Ok, I wanted to stay away from this coffee talk, but, who am I kidding, I'm a coffee addict/snob/self-named expert...
First, I barely tolerate any Arabica coffee. This variant of coffee is weak, burns very easy and all it has is a "nice" aroma.
Second, I only drink espresso. Many a day (way too many), and only very strong ones but very small doses.
Third, recently my wife surprised me with a Nespresso machine, and after trying all of their blends, I can only drink 4 of them, 2 for the aroma, 2 for the taste (they don't need my advertisement).
My family, in the late 50's, trough the middle 70's of last century, were coffee growers in Africa. This left me with a very biased opinion about what coffee really is. I traveled to their plantations in my holidays, and even if I was a child still, I drank the coffee made by the natives. First few times, it was like getting drunk, so strong it was. Got addicted right there and then, not even 10 years old. Besides the grain, the natives added the berries pulp to the coffee (beverage). I am not sure, but, it could maybe raise the dead, but oh so good... Even just eating the berries, they would get you higher than a kite. It was a variety, known as Robusta. Very, very, very strong, hard to ruin, not much aroma, characterized by small grains, usually harder than the Arabica ones (larger, very light, easy to break with your fingers). To me, the perfect ratio (if I can't have a 100% Robusta) is 70/30, with 70% robusta and 30% arabica. I no longer buy and mix my own mixture, but this was my go to recipe. Robusta is usually cheaper, so it was even better.
I bored you all enough...
Peace
