The case for bad coffee (2015)

Your comment makes me smile. I've been experimenting with my morning coffee since the percolator was considered state of the art. I've probably got enough different coffee making paraphanalia in the attic to start my own museum.

And what I've finally settled on are locally roasted beans (generic Columbian), a good grinder and an aeropress.

I think the best thing about the artisanal foods movement is allowing the emergence of a huge number of small businesses that aren’t centered around knowledge work. It’s no long only megacorps owners that make huge profits off eat we eat (I learned this week that the Mars company that produces mass market confections is a $40bn annual revenue private company)

I mean, I hear what you and others are saying in the responses. I’m sure there’s coffees out there that, if I tried them, I’d admit were different, and likely better, than what I’m having now.

But I’d be worse off overall in that world, because then I’d go from enjoying cheap coffee, to hating cheap coffee and only enjoying “good” (read: expensive and/or time consuming) coffee. Folks would say “try this coffee, you’ll never go back to Folgers”, and you know what? They may be right! But why would I be better off? I’m already happy. I already enjoy my coffee.

Always trying to pursue finer and finer things leads you to a hedonic treadmill that’s hard to escape. It’s a trite and cliche Sheryl Crow lyric, but it’s absolutely true: It’s not getting what you want, it’s wanting what you got.

Similar experience. I worked in Europe, Switzerland and then Italy, and got hooked on great cappuccinos and espressos. In fact, I didn't drink coffee of any form before I moved to Geneva. But when I came back to the states, after a brief habit of overpaying for bad cappuccinos, I switched to drip American. There was a guy in North Beach who had a following who could fix a legit cappuccino but it was a lot of trouble. It's just not worth it. Even espressos, a much simpler drink to make, isn't really worth it.

Along the lines of the article, I'll even offer that bad coffee can be more memorable.

Fast, good, cheap. Pick two. Applies to everything.

Let's break down this specific context (food and drink), because I think it's interesting.

Good generally refers to quality (quality of the beans, quality of the machine, skill of the maker, etc), but what this article touches on is that good can also mean 'nostalgic' or 'evocative'. They're different kinds of good, perhaps more psychological kinds, but our perceptions of taste are functions of our brain anyway. Good can also mean 'what I grew up with' or 'what I'm used to'. Similar to nostalgia, but worth breaking out because temporally it's what you used to like, and you still like it, instead of merely harkening back to simpler times occasionally.

In terms of fast, usually we think of the coffee at the corner store that's always ready, or instant. But there's also an element of great food where you need to spend time understanding what you enjoy, and this is something that rarely comes quickly. In this thread there are many people saying they don't enjoy acidic coffee, and equating this with not enjoying specialty coffee. Spending lots of time understanding roast levels and finding a specialty roaster with less acidic coffee is something that would take lots of time and understanding. Wine and beer are similar, people who claim to hate either can generally be convinced that there is some style of wine or beer that they like if you take some time to understand what other foods and drinks they like and pick something that matches. But this takes time and expertise, and it would take even longer for the person to discover on their own.

Cost is similar to speed. Developing your palate, trying lots of different coffees, buying all of the equipment, it's all expensive.

"bad coffee" magically hits all three: good, fast and cheap. But the good is the nostalgia/evocation/what you're used to, and well since you didn't pick quality you can have good, fast and cheap.

It is perfect, to some people. But for me, who has no strong nostalgic association with "bad coffee", and who enjoys food and drink and deep-diving and learning, picking good and fast (in the case of espresso) is a better choice for me.

If I can end my post on a slightly inflammatory note: my goal in writing this is to make sure that people realise that loving low quality things when they can afford and have the time for higher quality things is on some level blissful ignorance. There's nothing inherently great about the low quality product, there are just other choices and tradeoffs you're making, which low the appeal of higher quality products (time and cost investment in exploring them) and raise the appeal of the bad quality product (nostalgia).

If you're fine with this (and there's no reason not to be), then enjoy!