What’s on your coffee bench?

[jkbrwn]

Re coffee - there’s literally hundreds of online coffee sellers available and you’ll get what you pay for. Nice coffee from roasters promoting sustainability are worth it IMO. I have been enjoying Onyx coffee recently. They break down all pricing for each coffee on their site.

[BryanE]

Santa brought coffee.
It was a good Christmas l.

[schwa86]

Originally Posted by echappist

How much are you planning on spending per pound?

If caffeinated beans only, Trader Joe’s has some really good options at ~$10/lb. Unfortunately, their decaf beans has never been worth the money.

If you want to stay quasi local, Atomic Coffee up on north shore ships, and would hit your flavor profile.

Though I’ve only had it at the shop, Karma coffee out in Sudbury also ships I think.

One other option — a friend got me a coffee subscription for a present once, was a good way to try a bunch of different things. There are a few that consistently get good reviews if you search the net.

[Tim Porter]

Also quasi-local, or at least sorta-kinda local, is Custom House Coffee in Middletown, RI. Quite a few types of beans and blends. We use the one they call Black Magic pretty much exclusively. Can be pricey, esp. if you add in shipping but it's really good for espresso and cappuccino in our 1987 and 2017 Olympia Creminas, ground via our Olympia grinders. No commercial relationship.

[froze]

Originally Posted by oldguy00

Well, recently my wife insisted on getting a Keurig for convenience of making a cup of coffee to go on work mornings. It makes terrible coffee, regardless of what pods we put in it.

So we decided to give a Nespresso machine a try, figured couldn't be worse.

I just want to congratulate the fine folks at Nespresso.....they managed to make a machine/pods that actually makes worse coffee than a Keurig. Holy disgusting!

LOL!! yup, both of those make truly disgusting coffee. I tried several different Keurig coffees at Costco once, and yuk. Then a friend of mine bought one, so I took a box of Bustos espresso coffee pods over to see how those would taste, and put it on the strongest setting with a small cup thus less water used, and more yuk. I don't know why people buy those things, the coffee is disgusting, the price of the pods is more than regular coffee, and you have pod containers to throw away. I thought those machines would make bad coffee because the pods and capsules don't hold much coffee at all so the flavor just isn't going to be there.

Heck, you could have bought a cheap Hario ceramic V60 pour-over maker and got far better coffee than what a Keurig or a Nespresso would make, and saved some money on top of it. You will need to buy cone filters but those are cheap to buy. The V60 works best with a medium-fine grind. Just watch videos on how to do it, it's as easy as it gets to make coffee, and it's pretty good coffee, better than from a drip machine, far better than those machines you tried. They also make the V60 in copper, copper won't break or chip like the ceramic one could, and copper does retain heat well. I got the ceramic one even though I have tile floors in the kitchen, so far I haven't broken it.

I have several ways to make coffee, but my favorite method is the Bialetti Brikka Moka pot, the Brikka model has a pressure valve that holds back the coffee till the pressure builds up more, this unit makes perfect coffee every time, the original style moka pots the flavor was everywhere with hits and misses. But keep in mind, the Moka pot method makes a very strong cup of coffee, it's darn close to espresso, I doubt many could tell the difference except the crema isn't as much, but crema does nothing for the flavor anyway, so crema is overrated. With the Bialetti Brikka Moka pots, they go by 2 cup and 4 cup, not sure if they make one bigger than the 4 cup, but a 2 cup is not 2 cups, it's about a third of a cup, so if you want almost a full cup you'll want the 4 cup.

[FierteTi52]

Originally Posted by echappist

How much are you planning on spending per pound?

If caffeinated beans only, Trader Joe’s has some really good options at ~$10/lb. Unfortunately, their decaf beans has never been worth the money.

Trader Joe’s Sumatra Beans are reasonably priced great tasting choice. They are part of our regular rotation in our house. We’re using a Moccamaster coffee maker and grinder.

[sc53]

I haven’t seen this coffee vendor mentioned (though I haven’t read through all 96 pp of this thread) but I’ve been ordering my beans from Hood River Coffee Roasters in Hood River OR for about 10 yrs now. I have tried many of their roasts and my favorite remains the Abruzzo Blend. I get a 5lb bag of beans every 3 months or so (free shipping to me in VA with a 5 lb order) and use a Capresso burr grinder on a medium/coarse setting to make a cup at a time with my Aeropress. I haven’t found anything to beat this cup of coffee for me each morning. I typically only have the one cup a day though sometimes I make a “flat white” as a second cup as best I can without a machine. I found out about Hood River because I used to be an avid reader of the Supertopo rock climbing forum and Mark Hudon, a legendary big wall climber and founder of Hood River Roasters, always devised his own blend for use on the wall of El Cap. I loved to read his trip reports and always the coffee was mentioned so I figured I’d give it a try. I’ve never turned back! BTW I am not a climber, just enjoy reading about and watching those who do.

[R3awak3n]

Originally Posted by sc53

I haven’t seen this coffee vendor mentioned (though I haven’t read through all 96 pp of this thread) but I’ve been ordering my beans from Hood River Coffee Roasters in Hood River OR for about 10 yrs now. I have tried many of their roasts and my favorite remains the Abruzzo Blend. I get a 5lb bag of beans every 3 months or so (free shipping to me in VA with a 5 lb order) and use a Capresso burr grinder on a medium/coarse setting to make a cup at a time with my Aeropress. I haven’t found anything to beat this cup of coffee for me each morning. I typically only have the one cup a day though sometimes I make a “flat white” as a second cup as best I can without a machine. I found out about Hood River because I used to be an avid reader of the Supertopo rock climbing forum and Mark Hudon, a legendary big wall climber and founder of Hood River Roasters, always devised his own blend for use on the wall of El Cap. I loved to read his trip reports and always the coffee was mentioned so I figured I’d give it a try. I’ve never turned back! BTW I am not a climber, just enjoy reading about and watching those who do.

If you want to lower your carbon footprint, you have some good roasters right in virginia or nearby states.

Have you tried Red Rooster? - https://www.redroostercoffee.com/

its very solid.

or right next door, in North Carolina is one of my favorites rosters that I order from called Black and White coffee - https://www.blackwhiteroasters.com/


I am sure there are money but these 2 I have ordered from multiple times and Black and White I just got a batch of 3 different coffees, its top 2 places I get my beans from, they have excellent choices, excellent story, decently priced.

[sasquatch16v]

I've really really really been enjoying everything I've had from Brandywine Roasters. https://www.brandywinecoffeeroasters.com/

The artwork on their bags is great too. Coffee, incredible.

Honorable mentions to other recents: Detour (canada), Cat and Cloud and some seasonal offerings from Rothrock

[AngryScientist]

Originally Posted by sc53

I haven’t seen this coffee vendor mentioned (though I haven’t read through all 96 pp of this thread) but I’ve been ordering my beans from Hood River Coffee Roasters in Hood River OR for about 10 yrs now. I have tried many of their roasts and my favorite remains the Abruzzo Blend. I get a 5lb bag of beans every 3 months or so (free shipping to me in VA with a 5 lb order) and use a Capresso burr grinder on a medium/coarse setting to make a cup at a time with my Aeropress. I haven’t found anything to beat this cup of coffee for me each morning. I typically only have the one cup a day though sometimes I make a “flat white” as a second cup as best I can without a machine. I found out about Hood River because I used to be an avid reader of the Supertopo rock climbing forum and Mark Hudon, a legendary big wall climber and founder of Hood River Roasters, always devised his own blend for use on the wall of El Cap. I loved to read his trip reports and always the coffee was mentioned so I figured I’d give it a try. I’ve never turned back! BTW I am not a climber, just enjoy reading about and watching those who do.

5# of coffee at one cup a day is quite a bit of coffee. Just curious: how do you store the beans and do you notice any difference, would you say, between cup one and the last cup of an order?

[rwsaunders]

Originally Posted by Tim Porter

1987 and 2017 Olympia Creminas.

Tim…I had to Google those machines…pretty impressive and now my “new espresso machine” list just grew.

[jkbrwn]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

5# of coffee at one cup a day is quite a bit of coffee. Just curious: how do you store the beans and do you notice any difference, would you say, between cup one and the last cup of an order?

I just looked this coffee up. It’s going to be roasted way too dark and taste way too burnt for freshness to matter in all honesty.

[windsurfer]

Originally Posted by sc53

I haven’t seen this coffee vendor mentioned (though I haven’t read through all 96 pp of this thread) but I’ve been ordering my beans from Hood River Coffee Roasters in Hood River OR for about 10 yrs now. I have tried many of their roasts and my favorite remains the Abruzzo Blend. I get a 5lb bag of beans every 3 months or so (free shipping to me in VA with a 5 lb order) and use a Capresso burr grinder on a medium/coarse setting to make a cup at a time with my Aeropress. I haven’t found anything to beat this cup of coffee for me each morning. I typically only have the one cup a day though sometimes I make a “flat white” as a second cup as best I can without a machine. I found out about Hood River because I used to be an avid reader of the Supertopo rock climbing forum and Mark Hudon, a legendary big wall climber and founder of Hood River Roasters, always devised his own blend for use on the wall of El Cap. I loved to read his trip reports and always the coffee was mentioned so I figured I’d give it a try. I’ve never turned back! BTW I am not a climber, just enjoy reading about and watching those who do.

I roast my own for expresso when j am home, but spend a fair amount of time each summer in the gorge and get my beans for the French press from Hood River Roasters while I am up there. They do a good job. 3 months is really too long for beans after roasting. I roast small batches so I can use them all in the window of 5-14 days after roasting.

[sc53]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

5# of coffee at one cup a day is quite a bit of coffee. Just curious: how do you store the beans and do you notice any difference, would you say, between cup one and the last cup of an order?

I have 5 or 6 vacu-seal canisters that I put the beans in when they arrive and I go through each canister till it’s time to reorder. I haven’t noticed the flavor change as the weeks wear on but a more discerning aficionado certainly might. I appreciate the recommendations for VA and NC online vendors as well, might give them a try next time.

[Tim Porter]

Originally Posted by rwsaunders

Tim…I had to Google those machines…pretty impressive and now my “new espresso machine” list just grew.

RW: The Cremina and accompanying grinder are pricey items but they last forever. Our first one in 1987 was a gift (at 1987 pricing, of course), and it has served us extremely well with only regular cleaning and the odd o-ring and some seals for 36 years and is still going strong in our Rhode Island house. The new one was a gift to my wife on her retirement and it gets daily use here in NY. Stellar espresso and cappuccino with the old-world vibe of a lever machine. Made in Switzerland, seemingly bulletproof.