Thanks to Graham Stephan for letting me help create this wonderful roast. Check out Penny University Coffee at www.bankrollcoffee.com/products/penny-university-x-max-miller-coffee
Britain of course taking full credit for a tradition that has been formed earlier on somewhere else - in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Vienna mostly. Left behind by the fleeing Ottomans after their unsuccessful attack on the capital, the habit of drinking coffee took on in the city of Vienna, spread over Europe, to Italy etc from it's very center.
This is basically how I make my coffee. A couple of tips. Grind it more in the Turkish style, you want the fine particles to be suspended in the water. I let the grinds sink for a few minutes before pouring. In your stainless steel bowl, jiggle the edges a few times to increase sinking. I use med Guatemalan roast and it's perfect as is, better than Americano. I imagine the running or river water means not a hard water. Ph probably changes flavor profile to make it bitter. I use well water. (I was a barista for a while.)
Read the graffiti of Pompeii or the vindolanda postcards sometime. People don't change. As an aside, that's why fallout series has the motto "war never changes" People still go to war for the reasons and do the same things in wars in a post nuclear apocalyptic landscape because people never change.
It’s important to keep in mind living conditions at the time. Most people didn’t otherwise have offices or a lot of space wherever they lived. Also, it was much more expensive to provide heating and light in your residence than it is today. Even for a relatively well-off person, doing something at home would involve lighting candles, building a fire, etc. Today going to Starbucks seems like a luxury (in the sense of costing way more than doing it at home) but at the time, it was probably less expensive.
Office in a coffeehouse could also be considered the reversed precedent for coffeepot in the office. To a lesser extent this could also be hanging out in the breakroom where the coffee is.
My great grandfather on my mother's side (WW1 vet) used to make coffee in a baking dish or cake pan by covering the bottom in a layer of Folger's grounds & using an old coffee can to fill the dish up about 3/4 the way, then pop it in the oven at ~250. He'd have his first few cups at full strength by dipping with another mug to fill his. He'd add water throughout the day so his last cups after dinner were much weaker & he could sleep. I can testify that it tasted godawful. On Sunday mornings when the family gathered, it would be so strong my folks would just add a few spoonfuls then fill up the rest of the mug with hot water & creamer. Now when I make strong French press or moka pot coffee my dad makes fun comparing me to old Elmer Moody.
We always called this method of making coffee "cowboy coffee". My mom taught me this method when we had a power outage, due to weather, and couldn't use our electric coffee maker.
I had a very similar experience. My Mom showed me this method because it is supposed to have less acid in it. Man those were good times. Thank you for jarring my memory and bringing those back🥲
My grandfather always drank his coffe from a bowl. I always thought it was a bit odd. Now I know he was historically accurate! It's one of my favorite memories of him!
I'm only halfway through the video, but in case Max didn't address it, my Papa drank from the saucer because it cooled a lot faster than it would otherwise.
@@ledeyabaklykova XD the French did but I've always used cups 😅 my parents are Serbians, so the first time I saw people use bowls for coffee was at summer camp when I was 10.
I found myself chuckling through this video because I was a barista for 9 years, and there were a lot of regulars who would come and camp out all day every day and drive me crazy. I wonder if the employees at these penny universities felt the same way 😆
In Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson", I got the impression that the proprietors appreciated the regularity of the business, with no need to advertise. They could also charge a "handling fee" for sending the boy down the road to the caterer's, when a table of customers didn't wish to break for dinner - and didn't even need to wash the dishes before sending them back.
i was a barista for four years and i do Not miss having to explain to people daily that a Caramel Macchiato is only a starbucks thing and it's the same as a caramel latte -__-
The best coffee beans I ever had was “Crystal Mountain”, the national brand of coffee in Cuba. I took a trip there in 2016. I never saw another brand while I was there. My grandfather grumbled when I told him I was visiting Cuba, but when I came back (with six bags worth of the beans) and had him try it, he had an odd respect for Cuba after that. Anytime Cuba was mentioned after that, he would still grumble, but he would always add the caveat “they have some damn good coffee though!” RIP Grandpa Joel, 2019
What are the flavor notes for this cofee? I checked the site and the tasting notes don't give me much in the way of details. "strong and balanced" doesn't say much. Should I expect something citrusy, chocolate, floral, something else?
Best coffee I had was camping in the woods last year: a friend took a brick sized stone, placed it on the bonfire for about 10 minutes, then took it and dropped it into a pot with -coincidently- river water. It boiled almost instantly. I had just finished grindind the coffee and brewed it in a french press. Something about the rivery-stoney-flavored water made it really special 🧐
@@dashiellgillingham4579 - I know. I was just kidding. The bug poop and bird droppings are sterilized by the heat and might even supply some valuable micronutrients. It's organic and much healthier than today's processed foods. And for vegetarians, the occasional incidental cooked insect and organisms in the dirt serve to supply the small amount of B12 that plant food lacks.
I told my wife about this method of making coffee and she replied "of course, we use to do it that way all the time" I said I don't remember that? To which she replied "Well not you and I, I meant my family when I was young and living on the farm. I remember mom and dad making coffee in a saucepan." Well, we are over 70 now. So we grew up in the 50s and both on a farm. But at least my family had a coffee pot!
You're right, my great grandma from the "old country" used to use the sauce pan as well. I can never get it to taste as good as I remembered it tasting when she made it for me.
It always interests me to see old ways of doing things (but especially making coffee) before we had machines to make it easier. That's what many of my episodes on SteamPour are all about! I think you'd like my little channel about coffee and tea history. Pretty please go check it out and tell me what you think of my Campfire Coffee episode! th-cam.com/channels/wAAQg0fwlQs8zjJQBzaxGA.html
I'm of similar age but didn't grow up in rural America. My mom called this method cowboy coffee or camp coffee. You can see the method in a few really old western movies. Stick a basket with a stem in to catch the grounds and you have the percolator.
My Dad died young, but I knew him for 25 years. He passed me his love of cooking, history and above all else, a good cup of coffee, preferably shared with a friend. I don't think I ever saw him drink water. Maybe some orange juice, but always with a cup of coffee within reach. When I was a toddler I would sneak behind his easy chair and dunk my pacifier in his cup over and over until someone noticed. ☕ ❤️
My grandmother was born in England before 1920 and came to Canada just after WWII. In the 80s she showed me how they used to make coffee when she was young. (Not sure if she learned it in Canada or England..) Was just milk in a medium sized pot (enough for 2-3 cups) and coffee grounds sitting on top. Set it on the stove on lower heat and just as it starts to rise up immediately take it off the heat and strain. Very very very good coffee if done right, not so great if you burn it! I still have it from time to time but it's very rich.
This is exactly like my mom made coffee when I was young. She grew up in depression times in Sweden, so I always thought of it as "depression coffee ". Fresh ground beans, coarse just like you did. She would do he same and put the grind in very cold water in a pot, bring it up to the lightest possible simmer but let it go for a bit longer, not two hours but at least an hour and a quarter.. Then off the heat and let it settle for about ten to fifteen minutes depending on how impatient you are. (This method comes by the way from my my maternal grandmother who was an absolute genius cook, she literally ran the food supply and kitchen of an entire household, a farming school with 12 staff and over 50 students at age 13. It dates at least from 1895 or so.)
The oily sheen on top of the coffee is the essential oils of the beans. This is usually absorbed by a paper coffee filter. The oils are a good thing to see in coffee.
Yep. This video reminds me of how to get a better cup of coffee. The lack of coffee bean oils in drip coffee makes it, at best, good, even very good, but never great.
@@Tina06019 It would depend on what kind of beans one would be using. A blend, where the flavors of the beans are balanced out would probably be fine one way or another (cowboy, percolator, espresso, etc) as the various flavors of then fruit have Ben smoothed out so as not to clan with milk or creamer for those so inclined. Whereas if one were to drink single origin coffee, which is often filtered , the oils would not necessarily be a beneficial component to the coffee.
I studied Benjamin Franklin at university when I was a graduate student. From his autobiography he recounted times he spent at Colonial coffee houses where he had discussions with certain philosophers and inventors. I totally missed the importance of this "education." It was a place a common person, such as himself, could hear the newest ideas, talk to authors and the day's thinkers. He learned to debate and to challenge ideas. What an education!
Being a history buff, a coffee lover, and a South African, I think a history video on coffee substitutes would be great. I know the Settlers here in South Africa had various substitutes.
Chicory maybe? In France, chicory powder is sold in the coffee aisle in supermarkets. Sometimes in a blend with actual coffee. I still think it tastes weird though
@@vernongriesel3910 does anyone drink Camp coffee? It's a coffee and chicory concentrate liquid which is a substitute for coffee. The picture on the front of the bottle shows a white colonial in hot weather gear sitting round a campfire. It was designed to be taken on travels and just needed to be added to hot water - no brewing required. Now it's most often used in baking.
Love your channel. Don't know if anyone else comments on this, but I enjoy the art work. I've even thought of re-watching episodes just to concentrate on the art. You put so much work into this channel and it shows! The combo of food and history is a perfect match. Thank you!
It wasnt even Peter Jacksons idea to do a trilogy as he originally pitched the idea as a two parter. The exec he was talking to asked why he was going to make a series with three books into two movies and then it was a trilogy. This is all funny because Tolkien originally presented the books as a single massive book and they split the publication into a trilogy. So really the movies are a trilogy that was a duo that came from a trilogy that was a single book.
PETER JACKSON: I will make a three-part or nine-part novel, depending on your interpretation, into two movies. ALSO PETER JACKSON: I will split a single children's story into three movies. (I know, I know, the studio pressured him to do it. I still think it's hilarious.)
He originally pitched it to Disney and was set go with 2, but the current CEO caught wind and went pointy haired boss on him, demanding, among other things: "Use or lose" Sauron combine Gondor and Rohan Ditch 2 of the hobbits Do it in one movie Yes, that is your hair standing on end! Jackson only had a few weeks to find someone willing to take the risk of "filming the series that can't be filmed", but he did, and the CEO's actions resulting in Disney losing out on that cash cow was one of several reasons he isn't CEO anymore.
@@ragnkja Tolkien himself divided his story into six parts, which ended up being published two per volume. Since the six parts were the natural divisions, he didn’t want the three volumes of the trilogy given independent names. He wanted them to be Lord of the Rings Vols 1, 2, and 3. He very much disliked the titles given to volumes two and three.
@@Zaarin1 When the first part of the Hobbit trilogy came out; I decided to give the novel a read. I'm pretty sure, reading the novel takes less time than watching all three of the movies does.
Max, have you ever made Turkish (or Arabic style) coffee? it's my favorite way to drink coffee. SO smooth, the coffee beans they use for it are exquisite. I'd love to know more of the history behind that kind of coffee, as well as Indian Chai, like how they decided on what spices to use, etc. this was so fun!
@@spiwolf6998 Turkish or Arabic coffee is where you heat it in a tiny copper pot over the stove or fire; I've never had it heated with hot sand before, that sounds fun!
@@spiwolf6998 Hot sand is a traditional method before ovens n' such, but it's not necessary. The primary difference between cowboy coffee and Turkish coffee is that cowboy uses coarse grinds and Turkish uses finer-than-espresso (and is often flavored with cardamom, consumed alongside water [due to its high strength and dehydrating effects of caffeine] and eaten with sweets [due to its bitterness]). The traditional sweet to consume with it is lokum (A.K.A. Turkish delight) which is a sort of sugar-dusted dense fruit gummy (traditionally rosewater-flavored but fruit and nut flavors exist, all are quite good) but chocolate is also common.
Max: I used to live over in an area here in Portland, OR where there is an Ethiopian community and they sell 'Cheffe green beans. You should try roasting your own- probably would do in a skillet but I prefer a popcorn popper (short the thermal overload device to allow this to work correctly). Etheopians boil water add coffee and boil for 10 mins then add salt. Etheopians do not buy pre roasted coffee- it loses its original flavour rather quickly.. I tend to take these people pretty seriously as to how they do coffee because they discovered it.. A episode on the history of coffee and the Ethiopian coffee ceremony plus a more modern take on the practice would be great to see.
If you have one of those air friers that mix the food as it cooks, I think that could be a really good way to roast coffee beans. I have one, but I've never tried roasting coffee since I can't find green coffee beans anywhere.
My great-grandmother (in northern Norway) used to roast coffee every morning on her wood-fired range. Apparently it had a scoop-like compartment especially for coffee-roasting.
My mother, a Viennese lady born in 1907, used to make coffee in a big pot quite similar to what you demonstrated except that she threw two egg shells into the pot as it was brewing. Very good for deacidifying the brew.
This way of making coffee, and the saucers you'd mentioned, are actually still used when people throw a cupping (coffee tasting party). Sometimes vendors and shops use these to help decide which beans/roast they want to serve. They literally brew the coffee in the cup they're drinking out of and use a spoon to get rid of some of the grounds which haven't sunk to the bottom yet.
I used to be a barista, and there were 4 or 5 guys who called themselves "The Philosophers". They would loudly start talking about Plato and eventually devolve into their brilliant political theories. They didn't know much about Philosophy, but they walked around the bookstore holding their hand as if they were holding a lapel an a suit and "orating".
This reminds me of my high school crew. We used to frequent a coffee shop next to our school, and were given the nickname "The Dadaists" by our chemistry teacher. We had many morality debates and shared lots of memes with each other over coffee. We were there every single day, to the point where we befriended the baristas and started sharing our memes and art with them hehehe
I love to use 1 gram of coffee for every 15 grams of water and your recipe basically used that ratio that I love. At the coffeeshop I manage we get lawyers meeting clients, people doing interviews, and professors discussing their research, so some things haven't changed too much! Coffee's certainly more than a penny now though...
I've been making stovetop coffee like this for a while based on "cowboy coffee". I think by the boiling until the coffee sinks just refers to the grounds going below the surface of the water. I've noticed adding the grounds to the cold water they float on top which I like because it keeps them from sinking in the water with no water movement and burning on the bottom. But once the boil starts it breaks up the coffee grounds floating on top and bring them down into the boiling water.
@@pattabor5268 yes it is very good. I especially love it when they add cardamom but that may be more of the Lebanese version (I first tried it at a Lebanese restaurant and they used cardamom). The pot I use I actually bought at a middle eastern store. And the first times i used it I tried to follow the Turkish coffee method. But I have simplified things so I don't try to say that I'm actually using a Turkish method.
My understanding of cowboy coffee was that they cracked an egg into the pot at some point, so that it would sink and trap the grounds at the bottom. Which is quite ingenious if it actually works like that.
Coffee: "A mysterious/aromatic/sourse of energy (akin to liquid dynomite). Turns night into day, plans into action and sleepyheads into worker bees". Thanks for the history Max. Did not know "coffehouses" were specific to a particular trades. You're awesome.
Reminds me of this story that Voltaire wrote "Candide" in one day, fueled by his 30-40 cups per day coffee addiction. Probably not true, but it would explain how WEIRD the play is.
Depends on the size of the cup; I can picture Voltaire manically pounding shots of coffee instead sipping with leisure from a saucer. On the other hand, one of Genghis Khan's descendants (Ogedei?) was once told to limit his wine consumption; specifically reducing the number of cups per day. He simply used a large cup.
@@wilfred_ho it is so easy to lose track of how many shots of espresso you have drank, tbh. I used to work, for a short time, as a barista. Between the chocolate covered coffee beans and shots of espresso we could have while working…. yeah, I was wired. (Though also calm? In a weird way? Caffeine works weird with adhd brain chemistry.)
My Great grandfather was Dutch and he would spill coffee from his cup to the saucer at breakfast everyday of his 98 years of life. When I asked him why he did that he said it was so he could sop up coffee in his cinnamon toast without getting crumbs in his coffee in his cup. He would often drink the coffee from the saucer and spill warm coffee from the cup again. He worked as a roofer doing many Victorian houses with steep pitches. He did his roofing work till he was in his seventies. He passed in the early seventies.
As an Oxfordian born and raised, seeing the High St etching was a treat. The Queen's Lane coffee house, oldest in the UK, is still there although it's pretty low key. You should definitely go if you are in Oxford one day though! 👌 Grab a coffee, wander through Queen's Lane past the colleges and find the secret alley down to the Turl Tavern for a different drink ;)
Yes, I thought it looked familiar! In the back of my head I thought “is that Oxford? Maybe it’s just a similar looking other city” and then he said it! I guess that skyline with Carfax tower and the spire doesn’t leave the memory, even though it’s been a decade since I was there. (I did have to Google to remind myself of the tower’s name, but looking at the painting I was like “hey I’ve been to the top of that square tower”)
While in culinary school, I had a chef tell us her way of making coffee. She would take a quart of water, 5 ounces of ground coffee, a teaspoon of sugar and bring it all to a boil. She would then take a cheesecloth and wrap it around the spout if the kettle and pour it out into her cup. She added maybe an ounce of heavy cream, stirred and sipped on it through the day. Best coffee I had and I still can't recreate
why I love this show: it combines food (in this case, drink) with obscure historical topics I can never find documentaries about. Thank you, Max and keep up the great work!
Thank you Graham Stephan for letting me help create Penny University Coffee. Check it out at www.bankrollcoffee.com/products/penny-university-x-max-miller-coffee
If you like this kind of stuff, check out SteamPour! Rumor has it that she is about to launch a storied season and it's all centered around all things tea and coffee (and history etc) Check her out! If you see this Max, you should collab with her. She's in LA too! th-cam.com/channels/wAAQg0fwlQs8zjJQBzaxGA.html
I learned how to make “cowboy coffee” and it’s my favorite way to make coffee. Over bialetti espresso. I can’t remember the historical reference but basically you get a pot of COLD water and place a mound of coffee grains (not too finely ground) and then let it come to a rolling boil for 60 seconds. After it completely boils for one minute, you pour a cup of COLD water from a height into the coffee. All of the coffee grains rest on the bottom and you pour off coffee without stirring up the coffee on the bottom of the pot. This was originally done over a campfire.
Interesting, I often do this, just because I'm impatient :) Definitely better than the bialetti espresso coffee. Coffee over steam pressure is great, but Bialetti coffees always have that bonus aluminium flavour, which I find awful. So much better to make coffee in steel or copper!
My Grannie, who was born in 1899, used to make coffee this way when I was a child. I remember being fascinated by it because everyone else I knew at the time used a percolator coffee maker. I thought percolators were mysterious machines, so the idea that one could just use a regular pot was very strange.
Percolators are dubious machines... A good one makes an EXCELLENT cup of coffee when employed appropriately. A poorly engineered one is a monstrosity that practically blasphemes against everything drinkable and flavored... The stove-top versions take a bit of practice to master, even when they are well made, and almost nobody has that kind of patience... Besides, the longer you go without cleaning the thing, the better the coffee turns out every time. The kinds you can plug into the wall are easier to master, BUT as widely varied as their engineering is, it's too easy to get a poorly made or designed one and then decide the whole idea is a nightmare... ;o)
Wait til you see Steam Pour's next video! There's a whole ceremony to making it. Here's her latest video to hold you over until then. th-cam.com/video/Ak1pXlYQsA8/w-d-xo.html
As an insurance underwriter, I'm glad to see Lloyd's of London get its pride of place in your history overview! Coffeehouse culture is such a fascinating history all over the continent.
Years ago I used to make coffee using this method, except with tap water, not river. Then one day a very superior New Yorker, watching me preparing coffee in a pan, snootily told me that: "English people don't know how to make coffee". Ha! Thank you Max for vindicating me!
Coffee used to widely be prepared like that, since it requires less equipment, but depending on what sort of pan you're using, it's really not the best option, especially with modern coffee grinds. It'd be a little like cutting open a tea bag, mixing it with water, and putting that on the stove. The risk of burning the drink is far higher than ideal, and most people will look at you like you're performing an affront to god.
@@soranuttwilawann8752 Hey! I'd never look down my nose at coffee! Pineapple on pizza is delicious and I'm no New Yorker. My one trip through the City was more than enough for me. It does not live up to the romance.
Remember my mom loved making coffee this way, she said her grandma taught her to do it. They do actually still sell different types of coffee in stores, some for coffee machines and some for cooking in pot. But it is pretty rare to find the one for pot cooking today. Fun video! Thanks for showing this easy but fun way to make coffee.
There's no better way to start Friday after work. Coffee is nice too, but no rival to Max! This is by the way we still brew coffee on hikes etc in Finland. "Pot coffee" is still sold here on regular stores, it's coarser grind so it sinks after it's "done". Yeah, Finland is still the 1st coffee consuming worlds per capita, we love our coffee, and mostly it's not "instant coffee", but the real stuff. There's this general rule that with a big pot you need a "teenager's breast's volume of coffee" to make it good, no more, no less. (I know... It's not what guides tell tourists when they ask about the amount, we go with "a small fistful" )
My Finnish grandmother would crack an egg with shell in the coffee to catch floating grounds and soften the bitterness. Also, the first pour is offered to your guest. SISU.
As a couple people have mentioned, it does remind me of many middle eastern coffee, but even then the exact method varies. You could do a whole series on the history of coffee and the variations. And my father in law, when he was a student and visited France from England, drank coffee in a saucer.
That's how army cooks made coffee in the field kitchens. In a very big pot they'd put pounds of coffee, gallons of water and boil it. I think over the course of the day they'd add more water and more coffee. It made pretty good coffee.
I once had a friend whose wife was from Kenya, she roasted the green beans on her stove, coarsely ground the beans and boiled them like you did. Had a heart-poundingly high caffeine content ;) but robust flavor.
The Cowboy way of making coffee is similar to this. With really bitter coffee you can add a slight pinch of salt and that will chemically Knick off the bitter edge. Boiling it for 60 seconds boils off some of the acid and then adding a cup of cold water when done boiling makes the grounds immediately sink to the bottom of the pot.
If you like this kind of stuff, check out SteamPour! Rumor has it that she is about to launch a storied season and it's all centered around all things tea and coffee (and history etc) Check her out! th-cam.com/channels/wAAQg0fwlQs8zjJQBzaxGA.html
Coffee made this way is known in Brazil as "Turkish coffee". My great-grandmother would make it a little different, adding sugar to the boiling water and straining it through a coffee filter. VERY sweet, and delicious. The first thing I would always do when visiting her as a kid was to ask for some roasted coffee beans and the grinder to have a cup of coffee. And yes, we DO let kids drink Coffee, just like in "Encanto" 😂
This is more similar to what Americans call cowboy coffee or Ethiopians call jebena buna, but yeah, they're all unfiltered boiled coffee. (Also Americans are weird about kids and coffee. If you let your kids drink soda, I don't want to hear about how "coffee is bad for kids." :P )
It probably won't surprise you to learn that the Turks make coffee in a very similar way but it is much more ritualised and they have special coffee blends specially for it. Real Turkish coffee is astonishingly hot, strong and sweet and needs to be drunk before it cools.
The oily sheen is where a lot of the good smells come from in coffee. Drip brewers often use paper filters which catch a lot of that, which is why if you use a gold tone filter or a method like a french press, you tend to get more aroma but it can also change the flavor a bit. It's fun to play around with!
I switched to a French press some years ago and will never go back. As you say, those oils are loaded with flavor and aromatics. Paper filters remove all that and destroy the coffee. Not to mention the damage the constant heat does to the coffee when left on the warmer. Truly barbaric!
Thanks for the rundown on early coffeehouses; I've always found them fascinating. I enjoy going to our local coffeehouse, but the conversation is rarely erudite! What I would really enjoy, though, would be a contemporary hot chocolate house!
Its interesting to hear everyones stories about how coffee has played a role in their lives. It just goes to show how deeply coffee is woven to our social fabric
Cowboy coffee But.. It's best to bring the water to a boil then take off the heat. Once the water settles sprinkle the coffee generously over the water. Don't move or bump the container, just allow the coffee grounds to sit. Slowly tap it after 5 or 7 mins to allow the grounds to fall to the bottom. Then once the ground have fallen pour into cup. Taste better this way. Boiling makes the coffee bitter. Nice vid 😃
That recipe is surprisingly similar to what's known as "Cowboy coffee" where a pot of water and grounds is hung over a campfire to steep. When one wants a cup, a bit of cold water is added to the pot, causing the grounds to fall, allowing the drinker to get a cop free form grounds. Coffee beans are oily, and there are a number of brewing techniques that take advantage of that, such as the French press; the oils are rich and flavorful, but also bitter. Roasting coffee creates hundreds of chemicals, some of which remain in the oils, so drip brewing removes them along with the oils, producing an often thinner, less bitter drink.
The history of brewing coffee has all kinds of oddities that we have forgotten! There’s Herman Melville’s reference to “the very best of pea coffee” in Moby-Dick, to the lost practice of coffee oasts, or roasting coffee by the hundreds of pounds in enormous coal-fired ovens for an hour (modern commercial roasting practice roasts for 12-25 minutes, an hour is unheard of!), to the practice of clarifying coffee brewed in that tall old-style kettle by using eggshells. Melville’s referral to pea coffee, much less a pea coffee so good as to be the very best, made me sit bolt upright - he’s not referring to peaberry coffee, surely, it must be a reference to coffee made from or with the alternative coffees of yesteryear. Peas, corn, and the seeds of the Kentucky coffee mesquite served as substitutes or additions to the imported product of the tropics. If that sounds bizarre, up until a few decades ago, there was a commercial coffee flavored with roasted pinyon pine seeds! These old brews must have been a very different beverage from what we currently consume. Oh, to have a time machine - I want to know what peas made the very best coffee, how they were roasted, everything! Try pan-roasting some coarse cornmeal to get an idea of how it could have been used to extend coffee supplies - and how the result is not half bad!
Hi! Have you ever tried roasted barley tea? If you make it strong enough, it really resembles coffee. I learned this trick from a mormon friend, and I still make it to this day!
I'll have to try that just for curiosity. There is coffee fortified with roasted chicory root, too. Back many years ago people who couldn't afford coffee would use chicory by itself.
@@casstellar Roasted barley tea is common in Korean restaurants here in Canada, and presumably in Korea. Hot in the winter, and cold in the summer. It's made much weaker than a coffee substitute, and quite pleasant.
Thank you so much for creating "Tasting History"! I thoroughly enjoy watching & learning about history! You make it interesting & fun to watch. Now I even got my daughter hooked- she is a history major.
Can't recommend A History of the World in 6 Glasses enough if you enjoyed this episode and Tasting History in general. I recognised a couple of the stories, and lo and behold, Max has it listed as a source! It's a wonderful look at the history of civilisation through 6 drinks, and is full of excellent stories like this episode.
Do you mean that you can recommend it or can’t recommend it enough or do you actually intend to warn people off of A History of the World in 6 Glasses? You started out sounding like you were disparaging the work but then ended up saying it was wonderful.
Ditto. I just read that book a couple of months ago. For anyone passing by who's not familiar, it's got chapters on beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola. How they developed and how they influenced society. Really interesting if you like the "history of everyday things" genre.
If you enjoy Tom Standage's books, I highly recommend a podcast he did with fellow writer and journalist Seth Stevenson called _The Secret History of the Future_. It ran for two seasons, covering interesting moments in the history of technology and how they might inform present and emerging technologies in the near future. One of my all-time favourites.
My Hungarian grandfather made his coffee this way. He also put cream in the saucepan at the end. It had the most rich coffee aroma and smooth taste. Childhood memory….thanks for making me remember.
Wonderful episode. Interestingly, the method you chose is very similar to the way Turkish coffee is made today and has been for a very long time. Perhaps another episode on the history of Turkish coffee?
If you like this kind of stuff, check out SteamPour! Rumor has it that she is about to launch a storied season and it's all centered around all things tea and coffee (and history etc) Check her out! th-cam.com/channels/wAAQg0fwlQs8zjJQBzaxGA.html
Turkish coffee is the beeeest. Years ago, a Syrian man I worked for discovered I liked it and was making it at home in a small saucepan, and was so delighted that he surprised me with a cezve and a set of tiny cups and saucers.... Steaming and sweet with a touch of cardamom, so good!
Ive used this, and very similar, methods pretty much all my life. They all taste far better than any 'drip' coffee ever will. Smooth, rich, and delicious. People try to make coffee more complicated than it needs to be. Heck, ive made coffee in a tin can.
Penny university = cost effective way for education and caffeine. I remember hearing on the extra credits channel that you could often tell the profession of an 18th-century European by which coffeehouse they frequented. Coffeehouse culture, as we understand it today, originated in the Middle East and started perpetuating in different ways depending which country you want to.
From Brazil here and I guess you all know how much we love coffee, I’ve had all kinds of coffee makers and this way of making coffee still my go to and favorite way to make it. A lot of people still use this method and it’s way faster than most coffee makers too!
During the Second World War, when coffee was just totally unavailable, people substituted burnt toast crumbs. I've tried it. It tastes like bad, stale, burnt coffee.
@@GiselleMF I blame the Yanks for that particular affront to culture. There was a time you could get _good_ coffee here in Canada, until all the US chains started setting up shop. Now it's nearly impossible to get a good blonde coffee that doesn't taste like charcoal and mop water.
There was something just adorable about Max' admission he can't drink coffee in the afternoon lest it ruin his night, and it is things like this that keep us coming back to your channel, Max. Smart, down to earth and knowledgeable. Love ya!
The Food Theory channel has an amazing video about coffee and its historical signification. And how it fueled independent ideas compared to other beverages that “tamed” people
Once again. Thank you Max, this was terrific. You can also add a few sticks of cinnamon after you take the coffee off the fire and as the grinds sink the cinnamon will infuse. I can tell you you will NOT miss the sugar.
I found this tidbit interesting, @6:30 "If an altercation took place, then whoever was deemed responsible for it had to buy everyone present a dish of coffee." In the past, before our litigious, top-down-authoritarian societies, people had to mete out justice in some way. Rather than waiting on a policeman, a jail term, and the decision of a judge or magistrate, they came up with an immediate punishment. Do the crime, you pay, NOW, with your cash. I imagine it was very effective. In the animal kingdom, punishment is never long and drawn out, you bite, you get bit. Instant justice is way more effective than going to a thick, stupid bureaucracy for every offense, and yes, it is good for human beings to settle issues without the interference of authority figures who have no more moral or intellectual integrity than the common man. Good job, Coffee Houses!
I dunno. You go that way, and I see society devolving into the rule of the powerful, or people with a lot of local allies, or just anyone big and violent. Hey, wait a minute…
I agree with this. We deal with far more problems now because punishment isn't instant and people who defend themselves from attackers are often punished instead.
Murders and other crimes have been declining for centuries. You can value these informal law enforcement methods for other reasons, but in terms of preventing wrongdoing, they seem empirically less effective.
I'm sorry what... your own coffee bean collab?!? How exciting! Congrats Max!!! Love this look into coffee houses. Coffee has such a fascinating history and had such an impact on trade. Love everything about this video!
I've been making coffee almost like this for years. Living in a mini-apartment, I don't have any utensils I don't need. So I put about 2 rounded teaspoons of very finely ground coffee into a large cup, pour boiling water over (straight out of the kettle (water boiler) while it's still boiling), wait for about a minute, maybe two, stir it up to sink the coffee grounds and then drink it, being careful not to drink the grounds. Almost like Greek or Turkish coffee. I think it tastes much better than out of the coffee machine and is much easier on the digestive system.
this is the basic way cowboy coffee and french press are also made, main difference for french press is of course the mesh piston that lets you separate the grounds more directly than waiting for it to settle. turkish coffee is also similar to his except the grounds are made super fine like powdered sugar or flour. these methods let more of the oils in the coffee stay which some people like more because it leads to a thicker, fuller bodied cup. other people dislike this because they feel it detracts from the clarity of the cup when you're using lightly roasted beans and want to taste the nuances of the terroir like if you're drinking an expensive panama gesha or a nice ethiopian bean. i am obsessed with coffee and drinking a coffee bean from kenya while watching this video. i love your channel! it is my favorite channel on youtube
If you like this kind of stuff, check out SteamPour! Rumor has it that she is about to launch a storied season and it's all centered around all things tea and coffee (and history etc) Check her out! th-cam.com/channels/wAAQg0fwlQs8zjJQBzaxGA.html
I used to live in 16ft diameter tipi on a ranch. When we rounded up cattle and worked them, I started carrying my coleman stove, water and ground coffee. When we took a break I would bring gallon of water to boil and add coffee for delicious cup of mud. One day after work going home, I saw a huge conflagration and hauled ass to it to fight it. There were dozens of people fighting it and I set up my coffee kit and made coffee then I walked the fire line dispencing coffee from my 2gallon enameled steel pot. For years after people would come up to me and say I remember you! Youre the coffee man!
The oiliness is because you didn't use filter paper. Filter paper picks out oil and sediment, giving you a cleaner, more tea like cup while no filter (such as a metal strainer, or this) will give you a cup with more texture and a bolder taste. Personally I love filter papers, with the only exception being espresso.
Right. I sometimes make coffee in a Bialetti, an Italian moka pot used on a stove top, where the the water passes through the coffee in a metal sieve. The resulting coffee is oily and also a bit thicker, but delicious. You just have to make sure to use the right amount of ground. If I use to much, I can climb walls afterwards.
I know this method as "Cowboy Coffee," though I've been told that is a different thing. I use this method if I don't have french press available as like the texture and flavor that the coffee oils add, but I use the standard measurements of 2 tbsp per 6 oz water, simmer the coffee for 4 mins, then kill the heat. It's still not overly strong and still has a good flavor. And if you want to make sure all the grounds are at the bottom, pour a small amount of cold water, about 3 tablespoons, onto the grounds, and that'll force them to the bottom. Probably don't use this method with light roasts though since that usually burns the coffee and you lose some of the floral aromas of a light roast. FYI, if you want that in pour over/drip coffee, use a metal mesh filter.The paper filters absorb the oil so you don't get that oily film in your coffee.
Check out how it went for Steam Pour, here's her latest video but you ca check her channel for the cowboy coffee. th-cam.com/video/Ak1pXlYQsA8/w-d-xo.html
Well, that is interesting, that is one of the most common methods to make coffee in Brazil. You would just use a cloth filter to separate the grounds from the liquid.
This is still a typical way of making coffee in Finland, specially in the wild outdoors, although most people use the modern coffee machines. This type of coffee is simply called brewed coffee. The amount of coffee is 3.04 US tsp per one coffee cup. Metric cup is 250 ml, which is slightly more than US "legal" cup, which is, I think 240 ml=8.12 oz. In order for the coffee grounds to sink to the bottom of the coffee pot, pour some ice-cold water into the pot. The coffee grounds will settle after five to ten minutes. I like your channel a lot, thank you.
This is amazing a month ago I was thinking about the first coffeehouse in Europe I searched and I found it, and it was in Austria (the blue bottle). Scrolling through the pictures and illustrations from The 17th and 18th century I found some illustrations And I noticed that the people were using some sort of bowl to drink coffee it reminded me of the Arabic coffee cup it’s also doesn’t have the handle.
I have always loved the idea of the penny university. Especially because the college i went to had a coffee shop and on a good night, we could have an interesting group of people talking about all kinds of things.
I make my coffee like that every morning before work. I pit about 3 tablespoons worth into my 20 oz metal camping cup(which doubles as aa cooking pot) and mix it in cold water, let it boil for 5 min and after the grounds settle, about a min or 2 I pour it into my thermos and enjoy! They call it cowboy coffee, camp coffee, etc. bit I just call it good coffee. Thanks for making this video Max, it was very enjoyable to see the history of coffee and how it helped fuel/develope people and businesses back in time!!!
I love coffee and was happy to see this video! It would also be interesting to look into the famous Kaffehaus culture of Vienna and their history! Many of them still exist and I love the idea that for a cost of a coffee, you were welcome to stay and read all their newspapers and meet up with friends and colleges and debate away!
I've had my coffee making snafus to which I have made some adaptations. In Cuba, people use a cloth sieve akin to a 'sock' to boil the coffee as coffee makers after the Revolution became more scarce. That and when the power went out (now a common occurrence), you could still make coffee over an open flame and reuse the same pot to cook something else. One time my French press broke, so I made sun brewed coffee (inspired by sun brewing tea down South), which goes as follows: in a liter sized Mason jar, place 1-2 tablespoons of coffee with filtered water and place the jar next to the window sill and let it slow brew for at least 4 to 6 hours, but 8 hours if you want a very strong brew. That to me was the very best coffee I've ever made and had. I could drink that all day. ☕☕☕ P. S. You can also read the coffee grounds much like a tea leaf reading if you like.
Great post. Would you consider looking at the history of Vietnamese "drip" coffee? It's something many people don't know about, although for me it's my favorite way to make (very showy) and drink it.
This is how Turkish coffee is made, which uses an extremely fine grind. Boiling brings up the _crema_ (coffee froth) and settles the grounds at the bottom, which tells you it's ready to be served.
A lot of cookbooks, especially those that targeted "housewives" had multiple recipes for the same dish, but made at different levels of cost/fanciness. It shows you how much the classes were really considered separate in society at the time.
**PRO TIP** When majoring old school coffee that way in the kettle, when you take it off the heat of you pour cold water down the spout it makes the grounds settle right away. I know it sounds crazy but it works! Awesome video btw
0:44 "To make coffee" is how some people still make their coffee in Finland, we call it pannukahvi, for kettle coffee. "Another the best way" is something people do here, too, and it is called sumppi. It was thought to be not according to etiquette to serve the coffee directly out of the steeping kettle, though. You are, in stead, meant to transfer it into another, dedicated, serving vessel. I suppose you can better prevent the grounds from ending up in a cup, when the kettle isn't being repeatedly poured and righted. Then again, you avoid having the sooty kettle at the table.
Fun fact: in Oxford there are two this day two coffee-houses, right opposite the high street from each other, each claiming to be the original first coffee house. They are rivals to this day.
That oil slick on the surface is why the coffee is less bitter and seems less strong. That oil really tempers the bitter and harshness that coffee can sometimes have. When you use a drip maker, have a close look at the filter before you toss it. It will have a distinctive dark brown ring right above the level of the spent grounds. That is the oil slick that was filtered out by the paper. When you use a brewing method that leaves that oil behind, you can use less grind to make a richly flavorful cup. French press for example or my favorite, the vacuum maker.
I vaguely remember my mother using a perculater to make coffee. It did have a basket to hold the ground coffee but it was heated directly on the burner. This was back in the 1950s when I was a kid. Later on she used an electric one. They both had a glass insert in the lid so you could see how dark the coffee was getting.
No bitter flavours is true, but neither do you get any interesting volatile compounds. Far from perfect, cold brew has a generic "coffee flavour" as you might find in a candy, devoid of any character.
Great video. The roots of the London Stock Exchange are in ‘Jonathan’s Coffee House’, and the London Metal Exchange are in ‘The Jerusalem Coffee House’.
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Thanks to Graham Stephan for letting me help create this wonderful roast. Check out Penny University Coffee at www.bankrollcoffee.com/products/penny-university-x-max-miller-coffee
Britain of course taking full credit for a tradition that has been formed earlier on somewhere else - in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Vienna mostly. Left behind by the fleeing Ottomans after their unsuccessful attack on the capital, the habit of drinking coffee took on in the city of Vienna, spread over Europe, to Italy etc from it's very center.
Pls make a dish from kerala
Just a heads up, the link might be broken. I keep getting a "Sever Not Found" message, but the main site for Bank Roll Coffee works.
@@KathrynBurke713 link is working now
This is basically how I make my coffee. A couple of tips. Grind it more in the Turkish style, you want the fine particles to be suspended in the water. I let the grinds sink for a few minutes before pouring. In your stainless steel bowl, jiggle the edges a few times to increase sinking. I use med Guatemalan roast and it's perfect as is, better than Americano. I imagine the running or river water means not a hard water. Ph probably changes flavor profile to make it bitter. I use well water. (I was a barista for a while.)
"They would use coffee houses as their offices." Wait...you mean to tell me that writing a screenplay at Starbucks has *historical precedent* ?!?
"Nothing new under the sun," indeed.
Read the graffiti of Pompeii or the vindolanda postcards sometime. People don't change.
As an aside, that's why fallout series has the motto "war never changes"
People still go to war for the reasons and do the same things in wars in a post nuclear apocalyptic landscape because people never change.
It’s important to keep in mind living conditions at the time. Most people didn’t otherwise have offices or a lot of space wherever they lived. Also, it was much more expensive to provide heating and light in your residence than it is today. Even for a relatively well-off person, doing something at home would involve lighting candles, building a fire, etc. Today going to Starbucks seems like a luxury (in the sense of costing way more than doing it at home) but at the time, it was probably less expensive.
Rowling wrote Harry Potter in a cafe.
Office in a coffeehouse could also be considered the reversed precedent for coffeepot in the office. To a lesser extent this could also be hanging out in the breakroom where the coffee is.
My great grandfather on my mother's side (WW1 vet) used to make coffee in a baking dish or cake pan by covering the bottom in a layer of Folger's grounds & using an old coffee can to fill the dish up about 3/4 the way, then pop it in the oven at ~250. He'd have his first few cups at full strength by dipping with another mug to fill his. He'd add water throughout the day so his last cups after dinner were much weaker & he could sleep. I can testify that it tasted godawful. On Sunday mornings when the family gathered, it would be so strong my folks would just add a few spoonfuls then fill up the rest of the mug with hot water & creamer. Now when I make strong French press or moka pot coffee my dad makes fun comparing me to old Elmer Moody.
strong coffee like that needs but one thing to fix it, add a pinch of salt..it will make the coffee palatable
@@rjframe4410 Add to that medium roast.... Dark roast is disgusting.
Sorry, who is Elmer Moody?
@@Checkmate1138 Probably his great-grandfather.
We always called this method of making coffee "cowboy coffee". My mom taught me this method when we had a power outage, due to weather, and couldn't use our electric coffee maker.
fascinating! What a cute name for it! Thank you for sharing!
that nickname makes a lot of sense!
I had a very similar experience. My Mom showed me this method because it is supposed to have less acid in it. Man those were good times. Thank you for jarring my memory and bringing those back🥲
This method tastes better, but it has so much more cholesterol than using a paper filter which catches all those oils.
@@silverwolfe3636 those oils are essential for cowboys
My grandfather always drank his coffe from a bowl. I always thought it was a bit odd. Now I know he was historically accurate! It's one of my favorite memories of him!
It's funny because that's how we did it in France up until the 90s.
@@daniellac.7588 Welcome to civilised living.
I'm only halfway through the video, but in case Max didn't address it, my Papa drank from the saucer because it cooled a lot faster than it would otherwise.
@@ledeyabaklykova XD the French did but I've always used cups 😅 my parents are Serbians, so the first time I saw people use bowls for coffee was at summer camp when I was 10.
Ok. Now I want to drink my coffee from a bowl too.
I found myself chuckling through this video because I was a barista for 9 years, and there were a lot of regulars who would come and camp out all day every day and drive me crazy. I wonder if the employees at these penny universities felt the same way 😆
In Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson", I got the impression that the proprietors appreciated the regularity of the business, with no need to advertise. They could also charge a "handling fee" for sending the boy down the road to the caterer's, when a table of customers didn't wish to break for dinner - and didn't even need to wash the dishes before sending them back.
i was a barista for four years and i do Not miss having to explain to people daily that a Caramel Macchiato is only a starbucks thing and it's the same as a caramel latte -__-
@@sabriel_ Yes, you are giving me flashbacks 😆
I've seen someone like this with multiple mobile phones on his person. He looked sketchy AF.
@@SimuLord So wholesome made my day.
The best coffee beans I ever had was “Crystal Mountain”, the national brand of coffee in Cuba. I took a trip there in 2016. I never saw another brand while I was there. My grandfather grumbled when I told him I was visiting Cuba, but when I came back (with six bags worth of the beans) and had him try it, he had an odd respect for Cuba after that. Anytime Cuba was mentioned after that, he would still grumble, but he would always add the caveat “they have some damn good coffee though!”
RIP Grandpa Joel, 2019
Hey thank you so much for the kind words!! Amazing video!
Thank you! Anyone wanting to get onto TH-cam, go watch Graham’s course.
great to see some success stories from your work man! love both of these
What are the flavor notes for this cofee? I checked the site and the tasting notes don't give me much in the way of details. "strong and balanced" doesn't say much. Should I expect something citrusy, chocolate, floral, something else?
@@lunasophia9002 I’d say nutty and chocolaty. Very little citrus or bite to it.
Best coffee I had was camping in the woods last year: a friend took a brick sized stone, placed it on the bonfire for about 10 minutes, then took it and dropped it into a pot with -coincidently- river water. It boiled almost instantly. I had just finished grindind the coffee and brewed it in a french press. Something about the rivery-stoney-flavored water made it really special 🧐
You have something there with the river water. And the rock. You had the authentic recipe!
It was the deer pee and bug poop on the rock that made the difference.
Hmmm
Placing heated rocks in earthen water pits is the most popular way humans cooked food before pottery.
@@dashiellgillingham4579 - I know. I was just kidding. The bug poop and bird droppings are sterilized by the heat and might even supply some valuable micronutrients. It's organic and much healthier than today's processed foods.
And for vegetarians, the occasional incidental cooked insect and organisms in the dirt serve to supply the small amount of B12 that plant food lacks.
I told my wife about this method of making coffee and she replied "of course, we use to do it that way all the time" I said I don't remember that? To which she replied "Well not you and I, I meant my family when I was young and living on the farm. I remember mom and dad making coffee in a saucepan." Well, we are over 70 now. So we grew up in the 50s and both on a farm. But at least my family had a coffee pot!
You're right, my great grandma from the "old country" used to use the sauce pan as well. I can never get it to taste as good as I remembered it tasting when she made it for me.
It always interests me to see old ways of doing things (but especially making coffee) before we had machines to make it easier. That's what many of my episodes on SteamPour are all about! I think you'd like my little channel about coffee and tea history. Pretty please go check it out and tell me what you think of my Campfire Coffee episode! th-cam.com/channels/wAAQg0fwlQs8zjJQBzaxGA.html
I'm of similar age but didn't grow up in rural America. My mom called this method cowboy coffee or camp coffee. You can see the method in a few really old western movies. Stick a basket with a stem in to catch the grounds and you have the percolator.
Hope you marriage and family are happy and healthy for years to come.
My mother's McCall's cookbook from the 1960s has similar instructions for making coffee (as well as how to use a percolator).
My Dad died young, but I knew him for 25 years. He passed me his love of cooking, history and above all else, a good cup of coffee, preferably shared with a friend.
I don't think I ever saw him drink water. Maybe some orange juice, but always with a cup of coffee within reach.
When I was a toddler I would sneak behind his easy chair and dunk my pacifier in his cup over and over until someone noticed. ☕ ❤️
Right before this as Max is grabbing some coffee, he laments forgetting to buy the creamer I asked for yesterday 🥲 ☕️
Yeah, that’s my bad
well that'll teach him! lol. I have literally started crying in the morning if I find myself out of creamer or coffee.
@@TastingHistory Oops. 😛
@@epowell4211 I keep the powdered stuff on hand in case of just such an emergency - it's saved my bacon MORE than once.
I soak some oats, blend it up--fresh-made oatmilk. I don't like the taste/texture by itself but it's fine in coffee
My grandmother was born in England before 1920 and came to Canada just after WWII. In the 80s she showed me how they used to make coffee when she was young. (Not sure if she learned it in Canada or England..) Was just milk in a medium sized pot (enough for 2-3 cups) and coffee grounds sitting on top. Set it on the stove on lower heat and just as it starts to rise up immediately take it off the heat and strain. Very very very good coffee if done right, not so great if you burn it! I still have it from time to time but it's very rich.
Do I enjoy coffee? Not usually. Will I watch Max make literally anything? You're darn right ☕
And I thank you
Same. I didn’t skip the olives, and I’m not skipping the coffee.
Lol I do love coffee, and I watch every video. Max is my man crush
Coffee is best as a spice in deserts imo. Love ya, Max.
Just wait. A million people are about to tell you that you just haven't had it the right way yet.
This is exactly like my mom made coffee when I was young. She grew up in depression times in Sweden, so I always thought of it as "depression coffee ".
Fresh ground beans, coarse just like you did. She would do he same and put the grind in very cold water in a pot, bring it up to the lightest possible simmer but let it go for a bit longer, not two hours but at least an hour and a quarter.. Then off the heat and let it settle for about ten to fifteen minutes depending on how impatient you are. (This method comes by the way from my my maternal grandmother who was an absolute genius cook, she literally ran the food supply and kitchen of an entire household, a farming school with 12 staff and over 50 students at age 13. It dates at least from 1895 or so.)
Well you like tea and coffee but do you like intrigue? th-cam.com/video/Ak1pXlYQsA8/w-d-xo.html
The oily sheen on top of the coffee is the essential oils of the beans. This is usually absorbed by a paper coffee filter. The oils are a good thing to see in coffee.
I've been making coffee in a saucepan for a while now and thought ir tastes better. Now I understand why.
Yep. This video reminds me of how to get a better cup of coffee. The lack of coffee bean oils in drip coffee makes it, at best, good, even very good, but never great.
@@Tina06019
It would depend on what kind of beans one would be using. A blend, where the flavors of the beans are balanced out would probably be fine one way or another (cowboy, percolator, espresso, etc) as the various flavors of then fruit have Ben smoothed out so as not to clan with milk or creamer for those so inclined.
Whereas if one were to drink single origin coffee, which is often filtered , the oils would not necessarily be a beneficial component to the coffee.
So tasty, and so bad for your health :(
@@joeschmoe8320 not coffee in general, no. But the unfiltered kind with oils on top is really bad for your cholesterol
I studied Benjamin Franklin at university when I was a graduate student. From his autobiography he recounted times he spent at Colonial coffee houses where he had discussions with certain philosophers and inventors. I totally missed the importance of this "education." It was a place a common person, such as himself, could hear the newest ideas, talk to authors and the day's thinkers. He learned to debate and to challenge ideas. What an education!
Being a history buff, a coffee lover, and a South African, I think a history video on coffee substitutes would be great. I know the Settlers here in South Africa had various substitutes.
There's one that Mormons use a lot called Postum.
As someone who is also all 3 of those things, I agree
The only coffee I drank in SA was Irish coffee >.<
What coffee substitutes does SA have?
Chicory maybe? In France, chicory powder is sold in the coffee aisle in supermarkets. Sometimes in a blend with actual coffee. I still think it tastes weird though
@@vernongriesel3910 does anyone drink Camp coffee? It's a coffee and chicory concentrate liquid which is a substitute for coffee. The picture on the front of the bottle shows a white colonial in hot weather gear sitting round a campfire. It was designed to be taken on travels and just needed to be added to hot water - no brewing required. Now it's most often used in baking.
Love your channel. Don't know if anyone else comments on this, but I enjoy the art work. I've even thought of re-watching episodes just to concentrate on the art. You put so much work into this channel and it shows! The combo of food and history is a perfect match. Thank you!
Check out Steam Pour, she has some of these traits you like th-cam.com/video/Ak1pXlYQsA8/w-d-xo.html
i agree!!! ESPECIALLY the medieval art for me haha what gems there are
It wasnt even Peter Jacksons idea to do a trilogy as he originally pitched the idea as a two parter. The exec he was talking to asked why he was going to make a series with three books into two movies and then it was a trilogy. This is all funny because Tolkien originally presented the books as a single massive book and they split the publication into a trilogy. So really the movies are a trilogy that was a duo that came from a trilogy that was a single book.
They actually split each novel in the trilogy into two volumes as well.
PETER JACKSON: I will make a three-part or nine-part novel, depending on your interpretation, into two movies.
ALSO PETER JACKSON: I will split a single children's story into three movies.
(I know, I know, the studio pressured him to do it. I still think it's hilarious.)
He originally pitched it to Disney and was set go with 2, but the current CEO caught wind and went pointy haired boss on him, demanding, among other things:
"Use or lose" Sauron
combine Gondor and Rohan
Ditch 2 of the hobbits
Do it in one movie
Yes, that is your hair standing on end!
Jackson only had a few weeks to find someone willing to take the risk of "filming the series that can't be filmed", but he did, and the CEO's actions resulting in Disney losing out on that cash cow was one of several reasons he isn't CEO anymore.
@@ragnkja Tolkien himself divided his story into six parts, which ended up being published two per volume. Since the six parts were the natural divisions, he didn’t want the three volumes of the trilogy given independent names. He wanted them to be Lord of the Rings Vols 1, 2, and 3. He very much disliked the titles given to volumes two and three.
@@Zaarin1 When the first part of the Hobbit trilogy came out; I decided to give the novel a read. I'm pretty sure, reading the novel takes less time than watching all three of the movies does.
Max, have you ever made Turkish (or Arabic style) coffee? it's my favorite way to drink coffee. SO smooth, the coffee beans they use for it are exquisite. I'd love to know more of the history behind that kind of coffee, as well as Indian Chai, like how they decided on what spices to use, etc. this was so fun!
Keep an eye out on Steam Pour, she's about to make it the way they do in Ethiopia th-cam.com/video/Ak1pXlYQsA8/w-d-xo.html
Is that the method where they heat it in hot sand. I want to try that someday.
@@spiwolf6998 Turkish or Arabic coffee is where you heat it in a tiny copper pot over the stove or fire; I've never had it heated with hot sand before, that sounds fun!
A student brought me some once- delicious, but so strong it changed my state of consciousness!.
@@spiwolf6998 Hot sand is a traditional method before ovens n' such, but it's not necessary. The primary difference between cowboy coffee and Turkish coffee is that cowboy uses coarse grinds and Turkish uses finer-than-espresso (and is often flavored with cardamom, consumed alongside water [due to its high strength and dehydrating effects of caffeine] and eaten with sweets [due to its bitterness]). The traditional sweet to consume with it is lokum (A.K.A. Turkish delight) which is a sort of sugar-dusted dense fruit gummy (traditionally rosewater-flavored but fruit and nut flavors exist, all are quite good) but chocolate is also common.
Max: I used to live over in an area here in Portland, OR where there is an Ethiopian community and they sell 'Cheffe green beans. You should try roasting your own- probably would do in a skillet but I prefer a popcorn popper (short the thermal overload device to allow this to work correctly). Etheopians boil water add coffee and boil for 10 mins then add salt. Etheopians do not buy pre roasted coffee- it loses its original flavour rather quickly.. I tend to take these people pretty seriously as to how they do coffee because they discovered it.. A episode on the history of coffee and the Ethiopian coffee ceremony plus a more modern take on the practice would be great to see.
This sounds very interesting. Would love a video that goes into it with more depth.
If you have one of those air friers that mix the food as it cooks, I think that could be a really good way to roast coffee beans. I have one, but I've never tried roasting coffee since I can't find green coffee beans anywhere.
If you do roast your own, turn on your hood fan for ventilation. Dry roasting anything in substantial quantity will put out some gnarly fumes.
My great-grandmother (in northern Norway) used to roast coffee every morning on her wood-fired range. Apparently it had a scoop-like compartment especially for coffee-roasting.
@@00muinamir I recommend just doing it outside..
My mother, a Viennese lady born in 1907, used to make coffee in a big pot quite similar to what you demonstrated except that she threw two egg shells into the pot as it was brewing. Very good for deacidifying the brew.
Coffee's good, but I'm more interested in this Penny University. Finally, an institution with reasonable tuition prices!
But the price of text books? And they change every year.
But the time commitment will be a bit worse and none of the schedules posted with much consistency. Plus, the jitters are a bit killer
😂❤
This way of making coffee, and the saucers you'd mentioned, are actually still used when people throw a cupping (coffee tasting party). Sometimes vendors and shops use these to help decide which beans/roast they want to serve. They literally brew the coffee in the cup they're drinking out of and use a spoon to get rid of some of the grounds which haven't sunk to the bottom yet.
Someone with that kind of coffee factoids would dig Steam Pour th-cam.com/video/Ak1pXlYQsA8/w-d-xo.html
I used to be a barista, and there were 4 or 5 guys who called themselves "The Philosophers". They would loudly start talking about Plato and eventually devolve into their brilliant political theories. They didn't know much about Philosophy, but they walked around the bookstore holding their hand as if they were holding a lapel an a suit and "orating".
This reminds me of my high school crew. We used to frequent a coffee shop next to our school, and were given the nickname "The Dadaists" by our chemistry teacher. We had many morality debates and shared lots of memes with each other over coffee. We were there every single day, to the point where we befriended the baristas and started sharing our memes and art with them hehehe
I'm jealous. When I was a barista in a small farming town in Indiana, my resident "philosophers" mostly just made racist jokes.
@@DannyBeans I was gonna say, that sounds more in line with the sort of loudmouth coffee house "philosophers" I've witnessed
Not a lapel on their suit but onto their toga. It is a faux pas if your toga falls off while orating.
@@DannyBeans Philosophers of Basedness.
I love to use 1 gram of coffee for every 15 grams of water and your recipe basically used that ratio that I love. At the coffeeshop I manage we get lawyers meeting clients, people doing interviews, and professors discussing their research, so some things haven't changed too much! Coffee's certainly more than a penny now though...
I've been making stovetop coffee like this for a while based on "cowboy coffee".
I think by the boiling until the coffee sinks just refers to the grounds going below the surface of the water.
I've noticed adding the grounds to the cold water they float on top which I like because it keeps them from sinking in the water with no water movement and burning on the bottom. But once the boil starts it breaks up the coffee grounds floating on top and bring them down into the boiling water.
Try turkish coffee.. so good
@@pattabor5268 yes it is very good. I especially love it when they add cardamom but that may be more of the Lebanese version (I first tried it at a Lebanese restaurant and they used cardamom). The pot I use I actually bought at a middle eastern store. And the first times i used it I tried to follow the Turkish coffee method. But I have simplified things so I don't try to say that I'm actually using a Turkish method.
My understanding of cowboy coffee was that they cracked an egg into the pot at some point, so that it would sink and trap the grounds at the bottom. Which is quite ingenious if it actually works like that.
@@TakeWalker I think I've heard that more from Midwesterners making coffee.
My way was just how to make coffee on a fire or grill
@@toddwittie4421 Makes sense, I am from the Midwest after all. :)
Coffee: "A mysterious/aromatic/sourse of energy (akin to liquid dynomite). Turns night into day, plans into action and sleepyheads into worker bees".
Thanks for the history Max. Did not know "coffehouses" were specific to a particular trades.
You're awesome.
Reminds me of this story that Voltaire wrote "Candide" in one day, fueled by his 30-40 cups per day coffee addiction. Probably not true, but it would explain how WEIRD the play is.
It is said that XIXth century french writer Honoré de Balzac died of coffee addiction.
The musical is even funnier.
If I drank thirty cups of coffee, my hands would be shaking too much to even sign my name. Never mind sitting still long enough to write a novel.
Depends on the size of the cup; I can picture Voltaire manically pounding shots of coffee instead sipping with leisure from a saucer. On the other hand, one of Genghis Khan's descendants (Ogedei?) was once told to limit his wine consumption; specifically reducing the number of cups per day. He simply used a large cup.
@@wilfred_ho it is so easy to lose track of how many shots of espresso you have drank, tbh. I used to work, for a short time, as a barista. Between the chocolate covered coffee beans and shots of espresso we could have while working…. yeah, I was wired. (Though also calm? In a weird way? Caffeine works weird with adhd brain chemistry.)
My Great grandfather was Dutch and he would spill coffee from his cup to the saucer at breakfast everyday of his 98 years of life. When I asked him why he did that he said it was so he could sop up coffee in his cinnamon toast without getting crumbs in his coffee in his cup. He would often drink the coffee from the saucer and spill warm coffee from the cup again. He worked as a roofer doing many Victorian houses with steep pitches. He did his roofing work till he was in his seventies. He passed in the early seventies.
As an Oxfordian born and raised, seeing the High St etching was a treat. The Queen's Lane coffee house, oldest in the UK, is still there although it's pretty low key. You should definitely go if you are in Oxford one day though! 👌 Grab a coffee, wander through Queen's Lane past the colleges and find the secret alley down to the Turl Tavern for a different drink ;)
You might like SteamPour, her new episode has some crazy twists in it. th-cam.com/video/Ak1pXlYQsA8/w-d-xo.html
Wait a second that’s actually the oldest coffee house in the UK? Take that mother who didn’t believe me when I told her that
Yes, I thought it looked familiar! In the back of my head I thought “is that Oxford? Maybe it’s just a similar looking other city” and then he said it! I guess that skyline with Carfax tower and the spire doesn’t leave the memory, even though it’s been a decade since I was there. (I did have to Google to remind myself of the tower’s name, but looking at the painting I was like “hey I’ve been to the top of that square tower”)
While in culinary school, I had a chef tell us her way of making coffee. She would take a quart of water, 5 ounces of ground coffee, a teaspoon of sugar and bring it all to a boil. She would then take a cheesecloth and wrap it around the spout if the kettle and pour it out into her cup. She added maybe an ounce of heavy cream, stirred and sipped on it through the day. Best coffee I had and I still can't recreate
There is an Arabic saying I love.
Coffee should be: Dark as a Night, Sweet as a sin, and Strong as a Death.
why I love this show: it combines food (in this case, drink) with obscure historical topics I can never find documentaries about. Thank you, Max and keep up the great work!
I stumbled upon SteamPour recently, kind similar th-cam.com/channels/wAAQg0fwlQs8zjJQBzaxGA.html
Thank you Graham Stephan for letting me help create Penny University Coffee. Check it out at www.bankrollcoffee.com/products/penny-university-x-max-miller-coffee
If you like this kind of stuff, check out SteamPour! Rumor has it that she is about to launch a storied season and it's all centered around all things tea and coffee (and history etc) Check her out! If you see this Max, you should collab with her. She's in LA too! th-cam.com/channels/wAAQg0fwlQs8zjJQBzaxGA.html
I learned how to make “cowboy coffee” and it’s my favorite way to make coffee. Over bialetti espresso. I can’t remember the historical reference but basically you get a pot of COLD water and place a mound of coffee grains (not too finely ground) and then let it come to a rolling boil for 60 seconds. After it completely boils for one minute, you pour a cup of COLD water from a height into the coffee. All of the coffee grains rest on the bottom and you pour off coffee without stirring up the coffee on the bottom of the pot. This was originally done over a campfire.
Interesting, I often do this, just because I'm impatient :) Definitely better than the bialetti espresso coffee. Coffee over steam pressure is great, but Bialetti coffees always have that bonus aluminium flavour, which I find awful. So much better to make coffee in steel or copper!
@@tandago7281 people are bemused when they see me make coffee. I didn’t realize other people made coffee like this too.
My Grannie, who was born in 1899, used to make coffee this way when I was a child. I remember being fascinated by it because everyone else I knew at the time used a percolator coffee maker. I thought percolators were mysterious machines, so the idea that one could just use a regular pot was very strange.
Percolators are dubious machines... A good one makes an EXCELLENT cup of coffee when employed appropriately. A poorly engineered one is a monstrosity that practically blasphemes against everything drinkable and flavored...
The stove-top versions take a bit of practice to master, even when they are well made, and almost nobody has that kind of patience... Besides, the longer you go without cleaning the thing, the better the coffee turns out every time.
The kinds you can plug into the wall are easier to master, BUT as widely varied as their engineering is, it's too easy to get a poorly made or designed one and then decide the whole idea is a nightmare... ;o)
Wait til you see Steam Pour's next video! There's a whole ceremony to making it. Here's her latest video to hold you over until then. th-cam.com/video/Ak1pXlYQsA8/w-d-xo.html
As an insurance underwriter, I'm glad to see Lloyd's of London get its pride of place in your history overview! Coffeehouse culture is such a fascinating history all over the continent.
th-cam.com/video/Ak1pXlYQsA8/w-d-xo.html
Years ago I used to make coffee using this method, except with tap water, not river. Then one day a very superior New Yorker, watching me preparing coffee in a pan, snootily told me that: "English people don't know how to make coffee". Ha! Thank you Max for vindicating me!
Coffee used to widely be prepared like that, since it requires less equipment, but depending on what sort of pan you're using, it's really not the best option, especially with modern coffee grinds. It'd be a little like cutting open a tea bag, mixing it with water, and putting that on the stove. The risk of burning the drink is far higher than ideal, and most people will look at you like you're performing an affront to god.
That's quite a bold statement coming from a New Yorker who probably put pineapple on his pizza.
@@soranuttwilawann8752 That would be Hawaiians. New Yorkers (as a rule) don't do that!
@@soranuttwilawann8752 Hey! I'd never look down my nose at coffee! Pineapple on pizza is delicious and I'm no New Yorker. My one trip through the City was more than enough for me. It does not live up to the romance.
Remember my mom loved making coffee this way, she said her grandma taught her to do it. They do actually still sell different types of coffee in stores, some for coffee machines and some for cooking in pot. But it is pretty rare to find the one for pot cooking today. Fun video! Thanks for showing this easy but fun way to make coffee.
Steam Pour has done Cowboy coffee and is about to do an Ethiopian ceremony soon. Here's her latest video th-cam.com/video/Ak1pXlYQsA8/w-d-xo.html
There's no better way to start Friday after work. Coffee is nice too, but no rival to Max!
This is by the way we still brew coffee on hikes etc in Finland. "Pot coffee" is still sold here on regular stores, it's coarser grind so it sinks after it's "done". Yeah, Finland is still the 1st coffee consuming worlds per capita, we love our coffee, and mostly it's not "instant coffee", but the real stuff.
There's this general rule that with a big pot you need a "teenager's breast's volume of coffee" to make it good, no more, no less. (I know... It's not what guides tell tourists when they ask about the amount, we go with "a small fistful" )
My Finnish grandmother would crack an egg with shell in the coffee to catch floating grounds and soften the bitterness. Also, the first pour is offered to your guest. SISU.
Yes it's 16.52pm.
@@eileenw6002 Is the First Pour the one with bits of poached egg floating in it? 😁
Depending on your teenager that's a lot of coffee
@@eileenw6002 Thank you for sharing, I haven't heard that one before! I gotta look up if it was something regional.
As a couple people have mentioned, it does remind me of many middle eastern coffee, but even then the exact method varies. You could do a whole series on the history of coffee and the variations. And my father in law, when he was a student and visited France from England, drank coffee in a saucer.
That's how army cooks made coffee in the field kitchens. In a very big pot they'd put pounds of coffee, gallons of water and boil it. I think over the course of the day they'd add more water and more coffee. It made pretty good coffee.
Thought the same, although I wouldn't call it "pretty good" :)
I once had a friend whose wife was from Kenya, she roasted the green beans on her stove, coarsely ground the beans and boiled them like you did. Had a heart-poundingly high caffeine content ;) but robust flavor.
The Cowboy way of making coffee is similar to this. With really bitter coffee you can add a slight pinch of salt and that will chemically Knick off the bitter edge. Boiling it for 60 seconds boils off some of the acid and then adding a cup of cold water when done boiling makes the grounds immediately sink to the bottom of the pot.
If you like this kind of stuff, check out SteamPour! Rumor has it that she is about to launch a storied season and it's all centered around all things tea and coffee (and history etc) Check her out! th-cam.com/channels/wAAQg0fwlQs8zjJQBzaxGA.html
That Lloyd's of London story is pretty cool. I love how you can turn a simple thing like brewing a cup of coffee into something really interesting.
Steam Pour is about to cover Earl Grey so you might wanna check her out th-cam.com/channels/wAAQg0fwlQs8zjJQBzaxGA.html
Coffee made this way is known in Brazil as "Turkish coffee". My great-grandmother would make it a little different, adding sugar to the boiling water and straining it through a coffee filter. VERY sweet, and delicious.
The first thing I would always do when visiting her as a kid was to ask for some roasted coffee beans and the grinder to have a cup of coffee. And yes, we DO let kids drink Coffee, just like in "Encanto" 😂
This is more similar to what Americans call cowboy coffee or Ethiopians call jebena buna, but yeah, they're all unfiltered boiled coffee. (Also Americans are weird about kids and coffee. If you let your kids drink soda, I don't want to hear about how "coffee is bad for kids." :P )
That's child abuse wtf
It's called Turkish or Greek coffee in Australia too.
It probably won't surprise you to learn that the Turks make coffee in a very similar way but it is much more ritualised and they have special coffee blends specially for it. Real Turkish coffee is astonishingly hot, strong and sweet and needs to be drunk before it cools.
@@Zaarin1
Kids shouldn't really drink a lot of soda either, especially caffeinated sodas.
The oily sheen is where a lot of the good smells come from in coffee. Drip brewers often use paper filters which catch a lot of that, which is why if you use a gold tone filter or a method like a french press, you tend to get more aroma but it can also change the flavor a bit. It's fun to play around with!
I switched to a French press some years ago and will never go back. As you say, those oils are loaded with flavor and aromatics. Paper filters remove all that and destroy the coffee. Not to mention the damage the constant heat does to the coffee when left on the warmer. Truly barbaric!
Thanks for the rundown on early coffeehouses; I've always found them fascinating. I enjoy going to our local coffeehouse, but the conversation is rarely erudite! What I would really enjoy, though, would be a contemporary hot chocolate house!
Then I think SteamPour will spark your fancy th-cam.com/video/Ak1pXlYQsA8/w-d-xo.html
Or a "coffeehouse" like those in the Netherlands. Then again, I prefer doing that dank stuff in the privacy of my own home tbh.
Its interesting to hear everyones stories about how coffee has played a role in their lives. It just goes to show how deeply coffee is woven to our social fabric
He would have specified river water because back in the day it was the "safest" and "freshest" water.
Not in London!
I've read elsewhere that it was the worst water. Descending safety:
rain
spring
well
river
Though I suppose it could depend on the well and river.
Cowboy coffee
But.. It's best to bring the water to a boil then take off the heat.
Once the water settles sprinkle the coffee generously over the water. Don't move or bump the container, just allow the coffee grounds to sit. Slowly tap it after 5 or 7 mins to allow the grounds to fall to the bottom.
Then once the ground have fallen pour into cup.
Taste better this way. Boiling makes the coffee bitter.
Nice vid 😃
That recipe is surprisingly similar to what's known as "Cowboy coffee" where a pot of water and grounds is hung over a campfire to steep. When one wants a cup, a bit of cold water is added to the pot, causing the grounds to fall, allowing the drinker to get a cop free form grounds. Coffee beans are oily, and there are a number of brewing techniques that take advantage of that, such as the French press; the oils are rich and flavorful, but also bitter. Roasting coffee creates hundreds of chemicals, some of which remain in the oils, so drip brewing removes them along with the oils, producing an often thinner, less bitter drink.
The history of brewing coffee has all kinds of oddities that we have forgotten! There’s Herman Melville’s reference to “the very best of pea coffee” in Moby-Dick, to the lost practice of coffee oasts, or roasting coffee by the hundreds of pounds in enormous coal-fired ovens for an hour (modern commercial roasting practice roasts for 12-25 minutes, an hour is unheard of!), to the practice of clarifying coffee brewed in that tall old-style kettle by using eggshells.
Melville’s referral to pea coffee, much less a pea coffee so good as to be the very best, made me sit bolt upright - he’s not referring to peaberry coffee, surely, it must be a reference to coffee made from or with the alternative coffees of yesteryear. Peas, corn, and the seeds of the Kentucky coffee mesquite served as substitutes or additions to the imported product of the tropics. If that sounds bizarre, up until a few decades ago, there was a commercial coffee flavored with roasted pinyon pine seeds! These old brews must have been a very different beverage from what we currently consume.
Oh, to have a time machine - I want to know what peas made the very best coffee, how they were roasted, everything!
Try pan-roasting some coarse cornmeal to get an idea of how it could have been used to extend coffee supplies - and how the result is not half bad!
Hi! Have you ever tried roasted barley tea? If you make it strong enough, it really resembles coffee. I learned this trick from a mormon friend, and I still make it to this day!
I'll have to try that just for curiosity. There is coffee fortified with roasted chicory root, too. Back many years ago people who couldn't afford coffee would use chicory by itself.
Piñon coffee is still available. NM classic
@@casstellar Roasted barley tea is common in Korean restaurants here in Canada, and presumably in Korea. Hot in the winter, and cold in the summer. It's made much weaker than a coffee substitute, and quite pleasant.
@@buffewo6386 Moved here in December & my friends were drinking it-- they find it at Sam's Club.
Thank you so much for creating "Tasting History"! I thoroughly enjoy watching & learning about history! You make it interesting & fun to watch. Now I even got my daughter hooked- she is a history major.
You'd love Steam Pour th-cam.com/video/Ak1pXlYQsA8/w-d-xo.html
Can't recommend A History of the World in 6 Glasses enough if you enjoyed this episode and Tasting History in general. I recognised a couple of the stories, and lo and behold, Max has it listed as a source! It's a wonderful look at the history of civilisation through 6 drinks, and is full of excellent stories like this episode.
Is this a book?
Do you mean that you can recommend it or can’t recommend it enough or do you actually intend to warn people off of A History of the World in 6 Glasses? You started out sounding like you were disparaging the work but then ended up saying it was wonderful.
I was just about to comment this. Standage makes a lot of good points and taught me stuff I didn't know
Ditto. I just read that book a couple of months ago. For anyone passing by who's not familiar, it's got chapters on beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola. How they developed and how they influenced society. Really interesting if you like the "history of everyday things" genre.
If you enjoy Tom Standage's books, I highly recommend a podcast he did with fellow writer and journalist Seth Stevenson called _The Secret History of the Future_. It ran for two seasons, covering interesting moments in the history of technology and how they might inform present and emerging technologies in the near future. One of my all-time favourites.
My Hungarian grandfather made his coffee this way. He also put cream in the saucepan at the end. It had the most rich coffee aroma and smooth taste. Childhood memory….thanks for making me remember.
Wonderful episode. Interestingly, the method you chose is very similar to the way Turkish coffee is made today and has been for a very long time. Perhaps another episode on the history of Turkish coffee?
An episode on Turkish coffee and/or jebena buna would be fun.
If you like this kind of stuff, check out SteamPour! Rumor has it that she is about to launch a storied season and it's all centered around all things tea and coffee (and history etc) Check her out! th-cam.com/channels/wAAQg0fwlQs8zjJQBzaxGA.html
Probably because this evolved from Turkish coffee as coffee spread to Europe. Would love to see a Turkish coffee video though.
th-cam.com/video/Ak1pXlYQsA8/w-d-xo.html
Turkish coffee is the beeeest.
Years ago, a Syrian man I worked for discovered I liked it and was making it at home in a small saucepan, and was so delighted that he surprised me with a cezve and a set of tiny cups and saucers....
Steaming and sweet with a touch of cardamom, so good!
Ive used this, and very similar, methods pretty much all my life. They all taste far better than any 'drip' coffee ever will. Smooth, rich, and delicious. People try to make coffee more complicated than it needs to be. Heck, ive made coffee in a tin can.
Penny university = cost effective way for education and caffeine. I remember hearing on the extra credits channel that you could often tell the profession of an 18th-century European by which coffeehouse they frequented. Coffeehouse culture, as we understand it today, originated in the Middle East and started perpetuating in different ways depending which country you want to.
From Brazil here and I guess you all know how much we love coffee, I’ve had all kinds of coffee makers and this way of making coffee still my go to and favorite way to make it. A lot of people still use this method and it’s way faster than most coffee makers too!
During the Second World War, when coffee was just totally unavailable, people substituted burnt toast crumbs. I've tried it. It tastes like bad, stale, burnt coffee.
🤣 and no caffeine
So, like dark roast.
Ah crap, Starbucks is gonna sue you for accidentally giving away their secret recipe.
@@GiselleMF A proper dark roast doesn't taste burnt.
@@GiselleMF I blame the Yanks for that particular affront to culture. There was a time you could get _good_ coffee here in Canada, until all the US chains started setting up shop. Now it's nearly impossible to get a good blonde coffee that doesn't taste like charcoal and mop water.
There was something just adorable about Max' admission he can't drink coffee in the afternoon lest it ruin his night, and it is things like this that keep us coming back to your channel, Max. Smart, down to earth and knowledgeable. Love ya!
I can't have it after 6, Steam Pour can't have it past 4. Here's her newest video th-cam.com/video/Ak1pXlYQsA8/w-d-xo.html
The Food Theory channel has an amazing video about coffee and its historical signification. And how it fueled independent ideas compared to other beverages that “tamed” people
Once again. Thank you Max, this was terrific. You can also add a few sticks of cinnamon after you take the coffee off the fire and as the grinds sink the cinnamon will infuse. I can tell you you will NOT miss the sugar.
Steam Pour has taught me a few tricks as well. th-cam.com/channels/wAAQg0fwlQs8zjJQBzaxGA.html
I found this tidbit interesting, @6:30 "If an altercation took place, then whoever was deemed responsible for it had to buy everyone present a dish of coffee."
In the past, before our litigious, top-down-authoritarian societies, people had to mete out justice in some way. Rather than waiting on a policeman, a jail term, and the decision of a judge or magistrate, they came up with an immediate punishment. Do the crime, you pay, NOW, with your cash. I imagine it was very effective. In the animal kingdom, punishment is never long and drawn out, you bite, you get bit. Instant justice is way more effective than going to a thick, stupid bureaucracy for every offense, and yes, it is good for human beings to settle issues without the interference of authority figures who have no more moral or intellectual integrity than the common man. Good job, Coffee Houses!
I dunno. You go that way, and I see society devolving into the rule of the powerful, or people with a lot of local allies, or just anyone big and violent.
Hey, wait a minute…
I agree with this. We deal with far more problems now because punishment isn't instant and people who defend themselves from attackers are often punished instead.
Murders and other crimes have been declining for centuries. You can value these informal law enforcement methods for other reasons, but in terms of preventing wrongdoing, they seem empirically less effective.
I'm sorry what... your own coffee bean collab?!? How exciting! Congrats Max!!! Love this look into coffee houses. Coffee has such a fascinating history and had such an impact on trade. Love everything about this video!
SteamPour might interest you th-cam.com/channels/wAAQg0fwlQs8zjJQBzaxGA.html
Man, I would love to have those kinds of coffe shops back.
Agreed. People lack a "third space" that doesn't involve alcohol these days and I don't do well with alcohol :/
@@Giantcrabz I don't mind the drink. I just want a place in which people dong go only to "vibe" and spend time.
I've been making coffee almost like this for years. Living in a mini-apartment, I don't have any utensils I don't need. So I put about 2 rounded teaspoons of very finely ground coffee into a large cup, pour boiling water over (straight out of the kettle (water boiler) while it's still boiling), wait for about a minute, maybe two, stir it up to sink the coffee grounds and then drink it, being careful not to drink the grounds. Almost like Greek or Turkish coffee. I think it tastes much better than out of the coffee machine and is much easier on the digestive system.
You should get yourself a french press. They are small and don't take up much room, inexpensive and no more coffee grounds!
@@leec5170 Thanks Lee. I already have one, but it's easier to clean the cup. I'm born lazy 🤣
this is the basic way cowboy coffee and french press are also made, main difference for french press is of course the mesh piston that lets you separate the grounds more directly than waiting for it to settle. turkish coffee is also similar to his except the grounds are made super fine like powdered sugar or flour. these methods let more of the oils in the coffee stay which some people like more because it leads to a thicker, fuller bodied cup. other people dislike this because they feel it detracts from the clarity of the cup when you're using lightly roasted beans and want to taste the nuances of the terroir like if you're drinking an expensive panama gesha or a nice ethiopian bean. i am obsessed with coffee and drinking a coffee bean from kenya while watching this video. i love your channel! it is my favorite channel on youtube
If you like this kind of stuff, check out SteamPour! Rumor has it that she is about to launch a storied season and it's all centered around all things tea and coffee (and history etc) Check her out! th-cam.com/channels/wAAQg0fwlQs8zjJQBzaxGA.html
I used to live in 16ft diameter tipi on a ranch. When we rounded up cattle and worked them, I started carrying my coleman stove, water and ground coffee. When we took a break I would bring gallon of water to boil and add coffee for delicious cup of mud. One day after work going home, I saw a huge conflagration and hauled ass to it to fight it. There were dozens of people fighting it and I set up my coffee kit and made coffee then I walked the fire line dispencing coffee from my 2gallon enameled steel pot. For years after people would come up to me and say I remember you! Youre the coffee man!
Those are the stories I love to hear! Might get a kick over at Steam Pour th-cam.com/channels/wAAQg0fwlQs8zjJQBzaxGA.html
The oiliness is because you didn't use filter paper. Filter paper picks out oil and sediment, giving you a cleaner, more tea like cup while no filter (such as a metal strainer, or this) will give you a cup with more texture and a bolder taste. Personally I love filter papers, with the only exception being espresso.
Right. I sometimes make coffee in a Bialetti, an Italian moka pot used on a stove top, where the the water passes through the coffee in a metal sieve. The resulting coffee is oily and also a bit thicker, but delicious. You just have to make sure to use the right amount of ground. If I use to much, I can climb walls afterwards.
I know this method as "Cowboy Coffee," though I've been told that is a different thing. I use this method if I don't have french press available as like the texture and flavor that the coffee oils add, but I use the standard measurements of 2 tbsp per 6 oz water, simmer the coffee for 4 mins, then kill the heat. It's still not overly strong and still has a good flavor. And if you want to make sure all the grounds are at the bottom, pour a small amount of cold water, about 3 tablespoons, onto the grounds, and that'll force them to the bottom. Probably don't use this method with light roasts though since that usually burns the coffee and you lose some of the floral aromas of a light roast.
FYI, if you want that in pour over/drip coffee, use a metal mesh filter.The paper filters absorb the oil so you don't get that oily film in your coffee.
Check out how it went for Steam Pour, here's her latest video but you ca check her channel for the cowboy coffee. th-cam.com/video/Ak1pXlYQsA8/w-d-xo.html
Wait, Lloyd's of London started out in a coffee shop? A more humble beginning that I ever expected. Thanks again for the history lesson, Max!
And IIRC the London Stock Exchange started out as just a tea market!
This was my favorite episode so far. The history, coffee, and music is delightful!
SteamPour might float your boat th-cam.com/channels/wAAQg0fwlQs8zjJQBzaxGA.html
Well, that is interesting, that is one of the most common methods to make coffee in Brazil. You would just use a cloth filter to separate the grounds from the liquid.
Oh, I love Rio-y coffee. It is hard to find in the US. Though it would probably be available online. Gotta look!
Always nice to watch one of your videos while making dinner! Keep up the good work max
This is still a typical way of making coffee in Finland, specially in the wild outdoors, although most people use the modern coffee machines. This type of coffee is simply called brewed coffee.
The amount of coffee is 3.04 US tsp per one coffee cup. Metric cup is 250 ml, which is slightly more than US "legal" cup, which is, I think 240 ml=8.12 oz.
In order for the coffee grounds to sink to the bottom of the coffee pot, pour some ice-cold water into the pot. The coffee grounds will settle after five to ten minutes.
I like your channel a lot, thank you.
This is amazing a month ago I was thinking about the first coffeehouse in Europe I searched and I found it, and it was in Austria (the blue bottle).
Scrolling through the pictures and illustrations from The 17th and 18th century I found some illustrations And I noticed that the people were using some sort of bowl to drink coffee it reminded me of the Arabic coffee cup it’s also doesn’t have the handle.
I have always loved the idea of the penny university. Especially because the college i went to had a coffee shop and on a good night, we could have an interesting group of people talking about all kinds of things.
Oh thank goodness this is about a morning beverage! If it was an alcohol-related episode, I wouldn't have been able to join in the drinking at 8 am.
th-cam.com/video/Ak1pXlYQsA8/w-d-xo.html
I make my coffee like that every morning before work. I pit about 3 tablespoons worth into my 20 oz metal camping cup(which doubles as aa cooking pot) and mix it in cold water, let it boil for 5 min and after the grounds settle, about a min or 2 I pour it into my thermos and enjoy! They call it cowboy coffee, camp coffee, etc. bit I just call it good coffee. Thanks for making this video Max, it was very enjoyable to see the history of coffee and how it helped fuel/develope people and businesses back in time!!!
I love coffee and was happy to see this video! It would also be interesting to look into the famous Kaffehaus culture of Vienna and their history! Many of them still exist and I love the idea that for a cost of a coffee, you were welcome to stay and read all their newspapers and meet up with friends and colleges and debate away!
I've had my coffee making snafus to which I have made some adaptations. In Cuba, people use a cloth sieve akin to a 'sock' to boil the coffee as coffee makers after the Revolution became more scarce. That and when the power went out (now a common occurrence), you could still make coffee over an open flame and reuse the same pot to cook something else.
One time my French press broke, so I made sun brewed coffee (inspired by sun brewing tea down South), which goes as follows: in a liter sized Mason jar, place 1-2 tablespoons of coffee with filtered water and place the jar next to the window sill and let it slow brew for at least 4 to 6 hours, but 8 hours if you want a very strong brew.
That to me was the very best coffee I've ever made and had. I could drink that all day. ☕☕☕
P. S. You can also read the coffee grounds much like a tea leaf reading if you like.
Great post. Would you consider looking at the history of Vietnamese "drip" coffee? It's something many people don't know about, although for me it's my favorite way to make (very showy) and drink it.
This is how Turkish coffee is made, which uses an extremely fine grind.
Boiling brings up the _crema_ (coffee froth) and settles the grounds at the bottom, which tells you it's ready to be served.
Throwing the grounds in and just boiling it is also called "cowboy coffee." I guess there isn't room for a french press in a saddlebag. :-)
Exactly what I was going to say! This is cowboy coffee indeed.
Thank you, Maxwell! ☕
A lot of cookbooks, especially those that targeted "housewives" had multiple recipes for the same dish, but made at different levels of cost/fanciness. It shows you how much the classes were really considered separate in society at the time.
**PRO TIP**
When majoring old school coffee that way in the kettle, when you take it off the heat of you pour cold water down the spout it makes the grounds settle right away. I know it sounds crazy but it works! Awesome video btw
Having Koffing on the shelf for a coffee episode...I see what you did there :)
And Starbucksssssssah 🐍
0:44 "To make coffee" is how some people still make their coffee in Finland, we call it pannukahvi, for kettle coffee.
"Another the best way" is something people do here, too, and it is called sumppi.
It was thought to be not according to etiquette to serve the coffee directly out of the steeping kettle, though. You are, in stead, meant to transfer it into another, dedicated, serving vessel.
I suppose you can better prevent the grounds from ending up in a cup, when the kettle isn't being repeatedly poured and righted.
Then again, you avoid having the sooty kettle at the table.
Fun fact: in Oxford there are two this day two coffee-houses, right opposite the high street from each other, each claiming to be the original first coffee house. They are rivals to this day.
That oil slick on the surface is why the coffee is less bitter and seems less strong. That oil really tempers the bitter and harshness that coffee can sometimes have. When you use a drip maker, have a close look at the filter before you toss it. It will have a distinctive dark brown ring right above the level of the spent grounds. That is the oil slick that was filtered out by the paper. When you use a brewing method that leaves that oil behind, you can use less grind to make a richly flavorful cup. French press for example or my favorite, the vacuum maker.
This is freaky. I was looking at how to make 17th century coffee yesterday.
Perfect timing
I vaguely remember my mother using a perculater to make coffee. It did have a basket to hold the ground coffee but it was heated directly on the burner. This was back in the 1950s when I was a kid. Later on she used an electric one. They both had a glass insert in the lid so you could see how dark the coffee was getting.
I've discovered the perfect way to make coffee: cold brew. So easy and good and no bitter flavors.
No bitter flavours is true, but neither do you get any interesting volatile compounds. Far from perfect, cold brew has a generic "coffee flavour" as you might find in a candy, devoid of any character.
what a pretty cup, too!
Great video. The roots of the London Stock Exchange are in ‘Jonathan’s Coffee House’, and the London Metal Exchange are in ‘The Jerusalem Coffee House’.