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Stopped at a little diner in Nebraska and their drip coffee made me rethink everything | Coffee Enthusiasts - Vivisector

hannah_west39•1mo ago

Stopped at a little diner in Nebraska and their drip coffee made me rethink everything

Went to this tiny place off I-80 last week, they had a beat up Bunn machine and the coffee tasted like actual chocolate and nuts, no fancy gear at all. I've been chasing espresso setups for 8 years and their $2 cup humbled me, how do places like that pull it off while my $400 grinder can't get close?

2 comments

2 Comments

jenny1981mo ago

...so my buddy Steve who owns a garage in Ohio swore by this same thing. He's not a coffee guy at all, drinks it black just for caffeine, but he stopped at a similar diner in Kansas and couldn't stop talking about the taste for weeks. He actually brought a thermos home and had me try it cold, still had that deep nutty flavor. We looked it up later and found out the place had an old water softener that was basically broken, so all those minerals built up in the lines. He tried duplicating it at home with tap water from his well and some limestone rocks from his driveway, not even kidding, and got closer than his $500 machine ever did. The water thing is way more real than people give it credit for, and that baking soda trick is a solid start, just don't overdo it or you'll taste it for sure.

theajohnson1mo ago

My brother ran the water line for a diner outside Omaha for years, and he always said the tap water there was the real secret. Most of us use filtered or bottled water that's stripped clean, but that place had hard well water with minerals that pulled different flavors out of the beans. Your $400 grinder does a great job, but it can't fix what the water chemistry is doing to the extraction. Maybe try mixing a pinch of baking soda into your brew water and see if that gets you closer to that chocolate and nut taste.