Coffee on board

mrangry

mrangry

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I am trying to make the boat as appealing as possible to the missus, she is new to sailing and already been sea sick. With this in mind she likes coffee (easy pleased) but not instant, so can I ask what you guys do to make coffee on board. I am also hoping it will mask the boaty toilet smell and with three heads its not easy to keep on top of. I had a look online and it seems you can get 12v coffee machines but just looking for your personal experiences. I also have a small stove top thing at home but it doesn't seem well balanced.
 
It also depends on how you like your coffee!
I'm not a great fan of espresso and its derivatives. So for me, a simple filter works best. Coffee bags are a reasonable alternative .
If you want strong & dark, a stovetop espresso machine, such as a Bialetti.
For enhanced aroma, grind your own beans.
If you want to go over the top, roast your own beans!
 
One of these off ebay for freshly ground beans >
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Then into one of these >
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johnalison said:
We use a cafetiere, being easy to stow and clean.
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Same here.
After a bit of a disaster with a cheap plastic one, we have used an all stainless one for some years now.
Mate of mine has gone posh with an insulated one.

I've been known to turn up for a cross-channel on other people's boats with the cafetiere and a couple of packs of coffee.
I usually take my own teabags in case people have gone herbal or Earl Grey.
Personally I am not averse to certain instant coffees. Made properly with a splash of cold water before the hot. The Colombian one from Aldi is OK IMHO, or Alta Rica.

All wasted if your cups are plastic with a residual tang of bacon and diesel. China mugs for in port, stainless for at sea.
 
I am fussy about my coffee and only a good espresso makes me happy. I got rid of the ground beans machine as it tended to be messy and fiddly. The cartridges type is the way to go. Any espresso machine however is power hungry and you can forget a 12V one (I am even not sure if they exist). They may not be all the same, but the one I have turned out the first appliance that wasn't happy with my modified wave inverter. The temperature control was going bananas causing overheating. A new 3kW pure sinewave inverter fixed this problem.
As for the heads - I don't think just killing the smell by air fresheners is good enough. A laundry bleach - about a spoonful in the bowl after each use does magic and in contrary to popular belief it doesn't cause any harm to the system.
 
Carib said:
I must say I've never found cafetieres particularly easy to clean - quite the opposite! Maybe I'm doing it wrong..
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It's like the old-time prospectors panning for gold:
Put a kitchen towel over the sink plughole then put just enough water into the grounds to create a slurry which will rotate freely when you swirl the cafetiere, then dump smartly into the kitchen towel amd allow to drain.
 
dune16 said:
I too am a bit fussy when it comes to coffee and was looking into the viability of getting some sort of Nespresso capsule based machine..... until I tried the instant Nescafe Azera Americano, it's actually pretty good and hassle free! Worth a try at least
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I find Azera quite tolerable too. I wouldn't have a capsule machine based on the single-use waste aspect (even if some are now at least recyclable).
 
We are very fussy over coffee - but the impact of a fresh hot cup or mug of coffee is ephemeral . Sort out the basics first. Go and buy and then grind some fresh ginger, mix with demerara sugar and hot water. When you buy the fresh ginger also buy candied ginger. Offer the hot ginger water BEFOE you get out on the water and have the candied ginger at hand.

Once you return, or anchor (dare I mention'anchor'?) THEN think about the coffee.

Life is too short to have instant coffee.

Jonathan
 
I have a friend who brings a stovetop Moka pot and also a 12v pumped espresso machine (it's designed to sit in a car's cupholder and takes quite a while to make a single shot of coffee). There's also a cafetiere on board which might get used after dinner. All that said, if it's down to me I just use one of the fancy instants that have a small proportion of finely ground beans included - they're as easy to use as the old-fashioned nescafé granules but give a much better result that I at least can't tell from ground coffee.

More importantly though - fix the toilets! There's no reason that toilets on a boat have to smell. Just because heavily used and minimally-maintained charter boats or old MABs often do, doesn't mean it's inevitable.

Pete
 
Spirit (of Glenans) said:
It's like the old-time prospectors panning for gold:
Put a kitchen towel over the sink plughole then put just enough water into the grounds to create a slurry which will rotate freely when you swirl the cafetiere, then dump smartly into the kitchen towel amd allow to drain.
Click to expand...
As in bars knock the coffee grounds out into the rubbish bin
 
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