Best Coffee Beans / Drinks

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Best Coffee Beans / Drinks

I am sure there has been a coffee thread in the past but I haven’t ever seen one pop up on the feed while I have been around.

Thought it may be fun to get some better insight on all things coffee related as I suspect there are a few coffee snobs on this board.

I started drinking coffee in college (Maxwell house black) and pretty much loved it ever since. Moved on to a fancy espresso machine that my wife got me a few years back and it’s better than I deserve but I still don’t know a whole lot about it.

Looking for people’s suggestions on favorite beans to buy, where to get them, and what drinks to try. Do you prefer Colombian coffee over Arabica? Will K-Cups fad go away? What’s the most coffee you ever had in a day?

Right now I am liking steamed Almond milk with 2x espresso shots. I think I have black rifle espresso beans in the hopper now (Jura machine). My favorite style from black rifle so far is the Silencer Smooth so I guess I like a lighter roast these days.

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The Nouria gas station near my house lets you have one free coffee every day if you download their app. The machine grinds the beans for each cup right when you order it. It’s pretty good coffee by my standards.

Coffee is kind of like beer to me. It almost all tastes like beer/coffee and you really need to go out of your way to get me to not like it.

Dunkin’ Donuts manages to make coffee I don’t like and Rolling Rock discovered a brewing method that somehow results in beer I don’t like to drink.

If I’m feeling like a fancy man I like to get a Starbucks Pikes Peak, but I refuse to order in their silly terminology.

I used to have a K Cup machine but it stopped working and I never replaced it. As someone who values convenience I would like it if they started selling single use disposable coffee brewers. I would like something that frees me from the hassle of cleaning up the K Cups. Just toss the brewer into the burn pit when you’re done and enjoy your coffee!

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my wife started buying locally roasted coffee a few years ago and now I cant drink anything but . . it’s so much smoother than the mass produced stuff . . I do like to have an iced cold brew from dunkin sometimes though

I’ve recently thought about seeking out organic coffee going forward as I’ve read that coffee beans are very highly doused with pesticides

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Only tried locally roasted coffee a couple times but this has been my experience as well. But like TwoJar mentioned I am not sure I value this aspect enough for the price tag. When I cut back on caffeine this seems to make much more sense to buy a better bean.

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Jamaican coffee is probably the best but my experience with it is that it can be hit or miss. When it’s good, it’s really good but it can also be crap. I believe that since Japan imports most of the coffee Jamaica produces what’s left over for the rest of the world can vary in quality. Oddly enough, I have had Jamaican coffee that was bought for me in Jamaica and it was not as good as the Jamaican coffee I ordered off the internet. Jamaicans are tea drinkers so it would make sense that the coffee sold to them wouldn’t be the best.

I echo the opinion that if you have a local place that roasts their own beans it should be very good.

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I tend to agree with your analogy that most coffee and beer is good enough and I don’t love it or hate it. It’s good; no problemo and someone has to go out of their way to make it terrible (Sam Adams Cherry Wheat, Amstel Light).

I think where it differs is a basic coffee still tastes ok when it’s cooling off (even though it’s better hot) whereas most basic beers are only tolerable when it’s ice cold; looking at you Coors Light!

Of course a better beer can be drank room temperature (but why??!).

I completely agree with you about Starbucks naming conventions. I am not ashamed to order a Cookie Dough Nitro Cold Brew with Oatmilk but the damn string of terminology required to remember what variant of the menu you like vs another option is more than my brain can handle. Seems like whenever my wife asks if I want something as she is going to Starbucks I am like “yeah just get me that thing I think I like or something similar” because I can’t ever remember what the hell it is called. They need to move on to the McDonald’s combo meal numbering system in my opinion.

Speaking of going out of your way to do something bad in terms of coffee the two that are nearly undrinkable for me are Nestle Instant Coffee and anything from Starbucks black. Starbucks is a weird one as the coffee is great in a special order but on its own it’s not good imho. Interestingly enough their instant coffee is fine by me; go figure.

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IMO, it will always be better tasting as it will always be fresher.
Before we, at work, started roasting our own beans, we bought from Coffee Emergency. They guaranteed delivery by 48 hours from the time it was roasted.

Apart from just crappy beans, IMO, the freshness is the most important aspect for really good tasting coffee.

BTW, we had a “pot heater” that brought the water temperature to 200 degrees F and we used a French Press. (Optimal water brewing temperature is between 195 and 205 degrees F.)

(At work we bought a rotary cage roaster. We all liked the flavor the best when we roasted the beans to the second crack.)

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La prima has the best beans of everything mum (coffee snob) has tried thats available in the US. Even their decaf is good.

Best coffee we’ve had is fresh roasted from Yunnan. But no decaf :sob:

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Will have to check it out. Thanks to mum!

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I’m a fan of BRCC and Invader. Deathwish is also good. Groundshark is run by a buddy of mine and they have VERY good coffee. I have a couple of local roasters that make primo stuff and i like to support local business.

My wife likes Lifeboost and Bulletproof brand coffee due to the low acid and low mold content.

K-cups are never going to go out of style, but i don’t care for them anymore. The coffee just isn’t good enough to warrant the waste and microplastic load.

My wife and i bought two all stainless French presses and that’s all we use. I do have a Chemex for when i want to make bougie coffee. The Chemex really does make a superior cupa, but you have to have the time for the process.

I’ve also got a Delonge automatic espresso machine for doing flat whites, Cordattos, and other coffee drinks. It’s currently loaded with Tazumal espresso from Haymarket Coffee Company. Haymarket Coffee is a small Virginia roaster that makes excellent beans.

La’

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That’s what I use also. Highly underrated.

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I bought my mum an aeropress for christmas two years ago. She said it was the best gift I’ve ever come up with.

Do you guys do any of the fancy mineral water stuff?

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Decaf???

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I am extremely sensitive to caffiene.

even 30mg can be too strong for me if I’m stressed

I really like the bitter taste of coffee and matcha though

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You must have high blood pressure

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My blood pressure is actually borderline low: 95/55

I’m just very sensitive to substances (meds, Thc, melatonin…)

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I use a French press and Keurig. I like the variety of coffee Starbucks offers.

When I make Turkish coffee, I obviously use the necessary small copper pot, a cezve.

I also like Bustelo espresso.

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No fancy mineral water stuff, but we do have a good RO system and water softener on our well (our well water is basically liquid rock). As long as we use the water fresh out of the tap and it doesn’t sit and go stagnant it makes really good coffee.

La’

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I have a vietnamese drip I use with canned Cafe du Monde and sweetened condensed milk. It’s a pretty lazy setup, considering.

I have a turkish coffee cezve and use Mehmet Effendi preground coffee and a couple teaspoons of sugar. Bring it to the boil 3 times, rest and pour. I used to do this daily years ago, but barely anytime these days.

We have a vacpot that we’ve used only a couple times. It’s neat.

I have a steam-pressurized “espresso” maker. Once you get a lot of the particulars right, you can make some ok espresso-like shots. It’s really fiddly though.

I also have a moka pot, and it, too, is fiddly.

Our general go to is the french press. Fresh ground coffee, 200 degree water from the electric boiler, stir, 4 minute timer, press and pour.

We have a few great coffee roasters nearby, and several good ones. I do like a good Costa Rican Tarrazu if they’ve managed to roast it so it has that honey flavor, but most of the roasters only consider it a “mixer” quality coffee, for use in their blends. Recently a few places have started playing with pure Costa Ricans though, so that’s nice to see.

In general I prefer Ethiopian coffees, at least with a richer body to them. The really fruity ones are “interesting”, and a rare treat, but not an everyday drinker.

I don’t like the Columbian “ashtray” flavor at all. That’s the common flavor I think most mainstream Columbian coffees have. A few places have coaxed some completely different flavors out of them though, and those are neat.

I also like some of the funkier flavors to come out of the Indonesian/PNG coffees.

Recently though, it’s been Guatemalan and the occasional Mexican coffee bag we end up with.

Drink-wise, if it’s at a place where I actually want to taste the coffee, a cortado has become my go to. It’s kind of like the whiskey with splash of water. You can get enough of the unique flavor of the coffee without it being too intense.

Otherwise I drink my fair share of sweetened coffee-flavored milk.

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Does high blood pressure make someone sensitive to caffeine? I don’t have high blood pressure or sensitivity to caffeine (quite the opposite with caffeine) but it does strike my curiosity.