Comment by 0x457 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by 0x457 | Hacker News Reader

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Keurig are...coffee machines for places that want to serve coffee without going through the trouble of making that coffee. Waiting rooms - just go and make yourself a cup. Cheapo office kitchen machine.

It does make pretty bad coffee, but hey, it's better than not having coffee an all...sometimes. Buying it for home is another story.

Aeropress is a great travel coffee maker. Still need to clean it, grind beans, but managable.

Chemex... Have to buy filters (aeropress you can buy reusable metal filter that is better than paper ones), takes a while to make. We actually had an issue with new company management because of how much time people spent making coffee with chemex (fuck em, but still)

Frenchpress are great. A bit annoying to clean, but nice coffee.

All of them require you to grind your own coffee. That means easier cheap manual grinder or somewhat expensive electronic grinder (because cheap electronic grinders are trash).

None of them work well in places that any pod-based coffee maker works well: self-serving waiting rooms.

> All of them require you to grind your own coffee.

I'm not sure if this is one of those weird only-in-America things, but in every European country I've ever visited, you can buy pre-ground coffee in supermarkets, and specialty coffee suppliers will grind the beans for you at the point of purchase. Sure, it might not taste quite as good as if you grind the beans yourself every time, but I wouldn't say all the methods above require you to grind your own coffee.

For a high-quality brew, you absolutely want to buy whole beans and grind them immediately before use. However, you definitely can buy pre-ground beans in the states or grind them in-store if the market offers a grinder. Though, I think the point of the response above is more to demonstrate that either option is impractical in waiting rooms since you either have to ask a guest to grind their own beans or serve them grounds that have likely gone stale from lack of use. Either is a subpar option.

In most grocery stores I've been to since the 90s, fancy and middle class, there was at least a few whole bean bags or some bulk beans in a dispenser for sale, with an adjustable grinder there. Heck, one time I opened a bag before paying for it and ground it with their grinder, then had them scan the empty bag.

IIRC ground coffee is still "fresh" even by snob standards for a day or three before it goes stale.

Pre-ground coffee is stale coffee unless it's stored airtight. I would take Nespresso pod over pre-ground supermarket coffee roasted 6 months ago.

You can buy pre-ground coffee and grind it in-store in many supermarkets in America, it's just if you like coffee - you don't buy your beans at the supermarket.

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