How it all started

[bruceb]

Did you start with instant and progress and was this by accident?

No, my parents didn't touch the stuff. I have never tasted more than a sip of instant and that was enough.

Did you have a passionate individual who introduced you to coffee?

Well, my parents had a percolator going from morning to night, my mother drank as many as 20 large cups of coffee per day. My parents drank LOTS of coffee, but they were not selective about it and drank normal supermarket preground. They didn't own a grinder until I introduced them to whole beans.

Did you find your first real good stuff at home or by accident in one of the few good places out and wanted to replicate it?

"Real good stuff" is probably relative. I never had a really good espresso until I learned to roast beans and make espresso myself. In fact, I never tasted really good coffee until I started roasting my own beans.

Did you buy beans from high street first or was it the internet immediately?

I had a steam toy for awhile and I bought Italian espresso blends from the supermarket. I was never able to find freshly roasted coffee, so I bought a Hearthware Precision and greens from Ivo (Ongebrand in the Netherlands) and never looked back.

My sons taught me to be critical about beans and espresso machinery. Until I met Lukas this spring I had never met anyone who knew much or really cared about coffee besides my sons and myself. My youngest son worked as a barista in a small café with a 3-group lever machine and he taught me what he had learned. I've owned and used a "real" espresso machine for about 10 years now and have been roasting almost as long.

[GeorgeW]

Did you start with instant and progress and was this by accident?

My first taste of coffee was Camp Coffee in the late forties or early fifties I think. Following this as a teenager during the espresso bar craze but this was milky drinks really.

Did you have a passionate individual who introduced you to coffee?

A journalist introduced me to ground coffee brewed in a Moka pot and that really was the beginning. For a long time I used a percolator and French Press but mainly the Moka.

Did you find your first real good stuff at home or by accident in one of the few good places out and wanted to replicate it.

I tasted my first good cup at home from a fairly cheap espresso machine and then bought better machines as my skills progressed.

Did you buy beans from high street first or was it the internet immediately

I bought beans from a local roaster initially and have never bought supermarket coffee unless on holiday.

[Gadders]

Hope you're having a good holiday Baz

Did you start with instant and progress and was this by accident?
Yup, i was always a tea drinker with the occasional cup of nescafe

Did you have a passionate individual who introduced you to coffee?
Not really. My dad introduced me to the black stuff as he wasn't always satisfied with instant and always liked his press pot. He got a cheap Krups espresso machine for christmas sometime and a whirley blade grinder. I wanted to learn how to use it, until eventually i hijacked it and began learning about coffee and espresso through the internet, thus with more desire (and obsession) to get shots that looked likes the photos i saw online.

Did you find your first real good stuff at home or by accident in one of the few good places out and wanted to replicate it.
My first real passable stuff came at home when i bought a Gaggia Classic and Rocky. It was average but much better than the high street stores i'd been to. My first REAL good stuff was at Breako's house... (i remember it vividly!) We'd arranged a day together of coffee musings, and i brought along the Brewtus that had just arrived on my doorstep that morning. I unloaded all my gear onto his kitchen table and he asked "so do you want a brew?". He proceeded to get to work behind the Oscar, fiddling around with his coffee inside the basket and doing about 200 tamps He popped the bottomess PF in, and instinctively we both craned our necks at the shot. It was a ridiculously gloopy, thick, malty pour. He handed me over the demitasse with a grin: "wow i havn't pulled shots like this for ages!" In the cup it was mindblowing! I remember it was Sweet Marias Liquid Amber blend - incredibly thick and deep, with a stunning aroma and taste. Ever since i've been trying to recreate that shot, and finally did it by pure chance with the sample of JBM.

Did you buy beans from high street first or was it the internet immediately#
The first accessible port of call for me with the gaggia classic was Whittards (there was a store right next to one of the many starbucks in nottingham city centre that i used to love). It was not until TMC that i was pointed towards HB.

[CakeBoy]

Wow, you had a good shot at Breako's house and emerged uninjured despite his natural deconstruction 'skills'!

[Neo]

Did you start with instant and progress and was this by accident?

Yah i started with instant. Someday I tried an instant columbia supremo and i wanna some more. I went on internet and everything was like chemical reactions, unstoppable.

Did you have a passionate individual who introduced you to coffee?

Yah, 2. They are my roasters too.

Did you find your first real good stuff at home or by accident in one of the few good places out and wanted to replicate it.

Yah kind of. I was just interested and visited my roasters, then had a nice cup of costa rica SHB

Did you buy beans from high street first or was it the internet immediately

from my roasters, great quality

[Bren_D]

My questions are these-
Did you start with instant and progress and was this by accident?
Did you have a passionate individual who introduced you to coffee?
Did you find your first real good stuff at home or by accident in one of the few good places out and wanted to replicate it.
Did you buy beans from high street first or was it the internet immediately

1) Yup and I hated it, instant put me off coffee for years and I still feel I'm making up for lost time. I used to make a sludgy thick drink with 3-4 teaspoons of instant and the same again of sugar and hot chocolate. It didn't taste all that good, but it got me through revision and coursework deadlines at school. By the time I got to uni I had started to drink french press coffee.

2) Nope, I decided that I'd have a cup of the supermarket coffee my folks had just made and decided that I liked it. Without meaning to blow my own trumpet I have just played the role of coffee guru to a friend who knew no better than dirt cheap tesco instant. Or rather Steve did all of the hard work, I did little more than boot paypal up Said friend will be sorting me out with a few pints and passing the favour on at some stage to save another poor soul from instant.

3) Hmm. My only really good coffee so far has come from Flat White, I popped in a couple of times last time I was up in London in the summer and their flat whites blew me away. I'm not a milk drink fan by any stretch of the imagination but it was easily the best coffee I have ever had. But it wasn't an accidental find. I had wasted a lot of time during the revision for my uni finals looking at various different espresso machines and deciding what to buy. I found myself at CG and eventually here and knew exactly what I'd be getting from Flat White. I can't wait to be back in London in November, I didn't make Monmouth on my last trip and Flat White are deserving of another couple of visits Now I've got the machine and coffee in place with a better grinder to come in the next month or so I've only got my skills to work on, not that I expect to better Flat White, mind.

4) Supermarket ground - Whittards ground - Whittards beans and a blade grinder - Whittards beans and a cheap burr grinder - Has Bean. I don't think I'll have much need to look elsewhere.

An interesting tale about Whittards. I asked one of the lasses who served me a fair bit over the years if she knew when each of the types of beans they had in stock had been roasted. She didn't and assured me that all of the beans they sell would be fine for a month after they sell them, even for making espresso. I knew better but didn't have the heart to correct her. Then she went on to describe what they did with some of the less popular types of bean and how long they would have been sitting around for. I'm not easily shocked but she managed it. Month old beans with a use by date of a month from sale must be fresher than most supermarket beans, but towards the end of my Whittards experience my Gaggia really didn't like some of their beans. I had one or two good bags that might have made it it into my hands within 2-3 weeks of roasting but a lot of awful bags. She hasn't had a problem with any of Steve's efforts and I don't expect her to.