First off, I think you'd agree that the perfect cup of coffee is a matter of personal taste.... however we'd like to offer a few suggestions as to what we've found goes into a good cup of coffee....

• the brewing method we enjoy most is the French press....popularly marketed as Bodum (r) or similar...
• we select a freshly roasted coffee and grind a handfull of beans in a small grinder (see grinder note below)
• we use 1 heaping tablespoon for each cup (8oz) of water
• we also use soft well-water or water which has been carbon filtered...this improves the taste tremendously
• technically the water temperature should be between 195 and 205 degrees C...but we found that just off the boil and into the press brings the temperature to just about right...one thing we also do regularly is prewarm our mugs with hot water (just like your Grandma did to her tea pot before brewing tea)
• ok, here's where it gets a little murky....I like to stir the hot water into the ground coffee...others just fill the press and leave the coffee to brew without agitation....your choice.
• and here's another spot where you'll have to experiment on your own...I leave the coffee brewing for about a minute and a half before depressing the plunger...sometimes shorter for a milder cup...sometimes longer for a much stronger tasting brew....however tooo long makes a bitter brew...you got to gauge it right
• ok...into your mug and enjoy....aaahhh
• Hey...there's coffee sludge in the bottom of my cup....Yep there is...maybe next time you won't drink it all the way to the bottom...or maybe grind the coffee a ltttle less fine
• Grinder note: Try to get the best grinder you can...with the idea to make the grind size consistant without a lot of dust production and over-much coffee powder...the slicing type grinders seem to work better in this regard than the whirling beater style of grinder...
• Taster's question: Has anybody noticed that your coffee tastes "slightly different" when you use an insulated cup with a stainless liner?... why is that? ...even styrofoam takeout cups seem to alter flavour a little... why is that, too?

A Logger's Love

One day as I was eating my lunch in a small cafe
a forty year old waitress to me these words did say
I see you are a logger
and not a common bum
for no one but a logger
stirs his coffee with his thumb
My lover was a logger
there's no one like him today
If you'd pour whiskey on it
he'd eat a bale of hay
My lover came to see me
'twas on a winter's day
He held me in his fond embrace
which broke three vertebrae
He kissed me when we parted
so hard he broke my jaw
I could not speak to tell him
that he'd forgot his mackinaw
And as the winds grew colder
I watched my lover go
Striding gaily homeward in 48 below
The weather tried to freeze him
It tried it's level best
At 100 degrees below zero
He buttoned up his vest
It froze clear through to china
It froze to the stars above
At a thousand degrees below zero
It froze my logger love
His friends they tried to thaw him
And if you'll believe me sir
They made him into axe heads to cut the Douglas Fir
And so I lost my lover and to this cafe I come
and here I wait 'til someone
Stirs his coffee with his thumb

Author: Unknown