When Coffee Disappoints: A Honest Brewing Journey

In this raw and honest episode, I dive deep into a frustrating yet relatable experience every coffee enthusiast faces - when a coffee just doesn't work for you. I share my recent experience with a medium roast Sumatran coffee that, despite my best efforts and technical expertise, simply didn't deliver the experience I was hoping for. I spent over an hour and a half trying different brewing methods, temperatures, and techniques, but nothing seemed to bring out the magical qualities I usually find in coffee.

In this episode, listeners will learn about the importance of accepting that not every coffee will be their perfect match, despite the origin, processing method, or brewing technique. I discuss how this experience relates to the broader journey of coffee appreciation and why it's okay to acknowledge when a coffee isn't working for you, rather than forcing yourself to like it. This episode offers valuable insights for coffee enthusiasts who might be struggling with similar experiences and provides a refreshing perspective on the reality of specialty coffee.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:15 The Challenging Sumatran Coffee
• 3:00 Multiple Brewing Attempts
• 4:45 Temperature Experiments
• 6:15 The Reality of Coffee Expectations
• 8:00 Dark Roast vs Medium Roast Experience
• 9:30 Accepting Coffee Disappointment
• 11:00 The Broader Coffee Journey
• 12:30 Learning from Bad Coffee Experiences

Transcript

TRANSCRIPT SECTION:

[00:00] Today is January 13th, 2025, and I want to talk about something I experienced yesterday that I think will be helpful to you.

[01:30] Let's discuss when coffee simply doesn't work. I have here a Sumatran coffee, a medium roast. I did everything possible to bring out the best in this coffee. I roasted it at 195 degrees Fahrenheit, did about five or six pulses. The brew ended in two and a half minutes, using my AK43 for the grind size.

[03:00] What I really want to discuss is how sometimes coffees just don't work. I spent about an hour and a half trying to figure out this particular coffee. I tried multiple recipes - fast brews, slow brews, different grind sizes.

[04:45] I even brewed a cup at 150 degrees, which I've been experimenting with lately. Nothing was working. This coffee is more acidic than sweet. At higher temperatures, you taste lemony and grapefruit acidity. It wasn't unpleasant, but that's all there was to it.

[06:15] Lowering the temperature helped somewhat, but it made the coffee bland. This coffee might be perfectly fine for you - there's no judgment there. That's just what I taste. I keep thinking about whether we can brew coffee in a simplistic way. Don't we all want a simple, tried-and-true recipe for a decent cup?

[08:00] This is a coffee I've had in the freezer for a long time, hoping to eventually enjoy it for what it is. I've been loving my journey with Third Wave water lately, experiencing clarity I haven't tasted in a while. But if coffee doesn't taste good with this setup, well, I have to be honest - this coffee isn't exciting to me.

[09:30] Interestingly, when I roasted this coffee dark, it was lively and tasty. I wanted to keep drinking more. It did magical things to my palate. But as a medium roast, it does nothing for me.

[11:00] The biggest takeaway is that sometimes coffee isn't going to work for us. When we get a bag of coffee and try to enjoy it, sometimes no amount of technique will make it wow us. And that's okay.

[12:30] Coffee is magical, but sometimes it simply lets us know that this is the way it is. We're not going to connect with every coffee we encounter, and that's perfectly fine. Sometimes the best lesson comes from knowing what we don't like.

[14:00] If you've tried different recipes and it doesn't work, that's fine. Move on. Give it to a friend. They might enjoy it. Find that next coffee that excites you.