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by kaishiro 403 days ago
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!
3 comments

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)