tl:dr – After a chat with a local barista, I’m exploring “The Bag You Know”—the concept of sticking to one reliable, well-loved bean to master your setup and find consistency. By making one bean my constant and leaving room for other experimental bags each month, I’m hoping to bring the balance back to the grind and move away from the stress of constant dialling in.
One of my favourite things is going to a new coffee shop in a familiar location. It was during one such occasion, that I got talking with a barista about “The Bag You Know” concept.
After ordering a latte and a banana cake – I got chatting with the barista. I can’t help it, I love connecting with others in the coffee world and learning little bits from shared knowledge. We got talking about our home coffee setups. They owned a Sage Bambino Plus and a DF54 grinder. They seemed impressed with my own setup and we soon got talking about our loves and loathes of specialty coffee. They said one small and insignificant passing comment as they were steaming the milk that stuck with me – so much so, I’m writing a blog post about it and seriously considering implementing it in my life.
We were talking about the precipice you find yourself in when you go from being a drinker of coffee to becoming a ‘maker’ of coffee. That dangerous edge of falling into learning details about coffee preparation which could leave you getting overwhelmed and losing the joy of it all. The barista mentioned that they had toned down buying all these different beans and have been focused on one bean that they love. Their goal – to hone in on it and perfect it. They get to learn to make exceptional coffee with their set up. This bag is what I’m going to call…
“The Bag You Know”
You may also call this “The Old Reliable” or “The Constant” but they are the same thing. I have written about my learning curve living with my Gaggia Classic Pro for the first 2 months but now I think about it, it isn’t quite an annoyance at the machine but more a manifestation of being overwhelmed. New machine, new beans to dial in every couple of weeks, new gear to learn, new workflows to establish – everything is inconsistent and in constant flux. Whereas maybe I needed to simplify things a lot more and not change so much. The Bag You Know may be the way to do that and it may prevent this hobby (that I love) becoming a great source of stress.
The good thing is, I’ve tried a lot of bags up until this point and I know that my preferred flavour notes in lattes are cocoa (milk more than dark), syrups (imagine molasses, dark sugars) and creamy sweetness (like fudges, caramel or toffee). I am new to the filter and V60 pour over world, so I’m happy to explore those floral and fruity notes. With that, I settled on roasters I know and value and decided to take some to figure out which one will be The Bag You Know for a long period of time (I’m thinking for 3 to 6 months).
- Option 1: Strangers Coffee, Colombia Campo Santo (Flavours include milk chocolate, orange and caramel)
- Option 2: Origins Coffee, Stronghold (Flavours include dark chocolate, fudge and brown sugar)
- Option 3: Origins Coffee, Resolute (Flavours include dark chocolate, hazelnut and demerara sugar)
- Option 4: Mission Coffee Works, Bells (Flavours include stone fruit, caramel and milk chocolate)
It’s worth noting, I go through about 750g of a coffee in a month which usually equates to three 250g bags. If one of these bags is my constant and the other two are my experimental bags – I will still have the chance to explore and try something new. If feels like too much, maybe I need two of the three bags as The Bag You Know and only try something new and spicy once a month.
Do you think this is a good idea? Can you see yourself having The Bag You Know in your coffee making journey? I’ll keep you updated on the final bag in another post.
Until the next brew,
Coffee Log 
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