The search for "good" coffee

[simonineaston]

"Good coffee" is one of those predominantly male preserves, where simple common-sense and straightforward solutions are abandoned in favour of chasing chimeras, often at great expense, time & trouble. See too, speaker cables, phono cartridges and camera lenses...

[sjs]

"Good coffee" is one of those predominantly male preserves, where simple common-sense and straightforward solutions are abandoned in favour of chasing chimeras, often at great expense, time & trouble. See too, speaker cables, phono cartridges and camera lenses...

and bikes, and their components.

[Bonefishblues]

Rubbish.

...although there are ultimate fishing rods, reels, lines, flies and much else, of course

[kylecycler]

There's a thread on the US cycling Paceline Forum called 'What's on your coffee bench?' Apparently a 'coffee bench' is a thing ovah theh (like a gun cabinet except not like a gun cabinet)...

https://forums.thepaceline.net/showthre ... ffee+bench

[PedallingSquares]

Exactly. The best coffee is the stuff you spoon out of a jar and pour boiling water on without all the faff. It's made better still by the thought that the worst cups of coffee I've ever tasted, by a very large margin, were fresh, not instant.

That's your opinion and you are of course entitled to it.I simply don't like instant coffee.It's tasteless and often very bitter especially the own brand stuff.All coffee is not the same just as all beer/wine/whisky is not the same.
If I'm going to a café and paying £2+ for a cup I expect it not to be instant and I can tell instantly,pardon the pun,if it is!

There's a thread on the US cycling Paceline Forum called 'What's on your coffee bench?' Apparently a 'coffee bench' is a thing ovah theh (like a gun cabinet except not like a gun cabinet)...
https://forums.thepaceline.net/showthre ... ffee+bench

You have to have a hobby

[kylecycler]

What I don't think anyone has mentioned so far is the aroma like you get in coffee shops. Whenever I've gone over to making coffee in a cafetiere instead of instant coffee, it may or may not taste better (certainly different, not sure about the 'better') but I can't get the aroma like you get in coffee shops, or even get it to smell of anything very much at all - not even coffee!

[Bonefishblues]

Oh that my sense of smell was back to any degree

[reohn2]

I like coffee,black and strong.
I find I have to take the good with the not so bad,occasionally in a cafe or restaurant I'll be served a great coffee that suits me fine but most of the time it's just coffee,the thing is the same cafe or restaurant seldom serves the same good coffee twice.
My own coffee at home is the same I more often than not end up with OK coffee,occasionally I end up with great coffee made exactly the same and with the same beans etc...
Go figure

[Bonefishblues]

You're rubbish at making coffee?

[PedallingSquares]

I like coffee,black and strong.
I find I have to take the good with the not so bad,occasionally in a cafe or restaurant I'll be served a great coffee that suits me fine but most of the time it's just coffee,the thing is the same cafe or restaurant seldom serves the same good coffee twice.
My own coffee at home is the same I more often than not end up with OK coffee,occasionally I end up with great coffee made exactly the same and with the same beans etc...
Go figure

You're rubbish at making coffee?

I wonder if our taste buds change frequently as I have had the same trouble with beer.Come across a really good pint but the second can sometimes taste totally different!?My mates will taste,according to him,as good as the first.

[Nearholmer]

It’s the point I made back up-thread: failure to control the in-tester variables.

You probably make exactly the same coffee each time, or as near as makes no difference, but it tastes different because you are different each time.

Variations in what you’ve eaten, how well you slept, whether you had a bad day at work yesterday, how much water you drank an hour ago, what the weather is making you feel like, all that sort of stuff.

Is there any coincidence between these rare moments of wonderful coffee and, say, it being the morning after you had very good sex, maybe?

If so, the solution to your coffee making troubles is in your own hands. If you see what I mean.

[RickH]

My reliably good coffee is made from Cafedirect Machu Picchu beans (Fairtrade from Peru), ground with a Porlex hand burr grinder (Bought from Hasbean, as mentioned earlier - link - bought in 2015 & still all original parts*, but was half the current price back then. *spares available if needed).

I usually make it in a 1930s "Dripolator" (3 part coffee maker - reservoir at the top, mid section for the coffee & bottom jug for the coffee) but a cafetiere gives a similar result provided you let the water cool a touch after boiling the kettle - boil the water, then grind the beans, then make the coffee.

[reohn2]

You're rubbish at making coffee?

[reohn2]

.......Is there any coincidence between these rare moments of wonderful coffee and, say, it being the morning after you had very good sex, maybe?

Dunno it's been so long since I had any

If so, the solution to your coffee making troubles is in your own hands. If you see what I mean.

If you put it like then IDSWYM

[millimole]

Exactly. The best coffee is the stuff you spoon out of a jar and pour boiling water on without all the faff. It's made better still by the thought that the worst cups of coffee I've ever tasted, by a very large margin, were fresh, not instant.

Funny you should say that. I bought a 25p packet of Inka which is a Polish coffee substitute with an Eastern Block heritage. I got it to use at the allotment, but it was sufficiently good for me to go back and buy another couple of boxes while it was on offer. It'll not be my everyday drink (which is tea) but it's perfectly acceptable 'coffee' for me.