I've studiously avoided gaining the ability to discriminate good from bad coffee. I don't see any upsides, and the coffee snobs are insufferable.
As a coffee enthusiast, I can wholeheartedly vouch each and every one of the points raised in the article, except maybe the tap water and temperature.
The biggest upgrade you can do on your setup is getting a proper coffee grinder with burrs and not blades. There's little sense in buying any fancier beans if you're grinding them in store and drinking it over a period of several weeks. In a matter of hours after grinding, the coffee will be almost as stale as it'll be in two weeks' time.
Hand grinders like Hario Skerton go for like 50 USD and something like Wilfa Svart Aroma for around 100. If you don't need espresso-level fine, then it's more than great.
Great coffee doesn't have to be expensive. If you have a local roaster and they offer single origin coffee at a sane price point, you'll make your money back in a few months time if you're an avid fan of take out coffee.
An Aeropress and electric mill will cost about 140 dollars and for example approx 20 cups of Intelligentsia coffee will cost roughly a dollar per cup. That's top shelf coffee, compared with mediocre Starbucks black coffee which will cost you double that.
I'd much rather pay for some 15 year old single malt whiskey and pay less per portion than buying Jack Daniel's from the local drinkhole.
Source: I'm a hobbyist reviewer of coffee, done some roasting and working on the judgment panel selecting Findland's best coffees.
As a counter (and I watch James Hoffmann's output religiously, which is potentially up a notch even from this):
If you enjoy your coffee the way it is, don't get pressured into making it 'better'.
Grinding the beans before brewing instead of buying pre-ground gets you 80% of the way there. If you're lazy and/or don't want to become a coffee snob, just get a grinder, grind whole beans, and call it a day.
I buy good beans and have good equipment to make good coffee. Because a good cup of coffee is good.
And then I let it go cold and drink a cup cold too. Because even cold coffee is coffee and coffee has caffeine.
And then I microwave the third cup, usually for too long, so it largely evaporates and develops an interesting aftertaste (and also becomes an excellent laxative). Because the headache doesn’t care how it tastes and who can be bothered to make fancy new coffee several times per day.
I'm surprised the article doesn't go as far as to mention about avoiding dark roast, and only going for light/medium roast.
It's my understanding the real coffee snobs avoid dark roast because it burns off a lot of the flavor and natural sweetness of coffee.
Does tap water really make that much of a difference? Anyone tried side by side?
Drink the coffee the way you like it.
If you like to experiment, try different methods of brewing - French Press or pour over are easiest. You can try single origin beans, or blends, ground or whole bean that you grind with a propeller grinder gasp.
I consider myself a coffee snob and even I buy pre ground beans sometimes because I'm a lazy old codger. Frankly I sometimes don't want to go through my coffee ritual in the morning and just want a simple, quiet, pour over to get me going.
Absolutely nobody should be knocking the way you take your coffee.
All good advice, but the delivery could maybe have been a bit nicer. I imagine that this article might be a bit off-putting to people who are not into coffee as a hobby, so to speak.
I pour about 1500 ml water over about 50 grams of coffee. It’s fine. It tastes good for some time.
What makes coffee taste especially bad is just sitting out. It gets sour and real bitter.
my experience with coffee: Filter your tap water for coffee or tea, you will definitely feel the difference. Dont use a paper filter, I noticed my coffee tastes burned when I do. Buy a roast that you enjoy, I got several bags and tested at same time to determine which I enjoyed more. I keep getting the same since. But I did not see any difference if I grind the beans for 10 seconds or 2 min. So not sure I can feel the difference in grind in my palate!
Most higher end grocery stores in the US now carry locally roasted beans. As long as you check the roast date you will be fine.
But to expand on that point, pay attention to origin and roast style. Mass produced coffee is like any other fungible commodity, but craft coffee is much more varied. Coffee may not be as diverse as teas but it’s definitely more than dark roast arabica beans.
The post says don't use tap water, but what are the alternatives? Brita or Pur filter? Bottled water (that is most likely just tap water itself)? spring water? Distilled water? I suspect the only one without solutes would be distilled, but distilled makes for awful drinking water.
I've tried fresh beans. Roasted and fast couriered to door to be consumed within the week. I'm not sure I care that much about the difference in taste. If you enjoy this sort of thing great, but I'm pretty happy with my stale beans and cheap espresso machine.
I don’t know, weighing my coffee three times a day doesn’t seem too appealing. Using scoopes is fine as long you tune in your taste with the scoop, but you have to try to scoop consistently.
IMO beans make the biggest difference
If you just get some fresh locally roasted beans and make French press you’re already mostly there
It’s diminishing returns after that point
Highly doubt anyone’s going to notice a difference with tap water
My best advice, put just a small pinch of kosher salt in the carafe before brewing. It will help tamp down some of the bitterness, if you don't like that
Pretty sensible, but it kinda implies there’s exactly one way to enjoy coffee, which I think might not be true. Starting with that ratio, I’ve found that as time goes on from the date is roasting I need to up the dose to get a good cup. Then eventually I switch over to a French press because it becomes impossible to get a good pour-over, maybe 7-10 days after roasting. At that point you’re making a different thing. Also the French press is pretty indifferent to ratio; you’re just deciding how wired you want to get.
Or buy a Bialetti moka and that's it.
The more beans you put in the spinning grinder the wider the size distribution.
Or, drink the cheapest, quickest coffee you can make/get for caffeine and tea for taste. No equipment needed, less of your life wasted.
The article says this about Baratza grinders:
> I prefer the Baratza line of grinders which can be easily maintained over time. An entry level model will set you back about $150 and you may be able to find it cheaper used.
Which I think undersells the best part of Baratza, as a part relevant to HN: the company actively supports maintenance, sells all parts and refurbished models, and has very helpful customer support. I love that they don't need to be forced into right-to-repair. I'm a very happy customer.