Stumbled into a local roastery last Saturday and changed my whole morning routine

I was in Portland visiting a friend and walked into this tiny roastery called Nevermore Coffee. The owner offered me a single-origin Ethiopian pour-over that tasted like blueberry jam, no sugar needed. He told me to grind way coarser than I ever did and use water just off the boil. Tried it at home this week with my usual beans and now I can actually taste flavor notes instead of just 'coffee'. Anyone else have a barista or shop totally flip how they brew?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_nathan2d ago

Yo that's awesome! The water temp thing is huge - I used to just blast my beans with boiling water and wondered why it tasted burnt. Try playing with your grind size more too, like if it's bitter go coarser, if it's sour go finer. Also pro tip from my own messing around: try a 1:16 ratio of coffee to water by weight, not volume. That plus the coarser grind completely changed my morning cup too. Glad you found a shop that actually knows what they're doing.

sanchez.mary1d ago

My buddy Kevin had the exact same thing happen to him at a place in Denver called Little Owl. He was always just using his fancy grinder on the finest setting, thinking finer meant better. The barista there straight up told him he was making mud, not coffee, and showed him how to go way coarser. He texted me the next week losing his mind over how his morning cup actually had layers now instead of just tasting like hot bitterness. He even started weighing his beans on a cheap kitchen scale he grabbed from Target. Now he won't shut up about water chemistry, which is hilarious because this is the same guy who used to microwave his water.