It's great that you are so particular about your coffee. But the grinding is just the tail end of the process. I'll spare you the rant, but we live in the mountains of Panama, the Napa Valley of coffee. Most people don't realize that coffee, just like wine, has varietals. Some Geisha arabica grown in our neighborhood recently sold at auction for $14,000 per kilo - with 5 kilos produced. Anyway, the most important part is the roasting - and if you buy roasted beans, well, who knows? You might want to look into a personal roaster, which allows algorithmic control of the heating profile etc. DId you know that the difference between light and dark roast is 20 seconds? Getting your roast dialed in is part of the art of coffee. And then get your beans from Boquete. :)
It was great to hear from Mark Nelson once again about nuclear. I'm waiting for part 2, which should be super important, especially considering the election results yesterday. Considering how NVDA and AMZN jumped today, I wonder how much of that might be anticipating less regulatory pushback on buying/building nuke plants, like the other Mark discussed. Great timing for the interview.
I've only just begun the process of learning more about the beans themselves. I've been using two local roasters, but I'm still going through their offerings and figuring out what I like.
But it reminds me of the audio world, where I used to geek out as a big music fan.. some people become obessed with the gear and amps and such when the most important thing is the room, speaking positioning, and what you play on the system. There's a parallel with the coffee, it seems.
But I also know that even if I have great beans, if I have a grinder that can't do espresso well, it won't matter too much, so at least I've now got that floor that allows me to experiment more with the beans!
I'm glad part 2 wasn't recorded yet because so much happened after part 1. It should be a fun one!
On closed loop platforms vs open- you should give Bluesky another try. Closing in on 14m users. No algo. The experience has dramatically improved since early days. Lots of long exchanges between users, rather than posts which are just broadcast
I have an account, but haven't logged in in many months... The problem is that the network effect is a very powerful thing. My friends are mostly on twitter (and some double-posting on Threads), and most of fintwit remains on Twitter. Tech twitter has migrated to threads and mastodon.
I'll give it a try, but I don't have high hopes. If I was starting from zero maybe I could build something there, but I already have people I want to follow and talk to, a group of friends and acquaintances built over 15 years.
Forget the coffee grinders that you have been looking at. If you want something of high quality for domestic use, I recommend the Mazzer Super Jolly: https://www.mazzer.com/en/product/super-jolly/
It's built to a commercial standard, but aimed more for domestic small scale use. I use one and wouldn't do without it.
Good coffee requires three things: great beans, an excellent grinder and a great coffee machine. Remove any of these and you won't get the desired result. Too many people skimp on spending in relation to the grinder and wonder why the coffee that they pull isn't any good.
It does seem great, but at $2k+, it's more than I want to spend on my first grinder.
I suspect that over time I may wan to upgrade, but having been into multiple hobbies like audio, photography, computers, home gym equipment, folding knives, etc, I'm very aware of the sweet spot on the curve and the diminishing returns after where you start paying multiples of the price for incremental improvements. I'm not ready yet to go in that part of the curve, even if it can be fun!
I have a wife and two kids, and she's very frugal and we have a pretty inexpensive lifestyle generally -- we actually have had to make an effort to get nice things for ourselves because our default is saving (f.ex. we got a backyard sauna this year).
Another great issue.
It's great that you are so particular about your coffee. But the grinding is just the tail end of the process. I'll spare you the rant, but we live in the mountains of Panama, the Napa Valley of coffee. Most people don't realize that coffee, just like wine, has varietals. Some Geisha arabica grown in our neighborhood recently sold at auction for $14,000 per kilo - with 5 kilos produced. Anyway, the most important part is the roasting - and if you buy roasted beans, well, who knows? You might want to look into a personal roaster, which allows algorithmic control of the heating profile etc. DId you know that the difference between light and dark roast is 20 seconds? Getting your roast dialed in is part of the art of coffee. And then get your beans from Boquete. :)
It was great to hear from Mark Nelson once again about nuclear. I'm waiting for part 2, which should be super important, especially considering the election results yesterday. Considering how NVDA and AMZN jumped today, I wonder how much of that might be anticipating less regulatory pushback on buying/building nuke plants, like the other Mark discussed. Great timing for the interview.
Thanks Mark, always great to hear from you! 💚 🥃
I've only just begun the process of learning more about the beans themselves. I've been using two local roasters, but I'm still going through their offerings and figuring out what I like.
But it reminds me of the audio world, where I used to geek out as a big music fan.. some people become obessed with the gear and amps and such when the most important thing is the room, speaking positioning, and what you play on the system. There's a parallel with the coffee, it seems.
But I also know that even if I have great beans, if I have a grinder that can't do espresso well, it won't matter too much, so at least I've now got that floor that allows me to experiment more with the beans!
I'm glad part 2 wasn't recorded yet because so much happened after part 1. It should be a fun one!
Cheers
Great post. Again.
Agree with you re this film. Saw it a few months ago. Really fine art.
Yes -- I wish more films like this were made. I felt like I lived a different life for a few moments.
On closed loop platforms vs open- you should give Bluesky another try. Closing in on 14m users. No algo. The experience has dramatically improved since early days. Lots of long exchanges between users, rather than posts which are just broadcast
I have an account, but haven't logged in in many months... The problem is that the network effect is a very powerful thing. My friends are mostly on twitter (and some double-posting on Threads), and most of fintwit remains on Twitter. Tech twitter has migrated to threads and mastodon.
I'll give it a try, but I don't have high hopes. If I was starting from zero maybe I could build something there, but I already have people I want to follow and talk to, a group of friends and acquaintances built over 15 years.
Forget the coffee grinders that you have been looking at. If you want something of high quality for domestic use, I recommend the Mazzer Super Jolly: https://www.mazzer.com/en/product/super-jolly/
It's built to a commercial standard, but aimed more for domestic small scale use. I use one and wouldn't do without it.
Good coffee requires three things: great beans, an excellent grinder and a great coffee machine. Remove any of these and you won't get the desired result. Too many people skimp on spending in relation to the grinder and wonder why the coffee that they pull isn't any good.
If you are interested, this is the coffee machine in my set up at home: https://elektracoffee.com/products/micro-casa-leva-s1
It does seem great, but at $2k+, it's more than I want to spend on my first grinder.
I suspect that over time I may wan to upgrade, but having been into multiple hobbies like audio, photography, computers, home gym equipment, folding knives, etc, I'm very aware of the sweet spot on the curve and the diminishing returns after where you start paying multiples of the price for incremental improvements. I'm not ready yet to go in that part of the curve, even if it can be fun!
Hobbies like audio, photography, computers, home gym equipment, folding knives and coffee are cheap compared to the hobby of a family!
Once a wife comes along its an entirely different league of spending! ;-)
I have a wife and two kids, and she's very frugal and we have a pretty inexpensive lifestyle generally -- we actually have had to make an effort to get nice things for ourselves because our default is saving (f.ex. we got a backyard sauna this year).
But I totally get what you mean!