Good Coffee

Sub-par Starbucks is killing your bank account, tastebuds and sensitivity. Being elitist about coffee is cheaper than you’d think…

Photo by Goran Ivos on Unsplash

You’re in a rush. You’ve haphazardly flung some clothes on — creating a mismatched outfit as you sprint out the door. You speed-walk down High Street checking your watch every 30 seconds to make sure you’re on time. Your boxers are riding up your arse, there’s stones in your shoes, your hair’s half done.

You burst into Starbucks like the Kool-aid man only with more vigour. Unfortunately, your speed slows immensely when you get stuck behind some dickhead with an earpiece talking about his new Tesla Plaid model.

Eventually you arrive at the counter and order yourself a coffee of size pretentious. You’re herded to the next counter where you hand over $5 for what can only be described as a logo & branding. You’re directed to the ‘waiting area’ alongside the rest of the Starbucks Simps where you avoid eye contact and stare at your phone.

Eventually, your name is called in a fashion similar to feeding time at the zoo. You graciously accept your $5 coffee with a smile that conceals the real hurt of knowing Starbucks has bent you over and railed you, again.

You walk out the store and begin to speed up the pace as you rush to work. In between paces you take your first sip of $5 coffee. It’s bitter, it’s shit, it’s overpriced and you’re barely even registering the taste. It only acts as fuel to ignite productivity in your busy day; the flavours are unimportant.

Finally, you arrive at your terminus having finished your $5 coffee with a sweaty brow and mild heartburn. That morning coffee was essential, necessary, needed; you feel better as a result.

But not because you enjoyed the taste, the flavours, the process or anything else. You only enjoyed it for the buzz.

You’re missing out on so much more.

True Cost of Shit Coffee

Coffee shouldn’t just be a source of energy.

It should be an enjoyable experience where you can appreciate the flavours, be part of the process, support local businesses and save money.

If coffee simply acts as a NOS button then you’re missing out.

It’s comparable to the difference between fast-food and home cooking. Sure fast-food is easier, more convenient and accompanied by years of branding that’s undoubtedly entangled in your reward system.

But that doesn’t make it better.

Home cooking is cheaper, it teaches you valuable skills, you often end up with a better meal and you cherish feelings of accomplishment as you bite in to that first slice of homemade lasagna.

Coffee’s the same.

I could go on for eons about the intangible benefits of home-brewing but let’s take the most concrete aspect to compare — price.

You can brew coffee a million different ways at home — Moka pot, French press, aero press, Nanopresso, Chemex, V60 & more. Although they all require larger initial investments, they work out cheaper in the long-run (and taste much better).

Let’s take a Chemex for example:

Photo by Zarak Khan on Unsplash

I use a Chemex most days as it takes less than 3 minutes of minimal effort to make a great coffee. It’s balanced, sweet and delicious. Plus i can enjoy it from the comfort of my own home while having direct control over the ratios to make a coffee that is supremely suited to my tastes.

Let’s look at the economies of scale for a second, assuming you’re a daily coffee drinker, for a period of 100 days. A Chemex will set you back £42 and a pack of 100 filter papers will set you back £14.

For one cup of Chemex, it’s recommended that you use 20 grams of coffee, therefore:

500 grams per bag/20g serving = 25 servings per bag.

100 days/25 servings per bag= 4 bags.

In the UK, 4 bags of decent coffee will set us back £12, using a 2 for £6 deal:

Adding this all up for the first 100 days we have:

£42 Chemex + £14 filters + £12 coffee = £68 for 100 days of coffee.

In the first 100 days alone, you’re paying 68p per cup of home-brewed, suited to your individual taste, better than Starbucks, coffee.

Alternatively, you could go to Starbucks and get fucked by an MNC on the daily. At the time of writing, it costs £1.95 for an inconspicuously named ‘Tall’ cup of Americano. Using simple math:

95 x 100 = £195.

The bottom line is — You can either pay £68 or £195 for 100 days of coffee.

The numbers get even more bonkers as you spread the cost further. As you spread the cost over a longer time period, the initial investment of the Chemex becomes further diluted and the price per coffee reduces further.

Taking it over 300 days, for example:

£42 + (14 x 3) + (12 x 3) = £120

120/300 = 40p per cup.

In comparison to

1.95 x 300 = 585

You can either pay £120 or £585.

This is just an example and the number’s could easily change dependent on a myriad of factors. You could buy fresh beans and would have to account for the price of a grinder (good hand grinders will set you back around £20). You could buy better beans from a local roaster who charges a higher premium. Conversely, you could buy more expensive coffee from Starbucks such as a premium mocha venti pumpkin spice vanilla cream butterscotch mix dubble wubble mocha.

Regardless of how you look at it, coffee is pretty much always cheaper and definitely ALWAYS better tasting when you home-brew.

Additional Factors

Furthermore, there’s some additional things to keep in mind when home brewing:

1. You have direct control over ratios, caffeine content and taste profile. Based on your sensitivity to caffeine, you can change how much coffee is in each cup; thus finding your ‘perfect cup’. You can also experiment with the bitterness or sweetness to your direct specifications.
2. The impact upon the environment is less. Buying coffee from places like Starbucks means you’re usually given your coffee in disposable cups with plastic lids that you’ll use once, bin and never see again. Brewing at home reduces this waste, especially when you invest in things like the Nanopresso which doesn’t require any filters.
3. You can support local businesses. When you buy from Starbucks, you’re just paying hand over fist to assist another MNC in accumulating more profits. By brewing at home, you can buy from local roasters and support your town/city. Furthermore, they’re usually extremely transparent with the sourcing.
4. You learn a skill. By brewing at home you gain a greater understanding of what coffee is and how to brew it. You’ll learn what impacts upon taste and know how to create different types of coffee.

Closing Thoughts

I think buying coffee from major chain corporations is dumb. It’s overpriced, shit and antiquated. The age of home brewing is here and there’s a plethora of devices and online tutorials to support you in your journey.

Buy your shit coffee from Starbucks if you like. Just know you’re losing hundreds of pounds every year for an inferior product based on marketing & advertising.

Maybe i’m elitist about coffee but maybe i’m not. I’m not telling you what device to use, how you should brew it or what beans are best. I’m simply stating that coffee is better, cheaper and more ethical when brewed at home.

As Always,

Yours Honestly,

Liam Lawson.