Like some first time posters say "Long time lurker but this is my first post". Anyways as the topic of this post states I am beginning to wonder if I really like fresh roasted and fresh brewed coffee. I grew up in the deep south as it sometimes called, in the southern part of Louisiana. My dad loved coffee and drank Seaport most of my growing up years. So about 8 years ago I was introduced to the Aeropress. Soon I had one ordered along with a hand grinder. Since then things have progressed and we now own a Breville Infuser and a older model of Breville grinder. Anyways as I get deeper into the "Rabbit Hole" of coffee I can't help but wonder if it is for me. I have fallen in love (if you want to term it that way) with the art of espresso and had hopes of upgrading our equipment in the future but part of me wonders if I will end up being disappointed. At work here we have a Keurig and this morning as I was sipping some "Very outdated, burnt, bitter, and any other adjective you want to use" coffee, it just hit me all over how in many ways I enjoy the afore mentioned coffee better than the fresh roasted stuff that is the rage nowadays. I have figured out that dark roast is more down my line but still doesn't quite leave me filling like "Wow that was a good cup of coffee". Anyways I thought I would post on here and tap in to some of the wisdom that is available and from which I have already benefited. Thanks in advance!

trevinschmidt wrote:Like some first time posters say "Long time lurker but this is my first post". Anyways as the topic of this post states I am beginning to wonder if I really like fresh roasted and brewed coffee. I grew up in the deep south as it sometimes called, in the southern part of Louisiana. My dad loved coffee and drank Seaport most of my growing up years. So about 8 years ago I was introduced to the Aeropress. Soon I had one ordered along with a hand grinder. Since then things have progressed and we now own a Breville Infuser and a older model of Breville grinder. Anyways as I get deeper into the "Rabbit Hole" of coffee I can't help but wonder if it is for me. I have fallen in love (if you want to term it that way) with the art of espresso and had hopes of upgrading our equipment in the future but part of me wonders if I will end up being disappointed. At work here we have a Keurig and this morning as I was sipping some "Very outdated, burnt, bitter, and any other adjective you want to use" coffee, it just hit me all over how in many ways I enjoy the afore mentioned coffee better than the fresh roasted stuff that is the rage nowadays. I have figured out that dark roast is more down my line but still doesn't quite leave me filling like "Wow that was a good cup of coffee". Anyways I thought I would post on here and tap in to some of the wisdom that is available and from which I have already benefited. Thanks in advance!

What fresh roasted coffee are you drinking? If you're preferring the taste of Keurig to your fresh beans, then your fresh beans are possibly garbage.

Currently we are drinking a Mexican Chiapas roasted to a medium to medium dark. In the past I have tried a MistoBox subscription and can't remember any specific one that I just loved. To be clear its not that I dislike all the fresh coffee that I drink it just makes me wonder what my problem is when supposedly "bad" coffee I sometimes prefer to fresh roasted stuff. And as far as where we get our coffee from we just have a good friend here were we live that has a air roaster so he supplies us with beans.

Milligan wrote:You may simply prefer dark roast. There is a huge difference in well roasted, high quality, and fresh dark roast than stale, preground market dark roast. Perhaps explore nice dark roast more if you haven't.

And as far as dark roast what would you consider a dark roast? In my limited experience people have different opinion on roast level.

https://www.coffeereview.com/roast-definitions/

So according to that link our beans would come in at a medium. I guess I should tell my roaster friend to go more to a dark roast and see how I like that. Would you have any suggestions or recommendations for some beans?

Partially OT -- Telling a roaster, friend or otherwise, to "do X" is often not going to get you where you want to go. Roasting is half art, half skill, and only a touch of "science". Asking someone to move outside of their range of expertise is going to be something of a random shot in the dark.

I'd go with one of the well-respected, mail-order roasters and try a couple of their bags/boxes at medium or medium-dark. You might want to stay with something sort of middle-of-the-road, like a Central or South American coffee or blend. Tasting things by themselves is not easy. Putting two side by side (or at least reasonably close) makes it easier to compare. What kinds of flavors did you like and dislike in each of them? From there you might be able to get closer to understanding what to look for in coffee. Unfortunately, roasters' descriptions can be a bit of a fantasy. However, if you discover that you like Central American coffees with sort-of medium range chocolate and nuts descriptors ("milk chocolate" vs. "bakers chocolate" or "peanut" vs. "roasted walnut"), you've got something to go on.

Thanks for the input. That thought has actually crossed my mind and made me wonder if that is part of my problem. Cause my roaster friend definitely prefers beans roasted more on the light side.

I, too, find that I have an amazingly strong preference for the "coffee" I grew up with which is now considered dark roast. The smell, range of tastes, and flavors of classic Italian espresso, brewed dark roasted coffee, and all variations of milk drinks are so tied with a feeling of "yeah, that is just right" that my brain can't really reconcile the lighter roasted smells and tastes as a coffee beverage.

Because of this I have tried a wide array of roasters and their varieties and just stick with the ones that give me that coffee feeling.