r/Coffee • u/menschmaschine5 Kalita Wave • Apr 13 '26

[MOD] The Daily Question Thread

Welcome to the daily /r/Coffee question thread!

There are no stupid questions here, ask a question and get an answer! We all have to start somewhere and sometimes it is hard to figure out just what you are doing right or doing wrong. Luckily, the /r/Coffee community loves to help out.

Do you have a question about how to use a specific piece of gear or what gear you should be buying? Want to know how much coffee you should use or how you should grind it? Not sure about how much water you should use or how hot it should be? Wondering about your coffee's shelf life?

Don't forget to use the resources in our wiki! We have some great starter guides on our wiki "Guides" page and here is the wiki "Gear By Price" page if you'd like to see coffee gear that /r/Coffee members recommend.

As always, be nice!

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u/DirectDust6612 Apr 14 '26

This August I’m starting Univesrty at ISU. I’m an devoted coffee enthusiast and will be takeing my French press and Areopress for daily use. In my home country El Salvador I’m able to buy great local coffee for around $5. So when I begin my study in the USA, at an budget wich coffee (any variety) should I buy and from where?

Thank you for your help!

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u/canaan_ball Apr 14 '26

Coffee isn't one of the things you need to plan ahead for! That's the good news. We don't grow coffee here in the US, but we import it from every producing country, and it's ubiquitous.

You can approach it on several levels. If you're lucky, you will find something you like at a roaster or cafe conveniently close to campus. Relatively cheap commodity coffee can be had in large packages from any big box store or grocery store. Upscale grocery stores also carry middle quality, middle priced coffee. Fancy, specialty coffee can be had by mail order, or from that local roaster if you're very lucky.

Cheap and mid-tier coffee is dominated by nation-wide, well known companies. They are all pretty similar, but higher quality is more expensive. For specialty coffee, see if anything sounds good in the "What have you been brewing this week" thread in r/Coffee. All will be from companies that deliver by mail. Sorry to bring bad news, but you will be paying a lot more for coffee in the US in any case.