Someone told me the secret to Tim Horton coffee. Apparently

[applegrove]

it is the industrial coffeemaker that heats the coffee way hotter than any coffee maker you have at home could. Could be true.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

1. perhaps

I never thought of Tim's coffee as particularly hot compared to McDonald's, or Starbucks.

And I admit, now that I've been working again for the last few months, I do buy at least one a day, despite my disgust for the direction that they've gone. Won't eat their food, and despise the notion of foreign workers, or any one making less than minimum wage. But still need my caffeine fix, and vs. the other two; I still drop 2 bucks at Tim's everyday.

Wish that there was an Eddy Shack donut-shack around here. Or Stan Makita Donuts. lol

[procon]

2. Try different types of coffee makers?

There's no Tim Horton nearby, but I think you're right about the temperature. Really hot cup ofd dark roast coffee tastes so much richer to my palate. I think the higher heat releases more of the aromatic oils that were developed in the roasting process.

I've never found a drip coffee maker that produced coffee as hot or full bodied as I prefer. I have used a French press which can deliver hot and flavorful coffee, but they are so labor intensive it just wasn't worth my time. Now the past year I've been using an old fashioned electric percolator, just like my mom had back in the 50s, and the coffee is great.

[applegrove]

3. I used to use a french press. Loved the

coffee it made. But I hated all the work and never figured out how to properly dispose of the coffee grounds.

Just a note. Somebody did a story on which coffee was the tastiest and it was not the dark. Apparently it is too burnt to have the most flavour. I have not tested it out yet.

[pansypoo53219]

4. i hate burnt beans. i had terrible coffee in europe. they make WEAK coffee. weak coffee sucks to0.

i make strong medium roasts. but then i like cream + make my own butterscotch for sweetener.

[Hoppy]

5. On a whim, I bought a coffee grinder at a church sale. $10.00

I put it aside for a couple of months. In November, I bought Trader Joe's Ethopian beans.

For me, it beats Starbucks any day. We don't got any Timmy's near us so I can't compare.

[Thor_MN]

6. The hotter the water, the more of the bitter oils will get extracted from the beans.

Using fewer coffee grounds will also extract more of the bitter oils, as once all the other flavor compounds are extracted, there is nothing left but the oils. The little, old ladies (honest, they were mostly tiny women, with some exceptions, of course) in the church circles used to put small amounts of grounds into the big old percolators at the church where I grew up. They always used to complain how strong and bitter the coffee was, but the reason was that they used so little coffee and extracted all the bitter oils into the brew.

Perfect coffee is a delicate dance of water, beans, roasting, ratio of beans to water, grind, time, and temperature. Personally, the most important is the water. If it doesn't taste good cold, it isn't going to taste good hot. Temperature should be 195-205 F. The size of the the grind, amount of beans to water and extraction time are balances that must be played to one's own personal taste. ne wants to extract just what they want and nothing more, as the last things out of the beans is bitter oils and alkaloids.

[inanna]

7. I'd like to taste a cup of yours!

Seriously....

[arikara]

9. Interesting, are you a barista?

I'd like to try your coffee too.

I used a french press for years but I've graduated to a stove top espresso maker. I've figured out the right amount of coffee to make the perfect cup. The espresso maker shoots the water through the grounds at a steaming high temp. I was told that you actually get less caffeine making it like that than with a French press. I don't know if its true or not.

The best coffee I ever had was in Costa Rica. They use some kind of sock thing to make it and its wonderful. Its got Tim's and starbucks beat by light years, of course any decent coffee shop can beat tims and starbucks imho, both of them serve up burnt offerings.

[Thor_MN]

12. I'm a chemist by education, but a computer programmer as employment

I know the processes involved, but I'm not much of a coffee guru. I grew up on Lutheran Church basement coffee, so pretty much anything works for me. I don't care for Starbucks, they roast their beans into charcoal.

Temp and time can be played off each other, higher temp for a lower time will avoid the oils, lower temp for longer time will as well, but will probably have slightly different tastes. Get good water, good beans and then play with the variables to find the mix that works for your taste.

I know people who will only use bottled water. I don't, but I do understand why they do it and they are right - you have to start with water that tastes good. I once worked in a city where their water supply comes from the Mississippi River. The water was of course treated and did not taste too bad when ice cold. But when it was heated, I could smell "the river". The coffee at that place was never very good.

[inanna]

8. I think it could also have something to do

with the freshness factor as well. Timmy's never lets their coffee get old - they dump it after twenty minutes (they say).

[King_Klonopin]

10. Battery acid?

Water boils at 212 F at sea level; after that, water becomes steam.
"Boiling" is as hot as water gets (unless you use a pressure cooker)

I like my women like my coffee -- cold and bitter.

My Rankings on coffee:

1) Honey Dew Donuts

2) The diner in the center of my town

3) Dunkin Donuts (weak, watery stuff)

4) Starbucks (bitter and over-priced)

5) Tim H's (roofing tar and varnish)

[applegrove]

11. That is exactly what I thought when I

was told, isn‘t steam steam? But then I thought it would be rude of me to inquire. Plus I thought maybe it has to do with keeping the coffee hot or the temp of the beans. Anyhow, I enjoyed your post.

[Thor_MN]

13. Water for coffee should be at least 195 degrees F.

But between 195 and boiling at 212, one will get different results of what will be pulled from the coffee grounds, therefore a different taste.