Andy Chase

It's been a week since I started using my new Chemex coffee maker. Just as when I finally bought a coffee grinder and switched to whole beans, I don't know how I ever used anything else to make coffee.

Earlier last week, I broke my Mr. Coffee's carafe, and after difficulty finding a replacement at a convenient location like Sav-On or Rite-Aid, I had resorted to brewing my coffee into a Thermos by means of a funnel, some old #2 cone filters I had lying around, and water from the kettle. Of course, this is the way that my culinary god Alton Brown recommended brewing in an episode of Good Eats I saw over a year ago, but since I had a perfectly good coffee maker up until last week, I never really thought to try it.

The near-boiling water really seems to extract much more flavor from the grounds, and since I'd only used the funnel for this purpose a few times it hadn't absorbed any of the nasty residues that the coffee maker's filter basket had. The resulting coffee was rich, full, and somehow cleaner tasting than anything the Mr. Coffee had produced in recent memory. The Thermos/funnel combination was less than ideal, since the Thermos is such a pain to keep clean, and suddenly it occurred to me that a ready-made solution existed and was readily available at my friendly neighborhood coffee purveyor, The Coffee Roaster. My parents had one of the funny-lookin' things for as long as I could remember, although it usually sat unused in a kitchen cupboard: a Chemex coffee maker.

The distinctive hourglass-shaped carafe with its wooden handle (fastened by a knotted piece of rawhide) has been around since 1940, and was (so this page says) developed by a chemist for the express purpose of brewing a perfect cup of coffee. I'm a big fan of the union of form and function, and the Chemex has this down; the hourglass shape eliminates the need for any sort of separate filter basket; the cone shape filter just sits in the flange at the top of the pot. No extra mung-absorbing basket with lots of little ridges that make it impossible to clean; just smooth, completely non-porous glass. The Chemex brand filters are thicker than most others, and multilayered. The multiple layers are only on one half of the filter - perhaps to control the amount of coffee that passes through the filter at different concentrations? The instructions don't offer an explanation.

The thicker filter does mean longer brewing time, and because you have to pour the water in manually this generally means that you need to hover near the kitchen while the coffee is brewing. You can't pour the water into the filter all at once; there just isn't room. I suppose that for some people this alone would be the deal-breaker. There is a certain convenience to the Ronco "Set it and Forget it" kitchen appliance philosophy, but if you're particular about your coffee the loss of automation is well worth the improvement in the end result. Also conspicuously absent is a hot plate for keeping the coffee warm once it's brewed. I don't really miss this either, since leaving the coffee on a heat element just makes it burnt and bitter anyway. The microwave works just fine, if I feel like I need to reheat the coffee at all; it's smooth enough to drink lukewarm or even at room temperature, if I can't be bothered to schlep my mug into the kitchen.

My only complaint about the Chemex is the way the wooden handle is attached; you don't want to wash the thing with the handle attached lest the wood get all mildewed, warped, or dried out, but it's somewhat inconvenient to untie the rawhide and disassemble the two halves of the handle every time you need to wash the carafe out. This will probably be less of a chore with time; even after only a week I've gotten pretty deft at dismantling and reassembling the works.

All in all, a little more expensive than buying a replacement carafe but a lot more stylish and a much better implement for brewing coffee. I look forward to using mine for years to come.

Last fall I wrote some fairly acerbic things about the general lack of quality of coffee in the workplace and posted them on Intercrap… I’d link to it but Intercrap has been experiencing technical difficulties for some months now.

Anyway, the gist of the thing was that I’m tired, so very tired of bad coffee maker maintenance at the office… just the basic stuff, like actually washing the carafe and filter basket before making a new pot. Quality coffee helps too, but it is gracious of companies to provide free coffee at all, and they can’t be faulted for going with the cheap stuff like Yuban.

But ye gods, our department’s designated coffee maker is in a room without a sink! I think somebody rinses and wipes out the carafe somewhere at the end of the day, but that’s about it.

Soon after I started here I went the bring-your-own-Thermos route for a while, but that got old quickly. A month or so ago I brought in a jar of instant coffee, reasoning that at least instant coffee is consistent, even if it’s not really coffee.

Every once in a while I will still go for the gusto and pour myself a mug of black coffee from the office carafe, and every time I am unprepared for how awful it is; bitter, overextracted, and burnt.

This week I have taken to adding non-dairy creamer and sugar to the stuff, which makes it tolerable… and it finally occurs to me (duh) that this is probably why a lot of people add copious milk/cream/creamer and sugar to their coffee.

I’ve been accused of being a coffee snob, but what I really am is spoiled by a small place in Sherman Oaks, CA called The Coffee Roaster - they roast their own beans in the store, and brew it to perfect strength.

I know a lot of people drink coffee for the caffeine as opposed to the taste, but to me that’s buying some Oscar Meyer sliced turkey for Thanksgiving because all you’re after is the Tryptophan. Or drinking Budweiser/Coors.

It’s like anything else… if your mom/aunt/grandmother makes the best apple pie in the world, all other apple pies will prove disappointing

Then there are those who will actively avoid good coffee. The experience that truly blew my mind happened a couple of years ago, when I worked across the street from Mani’s Bakery on Fairfax. They’re an organic ingredients only type of place, right down to their coffee. One day somebody from another office of my then employer came by our office to pick up some paperwork or some such. Somebody was going to make a run across the street for coffee, and asked her if she wanted a cup and she said, “Sure!” Then, clearly as an afterthought (After all, it’s not an exaggeration to say there’s a Starbucks on every corner in Los Angeles) she asked “Is it Starbucks?”

When we told her it wasn’t Starbucks but maybe even a little bit better, without that omnipresent burnt taste, she rolled her eyes and proudly proclaimed, “Well, I only drink Starbucks coffee.”

It was as though we had suggested that she drink some bottled toilet water instead of Evian. Were we supposed to be impressed? Or feel inferior? I don’t know. I just want a decent cup of coffee.