I'm not sure why you would want to restrict yourself to Starbucks equipment. There are a lot of cafes in Seattle and the non-starbucks cafes are more likely to go out of business than starbucks. Of course the best deals come from situations in which machines have NOT reached the end of their useful life at a cafe, but instead are being sold off in good condition. Strabucks also has a highly automated approach which is ok if you like that kind of thing, but not the usual for a real espresso aficionado.

There are several places to get used machines at good prices - usually places that specialize in servicing the machines for cafes. Most of them advertise on craigslist or on their own sites. A google search will get you top ones in a second.

I got my machine which is a commercial machine but perfect for home/office because it is not huge at visions. Here is their sale page but they seem to only have the really expensive ones available now.

http://www.visionsespresso.com/catalog/180

i just had a shuddering thought of the old boeing surplus but instead of rows of drill presses and engine parts and bins full of wires there were rows of half broken espresso grinders and bins full of expired coffee cards, not nearly as magical of an experience as boeing surplus was, but actually not a horrible idea if youre looking to pick up something that can make 5 drinks at once...i hope someone knows the real answer

I read sometimes at the hopvine on 15th. It's a dim bar but there is definitely enough light to read there unless your vision is impaired. I second bauhuas. Cafe vita on pike is a wonderful spot but it can get crowded as well. It's open until 11 however and those later hours are often a bit slower. Also now that summer time is around the corner my favorite spot to read is cal andreson park.

Bauhaus on Pine is a great place to hang out and read. Especially upstairs.

It can be crowded but Joe Barr across from the havard exit is comfy and has crepesTop pot on summit is not as cozy but a good bet and they have yummy doughnuts

Is there any chance your water is not hot enough? The optimal range is supposed to be 185F to 205F, but if you are heating the water to the bottom end of that range, it's going to cool down by as much as 20 degrees when you pour it into a room-temperature french press. Buy or borrow an instant-read thermometer and check the temperature of the water before it goes into the press, and after it's sat in the press for a minute.

Griffin (as I remember is the coffee professional) so there is good advice there.

I gave up the French press because of the cafestol and its effect on serum cholesterol. ("It is the most potent cholesterol-elevating compound present in the human diet.") But it really is my favorite coffee making method. I would highly recommend the use of a burr grinder rather than a blade, lots of different companies make them (I have a Bodum, stainless steel exterior - don't think they make my model anymore). It is really worth the cost for producing an appropriate consistent grind and without overheating the coffee as it is processed. You set the grinder for the size grind needed (marked with symbols for various methods) and the coffee goes through the burrs and drops into the container when it is the right size (coarse for a press).

You have to decide what amount will give you the taste you want, but I always use about 44-45 grams of coffee beans (dark roast for us) for a 32 ounce press. I would measure the beans, throw them in the hopper, turn on the grinder and then shut it off when the sound of the motor changed as it had ground all the beans. Then just empty the ground coffee into the press. Be sure to stir your water and grounds a little after adding the water. Some people stir again before pressing, but I don't. Four minutes is a perfect time period to steep the grounds. 

Cardamom coffee is about to start being served at Whistle Stop Espresso Cafe and Bike Shop Co-op. It is located at the Othello Light Rail Station on the corner of Martin Luther King and S. Othello Street, next to the Swap Meet and across the street from The Station Apartments. Stop in tomorrow after 5pm and ask our barista to make one for you. They are open from 7am to 8pm Monday through Friday, and 8am-5pm on the weekends. I hope this helps.

My shop's knock off is as follows: take whatever cup you're using and fill it with high quality ice cubes. Fill half the remaining volume with cold pressed coffee, fill with skim milk. If you're doing sugar free syrup, add 1 pump (about .5 oz) per 4oz of finished drink; if it's not, use about .75oz sauce to every 4oz of finished drink. Add proprietary powdered mix (this is mostly sugar, dry milk, and stabilizers, in that order) at rate of 1 tsp. per 4oz finished drink.

Blend in a high powered blender for 20 seconds. BlendTec is usually what Starbucks has, but you'll need something similar for the smooth final product.

Tada.

So in my experience, the key to a good knock-off frapp is two things:

1) a really really good blender - I use a VitaMix, you could also use a BlendTec

I tried using my old Oster blender, and it's just not the same. It doesn't break the ice down into small enough pieces to get that velvety, milkshake/smoothie-like texture. The texture is a large part of the frapp "experience" and it won't be right if you don't use the same type of blender.

2) Xanthum gum. I get mine from the baking aisle at Whole Foods - it's about $12 for a bag with a cup or a cup and a half in it. I use it up 1/4 t at a time, so one bag will last a really really long time.

Here is a recipe for a homemade frapp that is a pretty good imitation. For a mocha frapp light, you should sub sugar-free chocolate syrup for the sugar and experiment from there.

Many of these specialty drinks use proprietary premixed drink bases that employees measure out for the various sizes. This makes giving you a recipe pretty much problematic. You wind up having to experiment how to best duplicate the taste that you find in a particular menu drink.

Having a good blender is key to most of these preparations. If you want to use what they use there, buy a Blendtec blender.

A wonderful coffee shop that is soon to open in West Seattle is, Caffe Fiore. The cafe is at 2206 California. Close to the Admiral theater.

Great organic locally roasted coffee. Check it out!

While not strictly coffeehouses --

Luna Park Cafe is open till 10

Skylark's open till 2am. Late night on kid music nights they're sort of a kid friendly bar, if that can be believed.

Mission is open till 2am too.

Rocksport's the diviest of dive bars, - if they have coffee it's VIA or comes stale in a can.

I think Uptown Espresso is open the latest - until 11pm Saturdays.

We were running french press coffee through a paper cone filter because it seemed to help my tummy not get too upset. Now we have the Clever Coffee Dripper, which is basically a one-unit way to do the same thing. You put the coffee in the filter, add your not-quite boiling water, cover and let sit for 4 minutes or so; then put the dripper on top of your coffee cup or thermos and the stopper opens to release the coffee.

I didn't like that it's made of plastic, but it is BPA-free and ultimately reduces the number of things that have to be washed. So if you find you like the taste of french press coffee poured through a paper filter, you might want to look into the clever coffee dripper. I can't tell the difference between coffee made with this and french press coffee poured through a paper filter. It's not as rich as straight french press of course.

I'm guessing that cafestol is a fairly large molecule that gets trapped in the paper filter, so the clever coffee dripper should also keep most of the cafestol out of the finished product.

You can find more info here:
http://www.sweetmarias.com/clevercoffeedripperpictorial.php

Rather than worry about getting the temperature exactly right or the water flow exactly right, just get a regular ol' coffeemaker -- a cone filter kind, like a Braun or Cuisinart or Krups. If you get a quality machine it will make perfectly good coffee. Manual coffeemakers can be extremely variable in the temperature and rate of the water you pour in, which should be significantly but not massively BELOW boiling, 200 degrees, or about 45 seconds off the boil. An automatic coffeemaker will do this for you perfectly every time.

We have a Cuisinart automatic coffeemaker with insulated carafe that makes outstanding coffee every time without thinking about it. The insulated carafe means it doesn't sit on a hotplate afterwards.

The most important thing besides the water temp is using good fresh-ground coffee, of course.

Hi Russ Campbell,

I like your question and before I answer it I want to make sure we are on the same page... When it comes to roasting, brewing and tasting coffee, its all subjective.

I hear and understand your concerns with cafestol. From the research I have done in the past, you can increase your cholesterol levels around 8% if you drink 4 or more cups of paperless filtered coffee a day (8oz cups and I do not know the duration of this study).Espresso, although exracts more cafestol then paper filters, extracts less then boiled mthods. Drinking 1 -2 cups of unfiltered coffee has provided inconclusive results in the increase of cholesterol or increase in heart disease. Another fact in the increase of cholesterol when drinking coffee is that a large percentage of people who drink coffee daily also tend to have other habits such as smoking, drinking, unhealthy diets, etc. Please account for life style choices when researching coffee consumption.

When it comes to which paperfilter brewing methods you should choose, I personally would base my choice off of what kind of extraction/ coffee I was looking for/ wanted to use so I could extract the flavors I was looking for (i.e. more body or less, more acidity or bitterness etc.). With that being said, try using the Hario V60 with a bleached filter (bleach filters impart the least amount of filter flavor). If you use any paperfilter method, I would recommend using bleached filters.

Last but not least, do not push FP, Espresso and your Aeropress aside because of concerns about cholesterol. Each of those methods produce incredible flavors. My only exception would be if you already have bad / high cholesterol or a family history of it.

I hope this help answer your question. If you have any other please do not hesitate to ask.

Thank you,
Howie Schultz

PS. I drink lots of coffee all day long and have a clean bill of health.

The 5 point!
The Night Kitchen!

While most hotels fit the bill, the Green Tortoise Hostel!! has what they generously call a free "internet cafe" and is a 24 hrs hostel.

Beth's and the 5 Point are the city's last true allnighter cafes. Yelp says they both have free wifi but I've only verified that at the 5 point.

Also - Uncle Elizabeth's internet Cafe -open till 130am last I checked.

A-Pizza-Mart on stewart is open till 4am?

13 coins.

Certain Denny's (though those are outside the city now mostly: kirkland Denny's has wifi)

vivace dolce/vita mix, french-pressed in an old luck talisman of a low wide mug, on a cold marble table, with dawn's light creeping up through windows and the rising coffee steam hinting at the coldest time of each day - with breakfast and interruptions to my writing time still hours away.

THAT is the most delicious.

I've been making my coffee in a single drip filter for years, and love it. I get one of those $2.95 plastic filter holders from the grocery store that you set over a mug, line it with a paper cone filter, add a couple heaping tablespoons of coffee, and pour boiling water over the whole mess. I'm sure there are people out there who will tell me that I'm doing it wrong, but it makes a damn delicicous cup of coffee.

I'm not sure why you consider the Aeropress a hassle. I've found it to be the easiest method for making coffee. Keeping the water temperature within a limited range is important in all methods of making coffee, but it's supposedly less critical in the Aeropress. I know the instructions say to use water at at 175 F degrees, but the designer also says that's just a guideline he chose because it was the most forgiving. The paper filter does filter out cafestol, but I don't know if it gets all of it. I know this from reading the results of experiments by coffee obsessives using an Aeropress with laboratory filters as a way to get the oily compounds (which include cafestol) into the cup.

I get the impression that the cafestol issue is actually pretty unclear. It definitely raises blood cholesterol levels, but it's not clear if that actually leads to the negative effects we associated with high cholesterol. There are also possible health benefits to cafestol.

Please note that I'm not claiming to be an expert. I know about the Aeropress because I was obsessed with coffee making techniques for a while, and I still use the Aeropress almost every day. Everything I know about cafestol I learned from Wikipedia five minutes ago.

You may find a method you like on www.brewmethods.com

There are different methods for the same brewing devices from a variety of coffee professionals and enthusiasts.

If that doesn't suit you, good ol'-fashioned trial and error could help (taking notes on every possible variable highly recommended for repeatability).

***pouring your French-Pressed coffee through a paper filter is effective (though not sure how effective for the specific chemical with which you're concerned) and produces a nice, clean cup with the flavor and body of a French Press without the sediment and usual "cloudiness."

Candy. Candy is delicious.

(http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/7/12/)

Oh, you were asking about coffee and tea, I guess? Iced mocha for one, mandarin orange green tea for the other (with lots of honey).

My vote is for tea in general, but to be specific, the masala chai from Traveler's.

aqua verda does. haven't tried one yet. sounds pretty amazing they also have breakfast burritos!

Dear god(s) you are my hero.

Pretty sure Señor Moose in Ballard serves it, although it's been a while since I've last been there.

Senor Moose does. I'm not sure if they offer lattes to go, but they are delicious.