If there’s one thing out there in the world of coffee that we know for sure, it’s that there’s a heck of a lot of coffee. This means that there is a whole world of coffee that you haven’t tried yet, and might not be able to try. Within these theoretical cups of coffee, the vast majority of them are likely to be good – especially if you’re as much of a coffee nerd as we are.
There are, however, some cups of coffee in your life that will just be bad.
In this article, we’re going to talk about what might make a cup of coffee better or worse for your personal tastes, as well as whether you might want to pursue truly exceptional coffee, or simply take what you can get. Without further ado, let’s talk about coffee!
What makes coffee good or bad?
There is a huge spectrum of different things out there that might make coffee good or bad, and it can be hard to talk about them in a truly simple way. We would recommend, though, that we view this through the lens of the coffee compass.
The coffee compass is a great way to visualize good and bad coffee because it shows you the truth of the matter – it’s all a complex balancing act.
For example, if you actively try to add more coffee to your brew to improve the flavor, you may go from a muted, faint cup of coffee straight to an overwhelming, harsh cup in one big step.
This matrix of different flavors and textures holds a number of different brews. For instance, one person’s favorite cup could be on the right of the coffee map – sweet and fruity. Another person’s favorite cup could be on the opposite side – smooth and dark.
This is a lot of words to sum up something that’s actually relatively simple – good coffee is different for each person that drinks it. With that in mind, a number of things can make coffee good or bad for you. With that in mind, why do we pursue coffee that’s truly great out there in the world?
Why pursue Great coffee?
Well, this one is really quite simple – because it tastes good! Since all of us coffee-lovers know that there is truly exceptional coffee out there within our grasp, it makes sense to do what we can to track it down and taste it ourselves.
On top of this simple reason, we might argue that there’s another reason to seek out great coffee – great coffee is a wonderful experience in and of itself. To be sure that you get the best experience that you can at any one time, you might want to seek out great coffee.
On top of being a great thing to have on its own, great coffee will serve as something of a flavor enhancer to ensure that your experience is as good as possible.
What to do when there’s only poor coffee?
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you’re out in the world, running an errand or trying to catch a train. In those moments, you might be in dire need of some truly excellent coffee, despite the fact that you might not be anywhere near your usual coffee haunts.
In that situation, you’re confronted with a choice – have some poor coffee, or have nothing at all!
This might seem like an obvious choice to some people since you might prefer to have a hot cup of something in your hands rather than no drink whatsoever. We totally understand that reasoning, and we’ve certainly been there ourselves. You might want to have the caffeine that a cup of coffee can provide you without having to concern yourself with the quality level of your coffee.
On the other hand, though, you have the option to totally forego coffee. It’s worth considering, we might argue, that no coffee isn’t a bad choice to make. If you’re a fan of tea or hot cocoa, for example, it might be a great option to go for one of those choices instead and avoid the disappointment that you might suffer. To make up for a lack of caffeine, you can certainly buy safe, effective caffeine pills from a corner drugstore.
We have a point to make, however, and it’s a fairly simple one: drinking a bad cup of coffee doesn’t have to be the end of the world.
Why poor coffee isn’t the end of the world
If the only coffee that you’ve got near you is from a large chain affair or otherwise from some level of cafe that artisanal coffee hasn’t quite reached, it might be a good idea to have a cup of coffee all the same. There are two reasons for this: new flavors, and contextual flavors.
The new flavors argument is one that only applies in a few situations, but it’s one that we’re big fans of. If you go to a cafe that serves coffee brewed in a unique or strange way, then it’s very likely that the coffee will have some new flavors for you. To that end, trying it will introduce you to some new coffee flavors.
Whether these are flavors you enjoy or not is up to chance, but they’ll certainly be new. Expanding your world of flavors is always a good choice, so we might suggest trying coffee for this reason alone.
Contextual flavors are a lot more likely. Some people might consider a coffee at their grandparents’ house to be the best they’ve ever had. Not, necessarily, because it’s exceptional coffee, but because it would spark conversations and quality time with grandparents.
This contextual enjoyment could go for a whole range of interactions and events – seeing a movie you’re excited about, meeting up with friends, or even just sitting in a park on a particularly nice day.
We would argue that contextual enjoyment is a reason to have bad coffee – it can give you a range of different and new levels upon which you could enjoy a poor brew.
Conclusion
We hope that this article has given you a new outlook on bad coffee out there in the world – it doesn’t always have to be a bad experience, and it should, perhaps, be sought out in some situations.