Social Media Skews Our Perception of Coffee 

What you say is so true and reflects my coffee journey as well. Thank you for validating that.

Spot on. It’s a bit like anything on social media, you need to consciously separate the information that is useful from the stuff that is useless. I’m all for good content but it does get tiring seeing a bunch of creators nailing the perfect cup of coffee every time while being able to specifically depict every tasting note on the bag.

Loved this video ! 💗✨

The other problem I have w/ coffee now that I see w/ other communities: the most popular people create the standards that people will blindly follow. I can't talk about coffee w/ people without an eventual reference to the Hoffman method for whatever. I don't dislike JH but I can't say that his "ultimate" recipes for any of his brewing devices are my favorite.

A good point which I think applies to a wider society issue which we see in many other subjects. Love and peace. Tim

Hi 👋🏻 Thanks for your honesty… I totally 100% agree 👍🏼 We need to learn from our mistakes & show them… some may look at it as weakness but that is far from the truth…we need to learn from our mistakes… in social media they always want to show constant perfection… which is so fake, a façade, & not a true Interpretation… totally agree 👍🏼 There is a lot of reasons why I do not like social media… that would be one of them… I feel sadly that social media is used & abused in many areas… I appreciate & respect true honest effort on others that are willing to show mistakes on brewing technics and willing to hear feedback from others….really enjoy your videos… looking forward to more… thanks 👍🏼😀

You hit on a good topic, and thinking on my fairly new journey, it didn't come without more failures than "heavenly coffees" (had about 3-4 of those in about 6 months of this hobby - oh and one I that would be "god-like" and would have framed if I could :) It came with more failures and so-so/descent vs. great super and so on. I bought a lot of good coffees but did not always get a very good brew out of them. What I have learned has come through social media, and though some did say you may not succeed the first few times, a lot was not portrayed to be as hard as I found it to be. (Not to mention the expense if one falls down the "rabbit hole" 😙- which would be another great topic for newbies). I'm getting a little better at it but it definitely doesn't happen all at once in a short amount of time.

I have agreed with you...and with your % of bad - good - godlike........coffee brewing is a long very long way...journey:) good luck and keep going!

I've been manually brewing coffee for about 2-3 months. And I only enjoy about 15% of my brews via the V60. But with the Aeropress, I love about 90% of the cups of coffee that I brew with it. The Aeropress is simple and consistent to use, and makes for a great backup. I'm getting better with pour-overs over time, though. Right now, I'm really enjoying the James Hoffmann Ultimate V60 technique with light roasted beans. I made my best ever cup of coffee with it today!

Hi All / Paul, this is very important point, I think. As you mentioned the bombardment with experts who always brew wonderful cups, reality for a normal person, I think, looks much different. Speaking for myself, the majority of daily pour-overs and French presses (I do not do espresso) are for the most part rather mediocre, sometimes disappointing. But do I now? Where does objectivity and subjectivity meet? In the end it's a constant struggle, refinement, experimenting - and of course influences from online sources - if which Paul's are the most clear and informative. E.g. - just a few minutes ago I switched my pour-over to a shorter time and finer grind ... and it worked somehow to eliminate a dry, sour or bitter (hard to define) taste ... sweeter now. But I'm sure it'll change again, continuing the "Constant Struggle", since I roast myself and constantly try new varieties, which adds of course to the variables. Also, it's often not having actual comparisons ... where would you even taste a "god-like" cup ... just to know what it is like ... or if it's good-like to you as well 😃

I have to agree with you only I don't think I've ever heard anyone say their cup was bad (excluding you, of course). My own experience puts me more in the "exploration" area leading into the "good" with very few "great" and zero "godlike", ha. Since learning from you, I've expanded the "good", reduced the "exploration" and pretty much eliminated the "bad" so thanks for that. And, the exploration never ends because every bag of beans is different, even if they're the same bean from the same roaster. It's just the nature of the beast, so to speak.

James Hoffmann has some rather bad tasting coffee videos 😅 But you’re totally right !

I think you're totally correct on this. I've also noticed that it's not just those 1% "god cups" that are the focus on the coffee corner of social media - it's equipment (grinders, brewers, kettles, etc.), the coffee itself (experimental process microlots), and the general focus on aesthetics over substance. Not that there's anything wrong with pleasing visual aesthetics, but it feels like coffee is falling into the same problem of IG-friendly content for the sake of something looking appealing.

I agree . I can count on my fingers heavenly cups of Espresso I've made. Exact parameters that produced a godly cup few hours back will produce a good cup now and an average cup a few days later

what i thought was a "good cup" was pretty bad as soon as i learned about proper coffee brewing techniques. i was doing some weird half-assed pour-over bc i didnt have the right tools/tech. the more i learned about the right tools and techniques the more it allowed me to create consistently good cups. its all thanks to the knowledge shared by coffee content creators. ive tried the "hoffman" "4:6" and different recipes and in the end, i just wing it anyway and its still a good cup. i find that focusing too much on a recipe i lose the enjoyment of the process.