Hey, it’s Rob.
I know this is a podcast and all, but sometimes I like to dig deep into a certain topic. Sorry not sorry.
You know the wine snobs? Coffee has a much wider variety of flavor profiles than wine does. As far as I know, coffee also has a lot of other variables in the equation from bean to cup. That means there are so many things along the way that influence the flavor it hurts my brain.
What little information I have here, rest assured I’m no expert and there is tons more to learn on the internet!
The beans
Another, more detailed video about coffee processing: YouTube
Roasting the beans
Buy them whole, grind yourself
Brew it!
Intelligentsia has the best guides I’ve seen. I like them because it’s concise and easy to follow. You can also choose based on the equipment you have:
https://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/learn-do/education/brew-guides
Okay but where to buy some good beans, and what to look for?
This is a pretty good listicle: https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/best-indie-coffee-roasters-article
Keyword to look for is third wave, which means absolutely as pretentious as you can get. In that list I linked above you’ll find plenty to choose from, but it’s still hard to walk to the grocery store and find any of that product.
Try to go to a fancy café near you and they might have that in their retail section. Alternatively, I’ve been considering some sort of subscription service…
Coffee subscriptions
I’m pretty skeptical of subscription anything. I work for a company that lives off the subscription model. It’s such an easy way to make a ton of cash, but I did try to break down the prices for what you get.
Google Sheets: Coffee Subscriptions
^ Here’s a quick spreadsheet listing all the coffee bean subscriptions I could find and the price by weight of coffee. It’s public, and free for anyone to edit by the way. If you want to contribute, go ahead
As you can see, some places are more expensive, but maybe you get more coffee. Another bonus to some of these is the variety. You could have a rotation of different roasting companies and different regions of coffee to figure out what you like best. I plan on trying this soon. If you know of a certain brand you love and can’t find them in the store, then you could go straight to their website.
I’ll wrap things up here. Like I said, there’s plenty more to learn, but hopefully this gets you started!
