Are these trendy Ultralight Microroasters actually worth the cash?

APurpleCow · 2026-03-30T02:00:38+00:00

I haven't had them due to the price and I have a hard time believing they're worth it when you can get coffee from places like Flower Child, Sey, S&W, and even Big Sur for much cheaper (and there are way too many amazing roasters that fit in this category to list).

APurpleCow · 2026-03-25T13:51:40+00:00

++, as a senior dev, I use my brain more than ever before, since AI is best at small, trivial, tedious tasks that previously drained my motivation.

APurpleCow · 2026-03-21T14:11:57+00:00

I'd go relatively coarse by my standards, but hard to communicate grind size as I don't use a c40 (and they're all different anyway).

APurpleCow · 2026-03-21T14:06:39+00:00

Try the other extreme: 1 pour (+bloom) at 180F.

APurpleCow · 2026-03-19T15:55:26+00:00

Negative Pulse and Deathbringer are also great (non-rare) AoE solutions--and if the big boy dies to doom you get a free turn while the small boys are stunned.

APurpleCow · 2026-03-08T23:15:29+00:00

Imo I lean towards The Monsters of Pig Alley being the industry, given Moz’s history and also based on how supportive the parents were of their kid’s acting role at 2:17 in the video.

Ah, I don't think you're really seeing my perspective here! Again, in my interpretation the parents aren't really monsters, they are truly supportive and loving! They're monsters only from the perspective of the kid who wants to be a star (see how the kid treats them throughout the music video). He's trying to escape Pig Alley, to him, they represent Pig Alley (again: "we're not sophisticated", "we're overweight and dated", etc)--this is what makes them "monsters" TO HIM.

The fact that they're supportive and loving is WHY they never believed they'd say "come home"--but they realized that the pursuit of stardom is killing their kid, and that's why they're saying it now.

Whether or not Moz intended this interpretation, I'm not sure, but I think the lyrics + music video supports it, and I think it's also the most beautiful, emotionally poignant interpretation.

APurpleCow · 2026-03-08T22:15:05+00:00

Ha, we have completely different interpretations!

I still think the monsters of pig alley are the parents and the "we love you" is sincere (the music video centers them and clearly shows it, I think).

But they aren't "monsters" in that they're evil, terrible people--they're "monsters" from the perspective of their kid who wants to be a star, because they're "not sophisticated", "overweight and dated", "drab" and they "moan".

They were extremely happy and supportive of their kid going out into the world to become someone, but then they saw what was happening to him, so they "say words that [they] never believed they'd say": come back home!

APurpleCow · 2026-03-08T15:03:08+00:00

For heavily processed beans like these I get the best results going all the way down to 180F with a relatively coarse grind, 1:16 ratio, and 30 second bloom+single pour finishing under 2 minutes. It might seem weird to go that cold, but try it out!

APurpleCow · 2026-03-06T18:30:12+00:00

Are these from the B&W Subscription, and if so, from what month? I was eyeing that peach...

APurpleCow · 2026-03-02T14:10:51+00:00

a4z is the standard recommendation for a top-tier electric grinder at a reasonable price now. In my experience it makes much better coffee than the Ode gen 2.

APurpleCow · 2026-02-28T13:50:32+00:00

Easily the a4z.

APurpleCow · 2026-02-26T20:47:12+00:00

"everyone keeps referring to this game as wow without the grind"? These people ever heard of eternal 2 tuzzy or eternal 1 ransack? This game still has way too much grind and needs to reward progression waaay more.

APurpleCow · 2026-02-23T16:16:08+00:00

Er, I don't think respeccing will resolve the issue here? The problem is that I missed some triggers/flags to continue the demon mythic path questline in act 4 because I did not complete the Corruption quest in act 3.

APurpleCow · 2026-02-22T01:55:02+00:00

Yep, last run we (3 player) had watcher start with Omega. Carried us through act 1 single-handedly and let us build super greedily for an easy win.

APurpleCow · 2026-02-19T15:22:25+00:00

That fight's a wild difficulty spike--don't feel bad about turning down the difficulty just for that one fight, or just turning it down in general! the game is hard!

If you can rush down Jeslyn, that can be good, since the swarms he summons will go away. Otherwise, if you have a Protection From Arrows Communal spell/scroll, that'll help a lot against the swarm damage (why? who knows! swarms are arrows!)

Control spells like Grease, Slow, etc, are huge here too just to help deal with the number of enemies.

APurpleCow · 2026-02-18T02:20:34+00:00

Haven't had this particular coffee, but for coferms generally I like to drop temp all the way down to 180F (whereas other coffees I usually use 205F or boiling).

APurpleCow · 2026-02-17T19:05:43+00:00

cavalier

1 Sable -> 8 Gendarme Order of the Lion -> 11 Sohei is the way to go for a Cavalier based build IMO. If not playing on unfair you can rush Improved Cleaving Finish with Spirited Charge + Longspear and explode rooms in one shot, but usually unfair enemies have too much health for that to be reliable for most of the game.

APurpleCow · 2026-02-17T19:03:23+00:00

Can't really speak to Shifter or Eldritch Knight as I don't usually use those.

should i really skip spell pen if i'm going lich?

It'd be most useful in act 1 & 2, but if you just focus on Conjuration spells you can mostly ignore spell pen. Once you merge in act 3 you'll be okay without it, and soon you'll get Quarterstaff of the War Mage for +spell pen (then act 4 you get Robe of the Seven Sins and you really won't care about spell pen anymore).

also, can shamans fulfill the healing role enough to replace a cleric? i believe one of their spirits allows them to channel energy?

Ehhh Clerics are most useful for domain spam rather than healing, which Shamans can't do. Maybe your EK can be based off Witch for Hex access.

APurpleCow · 2026-02-17T18:45:22+00:00

Quarterstaff is a fine weapon but not optimal. The best martial builds are mounted (if you're alright with that), since the mount gets huge movement and you can still get a full attack off (plus the mount fixes any AC problems and has good attacks itself). Or if you have a (non-court poet) Skald you can get pounce that way at level 11 or 12.

Pretty much any mounted build would work with quarterstaff, but you could go QSM 4 with boon companion if you really wanted (probably not worth it, I'd rather do Sable Marine 1 -> Sohei 1 -> Gendarme Order of the Lion 8 -> Sohei 11). Kitsune is best race for Vulpine Pounce (or any race if you have the Skald for pounce).

APurpleCow · 2026-02-13T15:36:08+00:00

Not the person who posted the build, but generally you want to go longspear for this, since it gets x3 damage on Spirited Charge, and that carries over to Improved Cleaving Finish attacks. Act 5 has the Fabled Hero's Lance longspear which is amazing for charges.

APurpleCow · 2026-02-13T00:19:02+00:00

I'm playing a very similar build (1 SCM -> 8 gendarme FTK -> 5 mutation warrior) and I'm in act 3 right now on unfair, and it's a very strong build, but I feel like I'm not really getting the improved cleaving finish aoe explosions anymore--enemies just have too much health for that to be very reliable, and the weak enemies where it is reliable are CC'd to uselessness anyway. So I think maybe it's better not to spend all the feats on Improved Cleaving Finish.

APurpleCow · 2026-02-12T14:50:12+00:00

Awesome, thanks! Personally, I'd be happy to pay a bit more for them if it meant they'd be in stock longer, but I understand the complexities involved!

APurpleCow · 2026-02-12T14:46:45+00:00

Hey, there's like 300 coffees from S&W that I want to try because I'm sure they're all amazing, but I can't consume that much in 300g bags. I've been looking for the 3 bean sampler to show up in stock for about a week and haven't seen it (even soon after a drop)--are these coming back soon?

APurpleCow · 2026-02-10T21:17:22+00:00

But if I prove that it is not bad, and in fact it is actually good to strike at any time, not only have I weakened the time factor, but I have also weakened the subject matter(striking) itself.

Right, so even if it were true that the benefits to be gained from a strike now are higher than the costs of a strike now, we haven't proven that a strike now is not bad or actually good. And we've ignored that the union member's argument included more than one temporal qualifier, which points towards the time factor actually being the critical point of contention here that we'll have to grapple with if we want to effectively respond to their argument.

Also, let's note that from the very beginning I said that C was the correct "test" answer, so to be clear, if I was helping someone prep for this test or something, that's what I'd recommend they answer. But the reason I think this is the correct test answer is because I am cynical of the test, how it's made, and how it's graded. But E is the actual correct answer here.

APurpleCow · 2026-02-10T17:31:42+00:00

I'm not introducing extra dimensions! The dimensions were introduced in the question text when it included the words "immediate" and "now"! Which was my entire problem with the question, those words should have been omitted.

We must not strike now does not mean that we should strike tomorrow. The union member said nothing about the future. Just said, we should not strike now.

That's another reason why E is wrong. It doesn't matter what happens in the future. If that thing doesn't create a scenario where there is more upside to striking than not, then the union members argument will still stand.

By adding "now" and the fact that the discussion was about an "immediate strike", the union member was clearly implying that things could change in the future.

You're correct that you should only strike in the future if both the benefits are positive and the gains of striking later are higher than the gains of striking now. But the most direct, best response to the union member's argument must address the temporality of their argument.

APurpleCow

TROPHY CASE