There are latterly hundreds and hundreds of roasters. Just do a search in Google on coffee roasters nearby. Depending on where you live there could be a few. Just within 15 miles of my location is 14. Everyone has their fav’s, my recommendation, find a few you can depend on, and shipping is not out of control $$ wise or you can do a local pickup… I usually order one day, its roasted and shipped that day or the next day. 2-3 days tops.
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There is a lot of coffee out there intended for those that seek caffeine. Less common are bags appropriate for single cup pour over with an emphasis on taste and origin to be consumed without adding milk or sugar.
I try to support local options first. Dayglow is local to me in LA. Shipping can be cheaper with a monthly subscription.
Similar to wine, I’ve found quality/profile to correlate with the location of the farm/vineyard. Then I prefer roasters with a lighter touch that seek to allow a bean’s/farm’s/region’s distinct profile to shine through in the cup.
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I view instant coffee as equivalent to my Jabra Bluetooth earbuds - not faithful to anything, but convenient in a pinch as a caffeine delivery mechanism and palatable if you add enough EQ (brown sugar and half and half).
Anybody have a recommendation for an electric kettle that’s easy to clean? I find that good tea is as dependent on water quality as coffee and part of that is keeping scale down.
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I’m happy with Bonavita and Fellow, already mentioned above. Others to consider are Brewista and OXO. As you likely know, different types of tea can call for different temperatures so you may want to consider a variable temperature kettle.
I agree. I use citric acid for descaling when needed, which is rare.
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Just do it! 
I have had my La Marzocco GS/3 for the past 15 years and use it every single day - It’s an absolute joy to use and a great ritual to start the day 
Grinder is a Mazzer Mini Electronic B and the kettle is a temperature controlled Fellow Stagg EKG that I use with a Hario V60 Dripper or for 93 C hot water, when I want an Americano.
Getting freshly roasted beans from a highly skilled local coffee roaster 
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I like your vision of a drip machine better than Mrs Torq’s I’ve heard the Ratio 8 makes a very good pourover. If I drank more than one cup a day, I’d probably order one of those. So pretty, too.
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The Wilfa definitely beats the Mr. Coffee … not that this is, in anyway, a surprise. Though to be fair, there’s nothing specifically wrong with what comes out of the Mr. Coffee unit … at least as far as something that can make 60 oz. of coffee in one go.
Something I find amusing on the Wilfa is that the water tank measures coffee in grams and water in oz.
Not so amusing is that using the suggested ratio, at least with ground coffee, results in an undrinkably strong result. I hit 47% extraction … it was so strong you could taste it, by smell, in another room. And the more typical 5.3g coffee to 5oz water (see, now I’m bleedin’ doing it!) … was not particularly enjoyable either - where as that was fine out of the Mr. Coffee.
…
The Ratio 8 (which looks fantastic) … very likely something I’ll try once I can get one with a reasonable order/shipping time. Headphone gear pretty much burned me out on ordering anything that’s out-of-stock/backordered. Looks super-cool though.
…
I am still successfully resisting espresso.
I’d need a different grinder (not helped by the announcement of the Niche Duo … which I think looks awesome even if I don’t want one). And an espresso machine … which would probably wind up being two machines … one entirely manual/mechanical (because I like that sort of thing) and then probably a Decent (because I like the geekery of it, if not the app-connected factor … and I won’t be putting milk in my coffee any time in the foreseeable future).
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Somehow you impress me, the tidiness of your kitchen, the coffee portafilter machine, your living room listening corner, your computer listening position, everything is very tidy, minimalist and extremely high quality.
Now I’m guessing which car brand the key on your key board fits?
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Thank you for your kind words @Lothar_Wolf !
You are absolutely right - I prefer the minimalistic look and try to keep it tidy.
I have a strange feeling you might have a qualified guess when it comes to the key (sharp eye BTW) 
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I had a Niche Zero at home for a while and almost bought one. The thing that stopped me was small - it seems to have been designed for non-US power outlets, where you can switch the power off at the outlet. With a US outlet, there’s a LED on the Niche that stays on all the time and that bugged me enough to hold off. Now there are a bunch of other choices for less money, so I’d probably consider one of those. The Niche was very nice though: quiet, quick, attractive, and (other than the LED thing) well designed.
The grams/oz thing is very funny. Americans really seem to struggle with metric, and I don’t know why. I recently finished my first woodworking project - I built myself a cabinet for my home theater - and I found the whole “fractions of an inch” thing incredibly frustrating. So frustrating, in fact, that when I went home last month, I bought myself a nice metric tape measure. My next woodworking project will be defined in mm!
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I thought the standard ratio was ~17:1, I use closer to 16:1, unless my math is miles off 5.3g to 5oz is more like 26:1, that seems very dilute.
A lot of the flavor profile is in the grind.
I did the serious espresso thing 20+ years ago, and swung all the way back to pure convenience and pods. Only recently did my wife decide she wanted to get better coffee, and I’ve started taking it more seriously again.
Conveniently I already owned the Mini Mazzer.
This time I’ve been a bit more rational about the whole thing, trying to figure out what my margins for error are before I care, rather than trying to be perfect, and I’ve largely been doing immersion brews either with the AeroPress or a Hario Switch, they take the whole channeling thing out of the equation, and there very forgiving on time.
Most of my fiddling after I found a local roaster I liked was on grind size, and I have two different settings I use depending on what I want.
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i have a eureka mignon perfetto that i modified to be a single dose machine. of course, now they have their own single dose line of gear…
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Your math is fine.
In general, yes … a coffee/water ratio somewhere between 1:15 and 1:18, depending on grind, roast, etc. At least for pour-over/most manual drippers or single-shot immersion brewers.
However, if I tried to do even 1:18 in the 12-cup (5oz cups, so 60oz water) Mr. Coffee … well, you’d never get the lid closed, never mind get the shower-head over the coffee! That’d be 95g of coffee, or a bit over a quarter of the tin (the Café du Monde stuff in question is pre-ground, since it’s a mix with chicory).
But … at 5.3g per 5oz it tasted fine from that machine (in terms of what you could expect from a pre-ground coffee/chicory mix anyway). Not at all dilute; it was surprisingly strong in fact. Of course, it is supposed to be drunk as cafe au lait (yech) … so it’s a bit stronger than most coffees. Café du Monde recommend a 1:20 ratio IF mixing the brew 50/50 with milk.
I did figure out the issue though … and why it was such a HUGE discrepancy between brewing with the Wilfa and the Mr. Coffee. And it’s not the brewer …
The difference is I was using water straight from the tap with the Mr. Coffee, and TWW dark-roast-profile water with the Wilfa. The difference is ridiculous. The net TDS is about the same, but the actual mineral composition is entirely different.
I did a batch of the TWW at both 50% and 25% and both were major improvements over 100% with the Café du Monde stuff. With the other “proper” coffees I have, I liked it closer to 100%. But it still took taking the ratio down to 1:20 as well as TWW at 25% to get it drinkable.
So … I shall save this stuff for sweet breakfasts (or when I’m in NOLA and have fresh Beignets to go with), or when I really fancy some chicory notes on my coffee - which I suspect is going to be quite rare now I’ve tried “proper” coffee that isn’t purely dark roasts.
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I may be in need of a new coffee maker for my office. It appears that Ms. Breville has lost her mind, or at least her tank water sensor. She is the 2nd Breville automatic brew and grind I’ve had, and I am not inclined to buy a third one.
On Amazon, I see this:
Which seems to address some of Ms. Breville’s issues, and has a heated carafe instead of a thermal one. However, I distrust the lack of branding.
LOOKING FOR RECCOMENDATIONS - I prefer one that grinds, but I can get a grinder. I need minimum 5 cups, maximum 12 cups. Nice if it can handle small amounts like the Breville can.
I prefer it to look interesting, or at least industrial. Do not want open flame siphon type, though they are beautiful. I do not require Espresso, but I would not turn down Espresso capability.
Desired price, $500 or less, but will consider interesting designs at $800 or so.
Please provide thoughts.
I would check out Seattle Coffee Gear for staff recommendations https://www.seattlecoffeegear.com
and Wire Cutter from the NY Times The 7 Best Coffee Makers of 2023 | Reviews by Wirecutter
I think you will probably have better results if you get a separate grinder too…
I was looking at the Technivorm and the Ratio Six (also there is a Ration 8). My Breville Grind control is in the list at Seattle Coffee gear. But after having 2 of them break - once programming went nuts, and now it doesn’t properly sense the right amount of water in the tank - or to use in the pot!, I’m not high on Breville machines. Not getting an OXO… I want it to look make good coffee AND to look good. Right now leaning toward the Tecnivorm.
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Ouch! 
I also want a Moccamaster, but I will wait for a Prime Day sale on it. I have a knock-off which looks similar and is also SCA recommended (a Motif, which is no longer in business) maker that still works fine. So I can’t really justify it.
I don’t know the Breville grinder you have, but I hear always good things about the Baratza Encore on the cheaper end, and the Oxo one is perfectly fine (I had 1, gave to my daughter.)
On the better range of grinders, I like the Fellow Ode Gen 2 Grinders + Burrs – Fellow
and their new Opus grinder is worth a look. It has a wider range of grind than Ode, but still not suitable for espresso.
I get excellent results with the Ode, very consistent grind, and noticeably more flavor extraction vs my old Oxo burr grinder. It uses flat burrs with a large surface area, and can be further upgraded with SSP Red Speed burrs in place of its already excellent Gen 2 burrs.
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You guys all need to get a room coffee thread 
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Good god…I’m falling into another fricken hole! Just realized I spent the last 45 minutes perusing grinders, kettles and pour over thing-a-ma-jigs. Luckily I came to my senses and backed out! Momma warned me about guys like y’all. You’re the 
!
I’m going to bed and tomorrow I’ll look into more ways to spend foolish amounts of money on more audio stuff….like a normal person!!
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Not a recommendation [I have managed so far to stay out of the coffee rabbit-hole], but it’s branded (“Gevi,” whatever that means) and it’s less than half the price.
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