http://www.kapetabay.com Achieving coffee nirvana at home on a budget. Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:17:52 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I’m a changed man. It’s been nearly three weeks since I last put sugar in my coffee. So it appears I’m a changed man. Hopefully for good. But I have to confess that a couple of times since then, when I had to drink coffee in some cafes outside home, I had ... http://www.kapetabay.com/2010/03/sweet-guy-no-more/ Got lucky once more with Brockenhaus, that surplus shop selling items from Switzerland and other European countries, with branches in Cagayan de Oro and Ozamiz. We dropped by their Cagyaan de Oro branch last Tuesday, and I found these three items. Left, is a, um, pink 8-cup Bodum French press. I already ... http://www.kapetabay.com/2009/11/a-pink-plunger-a-milk-frother-and-a-moka-pot/ Time to celebrate, as my city is celebrating its fiesta in honor of its patron, St. Michael the Archangel. Just timely that I have one great blend for the occasion -- SweetMaria’s Moka Kadir Blend. Courtesy of Michelle, my cousin Tipoy’s wife, who asked me to give her a one-on-one ... http://www.kapetabay.com/2009/09/moka-kadir-blend-for-fiesta/ [caption id="attachment_442" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="The fine-mesh Behmor drum. I love those blades stirring the beans more for a more even roast."][/caption] I’ve played around with various coffee roasters. But my roaster of choice now is the oven toaster with rotisserie. Because I could not buy a drum for it, I had the ... http://www.kapetabay.com/2009/09/behmor-drum-on-my-rotisserie/ My first time ever to try Chinese coffee! China, we all know, is a H-U-G-E country. Some of its parts are in the colder part of the globe with snow during winter. So coffee just can’t grow there. I’ve been to Beijing once, towards the end of winter, and I still ... http://www.kapetabay.com/2009/09/chinese-coffee-beans/ I'm now on the third week of a month-long photographic assignment all over the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), all five provinces of them -- Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-tawi. I may be on the road for so long a time, and it's tiring work with frequent ... http://www.kapetabay.com/2009/08/my-travel-coffee-paraphernalia/ On a business trip in Davao City last week, I had the chance to drop by Mindanao Bob's place, and had another coffee party with friends! BobM roasted Rwanda COE, Kenya Gethumbwini, Sumatra Aceh, Ethiopia Yirgacheffee, Tanzania Blackburn Estate and I brought some Kalinga beans. I slept pretty well after that. :D [caption ... http://www.kapetabay.com/2009/08/coffe-party-in-davao-with-mindanao-bob/ I felt I was in France during the coffee party I hosted this afternoon, what with four French speakers in the house. Mathieu (rightmost), after leaving Iligan only last December with the end of his term as a volunteer helping farmers in the mountains, came back for a short vacation. ... http://www.kapetabay.com/2009/08/coffee-party-once-more/ [caption id="attachment_405" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Kalinga beans roasted"][/caption] Whoa, been over a month since my last post. Was busy working on a project, a mini-coffee table book (no, nothing to do with coffee, hehe), so I was out of town most of the time. (If you’re curious what that project is, see ... http://www.kapetabay.com/2009/08/beans-from-kalinga-apayao/ [caption id="attachment_400" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="The polyester felt filter for the Aeorpress is thick!"][/caption] Thanks to Steve A, one of the few readers of this blog, I finally got to try the filter medium suggested by the inventor of the Aeropress inverted method. Verdict: Looks like I’m back to Aeropressing. I was brewing ... http://www.kapetabay.com/2009/06/the-aeropress-inverted-method-revisited/