I Was Sick of Having Bad Coffee at Home

I knew nothing about coffee, but I knew something had to change.

So I drove to Walmart when I was living in New York in the fall of 2018 on a mission, and I bought a knockoff Chemex and a bag of pre-ground “Deathwish” coffee. And for a while, that solved the issue. It certainly prevented me from buying any more darker-than-burnt “Pike Place Roast” drip coffees from the Starbucks drive-thru lane.

Come about a year later, after moving to Utah, I’d been having my upgraded-to-me coffee like this every morning. But the occasional visit to some of the killer specialty coffee shops throughout the Salt Lake Valley (I know – ironic that there even were any, considering the bleak outlook that our Mormon brethren have on the hot bean juice) left me feeling like my coffee at home was still lacking.

So I wanted to start understanding it on a deeper level.

I sat on the floor of my empty apartment (at the time, getting my coffee game straight took priority over getting a couch), and down the YouTube rabbit hole I went.

I learned about the importance of buying coffee from transparent, ethical, and ideally local roasters. About buying whole beans and grinding fresh, single dose. That drinking pre-ground coffee straight off the grocery store shelf and brewing with boiled tap water is about the equivalent of making your spaghetti carbonara with toilet bowl water.

I learned how light, medium, and dark roasts actually interact differently with the palette. I remember tasting my first light roast coffee and thinking it had to be rancid. So I shelfed it for awhile. And then I tried again. And again. I learned about fermentation and about “natural” versus “washed” processing. I bought so much coffee experimenting with different roast profiles and single origins that it was coming out of my ears. I gave the bags of rejects to friends and family.

I bought the book “Craft Coffee” by Jessica Easto.

Most important (and expensive) of all, I learned that I needed some nicer equipment to start brewing that better cup at home.

So the living room couch remained a faint bookmark within Google Chrome as I scrolled Fellow’s coffee equipment catalog instead, salivating, and embarked on what’s now been a 7+ year journey into the world of specialty coffee.

It’s a ritual that’s changed my life, gets me out of bed every morning, and for sure makes me the most annoying person you could possibly travel with.

COFFEE

x

COFFEE x

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.