In 1992 (over 20 years ago),
With rare exceptions (over the past 20 years), have I ever gotten "great" coffee.]
I lurk on FT, but joined just for this thread. I frequent coffee forums more often.
First, there's still great coffee in Scandinavia. Tim Wendelboe and Koppi are two that come to mind.
Second, your problem with getting good coffee is that you don't know what makes coffee good. Once you figure that out, you can lose the worries.
Here is a list of roasters that sell the best coffee you can get:
East:
Terroir / George Howell
Barismo
New Harvest
Ceremony
Stumptown
Intelligentsia
Blue Bottle
Craft Coffee (subscription service)
Dallis Bros.
Central:
PT's
Intelligentsia
West:
Coava
Stumptown
Intelligentsia
Gimme! Coffee
Ritual
Wrecking Ball
Sightglass
Blue Bottle
Tonx (subscription service)
And then on the other end of course is brewing:
www.Brewmethods.com
Originally Posted by
Starwood Lurker
I'm sure that great tasting coffee exists, but it's a rather subjective proposition, IMHO.
Spoken like a true amateur
Seriously though, once you get into something culinary you'll realize the subjectivity that is perceived by a novice, may not be by someone more experienced. Prices for unique coffees are much much higher than the rest. Kopi, Jamaica, Kona, are all expensive due to low supply. They are mostly junk coffee. The last Kona I had tasted like wet cardboard, which is desirable by many people, but you won't find any industry or coffee geek people begging for it.