The Duality of Best/Worst Coffee
A thought experiment on coffee extraction
Espresso is hard to master. Most beginners are able to achieve some level of consistency after some practice, learnings, and talking with others. However, to go from beginner to master is a long road. At the end of that road, a master should be able to do make two things: The Best and Worst Coffee.
I would argue that a beginner could likely make a bad coffee but not know why, and they would lack in the ability to make said coffee worse on purpose. To make something worse, you must still understand how it works well and how it does not.
For an espresso master, they should be able to consistently make the best or close to the best espresso every time because they understand what parameters are key for good espresso.
Consequently, if they did the opposite, they would likely be able to make the worst coffee.
Now, I don’t mean just bad beans. Anyone can get a dark roast and make terrible coffee. Just like anyone can get a competition roast (well, maybe not anyone) and make delicious coffee. But can you take a top tier coffee and make a garbage cup? Can you make something undrinkable?
This assumes you use the same tools that are used to make the best cup. That’s where one can be a true master.
Really, this is the Jedi/Sith thinking.
So tell me, how bad can you make a coffee?
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Further readings of mine:
My Second Book: Advanced Espresso
My First Book: Engineering Better Espresso
