Recentness of roasting is key for coffee not tasting like gasoline. Basically, I've heard that Starbucks does way over-roast their beans, but the main problem

Recentness of roasting is key for coffee not tasting like gasoline. Basically, I've heard that Starbucks does way over-roast their beans, but the main problem with them, and with most coffee places, is that they don't use freshly roasted beans. Beans go rancid within 7-10 days of roasting, and after that almost invariably produce that overpowering gasoline flavor. Using freshly roasted beans is terrible for inventory and horribly inconvenient (transportation, etc), and people don't understand that straight coffee isn't supposed to taste like gasoline, so they do fine. Use http://espressomap.com http://espressomap.com to find places with coffee that actually tastes good (as opposed to milk and sugar that tastes good). (On top of this, brewing espresso is really tricky, and requires constant readjustment of grind, brew time, brew temperature, brew pressure, and brew volume (these are coupled, so not quite that many degrees of freedom) based on flavor, texture, and volume of the resulting shot. Baristas at good espresso places pull shots and taste them regularly throughout the day to recalibrate.)