100 Cups of Coffee

Over the last few years I’ve been getting more and more into coffee. Naturally that has transitioned from getting drinks at coffee shops to making coffee at home. One can only afford so many lattes.

It started with the magical Aeropress. Next, my girlfriend got me a Chemex. Essentially it’s a more hands on approach to drip coffee. It came with 100 paper filters, and I just ran out (at the time of writing this article). So, 100 Cups of Coffee later, here’s what I’ve learned.

1. There’s a lot of bad coffee out there in the world, and there doesn’t have to be. What a lot of people make at home, or even a lot of restaurants, is some pretty awful coffee. Which is totally unnecessary. It doesn’t take much time/effort/money to make good coffee. You don’t have to be a coffee nerd and you don’t have to spend a ton to get a great quality cup.
2. Making coffee at home is not as hard as you might think. With just a little effort and deliberation your coffee at home can get a LOT better. It doesn’t even require you to become a coffee nerd — everyone has their own hobbies. Nor does it require you to become a snob — the world doesn’t need more of those. You don’t even have to invest in something expensive in time and money. There are a lot of cheap and quick methods that would make your life better.
3. There’s constantly more to learn, if you want. Different methods, improved methods… there are a lot of kinds of coffee you can make. This is pretty obvious if you look at any coffee shop menu. But even at home there are a dozen ways to make your coffee. Shoot, even drip/pour-over coffee has myriad options. Turns out the drink is amazing a lot of different ways.
4. It’s a great part of morning ritual. Coffee can become a part of your morning that you look forward to. What better way to start your day than the ability to make yourself a quality cup of joe?
5. I finally understand what 3rd wave coffee is. It’s an overly fancy term, but it basically gets down to the idea that people are into great coffee all the way through the process from farmer to cup.
6. People are worried about where their coffee comes from, and that’s a good thing. It matters not only how good the beans are or how nice the barista is, but also whether the farmer is being fairly compensated. What goes into a cup of coffee can make a lot of lives better both around the world and locally.
7. I definitely want to learn more — Espresso, other methods, possibly even roasting beans. I’ve learned a lot and I definitely want to learn more.

This is being simultaneously posted on The List App. I can be found as @trevorboyson.