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Q: Non-china, coffee question.
Recently, I have been trying different methods of grinding coffee. I finally bought a little machine that does the job.
My question is: what difference does the coursness of the ground coffee make to the cup you drink?
Possibly I am thinking too much about this. [Inner voice: duh!]
I'm wondering whether fine grounds give a more robust (?) cup because the coffee particles are smaller and make it easier for the water to do the job.
Or does a courser ground work better because the particles have a larger surface area?
P.S. I found a very nice coffee on Taobao called GUOKOFF - Mandheling is good and Blue Mountain, not bad. 454g for about 20rmb. Bargain price and good beans.
I'd say fine ground coffee beans would give stronger coffee. Generally, most of the electrical coffee grinders make fine powder coffee.
If you get hand coffee grinder (which is no different than black pepper grinder, except coffee one is larger ..), you can adjust finesse of the grinder, and .. once coffee isn't ground into the fine powder and you make Turkish style coffee without filter, bigger pieces of coffee will float and finer pieces sit on the bottom of the cup.
Sometimes, I just chew whole, raw coffee beans. Some better coffee shops have beans of the different sorts of coffee in a bowl on display, and I always grab some while am ordering espresso. In London, UK ...
If I am buying coffee beans, I always go for the expensive ones ... Some African coffee brands are excellent ..
Since, I was in China, I became specialist in 'cai' ... Pu'er & Lapsang .. are my fav.
add-it:
I figure it out LTA, any Q on this website is China related since (few, he he) posters are asking and replying from China ...
Sandnose:
I bought an espresso machine (on taobao). Results are pretty good. Apparently there is some skill involved in getting all the variables right. Amount of coffee, temperature of heat applied, time, angle of the dangle.
icnif77:
In order, espresso machine is good, it must be expensive. When I make coffee, I do it Turkish way.
You need pot with brewing water and add coffee powder. Let say, in 2dl of brewing water, I add some 3-4 tea spoons of coffee. You can adjust that by adding more coffee or less as you go ...
Steer mixture with the spoon and remove pot off the heat once everything starts to coming up.
This is the last steering you can do.
Wait few minutes ... and pour coffee into the cup. Much better than any espresso.
Stiggs:
I might try the Turkish style, not sure if I've ever had Turkish coffee.
I used to have a Vietnamese filter - loved the way they do coffee there when I was in Vietnam, it's really strong and really sweet, they use condensed milk. I lost the filter somehow when I moved.
icnif77:
Turkish way is just ... no different than when you boil potato or brew tea ... once, you pour coffee in the cup, you can't steer it and watch when there's no more liquid at the end, 'cause if you drink it all the way, you'll eat ground coffee sitting on the bottom.
It's also convenient to use sugar cubes, same one as for horses, he he he ... 'cause no steering of coffee in the cup, buTt ...you can add sugar to the water before it starts to boil.
After you'll drink it, you'll need a sip of water to clean your chew.
In Turkey-stan, one always get glass of water with cup of coffee ...
You must swallow the water. No spitting ... permitted there! 
Sandnose:
Only about 150 rambos for a stainless steel espresso thing. And 30 for a heating element. It works like a champion.
Experimentation with the density of the coffee 'plug' realised interesting results. More dense for iced coffee with lower heat is a winner.
icnif77:
I am not into the prices of espresso machines, but ... I want to say, don't go for the cheap one. Spend some monies and you'll enjoy good espresso.
'Good espresso' it doesn't depend on the good machine only. Sort of coffee is also very important ... reference to Tarantino's quote in Pulp Fiction, he he ..
"I buy the gourmet expensive stuff because when I drink it I want to taste it. But you know what's on my mind right now? It AIN'T the coffee in my kitchen, it's the dead nigger in my garage."
He matched the colours here. I just realized ... Colour of the coffee and colour of the skin ..
...you're such a rai-sist ... 
Sandnose:
@Stiggs Is the Vietnamese style dripper like a cup with a sieve you can screw down that you put on top of a cup or glass?
I'm a bit of a fan of the Viet style dark roast too.
icnif77:
Culinary weblink on "how to ... make anything .." with pics ...
https://thewoksoflife.com/how-to-make-vietnamese-coffee/
Condense milk contains whole lot of fat, sugar and more (CH) ..., so I usually stay away. However, any kind of strong coffee tastes good with drip of condensed milk.
Stiggs:
@ Sandnose yep,although I haven't seen any screws on them.Tightly packed coffee is put in a filter on top of the cup and the water drains through it and trickles into the cup.
I'd say fine ground coffee beans would give stronger coffee. Generally, most of the electrical coffee grinders make fine powder coffee.
If you get hand coffee grinder (which is no different than black pepper grinder, except coffee one is larger ..), you can adjust finesse of the grinder, and .. once coffee isn't ground into the fine powder and you make Turkish style coffee without filter, bigger pieces of coffee will float and finer pieces sit on the bottom of the cup.
Sometimes, I just chew whole, raw coffee beans. Some better coffee shops have beans of the different sorts of coffee in a bowl on display, and I always grab some while am ordering espresso. In London, UK ...
If I am buying coffee beans, I always go for the expensive ones ... Some African coffee brands are excellent ..
Since, I was in China, I became specialist in 'cai' ... Pu'er & Lapsang .. are my fav.
add-it:
I figure it out LTA, any Q on this website is China related since (few, he he) posters are asking and replying from China ...
Sandnose:
I bought an espresso machine (on taobao). Results are pretty good. Apparently there is some skill involved in getting all the variables right. Amount of coffee, temperature of heat applied, time, angle of the dangle.
icnif77:
In order, espresso machine is good, it must be expensive. When I make coffee, I do it Turkish way.
You need pot with brewing water and add coffee powder. Let say, in 2dl of brewing water, I add some 3-4 tea spoons of coffee. You can adjust that by adding more coffee or less as you go ...
Steer mixture with the spoon and remove pot off the heat once everything starts to coming up.
This is the last steering you can do.
Wait few minutes ... and pour coffee into the cup. Much better than any espresso.
Stiggs:
I might try the Turkish style, not sure if I've ever had Turkish coffee.
I used to have a Vietnamese filter - loved the way they do coffee there when I was in Vietnam, it's really strong and really sweet, they use condensed milk. I lost the filter somehow when I moved.
icnif77:
Turkish way is just ... no different than when you boil potato or brew tea ... once, you pour coffee in the cup, you can't steer it and watch when there's no more liquid at the end, 'cause if you drink it all the way, you'll eat ground coffee sitting on the bottom.
It's also convenient to use sugar cubes, same one as for horses, he he he ... 'cause no steering of coffee in the cup, buTt ...you can add sugar to the water before it starts to boil.
After you'll drink it, you'll need a sip of water to clean your chew.
In Turkey-stan, one always get glass of water with cup of coffee ...
You must swallow the water. No spitting ... permitted there!
Sandnose:
Only about 150 rambos for a stainless steel espresso thing. And 30 for a heating element. It works like a champion.
Experimentation with the density of the coffee 'plug' realised interesting results. More dense for iced coffee with lower heat is a winner.
icnif77:
I am not into the prices of espresso machines, but ... I want to say, don't go for the cheap one. Spend some monies and you'll enjoy good espresso.
'Good espresso' it doesn't depend on the good machine only. Sort of coffee is also very important ... reference to Tarantino's quote in Pulp Fiction, he he ..
"I buy the gourmet expensive stuff because when I drink it I want to taste it. But you know what's on my mind right now? It AIN'T the coffee in my kitchen, it's the dead nigger in my garage."
He matched the colours here. I just realized ... Colour of the coffee and colour of the skin ..
...you're such a rai-sist ...
Sandnose:
@Stiggs Is the Vietnamese style dripper like a cup with a sieve you can screw down that you put on top of a cup or glass?
I'm a bit of a fan of the Viet style dark roast too.
icnif77:
Culinary weblink on "how to ... make anything .." with pics ...
https://thewoksoflife.com/how-to-make-vietnamese-coffee/
Condense milk contains whole lot of fat, sugar and more (CH) ..., so I usually stay away. However, any kind of strong coffee tastes good with drip of condensed milk.
Stiggs:
@ Sandnose yep,although I haven't seen any screws on them.Tightly packed coffee is put in a filter on top of the cup and the water drains through it and trickles into the cup.
I accidentally bought beans instead of ground coffee during lockdown and I don't have a grinder so I cracked some with a garlic press. Big chunks - thought it would do the job but my coffee was like water so I put some beans in a bowl and spent about 10 minutes crushing them up with a spoon. That worked a lot better but was still weaker than normal so the next day I spent about 20 minutes crushing them with the spoon.
My takeaway from this is that the finer the chunks (or particles), the better the coffee was.
icnif77:
Wrap coffee beans in a clean cloth, tide it up (make a ball ..) and hit it with the (steak) hammer.
You could wrap beans in anything which won't burst after hammer ... hits.
When you'll make coffee just brew water and throw coffee powder in, i.e Turkish style. Don't use coffee/tea filter ...
You might use black pepper hand grinder, if you have one. Just clean out the pepper with water and get coffee beans in, It will grind coffee as fine as it grinds black pepper.
Sandnose:
You could use a blender.
I have been doing experiments lately. Results are somewhat counter intuitive.
I wonder if the method of grinding pulverising makes a difference?
Stiggs:
I knew about the blender thing but my blender died a while ago and I haven't replaced it...
I got it pretty fine just pulverising and grinding it with a spoon but somehow it wasn't quite the same. I don't see what difference it would make but the ground stuff I usually buy is better so maybe it is all in the way it's ground.
icnif77:
You could carry coffee beans back into the store and ask them to ground it ...
Just make sure you masks yourself ... before you enter ...
I had eyes check-up last week and I came to the hospital without the mask. I had to return home, get mask and come back to the infirmary ... MFs, they have guardsman at the entrance ...
Stiggs:
Nah this was back in lockdown, almost everything was closed. No big deal, I just bought more coffee next time I went to the supermarket.
Just go to Starbuck and have a cup of grinded coffee. Sit back and relax!!
Sandnose:
Starbucks is disgusting swill dredged up for people who have indiscriminate tastes and attracts WiFi mooches like flies to a dog turd. Thanks for your suggestion but I can't think of one single reason to enter a Starbucks establishment.
icnif77:
At Starbuck in Istanbul, they have chocolate candies on display ... for customers.
In Turkey, it's a thing, you always get nice candy, mostly chocolate ... with cup of coffee. Glass of tap water, too.
I used to enter the Starbucks and pretentiously ask for directions ... and left with full hand of candies.
Once, I grabbed 6 candies in a single snitch ... That was my absolute record ...
diverdude1:
six candies! haha,, I feel weird taking a free mint @ the local bank! I gotta learn to be Cold,,,, like 77 
icnif77:
Once, you work for US$5 per class, you ought to learn different 'crafts' ...
Calories wise, 6 chocolate candies is like a large breakfast ... .. free breakfast.
I really wanted to say, "Don't ever go to Turkey to teach English! Turkish coffee is good, but you'll starve ..."
I take mint candy at the Bank only for the gifts. I don't eat such things ...
They have pencils on the chain like a dogs ... Bank is the worst place to get sumtin' for free. I hate Banks ...
diverdude1:
Pencils doin' time on the,,,, Chain Gang...... 'load 16 tons and whaddaya get,,,, another day older and deeepr in debt.....'
yeah, like 77 said just get yourself on taobao,,,,, 'coffee mill',,, there ya go,,, then 'French press',,, there ya go,,, 'coffee bean/s',,, there ya go,,,,, I bet u won't be in for much more than ¥160, and I'm talking the good stuff,,,,, now hi-$ fancy brands will set u back 3x that,, but mostly then u are paying for brand name. I know ¥180 sounds like a bunch of money, but it's not,,,, no telling how many cups that'll brew. I betcha 40-50,,, and if u buy decent mill and press,,, they'll last yrs! haha,,, like most things I compromise,,, I don't grind fine powder,, but not too coarse chunk either.... but like 77 said,,, nice to just pop a whole roasted coffee bean in ur mouth sometimes!
diverdude1:
haha,,, I'm gettin' slower and slower at readin',,, sloppier too..... I barely believe anyone even came back here,,,, I thought e-cities was done for......
Coffee mogul Sandnose 
lists stunning peninsula home
The home of Les Schirato - the man behind the $250m Vittoria Food and Beverage company - has been listed to sell and it’s got a view that will leave you breathless.
Sandnose:
Hahaha. In my dreams.
This morning, my lovely wife asks "You fuckoffee?"
I replied "Not yet. In about 30 mins when the traffic dies down a smidgen."
She looked at me with a weird expression for a few seconds then threw a wet dishcloth that hot me in the face.
Non-coffee .. post: 
Courageous Australian Surfer Saves Wife From Great White Shark Attack
In one of the most heroic displays of courage we've ever seen, an Australian surfer saved his wife from an aggressive Great White Shark ...
Video ...
Sandnose:
I have to say that I love a nice piece of flake done on a beach barby.
icnif77:
I've never swam with sharks ... knowingly, but I was thinking about rabid dog attack my GF ... punch it or no?
In old times, I was on Cayman Islands weekly, and I would always jog from the port to the DT and then I went for some 400 m off the beach swim. I was doing the same exercise twice a week for a year or even longer.
Then, one day Cruise line went belly-up and we were placed into hotel, waiting for the ride back to Florida.
At night, we were usually at the restaurant with the name 'Pier One', which had patio with tables overlooking the sea. Owner would always toss leftover food into the sea below the patio. He had two bright reflectors on each side of the restaurant pointing into the sea.
He turned the lights on at night time, and then I saw bunch of sharks first time in my life ... It looks like several fat pigs joined together into one fish. Very terrifying looking animal ...
I told the story about my daytime swimming in the area to the owner, and he cooled me down.
He said: "Sharks are never here at daytime. They always came for food and lights at night .."
Doesn't matter what, I still think, I should be lucky am alive ...
It takes large balls to punch an animal like that ...
diverdude1:
I visited Cayman's years ago,,, and AVI,,,, barely remember now,,, haha, my how time passes...
icnif77:
Very narrow streets in DT of Grand Cayman ... and all cars are coming from the wrong, British side ...
Low tax, thou ...
OT ... butT ... close ..
Swiss town coated in CHOCOLATE after ventilation mishap at Lindt factory
Residents of Olten in Switzerland surely thought they had accidentally fallen into a children’s story book when it began snowing chocolate in their town.
What would you say at the title: "A Bear with a cardboard stuck on its head ... managed ..."?
No coffee, no China ... no panda, butT ... bear with cardboard over its head ... in Turkey ... country, not an animal ...
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bear-cardboard-box-its-head
In Turkey, a large bear with a cardboard box stuck on its head managed to enter into a military base, and then to climb up to the top of a tall communications tower, from where it stood on high not looking down on anything round it. (The link is here.)
