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

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A562844

Here's an entry about methods of making good black coffee.

Nice entry Gnomon, I don't think there's much more to write about the methods.
The only thing I can possibly think of adding is something on the different varieties of coffee beans, but that's probably best for a different entry.

Hi Gnomon, just a couple of thoughts for you to think about adding to your very well written article.

I would value any thoughts you might have on guaging strength - I always find it hard to get it right and the advice on cup size seems to be all wrong (I obviously don`t use the same size cups as the manufacturers).

I now understand all the hardware that goes towards making coffee but any thoughts on the software - best beans, storage tips and hints, where to buy ?

What about a mention of Barista's in the Espresso section ?

Red

I saw your plea on the British English thread, so I popped by for a read.

A very nicely written article, with far more to it than I would have guessed. Perhaps the only suggestion I could make is that it might be useful at some stage to add links to other h2g2 edited entries about coffee: there's one called simply 'Coffee' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A1675), and another going through the system called 'Cappuccino' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A536456). I think links can be added to the side of the page without appearing in the main text.

Someone has written an entry 'Coffee Machines' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A523207), which slightly overlaps your article. Perhaps the author would be interested in your entry.

Good luck! I hope you are soon recommended.

Thanks, everyone.

I'll have to do a bit of research to figure out the strength thing. I know I use two spoonfuls per mug, but how big are the spoon and the mug? I'll have to measure them.

I've added a link to the Coffee entry. I can't add a link to Kaeori's Cappuccino entry yet because it hasn't yet been "edited". This process will change the entry number. With luck, the sub-editor will do this.

Some modest comment. (I am not a coffee drinker, nor a very good coffee maker, but the following are things I've picked up

Ground coffee should be stored in the fridge - this is usual in gourmet households in Germany, anyway. A little damp can't hurt for a day or two, as it's going to get wet anyway, and keeping things in fridges is generally a good idea.

Is it really the paper that takes away the taste in those coffee machines? I am sceptical here - I will suck the paper next time before I throw it away, to see if it's true)

Could you elucidate on how the acids (percolator paragraph) are harmful to one's health?

Isn't the type of coffee mentioned in the last paragraph also known as Mocha/Mocca - a town in Yemen or Saudi Arabia, I think? - The town is a port through which the coffee was exported, so the coffee presumably got its name from the markings on the crates or sacks..

Sorry, I'm a lousy Scout and don't comment on articles very well, just add my little bits of knowledge in case anyone's interested. But I hope I get this one to subedit - hardly any work involved at all!!!!

Perhaps at the beginning, you could mention that you can get electric or hand-powered coffee grinders - or nowadays there are some really snazzy coffee machines which grind the coffee and make it. We have one at the office, and even though I rarely drink it, I will admit that those machines make a very fine cup of coffee. They cost around DM 1000 though!

Oh - and another hand-method is to place a filter with filter paper in it onto the jug and pour boiling water over. The trick here is never to put in more water than just to cover the granules. For some reason this makes all the world of difference to the taste. And again in the filter methods, it is said to improve the taste if you add some coarse salt or some crushed eggshells to the granules. This slows down the filtering procedure, I imagine, leaving the water a little longer to pick up a bit more coffee aroma. You may not want to inlcude these, if you don't consider the filter method makes a good cup of coffee anyway.

And the Arabs are said to complain to the Germans that they only "wash their cofffee and then drink the water" instead of leaving the grounds in the cup and really letting it stew. That exhausts my knowledge on coffee, at least the making of black coffee - I could go on about its uses in cooking and baking and the art of making (and drinking) iced coffee - plus all the delicious variations by adding liqueurs ... (this goes in the bit about "you can do what you like with it once you've made it" right at the top of the page.)

Oh - and the thick stuff is also served in Israel, in little glasses. Was given some there once by an old man we were sitting chatting with.

TC,

I think the paper really does take out the flavour. Good coffee has some of the flavour dissolved in the hot water and some of it as a suspension of very fine coffee particles in the water. This gives it its murky look. The paper filters take out the suspension of fine particles, so the coffee is actually clear-looking. It doesn't taste as good. There are some filter makers with a metal mesh filter which give much better coffee because they let the tiny particles through.

I don't know much more about the acids than the following: A study was done of the harmful side-effects of drinking large amounts of coffee. This was a carefully controlled study in America with 40,000 participants, so it is reasonably reliable. Contrary to expectations, the only harmful side effect of coffee drinking came from these acids, in households where the coffee was made by boiling. The regular doses of caffeine were not harmful at all. On the other hand, the acids used to remove the caffeine from decaffeinated coffee remain in the coffee in small doses and are harmful!

In Ireland, there would certainly be no need to keep ground coffee in the fridge, so I had never heard of this practise.

Is the thick stuff known as Jewish coffee or Israeli coffee, as well then? Can we think of any more middle-eastern groups which might like to claim it? Macedonian coffee, Ethnic albanian coffee, Persian coffee etc.

Oh dear - are you making fun of me in that last one? I was just meeky trying to point out that it is found in the entire Arab world. I think the guy who gave us the coffee was probably an Arab, so I doubt if it was any different from what you would have been served in Egypt or Syria. I don't know what it's called. Just as with tea - in the UK and Ireland we call it *tea* - only other cultures seem to think it ought to be described more elaborately. As coffee is an everyday thing to them, I expect they just call it "coffee" in their language and don't make any bones about it.

Give it a posh name and you have to do posh things to it.

Gnomon, your entry is perfect and comprehensive and it also taught me about the different ways of making coffee - something I'd never managed to figure out before (whether the water goes up or down, or has to boil first, and all that)

Thanks for the info about the acids, though. That is a subject I had been intending to look into after a friend of my son's told me that he was trying to cut out foods with acids and had discovered that even potatoes have some 20 acids in them. The foodstuff with the least acid was rice and he had been eating just rice for a week. The cause of this decision was because, at 19 he was still having problems with teenage spots and was trying to clear his skin up. The theory interests me, however, in relation to the digestion as a whole. Coffee, for example, in some situations, gives me wind! Which is one reason I avoid it. Perhaps it is easier on the system if it is boiled a couple of times.

After all, it does have a lovely taste and smell.

I thought the thick stuff was Turkish coffe
for what it's not worth

I would hazard a guess that Turks don't call it that.

TC, it was never my intention to make fun of you. Far from it. Thank you for your comments. I was making fun of the whole middle eastern situation, where each group claims as its own something that is common to them all.

Talking about wind, I find that instant coffee and filter coffee are worse than the murkier versions.

Phew!!!

I expect we're the same here. The Eastern cultures - particularly the far Eastern - may not see any difference between say, Polish and British cuisine, lots of meat and cabbage, both of them. But seen from this end they are worlds apart, while we have trouble differentiating between Thai and Vietnamese or whatever.

Coffee is obviously not coffee. What made you want to write about it, anyway?

I've just had a thought. We have a Libyan guy at work. I could ask him if there is any noticeable difference between the sorts of coffee served between Iran and Marocco.

While German gourmets might keep ground coffee in the refrigerator, it's almost considered sacrilegious to do so in Italy. Humidity is said to ruin the flavour, so ground vacuum-packed coffee is usually stored in the freezer to maintain freshness and once opened should be kept in an air-tight jar at room temperature. In theory you could keep it in the freezer once opened too, but in practice it's almost impossible to avoid getting condensation moisture in with the coffee when it's returned to the freezer - in any case, anyone that obsessive about it would find grinding their own coffee preferable.

Hi Gnomon - delicious entry!

I have a wonderful coffee maker which is an advanced version of the pump-operated espresso maker. You just put beans in one side and water the other, it deals with all the grinding, tamping and so on, and the coffee it produces is just divine and has a good crema.

One tip I got from an Italian gourmet was that espresso cups should be rounded inside like an egg-cup, rather than having sharp corners - apparently, corners mean that the crema can be lost when the coffee is poured into the cup.

As you say, mixing in cold milk is a bit of a problem - and steaming is slow and messy. My method for making latte would probably make purists weep, but I like to microwave the cup of milk first (while the machine's warming up), then dispense an espresso shot straight into it. Nothing quite like it at breakfast time!

The sad thing is, I bought the machine in Germany and no-one in England seems to know anything about it - it's from a Swiss company called Jura. They're far from cheap, but if anyone out there is really devoted to coffee, it's a wonderful thing to own.

You could also warn people about abuse of stove-top espresso makers. When I first graduated from filter machines I had a six-cup model and would ignorantly make and drink a whole container-load at a time. I started getting nose-bleeds and generally being wired most of the time. Espresso is a completely different animal from filter or Americano coffee, and must be treated with respect!

GVI

I've added a quick guide to the amount of ground coffee to use, in the General Rules section.

I've mentioned the cups with rounded bases inside, as I had heard this elsewhere. Thanks for reminding me.

As you all have pointed out, there are methods other than the ones listed here, but I think they are pretty obvious, so I'm not going to mention them.

The machine Global Village Idiot has sounds like the ultimate. The only advance on that I can think of is to have it pumped straight into the vein through a drip! I fear GVI must have paid handsomely for such a machine. My humble pump-action Gaggia cost about IR£200 (260 Euros).

And TC, I wrote about coffee and how to make it, because it is something I know about and have a passion for. I was reprimanded (lightly) by Pheroneous for turning the Guide into a Travel Guide, so I thought I'd better get something more useful which I could definitely say something about. This article has sketched out on a balcony in Greece with a cup of espresso in hand.

In Ethiopia (whence I'm prepared to believe coffee originated) a black coffee with grounds in the bottom was called a "buhna"
In Poland black coffee was served in a glass and putting sugar in it was taking your life in your mouth as stirring the liquid meant the sludge wouldn't resettle. I'm sure this is the main reason why so many Polish men have lech moustaches - to strain it through. Women held sugar cubes in their mouths and sipped the black coffee through them. Nobody drank the bottom inch of what was in the glass - not after the first time, anyway ()