Legal Addiction

There's one addiction many Americans share with me, and rather than kick the habit, they pay the relatively small cost to feed it, and that's coffee.

I remember a survey that asked what food smells much better than it tastes. Coffee topped the informal Usenet survey. To be honest, I almost didn't start my coffee addiction. My parents weren't coffee drinkers, so I was never exposed to this as a kid. Indeed, until late night sleeping and early morning classes were causing me to doze off in class, I had never thought about using coffee.

My first experience in drinking coffee wasn't that great. I tasted it black and said ick. It was only when my roommate suggest adding milk and sugar that coffee suddenly became more than palatable. From then on, I was drinking coffee.

Like any addiction, the more time you drink, the less effect it has. When you first drink coffee, you get a jittery feeling. It doesn't quite awaken you as it makes you jittery and nervous, but that works out well. Over time, it just mildly perks you up, and if you don't drink it, you get headaches, feel sluggish--all the signs of coffee addiction. I can now drink coffee and go right to bed. Mind you, I don't do that anymore, but I used to.

As it turns out, the 90s were a good time to be a coffee addict. Starbucks was just getting started, and while it wasn't the juggernaut it is now, many stores would sell coffee beans so you, the average Joe, could make a better cup of Joe. I recall a fellow grad student, Murad--who we eventually just called "Moo", and I in our journey to coffee nirvana. At first, we drank run of the mill coffee using a cheap coffee maker from someone that would be a future (now past) roommate. After deciding we needed a better coffee, we bought ground coffee, which we ground in the store.

Then, we discovered that ground coffee, much like ground pepper, loses its flavor in the air. So, we began to buy beans, and bought a cheap blade grinder. Using the grinder to make freshly ground coffee, and sweetened condensed milk instead of sugar (early predecessors to Vietnamese iced coffee), we were beginning to take steps forward to coffee drinking maturity.

We bought a cheap Braun coffee maker, which, for the money, is still one of the better quality coffee makers. It uses a cone filter, which allows more water to drain through coffee and is a lot sturdier than the cup filters that most Mr. Coffee's use. These days I'm using a Presto Scandanavian style coffee maker. It looks cool, and makes a decent cup of coffee.

Moo took the process one step further. He bought a French press. In this contraption, which is basically a cup, you put in coffee grounds, then pour hot water, then let it steep, much as you let tea steep, then you use this plunger, which is basically a filter that lets water through, but not coffee, and pushes the grounds to the bottom. You then pour the coffee into the cup.

This kind of coffee making does not filter out all the coffee grounds. Your cup gets fine coffee sediments, which some coffee drinkers swear by. You also get the oil that comes with coffee beans. I've heard that this can lead to heart conditions, and all, so I usually have coffee made with filters.

As it turns out, one other key step in making good coffee is fairly hot water, and preferably good water. Water should be nearly boiling, but not quite, and there should be some steeping. Alton Brown, host of Good Eats, has made a show devoted to making good quality coffee.

There's one step that I haven't taken myself and that's buying a burr grinder. Typical blade grinders use a blade to chop the beans. The pieces range in size from large chunks to small, fine bits. It's better to use a burr grinder, which makes a much more uniform grind. Alas, burr grinders cost about $60, and really good ones are twice that much. I own a very good one that I have yet to use. I don't know why.

And of course, you want to use good beans. Coffee beans come in two major varietes: robusta and arabica. Nearly all classy coffees are arabica. Mocha Java (which is a blend), Sumatra, Ethiopian, etc., are all arabica beans. The typical coffee you get at a McDonald's is likely to be robusta. Interestingly enough, robusta has more caffeine, but in general, does not taste as good as arabica.

This lead companies like Starbuck's to make its fortunes by essentially selling expensive coffee. Whether selling $3 coffee makes senes or not, people were willing to spend the extra money to get a better coffee, and Starbuck's and companies like it took advantage.

In a later article, I'll explain the various kinds of coffee products, such as lattes and cappucinos, as well as some of the politics to coffee businesses like Starbucks.

Needless to say, after more than 15 years of coffee drinking, I've picked up my share of coffee trivia.