Current Events > Fellow coffee snobs, I need a recommendation.

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My local coffee shop used to have this variety of Italian roast which I LOVED. It was described as "bold, without the bitter", and that was pretty accurate since it had a really deep, strong, pure essence of coffee flavor to it, but it didn't have that acrid/burnt taste that a lot of dark roasts have
They stopped carrying that variety though (or at least haven't done that roast in like 6 months and they said they're not sure when they'll do it again) and so I tried getting a variety labeled as Italian roast from this supermarket. It tasted really burned and bitter, almost like Chock Full o Nuts' NY Roast.

Now that I'm looking it up, quite a few sites are describing Italian roasts as very dark and bitter and burnt tasting. I had a French roast once which matches that description, but then these same sites describe French roasts as dark and bold but without as much of a bitter taste.

Which is it? Are Italian roasts more bitter/burnt, or are French roasts more bitter/burnt?

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I heard kona coffee is best but I dont drink coffee so I dont know

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mattymad posted...

The real way to find a coffee you like is just to try all sorts. I find shopping local at bean shops and talking to the staff (or at a local

That's what I was doing until they stopped stocking the blend I liked and they haven't been very helpful with recommendations. None really good the void in my heart.
Right now I've got two local coffee suppliers that are my go-tos and neither has had one that I like as much. I had a coconut one that was really tasty but it's just not the same.

I use a drip filter.

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ProfessorKukui posted...

Coffee Instant Type 2

Nice.

Joking aside, he's not wrong. My wife and I get MREs for camping trips and the instant coffee in them is actually pretty decent for powder.

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mattymad posted...

Coffee really isn't as easy as just going "French" over "Italian", there are SO many factors for the final taste, the specific bean, if it's a blend or single source, where the beans came from, altitude the beans grew at, how it was roasted, etc.

French and Italian are just ways of roasting the bean, both are pretty similar but Italian goes a bit longer so in theory, Italian would be more bitter if you were comparing the same bean roasted the two different ways and prepared the same way.

The real way to find a coffee you like is just to try all sorts. I find shopping local at bean shops and talking to the staff (or at a local espresso place) waaaay better than just guessing from a super market. You can just talk shit with them about what you like and walk away with some samples.

Also your preparation is going to play huge in this. Do you use a French press, aeropress, espresso machine, drip filter, etc. Grind size you use, brew time, weight of beans being used, etc.

tl;dr: technically you want French but that's simplifying it.

All of this is true. But really you're just going to have a hard time duplicating that taste unless you can find another roaster doing a similar level roast using beans of an identical (or at least similar) origin. You're probably better off exploring other dark roasts from local coffee places.

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Basically what was said already. You can try brewing your coffee stronger. Most people dont realize that weaker coffee is actually making it more bitter.

Sometimes a tiny sprinkle of salt can also help.

Go to a Vietnamese market and try their instant coffee. Its fucking delicious.

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Try Ritual. None of their roasts have that bitter taste.

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CapnMuffin posted...

Basically what was said already. You can try brewing your coffee stronger. Most people dont realize that weaker coffee is actually making it more bitter.

Sometimes a tiny sprinkle of salt can also help.

I did that with the aforementioned coconut coffee yesterday cuz I was finishing the bag and it tasted like death, lol.

Maybe I'll try it with my regular everyday Colombian and see if it works.

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