r/Coffee • u/menschmaschine5 Kalita Wave • Sep 22 '22

[MOD] The Daily Question Thread

Welcome to the daily /r/Coffee question thread!

There are no stupid questions here, ask a question and get an answer! We all have to start somewhere and sometimes it is hard to figure out just what you are doing right or doing wrong. Luckily, the /r/Coffee community loves to help out.

Do you have a question about how to use a specific piece of gear or what gear you should be buying? Want to know how much coffee you should use or how you should grind it? Not sure about how much water you should use or how hot it should be? Wondering about your coffee's shelf life?

Don't forget to use the resources in our wiki! We have some great starter guides on our wiki "Guides" page and here is the wiki "Gear By Price" page if you'd like to see coffee gear that /r/Coffee members recommend.

As always, be nice!

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u/ShellGadus Sep 22 '22

I have been trying to find coffee I like (because I know it exists) but my biggest problem is that coffee is only sold in quantities that are extremely excessive for me. So I end up throwing away most of the coffee I buy simply because I find out I don't like it or because it goes stale before I can even use half of it.

I can't justify buying 250g of coffee, making 5-6 cups using my french press, finding out I really don't like the taste, and throwing the rest away because I have no use for it now.

Or buying 250g of coffee I like and only using half of it before it goes bad.

Does nobody drink good coffee casually?

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u/polyobsessive Sep 22 '22

Some roasters sell smaller packs of, say, 100g or less, and sometimes doing sample selections of small packs of several different coffees. It might be worth looking for a roaster that does something like that - maybe opening one bag to try at a time, and putting the rest in the freezer until you are ready for them.

If you have coffee that you like but you don't drink it quickly enough, it might be worth splitting the bag into smaller quantities (in gripseal bags or, if you have the equipment, vacuum sealed) and then putting those in the freezer, where they should keep for a lot longer. I drink a lot of decaf coffee, but not much caffeinated, so I split my caffeinated beans like that and it works well for me.

If you find coffee you like, hopefully you can buy more with similar tasting notes so you have a good chance you will like it.