Ahhhh, coffee.
I grew up on Folgers because that's what my dad drank until the day he died in his mid-80s. I do not recall EVER seeing him drink water. It was coffee, soda, beer, and cocktails in that order. He drank at least 6 cups of coffee a day, and often two pots.
I worked dorm security from midnight to 8 AM five nights a week to help pay my portion of costs thru uni. Folgers was my sleep defense brewed in a percolator I carried with me to work. This was well before the explosion of Starbucks-like coffee shops.
Then came Navy coffee until a port call in Singapore. I took one sip in a hotel restaurant and my life changed forever. That was the richest, least bitter-tasting coffee I'd ever experienced. A port call in Mombasa, Kenya delivered the same taste experience. I spent years searching for that rich, powerful flavor once I returned to the States.
Local coffee roasters helped, but I was still using a percolator. One of the coffee roasters suggested a Melita pour-over cone, which I still own to this day. It has been replaced by a newer Melita cone, but the result is the same. One's technique does make a difference. Still, it wasn't the same, but it was MUCH closer than a percolator.
Then I bought an Italian Bialetti brewer. BINGO! The Bialetti gives me the exact flavor I remember from Singapore and Mombasa. I grind the beans in my Breville grinder just before brewing. The pour-over is quick, satisfying, and easier to clean, so I use it in the morning, but the 3-cup Bialetti (6 oz total) is often my afternoon delight.
As far as Starbucks? Nice bathrooms on the road. I don't drink their coffee. 90% comes from Vietnam, which doesn't have the elevation for the type of beans I like.
I bought beans at the store or at coffee roasters for years. Then someone here on SMF put the thought in my head of roasting green beans myself. I did it once in a frying pan and have been roasting my own ever since. My technique and equipment have changed over the last five and a half years, growing from 8 oz of green beans to 20-22 oz, but the results are what I want. Pre-roasted beans go flat after 2-3 weeks, and everything in the grocery store is well beyond that point. Heck, I can see and taste it in my own beans because 20-22 oz roasts down to 17-18 oz which lasts me 3 weeks. The flavor difference is subtle, but not to THIS coffee snob...uh...lover.
My favorite beans are from Central and South America. Many African beans have a "spice" element that makes the beans taste dry and bitter to me as if I sucked on a cinnamon stick. Some are wonderful, but it's a crap shoot I avoid.
There's a thread in here somewhere about my roasting journey. It might plant an idea in your mind like someone here did in mine.
Enjoy the brown juice!
Ray