Who loves coffee as well as analog photography?

[Colin Corneau]

I once saw an Ethiopian coffee ceremony (or maybe just very traditional preparation)....very fascinating and of course great coffee.

Ethiopia is where coffee originated, after all.

 

[removed account4]

There is a wonderful story about the 16h century goat herder who discovered coffee. I might have some of the details wrong but his goats were acting strange after eating these berries. He brought some back to the village and the wise man shaman studies the fruit and pitted it and eventually cooked the seeds and boiled them and drank the broth…. and liked it .. the rest is history…

 

[markjwyatt]

There is a wonderful story about the 16h century goat herder who discovered coffee. I might have some of the details wrong but his goats were acting strange after eating these berries. He brought some back to the village and the wise man shaman studies the fruit and pitted it and eventually cooked the seeds and boiled them and drank the broth…. and liked it .. the rest is history…

Some say the best stuff is processed through the intestines of goats, and seperated from the poop. I'll stick to pitted and roated, thank you.

 

[markjwyatt]

A number of the Honduran, Guatemalan, and Costa Rica blends are actually based on transplanted Kona varieties; good stuff. But coffee can't be marketed as Kona unless it came from the actual Island of Kona - the Big Island of Hawaii, and not even the other Islands in the same chain.

If true (and I could believe it could be) that is interesting. It was likely brought to Central Ameica from somewhere else. I imagine it was brought to Kona from soemwhere else too originally (Arabia or Ethiopia per Colin maybe?).

 

[nosmok]

I've been developing in Caffenol for free for years-- my MiL was a bit of a hoarder and when they cleaned out her garage, several cases of this German instant espresso (100 percent coffee, fortunately) were found. I took 'em and have been using them ever since, to good effect, but I'm finally running out. Originally started using Caffenol because of my small kids and me developing in the kitchen sink-- figured 1 'dangerous' chemical (fixer) was enough. Now they are old enough to be safe around stuff, but I like the Caffenol, and so am off to find a cheap local source of instant since that's what I'm used to (the local 99cent store used to be, but it isn't any more : ( ).

 

[removed account4]

If true (and I could believe it could be) that is interesting. It was likely brought to Central Ameica from somewhere else. I imagine it was brought to Kona from soemwhere else to originally (Arabia or Ethiopia per Colin maybe?).

I don’t know about South America or Hawai’i but Dutch pirates are said to have absconded some coffee plants from Al Mokha Yemen and planted them in Java Indonesia. they brought t their coffee back to Yemen and made / invented the first blend…. I think coffee is indigenous to different places on the planet as long as they are between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn

 

[CMoore]

I never acquired the taste.

I have never had the desire to use it as developer either.

I have known two people that did, and they both seemed to have great success with it.
Their negs printed fine, as far as i can tell.
Kind of impressive.
I have no idea how tricky it is, or if it matters what kind of beans are used.

 

[Down Under]

I am a tea drinker. Also Gin, Bourbon, Whiskey, ...

Wine for me, old mate. But not with coffee at breakfast. Midday is early enough for a glass of good red with my lunch.

I've never tried developing film in cabernet sauvignon - maybe our old mate in Rhode Island who has all the experience with caffenol could chip in on this one, Have you tried it before, John?? (It does seem a waste of good wine, but to each their own vintage.)

 

[Down Under]

Some say the best stuff is processed through the intestines of goats, and seperated from the poop. I'll stick to pitted and roated, thank you.

In an old (early 19th century) book I bought in the 1970s and still wish I had, the story went that Java in Indonesia was the place, and the locals figured out that coffee ingested, digested and excreted (I will spare you any further lurid details of this) by a possum called the luak, was known to be (after cleaning and roasting, of course) the very best coffee in the Indies at the time. To this day kopi luak is sold at a high premium price in Indonesia, pe-Covid some of the tourist traps in Bali were flogging off the stuff for US$20 a serve...

 

[Down Under]

Duplicate post - a triplicate post, if truth be known, but I've fixed up one - either the system or the mental infirmities of my old age are letting me down.

When I eventually forget the processing times for FP4 and HP5 in D76, my day will be well and truly done...

Anyway, see the previous post.

 

[removed account4]

Wine for me, old mate. But not with coffee at breakfast. Midday is early enough for a glass of good red with my lunch.

I've never tried developing film in cabernet sauvignon - maybe our old mate in Rhode Island who has all the experience with caffenol could chip in on this one, Have you tried it before, John?? (It does seem a waste of good wine, but to each their own vintage.)

no I haven't used wine but there are people on Flickr that have used wine and beer and even pee, im ok just using coffee

In an old, old (early 19th century) book I bought in the 1970s and still wish I had, the story went that Java in Indonesia was the place, and the locals figured out that coffee eaten and digested (I will spare you the more lurid details of this) by a possum called the luak, was known to be (after cleaning and roasting, of course) the very best coffee in the Indies at the time. To this day kopi luak is sold at a high premium price in Indonesia, pe-Covid some of the tourist traps were flogging off the stuff for US$20 a serve...

it's still one of the most expensive coffee's sold, they also do that preparation with elephants in other parts of the world ..
Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman had a fun time with that coffee in the movie "the bucket list".

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Some say the best stuff is processed through the intestines of goats, and seperated from the poop. I'll stick to pitted and roated, thank you.

There's that Indonesian variety that is made with beans that have been pooped out by a wild cat. While I'm sure that by the time you drink it, it's sterile, somehow I don't think I want to pay $150/lb for cat shit.

 

[Down Under]

There's that Indonesian variety that is made with beans that have been pooped out by a wild cat. While I'm sure that by the time you drink it, it's sterile, somehow I don't think I want to pay $150/lb for cat shit.

The luak is an Indonesian civet cat which I was told is a sort of possum. I've seen kopi luak in its "natural" state in coffee plantations in East Java. Luak are fussy and very clean animals, so fields are cleared and fresh leaves put on the ground so the little critters come at night and, well, "defecate" on them - the you-know-whats are then gathered up and cleaned, the beans are given several washings and processed (the actual bean is in the center of a large nut, so stays clean) before being packaged and sent off for roasting. I did a Kodachrome sequence of this entireprocess in Java in 1986 but those slides have vanished in the maelstrom of my photo archives. If I ever find them...

Pre-Covid there was an outfit in Bali that roasted the beans and then sold the brew in their cafe for AUD$20 a cup. A few tourists I know got taken in by this and spent all that money. I like kopi Bali, but not luak - I prefer good Bintang or Bali Hai pilsner any day with my masakan Bali.

Many thanks also to jnantz for his response to my "suggestion" about doing FP4 and HP5 in cab sav (maybe shiraz for higher contrast??), also for reminding me about 'The Bucket List' - I will look it up.

Oh. In that old book on coffee I wrote about previously, it was camels in Africa that first discovered coffee beans, not goats in Arabia. The Arabs noticed the dromedaries were eating the beans off the bush and then racing around all night, obviously on the same principle that caffeine keeps me awake well into the wee small hours if I dink coffee after 6 pm. AFAIK no coffee is grown in Saudi. I also recall that those early Arab traders didn't drink their coffee - they ground it up and rolled it into balls of camel fat, honey and dates which they ate as a sweet. No doubt this last bit of trivia will make everybody's day...

 

[markjwyatt]

Wine for me, old mate. But not with coffee at breakfast. Midday is early enough for a glass of good red with my lunch.

I've never tried developing film in cabernet sauvignon - maybe our old mate in Rhode Island who has all the experience with caffenol could chip in on this one, Have you tried it before, John?? (It does seem a waste of good wine, but to each their own vintage.)

Probably a staining developer... (caffenol too).

 

[CMoore]

My brother was "In Coffee" most of his adult life.
In many different capacities. he worked for Keystone Coffee in San Jose CA for many years, and then went onto to a couple of other coffee businesses.
He was also involved....i forget the name now....in a program (that has probably been totally co-opted at this point) that guaranteed a minimum price to coffee growers in Central America.

So over the years, just inadvertently, i was exposed to more coffee stuff than the average person.
It is an interesting business with quite a bit of political intrigue.

I do not know how...without a fair amount of cream and sugar...people can stand the taste of that stuff.
My brother drank it Black.
Was that ever a common practice.?
How many decades would you have to go back before you would see a lot of people drinking black coffee, i wonder.?

 

[markjwyatt]

My brother was "In Coffee" most of his adult life.
In many different capacities. he worked for Keystone Coffee in San Jose CA for many years, and then went onto to a couple of other coffee businesses.
He was also involved....i forget the name now....in a program (that has probably been totally co-opted at this point) that guaranteed a minimum price to coffee growers in Central America.

So over the years, just inadvertently, i was exposed to more coffee stuff than the average person.
It is an interesting business with quite a bit of political intrigue.

I do not know how...without a fair amount of cream and sugar...people can stand the taste of that stuff.
My brother drank it Black.
Was that ever a common practice.?
How many decades would you have to go back before you would see a lot of people drinking black coffee, i wonder.?

Drinking coffee black is still pretty popular, at least amongst the pour-over crowd. I like it black sometimes, but daily, drink with half-and-half.

Many people are stuck on sugary "sweet" tasting drinks. For them coffee, especially black can be difficult (not saying that is why ou don't like it), some just add sugar (I rarely do- only for super-concentrated espresso, and not always).

 

[CMoore]

Drinking coffee black is still pretty popular, at least amongst the pour-over crowd. I like it black sometimes, but daily, drink with half-and-half.

Many people are stuck on sugary "sweet" tasting drinks. For them coffee, especially black can be difficult (not saying that is why ou don't like it), some just add sugar (I rarely do- only for super-concentrated espresso, and not always).

No No No No........ you definitely have me pegged.
I have a Coca-Cola addiction.

I do not care for coffee, even with the cream and sugar.
i like the smell of coffee and coffee beans, just do not like the taste.

For my wife, i use (heavy) whipping cream, not half-half and a smallish spoon of sugar.

 

[Mick Fagan]

I've sort of been into coffee for well over half a century, love the smell, taste and variety. My choice of beans has changed as I've aged, as has my machinery that makes the stuff drinkable.

I've had Melitta Bentz filters through a German WWII POW that somehow ended up in Australia and boarded with us for a short while in the fifties. He had the Mellita filters sent over from Germany by friends or relatives. I tried it as a youngster and initially nearly choked on the strength and taste; but ended up liking it in small doses. As we didn't have a refrigerator, just an ice chest, we never had milk, so black coffee and/or tea was the go back then.

In the sixties I ended up with Italian neighbours and they introduced me to the Moka stove top unit, used one of those for close to 30 years.

In the nineties I purchased a German Krups Espresso machine so I could have decent coffee and was a small present to myself as I was working full time from home and no longer had access to espresso type coffee, this had two rebuilds but finally died. Totally manual machine

In the noughties I picked up my first Lelit combi espresso machine, made in Italy, this was really a very good machine. It died after 12 hard years of service. Totally manual machine.

Last year I picked up the best espresso machine I've ever had, a Lelit Mara X which enables me to produce a dazzling array of different styles and types of coffee beverages. For domestic use I think it is right up there with far more expensive units. The COVID-19 lockdowns we endured in Melbourne, along with travel restrictions of 5km limit from your house and only supermarket and fresh food outlets open, meant I was unable to acquire my normal super duper coffee beans. In the end I ended up with Aldi roasted beans; believe me when I say that Aldi's roasted beans are right up there with the best at a fraction of the cost. So for the last 18 months I've been happy as anything with this combination. This also is a totally manual machine.

Below, the Lelit Mara X unit in the kitchen.

 

[GLS]

Totally manual machine

My idea of fully manual is lever type machines (excluding spring types) where the operator has complete control over the brewing pressure throughout the shot. I know there are some high end automatic machines which have a control to adjust brew pressure on-the-fly in a similar way, but they are definitely the exception to the rule.

I have a Cafelat Barista Robot, which is a lever machine. It's useful because then you can regulate the applied pressure as required to compensate for small variances in puck prep, bean age, grind and so on. The machine looks a bit peculiar, and is certainly off the beaten path because it doesn't even have a boiler (you add hot water yourself, from a kettle). It makes incredible coffee though, as long as you don't need to steam milk. It's also completely silent, and requires almost zero maintenance.

 

[albireo]

I've sort of been into coffee for well over half a century, love the smell, taste and variety. My choice of beans has changed as I've aged, as has my machinery that makes the stuff drinkable.

View attachment 289330

Hello fellow Eureka Mignon Specialità grinder owner! One of my best coffee-related purchases ever.

 

[removed account4]

I had a Turkish coffee once. That was tasty.

did the server read your fortune after you had the coffee ?

My idea of fully manual is lever type machines

I've always wanted a pavoni .. but have been using a saeco since IDK 1997? works like a champ!

 

[faberryman]

I like photography. I like coffee. Coffee makes me more alert, which is good for my photography. Coffee makes my hands shake, which is bad for my photography. So long as there is enough light or I use a high ISO film so I can use a fast shutter speed, drinking coffee is okay. I am not sure what kind of coffee I drink. It is marked Kirkland, so it is a Costco secret. The color and the markings on the bag make you think it is Starbucks coffee, but that is an obvious ploy to fake you out, sort of like Lomography film. Even if it were Starbucks coffee, you wouldn't know what kind of coffee it is or where it comes from, or if it were just ground up amphetamines dyed brown with fake coffee taste. I make coffee the old fashioned way - with a Mr. Coffee coffee machine. Joe Demaggio taught me how. Obviously Joe Demaggio knew what he was doing. He married Marilyn Monroe. So every morning I get up and fix coffee with my Mr. Coffee coffee machine and wait for the doorbell to ring.

 

[removed account4]

Yup. All bad news though.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I've sort of been into coffee for well over half a century, love the smell, taste and variety. My choice of beans has changed as I've aged, as has my machinery that makes the stuff drinkable.

I've had Melitta Bentz filters through a German WWII POW that somehow ended up in Australia and boarded with us for a short while in the fifties. He had the Mellita filters sent over from Germany by friends or relatives. I tried it as a youngster and initially nearly choked on the strength and taste; but ended up liking it in small doses. As we didn't have a refrigerator, just an ice chest, we never had milk, so black coffee and/or tea was the go back then. View attachment 289330

I have a 50 year love of coffee too. I got hooked in college when sleep was in short supply. During the 80's, college cafeterias sold a cup for 25¢ in a foam cup. It's magical stuff. For years, I called my coffee maker my "crack pipe". My doctor made me give it up for a few months when I had migraines. When the migraines came back when I was off coffee, I went back to my old lover coffee. As I get older, my caffeine tolerance went down and how I have to time my fix and limit myself to only 2 cups per day. They'll probably have to pry my coffee cup out of my cold dead hands.

 

[Mick Fagan]

Hello fellow Eureka Mignon Specialità grinder owner! One of my best coffee-related purchases ever.

I agree with you 100%, this grinder makes other grinders I've had look bad. The ease of use, plus the fact I can dial in a dosage by time down to tenths of a second and at the same time split the dosage to allow some levelling out of the, thus far ground beans, then resume where one left off for the perfect amount of grind, is nothing short of brilliant.

It is at the top end of domestic grinders, or the bottom end of commercial grinders, depending on where you are coming from. It is a real pleasure to use and the model name, Specialità, certainly reflects what it is. Combined with the Mara X, I'm in heaven.