It’s funny you mention that. I moved to Melbourne AU a while back and quickly realized how bad the coffee I had been drinking my whole life had been. I honestly had trouble finding a bad cup of coffee there - although as it’s primarily an espresso based coffee culture it’s admittedly quite a different animal. I dove in pretty deep over the years, finally ending up with a Silvia/Mazzer setup, but oddly enough would sometimes find myself longing for a pot of “shitty diner coffee” - particularly on the weekends. After being introduce to real American diners, my wife - a lifelong Australian - also occasionally has the same craving. We always look forward to our first diner breakfast whenever we had back stateside. I guess at this point I just classify it as a different beverage altogether!

There’s something especial about crappy diner/gas station coffee. I can’t enjoy American diner breakfast (eggs, bacon, toast) without crappy drip coffee. It’s essential.

McDonalds has surprisingly “good” coffee in this regard.

you need to coffee acid to dissolve the diner food fats!

I hear you on diners coffee and the fact that it feels like it a different beverage altogether. I also crave it from time to time.

—do you have tips on how to actually brew it in a home setting? Or this is something can only be achieved by brewing large batches of the stuff, keeping it warm somehow, and letting it go stale for a few hours?

A cheap supermarket drip maker? I’ve tasted home drip coffee and tastes pretty close.

We don't really have sketchy diner drip coffee but we do have fancy approximations like batch brew that sort of capture the idea but taste better heh.

I think -actually- serving crappy diner coffee in Melbourne might be considered a hate crime against our culture though lol.

Yes, the rise of batch brew in Melbourne has scared me a bit - because while it is generally higher quality than most American diners at the end of the day it’s just a large pot of pour over that’s been sitting in a carafe. When there is so much good coffee to be had the city it seems criminal! (Yes, I’m being hyperbolic)

There are two kinds of coffee in my brain:

Third wave fancy coffee I make at home in our Chemex or Technivorm or get in really really good shops, as you describe.

McDonald's, gas station, donut shop coffee. It's swill but you confectionize it with cream and sugar. Double double as we say up here. It's not good, but it it's a utility. You just don't expect much from it, and that's fine

The problem coffee is the stuff in-between. Stuff that pretends to be specialty coffee, overroasted, overpriced ... but not actually good. Starbucks or restaurant espresso. Grocery store whole bean coffees that markets itself in a nice bag but turns out to be stale oily overroasted mediocrity. Simultaneously expensive, raises your expectations... and then just turns out to be junk.

> Grocery store whole bean coffees that markets itself in a nice bag but turns out to be stale oily overroasted mediocrity

You hit the nail on the head with this one. Disappointment tastes so much worse than the humble donut shop coffee.

You and I were seemingly writing our comments at the same time - and yours describes what I was trying to say so much more successfully than my own! Completely agree on all counts.

what is wrong with dark roasts? tastes like a nice cigar (and pairs well). some like smokey flavor (eg bourbon)

That's right. Every so often... like once a year... I'll smoke a cigar, and it feels like I'm breathing a good cup of black coffee.

dark roast can be good but it's not my preference

but dark roasting can also cover up faults (especially around freshness, etc), and masks the more complex berry notes in beans if not done well

I can still drink normal coffee. I can even tolerate most Keurig trash, still.

I find the good stuff to basically be a totally different category of drink, I think is what helps. Most coffee is pretty much just "coffee flavored" with just a little variation. The good stuff... it sits somewhere between coffee and tea, often has surprisingly little "coffee flavor", and delivers all kinds of interesting and delicate notes.

Like if you ask me "where can I get some good coffee around here" I've got recommendations, but if you follow up with "no, I mean good coffee" I'm going to have a different set of recommendations. Good coffee is a separate category of drink, LOL.