Unpopular opinions

[ethompson]

They did just relocate their whole retail store, which seems like it would, understandably, probably disrupt business as normal. Also comparing Craig, and people he has trained, using a variable speed 2x72 to a bloke at a farmers market with a bench grinder or 1x30 seems a bit reductive. I have no doubt that you have had a less than good experience, but wanted to add some color commentary given I've had many great experiences with CKC.

 

[nhb22]

I feel like Carbon Knife Company is the least professional knife shop at the moment. Gave them a knife to rehandle and got treated third class citizen. Heard from a local source that Carbon has stopped hand sharpening and is only using the belt grinder. Which is equivalent as giving your knife to the guy at the farmers market and letting them put on a grinder running a couple thousand rpm shaving off at least 3 to 5 mm of steel.

i wonder if they disclosed it up front. MTC doesn't even offer sharpening anymore cuz they can't find a sharpener and the economics don't work out. if CKC made that change in services they offer, I imagine there is a pretty good reason.

 

[luuogle]

They did not disclose it upfront, but I heard of it from a friend that also does knife sharpening in the area.

 

[esoo]

I feel like Carbon Knife Company is the least professional knife shop at the moment. Gave them a knife to rehandle and got treated third class citizen. Heard from a local source that Carbon has stopped hand sharpening and is only using the belt grinder. Which is equivalent as giving your knife to the guy at the farmers market and letting them put on a grinder running a couple thousand rpm shaving off at least 3 to 5 mm of steel.

They did not disclose it upfront, but I heard of it from a friend that also does knife sharpening in the area.

So did you actually have a knife sharpened by them that they destroyed, or are you just slagging them because you didn't like their customer service and your buddy is a competitor?

 

[luuogle]

I had some work done on a knife that took all week to get done. As a customer, I value timeliness and professionalism, both of which seem to have been lacking in this instance of the situation. I believe it's essential for businesses to prioritize customer satisfaction by adhering to promised timelines and demonstrating respect for customers' possessions that most of the majority of people here would feel this way on the topic at hand.

 

[esoo]

I had some work done on a knife that took all week to get done. As a customer, I value timeliness and professionalism, both of which seem to have been lacking in this instance of the situation. I believe it's essential for businesses to prioritize customer satisfaction by adhering to promised timelines and demonstrating respect for customers' possessions that most of the majority of people here would feel this way on the topic at hand.

And I have no issues with that kind of statement. Even up here in Canada, I saw the store was closed for a while, but if you had work in with them, they should have communicated appropriate expectations. No issue from me if they are on the hook for poor customer service.

But you then go on to slag them for using a belt grinder like they are a farmers market hack. And this based on your buddy the competition.

So I ask again - did you have your knife damaged by them using a belt, or are you just grumpy (possibly justifiably) that they didn't meet your expectation for customer service?
Because the two are completely separate items.

 

[luuogle]

I didn't have a knife damaged by them but still disappointed with the lack of respect and quality customer service from CKC.

 

[esoo]

I didn't have a knife damaged by them but still disappointed with the lack of respect and quality customer service from CKC.

Ok. I can fully understand and appreciate that. To me that is something that should be shared with this community.

And that is where the comment should have stopped as the rest is unfounded assumptions

 

[Vertigo]

And this based on your buddy the competition.

Sorry if I missed it, but source on his buddy being the competition? Or is that also an unfounded assumption?

(Real question, I couldn't find it but I'm mostly known for my idiocy)

*Edit - Found it! *

 

[jedy617]

I believe most shops belt grind, and some do final edges on stones, or you pay a shop $20+ for premium stone sharpening usually. At least I know district cutlery does a belt, so does CKTG, and I've seen a belt in JKI vids. It's just a tool, all about how you use it. For a business and thinning it's essential. Also really important to make sure it's water cooled of course

 

[Naftoor]

Tasting notes are a collective delusion. Wine still tastes like wine (). Coffee still tastes like coffee. Single origin chocolate is still chocolate. The way descriptions for those things are written it would make you think you’re going to get some magical experience where you’re suddenly going to forget you’re consuming product A instead of blah blah blah notes. Then you go online to figure out why and people go “oh no it’s not meant to taste like that, only that it evokes the idea of that!”. Well, why is the primary product not the primary tasting note then?

 

[Justinv]

if the coffee roast isn’t labeled like medium, dark, light. etc. and all you get is tasting notes then it will always taste like wood chips and cardboard soaking in warm water.

 

[Naftoor]

Just cupped a few from a local place that tends to get really good reviews both on Reddit and some forums. Tasting notes and roast level included. Good even roast, didn’t see many broken or hollow beans in any of my experimentation with the bag.

Results from myself and the other amateurs (myself included in that number) in my family? Tastes like coffee. Good coffee. There’s a flavor that nobody could put their finger on, that while it was a positive flavor, it didn’t align with any of the notes suggested. But still, just coffee. Interesting scents from the grounds didn’t make it into the cups. One of them was noted to actually have some legitimate sweetness which was interesting, so there’s that at least, but even that failed to align with “sugar cookie”. I’m 90% certain at this point the tasters and YouTubers who write these labels and notes are either so far up their own rears they think their flatulence has a grassy brightness in the nose and a lingering sweetness of summer stone fruit, or they’re flat out lying to draw more people into the hobby and store pages.

 

[Justinv]

I tried bean box subscription for a while and I would disagree with you and say 90% + are terrible and don’t taste of coffee. They taste like wood chips and cardboard soaking in warm water. Thats based on trying 50-100 coffees and liking maybe 4. The light roast fad making overly acidic swamp water is just not my thing. I get some people liking it, but stop labeling the acidic swamp water as dark roast!!

 

[nhb22]

I tried bean box subscription for a while and I would disagree with you and say 90% + are terrible and don’t taste of coffee. They taste like wood chips and cardboard soaking in warm water. Thats based on trying 50-100 coffees and liking maybe 4. The light roast fad making overly acidic swamp water is just not my thing. I get some people liking it, but stop labeling the acidic swamp water as dark roast!!

can you give me 2-3 examples and how you brew those coffees and how the label/description was misleading you? I'm just curious

 

[Naftoor]

I tried bean box subscription for a while and I would disagree with you and say 90% + are terrible and don’t taste of coffee. They taste like wood chips and cardboard soaking in warm water. Thats based on trying 50-100 coffees and liking maybe 4. The light roast fad making overly acidic swamp water is just not my thing. I get some people liking it, but stop labeling the acidic swamp water as dark roast!!

Oh I’m not gonna disagree, I would fully believe that most are pretty bad. The previous roaster I tried was also very highly rated by locals. One bag literally tasted like ash. The other, smelled highly of blueberries to me, except they roasted any discernible flavor out of them and left them with nothing but bitterness which made me quite sad. I am currently at a solid 50% hit rate on speciality coffee, which frankly is sad given that the whole speciality coffee thing is supposed to be about starting with graded, above average quality beans.

 

[M1k3]

can you give me 2-3 examples and how you brew those coffees and how the label/description was misleading you? I'm just curious

Birthdate, mother's maiden name and last 4 numbers of social also.

 

[Justinv]

I do aeropress brewing and have a baratza grinder. My primary gripe is I dislike acidic coffees. I also dislike burnt coffees but thats better than sour. I just want clear labels so I can sort out sour, medium, burnt and buy what I like.

 

[Justinv]

honestly, I just want not sour not burnt. If those were the tasting notes I’d buy it!

 

[nhb22]

I do aeropress brewing and have a baratza grinder. My primary gripe is I dislike acidic coffees. I also dislike burnt coffees but thats better than sour. I just want clear labels so I can sort out sour, medium, burnt and buy what I like.

My experience has been different, but I like sour/fruity coffees. I find a med/dark bag that doesn't have fruit notes in the description is normally pretty safe from a sourness perspective. Have you tried BB Hayes Valley? I consider it a chocolate bomb.

https://bluebottlecoffee.com/us/eng/product/hayes-valley-espresso

Maybe you are more sensitive than me re acidic. I'm kind of sensitive to burn taste so I almost only brew light roast beans.

 

[jedy617]

Tasting notes are a collective delusion. Wine still tastes like wine (). Coffee still tastes like coffee. Single origin chocolate is still chocolate. The way descriptions for those things are written it would make you think you’re going to get some magical experience where you’re suddenly going to forget you’re consuming product A instead of blah blah blah notes. Then you go online to figure out why and people go “oh no it’s not meant to taste like that, only that it evokes the idea of that!”. Well, why is the primary product not the primary tasting note then?

I think it really depends. There are really great blueberry bombs out there for coffee for example. A popular one is Halo Bariti natural from Ethopia, really tastes like blueberry jam in your coffee. I have a friend who is a roaster and gave me some samples he was working on, and I had one roast where it was described as sage and caramel and it was bang on. And another one labeled almond butter and it tasted like nuts. And I don't have an extremely developed pallet imo. I think anyone could taste this stuff. If you have a good kenyan or even better a natural ethiopian, I can't imagine not tasting strongish notes of fruit.

However. There were many times I have gotten coffee with descriptions that I have never gotten in my tasting, stuff like pineapple, nectarine, peaches, plum, kiwi...etc.

And then we get to wine. For wine, I can tell if it is sour, sweet, bitter, or smooth and that's about it. Same with stuff like whiskeys and bourbons, don't have a developed taste for it. I can taste smokiness, vanilla, caramel notes and that's about it.

Maybe people are better at detecting notes in some media compared to others

 

[ethompson]

Codswallop. Sure sometimes people get overly intense and specific with tasting notes - I prefer “tropical fruit” to “dragon fruit & mango” and “stone fruit” to “plumcot” - but coffee can definitely have aromas beyond just coffee. Same goes for wine, beer, chocolate, and any number of things.

Get a 6 pack of fresh Weihenstephaner hefe and tell me you don’t get banana bread on the nose or clove and bubble gum on the palate…

I agree it sometimes get pretentious to the point of being obnoxious,

On coffee in particular, getting the most out of a light roast so that it’s not just sour (and equally pulling the best from a darker roast) is fairly difficult. I’ve had plenty of overly acidic light roast brews that were pretty awful, but once you get extraction high enough to get more balance of sweetness and body in the cup those lighter roast coffees start to make sense. Recently had a Colombian coffee that tasted and smelled a whole lot like ripe sweet summer melons. Of course, it’s still coffee, but that note was there.

 

[esoo]

Coffee tastes like what I'd expect bitter **** water to taste like. Zero idea why anyone would like it.

 

[Delat]

When I was into fresh roasted coffees they all tasted quite different to me in the first week. I could tell the flavor would change day by day for the first week, and after that yes, they kinda all tasted the same at that point.

But the first 1-4 days after roasting is pretty magical - really wonderful nuances and flavors. I’m not a supertaster and couldn’t tell blackberry jam from apricot in coffee nuances, but I could definitely tell there were differences and some I appreciated more than others.

I used to go to a local place that would change the type of beans for their espresso drinks every month or two and I could always tell when they made the changeover, enough that I would have a preference for one vs the other.

 

[panda]

I have strong suspicion majority on here are not good at sharpening.

 

[panda]

I think it really depends. There are really great blueberry bombs out there for coffee for example. A popular one is Halo Bariti natural from Ethopia, really tastes like blueberry jam in your coffee. I have a friend who is a roaster and gave me some samples he was working on, and I had one roast where it was described as sage and caramel and it was bang on. And another one labeled almond butter and it tasted like nuts. And I don't have an extremely developed pallet imo. I think anyone could taste this stuff. If you have a good kenyan or even better a natural ethiopian, I can't imagine not tasting strongish notes of fruit.

However. There were many times I have gotten coffee with descriptions that I have never gotten in my tasting, stuff like pineapple, nectarine, peaches, plum, kiwi...etc.

And then we get to wine. For wine, I can tell if it is sour, sweet, bitter, or smooth and that's about it. Same with stuff like whiskeys and bourbons, don't have a developed taste for it. I can taste smokiness, vanilla, caramel notes and that's about it.

Maybe people are better at detecting notes in some media compared to others

blueberry flavored coffee sounds awful lol

 

[Just a DK]

I have strong suspicion majority on here are not good at sharpening.

Most of us home cooks on kkf are trying to figure out what a good edge means so you are probably not wrong.

Tbh most of worlds still puts points onto ootb edge so… getting better slowly…

That being said kitchen pros edge is something else… @labor of love birgersson had the scariest edge in recent memory.

 

[Delat]

if the coffee roast isn’t labeled like medium, dark, light. etc. and all you get is tasting notes then it will always taste like wood chips and cardboard soaking in warm water.

Coffee that tastes woody or like hay usually means the beans are pretty old, like a couple months or more post-roasting. To my taste buds anyway.

 

[ehhh]

Unpopular opinion: When most of the specialty coffee one buys tastes like the same swamp water, perhaps it's not the coffee at fault.

Post the exact recipe and I'm sure the resident coffee nerds can make suggestions. Brewing light roasted specialty coffee is tough, requires good equipment, precision by weight, and a lot of trial and error. Any Baratza should be capable of producing a decent grind for non-espresso brewing methods, but I've never been able to brew a great cup with Aeropress and their brewing instructions suck imo. There are a ton of ways to use them and I prefer the inverted method with a longer steep time. They're travel friendly and can be quick, but outside of that I don't see a reason to use one at home as the main brewing method. I'd rather have a pourover, french press, or a good drip brewer.

I agree tasting notes can be overly ambitious and marketing sleight of hand. Maybe it's all in my head, but I feel like I can discern broader notes like citrus/stone fruit (sour/tart), other fruit (lightly acidic and sweet), chocolate, dark chocolate (bitterness), and floral (perfumy, tea like) notes. Anything woody I would call bad recipe/grind/technique, truly bad coffee, or really old. When roasters put really specific stuff on the label I group them into my categories and have an idea of whether I want to try it. The main flavor will always be coffee, but the tasting notes are the subtleties that differentiate them so you can pick one that suits your taste. The only roaster I know of that puts (and quantifies) "coffee" in the tasting notes is George Howell.

 

[sumis]

light roast coffee makes passable tea.

.