The Bougie Coffee Thread

[ASH556]

I searched and did not find such a thing. Surely there are those here that are fans of fine coffee. Recently I have entered the world of Pour Over Coffee. So far I am enjoying it. Truth be told, I still have a Keurig machine at home and another in my office. These are used daily for speed and convenience, but on weekends and the occasional evening, I enjoy a cup or two of nicer pour over coffee. I use a Bodum kettle and also their carafe. Initially I tried their permanent filter, but have moved to paper filters. I also use a Cuisinart burr grinder.

To be fully transparent, what got me into this was a Christmas gift from some African missionary friends of a bag of whole bean coffee. I had no way to make said coffee and since I'm the only one in my household who drinks coffee, it seemed a waste to buy a drip machine and make a full pot at a time. A pour over setup allows me to make single servings and enjoy the process a bit.

I'm still very much learning as I go from friends and youtube videos. I have broken out the gram scale a few times, but lately have just been eyeballing it.

Unfortunately, all the Christmas coffee is now gone and I find myself with the need to purchase some new whole bean coffee. Any recommendations?

Let the coffee flow!

Here's a pic of my setup making use of some free (though ground) coffee Geissele sent with a recent purchase:

[Casey]

Intelligentsia and Counter Culture are two of the bigger names in terms of quality coffee. I alternate back and forth between them and a place local to me that has a small selection, but good quality. I've also had good stuff from Paradise Coffee Roasters, but they can be pricey. I tend to prefer single origin coffee to blends. I think a scale is essential for consistency, especially once you start weighing your water (1 mL = 1 g) in addition to the beans.

I use a Bonavita BV1901TS drip machine paired with a Baratza Preciso burr grinder (no longer in production, superseded by the Virtuoso). I'm not making a whole pot at a time—usually around two cups—and it works fine with smaller batches. Once you get your process dialed in, it shouldn't take long at all. It takes me less than five minutes to get a pot going.

Above all else, if the coffee you are buying doesn't have a "roasted on..." date on the package, avoid it like the plague!

Don't freeze your beans, just keep them in an airtight container (I like the Airscape canisters you can find on Amazon) and grind immediately prior to brewing.

[Elwin]

My wife is a coffee nerd and got me to upgrade my approach (previously preground coffee and French press). We get coffee from a local place that stocks a small but rotating variety sourced from companies ranging from local to international and has just started doing their own small batches.

Work mornings I make an Aeropress or two, inverted method. On weekends we make one or two Chemex pours per day. My wife has other pourover systems but so far I've just learned the Chemex. Beans are just whatever the local place has, often Horizon Line Coffee out of Des Moines or Sey Coffee which is from NYC. I pretty much always like whatever we get from Horizon Line.

[rob_s]

Day to day, we grind whatever we've got in the hopper on the OXO Grinder, and use a basic plastic pourover into a Tervis or Yeti.

On weekends, I like to use the Chemex, but haven't in awhile. I guess I kind of haven't had a bean I've thought worthy in a little bit.

We have gotten stuff from White Tale Coffee in the past, and it's probably about time to subscribe again.

[Doc_Glock]

Pour over every morning. It's the best coffee I have found.

Nothing special grinder and recently went back to paper filters after experimenting with the metal sieves. They just didn't give the water enough "dwell time" and the coffee was pretty weak.

[Tackleberry40sw]

http://www.javagenesiscoffeeroasting.com

This is by far the freshest and best coffee I have gotten that is local to us. Give them a try.

[TheRoland]

Another pour-over user. Counter Culture's single source beans are usually very good, but the other big names, especially blends, are not to my taste unless that's all that's available.

One thing to watch out for, when dealing with local roasters, is the tendency to over-roast because that's what people are used to in the area. Roasting single-origins to medium is, imho, a bright red flag being waved vigorously with both hands. There's a whole world of new flavors available with beans that are roasted less.

My go-to is George Howell, which is local to the Boston area but ships widely. They do very nice gesha beans, if you're ever looking for a special experience that isn't worth the money (but is quite nice).

[snow white]

My wife was the manager at a very nice coffee shop for 6 or 7 years. They sourced and roasted all thier own beans, and just very passionate about quality coffee. We have pour over stuff and every other coffee contraption under the sun....it's still Folgers in a standard $30 drip mr.coffe every morning.

[lwt16]

Daily Five a.m.

Cheap Aldi beans, cheap grinder, cheap French press.

[Erik]

There was a long thread about coffee with some good info a while back: https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ghlight=coffee

I'm lucky enough to have a local roaster that does a great job. They used to roast in a giant copper roaster in the shop but that was moved offsite a while back. Their coffee is fantastic.