I like coffee myself. I noticed that I usually prefer drip coffee, but there was a lot of inconsistency in how good my drip coffee was. So I talked to people, but mostly read people explaining what variables affect the taste of coffee.
I learned that what I don’t like is something that coffee lovers usually like. Taste sometimes described as “strong”, with a certain level of bitterness. I like my coffee with the least bitterness possible.
So I read that light roasted beans create a less bitter coffee, great one variable solved.
Also, specialists recommend that before pouring the whole water, you just wet the ground coffee on the filter and wait 30 seconds. This initial hot water allow the air to escape from the ground coffee, so when you pour the rest of the water, the absorption of the coffee by the water is more efficient. This is one of the things that will bring more bitterness out of the coffee. So I purposefully don’t do this. I put all the water at once, counting that the absorption won’t be as efficient.
So my recipe is: light roasted beans, with fast pouring water. I would have never learned this if not learning from other coffee lovers, even if they have different tastes than mine.
You may be better off grinding coarser, and not skipping the initial "bloom" phase. When not simply dumping water into the brewer, there are of course many other variables to tweak to try and achieve a tasty cup.
Fine grinding because the brewing time is short and fast pouring without initial “bloom” (just learned the term).
I am ok with this level of inconsistency. I believe that I don’t have the trained palate to even notice it. When I mentioned inconsistency earlier it is because I did not know anything about coffee so I would arbitrarily use dark, medium, light roasts, different quantities even. Btw, I will try to be more exact using this 1 to 12 proportion he mentioned in the video.
About trying coarser grinding, I don’t grind it myself, I buy ground coffee. I could to find a place that grinds at the counter, but there is no such shop close by. I also optimize my coffee for laziness :)
Then different roasts can be brewed independent of bitterness and strength. The last flavors to leech are the most bitter.
But most people don't know any of this type of knowledge, they just know how they do it, and want to tell you why it's the "right way."
That's why talking to coffee and tea drinkers is often insufferable.
On the otherhand, talking to people with actual knowledge to share can be enjoyable. There's just not an easy way to screen for it.
Perhaps instead of brushing them away with a middlebrow dismissal, open your mind a little to the possibility that the world is more complex than you think it is.
Edit: to add to that, for anyone that is curious. There is a pretty rich history in writing on tea, especially in China and Japan. Food aesthetics is also becoming a bigger subfield in philosophy too, usually categorized under everyday aesthetics.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Tea
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_tea_ceremony
I love _something_. I hate talking to other people who love _something_. ...use the combinations you enjoy.
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There’s a name for that
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/your...
茶の湯とは ただ湯をわかし茶をたてて のむばかりなる事と知るべし
Tea is naught but this; First you heat the water, Then you make the tea. Then you drink it properly. That is all you need to know.
Sure, but I think if you experiment enough you will converge on the kinds of brewing methods that are considered standard. Take for example gyokuro or certain kinds of sencha - it's quite objective to say that they shouldn't be infused in boiling hot water.
Or take smth like the delicate, flowery, fragrant Li Shan - would you mix it with milk, sugar, cinnamon etc.? Or flavor it with bergamot or jasmine? Sure you could, but you would objectively cover the flavors of the tea itself.
Don’t forget about the steeping time.