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Coffee as it tasted in 1920

17 Comments

Key Coffee takes us back in time to try the taste of 1920s coffee with its DRIP ON Yokohama 1920 CLASSIC. It has a slightly bitter but pleasant taste.

Price: 268 yen

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17 Comments
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Price Y268....quantity? pack size in picture looks like 500gm :)

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I think you will find it is only five cups or five filter packs.

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Here's an idea: Consistent quality.

The same as it ever was.

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Lidicurous. How do we know what kohi tasted like in 1920. Speciarry as they didn't have one cup dlips back then.

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DRIP ON. On what? I'll try it but agree with Wakarimasen.

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Wonder who Key Coffee found who can remember how coffee tasted back in 1920? Most of the people I knew who drank coffee back in 1920 are now pushing up daisies. And even if they were still alive, I doubt if their memories could pull in the flavor of coffee from 90-plus years ago.

I have read where coffee shops were a big hit in the big cities in Japan back in the early part of the 1900s. So there must have been some good coffee around somewhere way back then.

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The bitter taste of real 1920s coffee came from the fact that they boiled the coffee rather than percolate or drip-brewing it like today. The aromatic oils of the coffee gets extracted at around 96 degrees which is the temperature used for brewing. Bitter substances leech out at 100 degrees (boiling), so you can get the same effect by boiling almost any dark roast coffee together with the water and then filter or french press it.

This method is still common in some parts of the world.

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boiling almost any dark roast

Correction, granny just called from my subconsciousness and told me that is supposed to be a medium roast.

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@some14some: Why are you ALWAYS concerned about the price of everything?

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and the value of nothing?

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SquidBert writes: "The bitter taste of real 1920s coffee came from the fact that they boiled the coffee rather than percolate or drip-brewing it like today."

What SB says is probably true. I have been to some of the really old coffee shops in the Tokyo area that stil boiled coffee as described by SquidBert. I always felt strange watching this process, thinking that it's just gotta be wrong. But, surprisingly, I never got a bad cup of coffee from such doings. As a matter of fact, it tasted pretty good. I haven't seen any such coffee shops recently, but bet there are still some somewhere around out there ... perhaps in a back alley somewhere that I am unaware of. Perhaps you know of such a place ...

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Typical marketing BS. In the 1920's there were lots of different brands that all tasted different, however the likely response is that some brand somewhere tasted like this one.

Personally I steep the whole beans in hot water, just below boiling point and it produces an excellent cup of coffee, with the added benefit that I never need to buy an expensive "coffee machine" that takes up space in my apartment, just a kettle, although it is a much slower method, but if you want perfection then a little patience is required. Buying ground coffee always seems pointless to me, even vacuum sealed a lot of the flavour is lost in the industrial grinding process, and my opinion is either grind at home or use whole beans.

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Good post, SquidBert! That might explain why my camp coffee tastes so good - I use a percolating pot I put directly over the fire. I would use it at home if I weren't addicted to my coffee maker timer waking me up with its coffee aroma....

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why not export to Italy, homeland of coffee?

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Turkish coffee is the best for my taste and it shows your love to the person you serve it to. For example Serrano will get the most bitter coffee he has ever drunk from me.

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"So, they kept this old coffee for all this time to sell it cheap like this"

LOL, how the hell they knows how it tasted like the 20's coffee?!

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