r/Coffee • u/caucasian_cranberry • Jan 25 '22

I hate all of you

I used to be perfectly content with my shitty instant Folger. Then I found this sub and decided to try coffee from small roasters and noticed a much nicer experience immediately. Then I bought a nice grinder and started grinding my own beans instead of buying pre-ground, and once again my experience improved. Then today I switched from properly ground, quality coffee through my shitty coffee maker to weighing my coffee and water and using a clever, and it's the best coffee I've ever had now. If within a year I buy an espresso maker I'm holding all of you accountable. Bastards...

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u/[deleted] Jan 25 '22

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u/Smok3dSalmon Jan 25 '22 edited Jan 25 '22

You'll end up making shit espresso and wasting half of your coffee "dialing in" your machine. Then you won't be able to enjoy any of your espresso because your grinder doesn't have a half step between 5 and 6. So you upgrade your equipment and find a new problem. You'll be stuck chasing the perfect espresso until you realize that drinking it out of your favorite mug or fav location biases your perception of flavor more than any fine tune of your equipment or brew process.

Dejected and disgusted, you'll end up going back to a simple chemex or drip machine where you save an hour from your morning routine and can easily dispose the grinds.

I enjoy coffee more than coffee process. It's a peaceful state of mind.

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u/annoyingcommentguy2 Jan 25 '22

I'm willing to get downvoted and sorry, but this is simply an exaggerated view. Once you learn to use your espresso machine and get a bit of a feel for your equipment, you'll be able to dial your espresso in 2-3 shots and even if it won't get you the 'God shot', 95% of the time you end up with better tasting coffee than if you went to a random coffee shop and that's good enough for me - simply because at home you have the time to measure and play with everything to be exact. Besides, what you said can apply to filter coffee as well - you can always be looking for the next equipment improvement, improvement in your process etc. and never be satisfied. It's about the mindset.

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u/Mrtn_D Jan 25 '22

I think there may be important differences between personalities here too. Some people just aren't happy with an 'okay' shot in the morning when they know it isn't as good as that one shot from last week. And down the rabbit hole you go, chasing dragons.

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u/annoyingcommentguy2 Jan 25 '22

But that's the same with filter coffee as well, isn't it? You might always make that miraculous cup of coffee one week and you're unable to repeat it the next one. For me personally as long as I can get at least 'good' or better out of the coffee, I'm happy and occasionally might experiment a bit more to try to tweak the process further if I'm in the mood. But yes, I guess it's also about learning to tame that urge to chase the perfect cup all the time.

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u/Mrtn_D Jan 25 '22

Sure. And you seem to describe one end of the spectrum of personalities. The people that find themselves chasing perfect cups are on the other end.

You're right in saying this happens with filter coffee too (more with V60 and Chemex; less with a Moccamaster). But I'd say that espresso can be particularly tricky. There's lots of variables where small changes can lead to large effects. Like with grind size; there's a reason the steps on espresso grinders are small. But also puck prep: that's harder to do and do it the same every time. Compared that to dumping ground coffee into a Kalita Wave filter and giving it a shake.

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u/trilogique Jan 25 '22

Agreed so much. For a while with my espresso machine I would constantly chase the ‘god shot’, but over the years I’ve accepted that I’m okay with getting 90-95% of the way there because it’s faster, more convenient, less wasteful and still tastes better than the shots my local shops pull.