A perfect cup of coffee

Why I like to brew my coffee using the FRENCH PRESS METHOD.
Well if you are a coffee lover like me, you might just have at some time in your life, been frustrated because you couldn't brew the 'perfect' cup of coffee at home. Now I understand that 'perfect' is very subjective and is dictated by your taste buds. Okay so if you are anything like me, you maybe got hooked on coffee from your favorite coffee shop. Then after realizing that it was turning into an expensive habit, perhaps you decided you should make coffee at home, so you can save money. So you tried making coffee at home in an automatic drip coffee maker. Very convenient and you could get it ready the night before and set the timer so in the morning it would be ready. The aroma of fresh brewing coffee sure helps me get out of bed...I need all the help I can get...lmao. So you smell this good smell and you can't wait to have that first sip....then when you finally do...it is only to be disappointed...it doesn't taste like Starbuck's, Caribou, Dunkin' Donuts or whatever your favorite is.
So then what do you do....you really believe you did everything correctly.
You started out with fresh and pure or filtered water. That really makes a difference in taste. You selected your favorite coffee blend, a lighter roast contains more caffeine and a darker roast contains less caffeine....More on that later.... you ground your own beans-perhaps. To me it is a good thing because whole beans stay fresher longer and fresh ground coffee is at it's peak of freshness and flavor....at least in my opinion.
But it still didn't produce quite the taste that I was hoping for. So - what to do next? Well my coffee maker is a three-in-one contraption. It also makes espresso and cappuccino. So of course, I had to experiment. I learned how to make espresso and I like mine au lait. The frothing comes into play when you use the steamer which is the cappuccino part. Soon I perfected it and life was grand. It tasted almost like what I could get at my favorite coffee shop. BUT there was a price to pay....it was labor intensive....soon I got tired of all the work, and clean up. So then my next short cut was to just heat up the milk on the stove or in the microwave and the put it in a bottle and shake it up to get it frothy. Well when you shake up hot milk, it can get kind of messy and explode all over from the pressure that builds up from the temperature of the heated milk. And of course if you have to clean up a mess when you are trying to be on time for work, that could be a real challenge. So then I just resigned myself to warm milk.
Well then I came to the conclusion that I was consuming too much caffeine, because I was using 2 then 3 then 4 shots of espresso to get the quantity of liquid that I wanted to consume to equal a medium to large coffee. So you can probably guess where this is going.
First important thing that I discovered is CONSISTENCY!
What do I mean? I mean scientific process consistency. It might seem like overkill, but I find that if I do everything exactly the same, I can predictably make a good cup of coffee that is to my liking and not be disappointed. So once you've done your experimenting and finally get it right....repeat the precise process and you will have a good cup of coffee and BE HAPPY!
More...soon on my adventures on making the perfect cup of coffee...

Well probably the main reason is freshness and taste or taste and freshness...What comes first...lol! If it's fresher it taste better. If it taste better then that is a good reason to grind your own. Sure it takes a little extra time, but it is well worth it! More to come on selecting grinders and the coarseness of different grinds.