A few days ago, Gordon said, “Look at these pretty cups.” I came to look, and indeed the cups were very pretty. That’s where it ended except that said cups now arrived in the mail and were presented to me by my husband as a surprise.
I’m drinking Zhang Autumn Oolong from Verdant Tea, brewed at 180 degrees out of my new fancy cup, and it is delicious and light. Oolongs are an acquired taste, like grapefruit, but right now they are hitting the spot. I really like the roasted varieties.
Gordon doesn’t drink tea, but he drinks coffee, the normal variety in the morning, and we both drink decaff at night. We go through a lot of HEB coffee. Mmm, Bavarian Hazelnut…
It’s become a little ritual. I know the workday is over when I get a cup of decaff at night and sip it, while playing computers games.
We usually buy whole bean, and we’ve been using the simple coffee grinders to grind it, like this Mr. Coffee one.
Gordon decided he wanted to upgrade, so we bought this.
We hate it. It is incredibly loud, like a jet taking off, it takes forever, and it doesn’t seem to actually grind enough coffee. Even when set to maximum capacity of 18 cups, it makes less than 1/4 cup of ground coffee. I have to grind repeatedly and the noise level is insane. This morning, I got up first and reached right for the old grinder, because the entire point of making coffee before your spouse gets up is to surprise them with hot coffee, not jolt them out of their sleep with a sawmill in your kitchen.
The grinder was expensive at $60, and I would return it, except that there is nothing technically wrong with it. It just sucks. Loudly. Maybe it’s defective and we just don’t know? Anyhow, do not recommend. We’ll have to find an alternative.
What are your hot drink preferences?
We have one of each kind of grinder (like you). The burr grinder has some fiddly settings that required trial and error but we finally got them down and it makes a pretty good grind. It’s still super loud and messy, so we grind the night before. Not as fresh but more peaceful.
Baratza encore grinder. if you want excellent decaf, all medium roast Talking Crow Coffee Roasters. they also have caffeinated.
I buy my coffee as I run out, then grind the entire bag at the store, and then store it in the freezer. Works out fine, and I don’t have to be awake to make a new pot of coffee.
I had that second grinder — yes. clogs, loud, annoying , stupid. Now have a nice little one, resembles your first.
And yes! Harney and Sons- mmmmm. I need to clean out my tea cupboard before I indulge in new tea. But some Oolong sounds nice. Also Pu Erh
Happy drinking, Cups make all the difference
ginger, cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon spiced chai in the evening when I feel like spending 15 minutes brewing the spices and milk. Basic instant nescafe in the morning because I have a toddler and an infant ( the waking up three times in the night kind) and am running for my life, half asleep at that time.
Ha! We have that as well! SO LOUD and SO MESSY. I hate (HATE) it. Please RETURN it and let us know what you get that’s better! Maybe you would enjoy Jim Hoffman on instagram and youtube has a bunch of options… he’s quite eruidte(sp?) as opposed to me.
Hot Cinnamon Spice by Harney’s…. Sooooo good!
I’m a tea person. I like black tea. Earl Grey, Irish or English Breakfast. I love the Paris tea. I also love Jasmine tea. When I’m at Starbucks, I might order a London Fog, which is Earl Grey with some vanilla syrup and steamed milk. Mmmm. I like milk and sweet in my tea. It’s almost like a dessert.
I do drink some herbal tea as iced tea. I drink most my teas iced with no sweet. And lots of ice. Mmmmm. Ice.
My dad hated the cuisinart burr grinder too – said it was so messy – but he loves the Baratza we got him for xmas. I bit the bullet and paid $160 for their basic analog model (encore), but I appreciate that the metal parts are replaceable/repairable. Return the cuisinart if you still can! Who cares if it’s not broken – if you hate it, better to use another Mr. Coffee for now.
I really love my Baratza Encore Burr Grinder. It’s a little loud, but not bad.
I like Uncommon Coffee Grinder’s Brazil Cerrado beans.
Tea. Almost any variety/flavor as long as it’s loose leaf.
I was on a cruise with a girlfriend last month. Everyone getting off the ship in Cozumel was going to the jewelry shops or souvenir shops. I found a tea and spice shop. So yummy.
OMG yes on the Cuisinart coffee grinder! We have a Cuisinart Grind & Brew coffee pot and it sounds like planes are taking off in our house every time we run the grind function. It’s terrible. We don’t run it if anyone in the house is sleeping because as you said, it would be a very rude way to wake up. I think Cuisinart just has a bad design for their grinder, which is really a shame because the machine makes good coffee.
My favourite Chinese teas are Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe), Long Jing (Dragon well) and Pu-Er. Teh tarik (Pulled tea) and teh halia (Ginger tea) are perfect on lazy Sunday mornings when paired with roti prata (Flatbread). Occasionally when I want a change in taste, 3 in 1 Ipoh white coffee and hot chocolate are my standbys. 🙂
Harney & Sons Earl Grey Supreme is my jam. My husband prefers coffee – I love coffee but only drink it rarely. We actually use a hand grinder for our beans… Doesn’t take as long as you’d think, and it tastes SO GOOD if you’re using a French press.
tropicana’s cocoa mint, it has no sugary ingredients as it’s a brand that promotes diabetes-friendly snacks and beverages. still tastes delicious with warm/hot water.
Tea, tea, tea! I loooove trying them from places we travel. The Amana Olonies in Iowa have great tea and so does Red Dragon Herbs and Tea. Red dragon even has a rootbeer flavor which really does taste like rootbeer. Also Adiago has amazing samplers of yummy goodness. I like to buy a new tea to try on your book day releases to enjoy with my books!
Coffee made with my fancy Italian espresso machine. I have a sage grinder, noisy, but because I drink espresso I’m only grinding 20g of beans at a time. I have a coffee subscription, so I get beans delivered every month from different roasters! It’s my one indulgence drinks-wise. I also worked out how much a daily Starbucks would cost and realised the machine would pay for itself in year!
My favorite tea is this stuff. https://www.fridaytea.com/products/scorpio So-far nobody I’ve made it for has liked it. It has peppers in. It’s true if you accidentally get it down the wrong pipe, you’re in for a bad time. But I think it’s so delicious.
I grew up in an old farm house. It had a cast iron hand-cranked coffee grinder bolted to the wall in the kitchen. I was a kid so I can’t speak to the quality of the coffee it produced. But it was still going strong after 30 years…
I’m so basic: Folgers Instant Coffee crystals. LOL
Mint chocolate chip hot chocolate w/a level spoon of Tasters Choice (house blend or french roast) depending and peppermint mocha creamer
Vroom vroom 🙂
I am a big tea drinker and I love it. One thing I am not good at is getting the water to the right temperature. I would be really interested in what you use/ how
Ilona kitted out Jeaniene Frost with tea paraphernalia, including this programmable kettle with different tea brewing settings: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cuisinart-CPK17BPU-Multi-Temp-Kettle-Stainless/dp/B07NDTH8ZN/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?c=ts&keywords=Electric+Kettles&qid=1677353465&refinements=p_4%3ACuisinart&s=kitchen-appliances&sr=1-1&ts_id=3538311031
Here is Jeaniene blog post ???? https://www.jeanienefrost.com/2022/07/the-tea-lady/
Beautiful cups (and what a lovely surprise it must have been….good husbanding Gordon!) ????
Morning in our house calls for Nescafé Classico coffee (not fancy, but easy and very tasty) with lots of milk and a tiny bit of Sugar in the Raw. If brewing coffee, I love using Dunkin’ Donuts whole beans that I grind with a cheap-o grinder. I’m just not a fancy person! ????
We also drink a lot of tea (especially at night) and love so many different kinds (both herbal/decaf and ‘regular’.) Some of our favorites are from Tea Source (love all of their tea but Irish Breakfast and English Rose teas are favorites), Stash(Breakfast in Paris, Christmas in Paris, Elderflower Citrus), Celestial Seasonings (Sleepy Time, Bengal Spice, I Love Lemon), Twinings (French Vanilla Chai), Bigelow (English Breakfast, Earl Grey), etc. We usually have at least 20 or 30 kinds of tea going at once. All depends what mood I’m in!
And if I am feeling very fancy at night, I make hot chocolate from scratch and add Amaretto! ????
Dragon eye oolong, blackberry jasmine oolong or earl gray lavender, all from Revolution teas.
Hot cocoa, (which my grandchildren insist on calling Snowman Soup) at any time of the day
Any Darjeeling and the Himalayan Imperial Black from Happy Earth Tea in Rochester, NY. https://happyearthtea.com/ Both have that gentleness of oolong but with a more subtle flavor that makes a happy dance on your tongue. The shop is owned by a husband-wife team. I’ve been buying their teas online for two decades and finally got to visit the shop a couple of years ago.
Rooibos. There’s a herbal tea brand called Pukka of which I’m very fond. Sadly these days I have to avoid anything containing liquorice, but two of their non-licquorice flavours of which I am very fond are Three Fennel and Three Mint. Also (and this will sound bizarre) 2 heaped tsp of Fair Trade Cocoa powder with about 1.25ml powdered cinnamon and a couple of drops of peppermint oil mixed with hot water. No sugar, no milk – it’s not cocoa, just a hot drink I enjoy. Takes all sorts to make a world, including sorts like me!! 🙂
I love the whole beans by red brick roasting. The butter pecan coffee beans are my favorite. I have created my own flavored iced coffee better than that big coffee chain. Also I use a Krups bean grinder. About $20 in walmart. Its a little loud and only grinds a 1/4cup at a time but it was a wedding gift so its 23 years old and still works fantastic.
Hey, BDH: I have a question. Has anybody tried using date syrup instead of honey in their tea?
I bought some Soom Date Syrup from my CSA last summer. It’s great on hot oatmeal or in certain recipes (for example, to replacing maple syrup.) This post has started me wondering how it might taste in tea and what kind (chai?) Maybe I will just try it…
Of course just try it. I just try stuff like that all the time, if it’s just me – I don’t experiment on others. Worst case scenario, you lose a cup of tea, but most people can probably choke it down for one time.
Tea drinker – and am obsessed with the coconut pouchung from Encore tea. I love how light it is!
https://www.encoreteas.com/product-page/coconut-pouchong
Best of luck with finding a decent grinder; as a tea drinker the field of such items is Terra Incognito to me. I go with quantity, having made six cups of Harney & Sons ‘Queen Catherine’ this morning. Yesterday it was a nice Lapsang Souchang.
Hello Ilona and Gordon, first the best coffee grinder if still made was made by Brevelle, (mine has been going strong for over 10 years now) believe German, that is the one I use and if you fill up the container to the brim with beans, you can get 4 reservoirs (ground coffee plastic container on unit) full to pour into another big stainless-steel coffee can (Walmart). At the coffee pot (keurig pot-which can make a pot or a K-cup-used to sell at Costco). I mix Eight O’clock French Vanilla with my ground coffee. If you have ever used Amway products and still have the laundry scoop, which is the perfect size for this measure. 3/4 scoop of the Eight o’clock FV and 1-1/4 scoop of the ground coffee you choose in pot (I use a paper filter along with the fixed filter) and that makes a wonderful pot of coffee, which I drink all day. The BH likes cold coffee, so periodically I make an extra pot, and fill up her quart jar (glass) which she then puts in the refrigerator to get cold. One pot usually lasts me till dinner time. FWIW-Grinding coffee is a loud noisy operation, but the results are worth it. Our Brevelle is not quiet but won’t run me out of the room. They are expensive. One of the best coffee makers around is the BUNN which might be still made. My first one still going strong is 25 years old, and we found another one as backup for 4 dollars at a thrift store. They actually make the best coffee; the carafe is just not large and end up making two pots a day. The keurig pot is ok, but it does not have a warmer, instead uses a thermo carafe, which does not keep it hot enough all day. I like the BUNN better, waiting for the Keurig to die. We keep our ground coffee in the refrigerator when being used. Some people say not to do that. In the South, Humidity gets to things, so keeping in fridge keeps it fresher for us. Happy coffee drinking.
Amazon is very good about returns, especially if it’s a product that does not work as it was advertised. You said it states in the product description that it’s supposed to make a certain amount of ground coffee but it makes much less than that. So that means it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to and it’s eligible for return and you should not be penalized. I would call but not go online to initiate a return. Amazon has started this crap where they want to charge seven or $8 to return items now and I always give them a hard time so that they’ll waive that charge. To my way of thinking if I went to the store and purchased it out of brick and mortar they wouldn’t charge me to return it if it didn’t work right so why should Amazon?! I would also make sure that you leave a review on the Amazon website so people know exactly why you don’t like it.
Give it to somebody, that’s what I do with regrettable purchases.
I love both tea and coffee! I have had to cut back on the coffee, so we rely on the Keurig more these days. I’m currently stuck on Tim Horton’s original blend for Keurig. For real coffee, I love the selection from Coffee AM, and I prefer the thick, syrupy Indonesian coffees. I like Sumatran coffee-usually Sumatra Mandehling, and love the organic Bali Blue Moon coffee. They make awesome cold brew coffee-if you like cold brew, my favorite cold brew maker is the Toddy Maker-Amazon has it. I worked in a coffee shop years ago, and we made tons of cold brew with it.
I have not had the best of luck with grinders, but that is my fault for buying cheap. Usually, you do get what you pay for. My current version is a Krups burr grinder that I picked up on clearance, and when it dies I will be looking for something else. It does a passable job, but like all the rest, it’s noisy.
For tea, I like Rishi tea-any of their chai blends is fabulous-and their regular strength Earl Grey. I also adore the Chocolate Pu’erh and aged Earl Grey from Numi tea.
Love hot chocolate, but limit it to once a week during winter, but I make it luscious. I love Fortunato hot chocolate, and for cheaper chocolates, adding Irish cream, Kahlua, or Frangelico really enhances the flavor. Other than that, I drink lots and lots of water-between a gallon and half a gallon a day.
The cups are important, it makes everything taste better. I have special China cups and mugs for my tea, cocoa and decaf. Earl Grey decaf tea with honey and half & half most of the time. A good peppermint hot cocoa made with milk. Occasionally, in the evenings, herbal Blueberry Lavender Tea which is a lovely blue-purple color and supposed to be good for your skin. Occasionally, in the morning, I’ll make a mocha with snickerdoodle decaf coffee from the local grocery store.
I love many teas, but my favorite type is a milk or silky oolong. The first infusion has yummy caramel notes, and the next ones have more milk aftertaste :
https://winghopfung.com/collections/loose-oolong-tea/products/premium-silky-green-tea-1367?variant=32524047155285
Wing Hop Fung has a high quality tea selection and the tea counter in the Arcadia location is a wonderland.
I have tried to become a coffee snob, but I like my family’s coffee the best: Milk with Yuban from a drip machine 😛
My mom has a coffee grinder that sounds like a jet engine. I wonder if it is a cuisinart. I just use the magic bullet I bought 20 years ago. It’s not good for much else, but it will grind coffee very finely. Good for espresso. I get extra fancy swiss water process decaf from Mayorga. Lovely coffee, it’s hard to find a decent tasting decaf, and they have very big bags if you’re so inclined. I find 12 oz lasts me quite a while at one cup a day.
But I also love brewing chocolate from Chocolate Alchemy (they sell beans and equipment to make your own chocolate! I wish I had the time to do that). And genmaicha with some cream, though I have to take it easy with it since it’s so hard to find the good stuff for a reasonable price anymore.
I have returned things to amazon that I just didn’t like when they got to me. I just check no longer needed and write in at the bottom the reasons I didn’t like it. They have never refused to let me return anything. It sounds like it doesn’t work well either so you could also check item wasn’t as described. BTW I have been rereading the Kate and Curren series and still enjoy it as much as the first time I read it. Actually maybe more. Thanks for all your wonderful books!!
Community Coffee w/cream, 1850 coffee, hot cider..
Most of my tea is unsweetened iced tea…
Love Community Coffee. They serve it on SouthWest flights, it’s great.
I just laughed. Loudly.
Thanks!!
Believe it or not, Aldi Instant is as good as fresh ground, fresh brewed coffee.
We used to grind, but a taste test proved, for us, us we were wasting our time.
We now do decaf, exclusively. The real thrill is that I can mix it in just a little water to dissolve it, then add more (filtered) water and almond milk and ice in an instant for iced coffee. It’s 86* in Florida, today, hence the iced coffee.
We have a Keurig coffee maker, and I love that it’s simple and I can drop a pod in and presto! I have coffee. It can do ice coffee too, but I prefer my bodum cold brew.
I’d return the cuisinart grinder regardless. I can do both hot tea—usually black tea—and hot coffee and will go through spells for either or and both. I really enjoyed the Hong Kong milk tea I got from a local Chinese restaurant. I would love to recreate that in the near future at home. ????
If I have time, turmeric golden milk, spice cider, ginger tea, chai tea
Strongly recommend Baratza Encore – Normally it’s around $150, but Amazon has it for about $110 right now. I went from an old version of the mr.coffee grinder to th is, and it’s made such a big difference in my morning coffee.
not the same old grind. this first pic is the Cuisinart combined grinder and coffee maker. my wife got it for me at Home Goods a few years ago, so somewhat discounted from usual retail for this brand. Also, the grinder is the “”BURR GRINDER”” kind which is guaranteed to be the noisiest on the market. Can’t speak for you unit but this will grind just the right amount of coffee for whatever number of cups I set. If yours doesn’t – contact MFG as they have always been responsive and replaced what needed to be replaced. one more thing next pic.
Hamilton Beach sells this blade type coffee and spice etc. grinder. I was surprised and amazed at how quiet this particular grinder turned out to be. Much quieter than most blade or burr grinders. cup can be removed, washed, used for nuts or spices, you get the picture. did I mention pretty quiet? and very inexpensive at around 25 or 30 dollars at Walmart or other fine stores, maybe.
no way this actually holds 14 cups of grind, but it is very quiet
I am a hot chocolate drinker, but I like the dark hot chocolate that only certain brands make at certain times of the year. I have way too much trouble sleeping to drink coffee. I can drink tea but usually stick to herbal teas with local honey if I can get it.
I’m from Australia and have a breville barista express. I generally make two double shots of espresso in the morning and make one into a latte and take the other one to work for later (I either nuke some milk in the microwave or have an iced latte). In the evening I have decaf tea; chai; or hot chocolate.
I love the ritual of making tea and have beautiful tea pots and cups. Yours are beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
English Breakfast or Irish Breakfast tea in the morning, and cocoa on the stovetop weekends and evenings, with 3 large marshmallows in my oversized mug.
In 1988 we got a Krups. It was loud!!!! but it was free/gift and it worked well and lasted until 2020. I agree, the best part of waking up is not a buzz saw on the counter. In the 30 years since, we discovered that buying ground coffee is not horrible. Then from Amazon I bought a Krups grinder billed as quieter but not silent. Very happy with this one!