Thread: Are you a Coffee Snob as well?

hmm, I started with the french press and a spinning grinder
The I graduated to a steam machine and a a burr grinder.
Then I found a local roasting house.

I'm more of an americano guy than an espresso guy so I haven't graduated to a better espresso machine yet and I haven't started roasting my own beans but I may.

Love my coffee and starbucks although always good is rarely excellent.

-Bob

I don't drink the swill. Never developed a taste for it.

Originally Posted by wopmanfixit

I don't drink the swill. Never developed a taste for it.

Ne'er do well!!

I love this stuff, probably drink my weight in coffee everyday.

I get crap brewed coffee for free at work (nuclear power plant, they like us awake - go figure...).

Couple of thoughts for the Starbucks folks - barista basically means "bartender" in Italian. I typically get the stinkeye when I'm in one of those places and I order a large coffee instead of "venti".

At work, I use my own coffee, course ground brewed in a french press.

Two old school suggestions:

Cowboy coffee is still one of the best ways to enjoy coffee.

Google "chemex", machine manufactured ones are good, blown glass ones are twice as expensive but pretty cool.

I drink so much coffee it's insane. I used to
get Gevalia coffee but found that I still
go to Dunkin' Donuts about ten times a day,
so I just drink that now. I drink it all day
long. I switch to decaf in the later afternoon
and drink it right up until I go to bed.

John

Intelligentsia Coffee
Fresh ground in Rancilio burr grinder
Technivorm Moccamaster Coffee Maker
Filtered well water

Now that's coffee!

We too get free coffee at work, they also sell the premium stuff in the cafeteria. I like the "good" stuff, but I can't justify the expense, so I just toss down the free stuff.

Originally Posted by SteveS

Man, only one home roaster---bbqncigars---posting so far?!

Glad to see there are fellow roasters on here. Personally, I like my coffee like I like my women: cold and bitter...

I roast my own beans and have for a few years. I have a Frankenroaster made from an original West Bend Poppery popcorn popper, a Feuerhand lantern globe and parts from a Freshroast home coffee roaster. The thing is a tank. I still use my old Krups blade grinder, but I'm on the quest for one of the Zassenhaus grain grinders that they quit making. I brew in either a hand-blown Chemex or a 1940s vintage Cory vacuum pot. I try to stay away from brewing methods where the coffee comes in contact with plastic.

I limit myself to two or three cups of drip in the morning, and I'll occasionally have an espresso at Charbucks on my walk home from work. They pull a decent shot, but that's about all they can do. I think their drip stuff is brewed with scorched beans.

All that said, I'm no snob. When I'm out of green beans, I brew Folgers. No, it doesn't compare to my own coffee (not even close), but in my opinion, it's a lot better than the whole bean "gourmet" coffees found on the market.

As always, YMMV.

Relative to the average joe, prolly so. Relative to my immediate surroundings, no. My wife managed a Starbucks for 5 years. So, she is the height of coffee snobbery.

I am not kidding when I say she has an espresso machine that cost more than my first car (first 2 cars combined, actually) and regularly spends hundreds of dollars a year on tools, beans, roasting equipment, etc, etc.

So it works out pretty well, because whenever she gripes about me spending money on a fancy badger brush or whatever, I merely gesture towards the Coffee Grotto (the area of our bar that is monopolized by her java machinery) and grin smugly.

A few years back JR Cigars was running a
special with their Mayorga cigars. You
could get a pound of Mayorga Coffee
beans when you bought a box of cigars.
They also sold the beans separately.
I got a bag of their Nicaraguan roast.
Holy crap!! This stuff was so dark
it looked like potting soil after grinding
it. Apparently it was high in caffeine as
I was usually off the walls after drinking it.
It was good stuff.

John