..and without taking anything away!
" …it’s inevitable that ground coffee will lose some of its flavor over time…"
—CoffeePlusThree
As a lover of coffee for itself, I consider the title a poor one, if not actually disingenuous. What does one add to coffee to make it taste better? Well that depends on what your expectations of "coffee" are in the first place, and that is highly subjective. Some add milk, some sugar, others flavoured syrups, olive oil, macha, and doubtless some even more bizarre and esoteric ingredients. After a while though, it stops being coffee. Passalidae and I differ quite a bit on what we individually want from our coffee. He wants, nay demands a coffee that is a classically darkly-roasted, strong and intense bitter-flavoured coffee, exactly the profile I seek to avoid; the sort I had during a recent hospital stay, a high price to pay for poor coffee. Additionally, I want to taste the character of the original beans, I want something additional to gas-station or even cafe batch-brewed coffee. I want each cup to stand on its own; not every cup will be "perfect", whatever that means, but it will be tasty, satisfying and characterful.
This is true for each of us, we all want our coffee to do something unique for us, all have differing expectations. He and I have discussed this at length over some time and I've no doubt that were I to discuss coffee with each of you, we would find differences in what we want out of our cup. But whatever our individual taste, there are nevertheless things we ca ad should add to our coffee to improve it. I'm not talking about physical addition, rather time, care and technique. The problem that I see is that for the way a lot of people make coffee, they have already taken something out of their coffee, often without realising it.
Making the effort
Coffee is complicated, the raw coffee beans need to be grown, picked and processed, shipped to roasters, packaged and delivered to the enduser. Some of these processes add something to the coffee, others subtract from it. The user grinds the beans, uses some method to add hot water, and drinks. I've talked in the past about some species and types of coffee. Most coffee bought by major buyers is not the best; they buy cheap Coffea robusta coffees, grown at low altitudes and known for its bitterness and high caffeine content. Specialty coffee buyers are generally buying coffea arabica, grown at higher altitudes and generally known for lower bitterness and caffeine, but also for having better more interesting flavour profiles. I admit that I am on a mission to raise awareness of better coffee flavour, something that has been a part of my personal coffee journey, so I generally choose quality, high-altitude whole beans. Without adding anything, already I have a better cup of coffee. The only thing I add is a grinder, grinding just before I make my coffee, and avoiding the loss of flavour and the staling that occurs in preground coffees. From there it ws a short hop to finding a brewing method that works for me. In my case, the Moka pot as I love the strong and rich coffee it makes, almost espresso in style and suitable for making espresso-y milk drinks at home.
So here's where I take issue with OP, who is writing from a purely personal standpoint, and from his taste perspective alone. He likes different things in his coffee, bitterness and dark strength, elements that I (along with most coffee snobs) wish to eliminate in pursuit of subtle flavours. Follow him if you like that style of coffee by all means, but you will not get the most from even a cheaper coffee. I'm not arguing on the matter of taste, but much of what he says only applies if you like one, gas-station or hospital style of coffee.
There are things he says that I can agree with. Many things affect how we perceive flavours, so yes, picking the right mug can go some a\way to help, but it will not turn basically bad coffee into good. But buying good freshly roasted beans and grinding them yourself will. I can't stress enough how importsnt this is. You'll need to find a brewing method that works for you. I picked the Moka as I love the ritual, others like a French press (aka press pot) or will use filters to make a pourover. I lack the patience for that method, but admit that it can make a excellent brew if one takes care. Buying a coffee that smells good, check.
On one point we do agree: find a coffee you like. Even the cheapest grocery store these days has a wide range of coffees at good price points, ad it's sure worth your while to try a few of those. Local cafes ad roasters also sell good coffee, go find one, talk to them and for goodness sake, try something new. And avoid pre-ground coffee no matter what. The number one way to improve your coffee is to buy whole beans and grind before making. the second is to try some beans you never ried before, eve if it's at a roast level you'd normally avoid. I'm currently loving a dark-roast decaf that someone kindly bought me, and I'd normally avoid darker roasts like the plague.
I'm planning to do something on choosing coffee beans in the near future, in the hope of persuading folk to try something other and explore the diverse world of coffees. Watch this space.
This is far from an attack on how someone likes coffee; taste is very personal and a chacun son gout. But if you, like passalidae, are deeply unhappy with your coffee, it's time for you to get adventurous, change things up. It's unworthy to fight over personal taste, I'm just trying to help everyone to up their game and enjoy a different world of coffee. Goodness knows, I also seek to avoid overly sour coffee, and would love to know where passalidae got their salty coffee from so I can avoid it. In my world, salt is only ever added to reduce bitterness.
$ xclip -o | wc -w
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