Make sure to hit the like button if you enjoyed the content! Let me know if you have any questions! Hoping this serves as a guide to best practices and a good educational resource when approaching buying coffees in this evolving world of a multiplicity of options! Cheers

I'd really encourage people starting out with specialty to seek out local roasters first. Not in order to get the absolute freshest roasts, like Lance said, that isn't so much the concern. But along with supporting local businesses, it really helps you to connect with the coffee community around you. Most local roasters also operate a café, where you can meet them, ask about the coffees, about the roast. I guarantee they'll be hyped to talk to you. They might organize cuppings and competitions. And you might be surprised with the quality. I visited local roasters in some pretty small towns that made incredible coffee, that you'd never find on the internet.

I've been drinking coffee--mostly espresso--for about 60 years, starting in Berkeley, CA, during high school. When Al Peet started Peet's Coffee in 1967, I started buying from him, even carrying it to Florida when I was in grad school (what a revelation to folks there!). I did my research in Central America where, among other things, I visited a coffee finca in Guatemala. My memory of the processing was that they pulped the cherries and put them into a large "swimming pool" (that size, anyway) to ferment. I don't know if this was a "washed" process or something different. The coffee was quite good. I also had a chance to try some 30+ year old Guatemalan coffee in Seattle. It had been stored green in what were probably 1/4 kilo, sealed aluminum containers. I roasted it in a cast-iron frying pan (following instructions from a then-pretty-new Starbuck's in downtown), ground it in a hand grinder, and prepared it (probably in a Melitta filter, but that was almost 50 years ago). It was still quite drinkable. Acid was low, like a cold-brew, but I don't remember any off-notes. Just...faded. Your video was an excellent "introduction" for an old coffee drinker to the newer innovations. I still tend to prefer darker roasts, usually ground in my Baratza Sette 270 and made in my La Pavoni Europiccola. But this helps me make some sense of other possibilities, including what my local coffee shops serve (I'm lucky to live in an area where you couldn't swing a cat without hitting a coffee shop)(which would probably be a little hard on the cat).

Lance please , can you make a turkish coffee video. I really love your explanation process and science based info. Ibrik is kinda mystical in every KZfaq video and i want just pure cold science

Not gonna lie, this a damn college course on coffee! I’m trying to wash dishes and listen and it’s not enough. I’ll have to go back over this and take notes. I don’t buy already roasted anymore, I buy green and roast my own, but this is still so helpful.

So generous of you to share your knowledge. Thanks again!

I really LOVE LOVE LOVE and LOVE these videos from you! You are gold Lance!

Awesome video Lance, absolutely loved it!!

This is the video I've been waiting for a long time, Lance! 🙌 very much appreciated. This is one of those I'll be coming back to a lot of times.

Nice job Lance. Thank you for the knowledge.

So helpful! Thanks! Always come to you for Coffee knowledge.

This was extremely helpful, thank you Lance!!

Genuinely the best video on this topic I've seen. Well done! Impressed how you managed to squeeze all that info in there

Fantastic! I learn so much from watching your videos. Given a lot of this information is available online, but it’s the way you deliver this information, your humor and sincerity. It’s unmatched. You deserve to be in schools and university curriculum and teach about espresso machines, grinder, beans and roasting. I can watch your videos for days. Well done Lance and thank you for taking the time to create these videos. Legend!

Thank you Lance for this great video!! 🙏

Wow, this video is packed with userful infomation! Thanks!

Lance, Thank you for a most informative video. This is one of your best videos so far.

This was a fantastic video, thanks Lance!

Awesome video! Going to need to watch this one at least a couple more times. Thanks Lance!

Appreciate the effort and detailed explanation!

Super video ! You keep knocking these out the park man.

This will become sort of a reference video for me that I will watch time and time again for the years to come!! Great video Lance! Thanks for making this. :)

I love how you cut right through the marketing speak and real world it for all of us Lance. As always, great job!

Having watched the Hoff’s video and been in the coffee world for quite a while still learned some new things and refreshed some old things with this video. Very great work putting this altogether!

EXCELLENT video! Liked, subscribed, and saved this one to send to any fellow nerds looking to get a grounding in coffee!

Great vid Lance - especially liked the discussion on freshness and resting. As always, quite a bit of nuance in there that I hadnt necessarily heard before, so thanks!

Dont have time to wacht right now but already 'liked'. Going to watch as soon as possible and this is the type of content that I really want from you and miss on KZfaq generally!

That... Was.... Awesome! the part about processing was mind boggling, the bonus parts are important and are essential in this video. Thank you Lance, brewing something tasty right now

fantastic fantastic fantastic video! I learned a lot! thank you so much!

Awesome video Lance, thanks!

Super awesome and informative video especially to folks newer to the real coffee scene! I have just started making pour over coffee at home and researching all of these things. Just wanted to say kudos to you and thank you for putting out videos like this!

definitely learned sooo much from this video. thank you for all the information!

Lance, you just have made a classic.. Congratulations for the video. From now on, if anybody asks me, I will share this video to them. Congrats.!!!

Thank you for such a valuable resource! This is fantastic information.

You really have an incredible depth of knowledge on the subject, it reflects countless hours of study and experimentation I'm sure.

Very helpful. Thank you, Lance.

Such a great video, thanks Lance!

As easy as it seems the choice of coffee is something a lot of people underestimate... Great video!

Very well explained, and with classic Lance flair! Especially liked how you say go ahead use filter roasts for espresso and vice versa....will be keeping that in mind. Thank you.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us today... I enjoyed this video and I believe I learned several things from your comments.

This is such valuable content. I would really love to see more content discussing regions, yearly harvests, varietals, etc. I love gear reviews, but this is more likely to produce better coffee experiences than a new grinder (even if I love watching every single grinder video haha). Specialty coffee buying is really opaque from a consumer standpoint.

awesome vid! big thanks - truly enjoyable and helpful :)

This was very informative! Thanks!

Excellent content! Thank you

Thank you Lance.

Your best video yet! 👌👌👌

Thanks Lance, looks like you have some really great coffees there. Processing is huge!

Super useful video (as always!)

Man, I feel so validated. I have always felt like I was doing something wrong because all of my favourite roasts for espresso have said they were for filter.

This is great, and some info on sourcing a roaster would be great too!

This was so helpful!

Fantastic video! I would love to see a video solely going over all the different processes, what they are, and their characteristics; especially more modern fermenty processes.

The video I needed ❤

Very good video. Thank you

I roast my own one pound at a time. Fair trade/organic from Ethiopia or Kenya. Been very happy. Roasting your coffee how you like it is game changing.

great info.. thank you!

thanks this was very informative.

this is amazingly helpfull...I have been going through several origins very blindly from a single coffee roaster.. This made me realize that the beans that I have liked the most have been neutral processed..seems like light roast is preferred but i really liked an anaerobic neutral medium roasted Nicaragua. from alle the sampled coffee I like coffee with "fun" notes in the aftertaste the most with some acidity.

Super helpful video, please do more of this! Any more you can say on why farmers pick varietals or processing would be great! What are the gimmicky processes vs those that delivered more defined flavours?

I don't know how i got down the coffe rabit hole, but I'm into it. So many things to learn about coffee

"Buy it, boom, no." 😅 Lance, this was super helpful. Love your content; I've learned so much from it!

Finally coffee man talks about coffee, awesome!

Hey, Lance thank you for this video and you’re detailed manner of speaking. I was wondering if you could do a guide on finding specialty coffee shops worldwide. I’m going on a long trip to europe soon and i’m worried I might miss out on some crazy shops just bc of a cultural barrier. Again Thank You For Your Passion!

Lance! Another great, and very helpful guide! The only other thing I can think of that might be a factor (for me at least as a home roaster and someone who also buys from specialty roasters - what can I say, I love coffee and drink a lot) is : The roaster - themselves and the machine used to roast, say the difference between an experienced roaster on a drum-roaster like a Probat or a less experienced roaster using an air-roaster like a Loring, yes you won't find this information on a bag - however a quick chat with the person selling the beans and they should have those answers. I also like to consider altitude, which affects bean size and density and has a huge effect on how to approach the roast itself (I can tell from personal experience) which can easily trip up inexperienced roasters - I had a local roaster botch up some smaller sized Ethiopian that you could tell was out of their comfort zone. Keep on trucking Lance!

This was extremely helpful. I will refer to this while I explore varieties. Gonna drop by Tim Wendelboe the upcoming week and test it out.

Well done sir. I enjoyed this video a lot. I’m sipping on a nice Ethiopian somewhat light roast from Kyle Rowsell’s Roastery called September. Definitely worth a try if you haven’t tried it yet. Be well.

Thank you, a very clear overview that helped organise / consolidate my haphazard experiences and lucky accidents :-) Nice to see the Manhattan coffee. I work at the State Library Victoria, Melbourne and was lucky enough to get served coffee by Ben Morrow on my lunch breaks!

Great video as always Lance! Have you considered doing more content on roasting as opposed to brewing and equipment? There are a lot of home roasters out here (myself included with the Aillio Bullet). Would be interesting to hear roasting approaches to all these experimental processing methods.

Saw a coffee a bit ago that said the process was "multi-day wine barrel ferment." It was super berries - loved it

excellent video!!

Thanks!

I am quite late to the party here. Super helpful video. Thanks so much!

I loved this- I’m not at all new to buying coffee but I definitely learned a lot. I used to solely buy single origin coffee but recently I’ve been exploring (and enjoying) blends and I wondered if you (or fellow commentators) had some thoughts on that? I don’t think the bags I have are always specific about what origins they’re mixing to make the blend.

Last year's geisha from Takesi is my favourite coffee of all time. And it was so exciting when I saw that Kian competed with it and you were coaching - and Marianna was even present for it. I even was lucky enough to meet her and show her around our bakery when she and her mother came to Copenhagen this summer. Such amazing people!

Love the content and long format which includes some really great nuggets of wisdom. Can you please review some unusual yummy green or roasted coffees? For example, I stumbled upon Edwin Norena coffees that are processed via experimental methods and have some really wild flavors. I’m a huge fan of his IPA/hops infused fermented ones. Thx

woo for showing the back of the Apollon's Gold bag! TFW you buy Apollon's Gold and you can't even touch it for 2 months 🙃

Ham video Big nordic representation too. Feel lucky to be in an area with such a wide selection of creative roasters.

@Lance thanks for the great informative video. It's funny I just tested roughly 10 different beans / roasters the last months and my favorite coffee came from one where the roast date was 1,5 months old :D Just have to try them and see what you like.

Great shirt!

needed this

Standart's latest Orange Wush Wush from duck-rabbit was my 1st introduction to crazy natural flavours

Love the new hairstyle 😊

This is awesome Lance! It is a privilege to work with producers like Pepe Jijon and we appreciate your work in making specialty coffee more accessible. Legend!

Another great video by Lance. I would like to see you discuss organic bean farmers who refrain from using insecticides, and even comparing organic and non organic beans for evidence of insecticide residue. Pubmed has some studies but would love to hear Lance's take.

Thx for the video . I know most of the roasters whose packs you showed in this video . Consequently, It would be really useful If you could point out 3 to 5 of your favorite roasters . Personally, I buy mostly from friedhats, dak, apollon’s gold , substance and nomad .

Super informative video Lance! Noticed you have quite a bit of coffee there, wouldnt mind helping you test out if theyre peaking after a month post roast 😏

I wish all things we buy had a qr code to scan where it came from, how it was made, how much they pay the people and overall just how ethical and ecological the practices are. Coffee is so much ahead in this sense as you can know the person who owns the farm and everything they do to the coffee AND how much they are paid.

Brilliant

Never settle for specialty arabica, if you can have fine robusta at a better price point :p Amazing how much content you got in this video!

I gonna watch this again

Would love to see your thoughts on exciting new roasters around the world and why!

Hi, Lance. Awesome as always your videos. Could you please make a video talking about landrace and heirloom and more like that? History or similar things. I know it will be interesting. Thanks. Greeting you from Colombia.

Awesome as usual. Any first impressions on the Vectis I can see your setup for the past weeks ? Thanks !

Thanks again Lance! Was really heartened to hear you mention yergacheffe. It was something that I'd enjoyed on the regular here in Australia almost a decade ago, but seems to have fallen out of fashion. Clearly not completely, so will just look a little harder. Cheers :)

THANKS!

Thank you

A medium roasted Bourbon Pointu from Lake Itasy région in Madagascar. Really nice coffee.

I keep switching between specialty and old school italian roasts because both have great taste to me

Lance might not push Onyx coffee but I will xD. Coffee from Onyx is always exceptional and I really like the transparency grade of each coffee. But support your local roaster too!

Lol was not expecting to hear Scott Labs mentioned here. I'm used to hearing about them in the beer brewing realm