OK so I've only been drinking coffee for a couple of years. My Dad passed away on 3/3/03 and he was a coffee lover. I started shortly after he passed away. I enjoy drinking a cup and thinking about him.
Anyway, when you first start drinking coffee, you don't know how much water, how much coffee, etc. to use in the coffee maker. In fact you don't even know what a good cup should taste like.
So here's my recipe for the best coffee I can make. I like it. Others who have drunk coffee for longer than I have say it's really good.
- I use a little 5-cup coffee maker. I think the proportions should work for larger machines.
- I like drinking a full mug of coffee when I drink it, one of those 2 1/2 cup mugs. So this recipe makes a full mug.
- First, I fill the carafe to just a smidge over the 3 cup mark. Some water doesn't get through the filter and grounds during brewing.
- I use Eight O'Clock coffee, freshly ground from the supermarket. I keep the bag in the freezer, and I transfer a small amount to an airtight container in the fridge.
- My Dad had a little 1-tablespoon scoop that Mom gave me. I use that to measure. After putting the filter in the coffee maker, I add 2 flat tablespoons of coffee.
- Brew the coffee.
- I don't care for my coffee with sugar, so I use Equal and creamer. The kind of Equal I use is not the packet kind, but the fluffy kind that comes in a large plastic jar with a blue lid. I pre-mix the Equal with the creamer in a plastic container, exactly 1:1. I've tried several non-dairy creamers and haven't found much difference between them taste-wise, so I just buy a big container of the store brand.
- I put 3 teaspoons of the creamer/Equal mix into my mug and pour the coffee in. Mmmmm good.
I've found that coffee makers tend to overheat the coffee if left in the carafe for more than a few minutes. To avoid this, I put 4 pennies (a couple of large metal washers will also work) on the heated surface and set the carafe on them. That lifts it off the surface and keeps it from overheating.
Flavored creamers: I don't like flavored creamers at all.
Flavored coffees: I like Berres' Brothers Chocolate Mint, and a couple of other flavors (but NOT full strength). If I make flavored coffee, I use 1 flat tablespoon of the Eight O'Clock coffee, and 1 flat tablespoon of the flavored. That works for me, doesn't make the flavor so strong, plus it makes the flavored coffee go much further.
