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The case for bad coffee (2015)

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Re: The case for bad coffee (2015)

#31

Post by rayiner »

xioxox wrote: post #25

I certainly like instant coffee and prefer it over many other types I have tried. It took a few tries to find a good one, however. Perhaps it's because I mostly like coffee quite milky, which might cover over any quality issues. Developing a taste for good coffee (or wine, etc) doesn't seem attractive to me. You end up needing more and more equipment. You need expensive high quality beans. It's typically messy, time…

I’ve settled on this German coffee (Dallmayr Prodomo): https://enjoybettercoffee.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/coffee-re...

It’s coffee for people who don’t like flavor. “A taste without creamer or sugar has an initial bitterness that immediately becomes smooth and gentle. With sugar and milk, it is the mildest coffee you may ever taste. In fact, the coffee is specially processed in order to remove any bitterness yet still keep the flavor of a fine European coffee.”

Re: The case for bad coffee (2015)

#32

Post by wahnfrieden »

xioxox wrote: post #25

I certainly like instant coffee and prefer it over many other types I have tried. It took a few tries to find a good one, however. Perhaps it's because I mostly like coffee quite milky, which might cover over any quality issues. Developing a taste for good coffee (or wine, etc) doesn't seem attractive to me. You end up needing more and more equipment. You need expensive high quality beans. It's typically messy, time…

it's easy to learn by paying your local expert professional without the personal work, if you can afford it

Re: The case for bad coffee (2015)

#33

Post by don-code »

Coffee ended up being much more than just the beverage for me. I've never been the type of person to pay for coffee at a coffee shop each morning, which took most of the social aspect of it away. And at the time, I was buying, yes, bad coffee - specifically, the second-cheapest espresso roast that turned out to be made by Folgers, in spite of what the front of the tin said.

It was actually a local radio station (WERS Boston) that got me into a similarly local coffee roaster (Atomic Coffee). I got a bag of their coffee with a donation to the station, and I was hooked. Enough so that I now take friends to their cafe to hang out, and work with them to cater the coffee for an event I help run every year.

What's more, a number of my coworkers are coffee drinkers - sometimes, we'll bring in coffee to share; sometimes, we'll discuss the merits and demerits of such-and-such single origin blend; sometimes, there will be holy wars about the use of a moka pot versus a Chemex, or whole-bean with a burr grinder versus pre-ground. But all in good fun.

Re: The case for bad coffee (2015)

#34

Post by hanklazard »

This was a really beautiful post.

As for coffee, like many other parts of life (movies, food, and music especially), I find that I like it very good or very bad—as long as it’s not down the middle, I can find a time/place to enjoy it.

I have a fairly expensive Rocket Espresso machine, I’ve learned some latte art. I have every coffee making contraption out there. And I enjoy all of it, at times.

When I’m in a hurry I’ll make instant or go to a gas station. Totally fine and the gas station coffee is kind of a favorite of mine for long trips in the car.

What I almost never do is buy Starbucks because to me, it feels like that middle-of-the-road experience. I’m not making a statement about the company or the culture or anything like that. It just feels like going to Applebees or something (yes you’re out to eat, but shouldn’t you just go somewhere nice or, on the other hand, somewhere cheaper/faster where you don’t have to tip?). It’s too acidic and too expensive for what it is. I’d rather pay for something nicer or go cheap.

Re: The case for bad coffee (2015)

#35

Post by egypturnash »

I am now thinking of all the time I spent in a split-level coffee shop in Seattle’s University district, and how little time I spent in it after it changed hands and name and became a Temple of Coffee Snobbery. Trabant got a name-drop in the graphic novel I was working on during that time, I couldn’t even tell you the name of the place that replaced it because their new vibe really just drove me elsewhere.

Re: The case for bad coffee (2015)

#36

Post by rayiner »

CptFribble wrote: post #4

Like most things, coffee is subject to diminishing returns. I have also owned nearly every device invented to make coffee - as I'm sure many others here have - and I've settled on a simple over-the-mug pour-over cone, but mainly because there's no moving parts or tubes to worry about cleaning. I don't even know what "correct" pour-over technique is, so I'm basically making bog-standard single-serving drip coffee with…

The best beer is Miller 64. My wife calls it “beer for pregnant women.”

Re: The case for bad coffee (2015)

#37

Post by lostlogin »

spread_love wrote: post #6

Congrats, you have bad taste. There's an easy middle ground between "a flat white at a Manhattan coffee shop" and instant coffee. Buy and grind fresh beans. Buy local instead of supporting Big Coffee and poor cultivation practices. I won't turn up my nose at diner coffee but you don't have to be a snob to notice a huge difference. Besides I have bonded over flat whites before :(

Buying local with coffee only goes so far. The beans have some deeply unethical producers and while fair trade and organic beans go someway towards helping with this, they are pricey.

Re: The case for bad coffee (2015)

#38

Post by abstract_put »

michaelchisari wrote: post #21
WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can take my espresso machine from my cold dead hands. Then again I don’t understand why Americans pay so much for their coffee. Here 1kg of fairly good single origin coffee is 22€ and the quality is miles ahead of instant. You don’t have to become an insufferable snob to enjoy better coffee.

Those little stove-top espresso makers that Italians use make the best espresso. Apparently they're called Moka Pots, never knew that.

The moka pot is how I transitioned from coffee as a utility drink to coffee I enjoy drinking. James Hoffman (popular coffee YouTuber) has a video[1] where he goes over what it takes to get consistently good results out of the moka pot - it's not easy. Used naively they kinda go heavy "bitter and dark".

What appealed to me about the moka pot at the time was the reeeeeally "strong" coffee flavor. As I've moved away from it, I think my palate was just geared towards really dark roasts - very little the bean brings to the table at that point.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfDLoIvb0w4

Re: The case for bad coffee (2015)

#39

Post by matwood »

xioxox wrote: post #25

I certainly like instant coffee and prefer it over many other types I have tried. It took a few tries to find a good one, however. Perhaps it's because I mostly like coffee quite milky, which might cover over any quality issues. Developing a taste for good coffee (or wine, etc) doesn't seem attractive to me. You end up needing more and more equipment. You need expensive high quality beans. It's typically messy, time…

I’m lazy and like coffee. The best middle ground I have found was a paper filter pour over with grocery store beans that I grind right before brewing. Whole beans ground at brew time is, for me, the biggest change.

Re: The case for bad coffee (2015)

#40

Post by rojoca »

You can enjoy all kinds of disgusting and / or ridiculous things when you have some adjacent emotional connection. It’s one of the best things about life, keeping in mind it can work the opposite way too.
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