brew cold, although technically the "cold" in "cold brew" just implies that the extraction isn't from hot water.

I leave it on the counter to extract, and store it in the fridge.

[–] senderista 3 days ago

I heat it up in the microwave all the time. Smooth as a pour-over and much less of a hassle to make.

[–] littlecranky67 3 days ago

That is the advise I got before, but I find this is super difficult to hit the right temperature. I either get boiling coffee, or luke warm.

[–] bayindirh 3 days ago

When you get used to the microwave you have, you can hit the same spot every time. It's a formula depending on your cup, the wattage of he microwave and time.

I can hit the temperature I want every time on a Bosch microwave from 80s which has two power levels and a rotary, mechanical timer.

[–] teeray 3 days ago

It’s also helpful to know where the standing waves in your microwave are. Put a layer of shredded cheese on a big tortilla (so you can eat it and it’s not a waste) and run it till it melts the cheese. Observe where the cheese is melted and not melted. Put your coffee cup along the same band of melting. That makes your heating more consistent. Fortunately, mine has it’s strongest focal point dead center (which, I suppose, is not a surprise from a design perspective… still good to know).

[–] janderson215 3 days ago

Also volume of liquid and temperature of liquid and cup.

[–] throwaway81523 2 days ago

I've never liked cold brew, though of course that's just me. Blecch.

[–] jimbobbam 3 days ago

In case anyone is wondering why a paper filter is necessary.

https://www.harvardhealth.org/healthy-aging-and-longevity/wh...

[–] rnadomvirlabe 3 days ago

Statistician here. I pulled up the article that the press release seems to mention: https://academic.oup.com/eurjpc/article/27/18/1986/6125530

For all cause mortality among people without cardiovascular disease, they split into groups of men and women and then further into groups of no coffee, filter only, both brews, and unfiltered only.

For both men and women without preexisting cardiovascular disease, both brews had the lowest all cause mortality. I'd expect that "both" would be between "only filter" and "only unfiltered". It isn't because "both" is a separate population from the "only" groups, indicating that confounding may be substantial here. Nevertheless, for people without preexisting CVD, all but one of the confidence intervals for the hazard ratio is entirely below 1, and the unfiltered for men includes 1. I wouldn't draw any strong conclusions from this.

My recommendation would be to just drink your coffee, take your blood pressure regularly to see if you're hypertensive, and check your cholesterol with labs if you're regularly hypertensive.

[–] ShinyLeftPad 2 days ago

It could be because people who drink no coffee already do it because of a condition (not necessarily cardiovascular), so their mortality is higher.

[–] Melatonic 2 days ago

Or coffee drinkers are more active and doing things

[–] ozyschmozy 3 days ago

The article doesn't really make it clear how much of an effect this has

> People younger than 60 who drank one to four cups of coffee, particularly filtered coffee, had lower rates of artery disease and death

> The study is observational and doesn't prove that filtered coffee is healthier than unfiltered coffee

> a cup of unfiltered coffee contains 30 times more diterpenes than a cup of filtered coffee

This sentence in particular is kinda meaningless without specifying the specific amounts and what they mean. For instance, saying "an unfiltered cup of coffee contains 30 times more salt than a filtered cup" would not mean much if one contains 1 ug and the other 30ug, but would be very significant if it was e.g. 1 vs 30g

[–] heresie-dabord 2 days ago

Diterpines affect LDL cholesterol

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/coffee-and-cholest...

[–] Melatonic 2 days ago

What about the really fine sieves stainless steel filters ?

[–] hyperbovine 3 days ago

Which is ironic because if you’re into Chemex you’re into vinyl, in my experience.

[–] ethbr1 2 days ago

I used to be into vinyl, but then I read that plastic is bad for you, so moved to wheels of steel.

[–] VladVladikoff 3 days ago

What is the advantage of this over a normal paper filter coffee maker?

[–] throwaway81523 3 days ago

It's hard to find plastic-free normal paper filter coffee makers. A few exist but mostly only for small batches. Also, the porcelain or glass ones are breakable just like the Chemex. I'm a bit suspicious of copper (Hario makes one of those). Kalita has a stainless steel one but it's small and expensive. I'd be interested if you know of anything else.

[–] seatac76 3 days ago

The Chemex filter do tend filter out more of the subtle coffee flavor. I find V60 to be the right balance in flavor and ease of use.

[–] bradleyjg 3 days ago

Other than the fact that it does looks cool, what is simpler or better about this over a hario V60 ceramic dripper directly over a mug?

[–] throwaway81523 2 days ago

I should have said, I like to make large batches, and wanted an alternative to a drip machine. Drip machines are typically 12 or 14 cups. I had a 13 cup Chemex but it broke (my fault). I might get a 10 cup one sometime. I'm currently using a Melitta 10 cup pourover pot, which has a plastic filter cone. I'm not yet dead from it, but I do want to move away from it.

[–] subpixel 3 days ago

There is no difference only preference

[–] gwerbin 2 days ago

You can put a Kalita-style "wave" filter over the mesh screen and get pretty close, not to mention better coffee anyway. Similar goes for the classic Bialetti moka pot, an Aeropress filter over the metal screen both filters out the cafestols and cleans up the cup in general.

[–] bayindirh 3 days ago

If you don't want to use paper filters, you can use Swiss Gold, generic all-steel or cloth ones as well. Also there's Stanley's all steel pour-over.

When you want to go low or no plastics, there are many choices now.

[–] throwaway81523 2 days ago

Yeah there are plenty of metal filters if you're ok with not having a paper filter. If you do want a paper filter (for health reasons or because you prefer cleaner coffee) there aren't that many choices.

[–] bayindirh 2 days ago

The funny thing is the default coffee filter I always get is marked as compostable on packaging. It's probably plastic-free as well, then.

[–] hirvi74 2 days ago

I have been using the same Japanese V60 for over a decade and half now. It's like a Chemex but for a single cup at a time.

[–] nickff 3 days ago

The Chemex can also be a little annoying because of the tendency of the filter to block the 'spout', causing the brewer to stall, and requiring a chopstick or straw to avoid. That said, I use my Chemex twice a week.

[–] hedora 3 days ago

If you want to save fewer bucks, get to zero plastic and get better espresso, you can buy one of these and a burr grinder:

https://flairespresso.com/products/the-flair-classic

I've had one for about a decade. It reliably produces better espresso than >99% of Bay Area coffee shops. (>95% if you exclude national chains).

If I were buying one today, I'd toss the flow control head, silicon sleeve on the cylinder and the pressure gauge, but those come with it for free now, so to each their own, I guess.

The trick is to boil the stainless steel cylinder in your kettle (PID at sea level, conventional above ~ 2000 ft elevation) with the water so that you get the temperature dialed in within a degree C or so, like a conventional (lead-filled, unlike the flair) Italian machine. I use a pair of tongs to pick up the stainless steel cylinder, so I don't need the sleeve. (Check the boiling point of water at your elevation -- unlike a steam machine, this can't exceed that temperature, so stuff might start to run kinda cool at 3000 ft or so).

Flair doesn't sell a "true" classic anymore, but I bet they could get the bare bones variant I use to < $100 if they tried. Maybe someone else will when any patents run out. My only other complaint is that the two-in-one bottomless porta-filter I have runs the espresso across plastic when in non-bottomless mode.

Note that the thing I linked has a plastic plunger. They make a stainless steel one as an upgrade. At that point, you're down to one silcone o-ring in the water / coffee path. Everything else is stainless, so no lead. The next thing to worry about is nickel, but that only matters if you're allergic. I used to use the SS plunger, but then you need to boil it too if you want to dial in the water temperature.

[–] senderista 3 days ago

I've tried the Flair and I find the Aeropress much less fussy.

[–] bayindirh 3 days ago

Aeropress is accelerated drip coffee. It's not espresso by any means.

[–] filcuk 3 days ago

I hve either never had a good espresso or genuinely can't tell the difference between that as americano and an aeropress/v60. Probably best for me not to spend any more on these machines with my unrefined palette

[–] bayindirh 3 days ago

Honestly, I'd not be that hard on myself, and making bad espresso is easy in comparison to making a good one, but you don't need to go influencer levels of rituals to get good espresso either.

A good espresso/americano has more bite in taste than a good Aeropress/V60/drip. I personally love smoother profiles (less acidity, less bite, etc.), so darker roasts and espresso on the bitter side is not my kind of thing, but preferences differ. OTOH, I can make myself a cup of instant coffee if I feel lazy.

Again, there's no need to punch yourself like that. Try, experiment and build your taste profile. These kinds of hobbies needs some kind of experience to refine what you like and what you don't.

Most importantly, don't let anyone's taste dictate yours and vice versa. I never get upset just because how someone I know prefers their coffee way different than mine, but they insist that I shouldn't drink that coffee, because that doesn't fit their taste preferences.

There's no wrong, but only things you like. You can't fail at this, because there's no way to do so.

[–] lerchmo 3 days ago

Aeropress cannot really do an espresso at a full 7,8 or 9 bar. It’s more like a pour over.

[–] amanaplanacanal 3 days ago

I'm guessing the Flair can't either. That "pressure gauge" is hilarious.

[–] Kirby64 2 days ago

You'd be wrong. The 'espresso' window is 6-9 bar of pressure. It's not very hard to build that much pressure, really. I have a pump based manual hand espresso brewer (the Picopresso) and it hits that pressure just fine from an even simpler mechanism.

[–] hedora 2 days ago

The Flair can definitely hit espresso pressure; I get excellent crema from it. As I said above, the biggest limit is high-altitude temperature regulation. Water boils at espresso temperature at ~ 2000' elevation, so if you're above that you cannot control the water temperature. With a pressurized machine, you can go as hot as you want.

[–] Melatonic 2 days ago

What about the OXO press thing ?

[–] asdff 3 days ago

When I broke my french press I got by fine with just throwing grounds in a pot of boiled water and decanting it off after a few minutes steep. Basically all the press does anyhow just less convenient.

[–] seemaze 3 days ago

Cowboy coffee. Simple, bur effective.

[–] KingMob 3 days ago

A percolator would be perfect for you then. Plus they make a really pleasing sound!

[–] mathgeek 3 days ago

> You're symbolizing a different kind of status though.

Now I'm curious whether you mean a higher status (which I infer when folks are using such things) or a lower status (which I could also infer).

[–] troyvit 2 days ago

Just a frugal one. For instance many of those machines touted zero waste for their coffee but the machines themselves are giant hunks of material that are destined for a landfill after a few years.

[–] bradleyjg 3 days ago

It’s (attempted) countersignaling.

[–] roflchoppa 3 days ago

I should get my cold brew setup out, thanks for the reminder.

[–] kombookcha 3 days ago

I haven't heard the expression "sun coffee" before. Is it just a colloquial cold brew?

[–] dominotw 3 days ago

i dont like french press coffee

[–] Marsymars 3 days ago

FWIW, French press and cold brew are entirely different - the fact that a French press was used to filter cold brew is really kind of incidental.

[–] Fricken 3 days ago

I use a moka pot. I don't feel comfortable calling what it makes espresso but for it's still pretty decent. If I had more patience I would do pour over at home.

[–] bulbar 3 days ago

Well, the moka pot makes moka, not espresso ;-).

[–] matwood 2 days ago

Espresso-like :)