Seems like a good idea as a recurring thread. Weekly would probably keep it on people’s minds if enough of us post to keep it active.

I’m really enjoying the Colombia Gesha from Blind Coffee Roasters in Portland. I’m almost apprehensive about letting people in on my secret favorite because they aren’t a big company, but I also want to support them because they seem to be awesome people. Really on top of the customer service - the owner called me with questions about my orders a couple of times, rather than waiting on email.

I’ve heard mixed reviews on the nanotech coating. I went with VST when I decided I wanted a larger basket. I wound up buying both a 22g and 25g and it turns out I love the 25, because… more. They both work excellent though. I think preinfusion is probably necessary to make the 25g work, but I won’t swear to that.

Wow, fully unacceptable.

Skip the grocery store. If it’s on the shelf there, it’s OLD. Most coffee nerds try to stick to beans that have been roasted within the month, give or take. Personally, I live in the boonies, so I buy my beans online, but I stick to roasters in my region - trying to keep it as local as I can.

Some people will recommend sticking with one particular roast and repeating until you get it right. That sounds great from a scientific mindset, but taste isn’t scientific, it’s subjective. While I prefer certain things, I learned a lot about what I like by trying a bunch of different roasts. I drink about two bags a month and I get rotating subscriptions from two different roasters.

As far as gear goes, I will say that you probably want to upgrade to a bottomless portafilter so you can identify channeling, get a cheap scale so you can see what your extraction is, and maybe a WDT tool (diy or cheap is fine).

Yep. It helps cut down on channeling. The more evenly the puck is extracted, the better your shots will be.

Late stage capitalism has murdered satire.

lol. The irony in that statement is palpable

5pm seems to be my limit if I want to get good sleep. Doesn’t matter if it’s espresso or what.

Whew… that’s well presented and I do appreciate it, but I was speaking specifically of filament tuning. One of the things I paid Bambu their premium for is having the machine and baseline slicer profiles dialed in and they kinda do. All that machine calibration stuff is what I got frustrated with when I quit the first time!

I am kicking around the idea of rebuilding my Anycubic Predator with updated… everything, just to have that massive build volume again. It might actually work pretty well with a high flow hotend and klipper firmware.

I’m definitely bookmarking that guide for future reference.