Quote Originally Posted by Bigkahuna View Post
What is the best coffee?
When I'm on the road, whatever the waitress puts in front of me is fine. My current favourite road restaurant (Original Breakfast in Albany, OR) serves coffee blended by a local roaster. Any place that isn't a chain, if they have a fairly large clientele, usually serves good coffee. It's the first thing you're going to put in your mouth, after all.

Years on the road taught me that if you pull into a gas station and a woman is running the place, the coffee is usually fresh. If there's a man running the place, they just look every hour to see if the pot is still brown.

At home, different story. Straight Sumatra varietal, roasted 15 seconds into second crack in a medium-temperature fluidized-bed roaster then air quenched and allowed to outgas at sub-zero temps before grinding. I roast about once a week. Brewing by steep-and-strain method, with dechlorinated water precisely at 180*F. In deference to research showing adverse effects from oils in unfiltred coffee, I use a coarse unbleached filtre to remove most of them. It's my at-home morning ritual because it pleases me. Away from home, I'm usually on vacation so it's a little easier to get the day started.

:ootd: