So, first, yes, this is seriously OT, but thats why I am posting it in the OT subforum. I also dont post a lot of threads myself, even though I obviously reply to a "fair number" (heh).
So, I cant be the only person who really enjoys coffee. I mean anything from "obligation coffee" like instant coffee or something you buy at "ye local mini mart / fast food joint" to get you going in the day, all the way to "Im buying my small batch light roast beans from a local roaster for freshness, grinding them in my grinder that cost $XXX (or X,XXX) and pulling espresso shots of X/Y grams / doing pour over, and have james hoffman videos on repeat in the background"
Since this is ment to be welcoming, no shaming please, all coffee drinkers or anyone who wants to chat about coffee in any form welcome in this thread.
I will start, I guess, since I am creating the thread.
My coffee background
I know pretty much exactly when I started drinking coffee regularly. My daughter was born October of 1993 and my wife and I started drinking coffee about 2 weeks later, since she would only sleep about 4 hours a night and we were like "we need something to stay awake!" lol....
I had drank instant coffee before, because thats what my grandparents drank (both folgers and tasters choice) when I spent the summers with them, but I never finished a cup as I thought it was horrible. I loved feeling grown up as a kid sitting there with my grandfather though, so I always got a cup, got throug about 1/3 of it, and then when he got done with his and went out into the yard, dumped it out and followed him out there.
2 weeks after my daughter was born was when I started drinking coffee as a married adult, out of desperation. Instant again at first, after figuring out I could put enough milk and sugar in it to get it down, then quickly moved onto going to starbucks, finding I really liked the starbucks coffee at that time , to buying an espresso machine from starbucks and going all in on tampers, beans, etc.. all within about 6 weeks of my daughter being born.
Did the "grind your own" with my starbucks machine for a few years, the process went from "fun!" to "this is fine" to "eh" to "ugg I really want a cup of coffee but dont want to deal with the effort of making ittttt....."
Some time later, had the Tassimo single serve machine, which was cool for its time, definitely not as good as making it yourself, but better than making a pot of coffee (pots of coffee always end up tasting burnt to me, almost anything is better to me, even instant coffee).
Have had almost every keurig, and when we had them we always had a various selection of pods as we saw that as being one of the perks. The coffee was "ok to decent" but I have never really been into "going to a coffee house" except the few times I go on vacation, or travel for work.
Had a nespresso only for a short time, and really didnt enjoy it. I couldnt find pods I liked, and the pods I bought always tasted.. old or something.
Went back to keurig with the last keurig I had being their smart brewer, that i turned off all the "smart" features like it trying to order coffee for me automatically. These are all ok but anything with milk never tasted great.. but I drank it anyway as someone who "needs a couple cups of coffee a day to function".
When "covid" happened and we all bunkered down at home, one of the things I decided to treat my wife and I to was a "super automatic espresso maker", something that could do all the stuff I used to do way back when (grind beans, pull a shot) but do it automatically and at the best level I could find. This is an entire category, and after digging around I ended up with a Jura Z10.
Love this thing, its amazing, its customizable enough to pull a decent shot with just about any coffee (except super oily beans) and can make milk drinks like flat whites or cafe late's or whatever else almost as good as a trained barista (which I am not, even though I know how to pull an ok shot im seriously out of practice). It even makes "cold brew" beverages that dont taste like "hot coffee brewed over ice" which is not the same thing as a cold brew.
This thing was as expensive as some people pay for a used car, (not used teslas though, but a used beater? sure, lol). I would only recommend this model if you are a "want the best" type and love coffee, but it really lived up to the hype.
Beans I'm into:
I tend to like the more "vanilla / caramel" (lower acidity) coffees, vs higher acidity coffee that has tends to have fruit words in the description. Doubly so if the fruit words in the description are tropical fruits (mango, papaya, etc etc) it usually means the coffee is way to funky for me, too acidic. To each his own on this. I also like a nice crema on my espresso or americano that I daily drink.
I have been into these beans, bought from an online seller:
Crema wave ( a house blend from this online specialty coffee seller)
Whole Latte Love Crema Wave Whole Bean Espresso
Filicori Zecchini Delecato (
Filicori Zecchini Delicato Whole Bean)
Maromas Orphea (
Maromas Orphea Whole Bean Espresso)
Note that none of these are referral links or anything, they are just the whole bean coffee I am into. All three have really smooth undertones of vanilla / caramel or chocolate, but they are not sweet per se, just undertones of those flavors).
So, anyone else? Interested to hear anyone elses coffee stories, choices, preferences etc , whatever they are.
