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Comment by warner25 | Hacker News Reader

There is Blue Bottle Coffee for something like this: https://bluebottlecoffee.com/us/eng/subscriptions?tb=coffee-...

My wife is a serious coffee drinker so I got her a nice grinder, espresso machine, and Blue Bottle Coffee subscription in 2021. We canceled the subscription after a few months because it was hard to tune the deliveries just right. We either ended up with too many beans still on-hand when the next delivery arrived (and you don't want them to just sit there, because the whole point is freshness) or we'd run out a day or two before the next delivery, especially when the delivery arrived a day or two later than promised. It was easier to just pick up another bag of beans at a local store on the day when we needed them. My wife also said the beans at the local store were better, fresher, etc.

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If you already have a nice grinder and espresso machine, may I introduce you to the wonderful world of diy coffee roasting?! Sweet Maria's[sweetmarias.com] sells green coffee beans and nice roasters. I use a Fresh Roast SR800, which roasts 1/2 lb at a time. During the pandemic I purchased a 50lb bag of green coffee beans for $225 and never had to worry about running out of coffee for the rest of the year.

The honest answer is, DIY coffee roasting isn't really going to be as good as a good professional roaster unless you get into frankly unreasonable cost equipment.

I've owned various home roasting equipment, and until I bought an Aillio Bullet (which, is a $3500 roaster nowadays) matching good professional roasters was not possible. You could get close, but consistency and quality was not quite there.

Also, home roasting is basically impossible in an apartment setting. The smoke is not great, and unless you have a balcony/porch it's going to be an issue.

Does it bother you to consume the exact same bean every day? My favorite part of coffee is contrasting one origin/process/roast to another, so I often have multiple bags from various sources going in parallel.

I can comment since I roast significant amounts of coffee as a hobby.

Long story short: no, at least not for me. You can play around with roast level and get a variety of different flavors, depending on the bean. And at least for me, I keep a few large batches on hand (2-3 bags that are 65 lbs each). That's enough variety to keep me sated.

Also, for most folks, if you have a brand new bean, you need a few roasts (or maybe, many roasts) to actually dial in a good roast profile. If you only buy a few pounds, you will run out of coffee before you roast it well enough to fully enjoy it. Then you start over again with a new bean.

I thought it would, but I actually like knowing my beans, and that takes some dialing in. I used to only purchase small batches because I wanted to try a variety. I found that I never knew if something was bad or good due to my technique or the beans themselves. It was also rare to find what I really wanted.

Alternatively I found a local roastery that would deliver by mail. It appears that they primarily sell to local coffee shops. I found it the cheapest way to get specialty coffee. It gets roasted day of, and arrives in a day or two, so I just order when we have a couple days of coffee left. https://fortunacoffee.com/collections

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