I figured out an easy way to not care what your coffee tastes like: get covid.
Are there any good K-cups out there?
There are decent enough ones. Depends on how much you want to pay. The Intelligentsia ones and one of the Green Mountain lights (Kenya AA?) was 40% off last time I looked on the Keurig site. Those are the cheapest options I know of that might be decent.
Am I being a massive coffee fish by using a chemex with a metal filter? I like not having to keep / use papers.
I donât have a strong opinion on metal filters, I think this is more of a personal preference thing. In theory the big difference in your cup should be 1) you get some fine debris and 2) more oil gets into your cup.
I havenât used a cone metal filter for drip/pourover but I have used one with aeropress pretty extensively and imo itâs a bitch to rinse and tends to get clogged (this may be mostly because last time I really used it I was still using a mid-range conical burr grinder, with my vario it might be less of an issue).
nearly through a bag of this and itâs the best bag Iâve had in months:
really off the charts. A few cups have been inexplicably sub-par but overall out of ~15 cups so far about 10 of them have been excellent with 2 true yahtzees. I havenât picked up the strawberry note they have in their profile but the apricot and florals are unmistakable. Very clear, clean cup, overall, very smooth and as close to perfect as Iâve had in a while.
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I could be wrong here, but it seems like you only drink espresso when youâre out, but it sounds like you only make pour overs at home. Why is that?
I donât have an espresso machine at home and I donât trust (most) cafes to do a good pour over.
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Ahh⌠Ok, more questions
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Why no espresso machine at home? Iâm assuming that one that would live up to your standards would be ridiculously expensive, but maybe itâs something else.
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I was under the impression that you only went to the fanciest and most highly regarded of cafes, if those guys canât do a decent pour over, then who can (commercially)?
Fish? No, but youâre leaving a lot on the table by not using paper. You can get an extremely clean cup with Chemex paper that you wonât get with that metal filter. Thatâs more important for delicate, high-end coffees than mid stuff so depends on what youâre drinking.
I canât answer for @pvn but âgoodâ espresso machines tend to be expensive. If you want steam, then a prosumer double boiler with PID is gonna start in the $1,500 to $2,000 range. You also need a good espresso grinder which is a few hundred more minimum. Of course thereâs cheaper gear out there you can make espresso with, itâs just that youâll be battling one shortcoming or another of the machine. Thatâs why you see so many people temperature surfing a Gaggia Classic or trying to wire in a PID controller.
If you donât want steam (I donât), then the vintage lever devices were great value until people started hoarding them during covid. I havenât checked to see if theyâve come back to earth yet but the good ones are old (60s and 70s) and obviously not perfect, often requiring weird parts. Itâs pretty tilting that no one is making those today. There are some lever espressos on the market, but not the ones with the good boilers built into the device that donât also have steam.
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Is the main difference between a Chemex and a Hario V60 just size? My gf only drinks ice coffee, but sheâs been stealing sips of my morning pour overs and sheâs hooked always asking me to make her one. I really hate doing everything twice and would like to just do a double cup in one shot. I know nothing about Chemex, but it looks like itâs bigger and comes with its own carafe? I currently make my single serving pour overs by placing my v60 over my insulated thermos. Would a Chemex allow me to make 2 cups at once? I suppose I could just put my V60 over a normal coffee pot carafe, but not sure the filters would hold 40g of grounds
Yeah itâs a conical brewer and carafe all-in-one. Some minor design differences but the biggest difference is the filters. You can easily brew a V60 into a carafe. The 02 size should hold 40g but 03 might work a bit better, I dunno. Check out the coffee servers here. The $14.50 ones are the best value and I still have one. Olivewood is pretty but Iâve already managed to break one. Just check the capacity to make sure you get one that holds enough for the amount of coffee youâre brewing.
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I fucking hate these guys but also theyâre insane in the awesome way
This is so unnecessary and the description is so over the top but I admire their commitment to the bit
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the equipment costs are high but not really the limiting factor, the main thing is that if I get into home espresso I wonât be able to stop tinkering (see the PID mods etc that lawnmowerman referenced above) and I already have too many things Iâm tinkering with. BUT itâs just a matter of time.
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really high end light roast beans are extremely delicate and finicky and most baristas just donât have the time to really dial in a pour-over. Itâs really hard to do. And most âhigh endâ cafes are selling high-end beans and a high-end ambiance but they just donât have the demand for ultra light roast pourovers. Most people just want stuff with a lot of milk and sugar.
Espresso is a lot different, you can iterate (e.g. pull a shot, taste, adjust) a lot faster, a good (not even great) barista can get dialed in before opening in the morning, and itâs a good measure of barista skill without requiring world-class talent.
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you can for sure brew good coffee from a V60 02 with 40g of grounds. I think its listed capacity is 60g but imo that would be pushing it. Iâd start with a 02 and then go to a 03 instead of vice versa, if only bc 02 is the standard size and itâs easier to get filters etc, and also because the bigger the dripper the higher & farther the water will be from the grounds when youâre pouring, which costs you some control.
+1 to what pvn said on the home espresso thing. I do have a decent breville that makes decent-ish espressoâe.g. for my palate itâs better than nespresso/podsâbut trying to get it to make consistently make coffee shop-level espresso would be a joke. I experimented with that machine for a couple years (which btw triggered a solid case of insomnia bc I was sipping so much espresso), then surrendered at the point where if somebody was over and asked for a cappuccino or a latte I could do it, if only because the mediocre espresso was camouflaged in milk. But that machine mostly just sits there.
exclusive picture from pvnâs future
not my setup! but melkerson if youâre still curious, thatâs how a not-even-crazy home setup can end up looking for elite tinkerers like pvn and LMM. I admire the commitment, and the bottom line is they have more heart than I do. With coffee I finally tapped out at the point where my worst 25% of cups are still coffee-shop quality (a big win), and my best 5% taste great to me, borderline showstoppers. If LMM ever ends up figuring out how to make that 5% happen 40% of the time then he will be an instant coffee god
for me it was enough to get the knack of understanding weird/absent/over/under extracted tastes and then knowing how to counterattack. Especially for something as daily, as ritualized, and as initially mysterious as coffee. Youâre drinking a black abyss! Youâre trying to fathom oblivion! But then you learn a little. Big time thanks to pvn and LMM and others. Btw LMM I really liked that geisha you posted last month.
having said all that, brewing some other kind of coffee today I had my first glass of accidental wtf coffee soap in a long time, which brought me back.
one rando phase I got into last summer was cuban coffee. Itâll never be a regular thing for me, but you only need a moka pot and a wonkavian mountain of demerara sugar (white sugar was fine too), and it was easy to dial in. Eh I guess you need steamed milk too. So my espresso contraption was getting get some action.
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My current thesis after all the rabbit holing is that most of the coffees I was buying just werenât that good. Thatâs the boring answer but the one that seems most likely to me. If Iâm being honest, a lot of this feels like a soft scam because specialty roasters know people pay $$$ for this stuff, and they oblige by doing a fancy description and imaginative tasting notes for some really mediocre coffees at $25/lb, and there arenât many good ways to judge the quality beforehand. Thatâs a relative claim within the subset of truly specialty LRSO. With a good coffee like the Elida you should be able to get close to 100% Yahtzees, whereas a randomly selected bag from a reputable* roaster would be way lower.
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Related: The only thing Iâve found to be even remotely reliable are cupping scores from competent graders with no conflict of interest, but thatâs not common. Specialty by definition is a score >= 80 points. My observation is that coffees graded >= 90 are reliably outstanding. Those are much rarer though with coffees in the low to mid 80s being much more abundant. An 88/89 is borderline in my experience.
The most egregious example was a Kenya rated 91 points by the importer, which my friend rated a generous 85. This is not a mere quibble. You should know a 91 when you taste it. You will remember where you were and who you were with. An 85, on the other hand, is not memorable. These scores are not close.
Couldnât have said it better myself.
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oh hell yes
They are also complete assholes by most accounts from people having to deal with their customer service. The fact theyâre still in business is a testament to the product design. The EG-1 has to be the most beautiful grinder on the market in addition to being highly technically capable, but itâs sort of like buying a Maserati.