Recessionista Brewed Coffee

I refuse to buy a coffee machine.

Reasons Why

1) I don't want to spend the money
2) I have no space for a coffee machine. The space I do have, I would like to fill with a nice food processor (yet to be purchased).
3) I shouldn't drink too much coffee anyways. A machine would facilitate more coffee drinking.

I have a French press I purchased from Ikea eons ago but I never use it. I feel that it makes the coffee super strong and a bit sludgy. I like my weak drip coffee thank you very much. So I devised a method of brewing coffee without the use of a press or a machine. I call it "Recessionista Brewing" since it was developed out of my scrappy, penny pinching nature.



You will need a tea kettle, coffee grounds, a spoon, a pasta strainer, a coffee filter and your favorite coffee mug.


While you are heating up your water in your tea kettle, position your pasta strainer over your favorite coffee mug.


Then scoop coffee grounds into your filter and place filter over the pasta strainer. This is a very delicate balancing act. Make sure the strainer is stable and that the filter sits squarely over it. You may need to do some clever maneuvering.


Pour hot water over the coffee grounds. Do this in several stages and not all at once to get the drip effect. The more stages you do, the stronger the coffee. If you pour all the water in at once, you are going to get some really week coffee. Basically you are trying to mimic what a coffee machine does, which is feed water slowing through the coffee grounds and the filter to drip below.


Voila! You have a nice cuppa drip coffee. Enjoy.


4 comments:

Raquel said...

Good god! Spend $3 and get one of these: http://www.jr.com/melitta/pe/MEL_64007/

My mom has one and LOVES IT. She uses it every day and it has lasted her for years. I've tried it too and it brews a good cup of coffee. No clever maneuvering necessary! It has a very small hole at the bottom that the water filters slowly through.

Another bonus is that you can easily take it to go with you to work, travel, wherever! :)

I think they sell these things at Shaw's too, so you don't have to buy it online.

Anonymous said...

One of my most favorite people in the world makes their coffee like this, and I think always has.

Raquel Stecher said...

Raquel - oohh! I have never seen that lovely contraption. I would spend $3 on that for sure.

Saucyandbossy - Oh that's really neat! I wonder how many other people make their coffee this way.

Jonas Nordin said...

Recessionista! Wonderful!
A Charming post as usual! But I must admit that the first thing I thought about was a Melitta filter holder but Raquel already pointed you in that direction so I will comment on the Ikea presser...

I use one of these myself and it's making the best possible coffe for my needs. OK I like it strong (No, just because I'm European doesn't mean I like my coffe so strong the spoon stands for itself in it, like it would do in a jam jar)but the secret is to use coarse ground coffee or a special brand made for these presssers. Ordinary fine ground coffe destined for filter brewing simply doesn't work and gives a very unpleasent "dépôt".
Give it a second try with correcttly ground and roasted coffee! You won't regret it.