Everyday Beans Podcast - Mostly About Coffee and Other Stuff

The Price of Passion: Coffee Journey Reflections

• Oaks, the coffee guy • Season 1 • Episode 170

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In this episode, I explore the fascinating relationship between money and coffee - two elements that are fundamentally intertwined in our lives as coffee enthusiasts. I dive into how our financial decisions influence our coffee journeys, from the equipment we purchase to the beans we select. I reflect on my own path from store-bought coffee to specialty brewing, roasting my own beans, and acquiring various pieces of equipment along the way. Through personal anecdotes, I examine the sometimes excessive nature of coffee gear acquisition and question when we should pause to consider if our purchases are truly enhancing our experience or simply feeding an addiction to novelty.

I challenge listeners to reflect on their own coffee journeys and ask themselves important questions: Are you happy with your current path? Are your purchases purposeful or impulsive? What aspects of coffee truly bring you joy? This episode encourages coffee lovers to be more intentional about their spending and to focus on what genuinely matters to them in their relationship with coffee, whether that's pursuing clarity in flavor, exploring new brewing methods, or finding their perfect cup without breaking the bank.

For good tasty coffee, check us out at: everydaybeans.com

For tips, tricks and still trying to figure it out: https://www.youtube.com/@everyday-beans

[00:00] Today is Saturday, March 8th, 2025. Sometimes I don't have a problem coming up with a topic. But at times, it is difficult. But this one is, I believe, interesting. If it can be interesting, all of them, I think, are interesting.

[01:12] Money and coffee. They go hand in hand, right? I believe they do. Think about it. You can't drink coffee unless you buy coffee, right? It's not a free hobby. It's something that you have to think about all the time. It's consumable, meaning that it goes. It doesn't last forever. You get a bag of coffee, there's only so much capacity, and you have to buy another bag.

[01:45] But I guess what I'm really talking about is how does money influence your coffee habits, your coffee journey, the way that you look at things? I think about that quite a bit, to an extent. I mean, I've been really far deep into this rabbit hole, meaning that when I first started drinking coffee, I bought coffee from the store.

[02:18] And then it was cool, right? So then after I bought it from the store, I start looking at my gear. And I need to relax, okay? So then I start thinking about the gear. So then I was wondering if the Mr. Coffee Machine was good enough. I wondered if I was probably missing out on things. So I got a different coffee maker, the French press.

[02:48] And then down this whole specialty coffee or just coffee in general, rabbit hole of gear, buying gear, then roasting gear. And then green beans, roasted beans, and refractometers, and books, and education, and YouTube videos, and courses, and all that stuff. And that's kind of like my journey that I've been going through with this whole thing.

[03:10] You may not be as extreme, but I think we are, we can be extreme to an extent as we go about drinking and enjoying coffee, right? We get frustrated with coffee. Sometimes we figure out that it's either probably a grinder that we need to buy, because we saw it online. Or it could be the beans, like we may have liked natural processed coffee.

[03:35] And we go down this whole wet process situation. And then we play around with geisha's and these anaerobic type of coffees. And then we think about what is next. And we go down a journey that we didn't know that we can go down, right? And along that journey is money. Money plays a big part in this.

[04:00] And I guess what I mean by that is that if you have X amount of dollars or money's not an object, then your possibilities and choices are limitless. Or if you have a credit card, they are limitless. And we all go through this thing. And I wonder how much of a big deal it is to you to just buy whatever you want to.

[04:15] Because a lot of times when I think about coffee in general or trying to help people, I try to come at it from a point of view of not trying to spend so much money in order to get the best bang for the buck. Because this hobby, this thing that we love and do is addicting and as things are addicting, it's expensive.

[04:38] And we have our own different ways or things that we think about when it comes to it being addictive or expensive. I'm not so much of a cold brew type of person, but you may. So you may buy different gadgets in order for you to kind of get the best of that world in coffee.

[05:10] Me, I'm a pour over guy. I care about clarity. I care about what I'm actually tasting in a cup of coffee. I care about black coffee. Sometimes I'll do creamer from time to time. But I guess what I'm saying is that my journey is more so tailor made to me and it works for me. And that's perfectly fine.

[05:28] But when do we say or when do we stop to think about this is enough, I got enough things here. Because I think we don't think about that enough. For instance, I bought a lot of gear. I kind of still buy a lot of gear. And with this platform that I've been putting myself out there, I probably will not stop buying gear to an extent.

[05:50] I guess what I'm saying is that it's one of those things to where we are challenged in the things that we like about coffee and we pursue it. We buy, we use, we think it through. And then we buy and use and think it through. Anything to kind of get us to the place that we want to be.

[06:25] A lot of people don't know this, but I wrote a book. I write every day and all that stuff. And then when it comes to writing, one of the things that you have to remember, especially if it's like a story type of situation, is that you probably know the beginning and you know the end. You probably know a couple of things here in between as you go through your journey of reading that book.

[06:45] But a lot of times what you're really doing with a book or a story is that you're really just trying to connect the dots to the places that you want people to go. You want to describe things. You want them to go on this journey in order to see what the book is all about. And we do that too with coffee.

[07:05] And a lot of times it's we have to spend money. Even if we don't buy any particular gear, we have to buy coffee. We have to see what our journey is taking us. But throughout the whole journey, we could get to the point to where we're like rubbing ourselves on a clarity that we're really trying to get out of this whole journey.

[07:30] And again, I don't do it a lot. I'm not trying to preach to you or anything like that. But I guess these type of podcast these type of things that I like to do and talk to you about is that when you sit there and think about your journey and the things that you're going through. It's like, OK, I never thought about it that way. Or it gives you some time to actually think back.

[08:04] And tell yourself or ask yourself, it's like, are you happy with the path that you're going on? Are you discovering? Are you getting bored? Are you just buying the next greatest thing because somebody else told you to? What about coffee do you like right now?

[08:18] Those are some of the things that we kind of have to start to really ask ourselves even more so, because at the end of the day, it's one of those things to where we have to try to figure out what is truly really important to us.

[08:34] And yeah, I mean, I guess what I'm saying here really is that we only have so much time. We have only so much money. And let's put it in the right places. Let's put it in a place where it does make sense for our love for the game of coffee. I guess that's where I'm at with this right now. And as I think and talk about this with you, it's one of those things that's very interesting.

[09:00] And it's cool to know that we can be on a place to where we can do or get anything that we want. Like, for instance, I'll give you a quick and easy example.

[09:45] I was looking at another piece of gear, not so much for myself, but a particular piece of gear that is more so helpful or something that you may be looking for. It's a simple device. I think it's an oxo, something like that. And it has one of those handicap things on it to where you put water on top and then it disperses the water and it comes out and it coats the coffee bed and all that stuff. So I was sitting there looking at it, $17.

[10:15] I was wondering, it's like, OK, I'm going to get that. That's be cool. It'd be really interesting to put it through its paces and all that stuff and and kind of see if it's really worth for other people to get. But then you start to think about your particular gear that you have right now.

[10:35] Do you have a Hario B60? Is that gear more so geared towards beginners? Because it takes the guesswork out of it. You just essentially pour water on top. You don't need a goose neck and you're good to go with your cup of coffee. But what does that really do for you on your journey? Does it expand your knowledge? Does it push you into a place to where you're thinking about why you like something?

[10:58] Probably not. Probably just a new cool gear that you'll use for a couple of weeks. You put it on the corner and on the side is somewhere in your house and then you'll probably start keep using the Hario B60 or the switch and you'll be good to go. Like, for instance, I'll give you another real actual personal example.

[11:20] It's a Gladiator, that's what it's called. I heard somebody online when they were commenting on one of my posts. And they mentioned this device. And look at it, you're like, OK, it's a dripper. There's no filter. It's kind of weird and interesting at the same time if that makes any sense.

[11:40] But you put the coffee grounds on the bottom. And then you put water up top. And then this is a vessel so you can put it on a bigger carafe or whatnot, but it can't really hold that much. I mean, you just wait and you just play around with grind size and all that good stuff. I use it a couple of times. I don't really care for it.

[12:02] I see how it works. I'm not too big of a fan of metal filters, especially not in this kind of way. And I put it down. I put it down. And then I was like, OK, I need to get the next thing. And then I sat there for a little bit and I was wondering, it's like, wait, OK, what are you doing? You're just buying stuff.

[12:30] And you're trying to justify making content with it or use it, because I went down that rabbit hole years ago, meaning that I bought so much coffee gear that it got to the point to where I start giving it away to people. And it was cool to just have the stuff that I have and just use what I had. And then again, as I started to go even more deeper into this type of situation of coffee challenges and YouTube and podcasting and all the things that I'm doing right now.

[12:55] It's very telling. It kind of just puts you back in your place to where you're like, wait. What am I doing here? Does this really make any sense of what I'm trying to do here? Because sometimes I think about that to an extent. But I guess what I'm saying is that what are we doing with our money? Why are we spending the money that we're doing in order to constantly go down this rabbit hole of this craft?

[13:22] It's OK to keep going down that rabbit hole. It could be cafes for you where you got to go to the next interesting cafe as you can, right? Or it could be beans. For me, I love coffee beans and I'm in a unique situation to where I can roast them any way I want to in order to bring different characteristics out of them if I want. And then I'll use a Hario B60 to see how good it is.

[13:42] That's kind of like more so my rabbit hole. And of course, playing around with grinders and cheap grinders and expensive grinders and things that kind of just make you think about, wow, coffee can really taste like this. And then you have this third way water and water chemistry in general. And all the things that you constantly go through a lot, you're like, wait, wow, interesting. This is pretty cool.

[14:15] But now that I'm here and thinking about all the things that I have done and will do, I haven't really sat down with myself personally and ask myself. Are you happy with the path that you're currently on on your journey? Where do you want to go in this whole thing? And does constantly buying the next greatest thing a good way to go about it?

[14:37] You know, those are some of the things that I think about quite a bit. Those are some of the things that I know that I need to really be honest with myself to get to a place of like, okay, this is the real path that I want to go to. So I guess what I'm saying is that I don't know. And I hope that this helps you to think about things like this.

[15:00] Because we can get anywhere we want to with money. We can spend whatever how much money that we want to. But if it's not actually targeted, if it's not actually make sense in our overall way and journey that we're currently on, then we should really just stop and kind of think and kind of ponder and and get to the place to where we're actually on the right path.

[15:40] So, yes, as much as I do want to buy that piece of gear, which I may do. I don't need it. I need to actually ask myself, what is it that I want out of coffee? And for me right now, it's that clarity. And what does that really mean? How can I really explore that even more? So what does that mean with different types of gross degrees and roasting profiles and things that I'm seeing here and there online and kind of pushing myself to the place to where I am able to share that with you, but also give you a reason to kind of think.

[16:10] And go to a place to where it does make sense for you on your path. So that's what I got for you. I'm still thinking about my whole thing. I hope that this is helpful for you to think about your thing. And just let me know what you think. So this is Oki at Everyday Bean signing off. And I'll talk to you later. Bye.