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Comment by throwaway9848 | Hacker News Reader

No need. People need to just stop drinking this mediocre and overpriced product and learn how to make perfectly serviceable high grade arabicas taste good. I doubt most people that purchase the coffee even know what Gold Cup standards are.

http://www.scae.com/scae-gold-cup-programme/how-the-gold-cup...

Kopi Luwak is - outside of novelty purposes - a ridiculous status symbol for rich idiots, like using ground-up, ineffective rhino horn to treat erectile disfunction.

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Amen! Kopi Luwak has the inherent marketing advantage of describing the production process in a one sentence, narrative hook that everyone understands. Even non coffee drinkers know about "that coffee where the weasel poops it out."

That aside, modern experimental coffee processing techniques, varietal classifications, and terroir's effect on taste and quality is far more interesting and productive with regards to pushing the envelope for specialty coffee.

This seems very similar to wines. I like coffee and I like wine, but my only metric for whether one is good or bad is simply if I like the taste.

"You yourself are gratified by some music, arrangements of noises, and again essentially nonsense. If I were to kick a bucket down the cellar stairs, and then say to you that the racket I had made was philosophically on a par with The Magic Flute, this would not be the beginning of a long and upsetting debate. An utterly satisfactory and complete response on your part would be,'I like what Mozart did, and I hate what the bucket did.'"

-Kurt Vonnegut to his brother Bernie, excerpted from Timequake

(Which is to say, I agree with your point, and just wanted an excuse to quote the most entertaining paraphrasing ever of 'to each his own')

That's not even "good" or "bad", just "taste". I personally gravitate to dry reds, particularly within a certain price range- too cheap and you can't taste the grapes, too expensive and you can't taste the alcohol- but that doesn't mean whites are "bad".

Got any good sources for learning the craft? I have assembled the basics over the past couple years, and have probably reached the point where my devices are no longer the limiting factor.

Roasting your own? If you're not already, it's simple fun and tasty.

http://brewmethods.com/

A thermometer, an adjustable burr grinder, and either one of: a high quality drip brewer, a hario, or a french press. I prefer the hario for ease of cleanup, personally, but some people consider non-french press brewed coffee to be heresy.

I think it's cool to try to roast your own once or twice, but roasters cost a ton and cowboy coffee (roasting in an open pot over heat) produces a ton of smoke & chaff. Mostly it made me appreciate the skill involved in roasting :)

The big thing is to mind the temperature of the water (and use good water), making sure you're using freshly ground whole bean coffee, the amount of grinds vs water, and the quality/freshness of the coffee beans. There's a ton of good advice online, I hope you find something that works well for you (and that my humble advice is useful)!

A friend of mine roasted coffee beans in an air pop popcorn maker.

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