For Christmas, I was given ground coffee by multiple non-Seattle dwelling friends. I had never really spent that much time making coffee at home, even though I own a lot of coffee making paraphernalia. One of these friends was telling me about the fancy Italian espresso maker he got over Christmas, and it made me think, "Hmmm, can I make a good cup of coffee at home without the fancy machine?" So, I've experimented over the past few months with a couple of coffee making methods and materials to see if I can make a decent cup of mocha espresso without fancy equipment. Why mocha espresso? Because I had to start somewhere, and I like mocha espresso.
My base recipe for mocha espresso was as follows:
1. Brew espresso coffee.
2. Mix coffee and chocolate.
3. Taste.
Not too complex, huh?
Best brew recipe so far:
1. Make coffee in a stovetop espresso pot with distilled water.
2. Place 1 Kinder Milk Chocolate bar (second best is 3-4 Hershey's Bliss Milk Chocolate Meltaway) in the cup and pour the coffee over it.
3. Mix thoroughly and Enjoy!
If you're interested in the nitty gritty of my experimentation, or just feel like wasting a few minutes, read on for the details.
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Disclaimer: This is not a rigorous scientific study. This is me, messing around in my kitchen in the morning. These are my observations, and if you try these methods and get different results, then feel free to post your observations. I have no known commercial interests in any of the companies providing these products.
METHODS:
Coffee
I first set out to brew a decent espresso coffee. Only one type of coffee was used for these experiments: Illy Dark Roast for Drip Coffeemakers. I'll experiment with other grinds in the future.
Brewing Equipment
I've tried the following brewing methods so far: Drip Coffee, French Press and Stovetop Espresso Pot.
The Drip Coffee, which I'm calling the baseline, was made with 2 cups hot water passing through 1 TBSP coffee in a filter (per directions on coffee can). It was weak, watery, and pleasantly bitter.
I brewed the French Press coffee like tea. 1 TBSP of coffee grounds were mixed with 1 cup hot water (directions also per coffee can), then you separate the grounds from the water by pushing down the plunger and forcing all the grounds to the bottom of the pot. For those not familiar with the French Press, it looks like this:
I took two sips of the coffee, then threw the rest of the pot away. The filter didn't work well so I was drinking a coffee slurry. Plus the coffee was watery and bitter. It was stronger than the filtered coffee, but not in a pleasant way.
The coffee brewing method that worked best, and that I used for my subsequent testing was the stovetop espresso pot:
These pots work closest to those fancy machines. Basically, the water in the bottom chamber is heated to steam which passes through the coffee in the middle chamber, then the coffee infused steam is condensed back to a liquid in the top chamber. To make this coffee I put one heaping teaspoon of coffee into the filter and filled the bottom chamber with approximately 1 cup water. Then I assembled the device and put it on the electric stove over high heat. The coffee was done when about a cups worth was collected in the top chamber.
Water
I experimented with various types of water multiple times. The best taste seemed to come from distilled bottled water resulting in an even tasting coffee. The worst came from bottled spring water which resulted in a strong bitter taste. Tap water was more acceptable than the bottled water-- though the chlorine does make the coffee a little sour.
Chocolates
The chocolates that worked from best to worst were:
1. Kinder Chocolate Milk (German) which I happened to get at Christmastime
2. Hershey's Bliss Milk Chocolate Meltaways
3. Hershey's Kiss Meltaways
4. Trapa Supremo Milk Chocolate (from Spain)
5. Perugina Milk Chocolate (Italy)
6. Endangered Species Chocolate All-Natural Supreme Dark Chocolate (USA)
I also tried Hershey's cocoa powder, but the result was so impalatable that I don't even think it should be on the list. I was also surprised to find that the 'fancy', i.e. expensive, chocolates weren't that great mixed with coffee. They taste great as solids, but clump and don't go into liquids that well. The exception was the Kinder Chocolate Milk-- but that is hard to find and not that attractive as an everyday home-brewing option. The Hershey's Bliss chocolates were surprisingly good. The only issue is that they leave a slightly waxy film in my coffee cups.
Because I've run out of the Kinder chocolate and am too lazy to go to the gourmet store to get more, I've been using the Hershey's chocolates which I can buy at a regular grocery store with my bread and bananas.
Mixing
I tried both (1) Placing chocolates into a cup and pouring coffee over it, and (2) Pouring coffee into a cup and placing chocolates into it. I wasn't expecting much of a difference, but method (1) seems to result in a smoother consistency.
Future
Now that I've got an acceptable base recipe for the mocha espresso that I've been able to make at a consistently decent quality over a few weeks, I'm going to try cappuccino without a fancy machine. I'll also try different coffee grinds once the can of Illy runs a little lower-- I don't want too many open bags of coffee at one time since it doesn't last that long.
Once I've got my experimental parameters worked out a little more, I might host a taste test. Wouldn't that be fun?
