Coffee

Coffee nerdz:

I am hardcore #teamlightroast, but I've been making an effort to try to appreciate dark roasts more. However, every time I brew them, they all taste bitter and burnt with no discernible flavors. My set-up is as follows:

38g coffee, medium or medium-coarse grind
600g water at around 200*
Brewed w/ a Kalita Wave dripper into an 800ml carafe
I bloom the coffee w/ like 60-80g water, and the add water in 50-75g pulses and usu have a total brew time (from when I start the bloom) of like 4-4:30.

Is this correct? Are dark roasts just always going to kind of taste like shit to me?

that sounds right to me ... i do 48 g of coffee with 720 g of water, about the same amount for blooming and about the same brew time.

Have you been playing around with grind size, water ratio, and temperature with the new setup? I landed somewhere around 16:1 with about a 500-600 micron grind and 205 degree water with a similar setup. I use a little less water for the bloom, about equal to the weight of the beans although the quantity isn't too critical. Do whatever tastes best to you but adjust one variable at a time so you can figure it out. Once you've got everything calibrated to your preferences you might try brewing a little cooler for dark roasts. Or you might just not like dark roasts! I don't.

Yeah, I want to like them but I'm at the point where it seems improbable that tweaking small variables would yield a cup so radically different that I started enjoying it.

Dark roasts always taste too burnt to me too. I usually use a bit less coffee and bit more water, but that's probably a matter of personal preference.

Try a good espresso.

I like espresso, but even there I prefer espressos made with a lighter roast.

Will using an espresso blend for pour-over taste okay? idk, when you roast coffee to vienna or french level, why bother getting a single origin at all? My co-op has like 4 or 5 dark roasted SO's and every one I've had tastes identical and too bitter to even drink. It seems so pointless.

I may be misinformed, but I kinda think that the main benefit of darker roasts is that they mask off flavors from stale coffee. If you're drinking stuff that's been roasted in the past couple of weeks, it seems a waste to drink a dark roast.

Okay, that makes me feel better, bcz my approach is basically go to the co-op every other week and get maybe 1/2 or 3/4lb of coffee and consume it quickly and taste all of the insane little flabors

no little flabors in dark roast :(

hate dark roast.

used to work for a local coffee chain where the roaster literally caught fire often during the roasting of the dark roast. it tasted like petrol

gotta get that extra scorch for the real starbucks amigos

feeling so validated rn

I think dark roast, if well made, is better as an espresso or a caffe crema -- sending steam through grounds at high pressure gives you an oilier drink that emphasizes different flavors than pour-over, which to me is just coffee bean tea. I do agree that a lot of New Wave North American roasters burn the shit out of their dark roasts, but there's no inherent problem with dark roasting.

i am #1 dark roast fan. not of starbucks. but i like a dark oily sludge.

No more sugar in coffee for me. I'm not sure I still like coffee.

coffee dont need sugar boyo

Wow rude, also welsh

deal wit et

Milk is sweet enough, no idea why anyone adds sugar on top of that.

sugar is great, you have to use little cubes to know how much is right

im a bit of a black coffee w no sugar/espresso fascist but i recently had and really, really enjoyed a cashew milk latte.

I was about to drink an espresso w/ no sugar in Italy and my Italian co-workers acted like I was a disgusting savage. So I added half a teaspoon of sugar.

drinking coffee rn

I'm beginning to see the light on lighter roasts now! I've just always liked the old school Italian espresso flavour and don't like light-roast espresso - BUT when I've had pour over or French press lighter roast I've liked it. Stevie, your coffee game is strong.

i pretty much only drink black coffee but if i've already had a lot of coffee that day and i just want something nice to drink i might order a cappuccino

anyone have any knowledge about hawaiian coffee, the kona variety marketed everywhere? have the impression that most are blends, the based-in-hawaii brand I bought on sale claims as little as 10% kona beans. generally seems like an earthy mid-roast blend, very drinkable, in the couple brands i've tried

I have read/heard before that so-called "Italian Roast" or "Espresso Roast" coffee is just what poor Italian immigrants drank -- they could only afford low quality beans and roasted extra dark to kill the nastiness. This makes sense to me, although it is true that, up to a point, roasting darker will bring out more oils and hence give you more crema on an espresso shot. I don't have that much experience with actual Italian roasters other than mass producers, but it seems like Illy, Danessi, etc don't roast as dark as what we call "espresso roast," although it's certainly not light.

In my espresso-making days I found I got tasty shots using all manners of roasts -- quality and freshness were far more important than darkness/lightness, except that very light roasts didn't make great shots.

any other hater lovin Cafe Bustelo up here in this biotich?

― Brian Eno's Mother (Latham Green), Thursday, 23 July 2015 19:53 (5 months ago)

I love it because I make Cuban coffee with it, sweet and frothy. So tasty, and I even brew it for my son on weekends when he's feeling too lethargic or unmotivated to get through (or even to) his homework.

is anyone having problems with their french press glass breaking really easily? i am beyond extremely careful when handling it

when is it breaking for you?

chipped off after putting it in the dishwasher. i have a kona

bummer

i've had a bodum for about 6-7 years that has been pretty sturdy. i only use a wood utensil for stirring though and handwash only. havent used a kona

Yeah I broke my bodum glass press. I have a stainless one now but it gathered a slightly off smell/taste that I can't get rid of no matter how I clean it. I also find chemexes break easily, which I don't really understand, other than just use of cheap materials, since there's no reason the glass should have to be thin/brittle.

https://youtu.be/Ir0vELNbvHU?t=54s

went with a sterlingpro

yeah, all these companies claim to use borosilicate glass. i have a feeling it's just too thin. they have a warning not to pour boiling water, but they claim it's because it takes away from the "flavour", which i'm sceptical about

I've gone about four years w/o breaking my French press after years of breaking them constantly. Two things that helped: handwashing (and letting it sit on the counter rather than sitting in the sink w/ the rest of the dirty dishes) and stirring with a chopstick / wooden spoon.

will try those things. cheers compu

i only handwash and i don't even stir it. i only break mine through clumsiness/slippy fingers while dishwashing and i haven't done that for about 2 years (success!).

french press uses way too much coffee for me

yea i used it for a few months this year until i bought a chemex and fixed my moka pot, it seems so wasteful to use a french press compared to the other two

french press is a lifestyle

a lifestyle I want no part of #aeropress #kalitawave

rude

french press is good for company or weekends

weekday mornings i love the quickness of making an intensely strong little cup from the moka pot

I can totally see an NYTimes style piece on whether it's time to "reconsider" the French press, the "older, dowdier sister of the Chemex and the Hario dripper"

I've also been thinking about pitching a piece on the "normcore" appeal of the Mr. Coffee drip machine.