What's a good coffee for a beginner?

Instant Coffee cooled with a hint of Irish Whisky.

Hint: 5 oz.

Instant coffees are mostly pretty disgusting, but that's a matter of taste, so if you find an instant coffee that you like the fact that others dislike it is neither here nor there.

Some instant coffees have quite high amounts of added sugar, so if that's a concern for you, check the label. Some have artificial creamers added.

For some people, instant coffee is a migraine trigger. You'll know very quickly if this is an issue for you.

The main advantage of instant coffee is the convenience — no special equipment is needed, and you can make a coffee for yourself very quickly. if you're making a latte you'll have to heat the milk, so some of the convenience factor is lost. Still more convenient than a traditional latte, though.

Coffee's an acquired taste, and you may find that your taste refines over time, so the coffee you like initially comes, after a while, to seem a bit disappointing. A lot of people who start out on instant coffee move on in time to real coffee and, after a while, some of those will no longer drink instant — they would rather go without, or take tea instead.

As coffees go, Lattes or Mochas are probably the easiest ones to get used to the coffee taste (basically by masking it)

You can add a dash of syrup to give it a sweeter taste if you want. There's sugar free versions of many syrups available but I haven't seen these served in cafes

I would recommend finding a medium roast coffee to start. It's generally a much milder flavour than darker roasts

As for health effects, it varies from person to person. I wouldn't be going drinking coffee to try and be healthy, there doesn't seem to be any conclusive evidence of any benefits and there seems to be as many drawbacks

Like all stimulants you'll build up a tolerance to caffeine and you'll find you need more to get the same caffeine buzz

Personally I limit myself to 2 coffees per day, maybe 3. I find that I have cravings for a coffee, but no adverse effects like headaches if I don't drink coffee that day

I don't really get the buzz or post coffee crash, probably because I'm used to a certain level of caffeine at this point

You should grow your own coffee, it's the only way to be sure.

If you want to make espresso based coffee yourself then a decent machine and grinder is a pretty high cost of entry

A mokka pot is cheaper and probably a manual grinder. Personally I'm too stupid to use the mokka pot properly, and you can't do proper textured milk for lattes

Honestly if you don't even know you like coffee then I'd just to a tour of the local coffee shops and see what you like

No point in investing big money now just to find out in 3 weeks that you hate coffee

Regarding where to get coffee, I've found discountcoffee.ie to be generally good and they've a good selection at decent prices

1kg of beans costs less than half the prices of many retailers and personally I find the coffee to be just as good

They've a selection of pods and instant coffees as well so you don't need to buy an espresso machine

Incidentally a pod machine is probably the cheapest way to make consistent espresso without a huge upfront cost

I sort of forgot they exist in my earlier post 😅

Personally I hate them due to creating a lot of waste from used pods. I know they can be recycled, but I question how many actually make it to being recycled and in general recycling is the worst form of waste reduction

However, I can't really argue with the price of the machines

Healthiest and simplest option is to find a decent coffee shop that's a 15-20 mins walk away and buy coffee from there

The walk will help give you some exercise and while coffee from a shop is pretty much the most expensive option, you can get quality without spending a lot of money up front

2-3 coffees per day is what I drink, and if you force yourself to walk to the shop it's a pretty good way to regulate your consumption 😁

Keep in mind that your Solpadol had 30mg of caffeine per tablet, while there's about 85mg of caffeine in a standard cup of coffee.

Nescafé Azera Americano. This is a really nice instant coffee.

I've had various different coffee making devices and always get bored and go back to instant.

If you just want caffeine then you can get that in most energy drinks or to save money, you can get a 'pre workout' and mix it up at home. (Often have 300mg of caffeine per drink)

Then go to the gym and put all that stimulation to some good use :)