Lavazza Espresso Corposo: rich and tasteful, a very Italian espresso
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Once I was a coffee snob but now I’ve seen the light, or rather my taste buds are not what they were.
As for beans, I was told years ago by the Monmouth Street coffee people to keep my beans in the freezer. I still do, but my choice of beans is now dull.
La Pavoni has been passed onto my nephew, electric grinders at the back of the cupboard and now just hand grinders are used. Aeropress preferred on a day to day basis, although today the Fellowes metal filter let me down; first, I had not tightened it enough so coffee and grinds went into the jug, then on repeat, it spurted everywhere when I inverted it. Still it wasn’t a bad mug of coffee.
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This is my coffee setup, quite mid range. Decided to get the milk velvetiser to multi task the coffee and milk processes.
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I’m sure that the gap between fresh ground supermarket beans and fresh ground ‘specialist’ beans is much smaller than the gap between freshly ground beans and pre- ground coffee. And again, that gap is much smaller than the one between ‘proper’ coffee and instant coffee
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Camp Coffee. We had it at school. I thought it
Was good. I was only 10.
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We used to have Camp coffee when I was growing up. Nothing wrong with it (apart from the name obviously)
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Really started taking good coffee seriously during lockdown and discovered a fantastic coffee Roastery located a few miles from my house- The Rounton Roastery.
Currently drinking this:
But my go to daily coffee is this:
I have tried many of their single origin beans too but come back to the blend above which happens to be the cheapest too.
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I only drink espresso and for that, I prefer a good blend. I now biweekly receive a batch of fresh roasted Indian Monsooned Malabar, Brasilian and Guatamalan Arabica from my Dutch roasters. Bag is made of fossil free vegetable based “plastics” and papers.
I never drink coffee outside of my house, so you may call me a coffee snob. 
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Scary looking coffee!
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How in heck do they make that stuff? Do they grind up babies?
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I recall being told this as well and I also kept coffee in the freezer however, I watched a documentary about one of the big coffee house chains and one of their golden rules about beans throughout the journey across the oceans and distribution generally is to minimise the change in temperature to which the beans are exposed. I have no idea how significant this is on a domestic scale but I now keep opened coffee bean bags in a glass jar with a gasket in a cupboard in the kitchen. As I say, no idea if there is merit in either approach!
Peter
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I have been told the same and keep them in an airtight container at room temperature
The argument I heard was condensation affecting flavour- a bit like hifi, there’s lots of contradictory “opinion” in the world of coffee!
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I checked in sainsburys the other day what the roasting dates were on union - all early November which is pretty good. But no beans available - all ready ground
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My local (marker town Sainsbury’s) usually quite carries one or two Union bean options, but most are ground.
I think Booths supermarkets may put roasting date on their own coffee beans, IIRC. But dates were fairly long. Maybe worth checking out if in the locality.
Everything I’ve seen in recent years, including from James Hoffmann, suggests storing beans in an airtight container at room temperature is the best way to keep them fresh. Hoffmann also recommends that beans are at their best about a week after roasting. The best flavour is available over the following 2 weeks (see Hoffmann’s latest book). Roasting dates would appear to be important, but I’m no expert.
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This is the advice given by my local roaster (The Blending Room), to wait a week from the roast date as the coffee is still off gassing.
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