Help making a lovely cup of coffee -MSE style

sweetserendipity

Morning everyone :hello:

I drink Rombouts Original Decaff individual filter coffee (medium strength) - box of 10 & I usually have 1 or 2 a day so they don't last me long. It's always been my non-MSE treat but it's recently gone up in price from £2.79 (I know, expensive ) to £3.07 in Tesco!! :mad:

So, I've decided that I really need to come up with a cheaper, but still lovely, alternative. I've tried 'quality' jars of instant decaff (Kenco & Carte Noire) but it's just not the same & tbh I'd rather have nothing than compromise on the taste.

I've seen a cafetiere in Asda for £5 - makes 2/3 cups so plenty big enough for me & I'm wondering whether to get that & make my own 'filter' coffee?? Do cafetieres filter coffee?? Sorry, bit of an amateur here Would I then need to buy coffee beans & grind them?? What would I use to grind them?? I already have a Braun multi-quick(?) which has a chopper thing & wonder if that would work??

Just trying to keep things as cheap as possible so if anyone can offer advice I'd be really grateful, I do love my coffee

lynzpower

If you have a cafietiere, youll often find Douwe Egberts packs in the likes of 99p stores.

If you use a cafetiere, you put the coffee in , then the hot water, plunge down after its brewed adn pour- couldnt be easier

sweetserendipity

Wow, 99p?! Don't have a 99p store but have a Poundland & another pound shop that I don't know the name of so could try them, thanks.

Are they beans & do I still have to grind them beforehand though??

lynzpower

No they are ready ground its just the powder it comes with a little scoop sometimes (otherwise follow the instructions) i think its usually 2 scoops in, then water to the line, then plunge after a few mins- easy peasy

sweetserendipity

Fantastic!! Will have a look today, thanks again

carolinosourus

Word of warning, don't try and push the plunger down before it's ready, I did this when I was little and ended up with rather hot water all over myself...

Brighterfuture

If you are going to fill it up to make 2-3 cups, it may be a good idea to get a flask to keep the remaining coffee in for later in the day

sweetserendipity

Brighterfuture wrote: »

If you are going to fill it up to make 2-3 cups, it may be a good idea to get a flask to keep the remaining coffee in for later in the day

Good idea. The only reason I drink 1 or 2 cups a day atm is because of the cost, I would quite happily drink more if it was already made up!! Love the idea of keeping it in a flask - simples!!

esmf73

have you tried using your current coffee filtering cups more than once? I used to do this with a friend - she'd have full strength and I'd have the 2nd one!

huston_kw

Word of advise that I recently read, don't put the boiling water into the cafetiere straight away, wait a few moments as boiling water scorchers coffee, when I have normal coffee I put the milk in first to prevent this from happening.

I'm waiting on my cafetiere being delivered I can't wait (how sad), so I've been reading up on them, I have the coffee in ready and waiting.

paulwf

Just think how much plastic waste you'll be saving by not buying disposable filters...OS MSE is really eco friendly as well.

A filter machine will take more of the grounds out than a cafetiere can as the mesh on a cafetiere isn't as fine as a filter paper. I prefer a cafetiere though both for taste and convenience and you don't need to buy filter papers.

Experiment with different beans and find what suits you unless you are on a really tight budget - coffee goes a long way so you're talking a difference of pennies per cup. We buy a lovely organic and fairtrade coffee and wouldn't want to change.

For work my gf has a cafetiere that makes one cup at a time (so no waste) and we grind a batch of beans about once a week and put them in a tub to take to work. At home we grind the beans to order as it takes seconds and we have a larger cafetiere. You can of course use ground coffee but whole beans retain their essential oils and aromas much better. We got out Krups grinder from John Lewis, think it was around £25.

A 500g bag of beans that lasts us ages costs us under £6 which is the price of about 3 inferior coffees at Starbucks. The grinder is still going strong after 3 years, and the cafetiere is a Bodum so we can get replacement glass liners if I have a clumsy moment If you can please buy fairtrade and organic so both workers and the environment are getting treated kindly, in many cases the prices are very similar. Remember if you buy whole beans they last longer so you can save money by buying bigger packs.