Well, the house of 6 has made it through another Christmas, and we have tried to honor our Lord in the process. After all, despite what Wal Mart decries, as does all things around us, it was Jesus’ birthday, despite the silence from much of the world on the subject. The children are detoxing from all the sugar, rich food and myriad of packages. Multiple grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends, and family all add up to a great many gifts.
I’ve done a bit of roasting, but not much. Thankfully, I’ve had enough to pull through without much meandering to the shop to do more roasting. One surprise for me for Christmas from my dear wife was a Cuisinart Burr Grinder. She picked it up factory refurbished. The burrs weren’t too sharp. The grind is fine in the middling range, but inconsistent. There’s a good deal of powder caked to the grounds catcher when you’re done. But for the insanely low price, it’s probably worthwhile, even if it were to die next week, I wouldn’t fee bad. But I’m not sure I’d take it over the vintage, but dull, Cory I have downstairs. And speaking of Cory, I did, in the more slow paced and easy mornings, get to pull out the venerable old boy of the collection – the WWII era Cory Vacuum Pot. And, despite the aging gasket, it worked wonderfully! Love that coffee.
Solo Deo Gloria,
jason
January 2, 2008 at 7:39 pm
I’ve wondered at the quality of that Cuisinart grinder for quite a while, Jason. I almost broke down and bought it several times. The price (as compared to many burr grinders) was just about too good to pass up–and that was retail price! I’ll bet your wife got a really good price for a refurbished model.
I hope it ends up working out for you, even if it’s just to do one particular kind of grind (such as for French press).
I really need to start playing around with my Yama vac’ pot now that my wife has started drinking coffee again. For some strange reason, once I got that KitchenAid grinder I have been unable to make even decent coffee with the vac. First few pots stalled out and would not vacuum back into the decanter. Kept changing the grind to a coarser level until the coffee brew sucked down into the decanter much too quickly producing a thin imitation of coffee (underextracted). I am guessing that I either need to experiment with the time the coffee is brewing in the upper chamber with the heat on or I need to modify my grinder to make it step-less so that I can get the precise grind the vac pot needs. I may waste a bit of coffee, but it means I do get to play around with coffee. Should be fun! Right?
January 3, 2008 at 8:31 am
For the square root of 225, that’s about all I consider it worth. So far, it’s been fine for French Press, Chemex, and Vac. The FP is ground a bit to the fine side of medium; the Chemex around medium and the Vac on coarse. I didn’t time the traversal of the coffee in the Vac Pot, but it sure tasted yummy!
January 3, 2008 at 10:35 am
The square root of 225, eh? That IS a good deal then. Especially if you are getting some good pots of coffee out of it.
I made one new believer in the importance of fresh coffee over the holidays. Mother-in-law ground too much coffee one morning. Said, oh well, I’ll just save it until tomorrow morning and use it for coffee then. Next morning’s coffee was so much poorer in quality that everyone noticed.
January 3, 2008 at 10:58 am
Cool! I can’t actually tell much about my coffee right now – the allergy/cold season is running strong. But it’s still better than the alternatives.
January 3, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Sorry to hear that. Any one particular pollen that’s getting you? Like Cedar pollen? It’s especially heavy down here right now.
January 3, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Don’t quite know what’s the bugger right now. But slowly feeling better and better. Hopefully the coffee will bloom with flavor again.