hopefully this will be right up the alley for some of you guys here!

ive started drinking a lot more coffee and looking to expand/try new stuff.



is my go to. helps not drink 5 cups in a row. been a while since i used a regular machine, so if this makes a better cup, im no longer sure.

sometimes cream, never sugar. i generally prefer the stronger stuff, but i try different kinds, especially from this local store here that has bags for $3 of decent stuff. if i buy from the store, i guess gevalia is a standard go to.

also have a grinder, so beans are fine.

throw out some recommendations, your preferred setup, etc!

I have a capresso infinity grinder and way too many coffee brewing methods:

Aeropress
Mokapot
Clever
V60
Chemex
French Press
Motif Essential

I also have a fresh roast sr500 and roast my own beans sometimes. My favorite brewing method for just me is the clever, and for multiple cups is the v60. I loosely follow james hoffman's methods.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI4ynXzkSQo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpOdennxP24

Meh, beans and roast way more important than the brewing gear, imo.

Black Knight from Fresh Roast is my go-to. Extra dark Sumatra Mandeeling for the high-end experience.

We bought a Rancilio Silvia + grinder maybe 15 years ago and I thought that was way too much money for an espresso machine.

Nt only is the thing still running perfectly to this day, my brother also followed some YouTube videos and put in a bunch of sensors and wires and stuff to make it smart.

Disagree, a bad brewing method/gear will render any time put into beans/roast entirely moot.

Hard disagree. No method/gear can make Folgers taste good, and even a 1970s percolator doesn't make good well-roasted beans taste as bad as Folgers. Yeah, it can make a little difference, but for any mainstream brewing method/gear the difference is about on par with how much the shape of your beer glass changes the taste of the beer. i.e., far, far less important than your choice of beer in the first place.

IMO the roast profile and freshness of the beans are the most important things. Gear and technique are important but I see them as a means of fine tuning the flavor/acidity/body.

I use a Baratza Virtuoso grinder and rotate between Aeropress/Chemex/V60. My favorite roasters:

- Ceremony
- Little Owl
- Halfwit
- Klatch
- Corvus

I have a shipment of cryogenically preserved coffee arriving this week. I'm skeptical but saw they're sourcing from George Howell so I decided to give it a try.

I've been subscribed with Cometeer for a few months now. It's incredible.

Gone through various brewing machines/methods and don't think I'll go back to any of them after switching.

Jittery Joe's out of Athens GA is my go-to artisan roaster. Not sure how they stack up against anyone else but I know what I like. Works great in my Mr Coffee and in my pour-over setup.

No idea what Folgers is but if it some kind of generic mass market coffee brand then that is a completely pointless thing to bring into this conversation.

A method being unable to make something **** taste good is not remotely the same as a method not being able to extract the finer qualities from a higher end beans and roasts.

Yes of course good beans/roast is going to taste better than mass market swill even in a meh method/gear, but that meh method will also make very average non mass market swill taste about the same and you will have wasted your time in getting better beans/roast. Meh methods really compress the range of flavour you can get from beans.

A meh method will never score more than a 5/6 or 7 say, so there is no point putting beans that could score 9 or 10 into it. Yea dont put "folgers" into it, because that can only ever be a 1.

The more subtle and nuanced the flavour profile of your coffee source, the more refined the method has to be to extract the full potential.

any bean/brands to recommend? folgers/maxwell/etc just the big tubs you'd find at walmart or something..

haven't gotten into the roasting yet but sounds like that'll be the next step.

a big plus of the mokapot for me is not having to bother with filters. i see the aeropress can use a metal one, any thoughts on that? i might get one anyway. with the ones that suggest steeping longer, does it not get "cold" during that time? i find theres that sweet spot of hot where its drinkable, but not easy to just pound a cup.

a family friend had one that was like $1500 or more, i havent seen it, but they said without the dad there at the time, it looked too confusing to start hitting buttons on. would be a tough sell tho, imo, especially as ymmv on them. but thats pretty cool

I like coffee

Like good coffee, also like **** coffee, pretty much always black. Drink whatever swill they have at work all day long but go on and off actually drinking it in work from home. Also like cold brew.

I buy cheap beans because I end up missing the freshness window with my inconsistent usage and I'm not a great at executing brewing anyway. S&W Roasting is where I go for my higher tier ~ 15 dollar pounds. Have gotten fine stuff all the discount online roasters, good value if you don't want exceptional stuff. I cold brew with whatever is whole bean and cheap at the grocery store/walmart.

Have a baratza virtuoso grinder thats great, generally do V60 pour overs, Aero Press if I only want a single, or Cold Brew. Have not yet tried a Moka pot but will eventually.

Can watch Hoffman do coffee things for hours at a time.

weird people at my office load up their coffees with a bunch of cream and sugar lol

I use a burr grinder, Kalita Wave pour over, and buy a local coffee called Zeke's (DC/Baltimore area) that I get super freshly roasted within a day or two of purchasing. Usually half and half but no sugar.

Definitely takes some time to get used to it and setup is both time and bean consuming. But once you figure it out, it's not too difficult to use.

Yeah I just can't do that. Prefer mine American black.

aeropress is otw. i feel bad buying it from amazon and not direct from them, but "free" shipping is up to 3 weeks... if they could tie prime for $5 or so i would have just done that, but thursday vs end of the month...

looking forward to trying it.

Grunch: There isn't one about coffee bc after initial discussion(bean preference/brew method), conversation will die down due to uniformity/blandness of coffee pics/updates. Cooking A Good Steak/Everything Else can be updated every special meal with pics showing quality of ingredients and finished products. As good as coffee is, it just won't translate into interesting pictures. imo

This is kind of like lyrics vs. music: While the best lyrics (read: brewing method) in the world can never rescue a bad melody (read: beans/roast), terrible lyrics (brewing method) can certainly ruin a good song (beans/roast).

My recommendations (YMMV):
If you want a low-acid, completely unremarkable and non-offensive cup of coffee that will be acceptable to a large audience, stick with the Central Americans. I personally don't find much variation from country to country, but the Costa Ricans I have tried have tended to be the most appealing to me.

If you want a really earthy, heavy cup, try the Ethiopians, or African coffees in general. Not my taste, but some people love them. One exception I've seen is the Kenyans, which are brighter and more acidic.

My personal favorites are Java Kajumas (when I can find it) and Indian Monsoon Malobar. Both are sweet, nutty and really robust.

So, are Kona (HI) and Jamaican Blue Mountain not considered 'leet coffee these days? Too pedestrian? I usually splurge once a year on one or the other, from local (to the coffee) roasters.

This is a fair assessment, imo. Of course, the really turrible brewing methods, such as "cowboy coffee" (boiling water with grounds thrown in), are pretty rare these days. Still see lots of people keep their pot of coffee open to the air and on a hot-plate though, which is a quick way to ruin a good pot of coffee and to make a bad one even worse.

Received my shipment today. This is a game-changer. The body is a little thin but it's an otherwise fantastic cup. The hardest part was waiting for my kettle to heat up. Amazing!

My Clever arrived yesterday. After one time too many of having to fight to get the aeorpress to plunge, I was onboard with the idea of just letting my coffee drip. Went with ratio in JL's video which is basically what I was using in aeropress and it was a little less strong than I'm used to, but not necessarily a bad thing and flavor may have been a little better. Only steeped for 2.5 minutes so I'll try a bit longer tomorrow.

Yeah, this is why drip coffee has a bad reputation. The warmer staying on by default is a major flaw imo.