Yeah obviously don’t do this.
yeah good point. a LOT of local roasters A) are morons and B) are aiming for a mass market and using mid-grade beans (at best) and roasting too dark.
We need to know what expensive means. When this thread started, there was no such thing as an “affordable” flat burr home grinder. Minimum buy-in at the time was about $650. Today you can get in for about a third of that (maybe less if you find a deal).
What are you appalled at? The re-using of the grounds for a second cup?
Yeah I admit the second cup is totally substandard. However in my defense, the first cup is the one I enjoy and pay attention to. The second cup is used mainly as a caffeine delivery system during some zoom meeting later in the day, when I’m not really focusing on it anyway. Sometimes I make a new cup for the second cup, only to find that I drank it without even noticing if it was any good. So this is just a cost saving measure
Maybe what I should do is a side-by side test with my hand burr grinder and the blade grinder? And if I can’t tell much of a difference, don’t sweat it? I guess the problem with that is that the hand grinder could be a POS, right? I don’t think I paid a lot for it, although I do remember it was claimed to be a burr grinder. I guess I wouldn’t mind paying $200-300 for a burr grinder if I could do a side by side test first to make sure I could tell the difference.
So in doing some reading, the main beef against dark roast is that it (often? usually?) just produces a charred flavor, masking the other flavors of the beans? Is the proper analogy cooking a great filet well-done?
FWIW we both hate Starbucks coffee because of the burnt flavor. We don’t use cream or sugar. There is a local dark roast we like because it has an earthy woodsy flavor we like.
@d10 I think we pay around $12-15 a bag? I guess I think they’re good because, well, I dunno, we think they taste good (and they often taste how they’re described on the bag). E.g. on the bag it’ll say “notes of blueberries” or grapefruit or whatever, and then that’s exactly what we pick up.
$12-15 is not bad. I’m seeing $20-24 from my local shops and there’s just no way to justify that.
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Yeah your hand grinder sucks. The truly good ones cost hundreds of dollars. Know that there are different kinds of burr grinders, the vast majority being conical and flat. Nearly all hand grinders are conical, which are sufficient but not ideal for light roast single origin coffees. To experience the nuance and flavor clarity potential in those coffees, you really want a flat burr grinder.
Your best bet would be to find a legit local cafe and try one of their coffees made correctly. If they’re competent* at making filter coffee they’ll be using a $3,500 shop grinder, and you’ll notice the differences in profile and clarity compared to what you’re making at home. I had to put the asterisk in for @pvn.
Yes.
I’d never tell you to avoid drinking something you like. Just know that there are light roasted coffees that can do this profile with more complexity and nuance without the roasty flavors. Typically those would be Indonesian coffees. One that comes to mind is La Minita Sumatra Aceh Gold (aka Mutu Batak).
Most “specialty” roasters are buying the same ~$3 to $5/lb green coffee from one of the several major importers then deciding how much to (over)charge you.
Something I noticed recently is that overfolding a conical filter might slow the flow rate significantly. It seemed to be the case on several Abaca filters I tried it on but not sure if it applies to every filter out there.
some updates
- went to DC this week for a work thing, hit up 3 cafes I had been to before with good experiences
a) the Coffee Bar: still great. baristas are very good, the vibe is good, the shot is very good. A-.
b) slipstream: still great. Great early morning barista, above average shot, good vibe for a small space in an office building lobby. B+
c) Dua: I thought I remembered having a good experience here and it seems highly rated, but I don’t think I’ll be back here. The shot was mid at best, the space is not great, and worst of all the vibe was just OFF. Im sitting at the front window, there are these lush plants, and as I sit down I notice the ficus tree and the swiss cheese plant are both PLASTIC, what the FUCK C-.
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in other news at home, my wife hired a new cleaner that was here MONDAY and they used some sort of stuff in the kitchen that STILL smells and it’s KILLING me, can’t enjoy coffee inside
Fabuloso?
Update: it was a floral arrangement my wife brought home from some event at her office
I’m finally running out of hario filters, probably going to buy some cafec, seems like the T90 is the most generally-recommended but the abaca is also pretty good? Rouge Wave sells a “variety pack” which seems like a great idea but with the cross-border shipping and I guess I gotta pay a tariff now? what the fuck.
addendum to this, I’ve recently seen a couple of places that have a mix of real and to-go cups on top of the machine, I would say this is probably an OK sign, probably a place that does a lot of volume and probably 99% to go, but they’re at least prepared and probably are paying attention to what they’re doing. Probably.
I ordered everything “fast” they had in stock last year. My ranking (cup quality, not flow dynamics) is
Abaca (original)
.
T-90, new Hario
.
.
.
everything else
Origami were the worst for me. Sibarist might be good but they never seem to have the V60 ones in stock, and also lol price. I think it’s tough to judge without using them side by side through a variety of coffees over weeks or months.
Which pens am I seeing here?
that one gridded pen sent me down the rabbit hole the other day!
agree that the T-90 filters and the Hario ones have been the same & totally fine for me. Amazon is saying that I’ve bought the abaca ones before, but I don’t remember, I’ll try them again
and maybe everybody’s already doing this but for me the minor but super helpful move was that when prewetting the filter, I stopped using water straight from the kettle and started using much more hot water right from the tap. I’ve never had filter fit problems since, mainly because all the extra water is really plastering the filter to the V60
the bigger one is a Lamy LX, the smaller is a vintage pilot elite:
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