#1: Post by AlexKilpatrick » January 29th, 2013, 12:53 pm

I was perfectly happy with my $1000 ($400 refurbished) Saeco Incanto Deluxe superautomatic. It made lattes that were much better, night and day, than Starbucks, even though I was using Starbucks beans. It is convenient, and fairly mess free. I tried a shot with it, and it was vile, but that's ok. Only crazies drink espresso straight.So I read on here that beans were important. So I bought some beans freshly roasted from a local place. Wow! The coffee is much better, with no bitterness. I tried a shot, and it was decent. Not anything I would want to drink, but not vile either.I read people here talking about how you need to find a really good coffee shop to compare to, to know what a great shot tastes like. I looked up one of the highest rated places in Austin (Houndstooth Coffee). They really seem dedicated, and I figured it would be a good place to test my hypothesis. I was pretty convinced that it was just a matter of good beans and "reasonable" equipment. I mean, it is just hot water and ground coffee? How complicated is that? Hypothesis: "Beans are significant, but equipment/barista is not" Experiment: "Order a shot from the best equipment/barista in town and see if it is different"So I ordered a shot from Houndstooth. I watched the barista. She threw away the first show - she said it was too fast. She adjusted the grinder a tiny amount and then ground two shots worth to throw away to clear it out. Then she gave me my shot.I took a tentative sip. Oh. My. God. I couldn't believe the explosion of flavor. It felt like there were eight different things all trying to compete for attention from my tastebuds. Like I was drinking a totally different drink from what I had been used to drinking. I was with a colleague who said coffee only varies "Gross, OK, or Good" and even she said it was amazingly rich.So, hypothesis is in jeopardy. New hypothesis: "These are just really amazing beans" Experiment: "Order a shot with different beans" (they always have two varieties) I didn't like this one as much, but it was equally complex in flavor, and more importantly, it was radically different from the first one.So, both of my hypotheses were rejected, and I blame you guys. I was perfectly happy with what I had and you led me down the path of questioning whether there might be something better. Ignorance is bliss and all that. Now I have a probably unobtainable goal to shoot for.