Sometimes Coffee Just Sucks (And That's OK)

In this episode, I explore the uncomfortable reality of mastering coffee: sometimes, despite all your knowledge and skill, a coffee just doesn't work for you. I'm diving deep into my experience with a Nicaraguan organic, strictly high-grown, European-prepared coffee that on paper should be spectacular, but in practice leaves me completely uninspired. I detail my extensive experimentation with this coffee—different roast levels, multiple brewing methods, various filters, different grinders, and water chemistry adjustments—yet none of it changes the fundamental truth that this coffee simply doesn't resonate with me personally.

By listening to this episode, you'll learn the invaluable lesson that technical mastery and brewing expertise don't guarantee you'll love every coffee you encounter, and that's completely okay. I share the honest realization that some coffees will be "duds" for your personal palate, even when they're technically clean, well-prepared, and might work perfectly for others. This is a refreshing perspective on accepting your own taste preferences, understanding that not every coffee needs to be manipulated into something it's not, and recognizing when it's time to simply move on to the next coffee journey.

Transcript

[00:00] This coffee right here is a Nicaraguan organic, strictly high-grown coffee. It is European prepared. I pulled this coffee out of the sack and started looking at it. I didn't see any defects, no sand, no little pebbles anywhere. It shocked me. It really gave me a sense of like, wow, we're going to go into a good ride with this coffee.

[00:42] It's about $5.14, $5.15 a pound. I think there was like a 30, 40 cent tariff per pound on the coffee. I kind of knew what I was going to get myself into. The notes were coming to me. They were not necessarily singing to me, but I was like, yes, this is the coffee that I need to get for my next batch. My usual Brazilian coffee that I usually get is not available right now. I'll probably get it in the next couple of months or so, depending on how these sell out.

[01:26] Regardless of the fact is that I had to move on. I had to move to another coffee that was similar to the Brazilian. Most of what I sell, especially the bigger bags, are from Amazon. So it has to be not crazy. It can't be too funky. It can't be loud right in your face and all that good stuff. Things that I actually crave a lot. And when I don't get it, that's perfectly fine. Over the years, I've been used to drinking the Brazilian coffee, which to me still is a gateway drug to specialty coffee.

[02:07] Is it spectacular? Is it something that you will want to wow your friends with? No, but it's very approachable. It's very clean. It has those classic chocolatey, nutty notes that people are accustomed to. This coffee is not like that. To an extent, it's kind of like that, but for the most part, it's not like that.

[02:44] It has that chocolatey taste on it initially. And then when it dies down, it has this red fruit type of taste on it. I would say more like a cherry, not like a strawberry red fruit. And then it dissipates depending on how you brew, water chemistry, and all that stuff. Sometimes you will be able to get that fruity taste out of it. This coffee is smooth. It's not offensive whatsoever. And I think that's where it stops right now.

[03:22] I don't like this coffee. I personally don't like this coffee. If I was in a coffee shop and saw the notes on the bag, I'd buy it because it seemed interesting. It seemed like something that I can get really down with. But after drinking it and experiencing it for what it is, I don't like it.

[03:49] It doesn't matter with the water chemistry. If you want to know, it's 100 PPM. It doesn't matter the way I brewed it. This one right here to my left is a light to medium roast coffee. I brewed it with the Hario V60 with the regular paper filters. This one you just saw me brew. It's a lightly roasted version of that, brewed on the Origami Dripper with a Kalita Wave filter.

[04:29] Don't get me wrong, I've tried it all. I tried fast filters, slow filters, with boosters, with no boosters, different grinders. It kind of had that same type of profile. I pushed it, I massaged it, I manipulated this coffee. I still didn't like it. I still don't like it. It tastes okay.

[05:06] I do like the part that I can get introduced to an extent to that fruity taste, that acidic taste. It goes and then it comes back and it's still in your mouth. It's kind of weird. It's like the Brazilian, but it's not the Brazilian. It has a little bit more fruitiness on it, but it's kind of tamed. I don't know if I'm really explaining it correctly. But at the end of the day, I'm not gelling with it.

[05:46] And those are some of the things that I have to get a grip over. This is what I mean by that. I'm mastering coffee to an extent, mastering brewing. But mastering coffee is part of mastering brewing. I've tried so many different things. I'm not here to beat up on myself. I'm just being honest that certain coffees are not going to work for us. And that's perfectly fine.

[06:24] I've come to realize that now, a couple of weeks into this whole thing, that even though I am understanding a lot of things a lot more, there's still going to be coffees out there that just don't work for us. And I think that's okay for us to be real and honest about that whole situation. Yeah, and it doesn't get better as it cools. It was a lot better when it was hot.

[06:54] It would probably just be a decent espresso to kind of bring out more of that fruity essence of this coffee. That's probably what I'll try next. But it's interesting because as much as I say I don't like it, I know there will probably be people who will like it, who may see it for what it is and be happy with this particular coffee.

[07:18] It's like perfect. It's like looking at a clinically perfect lens. It doesn't have any type of real personality. But a lot of times that's what people want. That's what people gravitate to. Hell, maybe they just put sugar and creamer on it, call it a day. And that's totally fine. If I'm going to put sugar and creamer in my coffee, something is just not working properly here because I'm a black drinker.

[08:16] I care so much about flavor. As much as I drink these coffees and try to understand them, I see it for what it is. It's interesting now that I'm on this side where I can roast these coffees, present them to people. I can lie to you. I can tell you that this coffee is great for this or that. But that's not the point here. The point is that we're not going to gel with everything that we drink.

[09:09] We're going to have those duds, so to speak. We're going to have those coffees where we're ready to move on. We can't wait to see what else is around that horizon, that journey, that trip that we're going to take. But I think one of the biggest things that I'm trying to take away with all of this is, what did I learn from this? What am I going to learn from this? Because it is what it is. It's fine. It works. But it's not exciting.

[09:47] Does this Nicaraguan work for me? Probably not in this sense. Probably needs more time. It's been two and a half weeks. I think that's long enough. Who knows? I will try it as espresso. Cold brew, I don't think that will work. I think the flavors will be even more muted because you have to push these coffees as much as you can.

[10:05] I'm not talking about extraction, so to speak. I'm talking about how you can bring the most out of this coffee and still get those flavors that are reminiscent of what I think this coffee should taste like. I think if you push it way too far, you're going to get that grapefruit type of taste, that rind taste, that me personally, I absolutely hate. I think if you try third wave water, it will become a little bit too acidic, too minimalized. I tried it. I tried it all.

[10:44] It's perfectly fine for me to realize that coffee is going to be coffee. It's going to do the things that it wants to do, no matter what. We have to be there. We have to accept that. We're not going to be able to conquer everything the way that we want to, bring out the best flavors as we want to.

[11:05] This is interesting. The other day I was talking about this whole thing, how you can manipulate and coax and bring out the different things of the coffee, which you can. Change the paper filter, change the shape, play around with the water, look at your technique, play around with different grinders because it brings out a little bit more clarity. But it still sucks to you. It just sucks. That's it. It just sucks.

[11:44] It's kind of weird I'm saying all this because I'm a roaster. That's why I play on TV. I'm supposed to be telling you that this coffee is great. It's amazing. These are the notes that you're going to get. These are the things that you're going to taste, that you're going to experience. I expect that you should brew it this way. Don't go too fast. Don't do that. Use a fast filter. Pay attention. Drink it quickly. Don't drink it at all. Just smell it.

[12:24] It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, at least to me. Maybe I'll like it later. But I know that this will work for the majority of the people. That's really the reason why I got it. Because it's interesting. We talk about coffee, we talk about commerce here and there. You have to still get it out to people. Sometimes we have those go-to coffees where we just want to explore and drink it for what it is. Sometimes it just doesn't work.

[13:05] Is this coffee boring? To an extent. Has that one-hit wonder? Chocolate, fruit, die down aftertaste, then it comes back. It doesn't really matter if it's a light, medium roast. I think the light roasted coffee version is slightly better just because it's a little bit more interesting. If I roasted this dark, which I did a couple days ago, I don't think there's going to be any fruity flavor whatsoever. But we'll see.

[13:40] So it's interesting, as we leave off today, that I mention strictly high-grown, organic, and you think you're about to go on this magical ride. And when you taste it, it's okay. I can sell you on that. I can tell you that organic makes it better. I can tell you that the way they prepare it for the European market, that's really a good thing. It really is. It's good for me for roasting. It's good for anybody who will want whole beans and they will know for the most part that there won't be any real defects.

[14:34] It is extremely clean coffee. That may be the problem. I don't know. Probably they should have co-fermented this one. This would have been a good base. When you hear about those notes and the characteristics of this coffee, you would think that you're going to go on this magical ride. You still can't. This is just me talking. I'm talking about me. At the end of the day, if I roast it, I don't roast it, I'm the consumer. I'm the drinker. I'm the person who is trying to really get it.

[15:15] And if I understand it, but still don't get it, that's fine. Move on. See what else is out there. We're going to keep drinking these coffees. We're going to see what they're all about. And we're going to see how else we can push these coffees. If there's something there, I don't know really what it is, something that I can really get behind, to gravitate to.

[15:51] So yeah, this is me talking about my coffee. Just being honest. Just letting you know that sometimes it's still not going to work for you. It may be perfectly fine for others, but for you, this is the way I look at it. Let me know what you think. If there are any duds out there that you've already experienced, that you've already seen, let me know about it. Let's talk about it. Bye.