4 ms·

It sounds like you lost a neutral or even positive while gaining a negative here: lost is the ability to drink a common beverage without feeling bad about being

It sounds like you lost a neutral or even positive while gaining a negative here: lost is the ability to drink a common beverage without feeling bad about being uncultured, gained is a dependency on commercial brands - Aeropress and Chemex - and related niche products - in this case African coffee - as well as a related ritual - 'hand-brewing coffee'. In both cases you satisfied your thirst for caffeine, the difference is that the lost method allowed you to do this more or less anywhere and at more or less any price which the new method makes this more hard to come by and carries a much higher price. To put all that in two words: carpe diem In a few more words: enjoy your fanciful coffee but try not to create too much ritual around it as that only builds walls where no walls need to be.

JoeAltmaier 8y ago
Hey that describes pretty much any food preference? We should all learn to live with terrible cooking too? On that note, I had two total lunch fails last week. Food delivered to the table, that I couldn't eat. Is it the phase of the moon? The political climate? The cold weather?
- jfk13 8y ago
  It's possible, I think, to appreciate and enjoy (and spend time on) good cooking - or coffee - without the kind of (IMO unhealthy) dependency suggested by "I can not imagine my day without aeropress or chemex". Perhaps that was just hyperbole by Griceraae50100. I hope so.
  - JoeAltmaier 8y ago
    Of course it was. But also, comfortable middle-class folk get used to lots of comfortable things and can't imagine living without them. Like cars and roads and a warm house and a good grocery store. Unless those things change drastically then wanting and getting good coffee is way, way down on the list of 'unhealthy dependency'.
    - stirfrykitty 8y ago
      Much of what we do in the west could fall into the category of unhealthy dependency. I drink 4-6 double espressos daily, plus about 16oz of green tea. I vape. I code. I sort out issues on servers, for which without the caffeine and nicotine would suffer :). This is life in the west. Being comfortable is no sin. Getting used to "better" is likewise not a bad thing. It's bad if/when you use your "status/wealth/etc" to impugn or degrade others. I feel like I've earned my place in life, as has my wife. We live in a normal house, drive so-so daily drivers (car status means nothing to me), and wear clothes from the outlet stores. I do, however, not skimp on coffee, tea, meat, or leather boots. These I will gladly spend money on. Like a lot of guys, I enjoy a fine cigar and a cold expensive lager on the back porch while cooking steaks. All washed down with a healthy measure of espresso and green tea.
- webninja 8y ago
  Did it have olives in it?
  - JoeAltmaier 8y ago
    Ha! No. One was a 'steak and eggs' at a new diner, where the over-easy eggs were broken (just annoying), the hashed-browned potatoes were a freezer-burned puck of mush, the 'steak' was a pile of fatty gristle that I tried chewing for 2 minutes and didn't get any smaller, and a pointless vegetable was grilled asparagus turned to dry sticks. There was nothing on the plate I wanted to put in my mouth. The other was a Philly I got at a bar (fancy-food seafood/bar). Except is came as a French Dip (which wasn't on the menu): scant grilled onions/peppers, no cheese(!) and a bowl of brown broth. Which had spilled and saturated the bottom bun - took my whole napkin to try and get the slime off my hands after one attempt to pick it up. So I tipped the top bun off, maybe I could eat the filling - which was bare sliced beef with some gummy white stuff (not cheese) smeared on it? Oh, the top bun had been smeared with some white jizz that had melted the bread into paste. Disgusting top to bottom. I ate the fries and left.
- Yetanfou 8y ago
  It doesn't describe general food preferences like 'hamburger' or 'croque monsieur' [1], at least that is not my intention. What it is meant to describe is, in the context of the first of the above examples, ruing the day one would have to go without a grass-fed aged Argentine Angus beef burger with ecological Ruccola from the western slopes of Hamburger Hill in northern California, topped with a slice of late-harvest heritage Tuscany tomato and Syrian course-ground ecological pepper on a sourdough Spelt-and-Wheat bun. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croque_monsieur https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croque_monsieur
kawfey 8y ago
This feels true to me. I was making coffee with an aeropress in my office, right next to the 3-carafe Bunn automatic coffeemaker. Someone poured a cup of office coffee, while I was pressing my aeropress. They asked about it - how does it work, why do I do it? I said that I can use my own coffee, it makes the coffee taste better and I can modify the strength and flavor depending on my grind size, brewing times, pressure - it's like experimenting to find the best cup. They replied, "well I'm not a snob, and I think this [office] coffee tastes pretty good...after all they probably have the same amount of caffeine in them, don't they?" It was humbling, and although I still make coffee (at my desk now lol) I look at the product I make myself different from coffee as a beverage. Handmaking coffee is an enjoyable ritual with new discoverable outcomes based on modifiable variables. It's a hobby I do, right next to making my own recipes and doing ham radio. But if I just need caffeine and I'm too lazy to make aeropress, I drink out of the office pot and I don't think of it as an inferior product.
- ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
  If you want to win that argument next time, just say "I'm not a snob, this cup has 2-3 times more caffeine." It doesn't need to be true to make sense. Everybody understands trying to get more caffeine without drinking the whole pot of coffee.
- 0-_-0 8y ago
  If you only want caffeine, aren't caffeine pills more practical?
bmj 8y ago
The case for bad coffee: https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/10/the-case-for-bad-coffee.html https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/10/the-case-for-bad-coffee....
- shkkmo 8y ago
  Thanks for posting that, I really enjoyed it
- jorgesborges 8y ago
  > It was one of those moments when I could actually imagine my cranky diner-coffee-swilling Irish grandfather rising from the grave and saying, "You know what, kid? You're an idiot. What a great article. The takeaway sentiment is that the experiences and interactions that surround coffee-drinking are way more important than the quality of the coffee.
- Yetanfou 8y ago
  Yes, that is what I meant. It puts my mind back to the best take-out Chinese (food, not person) I ever had. While the take-out itself might have been a run-off-the-mill nasi goreng [1] it was the setting which made it memorable. I was on my first long solo cycling trip (where 'long' means about three weeks), about 16 years old and intent on finding a well-hidden spot to pitch my tent for the night [2]. I cycled past that take-away, thought 'why not' and got the food only to continue on my way for a bit. I finally chose a spot next to the river, started the cooker to boil some water for tea and had the nasi while watching the ships go by on the river. It was getting dark, the ships were lit up like Christmas trees, ships and river flowed by and I felt for probably the first time what it really meant to be free, healthy and self-reliant. [1] I'm Dutch, nasi goreng (which you could translate to "fried rice with yesterday's leftovers", at least that is how I always make it) is a Dutch-but-really-Indonesian staple food [2] ...which is illegal in the Netherlands, you can only camp in designated camping spots. While this might be the letter of the law it did not keep a local police officer who cycled by (in another place and time) while I was cooking something next to my tent in a totally illegal spot from wishing me a good dinner and continuing on his way.
JshWright 8y ago
Yeah, there's no reason you can't have both. I am _way_ down the coffee rabbit hole (home roasting, etc). I'm still perfectly fine with "common" coffee from Starbucks/Dunkin/etc. They're just different things. Really the only coffee I can't drink is "diner" coffee, but that's more about heartburn than preference...

JoeAltmaier 8y ago

Hey that describes pretty much any food preference? We should all learn to live with terrible cooking too? On that note, I had two total lunch fails last week. Food delivered to the table, that I couldn't eat. Is it the phase of the moon? The political climate? The cold weather?

jfk13 8y ago
It's possible, I think, to appreciate and enjoy (and spend time on) good cooking - or coffee - without the kind of (IMO unhealthy) dependency suggested by "I can not imagine my day without aeropress or chemex". Perhaps that was just hyperbole by Griceraae50100. I hope so.
- JoeAltmaier 8y ago
  Of course it was. But also, comfortable middle-class folk get used to lots of comfortable things and can't imagine living without them. Like cars and roads and a warm house and a good grocery store. Unless those things change drastically then wanting and getting good coffee is way, way down on the list of 'unhealthy dependency'.
  - stirfrykitty 8y ago
    Much of what we do in the west could fall into the category of unhealthy dependency. I drink 4-6 double espressos daily, plus about 16oz of green tea. I vape. I code. I sort out issues on servers, for which without the caffeine and nicotine would suffer :). This is life in the west. Being comfortable is no sin. Getting used to "better" is likewise not a bad thing. It's bad if/when you use your "status/wealth/etc" to impugn or degrade others. I feel like I've earned my place in life, as has my wife. We live in a normal house, drive so-so daily drivers (car status means nothing to me), and wear clothes from the outlet stores. I do, however, not skimp on coffee, tea, meat, or leather boots. These I will gladly spend money on. Like a lot of guys, I enjoy a fine cigar and a cold expensive lager on the back porch while cooking steaks. All washed down with a healthy measure of espresso and green tea.
webninja 8y ago
Did it have olives in it?
- JoeAltmaier 8y ago
  Ha! No. One was a 'steak and eggs' at a new diner, where the over-easy eggs were broken (just annoying), the hashed-browned potatoes were a freezer-burned puck of mush, the 'steak' was a pile of fatty gristle that I tried chewing for 2 minutes and didn't get any smaller, and a pointless vegetable was grilled asparagus turned to dry sticks. There was nothing on the plate I wanted to put in my mouth. The other was a Philly I got at a bar (fancy-food seafood/bar). Except is came as a French Dip (which wasn't on the menu): scant grilled onions/peppers, no cheese(!) and a bowl of brown broth. Which had spilled and saturated the bottom bun - took my whole napkin to try and get the slime off my hands after one attempt to pick it up. So I tipped the top bun off, maybe I could eat the filling - which was bare sliced beef with some gummy white stuff (not cheese) smeared on it? Oh, the top bun had been smeared with some white jizz that had melted the bread into paste. Disgusting top to bottom. I ate the fries and left.
Yetanfou 8y ago
It doesn't describe general food preferences like 'hamburger' or 'croque monsieur' [1], at least that is not my intention. What it is meant to describe is, in the context of the first of the above examples, ruing the day one would have to go without a grass-fed aged Argentine Angus beef burger with ecological Ruccola from the western slopes of Hamburger Hill in northern California, topped with a slice of late-harvest heritage Tuscany tomato and Syrian course-ground ecological pepper on a sourdough Spelt-and-Wheat bun. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croque_monsieur https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croque_monsieur

kawfey 8y ago

This feels true to me. I was making coffee with an aeropress in my office, right next to the 3-carafe Bunn automatic coffeemaker. Someone poured a cup of office coffee, while I was pressing my aeropress. They asked about it - how does it work, why do I do it? I said that I can use my own coffee, it makes the coffee taste better and I can modify the strength and flavor depending on my grind size, brewing times, pressure - it's like experimenting to find the best cup. They replied, "well I'm not a snob, and I think this [office] coffee tastes pretty good...after all they probably have the same amount of caffeine in them, don't they?" It was humbling, and although I still make coffee (at my desk now lol) I look at the product I make myself different from coffee as a beverage. Handmaking coffee is an enjoyable ritual with new discoverable outcomes based on modifiable variables. It's a hobby I do, right next to making my own recipes and doing ham radio. But if I just need caffeine and I'm too lazy to make aeropress, I drink out of the office pot and I don't think of it as an inferior product.

ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
If you want to win that argument next time, just say "I'm not a snob, this cup has 2-3 times more caffeine." It doesn't need to be true to make sense. Everybody understands trying to get more caffeine without drinking the whole pot of coffee.
0-_-0 8y ago
If you only want caffeine, aren't caffeine pills more practical?

bmj 8y ago

The case for bad coffee: https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/10/the-case-for-bad-coffee.html https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/10/the-case-for-bad-coffee....

shkkmo 8y ago
Thanks for posting that, I really enjoyed it
jorgesborges 8y ago
> It was one of those moments when I could actually imagine my cranky diner-coffee-swilling Irish grandfather rising from the grave and saying, "You know what, kid? You're an idiot. What a great article. The takeaway sentiment is that the experiences and interactions that surround coffee-drinking are way more important than the quality of the coffee.
Yetanfou 8y ago
Yes, that is what I meant. It puts my mind back to the best take-out Chinese (food, not person) I ever had. While the take-out itself might have been a run-off-the-mill nasi goreng [1] it was the setting which made it memorable. I was on my first long solo cycling trip (where 'long' means about three weeks), about 16 years old and intent on finding a well-hidden spot to pitch my tent for the night [2]. I cycled past that take-away, thought 'why not' and got the food only to continue on my way for a bit. I finally chose a spot next to the river, started the cooker to boil some water for tea and had the nasi while watching the ships go by on the river. It was getting dark, the ships were lit up like Christmas trees, ships and river flowed by and I felt for probably the first time what it really meant to be free, healthy and self-reliant. [1] I'm Dutch, nasi goreng (which you could translate to "fried rice with yesterday's leftovers", at least that is how I always make it) is a Dutch-but-really-Indonesian staple food [2] ...which is illegal in the Netherlands, you can only camp in designated camping spots. While this might be the letter of the law it did not keep a local police officer who cycled by (in another place and time) while I was cooking something next to my tent in a totally illegal spot from wishing me a good dinner and continuing on his way.

JshWright 8y ago

Yeah, there's no reason you can't have both. I am _way_ down the coffee rabbit hole (home roasting, etc). I'm still perfectly fine with "common" coffee from Starbucks/Dunkin/etc. They're just different things. Really the only coffee I can't drink is "diner" coffee, but that's more about heartburn than preference...