Reasonable Coffee!

At last! I think that five short and shaky years after beginning to take coffee seriously (which began with moving to Boise, because West of the continental divide, people know coffee), I am finally able to make a cup in my home that I am happy with. I use a paper filter in a little cup that sits on top of the pot. This way, I can (a) clean everything very thoroughly and (b) control the temperature of the water. French presses failed on (a), and coffee pots failed on both (a) and (b).

To make two cups of coffee, I use four scoops of coffee and about one part cold tap water to seven parts boiling water. The cooler water gives a better flavor, but extracts less from the grounds, which is why you need more coffee.

Now, at least when the beans are fresh, a cup from this pot tastes as good as a normal cup from the Flying M, though I think I have not yet achieved Dawson's coffee. I think the next step is buying a thermometer so I can control the temperature more precisely, and maybe a grinder. The ultimate -- and only -- end to this road, of course, is buying a coffee plantation in the tropics and controlling every aspect of the coffee production from bush to sip.