h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sacrilege, I know, but I'm looking to try a different instant coffee. If it's cafetiere, I usually like about strength 3 Percol Columbian.

Any suggestions?

I haven't drunk instant coffee in 25 years. Has it got any better?

My recommendation would be to use it the way the Greeks do:

1. Take one one-cup cocktail shaker.
2. Add a tablespoon of instant coffee.
3. Add a tablespoon of sugar.
4. Fill up with diluted condensed milk.
5. Shake like fury.
6. Pour over ice.

Result: frappe.

No. Instant coffee has not gotten any better; if anything, it seems to be worse than it was, or, at least it seems so, for certain brands after decades of only having fresh ground coffee, made at home from beans

I broke my coffee pot/plunger thinggy this morning. I was so* cross with myself... It just* caught the edge of the glass pot, on a bottle of wine I'd not noticed which was in the bin, at the top, and the whole pot just shattered.

I've been drinking Nescaf since, as its all I get nextdoor, adn I couldn't get into town today to get a new pot.

I feel slightly sick from drinking it.

However, I do recall a few years ago, having some dowe egbarts I think it was, instant coffee, and that wasn't actually totally undrinkible, unlike the nescaf, and suclike seem to still be How the eck am I meant to be able to stay awake and function remotely 'normal', until Monday, without proper coffee I keep opening the jar of coffee beans and sniffing them...

Oh, and I'm sure cart noir did an instant that wasn't too terrible... But they're so overpriced, I prefer to spend the £3.90 at my Coffee bean shop and buy my 250 G continental dark rost, which useually last three days If I'm lucky

2legs, don't despair.

It is actually possible to make coffee without a coffeepot.

You can do it two ways:

1. Pretend you're a cowboy. Boil the coffee in a saucepan or skillet. It will taste horrible, but think how manly and caffeinated you will feel.

2. If you have a coffee grinder, grind the beans to powder consistency. Then make Greek coffee - all you need to do is bring the coffee, water or milk, and sugar to a boil. (You will NEED that sugar.) Then pour it into a cup and let the grounds settle to the bottom of the cup.

After you've managed to choke down the ghastly mess, you may get a lady in a turban to read your fortune from the coffee grounds.

You. may. have saved my. life!
Hmmm... I've got some of the beans already ground...

err, you mentioned milk though... and sugar... are you sure they're essential?: I don't ever have either as a matter of course, I like my coffee like I like my women... strong and black... actually that expression doesn't really quite work right for me
I do drink exceptionally strong coffee, even when I'm forced to drink instant I use 2.5 or 2.75 teaspoons of the instant granuals, or I just can't taste anything and the beans I get, the continental dark roast, are the highest strength ones they normally do

OK.

I'm going to try making the Turkish one... my little milk pan oughta be about the right size... but no* sugar, and no* milk eck... how much ground coffee will I need to make a cups worth of caffine...

It's a funny thing, instant coffee. Normal coffee's actually really quick to make anyway, isn't it?

But anyway to answer the question...if you're going for instant, there are a few kinds now which contain instant coffee powder, along with some extremely finely ground beans. Go for any of these kinds - they make the most coffee-like instant coffee I've had.

Your strength of will - or is it desperation for caffeine? - and ability to endure coffee without milk, are just...well...awe-inspiring. My .

I'm just a serious caffine junky I guess and getting rather fed up with the Nescaf that I bought in utter desperation Think I'll try making the boiling up ground coffee beans ina saucepan, tommorrow, when I get up... It might just* work...

That way works fine. If you want, you could even strain the grounds out when it's done.

I bought one of those machines that makes a cup at a time from the little plastic packets. Love it but I still go to the local coffee shop for real coffee. In the morning one of those plastic numbers gets me up and away in record time.

Those things make good coffee.

I could hac sworn I tasted plastic in the first one I made, but not since. The varieties of packets you can get is amazing, the first box full I got free with the purchase (on sale for a very reasonable amount) had everything from herbal tea to iced coffee.

'have'

"If you want, you could even strain the grounds out when it's done."

Yes, but on what grounds?



Ps You can re-use the grounds after baking them... or so I've been told.

Have just bought a Tassimo as there was a Costa promotion, selling for £30 including p&p, instead of it's current promotional price of £99, from £149. It also included £20 voucher against coffee sachets. However, have to spend £35 for free p&p on those which is 10 packs of coffee, or 200 sachets. Not bad, at 17p a cup.

The only instant I like (have got used to) is Nescafé, for my sins...

MMF

I think the guy in the cafe near work does that. If you buy his coffee before work, it's great. By the time the afternoon comes, all the flavour seems washed out of it!

I'd like one of those little octagonal stovetop espresso chaps, where steam forces water through the grounds and into the top chamber. They make great coffee. And they're a really clever piece of design, too.

I've had various coffee making devices over the years, and have just found the simpler the device useually makes the better coffee; Hence why I'm using a French press these days, after the last electrnonic perculatory/filter machine thing exploded...

Having said which; My Father has one of those ones that takes the... err kinda like 'coffee bags'.... ahh, think they're called 'pods'? That makes a pretty decent cup, but it works out fairly expensive to make a cup, and takes a little while as it only does one at a time really...

Some of the electronical devices for manafacturing coffee at home are close to a thousand pounds, having seen how utterly undrinkible coffee is from all the big high street shops/cafes; with their pressumbably even* more* expensive machines... I'll stick to my 10 or twenty quid french press from John Lewis

I used to drink Nescafe by the bucket, years ago, I'm sure the favour changed at t some point, round about the start of summer 1998 I think from memory went downhill after that but I used to seem to be able to stomarket it alright... err stomach I mean...

Yeah, that's kind of why I like the octagonal stovetop jobs. Simple, classic design, about 80 years old, which hasn't changed - because it just *works* and does exactly what it should.

I drink instant coffee . I do have a coffee maker, and real coffee, but honestly most of the time it's just too much faff to bother using. I'm currently drinking a brand called 'Rocket Fuel' which is actually quite nice.

Tch. Between Rocket Fuel, Red Bull and charging up mountains, you're a hard taskmaster on your heart!