New to the coffee world

[KenyanSandBoa]

Originally Posted by Resipsa

Stay away from charbucks or any other roaster that burns the beans. I understand some people like starbucks, and to those people I
say drink what you like, like what you drink. But their coffee is neither "strong" nor "flavorful", unless you consider "burnt" to be a flavor,

I've definitely noticed that about some of the Starbucks coffees. I think it was the Gold Coast that I tried and all I could taste was "burnt"...didn't like it at all. I've had luck with their Asia/Pacific blends like Komodo Dragon the Anniversary Blend, but I do avoid some of their extra bold coffees because they taste more extra burnt to me.

Originally Posted by jaydub13

Having worked at Starbuxx, lemme tell you, it only gets better from there. Ken is dead on about the french press, as well as grinding your own beans. The less time between grind and brew, the more flavor your coffee will have. I recommend getting a burr grinder, rather than a blade grinder(you will get more even grounds that way, thus better and more consistant coffee). We have a very good local roaster here in CA, called Kean, and I love their coffee. Intelligentsia is another great roaster, located in Chicago and LA. And if you can get your hands on anything from Peets, I highly recommend that as well.

+1 for the french press and burr grinder.

One more recommendation, don't waste your time with a built in burr grinder/brewer like Cuisinart makes becuase let me tell you...it is a pain in the ass to clean and fill if it's under a cabinet.