I am often pleasantly surprised when I mix the last of the current bag with some of the next new bag.

Gonna need a really good “Go Fund Me”

I use a 7 stage 3M set up. No idea whether this is affordable or not in your region. Here in SE Asia it was a reasonable price.

Blade grinders make boulders and dust. Save it for chopping herbs or something. Get a Timemore or Kingrinder hand grinder for just over $50 on Amazon. They aren’t the best but they are far better than what you have.

A good grinder is arguably the most important piece of gear in your coffee making set up.

Like others have said, your biggest problem right now is the grinder. A blade grinder makes boulders and dust. There is no way to get good even extraction from that. There are decent hand grinders from Timemore and Kingrinder starting at $50+ and decent electric grinders from Baratza and Fellow from around $150. These would cover all of the non-espresso grinding needs. Espresso grinding will cost you a little more.

As far as good budget espresso machines go, Lance Hedrick posted this as the new budget choice:

https://youtu.be/UN0Qs7zSGk8?si=kfeV1SHojzxpAqFq

I used to have tons of problems with it but for the last 6 months or year it seems to be working fairly well for me.

I see it for sale on Shopee in VN for around $150. Looks ok. Personally I’d spend another $50 and get the Fellow Opus if I wanted an electrical conical that can do espresso and non-espresso grinds. The Baratza Encore ESP would also be a good choice.

That is so incredibly petty. I like it.

yup, I’ll take “Things that didn’t happen” for $500, Alex.

I love my Clever Dripper immersion brewer. Great device for the money.

I have used a blade grinder, the Hario Skerton hand grinder (cursed - avoid at all costs), the Knock Feld2 (quite good at the time it came out but beaten by less expensive alternatives now), the Helor 101 (same comment as Feld2), the electric Fellow Opus (quite good for the price but not perfect) and the Fellow Ode Gen 2.

I use the Fellow Opus at the office with a Clever Dripper immersion brewer and it is very good for that purpose. It was not so great for the V60 at home because it produces a fair amount of fines. It was ok for the V60 but the Fellow Ode Gen 2 is fantastic in comparison when used with the V60. The Ode Gen 2 produces very few fines and an incredibly consistent grind. I was frankly blown away by the improvement from the Opus to the Ode Gen 2 on the V60. The Opus is also a very visible step up from the Feld2 and Helor 101 when used with the Clever Dripper.

For drip coffee I cannot over recommend the Fellow Ode Gen 2. It is a great grinder and well worth the price.

One big negative, is that it won’t do espresso grind.

I would happily consider the Fellow Opus as a well priced all around choice for espresso, moka pot, and drip.

Xiamen, a city with a population of more than 4 million people, is directly across the Strait from Taiwan.

While fucked up, at least Xi and Mao are nominally real (though their particular origin stories and revised histories are also just as made up as those of the religious bunch).

Even after growing up with the deeply entrenched racism of rural Georgia, I was shocked at the overt and outspoken racism of Boston and the area around it.

Techno fascist says what?

Never had that happen. Every time good beans of the nearly finished bag mixed with good beans of a new bag results in a surprisingly excellent cup.

I’ve tried it and it was ok but I would not have it again.

If I am not traveling, just drinking at home or my office then under $25 for single origin Typica or Yellow Bourbon light roast beans.

If I am traveling then I might splash out $100 for four bags of beans.

I was using two already older but pretty good and not cheap hand grinders (Knock Feld 2 and Helor 101). But I recently got the Fellow Ode Gen 2 flat burr grinder ($300) for V60 pour overs at home and it was a complete game changer. At the same time, I took the somewhat recently purchased Fellow Opus conical grinder to the office to use with the Clever Dripper and now my coffee both at home and at the office are substantially better than before.

Buying a pretty nice coffee bean grinder made such a bigger difference in the quality of the coffee I drink that I count it as a solid win.