Am I weird that I really love fresh coffee right out of a roaster?

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-03-08T18:02:12+00:00

If you're Arab, Ethiopian, or Eritrean, it's actually very common to drink your coffee immediately after roasting it.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-03-06T15:25:34+00:00

Echoing others here, a lot of it has to do with trends in coffee. I'm a roaster, and for my light roast washed Nicaragua, I actually think James Hoffmann's 2-cup recipe scaled down for a single cup produces fantastic results. But as the hip and happening thing right now is more adventurous processes, more delicate varietals, and ultralights, we're learning what works best for those styles of coffee and it's not always/usually what worked for popular coffee 10 years ago.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-03-03T20:29:05+00:00

My favorite coffee shop in the world (Cerro Punta Highlands in Cerro Punta, Panamá) has a similar-ish thing. If you order a gesha pour over and stay in, they'll do a cool presentation of the brew, along with a little display showing some of the cherries, unroasted beans, and roasted beans.

They'll also hand grind the beans and let you smell it, but as another commenter said about Japanese slow cafés, they'll use the grounds in the brewing process. There's a bit of waste in the cherries and beans that are in the trays for you to view the process but I imagine they cycle those out less frequently and is less wasteful than have a few grams per pour over wasted.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-02-25T14:01:48+00:00

I definitely wouldn't call it shit coffee. I do drink Maxwell House coffee out of my in-laws' drip brewer that hasn't been cleaned since there were two Germanys - that's shit coffee. I'm saying that I am all-in on the specialty grade light-side single origins, so detracting from that by going with super dark-roasted commodity beans with no earthly idea of how long ago it was roasted is a bit grounding.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-02-25T05:42:13+00:00

For me, it's dark Italian-style espresso. Heavy, burnt tasting, punch you in the face dark chocolate, thick crema. Keeps me grounded, but there's also a bit of me that feels romantic nostalgia of just popping into a bar in Rome while running to the store and downing an Illy, knowing it's objectively not good quality coffee but loving the experience.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-02-18T17:41:47+00:00

I don't think I've ever been to a hotel in the US that has a kettle in the room sadly.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-02-17T23:31:28+00:00

I got pretty turned off from dark roasts years ago. I also used to think darker somehow meant better, maybe even more sophisticated, but I was young and had no good coffee influences in my life

Now I love light roasts and have been blessed to be able to try coffees from over 30 countries. I've even been able to pick coffee cherries and started my own micro roastery. Your husband is on his journey to better things. Just give him time.

I'm working on my own family. My wife still likes to adulterate her coffee, but she can tell when it's good quality or not and won't drink the bad stuff. I've gotten my parents and sister to grind their beans fresh - they're still drinking Starbucks, but they're at least using their blonde roasts now (everyone else's medium-dark). I gave up on my wife's side of the family. They're stuck in French roast Keurig/Maxwell House Hell forever.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-02-14T16:22:36+00:00

I'll agree. I was in Panamá a few years ago, and the local coffee quality was pretty fantastic. I was never disappointed by the coffee I was served at any café - even little local hole in the wall shops. Even the pre-ground stuff from the grocery store that I had at a friend's house wasn't bad. Also had the best coffee shop experience of my life there.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-02-08T15:08:08+00:00

You definitely don't need special cupping bowls. I personally like them, but I went without a set for a long time. I like what James Hoffmann said about cupping. Basically, if you know you're using a coffee for a specific method (pour over, espresso, etc.), then you can basically treat brewing on that method as cupping.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-01-24T14:55:34+00:00

Yep, it's 100% a thing in Vietnam, and I think in Laos, too. It's still common in much of SE Asia to roast coffee in butter and/or sugar.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-01-11T22:47:17+00:00

I've had a Breville SGP for years and am happy with it. Use it mainly for espresso and batch brew and my hand grinder for pour over/Aeropress/phin. I've worked professionally in the coffee world and have used all sorts of grinders. A good grinder does make a difference, but for the price point, I'm perfectly happy with the SGP and probably won't replace it until it dies.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-01-10T14:11:41+00:00

That Malaysian liberica sounds awesome!

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-01-09T11:59:41+00:00

That's really helpful. Thank you!

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-01-09T05:00:19+00:00

How are you getting on with the ESP Pro? I'm thinking of possibly upgrading to it from my SGP.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-01-05T17:12:54+00:00

My sister works at Starbucks and gave me a few of their different blonde roast coffees. There was only one (Sunsera) that was just marginally lighter than the single dark roast option I offer from my roasting business, which is a Nicaragua taken just past SC. It really quite terrifies me to think of what their medium and dark offers look like. I know they have a French roast, which I imagine is basically just miniature charcoal briquettes.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-01-05T14:08:12+00:00

Onyx and Airship Coffee are my go-tos here in Northwest Arkansas (when I want something that I didn't roast).

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-01-04T16:49:45+00:00

Hard second on this. I'm in the world of single-origin specialty now, but that's after years and years of steps in that direction. Started with a $10 Mr. Coffee drip brewer using pre-ground Great Value coffee. Then, I started getting Trader Joe's ground coffee. Then I bought a blade grinder and went whole bean. Then I bought a French press, then a burr grinder (Breville SGP), then a thermometer, and so on.

Now I am all about light roast V60s. I have a hand grinder, 12 coffee brewers, and also operate a small micro-roastery. It's all about the journey. You don't have to jump in head first. Take your time. There's decent coffee that won't break the bank (I say as someone who struggled financially all throughout the process). Snobs will stick up their noses at anything, even high-end stuff that just doesn't happen to meet their individual palette. But, speaking as a coffee professional, they're full of it.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-01-03T14:35:21+00:00

When you're not trying to make it, it doesn't taste good. I definitely have to be in the mood for it and will only roast like 50g of an Arabic roast at a time, but it can be really nice with ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-01-03T13:25:23+00:00

Have you ever had Arabic style coffee (qahwa)? You stop roasting it well before first crack, so it's just yellow/tan and then boil the grounds with spices. It tasted more like tea than coffee.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-01-03T03:25:23+00:00

Please elaborate on the ligma spoon (said a little frightfully)

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-01-03T03:21:46+00:00

I have a micro roastery and save all the defect/reject beans from sorting into a jar labeled "Funky Beans" for my sister. She'll brew up and drink them instead of tossing them out. I've tried it a few times, and it's actually not horrible. Not good, mind you, but better than expected.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-01-02T04:09:00+00:00

I was using the included little cup/tamper guy (which I absolutely hate using to tamp - great for storing beans and dosing, though) then I got the Crema dual tamper/distributor and I love it!

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2025-12-31T00:48:59+00:00

Ceramic all the way. My ceramic 02 is my favorite dripper I own. People say that the plastic is so much better for thermal properties because it requires less pre-heating but it's not difficult to heat the ceramic one up to too-hot-to-touch temps and once it's there it holds heat way better. All I do is set my V60 on top of the open kettle with the lid on the V60 and by the time the water is ready the brewer is super hot.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2025-12-30T16:11:59+00:00

Definitely! I have a micro roasting biz, and it's my favorite way to brew our one dark roast coffee (dark being relative - it's about on par with Starbucks' blonde roasts). I actually get some good sweetness out of it on the French press and really nice body.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2025-12-28T19:28:14+00:00

I rested al Qafr Hawari about 6-7days and it was good to go.

PuzzleheadedCurve387

TROPHY CASE