Thoughts About Life and Running: Don Francisco coffee

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Finally! Proper Coffee Dosing

In my last post about experimenting on the amount of coffee to brew, I mentioned the possibility of buying either Don Francisco which was on sale for $4.00 a can at Ralph’s or Dunkin Donuts for $6.99 a can at Von’s. Well, the lower price of Don Francisco won out. I bought two cans: Hawaiian Hazelnut and Cinnamon Hazelnut. I tried the Hawaiian Hazelnut first. The recommended measurement was two slightly rounded tablespoons of ground coffee for every 6 oz. of water. My coffee pot only holds 24 oz. so if I were to follow the recommended amount, I would be using about 8 slightly rounded tablespoons of ground coffee. Hmm, that seemed like a lot to me so I used a teaspoon instead. Not wanting to o’d on coffee again, I ventured on a more conservative measurement of 4 rounded teaspoons for 24 oz. of water. Well, what do you know but it appeared like I hit the sweet spot! The amount I used still enabled me to taste the hazelnut flavor while maintaining the slight bitterness that I like in black coffee (I always drink it black). There was no harshness in the taste and the caffeine kick felt similar to the amount of instant coffee that I’m used to drinking. What a big difference in taste compared to the cheap Master Chef brand I initially tried, and I didn’t feel wired all day, nor did I get queasy. It seems like I finally found the proper measurement for my taste. My question is: will that measurement be similar to all flavors of the same brand, and will I have to do a similar experiment with different brands? For now, I’m sold on Don Francisco. Now I understand why the Master Chef was so cheap! One thing I noticed with the Don Francisco – it left an oily residue in my mug. I wonder if that’s normal. The cheap coffee? No noticeable oily residue.

For my previous attempts, read these: Wired On My First Brew and My Continued Bumbling Attempts at Making Coffee .

Public comments below, private comments: E-mail Me!

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

My Continued Bumbling Attempts At Making A Proper Cup of Coffee

This one is about caffeine content of a cup of coffee and megadosing on caffeine by mistake. One side effect that I didn’t expect from being overcaffeinated is that it seemed to hold hunger or appetite at bay for a long time. After all caffeine is a main ingredient of some if not most diet pills.

I've always been poor at math so I'm not suprised that I have been miscalculating my caffeine intake since I bought my automatic drip coffeemaker a couple of weeks ago. When I drink instant coffee, I usually put a heaping teaspoon into a 22 oz. mug of hot water which is equivalent to 3 1/2 - 6 oz. cups. A heaping teaspoon may contain 100 mg. of caffeine at best. When I brewed my first pot of coffee, I double dosed by using 6 heaping tablespoons of coffee in about 24 oz. of water. For simplicity's sake, let's just say I correctly used 6 flat tablespoons. The normal caffeine content of a cup of coffee is about 100 mg. If I drank the whole 24 oz. pot (which I did), that would be 4 cups x 100 mg. = 400 mg of caffeine. Double dose would make it 800 mg. in one sitting. No wonder I became intoxicated on it! A week later, you'd think I learned my lesson, and in a way, I did. I only used 4 heaping tablespoons. If my calculations are correct, 24 oz. of that would contain roughly 532 mg., still a megadose of caffeine. And of course I was feeling queasy after that one too.
Another thing I tried on that last pot was adding a pinch of salt to the coffee grounds to cut the bitterness. It didn't seem to make a heck of a lot of difference on the cheap coffee I used. This week, Ralph's grocery store has a special on a can of Don Francisco coffee at $4.00. Is that a good brand, or should I go with Dunkin Donuts coffee which I have a couple of coupons I can use to get the price to 5.99 a bag? I know for sure that Dunkin Donuts coffee is very good but the way I've been bumbling my way around the coffee pot, I don't know if that helps me make a proper cuppa joe. I may be the only person who can make a simple task such as brewing coffee be so complicated. I admit it. My coffee IQ is very poor.