Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

I take that back. I see you are in the Wichita area in your introductory post on the introductions page. We have a couple of people in that area that may be able to help. You've come to the right place.

 

[cherwill]

Tweety I got my DH a Kuerig for Christmas. He isn't a coffee drinker but drinks tea and of course things like hot chocolate. The one I got has a device you can use your own coffee or whatever, instead of having to buy strictly K-cups. It really got a work out yesterday. The K-cups cost about 50 cents each. I plan to continue to make my normal coffee but I always have a late afternoon cup. I am looking forward to not having to nuke a cup of cold coffee now. I just got on line yesterday AM and ordered 3 boxes of tea and a box of hot chocolate for my DH to go with what we already had. One of my sons and his wife already bought him a couple of boxes of tea. ( I want him to feel like it is his gift ..not mine!)

My aunt has one and she loves it. If your DH likes flavored teas, the Cinnabon tea is reallllllly good.

Hope everybody had a nice Christmas, and had a chance to thaw out before the next cold snap.

Which is tomorrow! I just barely got thawed out and I'm not ready for below-zero temps again!

Danz, thanks for the review on the Keurig. I've always looked at them and, like Tweety, was thinking it was too expensive to buy the K-Cups but if you think about it, 50c per cup is still way cheaper than if you go out for a cup of coffee at a coffee shop, and if it is a treat you enjoy, well worth it. We just have a drip coffee maker but we're pretty happy with the coffee we get from it. We tend to like it very strong and can make it to our own strength by adding more coffee. I always end up disappointed when I go to a coffee shop as their coffee often tastes weak in comparison to what we are used to. I might consider a Keurig for the future though, when we are empty nesters. Right now, with one of the kids a huge coffee fan, we go through a LOT of coffee as we typically make a big pot in the morning and then another in the afternoon. I refuse to nuke coffee - it never tastes the same.

DH and I like our coffee "European style" too; it's quite a bit stronger than anything from a restaurant or coffee shop. My FIL, who uses two of those tablespoon scoops for an entire 12-cup pot of coffee, always waters our coffee down by about half.

My aunt has a cup for her Keurig that she can fill herself, which would make it quite a bit cheaper than the K-Cups. I don't know how big it is or if you could get a strong enough (for us) cup of coffee from it. Our drip maker works well for both small (4-5 cups) and large (10 cups) pots of coffee, but I know some drip makers don't do well with smaller batches.

 

[HEChicken]

My aunt has one and she loves it. If your DH likes flavored teas, the Cinnabon tea is reallllllly good.


DH and I like our coffee "European style" too; it's quite a bit stronger than anything from a restaurant or coffee shop. My FIL, who uses two of those tablespoon scoops for an entire 12-cup pot of coffee, always waters our coffee down by about half.

My aunt has a cup for her Keurig that she can fill herself, which would make it quite a bit cheaper than the K-Cups. I don't know how big it is or if you could get a strong enough (for us) cup of coffee from it. Our drip maker works well for both small (4-5 cups) and large (10 cups) pots of coffee, but I know some drip makers don't do well with smaller batches.

LOL. One of the features we like most about our coffee maker is it has a "strong" button. I'm still not exactly clear on how it works. Basically if you put in say, 2 level scoops of coffee, and the water, if you don't hit that button, I think maybe it brews it faster so it ends up weaker, but if you hit that button, it brews it slower and the coffee ends up stronger. I'm really not sure. It also has a "small pot" setting and I think that works the same way. I.e., if you are only making a small pot, you can hit that button and it will brew it slower to be sure it is stronger. I don't think I've ever used the small pot setting though, since we always make a pot enough for 3 people to have 2-3 cups of coffee each

 

[sharol]

DH and I like our coffee "European style" too; it's quite a bit stronger than anything from a restaurant or coffee shop. My FIL, who uses two of those tablespoon scoops for an entire 12-cup pot of coffee, always waters our coffee down by about half.

My aunt has a cup for her Keurig that she can fill herself, which would make it quite a bit cheaper than the K-Cups. I don't know how big it is or if you could get a strong enough (for us) cup of coffee from it. Our drip maker works well for both small (4-5 cups) and large (10 cups) pots of coffee, but I know some drip makers don't do well with smaller batches.

I'm a bit of a coffee snob. I've been ordering coffee beans from a little roaster in Ellensburg, Washington (D & M Coffee) for years. I normally use about 1/4 cup of finely ground coffee for my 4 cup pot and it is STRONG (but never bitter). My daughter got a Keurig for Christmas a year ago, and when I visit her I take my own ground beans and use the k-cup device, I fill it up to the top (about 1/8 cup) and brew the largest cup possible (about 2 small cups of coffee). It works great for that. Jill laughs at me, but I cannot bear the weak stuff that comes out of the little pre-filled ones if you use a larger cup. It isn't quite as strong as mine at home, but good nevertheless.

I'm not interested in getting one at this point because it is too much trouble to brew two of the large cups instead of my small pot all at once, and it doesn't keep the remaining coffee hot for me to drink over an hour or so. It works great for them, though, with hot chocolate for my grandkids and tea during the day.

 

[22qZoo]

LOL !, I didn't know chicken people were also coffee" birds of a feather".I can't stand weak coffee! and every time I buy it I have to be able to smell it first. I'm sure I look pretty dumb at the store trying to squeeze some air out out of the bags so I can smell it, the bitterness does have a smell tho and so far I rarely end up with coffee I don't like.

 

[Trish44]

We're kind of coffee snobs too using your term sharol. My DH buys green coffee beans from a place in California & roasts his own beans. He bought a coffee roaster a few years ago, it wasn't cheap, but he roasts only about a half of a pound at a time so we have really fresh coffee all the time. You talk about something nasty, when we go to his brother's place they make weak store brand coffee & it's barely like drinking coffee to us at all. We got hooked on the more European type of coffee when we started going on cruises & we like it strong too. They have really good European coffee on the ships. The coffee maker I use now for myself has a coffee bean grinder built into the machine & I put the whole beans in & grind it first & then it goes down into the part where the water runs over it. I only make one cup at a time since I have to limit how much caffeine I have in a day due to my heart problem. My DH has a french press he uses for his & he likes that. I just got him a new bigger coffee mug for Christmas that is a collector's item & he is happy with it. He's left handed, so it's hard to find him something he is comfortable with using. tweety I think Danz mentioned it that there are little reusable cups you can buy in a package if you want to use your own coffee or tea in the Keurig instead of buying the ready packaged things, we saw some while we were out shopping & were looking at them because my son bought one for them. He probably will just buy the little prepacked things though because he has to leave so early for work in the morning he says he doesn't have much time to make coffee before he leaves.

It wasn't too bad weather-wise in Missouri, the wind was kind of cold but other than that it was sunny thank goodness. I guess we had better enjoy the 50 some degrees today since it's supposed to be a high of 25 tomorrow. It's supposed to slightly warm up again after that according to the forecast, but you never know this time of year.

btinkerbell, I agree with the others you need to be careful buying older birds from people. You can get some with diseases & not know it till you get them home & then you have problems on your hands. There are reputable people out there, but you would be better off getting chicks in my opinion & letting them grow out for a lot of reasons. Some of the others have said this but the birds will get more used to you if you get them younger, the older ones just never seem to warm up to you like the ones you grow from chicks. They're not as likely to have diseases either if you get chicks & then you can watch them grow & learn about them too as they mature. I know it takes a lot longer to see eggs that way, but it's just a lot safer when buying from people you don't know. Most of the birds aren't laying that well right now anyway due to the short days & not as much light, chickens need so many hours of light per day to lay & a lot of them are going through molt right now as well. Even some I have that haven't laid yet & look ready to lay aren't going to probably till there is more daylight for them. I will be hatching chicks in the spring as soon as my birds start laying well again & will have several breeds of birds for sale, I also take orders ahead of time & have a waiting list for some breeds. At any rate, I hope you find what you're looking for.

My chicks in the brooder were really glad to see me last night, they had totally cleaned out their feeder & had dumped it over trying to get the last crumb of food. They had also dug through the shavings & had their water full of them so after we got the car unloaded I had to get them taken care of last night. They were happily eating & chirping in there when I went to bed. The Cream Legbars in there are going to have to go out to the growout pen soon, they're really getting too big to be in there. I just don't want to put them out there when we're going to have a day like tomorrow. I'll wait another week or so if I can & then put them out. I do have a heat lamp out there for them to use if they need it.

Well everyone have a good day & enjoy the nicer weather!

 

[22qZoo]

Ooh , and I almost forgot , I had some decaf that was a little old and that had made it kind of bitter and so I had read somewhere that you can mellow out bitter coffee by putting an egg shell in the filter basket . I've tried it several times and it works great. So it is kind of full circle ~chicken ,egg ,coffee...

 

[chicken danz]

I have to say I'm a coffee snob as well. The keurig has improved with newer updates. This one of course has the three cup sizes. Obviously the larger size cup is going to be weaker coffee. I buy bold coffees anyway. I love strong coffee but also fresh coffee. Also this keurig has a temperature adjustment so you can make it hotter or not as hot. Naturally the hotter the water the more flavor you are going to extract from the coffee. I tend to stick with the middle size to get strong coffee. I have already finished my first 12 cup pot of coffee from this morning, so I either will have to use the Keurig or brew another pot.
I used to buy coffee from Gevalia but it got so very expensive. I had a deal with rare flavors that only came out like 4 times a year. Those coffees were excellent full bodied and rich. I also prefer fresh ground coffee. My coffee maker has built in grinder but I wore it out. It's also the second pot like that I killed the grinder on.
I did order some stronger bolder coffee for the Keurig. I figure if I am going to use it for my late afternoon coffee, it's going to have to be good stuff.
Speaking of coffee. I used to always buy Cains coffee. It is based in Oklahoma city. They have specialist that have traveled the world to come up with the best coffees. I see now that they have some cheaper blends, but I have to say if I bought their premium beans and ground my own you can't find many coffees better. Just an tidbit of info for other coffee snobs.

 

[Trish44]

btinkerbell did you get signed up on the Kansas Poultry Swap site? I wanted to make sure you got approved.

 

[Btinkerbell01]

I did not get approved yet.