only 2 things really matter, when the coffee was roasted and when it was ground. everything else has some leeway: the roast, 18g vs 25g of coffee, 300mL or 400mL of water, 195 vs 208 degrees, pour over vs drip. sure, you can micro-tune those things but that’s a different category of coffee drinker. you’ll get good and consistent results if you get coffee roasted within a day or three, and grind the coffee fresh (even a blade grinder is ok, though i do use a burr grinder now).

in LA, stumptown, intelligentsia, and lightwave are good general options. i get mine from trystero, because reading pynchon felt like a rite of passage in college, and it’s excellent. a 14-oz cup costs me $0.90-1.00 per cup, all in.