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The Coffee Thread

chartz said:
Hi,
I love coffee, always have.
However, my lovely wife has a profound allergy to coffee smell, unlike 99 % of humanity perhaps.
This is so strong that the slightest coffee smell has her seriously angry, and leaves her with a migraine so strong that she can only treat it with Ketoprofen.

This is a serious question.

Any advice?
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exchange for a newer model
 
I don’t have upgraditis. After 37 years she’s a keeper.
But seriously, is there a cure?
 
I have a big allergy to perfume (any fragrance). It is caused by some cyst somewhere I was told.
But coffee?
 
Slightly off-topic: I'm allergic to eggs, always have been. The smell (boiled, scrambled etc) makes me nauseous; if I eat some (in chinese food for example) I get very queasy and temperature rises. I can not stomach scrambled/boiled/fried etc - vomiting. Thankfully mixed into food such as cakes, no issue. Thought I'd grow out of it, sadly not. Feel blessed though that they don't provoke such a strong response as migraine or mood changes. @chartz your wife could consult with an alergy specialist or perhaps a naturopath or homeopath to try and identify triggers or why she has become hypersensitive to coffee smell. I just live with the egg thing. HTH.
 
chartz said:
I have a big allergy to perfume (any fragrance). It is caused by some cyst somewhere I was told.
But coffee?
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have you been tested? - I am truly allergic to house dust mites - had prick tests. Symptoms are asthma and urticaria. And am intolerant to strawberry, I come out in a bad rash - again I was tested.

I hate perfume, it gives me almost an instantaneous headache....but I haven't tested for it, so I'd never claim an allergy.
 
gintonic said:
have you been tested? - I am truly allergic to house dust mites - had prick tests. Symptoms are asthma and urticaria. And am intolerant to strawberry, I come out in a bad rash - again I was tested.

I hate perfume, it gives me almost an instantaneous headache....but I haven't tested for it, so I'd never claim an allergy.
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That is a form of allergy, isn’t it? Doesn’t have to be severe. A sensitivity maybe.
 
chartz said:
That is a form of allergy, isn’t it? Doesn’t have to be severe. A sensitivity maybe.
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no I don't consider it to be an allergy. Maybe a sensitivity but I don't get the concept of a "sensitivity" in the medical sense
 
gintonic said:
his will be a blade "grinder", which effectively chops the coffee beans.

wrong - it isnt about finer it is about consistency of grind size. Wilfa SVART is a burr grinder made especially for french press/pourover and perculator - considered excellent and nicely priced. https://wilfa.co.uk/collections/coffee-grinders/products/wilfa-silver-coffee-grinder
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Hi GT, aha well I was wrong then. Ok I'll not interfere with his burr grinder perusal then.

That one looks snazzy, but jeepers £100?! He's got his eye on a dualit burr grinder- I know I know, china junk, but he's of the age if there's a glossy advert for X, he'll think it must be good.

He's seen this dualit one you see (on his ipad I bought him!) never heard of them he said.. although I bought him a (proper UK one) bloomin dualit toaster 4 years ago too!! Haha.
 
I often wondered with a name like Wilfa Svart if it was developed by Mike Oxlong. But seriously, £100 isn’t a lot for a burr grinder and that should make a lot of difference from his blade grinder.
 
I was going to say, the best cheap option is a hand grinder but now that I check the classic Porlex Mini is now £80! The Hario one can still be had for about half that although the one with ceramic burrs is about £50. Prices generally seem to have gone up and the classic first "proper" grinder the Baratza Encore which was £130 for years is now more like £180.

The ubiquitous budget choices are from the likes of Krups and De'Longhi but those models vary in quality and the better ones are in the £60 - £80 range. The Wilfa Svart will be much better than any of those and is a good shout at £100.

The important thing to remember about grinders is that, other than the coffee itself and ignoring water for simplicity, the grinder is the thing that determines the quality of your final cup of coffee. There is a mostly linear increase in quality from good entry level grinders like the Svart through the mid-level Baratzas etc. to the excellent Wilfa Uniform which is about as much as I would spend on a grinder for non-espresso coffee.

A good grinder is never a bad thing and is always money well spend for someone who loves coffee. The thing that grinds my burrs coffee wise is £££ bean to cup machines which almost always look hideous, take up too much space and make make much worse coffee than an £8 plastic funnel or the cafetiere you still have from when you were a student making industrial strength Lavazza to cure hangovers.

I also note he's buying from Monmouth which will be excellent, well roasted coffee. This will already put his coffee in the upper end of most home coffee (it's quite hard to make it wrong in a cafetiere) and makes as much grinder as budget will allow well worth it.
 
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matthewr said:
I was going to say, the best cheap option is a hand grinder but now that I check the classic Porlex Mini is now £80! The Hario one can still be had for about half that although the one with ceramic burrs is about £50.
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I bought a Hario Skerton+, and while it grinds well, the size of it hurts my damaged wrist so much I have had to give up using it. So I got an Ascaso i-Mini burr grinder for £30 from ebay! Works well enough for me and kind of matches my Europiccola.
 
matthewr said:
The important thing to remember about grinders is that, other than the coffee itself and ignoring water for simplicity, the grinder is the thing that determines the quality of your final cup of coffee. There is a mostly linear increase in quality from good entry level grinders like the Svart through the mid-level Baratzas etc. to the excellent Wilfa Uniform which is about as much as I would spend on a grinder for non-espresso coffee.

A good grinder is never a bad thing and is always money well spend for someone who loves coffee. The thing that grinds my burrs coffee wise is £££ bean to cup machines which almost always look hideous, take up too much space and make make much worse coffee than an £8 plastic funnel or the cafetiere you still have from when you were a student making industrial strength Lavazza to cure hangovers.

I also note he's buying from Monmouth which will be excellent, well roasted coffee. This will already put his coffee in the upper end of most home coffee (it's quite hard to make it wrong in a cafetiere) and makes as much grinder as budget will allow well worth it.
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I can concur that the grinder is most important for good espresso. Years ago I looked into this and realised that to get top notch coffee was rather like HiFi - what you lose up front can't be replaced lower down the chain. My mini Mazzer electronic is now 18 years old and used daily.

Also with the correct top notch beans I have had excellent results with a SwissGold filter. I have the smaller version of this one SwissGold SwissGold KF4 6-12 Cup Reusable Coffee Filter | WOWooO Its not espresso but if you want a long black or as the base for milk and other coffees it can give excellent results. Mine was bought more than 18 years ago and is still brought out now and again - sometimes with beans ground on my 20 yo Krups!

DV
 
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Darth Vader said:
SwissGold filter. I have the smaller version of this one SwissGold SwissGold KF4 6-12 Cup Reusable Coffee Filter | WOWooO Its not espresso
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yes it isnt espresso - it is a pourover

Darth Vader said:
My mini Mazzer electronic is now 18 years old and used daily.
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my mini mazzer lasted 5 years of daily use before it needed new burrs..... that was about 25 years ago. Long since moved on. i then has a Rancillio Rocky used daily for about a decade - replaced burrs after about 8 years. Now on a Niche
 
I was going to say that my Bodum conical-burr grinder was a bargain compared to the price of models mentioned here, but I see that these now cost €150! (£130?) I have it maybe 10 years, but I’m pretty sure I only paid half that for it.
 
I’ve had a Zassenhaus German hand grinder for 30 years. It had a lifetime warranty and still grinds perfectly after all those years. Recommended.
 
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I started out with a Bodum conical burr grinder. It had trouble grinding fine enough for espresso, produced massive variation in grind for minimal input, though worst of all was the racket it made - argghHHHHHHHH! Still, it looked brilliant (a lovely bit of industrial design) and took up little space. It was paid for with loyalty points, and sold quickly once we'd upgraded, so was relatively painless to own. Our espresso took a big step forward when upgrading to the Eureka Mignon Silenzio.
 
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