A coffee buzz that lingers

Russ Parsons received more than 50 letters about his cover story, “The New Coffee Connoisseur,” in last week’s special issue on coffee. Here are just a few of them, plus two relating to the issue as a whole.

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JUST read your article ... nice.

I’m a Montana cowboy and I thought I would throw my two cents in. At 45 years old, I have finally figured out the perfect coffee trick (for me). I buy green beans from a local store, roast them somewhere between the first crack and the second crack. It does give them an oily coating, but it’s great. I then get the water almost to a boil in a coffee boiler, then shut it off. Once it stops moving around, I dump my coffee in. Come back in a few minutes, stir the “crust” down, then do the same a few minutes later. When the grounds are settled, pour it and enjoy.

Just another of a thousand ways to skin a cat.

PETER MILNE

Trout Creek, Mont.

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THE cooking-challenged who want to impress friends with a great-tasting dessert can prepare Brazilian Snow, made by passing coffee, preferably freshly ground in a burr grinder, through a sieve onto vanilla ice cream.

MIC DENIRO

Santa Barbara

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YOU did a great job with your piece, and I thought you’d get a kick out of this report from the department of fuller amplification.

I couldn’t tell whether you knew that a real chemist adapted some of the equipment that was kicking around his lab to create what became the Chemex. Peter Schlumbohm is long gone, but a gazillion years ago when I first found his product, I called him up to say, essentially, way to go, and had a fascinating conversation with a real hair-shirt eccentric.

He told me he wanted a cup of coffee when he was working in his lab one night and simply put together an Erlenmeyer flask and some filter paper used to precipitate solutions, and after the coffee dripped through, kept the stuff warm over a Bunsen burner!

Schlumbohm was well along in years when we spoke, and he hadn’t gotten a lot of calls like mine, so he was pleased to run into a young American with a European sensibility about coffee, and tutored me on how to make coffee like the PhD in chemistry he was.

Very major for him was barely wetting the grounds to allow the coffee flavor to “bloom” (his term, and he sent me microphotographs he had made to prove he was right) before adding the rest of the water. Schlumbohm turned his lab toy into a small business, the American dream, and ultimately sold it to International Housewares.

ALAN BELL

Los Angeles

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WHILE I enjoyed your special issue, you have to admit it’s odd that with all the emphasis on all the particulars of the bean, the farm, the grinder, the brewing temperature and such, that no one seems to mention how milk makes up a significant percentage of the flavor of cappuccinos and lattes. Is The Times simply conceding that all milk tastes alike?

TONY SOLTIS

Studio City

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THANK YOU very much for the outstanding coffee reportage. I learned a lot and am now yearning a lot.

AUDREY KOPP

Marina del Rey