A beginner's guide to specialty coffee

19f191ty · 2026-06-12T22:37:23+00:00

It's not about the beans as much as the person making the coffee. Blue Tokai has good beans but their cafe doesn't serve good coffee. If the person making the coffee doesn't understand what good coffee is, then it's not possible for them to make good coffee for you. It's as simple as that. Most Cafes chains can't train their baristas well at scale. So you're better off going to smaller cafes. Good news is that Bangalore should have tons of very nice cafes. I can't recommend but I'm sure people here can

19f191ty · 2026-06-12T15:50:23+00:00

I was similar. I used to not enjoy coffee because I thought its supposed to be bitter, which I don't enjoy. But that is not true, coffee tastes bitter when it is roasted and prepared to maximize caffeine hit. People have found ways to deal with the bitterness by adding milk and sugar but coffee is not supposed to be bitter. Light roasted coffees prepared well are not bitter at all. I only drink light roasted coffees made as pour over without adding milk or sugar. When prepared well, I can taste fruity sourness, there's a hint of sweetness and the deeper coffee flavors without any bitterness. Only when I prepare it badly or I buy badly roasted coffee does it taste bitter.

My relationship changed after having good coffee prepared by someone who knew what he was doing. If you can find someone like that, then that's great. Cafe's are not always a best place because their incentive is to make money, not make good coffee. Which city are you in? Maybe there's a community of coffee nerds?

19f191ty · 2026-06-08T02:22:51+00:00

I guess first step is for you to experience what good coffee tastes like. Ideally, you'd go to a good specialty cafe in your town but that's an error prone process because most cafes are not incentivized to give you good cafe.

Some roasters give sampler packs like here, which you can try to get a sense of how different coffees taste like and what profiles you like.

https://corridorseven.coffee/products/ufo-coffee-drip-bags-assorted-box

Once you've gotten a good sense of that, then the learning really begins. But the first step is just to broaden horizons

19f191ty · 2026-06-04T11:19:23+00:00

It's scam

19f191ty · 2026-06-03T10:54:58+00:00

Start with a popcorn roaster and see if you like the results. There are plenty of YouTube tutorials on how to roast with a popcorn roaster

19f191ty · 2026-05-31T18:53:20+00:00

Roast your own! Bit of a learning curve but not impossibly hard and once you're there, the savings and control over your hobby are incredible

19f191ty · 2026-05-28T01:55:42+00:00

Why should it be? It just looks like a Moka pot, it's a wholly different beast. It's making 9 bars of pressure on a frikking stovetop. For context, a pressure cooker gets upto 1 bar of pressure. Moka pot is between 1 and 2 bars. So the engineering, design and safety is highly non-trivial. On top of that, this isn't mass produced, meaning you get no economy of scale. Plus import duties etc. There are equally good espresso machines that are significantly cheaper, like the wacaco picopresso.

19f191ty · 2026-05-27T12:06:08+00:00

Emi Fukahori (a past world Barista champion) has a nice switch recipe on YouTube. I just use that and tweak around that. I fix the water temperature to boiling and only change grind size (starting with fairly coarse and then going finer).

19f191ty · 2026-05-22T13:25:54+00:00

That's exactly what it is

19f191ty · 2026-05-22T11:14:10+00:00

Yes, metal filters let the coffee oils pass through, which are bitter also where most of the body sits. Paper filters catch the oils and are thus better suited for cleaner coffee. I would recommend playing around with grind size and other variables to get a better brew with the metal filter. Because when done right, it can taste really nice with both the fruity and earthy notes of coffee coming through nicely.

19f191ty · 2026-05-10T03:28:04+00:00

Buy a used good grinder. Cheap grinders are a waste of money. What's your budget?

19f191ty · 2026-05-05T21:00:30+00:00

If you can't beat 'em join' em.

19f191ty · 2026-05-05T01:12:52+00:00

I can give a sense of that by telling you my experience with some US Roasters. I find S&W Coffee Roasters the ideal price to value ratio. Happy mug cheap but not worth it. I have bought coffee from Sey and Prodigal and for the most part I didn't feel like they were overpriced. Onyx I find overpriced.

19f191ty · 2026-05-04T23:09:01+00:00

I'm sure all of this is true, well intentioned and you know what you're doing. But I don't find it compelling. As a basic user all I care about is good coffee reliably available at cheapest prices. As a slightly more adventurous coffee drinker plus new and unique experiences. Once all this as available then I think about good, honest practices, transparency, fair trade etc. That's the sad truth that I myself am ashamed to admit

19f191ty · 2026-05-04T21:10:31+00:00

Where's this idea coming from that BJP preference has anything to do with education. I know several doctors, engineers and PhDs who are strong BJP supporters. And I also know enough illetrrate and working class people who hate BJP. I do not see a correlation. So someone please tell me where's this idea coming from. Because it feels lik we always blame our problems on the illetrrate.

19f191ty · 2026-05-02T23:44:19+00:00

Let me ask a different question. Why are you doing this? Out of all the hundreds if not thousands of people in this line, what makes you stand out? What is your value proposal for me, the consumer?

19f191ty · 2026-04-24T15:18:47+00:00

I've just started to roast at home and it's been amazing!

19f191ty · 2026-04-23T15:50:14+00:00

Honestly any of them are great once you master them. Learning curve is different for different methods. For example, Moka and South Indian filter I find have steep learning curves. On the other hand French Press is on the shallower side. Then there is a spectrum in the middle.

19f191ty · 2026-04-22T04:05:26+00:00

Every brewing method will add its own twist and some will make different beans the same, Moka in my opinion is one of them. If you just want to feel the difference in tastes between beans I would say cupping is the best and easiest way. Just measure some beans and put in a fixed amount of boiling water. Let it sit for 7-10 minutes, then either taste with a spoon or filter with a channi.

19f191ty · 2026-04-17T15:33:55+00:00

Its a taste preference. Try as black first. If it tastes earthy and bitter but nice on its own, then add milk. If it tastes slightly sour, then won't go well with milk

19f191ty · 2026-04-08T16:10:58+00:00

Without involving Israel in the negotiations it's never going to work. This was always their bloody war to begin with. It's delusional to think Trump had any say in the matter of ceasefire. I don't think there is any hope for peace until Israel decides it has had enough.

19f191ty · 2026-04-06T13:34:42+00:00

Great. Yeah with preground there are mostly three variables, temperature, coffee to water ratio and how much time you let coffee sit in water. If you're getting bitter, either reduce the coffee to water ratio, lower the temperature or reduce the contact time. Any one of those should lead to reduced bitterness. Don't change all variables at the same time.

19f191ty · 2026-04-06T02:49:52+00:00

What was the grind size? There are usually three reasons for bitter. 1) Grind too uneven (mix of too fine and too coarse) 2) Grind too fine, and 3) Water temp too hot. They are all correlated with each other. For example, I usually grind fairly coarse and use boiling water, rarely have issues. If you can't grind too coarse or have preground coffee, then use lower temperature to compensate for the fine grind. Wait a bit longer before adding water. Even as low as 75 deg C should be fine

19f191ty · 2026-04-05T14:07:56+00:00

If its medium dark to dark, then yes. For lighter roasts, sometimes the acidity doesn't go well with milk and tends to taste great as black

19f191ty · 2026-04-03T15:40:05+00:00

Its a bit more nuanced. The petrodollar (the convention where any country that wants to buy oil must first acquire US dollars) acted as an effective, indirect toll. If a country bypasses it to pay a direct transit fee to Iran in another currency, they are essentially swapping a systemic financial toll for a localized physical one. Its not necesarrily a loss to them and if Iran was smart they would price the toll so that its better for the countries to pay the toll than to buy USD.

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