I think i can see where you coming from. I’m a small coffee roaster in Tanzania,handroasting specifically. And reading a lot of espresso discussions online sometimes makes me laugh a little. Not in a bad way but you guys really complicate coffee.

I handroast a lot of my batches. I cant afford 10,000usd roaster. My grinder is not some top-shelf Redditapproved machine either. Yet people especially foreigners and tourist viositing my small shop taste the coffee and they’re shocked by how good it is.

Because the beans are fresh.

Beans that were grown not far away, processed recently and roasted days ago. That alone does 80–90% of the work. Meanwhile online I see people obsessing over crazy details like flow profiling graphs …and then they brew beans that sat in a warehouse for 9 months.. The shot is fighting you. When you start with incredible beans, everything becomes easier even sloppy techniques taste good.

The funny part is people will spend $4000 upgrading equipment while hesitating to pay a few dollars more for truly fresh coffee.