Favorite coffees

mtn said:

That isn't a light roast (or maybe it is), it is a poorly brewed cup of coffee that was made too weak. Same issue that you get with Keurigs. 

I'm not basing my dislike on crappy mass-market slop.  I've always worked near good coffee houses, and I have friends who are coffee snobs.  Any time one of them makes me their latest must-taste medium-hipster brew, I am spectacularly underwhelmed.  I can taste the serval poop or whatever it is I'm supposed to be tasting.  I just don't enjoy it and it is not satisfying.

My every day coffee is the bricks of German coffee from Aldi, medium roast usually.  Just before Christmas I ordered some of this:

Mesa Vista Coffee Roasters

It's roasted by Jeff Braun, race engineer, and its good.  Not cheap but good.  He also encloses a graph of the roast time and heat that looks like a dyno graph.  On the plus side he is going to have plenty of time to roast coffee for the time being.

If you happen to be in Columbus I highly recommend Yeah, Me Too.  It is cash only and just coffee but it is awesome.  

Mayorga is better than Bustelo, but more expensive.

I recall Pilon being alright, but I've not had it in a while.

Cafe Carribe is acceptable. 

Noticing a trend? I like bold, Cuban style coffee. I usually use about one and a half tablespoons per cup in a French Press if I can, two tablespoons per cup in a drip coffee maker. 

I was in the Navy for 6 years so I'll pretty much drink any coffee and be happy to have it.

But my go-to's when shopping are Starbucks Morning Blend & House Blend, and Dunk Donuts Turbo.  Usually depends on what's on sale that week, they alternate back and forth at Meijer.

I discovered Highlander Grog around 2011 so Boston Stoker's version is good if expensive.  Sometimes Meijer has other company's version and I'll buy that.

I used to get Chock Full of Nuts when I lived in KY at my local SuperSavr, but can only find the giant can up here.  Last week SWMBO found the regular can at Dorothy Lane Market (upscale snooty groceries) & now I have 3 different bags/cans to ride out the apocalypse.

Off-off-topic:

Anybody remember Wacky Packages, circa 1975?

I don't usually drink coffee (more of a tea drinker) but I thought I'd give my local brewer a plug (Backyard Beans) for their fantastic nitro brew in a can. 

1988RedT2 said:

Off-off-topic:

Anybody remember Wacky Packages, circa 1975?

No, but that is often precisely how those cans end up after you've drank the coffee!

Duke said:

mtn said:

That isn't a light roast (or maybe it is), it is a poorly brewed cup of coffee that was made too weak. Same issue that you get with Keurigs. 

I'm not basing my dislike on crappy mass-market slop.  I've always worked near good coffee houses, and I have friends who are coffee snobs.  Any time one of them makes me their latest must-taste medium-hipster brew, I am spectacularly underwhelmed.  I can taste the serval poop or whatever it is I'm supposed to be tasting.  I just don't enjoy it and it is not satisfying.

 

That comment was specifically to the part of Curtis' comment that I bolded. 

[sarcasm] But you sir, have a unsophisticated palate that is clearly wrong. You disagree with me, which is how I know you're wrong! I don’t want to talk to you no more, you empty-headed animal-food-trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries. 

[/sarcasm]

Brett_Murphy said:

Mayorga is better than Bustelo, but more expensive.

I dunno.  Enjoying a cup of Mayorga Organic Cubano fresh ground at this moment.  Don't get me wrong, the Mayorga is very good, very smooth.  But something about the Bustelo is more ...  interesting.  But hey, that's just me.  I like them both.

I got this bag of Mayorga at Costco.  Not cheap, but hardly expensive.

You try any yet? Any recommendations on something new?

https://www.amazon.com/Cafe-Yaucono-Ground-Coffee-10oz/dp/B0062I1MBK/ref=pd_bap_rp_1/134-1260777-5618406?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0062I1MBK&pd_rd_r=f8318ff6-3182-463e-a097-28ed7c1a8bfb&pd_rd_w=XiIjb&pd_rd_wg=rQEA4&pf_rd_p=1bf884d9-bdff-42ce-9181-8c162c2e1d1f&pf_rd_r=RT4GG4PAM89NWR3NNAH6&psc=1&refRID=RT4GG4PAM89NWR3NNAH6

/thread

We get two bags shipped from blue bottle every two weeks for drip coffee. For espresso I'm using panther east coast. 

Brett_Murphy said:

Cafe Carribe is acceptable. 

I tried Cafe Caribe with high hopes, but I just didn't like it.  I prefer Cafe Bustelo by a mile.

I really like Ashlawn Farms coffee (Old Saybrook, CT.)  The Black Angus and 1730 Blend are two of my favorites.

Car connection - I first tried it when they hosted a Volvo car show at the farm.  They've also hosted French car meets.

I've tried several of Black Rifle's roasts, and have liked most of them.  I've got a bag of Just Black and AK Espresso on their way to my house right now.  I wasn't as big of a fan of CAF as their other roasts, and when I bought it you couldn't get whole beans of CAF unless you bought 5lbs. I wasn't willing to buy that much to try, and I probably won't buy it again.

Recently we were gifted some Bearded Lady beans, they're a roaster out of Joplin.  I can't remember which roast, but it was pretty smooth.

SWMBO brought some Southern Pecan beans back from Cafe Beignet in New Orleans last year, that I really like.  We bought some Green Mountain Southern Pecan K-Cups after we finished the Cafe Beignet stuff, it's okay, but not near as good.

My youngest brother brought me some Dark Matter: The Goat Blend from Girl & The Goat in Chicago.  He mostly got it as a joke, because of the goat on the label, and SWMBO's desire to raise goats despite my objections, but it was really good coffee.

We've got a local roaster, RoZark Hills that has some great coffee.  I don't see it listed on their site, I think we've had to email to order it in the past, but they've got a Peruvian coffee that I love.  SWMBO really likes their Snikee Doodle, but I don't care for snicker doodles so no surprise I'm not a fan of the coffee.  I see they have a Southern Pecan too, I'm going to have to try that.

I'm having my first cup of Black Rifle Freedom Fuel today. It's pretty much exactly what I like coffee to taste like.

I've been buying SF Bay coffee on Amazon.  It's really, really good.  At ~$19 for a 2 lb bag, it's less expensive than any whole-bean coffee I can buy at the grocery store.  I used to buy coffee from Trader Joe's, but it's kind of inconvenient...especially w/stay-at-home in effect.  

I'd love to support a local roaster, but their prices tend to be ~double the cost.  I drink too much coffee to buy expensive stuff.  

I looked up Black Rifle coffee on the recommendation of some on this forum, but I was a bit put off by the cost.  I'm a cheapskate and I can buy two or three pounds of perfectly good whole bean coffee from Costco for the price of a 12-ounce bag of that Black Rifle stuff.  Maybe you rich folks with your $1000 iPhones can justify paying that much, but it offends my sensibilities.   

All of you saying you prefer Bustelo (which is very good, I agree) to a whole bean coffee:

Are you keeping your whole beans cold and grinding them right before you make your coffee? There's no point in getting whole bean coffee if you grind it all at once.

I keep my beans in a jar w/a rubber seal that snaps shut. I've read that the refrigeration is actually a myth, and is actually detrimental to the taste of your beans.  I agree that grinding them right before you brew is important.  I also agree that Bustelo is good stuff.

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Forum Supporter) :

Every bag of whole beans I've bought in the past year has been in a resealable, Ziploc style bag.  Before that you had to roll the top down and bend tabs over.  I like the Ziploc style much better.  I don't refrigerate my beans.

My grinder has a hopper, I fill the hopper, and try to only grinder what I need for each brew.  The hopper isn't air tight, but it is fully enclosed, and I'm filling the hopper, at least once a week.  I'm only anal retentive to a point.

KRUPS GX5000 Burr Grinder

I'm searching for a high-caffiene light roast available in bulk. Any suggestions?

nderwater said:

Another vote for Bustelo espresso style ground coffee. Great flavor, very inexpensive by the brick, can be found at most grocery stores and easy to use with most styles of coffee maker.

For what it’s worth, I’ve recently tried Bustelo in the k-cup and in Nespresso pods and wasn’t that impressed. It’s definitely better by the brick.

Roasted coffee beans should, for max freshness, be kept in airtight containment at room-y temp and, where applicable, out of direct sun. Ultramax freshness is 3-4 days post-roast with a noticeable drop after about a week. Unless you drink a metric you-know-what of coffee all day every day your coffee will be stale by the time you get to the bottom of that 2lb+ bag. Good, roasted in the USA coffee isn't cheap. I can go into some of the numbers (I seriously considered trying to open my own roastery and bring coffee to some Florida open track days) but like anything where the labor is American and the business has American bills to pay, it ain't cheap. I typically wouldn't balk until the per lb price gets over about $16, anything less is just going to be a cheap starting point in which case a can of Folgers will do you just fine. 

With all that being said, you do you and drink your bean juice the way you like it. 

In reply to Error404 :

I've done some math on brewing my own coffee.  Even as a side-hustle (free labor!) I 100% understand why the small batch roasters charge $16/lb.  Unless you're buying coffee beans in big volume and/or with a direct connection to the growers, even DIY coffee can be more expensive than retail beans.  

I've also been downwind of the Maxwell House roaster in Jacksonville and it smells awful.  Whenever I drink cheap coffee that's all I can think about.