Coffee connoisseurs - what would cause my coffee to suddenly be bland?

[blackangst1]

Sorry 195-205 F

 

[MrSquished]

Instant oatmeal? Are you like 5?

I got my organic steelcut oats too but you don't always want to take that long to make breakfast and honestly, they aren't nearly as much of a reward over instant as they should be taste wise. Some stuff is always better if you take the longer route, but not oats. My organic maple nut instant oatmeal is delicious too.

 

[lxskllr]

Steelcut oats blow away rolled oats for flavor and texture, I cut the water in the mix so the kernels still have a distinct form, and aren't just mush. Cooked with butter and salt. Doesn't need anything else.

 

[Captante]

It's odd a somewhat expensive (a bit over $100) coffee maker would not be hot enough out of the box though. I might have to open it up to modify it and see if I can get it to heat more. But doesn't the water only go up the tube once it's boiling anyway? Or is that not how it works? There's also a setting to heat it more for when you only do under 4 cups which I tried. But yeah I can probably check what the temperature of the water is once it comes out and compare it with my old machine to at least see if that's the issue.

I've personally owned $250+ coffee makers that were meh at best and currently have a sub $20 Hamilton-Beach bottom-feeder that makes as good "daily-consumption" coffee as anything I've tried. (I also have several French press's)

Proper brewing temp is 95-105 F. You'd be surprised how many makers are outside of that. Thats why I did research on brewing temps before I bought mine.

Cheapo mentioned above brews @ 97-103f depending on room and water temps.

The $90 Braun it replaced was nearly identical temp-wise but just didn't make as consistent good coffee for some reason.

Price factored in that flimsy plastic thing is easily the best auto-drip I've owned AND price aside its still not too far off!

 

[Captante]

whoops

 

[Muse]

Covid?

 

[manly]

I'm not 100% sure how it's brewed, I think it's basically with a commercial grade drip machine, but I think they also have a built in grinder as I've heard the sound of it at Tim Horton's before. They use arabica beans, not sure of the exact type though. We got a Starbucks here recently, was not a fan of their coffee though, it tastes very bitter. Not sure how theirs is done, I imagine it's a bit more fancy. I just had a black, and think their coffee is more geared towards adding more fancy stuff to it, so probably why it was bitter just black.

Oddly enough the taste of the coffee even from the chains can vary day to day. The one at the Tim Hortons near the sewage treatment plant does not taste as well as the others. A tad concerning.... lol.

That's just how Charbucks is.

 

[lxskllr]

Seems the default "fancy" coffee style is (very)dark roast. Kinda the same way the default "fancy" beer is overhopped. I like dark roasts, and I like hoppy beer, but not every damned time. Gets old. I'd like to see more light-medium roasts.

 

[Captante]

Seems the default "fancy" coffee style is (very)dark roast. Kinda the same way the default "fancy" beer is overhopped. I like dark roasts, and I like hoppy beer, but not every damned time. Gets old. I'd like to see more light-medium roasts.

Starbucks does have stuff that's not dark-roasted but they don't brew it all that often. most of the time you have to request & wait for a "pour-over" ... worth it if you have the time/patience but I usually don't.

Dunkin has also majorly improved their coffee in the last year or so and it costs less AND they have fresh baked stuff not pre-packaged crap.

I very rarely go to SB's anymore.... I do still buy their beans though.

 

[Red Squirrel]

French press came in. I kinda under estimated what 3 cups is. More like 1 cup LOL. But if this works out, I'll keep this one at the office as I tend to do 1 cup at a time with the keurig anyway and I'll get a bigger one for home.

 

[snoopy7548]

French press came in. I kinda under estimated what 3 cups is. More like 1 cup LOL. But if this works out, I'll keep this one at the office as I tend to do 1 cup at a time with the keurig anyway and I'll get a bigger one for home.

You gotta watch out with French presses. They say x cups, but in reality it's more like x/2 cups. It's some European metric system thing, I think.

 

[Red Squirrel]

You gotta watch out with French presses. They say x cups, but in reality it's more like x/2 cups. It's some European metric system thing, I think.

Yeah I noticed some of them specify 1 cup = 125ml but I only noticed that after. Guess it's a good way to cut down on coffee instead of making half a pot at a time like I was doing lol.

If I feel it's really not enough I'll probably buy this one: https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/lagostina-coffee-press-8-cup-1429725p.html#srp

8 cups, which will probably on par with the 4 cups I was making normally.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Finally got around to trying out my french press. Definitely better, but think I may have found my issue with the machine, and the covid jokes might be partially true. Not covid in my case, but loss of taste. I'm on some meds right now for my jaw issue and one of the side effects is loss of taste. I don't really notice it with food, but maybe it's mild enough that it's affecting how I taste coffee. So once I can sort out this health issue and get off the meds will try machine again to confirm. If it still does not taste right then I'll investigate if it's not heating hot enough as mentioned. I guess a crude way is to just measure the temperature of the water in the pot as soon as I get some in it. If that is the case then I'll have to look into the best way to mod the machine so it goes hotter. Or I can always just boil water in a kettle and then pour it in the machine I guess.

 

[sdifox]

That's because you eat bland food to start with...