Another year another Vegan Month of Food! Since 2008 I’ve been participating in veganmofo and I’m so stoked to begin another year. I have a lot of stuff tentatively planned but no formal theme this year so it should be more of the usual, tacos, restaurant talk, bake sale planning, travel pics, favorite recipes and maybe some of my own recipes which I’ve really gotten away from in recent years. Writing recipes takes forever. I don’t know how you all do it and where you find the time, I’ve got books to read and TV to watch. Also this is my 401 post! That’s a lot of blah blah blah vegan.
And speaking of talking too much, there is one subject I can talk about all day and that’s coffee. I love it. Ever since I was 11 and my Dad handed me a cup saying. “this is a cappuccino” I’ve been hooked on fancy coffee. It is so easy to spend way too much money every day going to coffee shops and getting a nice soy latte but sadly it is not something I can afford to do every day. So over these many years I have suffered, sure in a first-world comparably-rich easy-office-job-lifestyle-way, but suffered nonetheless with shitty cups of coffee. Some of you may know that I spent much of last year in pain and unable to walk and it is all because I fell in a hole on my way to get coffee, passing at least three places I could have picked it up along the way, because I have standards folks. I’m a total snob when it comes to coffee at home too and after using drip machines, and french presses for some time I have finally found my ideal family of coffee making equipment.
For my birthday this last year Dan got me a Toddy and really at the time it seemed kind of silly. I was perfectly satisfied with using the french press to cold brew coffee and I wasn’t even looking for something else. But like heroin once I tried it, I couldn’t resist. The Toddy works very similarly to the french press, you cover some coffee grounds with cold water and let it sit overnight. The difference is really in the filter. Instead of the single screen in the french press the Toddy has a really thick multi-layered filter and it ends up taking out a lot of the acid taste which I never even noticed was covering up all the flavors. The liquid that comes out is concentrated so it lasts for quite a few cups and then you can mix it with soy milk, water or whatever.
All summer I’ve been enjoying it over ice but now that the weather has gotten into the 70s I’ve been craving a hot cup of joe. A few weeks ago I pulled out my Bodum frother and I have got to tell you that the frothy vanilla soy milk with the toddy cold pressed coffee has lead to the greatest cups of coffee in my life, especially with this Indian coffee they have at the Fair Bean. You can just taste every nuance of the beans and it doesn’t hurt my belly the way shitty coffee does. It almost seems healthy but folks, I promise I’m highly caffeinated See all these run-on sentences? They all comes from this coffee!!!!! I could really go on all day about this but instead I am going to leave you with a clip from a place where they take coffee very seriously.
Lazy Smurf's Guide 
I’m reading through your post and all I can think is… I WANT THAT KICKASS VEGAN MOFO MUG!!! Hahaha
I won the veganmofo mug years ago from Vegan Dish I bet you could ask her on etsy to make you one!!
okay. This is a really great post. I have been very dissatisfied with the bitter, crappy coffee that we make at home with our coffee machine. I’ll even start to think “maybe I don’t actually *like* coffee….” and then I’ll have a good cup somewhere, and be reminded that actually, I LOVE coffee! So! I am very interested in this Toddy thing. But I don’t get the cold brew thing. I only ever want hot coffee, I absolutely never want cold coffee. If you cold brew it, how do you heat it up? I need answers, and clearly you are the right person to ask! Also. That MoFo mug is really effing great and I am coveting it.
you just heat it up on the stove or in the microwave. I know it sounds weird but really, it is so good. I won the veganmofo mug years ago from Vegan Dish I bet you could ask her on etsy to make you one!!
okay! I am seriously tempted. Potential Toddy purchase in my immediate future.
I think yr theme this year should to have every post include both a Velvet Underground and a Twin Peaks nod.
I am on the fence about coffee - I love good coffee but it makes me so jumpy I’ve been thinking of not drinking it much anymore… which makes me sad because, as you touched on, a lot of the attachment is a ritual and a feeling that it gives you beyond the caffeine kick. Anyway, Happy mofoing!
LOVE the mug! I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to coffee too. These days I mostly make my own. The French press is way awesome, but I might have to look into that Toddy you speak of.
1. Twin Peaks!! Agent Cooper is pretty much my personal dream man. (So is the Tenth Doctor, but my husband looks enough like David Tennant that I feel like I already have him.)
2. Cold brewed coffee is the only coffee I’ll drink! It totally removes most of the acid that you get in hot brewed coffee, even when I use my Chemex I get acid stomach. Best thing about cold brewed coffee - making breakfast smoothies with it. Frozen banana + plant milk + cold coffee + oat flour/nut butter/some other sort of healthy protein = best breakfast EVER.
omg I have to try this!
I’ve heard about this cold brewing before, but I never knew anyone (outside of a magazine) who tried it. Now you’re got me really curious!
I am the opposite of a coffee snob (decaf all the way!) but I ❤ your coffee enthusiasm & your mug!
Happy MoFo, can’t believe this is our 5th year!
I love love love coffee but no longer drink it…well, often (maybe one or two cups a month) which is super sad but makes my stomach a lot happier. If I were still indulging, though, I’d get on a Toddy super fast-that filter sounds like the jam!
5 years! That is nuts. I can’t believe we’ve never met!
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Ah! Cold brew coffee (I was using my french press like a plebe)! Twin Peaks! Mofo! These are a few of my favorite things. Cheers!
Oh great. Now I think I need a Toddy! (And I didn’t even know what that was 5 minutes ago.)
Great post - and I absolutely love that mug…
Happy MoFo!
I used to drink a lot of coffee too, since I was a lot younger and in high school we used to get off the bus a few stops early just to go to a good cafe and get coffee and then we’d have to walk all the way to school. I stopped because caffeine really makes me anxious now and my heart speeds up too much but, I have found some really nice decaf coffee so I’ve been having 1 cup a day with Mimic Creme Hazelnut creamer.
I love the new gadgets you’ve got and that you’ve been able to find your perfect cup of coffee!