Newbie from San Diego

[Kaspa]

Have been drinking mostly office (machine drip / Flavia) or Starbucks/Peet's coffee for a while now, but
recently got to taste some excellent one made in a French press. Now I want to start
making some good coffee at home/office without breaking the bank. After some initial reading, I just
placed an order for Clever dripper (French was good, but grinds are a negative) and Melitta filters.
I read that getting a good burr grinder will make the biggest difference, but I am still undecided on
what to buy. I don't know where to post these questions, but hopefully the good folks here can help
me decide.

The manual grinders (Porlex, Hario, Kyocera) are in my budget, but I have a feeling I will get tired of
spending several minutes 'exercising' before having my coffee. I have never used one of these, so I am not
sure how much of an effort this is. I am also not sure how the quality of the grind will compare with
the more expensive electrical ones (say >$100) which are currently not in my budget.

Lot of folks on this and other forums seem to think that buying ground coffee at the supermarket is
not the way to go, but is there a good balance between convenience, taste and cost that someone
can recommend? For example, if I get a good selection of freshly (say < 2 weeks) roasted beans in
a shop (any good ones in the San Diego area?) and grind them in the store to be used in less than one or
two weeks, how big a difference in taste are we talking about?

This way I can get more time to save some money and look at options for buying a good grinder.

Thanks a lot.

 

[Seth]

Hey Kaspa,

Welcome to the community! Shameless plug, but we help offices find the best coffee at wholesale prices. You can check us out at thefingo.com or send me an email seth at thefingo.com. Enjoy!

 

[CoffeeJunky]

Kaspa,

There are great grinders for around 50-60 dollars at amazon.
Please search here, Rose had some good recommendations.
Also Clever Dripper or Harios are very nice but I never like the filter taste, so I normally use french press in the morning.
On the weekends or during the day, I use vacuum siphon.

For coffee, the cheapest way to get good coffee is to spend more. Does it make sense? No
Well this is what I am talking about. You can buy green bean and roast your own coffee. Now that seems like tons of work but once you get good at it, it won't be. Especially when green bean coffee cost is one of the lowest in decade.

But realistically speaking, most of the super market coffee won't be good at all since they were roasted maybe months ago. We think the most of the coffee is good for about 2-4 weeks after the roasting. After about 2 weeks, it start lose its integrity.
There are tons of good roasters online who would ship as soon as they are roasted and some of the roasters will sell for much less then you think you can get them for. But if you are looking for best of the best, you will expect to pay around 20 dollars per pound. That is less then a 73 cents a cup.

CJ

 

[smalltowngirl13]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

 

[bprotsman]

There are a few good local Roasters in San Diego. I would Google to see whats closest. If there is someone nearby maybe you can buy fresh roasted beans and have them ground for whatever brewing apparatus you have. Buy smaller quantities so you go through it in less then 2 weeks. Personally I would invest in a good Burr grinder and buy whole beans. Although it takes a few extra minutes to manually craft your own cup, it's well worth it. This will also open the possibility of trying different coffees brewed different ways.