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I was advised by a friend to use Word Press rather than Blogger. So check me out at http://guyscupofcoffee.wordpress.com/

Is French Press Coffe Bad for Your Health?

A Rat Study
My neighbor mentioned that he heard about a negative effect of French Press made coffee rather than paper filtered coffee. I searched Google and found that coffee has a compound called Cafestol that increases blood cholesterol. Paper filters lowers the amount of this compound in your cup of coffee (I've linked to a guy's blog that summarizes finding from legitimate science journals - take it from me a chemist). But realize that these studies were done on rats that were fed cafestol. While not discounting the study, the conclusions were not based on the regular drinking of coffee drinking by humans.

French Press or Not French Press?
Be aware of the facts. Don't go overboard. If you have to drink 6-8 cups of coffee everyday, then maybe drink paper filtered coffee. If you just have a mug of coffee every morning, then it's probably fine to drink French Press made coffee. Eat a bowl of oatmeal or Cheerios with your coffee to help with your cholesterol level.

How Bad is Coffe for Us?
Another study following 130,000 healthy volunteers (in their 40's and 50's at the start of the study) for 18-24 years. They drank 6 cups of coffee a day. No relationship between their coffee drinking and increased risk of death from cancer, cardiovascular, or any other cause was found.

Use Some Common Sense
So what should we conclude? Use some common sense. Drink coffee with a clear conscience, unless you find ill-effects in your health.

Guy's Personal Coffee History

Childhood
I grew up with coffee drinking parents who were the product of the 50's. Hills Brothers, Folgers, and Sanka were all common household brands. However, I never drank coffee until my senior year in college -- I was still hoping I would grow a few more inches -- I stopped growing at 5'3" at age 15.

The 80's
Unfortunately, my memory is drawing blanks during this time. One memory I have of the time between college and grad school -- Friday nights, my dad and I would go to an Italian restaurant. I found the secret to the perfect meal. A good beer before the meal. A good wine during the meal. A cup of coffee with dessert -- a rich chocolate mousse. Mmm. Hedonistic heaven! In grad school I don't think coffee was that big of a part of my life. Maybe a cup when I first got to school.

The 90's
After grad school (PhD in chemistry), I went into Christian ministry. I lived in a large house with about 12 other male college students - the house was like a Christian frat house. Went to bed at midnight. Woke up at 6:00. Then studied the Bible with 4-5 other Christian workers with the intensity of supreme court justices every morning, Tuesday through Friday.

THIS WAS THE TIME OF SERIOUS COFFEE DRINKING!

We had the usual Folgers/Maxwell House/etc. coffee made in a Mr. Coffee. My sister also gave me an espresso machine she had gotten as a wedding gift. I made myself pseudo-lattes -- I cheated and just heated up the milk in a microwave and poured in a triple shot.

2001
I moved to Ann Arbor, MI in 2001 and lived a few blocks down from Trader Joe's. I began drinking Trader Joe's organic coffee. Mmm. That was good coffee. Still made in a Mr. Coffee. But it sure tasted good.

2005
I moved to Pittsburgh. Unfortunately I no longer lived near Trader Joe's. I did find organic beans at Sam's Club. 2.5 lbs for $14.42. Not bad, that's $5.77 a pound. This was good coffee. But my wife did not shop much at Sam's club, so to purchase a $50 yearly membership just to buy coffee seemed unreasonable to me.

I also upgraded my coffee maker to a Cuisinart Grind and Brew - thanks to a "free" gift from one of my credit card companies.

Just about 6-8 weeks ago, I saw 8 O'Clock coffee on sale at Giant Eagle - buy one get one free. I heard that this was decent coffee. I bought one light roast, and got a dark roast for free. Yuck! It had a chemical aftertaste, especially the light roast. The organic coffee I made before even tasted ok one day later - just water it down a little and heat it up in a microwave. But when I did the same thing to 8 O'Clock, that chemical taste was like chewing on bandaids.

Then I read God in a Cup. I found it in the new book section of the library. This book was inspiring. It put a desire within me to investigate the coffee world.

My philosophy is whereever we are, we should be able to at least take one small step toward improvement. So here is where I have begun my coffee journey - 8 O'Clock Coffee made in a Cuisinart Grind and Brew. The French Press was my first step toward improvement.

How to Use a French Press

FYI: there are really good directions for using a French Press (for those who read and those who watch).

Here's what I did:

1. Grind beans and put into the French Press.
   
2. Boil water - turn off heat and wait 45 sec.
3. Pour in water.
4. Set timer for 4 minutes.
5. At 1 minute mark, stir the coffee.
6. Put the lid on the Press with the plunger up.
7. When the timer goes off at 4 minutes, push the plunger down.
8. Pour yourself a cup of coffee.
   

The French Press -- An Unadulterated Cup of Coffe

Thanks to a friend and coworker who let me borrow his Bodum French Press Coffee Maker, I tasted my first cup of coffee as promoted by the book, God in a Cup.

What's the verdict? The French Press makes a cup of coffee that is unadulterated -- it just slaps you in the face! It's kind of like seeing a closeup shot of a TV personality, who has not gone through makeup, in HD. Get the picture? Your jaw drops, "Oh man, is that what you really look like?" The true character is revealed for better or for worse.

Over the last 6 weeks I have been drinking 8 O' Clock coffee. I bought whole beans from Giant Eagle. It was on sale "buy one get one free." So I bought two 2lb bags -- one light roast, the other dark roast. I've been brewing my coffee in a Cuisinart Grind and Brew Coffee Maker. Well the 8 O' Clock coffee has had a disgusting chemical after taste.

I decided to try the 8 O' Clock coffee in the French Press. The good news is that the French Press definitely pulled out the flavor of the coffee beans with an intensity that made me no longer taste the chemical after taste (Do you think 8 O' Clock coffee comes from China?). The bad news is that one of the flavors that attacked my taste buds was dirt. The coffee actually tasted like the beans had been dried on a dirt floor.

So here is my conclusion: If we were living in the 50's where all available coffee was bad, then just drink cowboy/percolator coffee that burns the coffee anyway until we've got a good cup of black mud filled with a strong dose of caffeine.

The 70's has allowed us enjoy drip coffee, thanks to Mr. Coffee. Even Maxwell House and Hills Brothers tastes better drip than percolated.

Having lived through the 90's, Starbucks has shown us that there are better beans than Maxwell House and Hills Brothers. But we've got to find a way to keep us that standard without paying $2 a cup.

So here we are in the 21st century. This is post-Starbucks. The French Press has opened my eyes to a new world of coffee. Imagine a world of unadulterated coffee. Unadulterated -- for better or for worse. I like the prospect of attacking and at the same time educating my taste buds with the subtleties of coffee. How delicate will my palate become? I don't know.

Time to begin the adventure.

Best Cheap Cup of Coffe

So I'm starting a new blog about making the best cheap cup of coffee ever.

I just read God in a Cup. Great book! For those of you out there that like to read books (I know we are a minority) and like coffee, this is a great book to read. It has challenged my coffee taste buds.

This book appeals to the elitist in me. It begins by talking about a coffee (La Esmeralda from Panama) that sells wholesale for $130 per pound! This book speaks of a world that is trying to push coffee into the status of vintage wine. For the socially conscious, the coffee dealers in the book also intend to have people buy coffee at premium prices then share those profits with the poor indigenous farmers in Central and South America and in Africa.

So in this blog I am going to carry out an experiment. I don't know if I have the palate to appreciate fine, vintage coffee. But I would like to see if I can upgrade my coffee standards without getting too outrageous with the price -- since we are now in the 21st century's Great Depression, it would be a little irresponsible to drink coffee at $150 per pound -- only a modern-day Marie Antoinette would say, "Let them drink Starbucks!"