Any Coffee Snob Like Me Here?

Prog1967

The bean that to my taste provides the best balance in flavor are from Dota Valley in the Tarrazu region in Costa Rica. That is one that anyone who likes coffee should try

JeffChasteen

I really like Jittery Joe’s roasted in Athens, GA, but I honestly drink coffee primarily for its chemical properties.

Poppadocrock

Sort of. Need to start grinding at home.

Poppadocrock

@u0421793 said:
I have the big packs of Lavazza beans, I grind in a Hario mini slim, I use a dripper and filter papers, I put milk in, I drink it. This, several times a day. I’m not fussy about coffee though. Theoretically instant coffee should come out the same, as it only consists of coffee brewed up in a big vat and either evapourated by being dropped through the air to cause it to become granules, or freeze dried to sublimate the solids from the water, and putting hot water back in should theoretically put you back at the state where it was brewed. It doesn’t though, but it’s really only brewed and dried coffee - no other ingredients, so it should.

That’s my favorite brand. I cut out the specialty coffee expense with a frother and a moka pot. Which is exact but works pretty well. They have a few good roasters close to me, I need to get a grinder and to start doing it right.

rs2000

@ervin said:

@rs2000 said:

@NeuM said:
You know, some of the best coffee I've ever had was in Italy at their roadside refueling stations, which they call "Autogrill". Absolutely delicious.

Confirmed!
And you'll never get that taste with 100% Arabica.
But marketing seems to be more powerful than taste, although taste is a subjective thing of course.

+1. BTW, the other country where you get consistently excellent coffee, including in truck stops, is Portugal. Which may be a bit unexpected, since their big neighbour Spain does some of the worst coffee imaginable (my apologies to the excellent Spanish squad here - you guys do pretty much everything else right on the food/drink front).

You're right, I had the chance to try it there and they not only have great coffee but also incredibly irresistable sweet seducers accompanying it

ervin

@rs2000 said:

@ervin said:

@rs2000 said:

@NeuM said:
You know, some of the best coffee I've ever had was in Italy at their roadside refueling stations, which they call "Autogrill". Absolutely delicious.

Confirmed!
And you'll never get that taste with 100% Arabica.
But marketing seems to be more powerful than taste, although taste is a subjective thing of course.

+1. BTW, the other country where you get consistently excellent coffee, including in truck stops, is Portugal. Which may be a bit unexpected, since their big neighbour Spain does some of the worst coffee imaginable (my apologies to the excellent Spanish squad here - you guys do pretty much everything else right on the food/drink front).

You're right, I had the chance to try it there and they not only have great coffee but also incredibly irresistable sweet seducers accompanying it

Good point. They are brilliant in pastries, too. Food and wine as well, now that we are speaking - one of the great underrated cuisines in the world imho. I asked some Portuguese friends once why there weren't Portuguese restaurants everywhere. They had no idea, the best answer I got was "because it would be too difficult to procure the extra wide range of fresh ingredients we use, from cold-mountain potatoes to warm-sea fish and everything in between". Fair. 🙂

krassmann

@rs2000 said:

@ervin said:

@rs2000 said:

@NeuM said:
You know, some of the best coffee I've ever had was in Italy at their roadside refueling stations, which they call "Autogrill". Absolutely delicious.

Confirmed!
And you'll never get that taste with 100% Arabica.
But marketing seems to be more powerful than taste, although taste is a subjective thing of course.

+1. BTW, the other country where you get consistently excellent coffee, including in truck stops, is Portugal. Which may be a bit unexpected, since their big neighbour Spain does some of the worst coffee imaginable (my apologies to the excellent Spanish squad here - you guys do pretty much everything else right on the food/drink front).

You're right, I had the chance to try it there and they not only have great coffee but also incredibly irresistable sweet seducers accompanying it

Oh well, a glass of Galão and a Pastel de Nata and I’m in heaven.

krassmann

@klownshed said:

@rs2000 said:

@NeuM said:
You know, some of the best coffee I've ever had was in Italy at their roadside refueling stations, which they call "Autogrill". Absolutely delicious.

Confirmed!
And you'll never get that taste with 100% Arabica.
But marketing seems to be more powerful than taste, although taste is a subjective thing of course.

If you go to any bar in Italy and ask for a coffee you get an espresso. That's fine by me and that is what set my expectations :-)

My dad was Italian so my preference for coffee is Italian style espresso. I find the lighter roast 'specialty coffee' to be far too acidic and bright (and thin textured) for my taste. I like the darker roast Italian blends with Robusta to get that lovely thick velvety texture and crema. I prefer my coffee to me more bitter than acidic.

I mainly just drink espresso. I like the morning ritual/get the kids breakfast, grind some beans and make a nice strong double to start the day.

Growing up in the UK, coffee is usually on a scale from undrinkable to absolutely terrible As a kid if you went to anybody else's house, they'd crack out the Nescafe as it was the 'fancy' coffee. :-/

Any coffee that stars with "Nes" is just plain bad. Nestle are to coffee what McDonalds are to fine dining.

The results of these Nespresso machines are much better than any of these fully automatic machines. In Germany you find them quite often as office machines as they have a low maintenance but the waste is insane. At home I would always recommend to buy a portafilter machine. There is quite a decent and cheap one, the DeLonghi EC 685. It is usually about 150 EUR. It has such a stupid fake crema valve but you can remove it and use a normal portafilter sieve. It has the same Ulka pumps as expensive machines. Together with a good grinder you can get a really decent espresso from a setup below 350 EUR. Not exceptional but decent and much better than any Nespresso BS where you pay even more in the long run for these capsules.

For my everyday coffee I use Lavazza Crema e Aroma for 10 EUR/kilo which I find an extremely good value for the money: https://www.amazon.de/Lavazza-Crema-Aroma-1er-Pack/dp/B000FWHWGS

For special occasions I love to buy Manaresi Rosso (20% Robusta) or Manaresi Marrone (40% Robusta) which is about 18-20 EUR/kilo. It has a lot of that full bodied chocolate aromas like in northern Italy coffee bars.

rs2000

Thanks for these hints @krassmann! ☕️🍮

BroCoast

https://eumundicoffeeco.com.au/

My mate Tom.

I drink Aeropress, V60 and Mokka pot at home.

At cafes I will drink a magic which is a latte made with a double ristretto and 5 Oz of milk.

raindro

Ethiopian Coffee is my favorite. I'm going to get one of those special brewing pots they use someday. It's like the only way I like black coffee. It brings out a lot of fruity notes.

Montreal_Music

My little piece of advice: coffee is 98% water. So I have a filter for my water and YES, it makes a real difference.

This is the best filter I found (more expensive than Brita, but remove more crap in your water):

ervin

@krassmann said:

@klownshed said:

@rs2000 said:

@NeuM said:
You know, some of the best coffee I've ever had was in Italy at their roadside refueling stations, which they call "Autogrill". Absolutely delicious.

Confirmed!
And you'll never get that taste with 100% Arabica.
But marketing seems to be more powerful than taste, although taste is a subjective thing of course.

If you go to any bar in Italy and ask for a coffee you get an espresso. That's fine by me and that is what set my expectations :-)

My dad was Italian so my preference for coffee is Italian style espresso. I find the lighter roast 'specialty coffee' to be far too acidic and bright (and thin textured) for my taste. I like the darker roast Italian blends with Robusta to get that lovely thick velvety texture and crema. I prefer my coffee to me more bitter than acidic.

I mainly just drink espresso. I like the morning ritual/get the kids breakfast, grind some beans and make a nice strong double to start the day.

Growing up in the UK, coffee is usually on a scale from undrinkable to absolutely terrible As a kid if you went to anybody else's house, they'd crack out the Nescafe as it was the 'fancy' coffee. :-/

Any coffee that stars with "Nes" is just plain bad. Nestle are to coffee what McDonalds are to fine dining.

The results of these Nespresso machines are much better than any of these fully automatic machines. In Germany you find them quite often as office machines as they have a low maintenance but the waste is insane. At home I would always recommend to buy a portafilter machine. There is quite a decent and cheap one, the DeLonghi EC 685. It is usually about 150 EUR. It has such a stupid fake crema valve but you can remove it and use a normal portafilter sieve. It has the same Ulka pumps as expensive machines. Together with a good grinder you can get a really decent espresso from a setup below 350 EUR. Not exceptional but decent and much better than any Nespresso BS where you pay even more in the long run for these capsules.

For my everyday coffee I use Lavazza Crema e Aroma for 10 EUR/kilo which I find an extremely good value for the money: https://www.amazon.de/Lavazza-Crema-Aroma-1er-Pack/dp/B000FWHWGS

For special occasions I love to buy Manaresi Rosso (20% Robusta) or Manaresi Marrone (40% Robusta) which is about 18-20 EUR/kilo. It has a lot of that full bodied chocolate aromas like in northern Italy coffee bars.

Thanks for the tip, mate, I'll give the Rosso a try (website seems to say it's half/half, not 20% robusta btw)

mistercharlie

Most supermarket coffee is long past its best. Optimum is around a week after roasting, give or take. Those Lavazzas etc may be much older.

If you can find a local coffee store, or a supermarket that sells from a local-ish roaster, you’ll get much fresher coffee.

I like to make pour over, although I make it quite a bit stronger than most recommendations, which I find thin and weak. I use 30 grams of beans for 380 grams water.

BroCoast

@mistercharlie said:
Optimum is around a week after roasting, give or take.

Yeah.

When I used to work as a Barista/Roaster I found that 5-7 days of curing for a blend was essential for espresso.

Some single origins wouldn’t be good for use until 14+ days.

klownshed

I'm in the UK and have been getting these beans recently:

https://www.coffeemasters.co.uk/Coffee/coffee-beans-full-bodied-blend-fairtrade-1x1kg?cid=JQZUO22NNUVTMNSJM46Q&pageno=1

They are very reasonably priced and taste good. They are a lot fresher than, say, the Segafredo beans I used to get.

Segafredo beans do pretty come close to that classic Italian espresso flavour, which you can't quite match at home. Having said that my home made espresso is much better than any espresso I can buy locally.

But if I lived in Italy I would almost certainly never make espresso at home -- There's a bar on every corner and I'd do as the locals do and grab a coffee on my way out or have a mokka at home on a Sunday.

Daveypoo

@ervin said:
@Montreal_Music, I'm not sure it's available online where you live, but pretty much anything that Passalacqua sells is very good. If you like old-school Italian coffee, that is, because they are a family firm from Naples, so they don't do the new-school, taste-anything-but-coffee stuff. 👊

https://www.passalacqua.com/

I can confirm this, having had an amazing Neapolitan cappuccino made with Passalacqua just this very morning. Sprinkle a bit of cocoa powder on top and AWAY WE GO!

ecamburn

I use an AeroPress to brew locally roasted beans. My recipe is a hybrid of a couple of world championship recipes and James Hoffman’s

ervin

@Daveypoo said:

@ervin said:
@Montreal_Music, I'm not sure it's available online where you live, but pretty much anything that Passalacqua sells is very good. If you like old-school Italian coffee, that is, because they are a family firm from Naples, so they don't do the new-school, taste-anything-but-coffee stuff. 👊

https://www.passalacqua.com/

I can confirm this, having had an amazing Neapolitan cappuccino made with Passalacqua just this very morning. Sprinkle a bit of cocoa powder on top and AWAY WE GO!

Power move! 👏

ervin

@ecamburn said:
I use an AeroPress to brew locally roasted beans. My recipe is a hybrid of a couple of world championship recipes and James Hoffman’s

Yours is probably the coolest version so far. 👍

klownshed

@ecamburn said:
I use an AeroPress to brew locally roasted beans. My recipe is a hybrid of a couple of world championship recipes and James Hoffman’s

Aeropresses are so good. When I want a longer drink to take on a car journey I’ll make an aero press.

My go to recipe is similar to James Hoffman’s but with much less measuring

ecamburn

@klownshed said:

@ecamburn said:
I use an AeroPress to brew locally roasted beans. My recipe is a hybrid of a couple of world championship recipes and James Hoffman’s

Aeropresses are so good. When I want a longer drink to take on a car journey I’ll make an aero press.

My go to recipe is similar to James Hoffman’s but with much less measuring

Same. After experimentation I figured out 3 scoops of beans gets me where I want to go, so the grinder is on autopilot. I don't dink around with water either. It was a happy day when I watched one of Hoffman's vids where he said it's not possible to burn coffee with water that's too hot.

johnfromberkeley

Their lab is just a few blocks from my house:

https://www.coffeereview.com/highest-rated-coffees/

rs2000

@BroCoast said:

@mistercharlie said:
Optimum is around a week after roasting, give or take.

Yeah.

When I used to work as a Barista/Roaster I found that 5-7 days of curing for a blend was essential for espresso.

Some single origins wouldn’t be good for use until 14+ days.

Whaaat? I didn't know we have an expert roaster here

NeuM

@johnfromberkeley said:
Their lab is just a few blocks from my house:

https://www.coffeereview.com/highest-rated-coffees/

Anyone trying to charge me $350 for 8 oz. of coffee isn't going to find the response very pleasant.

McD

I just went through a series of Espresso Machine purchases and returns. Working my way up to a machine that made me happy.

In the end I ended up getting a unit that grinds the beans, tamps them into the puck pushes 9-bar of traction pressure using italian pumps, and steams milk in parallel with espresso extraction using dual boiler tanks to save time.

In other words... there went my new iPad.

After many years of caffeine addiction I have switched to decaf beans because it's the dark chocolate powder I put in each cup that effectively makes it a hot chocolate with a coffee shot added... what Starbucks and the others call a Mocha. I have a 24 oz cup.

I order the Dark Chocolate direct from Nestle and get 50% off by using a new email address since new customers always get 50% off. I order 12 cans at a time and they last about a year.

I use regular milk and my wife uses Oat Milk for her morning beverage. She's partial to Chai Tea Lattes with Oat Milk. The machine is so efficient I can make both beverages in about 5 minutes. After years of hitting a coffee shop on the commute to work I find I save money by making my own. I also find the morning beverage replaces the need for breakfast so in the long run I've saved a lot of time and money by investing in my addiction to caffeine... and later just stopped the caffeine and kept the hot chocolate steamed milk with an espresso shot addition. I sweeten with Stevia by the way.

So, I'd say I'm a coffee snob... hell, when we have dinner guests, I'm a barista and can take orders. I can make a caffeinated puck too and keep some pre-ground stuff in the cabinet if someone has a problem with the decafinating process which is claimed to be unhealthy.

johnfromberkeley

@NeuM said:

@johnfromberkeley said:
Their lab is just a few blocks from my house:

https://www.coffeereview.com/highest-rated-coffees/

Anyone trying to charge me $350 for 8 oz. of coffee isn't going to find the response very pleasant.

It gets crazy. I went as high as around $35 per half pound. Around 10 cups for $3.50 each, and quite a step up from your corner coffee shop.

That said, I’ve grown weary of all the protocols, from storing, to weighing, to grinding, to perfect temp water. If you’re not a daily drinker, beans can go stale.

I’m happy to settle for Philz New Manhattan, various cold brew concentrates, and pour overs at shops that do it. I haven’t made a cup at home for years.

johnfromberkeley

@ecamburn said:
I use an AeroPress to brew locally roasted beans. My recipe is a hybrid of a couple of world championship recipes and James Hoffman’s

This is the way, including the aftermarket metal filter.

BroCoast

@NeuM said:

@johnfromberkeley said:
Their lab is just a few blocks from my house:

https://www.coffeereview.com/highest-rated-coffees/

Anyone trying to charge me $350 for 8 oz. of coffee isn't going to find the response very pleasant.

That's $350 NT (New Taiwan Dollars.) 😂

About $12 USD

@rs2000 said:

@BroCoast said:

@mistercharlie said:
Optimum is around a week after roasting, give or take.

Yeah.

When I used to work as a Barista/Roaster I found that 5-7 days of curing for a blend was essential for espresso.

Some single origins wouldn’t be good for use until 14+ days.

Whaaat? I didn't know we have an expert roaster here

Ha I am no expert but I do like a good cup.

el_bo

Cold-brew, with oatmilk, straight from the supermarket fridge.

Non-coffee-snob confirmed!!