For me, my wife, and several of our guests it's "Peet's Major Dickason's Blend" finished with a medium grind.

 

I used to buy all kinds of exotic coffee beans, grind them and make coffee. I couldn't really taste the difference but it seemed like the thing to do. That was years ago. My wife, being the practical woman that she is, put a stop to that. Now we buy whichever decent brand that's on sale when we run out. I still can't taste the difference, but the coffee costs so much less.

 

I think of coffee as necessary but not exactly tasty. (Unless, I add tequila, Kahlua and Bailey's, topped off with whipped cream. Then it's yummy!)

 

Oh I can tell the difference. Peets coffee seems bitter to me, but like wine, everyone has different tastes. And I am addicted, I admit. Without coffee in the morning, I am running on 3 cylinders instead of 8.

 

I'm an espresso aficionado, and my wife likes cappuccino. I rarely find a good espresso and cappuccino outside of our home so we like to make our own when possible. We usually only make drinks on weekends, as my espresso manual machine is a 50 lb + behemoth of copper, brass, and stainless steel, and it takes a good hour to heat it for nice consistent heat. We don't have enough time during the week to make them each morning.

I tend to try different brands of beans from time to time depending on where I am shopping. I like an organic medium roast bean, fair trade is always good where possible. Beans grown at higher altitudes are always good too. If I can meet those specs I don't really focus on the band name so much. A few places in my area roast their beans too dark, they tend to be very oily and I don't want to use them in my grinder as it gums up, plus dark roast beans make less crema with the oil on the outside, instead of being extracted from inside. .

I use a Faema espresso machine, matched up to a Mazzer Mini grinder. I also have a manual lever machine. It's a bit messy for the average person to use, and a bit time consuming, and you really have to practice getting the grind adjusted to get the perfect "shot". Most people wouldn't want to go through this process, t's a bit of a hobby for me, I enjoy it very much though..

 

Blue Mountain coffee pods we use in our Keurig. So many choices and always fresh. I also like Kona and Jamaica Blue.

 

Nice setup, zeroptzero! What's your manual machine?

I am one of those exotic bean chasing obsessives, doing freshly-ground light-roast single-origin manual-pour black coffee with measured ratios and specific brew recipes.

I won't bore you all with the details, but for a solid and simple daily brew that's easy to get I've found Trader Joe's Breakfast Blend and Folger's 1850 Pioneer Blend to be surprisingly pleasant and worth a try. For a quick fix on the highway, the Ethiopian Estate on Pilot's bean-to-cup machines is often unexpectedly stellar, depending on location and freshness.

For those who don't mind the details (and cost), Intelligentsia's Kurimi this year is great on both espresso and drip, and Go Get Em Tiger's La Piramide has been a consistent daily drip driver.

 

Thanks, I also have an old school Gaggia lever, as per the picture above, more of a collector piece, and I refer to it as the "tin man" .

I'll have to look up those beans if I can get them shipped up here. lol.

 

Oh that's fantastic, classic lever machines are a pleasure even if just to look at! I'm thinking about picking up the new school manual lever Flair for the occasional espresso fix.

Ah that could be annoying. Where are you located? I'm sure there's a local roaster with something comparable where you are.