Friday, June 4, 2010

Egg Shells in my Coffee



I have been drinking more morning coffee lately, and noticed that although the first cup is fine, subsequent cups from the pot are somewhat bitter. I used to add a quarter teaspoon of demerara sugar to my cup overcome the bitterness, but sugar is now off my list. In reading about organic shade-grown coffees, I came across the suggestion of adding egg shells to the grounds while brewing.

Let me tell you, it makes a difference! Not in coffee taste, but in mellowness. (I drink either a French roast or a dark roast, depending on what my store has in stock.)

The alkaline calcium leached into the brew buffers the acids in coffee, and it adds some extra calcium to my system. The amount of acids in coffee vary by type of coffee maker, controlled by water temperature, speed of water seeping through the grounds, and to some extent by the type of roast of coffee itself.

So far I have just thrown a crushed shell in with the grounds, the more shell edge area, the better. Today I started putting the shells in a cloth re-useable tea bag, but I think I'm also going to pulverize the shells. I also read you could just drop a calcium supplement tablet in with the grounds.

5 comments:

  1. Long ago and far far away UP NORTH in the WI forests my adopted Mom told me that a couple of 'grains' of salt will do the trick .and it does ;-))

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  2. Thanks! I have sometimes added a touch of salt but I think the calcium is better for me.

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  3. Darius, what an interesting blog! I love how you share information. So now it's my turn. I don't "hot brew" my coffee any more. I purchased a Toddy cold brew system and what a difference! I too love the dark coffees, Italian in particular, and it's so smooth with around 65% less acid and less caffeine. No waste because you keep the concentrate in the fridge and only use what you need each time. I haven't tried using this system for tea yet but will soon. Thanks so much for your posts on ghee and tallow, I will definately be doing some of that myself. Fortunately I live near a Whole Foods market so no problem getting the proper meat and fat. Thanks again!

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  4. Thanks, Good Timing! My coffee pot just died this morning so I'm looking about, and will certainly look at cold brewing. Only problem is the fridge is at the other end of the house from my office (where I drink my coffee).

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  5. No problem again. I put my coffee concentrate that's made while cold brewing in a smaller bottle and keep it near where I heat up my coffee. You only fix it a cup at a time so hence no waste. You basically just soak the grounds in water for 12 hours, drain through the provided filter into the cannister and keep that in the fridge. Heat up about 2/3 cup of water, add concentrate and stevia with your cream. Yumm, the reason for the morning I say! Then I sprinkle the grounds around my plants to add extra nitrogen, they love it.

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