The glass jar is empty. The can is gone.
I need to confess.
I DRANK THE POWEDERED MIXED COFFEE THIS MORNING!
I’m so ashamed.
The best coffee I have had recently was a bag of ground beans from Vietnam. The aroma! The perk up factor. The ziptidydoodah!
Those were the days the friends…I thought they’d never end…
[color=red]BUT THEY DID![/color] They ended today! 
Put down the powdered “three-in-one” coffee mix, and pick up some freshly ground coffee beans–pronto!
Prepared with a French press, if at all possible.
I’m drinking HERBAL TEA right now. WRONG! BAD!
I need to go and buy beans. But I’ve had no coffee, so how can I go outside?
STEP AWAY FROM THE POWDERED MIXED COFFEE!
You are going to need counseling. And therapy. And rehabilitation, if it’s not already too late.
In Taipei, on Fu-Xing Rd near Civic Blvd you can find Bee Cafe (you’ll be able to smell the coffee aroma from the area). They have many different kinds of coffee beans, and all the other stuff you might need. Very good store.
I’m a coffee whore, and have Brazil, Blue Mountain, Columbian, and Mandheling around so I have choices every morning, or can mix and match my own house blend. Yum!
[quote=“Buttercup”]I’m drinking HERBAL TEA right now. WRONG! BAD!
I need to go and buy beans. But I’ve had no coffee, so how can I go outside?[/quote]
Not as easy as you think without that first brainkickstart, eh?
I got a hold of some folgers instant coffee. :s
Want to say it’s better than nothing, but the gremlins are scraping the lining off my stomach now. urp
jdshakes
Mmmmmmm, Columbian this morning…nice. 
if you have to do instant there’s one at welcome that’s not half bad. i forget the name now but it says “100% arabica” on the label.
i’m going to make a pot of guatemalan now, good
[quote=“jdsmith”]The best coffee I have had recently was a bag of ground beans from Vietnam. The aroma! The perk up factor. The ziptidydoodah!
Those were the days the friends…I thought they’d never end…[/quote]
Nothing like a hint of agent orange over toast, but I agree, Vietnamese coffee is superb.
I used to do any flying between Taiwan and Australia via VIetnam on Vietnam airlines. It had so many benefits: It was perhaps the last airline in the world to ban smoking; it meant a stopover in Vietnam where I would pick up a kilo of coffee beans each trip; and it was the cheapest possible flight.
I still prefer my coffee at home made with one of those Vietnamese coffee maker things.
HG
What’s that like? I’ve never had it, let alone the opportunity to buy it.
In office. Instant. Drool…
Got a pic or a better descrip’, brother?
I think HGC is talking about something like this:
or this:
or this:
There are like 5 key independent variables when it comes to excellent coffee. Brewing fine coffee is not that difficult, although it may be expensive. If the following recipe proves too expensive, then upon awakening you might consider using robusta coffee beans or chugging a can of Red Bull (my own early-morning preference; I prefer the sugar-free).
None of these is any more or less important than any other:[ul]1. Always, always use arabica coffee beans.
2. Make that freshly roasted arabica coffee beans. This is crucial since the flavor of any – read any - arabica coffee beans is inversely related to the time elapsed between its roasting and its comsumption by you. Never underestimate this crucial aspect of flavorful coffee: the freshness of the roast.
3. Water quality. Due to its unique mineral profile, Ozarka is the very best brand one can purchase, although unfortunately its availability is limited to the Missouri Valley, USA. If you can’t use Ozarka, then find the very next best water available.
4. Proper brewing temperature for the water: just off the boil.
5. Properly controlling the time during which the ground arabica beans are in contact with the properly heated water. Because this time should never exceed 6 minutes, the beans should be ground to a consistency that maximizes contact with hot water given the overall brewing constraint (6 minutes, tops).[/ul]
Consume within 30 minutes, or store properly (in a pre-heated, thermally controlled container) your coffee.
That’s it. Remember, coffee is a GIGO proposition: garbage in, garbage out. As long as the quality of your process never dips below the quality of your ingredients, you can’t lose. The geographical source of your coffee is far less important than following the rules listed above.
Call me old fashioned…tomorrow I’m going to pick up my next feedbag of Lavazza form my favorite Italian foodstuffs importer. Maybe I’ll get a 6-pack of chinotto while I’m at it.
Maybe some thing about HKG are good.
[quote=“Tempo Gain”]if you have to do instant there’s one at welcome that’s not half bad. i forget the name now but it says “100% arabica” on the label.
[/quote]
it’s maxim. if you have to do instant, it can be a lot worse.
pretty typically central american, somewhat richer, a bit less sour. edging towards a jamaican/cuban type flavor. “feng da” in ximending has it and a lot of other less common beans that they roast to order, i always plug them.
found an amazing store thankfully near my house, well worth a stop if you’re in neighborhood. it’s called “bolofen,” on shijian st, which is the next light north of shipai rd between chengde and zhiyuan 2nd rds. in shipai. this guy is a coffee nut, he has a farm going in laos where he grows beans he uses for his espresso–which i haven’t tried, not my favorite at home–you could tell from talking to him he, well, likes coffee. nice guy, i was waiting to hear how “louhou” laos was but instead he told me how it’s his favorite country and how peaceful it is. anyway he roasts his beans there, he always has mandheling and brazil ready-roasted. the mandheling was the best i ever tried, that rich mandheling taste so strong, beautiful. his brazil is amazing too, he says it’s not santos but from a specialty coffee with yellow berries. typical smooth brazil but with an amazing chocolate scent and unsweetened chocolate aftertaste, pretty, pretty, pretty good. he roasts columbian and guatemalan to order, haven’t had the columbian yet but my first impression of the guatemalan was superior to the one in ximending, complex, though more expensive at 380/750 for a half/full pound. the brazil and mandheling are normally priced.
he’s at 46 shijian street, about halfway between chengde and zhiyuan. place has burlap coffee sacks plastered on the outside, you can see one roaster outside, it’s on corner of alley. phone 2827-8333, don’t think they speak english.
For many different kinds of great coffee beans in Taichung, I highly recommend a little place called “Orsir” on Wuchuan Rd, a bit northeast of the art museum junction. I don’t know the number, but it’s on the right as you travel northeast, and not more than a block or two from the junction.
They’ll grind them for you, of course, and they also have a little cafe upstairs, which is very reasonably priced and offers nice biscuits too.
I sometimes get a hankering for percolator coffee, like the kind my grandmother makes. Haven’t had that in a long time.
The banjo player in my old band used to make percolator coffee when we were camping and playing festival gigs. I remember one famous Sunday morning after three late evenings of jamming and partying, when he made a pot of percolator coffee and spiked it with some rytalin… damn if that wasn’t a fine cup of coffee.
[quote=“Elegua”]Call me old fashioned…tomorrow I’m going to pick up my next feedbag of Lavazza form my favorite Italian foodstuffs importer. Maybe I’ll get a 6-pack of chinotto while I’m at it.
Maybe some thing about HKG are good.[/quote]
One of my kids’ moms just gave me a bag of that! 
It’s good to be the king!