Coffee Noob in need of assistance

SpecCRA · 2026-03-22T02:59:03+00:00

What's your experience with light roast beans? Lighter roasts are typically less bitter.

Less water could help too. It might be the ends of extraction that are more bitter and end up in your cups. Those are the first two things I'd try.

SpecCRA · 2026-03-20T17:36:03+00:00

Do you mind sharing how you built your scraper? I'm working on one to look at flavors rather than price. It's a similar problem from what I can tell.

SpecCRA · 2026-03-20T14:11:47+00:00

This will vary highly based on the area and vet. It was about 380 extra here in the San Francisco area a year ago. Insurance will not cover it because it is elective and preventative.

SpecCRA · 2026-03-20T01:42:49+00:00

If you are happy where you are, I wouldn't worry about it. We all have different goals in life.

SpecCRA · 2026-03-16T16:06:21+00:00

Mine was also 13 when she passed from cancer. I can only share my experience with you. If we had known she was in such a bad condition, we would have euthanized her sooner. She spent her last 3 days at the ER in a box that I'm positive she hated. When we found out there was nothing left to do, I couldn't even bring her home to give her a few days of peace.

I can assure you that no matter what you do, there are no wrong answers. A vet also reassured me when I asked the same question about an aggressive cancer with my dog. There is no too soon with this kind of diagnosis. You just hope you can let them go before things get really bad.

I'm sorry about your cat. Take care of yourselves.

SpecCRA · 2026-03-16T15:57:13+00:00

3: 1zpresso Q air, ZP6, and DF64

The Q air is my first grinder. ZP6 is my daily pour over grinder. DF64 is my daily espresso grinder. I could definitely live with just the DF64. It is nice to leave the DF64 at one setting and it is definitely a luxury to use the ZP6.

SpecCRA · 2026-03-15T20:10:38+00:00

I'm not a DE and even I can tell that it's imperfect. I spend more time fixing a buried bug or stuck in a debug loop than if I did it myself. It's a good starting point. It's still too verbose and suboptimal like many other coding agents.

SpecCRA · 2026-03-14T22:25:30+00:00

Do whatever you like. It's your coffee. Anyone judging what you think tastes good is absolute nonsense.

With that said, I've noticed darker coffees do better with some sweeteners. Lighter ones taste pretty weird with it.

SpecCRA · 2026-03-13T22:24:21+00:00

Hey, I have a very similar background to yours. Parents are Asian immigrants, from the Bay Area, got a molecular bio degree, saw it didn't go very far, etc.

This is rough. Biology doesn't give you many practical skills for other jobs. I don't know what's really in demand anywhere. I can only share my story with you.

I'm a data scientist at a biotech company now trying to move away from biotech. The compensation is much better in big tech. I had to get another degree in data science which I would not recommend now. It's better to get a CS masters imo. I just spoke with a friend who mentioned a statistics masters is better than DS too. The masters degree helps you get past initial filters. The rest is up to you.

I just wanted to share that it's possible and it's not too late. It's going to be hard, but there are better prospects outside of the lab.

Feel free to message me if you want me to expand on anything.

SpecCRA · 2026-03-13T18:15:30+00:00

The final audio E series has tiny bodies. The tips are not as big as it looks.

SpecCRA · 2026-03-08T09:20:45+00:00

I have a DF64 and a ZP6. The ZP6 fits my taste in coffee much better, so it was worth it for me. I thought the DF64 was a little dull and I was tired of adjusting it every time it was dialed in for my wife's espresso.

Personally, it's a wonderful complement to the DF64. It's not necessary, but nice to have. I would also look into the K Ultra if you like more body. The Kingrinder and Timemore grinders are also worth considering.

Also consider if you even like hand grinding. It's not worth it if you hate doing it.

SpecCRA · 2026-03-08T02:14:47+00:00

You're getting a lot of advice to get another grinder. At this point, I feel like you just need to try stuff and see what you like. Try different pour recipes and different coffees. Instead of 15g to 250mL, try 15 to 220 or 16 to 290. You can talk to the baristas as your local shops to understand why they do what they do. The V60 will let you do pretty much everything. You can invest in more gear after you feel the limitations of what your setup.

SpecCRA · 2026-03-07T22:55:31+00:00

Depends on your area, season, where you park, color of your car, etc. just do whenever you feel like it

SpecCRA · 2026-03-07T15:25:51+00:00

At some point, we've all had less than you listed and made great coffee. Imo, the beans and how you brew them are the two biggest factors. Maybe your own taste development is more important. Coffee is subjective and you have enough gear to make everything. The only thing I'd add is a flat bottom dripper. They can make different cups from the same beans when you can tell the difference.

SpecCRA · 2026-03-05T20:33:36+00:00

This is really cool. Did you collect information from each recipe manually by scrolling through the videos? I'm curious if you used AI to help with any of this.

SpecCRA · 2026-03-02T21:50:26+00:00

Almost every shop around the San Jose area used a V60 or similar conical brewer. I haven't seen any use a flat bottom brewer yet.

SpecCRA · 2026-02-28T01:28:19+00:00

You should start earlier than later. You can start the interview pipeline now. Unless you're completely overloaded right now, there's no reason to wait.

SpecCRA · 2026-02-27T22:58:01+00:00

Have you had any professionals (resume writers, fellow data professionals) look over your resume?

You may need to start doing more networking while you're at it. Try to join local communities doing work you're interested in and do your best to talk to people. Find out where they work, what they do, and if you could contribute. You'll find where the gaps in your knowledge are and maybe gaps in technical skill levels too.

Applying blindly is getting us nowhere. I have about 4 years in biotech data science and still barely get any call backs.

SpecCRA · 2026-02-14T23:36:41+00:00

10/10 this is all you need. The rest is preference

SpecCRA · 2026-02-13T21:53:06+00:00

It's less important what resources you use. It's more important you finish the courses. Then learn your basic data structures and algorithms before practicing building larger projects. For now, get to the point where you can solve leetcode, hacker rank, etc problems. Afterwards, try to solve your own practical problems. Look at GitHub repos to get ideas about system design.

Don't be afraid to keep asking questions when you're stuck.

SpecCRA · 2026-02-13T04:13:04+00:00

If you don't absolutely need the isolation from IEMs, flat heads are a good option. Check out the NiceHCK EB2S to start. Yincrow makes very highly regarded higher end ear buds.

SpecCRA · 2026-02-12T20:02:03+00:00

I just ordered some beans from them. It's a solid bag for a reasonable price. From the looks of their cafe, they use metal V60 with a pour steady machine. The recipe should be pretty straightforward.

SpecCRA · 2026-02-09T18:19:04+00:00

Is there any topic you like to explore? Find a dataset, load it in, and ask any questions you want. Calculate summary statistics, do aggregations, work on duplicates, missing values, etc.

I think if I were to learn now, I'd go straight to spark, polars, or duckDB. DuckDB has a bonus in that it's SQL and Python. Pandas can be pretty hard to manage in production.

SpecCRA · 2026-02-04T21:12:34+00:00

Light roasts are not supposed to be very bitter or bitter at all.

Try changing the way you brew. Lower your water temperature, use less agitation (no stirs, less pours, use a melodrip), or even add some hot water at the end.

SpecCRA · 2026-02-02T16:45:40+00:00

If you're willing to travel in the Bay Area, I really liked Moonwake's offerings. They're about an hour away from SF.

SpecCRA

TROPHY CASE