David's Biscotti - Ready for dunking in my coffee.

by Nick (The Coffee Detective)
(Montreal, Canada)

David's Chocolate Biscotti

Lucky me.

Ed of David's Biscotti sent me an entire case of chocolate biscotti. Thank you Ed!

I haven't been much of a dunker, so I'm in training right now. Make coffee, dunk biscotti, enjoy lingering chocolate flavor in coffee...and so on.

Fortunately Ed sent two dozen biscotti, so I should be an expert by the time I done, and about five pounds heavier!

You can get your own at David's Biscotti.

Coffee beans spilling from a Roasterie espresso cup.

by Nick (The Coffee Detective)
(Montreal, Canada)

Coffee beans and espresso cup.

Once again I'm just finding different ways to take photos of coffee beans. I love their color and texture. The espresso cup in the photo was given to us along with some coffee we then reviewed for The Roasterie coffee roasters. Thanks guys!

Mr. P Lick Coffee Mug

by Nick
(Montreal)

Very creative coffee mug.

I'm not sure where you can get this coffee mug, but I think it looks great. It's amazing how such a simple idea can make us smile. Of course, if you are a clean fanatic, you might find the permanent coffee drip a little disturbing. : )

Costa Espresso Cup on an Old Brick Wall

by Nick (The Coffee Detective)
(Montreal, Canada)

Costa Coffee espresso cup.

On a visit to family in Sussex, England, I picked up a nice espresso cup and saucer from a local Costa Coffee store. Then I took this photo in my mother's garden, with the cup and saucer on the top of an old brick wall.

I love how the spot for the base of the cup is off-center on the saucer, leaving plenty of space for cookies.

Costa Espresso Cup Version 2

by Nick (The Coffee Detective)
(Montreal, Canada)

Same espresso cup as the last photo...just a different way of showing it. I think I prefer this one.

Old Maxwell House Instant Coffee Tin

by Nick (The Coffee Detective)
(Montreal, Canada)

Maxwell House Instant Coffee

I found this old Maxwell House instant coffee tin in a junk shop in the UK. While old coffee tins might be ubiquitous in North America, that's not the case in the UK. Look around an English tool shed and you won't find nails and screws in coffee tins. Instead you'll find the shelves lined with old tobacco tins and biscuit tins. So this Maxwell House coffee tin is a bit of a rarity. You can tell it is quite old by the SAVE 4d. The "d" represented a penny in the old English currency before decimalization in 1971.

Making coffee from coffee beans

by Sonal Modi
(Mumbai, India)

A simple coffee filter cone.

QUESTION:

I have coffee beans but no coffee maker machine. Can I grind the coffee beans in an ordinary grinder and just add hot milk to it to make a good cup of coffee?


ANSWER:

You could, but you would end up with a mug of coffee full of floating coffee grinds. This makes for a less than enjoyable coffee-drinking experience.

Once you have ground the coffee in a grinder, the next step is to use a filter to prevent the coffee grinds from mixing in with the water.

At its simplest, this means simply placing the ground coffee on filter paper or cloth and pouring the hot water over the coffee grinds. The water extracts the flavor from the coffee, then drips through the filter into your mug or cup.

In desperate circumstances while traveling I have even used cotton handkerchiefs as emergency coffee filters. Works just fine!

Java - the European Way

by Martina
(Haslett, MI, USA)

While I have been living in the USA for couple of years and got used to downing the joe by gallons - often on the go, every time I go home to the Czech Republic, I like to enjoy my kava in the more sophisticated way...

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