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> Fact: Unless you are buying some major debris, bean quality is not very important That doesn't reflect my experience. If you buy fancy single origin beans, t

> Fact: Unless you are buying some major debris, bean quality is not very important That doesn't reflect my experience. If you buy fancy single origin beans, the taste varies wildly from region to region. I think within a region the taste differences mostly come down to roasting, but an Ethiopian and Kenyan coffee aren't going to taste the same at all. To me the best quickie coffee explainer I've seen is https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52d4cb70e4b0ba94ab0aea30/t/5a46b9740d92977993ce6582/1514584438778/MCM3_manual_004.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52d4cb70e4b0ba94ab0ae... . The coffee control diagram is basically everything you need to tell a new wannabe coffee snob.

artimaeis 7y ago
Full quote: > Fact: Unless you are buying some major debris, bean quality is not very important, as compared to 1-3 and 5. I’d wager that it doesn’t matter how nice your beans are, if they were roasted a long time ago, ground a long time ago, and brewed with unclean equipment and poor quality water the bean quality matters not at all. Even then, the file explains: > Fact: The prepackaged stuff you buy in supermarkets is major debris, (in general). So if you are using supermarket coffee, you can at least grind it yourself and try to use decent water.
- jjice 7y ago
  Water is a huge factor that I neglected for a while. It finally hit me once someone told me that coffee is mostly water, and your coffee is only as good as your water. Makes complete sense, but I had never thought about it. A simple Britta filter goes a long way.
  - kalleboo 7y ago
    I have very low standards for coffee, use Starbucks bulk beans off of Amazon, and brew it in an automatic mill+drip machine. But a Brita filter for the water makes a world of difference.
    - earthboundkid 7y ago
      Whereabouts do you live? I've visited places where I found tap water undrinkable (Pennsylvania, Florida), but never lived in such a place.
      - kalleboo 7y ago
        Japan
        earthboundkid 7y ago
        I liked the water in Toyama, but they had a PR campaign to brand it as “oishii mizu” so people would forget about the cadmium poisoning in the Showa years. The PR campaign worked on me. :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itai-itai_disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itai-itai_disease
  - lostgame 7y ago
    This is a simple tip that will change my life forever. So obvious, yet so important.
  - greenshackle2 7y ago
    Maybe I'm missing something but I figured that since I drink my tap water and it tastes fine to me, it should be fine in my coffee.
    - catalogia 7y ago
      Tap water quality is very variable. In many parts of Florida for instance, tap water tastes and smells like burnt matches; tons of sulfur in that water. It's still safe to drink, but I expect people living in regions with tap water like that would get better results with bottled or filtered water.
      - greenshackle2 7y ago
        Right, that's perfectly understandable, I'm just wondering if people think good quality tap water needs to be filtered too, e.g. maybe minerals affect extraction.
        mrguyorama 7y ago
        Try it out! Next time you shop, buy a gallon of distilled water and see if you prefer it
        jstarfish 7y ago
        Not really. I'm not a water snob or chemist but I've been around. What qualifies tap as "good" is highly subjective but on the one hand you have places like Florida where the tap is desalinated and tastes like farm runoff, and then you have places like Southern California where the mineral content/hardness of the water itself makes it taste like soapy bathwater. I've even noticed it vary within the same municipality-- in two apartments I rented in Atlanta, one mile apart, one had tap that tasted fine, the other (near a swamp) tasted like sewage (we were convinced groundwater was seeping into the water main). In cases of hard water, the brewing process seems to serve as its own distillery that separates minerals from the water. The resulting water/coffee tastes fine to me but you'll find all sorts of mineral buildup clogging your coffee maker if it doesn't have its own filtration system (my Cuisinart has a filter-on-a-stick that lowers into the water tank). Nothing seems to make Florida water palatable though. That taste passes straight through into the coffee, like burned urine. Use distilled.
- th0ma5 7y ago
  What does that even mean "debris" in this context? I tried to google "major debris" and it only returned this text. Why would I deliberately buy stuff with a bunch of junk in it?
  - setr 7y ago
    The bad coffee beans are the bunch of junk
- partyboat1586 7y ago
  I have a filter but I intentionally use tap water because I don't want to get used to filtered. I know that most coffee I drink outside of home will be with tap water so I don't want to spoil myself.
  - earthboundkid 7y ago
    I have not had that problem with fussy coffee in general. When I'm home, I drink my coffee and enjoy the taste. When I'm out, I get enough caffeine to make it through the day and that's enough.
catalogia 7y ago
Sommeliers claim to have incredible wine tasting powers, yet in a blind taste test I cannot reliably distinguish red wine from white wine. Maybe with more training I could, but shouldn't the difference be obvious without training? I've yet to be convinced that subtly in wine and coffee flavor is an objective matter.
- earthboundkid 7y ago
  There are definitely things that I consider voodoo, like wetting the filter before you make your coffee, but there are tons of things that are just undeniable like: if you drink coffee from stale beans, your urine smells bad then next time you pee; if not, not. I'm always surprised when I drink some gas station coffee and then a couple of hours later "oh yeah, I normally drink better coffee, don't I?"
  - jstarfish 7y ago
    It's not voodoo; the concept of "supertasters" and other supersensory traits in humans is well-documented. Most legitimate sommeliers are likely supertasters. I'm a supertaster myself-- certain pungent/sour tastes will literally make me gag; I don't like foods with a million different components since I can taste all of them quite clearly. My wife on the other hand will smell things on the wind (like smoke) that I'll only notice 5-10 minutes later. I hear there are others who can see gradients of colors that others cannot. > wetting the filter before you make your coffee This isn't really voodoo, but it is debatable whether it matters for such a low volume. Since no filter fully expresses the fluid it absorbs, if you put exactly 4 cups of water through a dry filter, you're not getting exactly 4 cups of water out of it. The result might be a stronger cup of coffee (since there is less water to dilute it). Wetting the filter gives you a more "accurate" result, but you'll get a consistent cup of coffee either way if you commit to either always wetting it or not doing so. This matters more for things like oil changes, which is why after changing your oil filter and refilling the oil, you're supposed to run the car for a few minutes to operating temperature and check the oil levels again-- the dry filter will have added to the total capacity of the engine block and soaked up some of what you thought you put in.

artimaeis 7y ago

Full quote: > Fact: Unless you are buying some major debris, bean quality is not very important, as compared to 1-3 and 5. I’d wager that it doesn’t matter how nice your beans are, if they were roasted a long time ago, ground a long time ago, and brewed with unclean equipment and poor quality water the bean quality matters not at all. Even then, the file explains: > Fact: The prepackaged stuff you buy in supermarkets is major debris, (in general). So if you are using supermarket coffee, you can at least grind it yourself and try to use decent water.

jjice 7y ago
Water is a huge factor that I neglected for a while. It finally hit me once someone told me that coffee is mostly water, and your coffee is only as good as your water. Makes complete sense, but I had never thought about it. A simple Britta filter goes a long way.
- kalleboo 7y ago
  I have very low standards for coffee, use Starbucks bulk beans off of Amazon, and brew it in an automatic mill+drip machine. But a Brita filter for the water makes a world of difference.
  - earthboundkid 7y ago
    Whereabouts do you live? I've visited places where I found tap water undrinkable (Pennsylvania, Florida), but never lived in such a place.
    - kalleboo 7y ago
      Japan
      - earthboundkid 7y ago
        I liked the water in Toyama, but they had a PR campaign to brand it as “oishii mizu” so people would forget about the cadmium poisoning in the Showa years. The PR campaign worked on me. :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itai-itai_disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itai-itai_disease
- lostgame 7y ago
  This is a simple tip that will change my life forever. So obvious, yet so important.
- greenshackle2 7y ago
  Maybe I'm missing something but I figured that since I drink my tap water and it tastes fine to me, it should be fine in my coffee.
  - catalogia 7y ago
    Tap water quality is very variable. In many parts of Florida for instance, tap water tastes and smells like burnt matches; tons of sulfur in that water. It's still safe to drink, but I expect people living in regions with tap water like that would get better results with bottled or filtered water.
    - greenshackle2 7y ago
      Right, that's perfectly understandable, I'm just wondering if people think good quality tap water needs to be filtered too, e.g. maybe minerals affect extraction.
      - mrguyorama 7y ago
        Try it out! Next time you shop, buy a gallon of distilled water and see if you prefer it
      - jstarfish 7y ago
        Not really. I'm not a water snob or chemist but I've been around. What qualifies tap as "good" is highly subjective but on the one hand you have places like Florida where the tap is desalinated and tastes like farm runoff, and then you have places like Southern California where the mineral content/hardness of the water itself makes it taste like soapy bathwater. I've even noticed it vary within the same municipality-- in two apartments I rented in Atlanta, one mile apart, one had tap that tasted fine, the other (near a swamp) tasted like sewage (we were convinced groundwater was seeping into the water main). In cases of hard water, the brewing process seems to serve as its own distillery that separates minerals from the water. The resulting water/coffee tastes fine to me but you'll find all sorts of mineral buildup clogging your coffee maker if it doesn't have its own filtration system (my Cuisinart has a filter-on-a-stick that lowers into the water tank). Nothing seems to make Florida water palatable though. That taste passes straight through into the coffee, like burned urine. Use distilled.
th0ma5 7y ago
What does that even mean "debris" in this context? I tried to google "major debris" and it only returned this text. Why would I deliberately buy stuff with a bunch of junk in it?
- setr 7y ago
  The bad coffee beans are the bunch of junk
partyboat1586 7y ago
I have a filter but I intentionally use tap water because I don't want to get used to filtered. I know that most coffee I drink outside of home will be with tap water so I don't want to spoil myself.
- earthboundkid 7y ago
  I have not had that problem with fussy coffee in general. When I'm home, I drink my coffee and enjoy the taste. When I'm out, I get enough caffeine to make it through the day and that's enough.

catalogia 7y ago

Sommeliers claim to have incredible wine tasting powers, yet in a blind taste test I cannot reliably distinguish red wine from white wine. Maybe with more training I could, but shouldn't the difference be obvious without training? I've yet to be convinced that subtly in wine and coffee flavor is an objective matter.

earthboundkid 7y ago
There are definitely things that I consider voodoo, like wetting the filter before you make your coffee, but there are tons of things that are just undeniable like: if you drink coffee from stale beans, your urine smells bad then next time you pee; if not, not. I'm always surprised when I drink some gas station coffee and then a couple of hours later "oh yeah, I normally drink better coffee, don't I?"
- jstarfish 7y ago
  It's not voodoo; the concept of "supertasters" and other supersensory traits in humans is well-documented. Most legitimate sommeliers are likely supertasters. I'm a supertaster myself-- certain pungent/sour tastes will literally make me gag; I don't like foods with a million different components since I can taste all of them quite clearly. My wife on the other hand will smell things on the wind (like smoke) that I'll only notice 5-10 minutes later. I hear there are others who can see gradients of colors that others cannot. > wetting the filter before you make your coffee This isn't really voodoo, but it is debatable whether it matters for such a low volume. Since no filter fully expresses the fluid it absorbs, if you put exactly 4 cups of water through a dry filter, you're not getting exactly 4 cups of water out of it. The result might be a stronger cup of coffee (since there is less water to dilute it). Wetting the filter gives you a more "accurate" result, but you'll get a consistent cup of coffee either way if you commit to either always wetting it or not doing so. This matters more for things like oil changes, which is why after changing your oil filter and refilling the oil, you're supposed to run the car for a few minutes to operating temperature and check the oil levels again-- the dry filter will have added to the total capacity of the engine block and soaked up some of what you thought you put in.