Category: Hobbies – none Photography

Cold brew coffee has become really fashionable recently so I decided to brew some up myself.

There are various recipes on the internet so I have tired several of the last couple of weeks before coming to one I prefer.  As for brewing I have just been using a Kilner jar.  Poor in the coffee grounds and iced water, then leave for sixteen hours, decant into a Chemex then in to jar to keep in the fridge for up to two weeks.  Easy.   Server over ice with milk or even better with cream, and if your feeling really decadent with Tennessee whiskey.

Christmas is now just a couple of months a way and we are starting to think about presents for ourselves and for the house.

We finally had to retire our large CRT wide screen Sony Wega.  We bought one of the latest 4K HDR screens, but the sound sucks compare to the old TV, so we are looking at a decent surround sound system.

The other thing on our list as we both love quality coffee is a high end coffee grinder.  By high end I am talking sub £1000 price range while real coffee experts think that a grinder at £1000 is budget!

Lastly I will be approaching a significant birthday in a few years and there is a chance of a high end English fountain pen coming my way.  I have been dropping hints and it looks like its working.

A bit of a treat for us today.  Lunch time I headed out to my favourite coffee shop to relax, read and of course drink lovely Hasbean coffee.

I left work early today to give Timmy an extra early teatime walk as we were headed up to the hospital as it was time to give blood, my sixty second donation.

When we got home we ordered a Chinese from the village next door which was promptly delivered by them in there nice new electric Nissan Leaf, nice car and with a 107 mile real world range perfect for local commuting and delivery duties.

Over the last few years, I have really gotten into high-quality coffee. During my free time, I have even started to experiment with the coffee I drink to get the best taste and have even got a milk frother from this link after reading through the various frothers reviews available on it. For home and office use, I generally drink brewed coffee.  At home I make it in a Chemex.

While when at the office I use an Aeropress.

I have a cheap basic expresso machine at home but tend not to use it much, getting much better results with my brewing methods.

But I enjoy a good espresso, and espresso based milk drinks, and I would like to make that at home, so this past few weeks I have been practicing my technique using my basic espresso machine.

The internet is a wonderful tool for learning, I have fixed my plumbing from watching YouTube videos, so I have been researching and learning how to make reasonable espresso using basic equipment.

I have mastered the milk and can now make wonderfully sweet creamy steamed milk with lots of microfoam.  So now I have been experimenting with the espresso itself.

While changing the grind and dose has improved things, I was getting too much expansion blocking the flow of water so it was time to buy a real tamper.

Tonight it arrived so I have been experimenting with different pressures, grind and dosing, so far its looking good and it will be interesting to see how far I go with this.