Wagner’s music is better than it sounds. ~ Edgar Wilson Nye

People tend to love Starbucks despite their coffee tasting like it was brewed for three weeks in the center of the sun.

Most mask this reality by ordering a coffee beverage instead of coffee, or by disguising the taste with biblical amounts of additives. But anyone who prepares Starbucks beans at home knows that the coffee itself isn’t the problem—it’s the brewing and serving that’s the issue.

Happily, there’s a solution: ask for a pour-over.

The pour-over method is a technique normally employed by much higher-end coffee shops, and it yields you a custom cup of coffee that isn’t scalded from hours of overbrewing.

It takes longer (approximately five minutes), but the result is a remarkably good cup of coffee from Starbucks. As a bonus, doing this also allows you to try beans other than whatever they have brewed at the time, and it doesn’t even cost more than a regular pour.

Give it a go next time you’re in. It’ll be nice to add “coffee” to the list of things Starbucks does well.

[ Note: for best results, I recommend getting the blonde roast. Even when made custom many of the darker roasts still taste a bit scalded. ]

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