Coffee. Java. Joe.

[Jim Watson]

I am not a coffee enthusiast, it is usually just a breakfast or dessert beverage with plenty of milk, no sugar. But I have a couple of anecdotes.

There have been two (2.0) places that I could enjoy black coffee.
One was at work. There was a guy there who could produce fine coffee with a Mr Coffee and grocery store coffee, usually Maxwell House. What did he do differently from every other office coffee pot in the world? I don't know, but he had The Touch. And he didn't even drink the stuff, made it as a service to the lab.

The other was the only good café in Hawthorne Nevada ca 1994, visited daily for five months of an engineering project there. Regular restaurant urn and restaurant supply coffee, but it was also very good. Perhaps it was the water, they had an elaborate water purifier because the city water supply was vile stuff from an over-pumped desert aquifer. (The Army installation there used surface water, snow melt off the mountains in a little reservoir of its own. So pure it only needed sand filtration to get the dust out. Great water... but nobody there made coffee with it that I ever saw.)

Another project that I was on used distilled water in the coffee maker. The coffee was nothing special, but the pot never limed up.

[SLG]

JW,

Funny how you remember great coffee, even though you're not an enthusiast. I too remember the places and times where a really good cup was had.

[ffchewy17]

I'm gonna be the one that goes against the grain.... I really enjoy Starbucks Dark roast. I use a Burr grinder and Technivorm Mochamaster. I definitely prefer the dark roasts over light to medium roasts. I have a full storage container of Lavazza, illy, willoughbys, Starbucks and Mountain Fresh grocery out of Highlands NC. Not a big fan of Lavazza or Illy. The Technivorm is great, makes a phenomenal pot of coffee, I haven't used my French press in a year because of it.

I just purchased som Violent Little Machine shop coffee which is roasted at Maps coffee Idaho, I think it's going to be my new go to.
We go through 50lbs of Espresso roast at my station in a month. It's roasted locally in Orlando and as actually really good.

[Sasage]

I'm kind of spoiled. I live in Grand Rapids and there a tons of little coffee shops.

The majority do pour over method and weigh the coffee and water to get their desired effect.

I usually stop by Starbucks before work and get a medium roast.

I rarely drink coffee at work after we cleaned it out and found rust colored water in the reservoir.

[mtnbkr]

In all seriousness my Bunn coffee maker makes great coffee and it brews an entire pot in about 3 minutes.

My parents had one of those in the 80s and 90s. It never gave a good (IMO) cup of coffee. No matter how much coffee you put in it, it always came out weak and light-colored (looked almost like tea). I don't think it kept the water hot enough.

My grandparents had one as well, but I don't recall if it did better or not.

Chris

[vcdgrips]

I am am super new to coffee only starting to drink it regularly on my Philmont Hike last year as hauling Pepsi Max in a can was not practical.
Some Maxwell House powdered "coffee beverage" and Trader Joes Instant packckets( w cream/sugar) in combo have given way to 3 heaping teaspoons of Bustello Instant Expresso, 4 sugar cubes ( not spoonfuls), 5 oz of boiling water and whole milk or half and half to the top of the 8 oz cup.

I am a coffee heathen I know. Just slightly better than hot chocolate for many of you I suspect.

[Drang]

I am a coffee heathen I know. Just slightly better than hot chocolate for many of you I suspect.

I'll say it again: De gustibus non est disputandem.

(Checks Google to see if he spelled it right.)(Damn it.)

De gustibus non est disputandum | at Dictionary.com

If it's what you like, go for it.

Don't be surprised when commonsewers and snobs and hipsters look at you funny and make condescending remarks, but feel free to tell 'em to fuck off and die.

[JAD]

Bustello Instant Expresso

Glad someone else is conscious of Bustello, I was turned onto it by a Bolivian. I like it with condensed milk, and by your description you would too.

And there's no 'x' in espresso, though my ex did steal my Delonghi press.

[SAWBONES]

I'm neither a hipster nor a coffee snob, but it's gotta be dark, either French or Italian roast, or Espresso.
I've had good examples made by drip, press and percolator.

Can't stand weak watered down coffee, might as well drink tea.

[RevolverRob]

I'm neither a hipster nor a coffee snob, but it's gotta be dark, either French or Italian roast, or Espresso.
I've had good examples made by drip, press and percolator.

Can't stand weak watered down coffee, might as well drink tea.

Oh man, a former boss of mine is British, she is a truly lovely woman and was a fantastic boss, but by god can she ruin a pot of coffee. By contrast a co-worker at the same job is Italian-American raised in the working class neighborhoods of Chicago. She can brew a fantastic cup of strong, dark, coffee. The perfect thing on a cold winter's day. If I came into the office, I could tell who made the coffee by examining the color of it. If the boss had made it, I would surreptitiously pour it out and brew a fresh, strong, pot.

-Rob