If there are so many variables, why not talk to people to learn the results of those experiments? The alternative is to make all those experiments yourself, which will take a lot of time.

I like coffee myself. I noticed that I usually prefer drip coffee, but there was a lot of inconsistency in how good my drip coffee was. So I talked to people, but mostly read people explaining what variables affect the taste of coffee.

I learned that what I don’t like is something that coffee lovers usually like. Taste sometimes described as “strong”, with a certain level of bitterness. I like my coffee with the least bitterness possible.

So I read that light roasted beans create a less bitter coffee, great one variable solved.

Also, specialists recommend that before pouring the whole water, you just wet the ground coffee on the filter and wait 30 seconds. This initial hot water allow the air to escape from the ground coffee, so when you pour the rest of the water, the absorption of the coffee by the water is more efficient. This is one of the things that will bring more bitterness out of the coffee. So I purposefully don’t do this. I put all the water at once, counting that the absorption won’t be as efficient.

So my recipe is: light roasted beans, with fast pouring water. I would have never learned this if not learning from other coffee lovers, even if they have different tastes than mine.