# Branded a weirdo at work today due to coffee



## AndyDClements (Aug 29, 2016)

A colleague was set to do a "coffee run", well people walk and the liquid from the vending machine really isn't coffee. As part of the polite routine to decline I passed comment that I'm only drinking decent coffee now so not even the stuff from the canteen (it's a B2C machine that produces really bitter brown liquid). The colleague commented that I could become as bad as Chris Hoy who he'd seen on TV making a comment about making coffee from ground beans* and how Mr Hoy measures the amount that comes out over a set time.

My response seemed to me, quite reasonable, I just explained how it's about getting the right amount of liquid from the weight of grinds, over the right duration. *I didn't even ask what else decent coffee can be made from.

That's it, at this point I'm now officially a really weird geeky coffee person. Well, you probably know the phrase about when you find yourself in a hole stop digging, it applied but I didn't heed it. I then explained how I'm not really geeky, I'm a relative novice compared to the experts on this forum.

Oh. S&&&;. Now that's really it. Now I'm officially weird (weird with a capital F).

I'll not ask if I'm alone, I'll assume I'm not. Anybody else get classified as weird just for disliking bad coffee?


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## Jon (Dec 3, 2010)

That's standard!


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## PeterF (Aug 25, 2014)

your definitely not alone


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## UbiquitousPhoton (Mar 7, 2016)

I'm apparently weird for owning an aeropress ffs. I'm often told how it takes too long and its not worth the effort.

Number of people owning an aeropress has admittedly gone up sharpish since I got one years ago, now, if only I could convince the other people that decent beans are worthwhile...


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## marcuswar (Aug 19, 2013)

+1

...although I usually get called a coffee snob rather than geek, but that might be because working in IT we're all already geeks to start with.


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## MSM (Mar 12, 2015)

Yep +1 for working in IT and being called a coffee snob!

I do get a lot of visitors to my office which is nice.


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## Missy (Mar 9, 2016)

Simple solution. Stop working and then nobody knows... Until your toddler starts "making coffee" at play groups.


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## Scotford (Apr 24, 2014)

Quit your job and become a professional coffee weirdo geek.

please excuse any brevity, I'm a moron with a mobile


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## Daren (Jan 16, 2012)

Embrace the geekiness ?. They can't help being ignorant - poor soles


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

Try being branded a weirdo at work when your work itself involves making coffee..lol


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## grumpydaddy (Oct 20, 2014)

"Want a coffee"

"er.... No thanks"

"Oh I forgot. You're a coffee snob now aren't you"

but that is not how I see it when I think of how few rungs up the "enthusiast" ladder I have progressed and I certainly don't preach. The boot is now on the other foot however.... The instant folks are heathens

Perhaps we should call them "coffee pagans" when they opine on the subject


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

me ''You should purge and wipe the steam wand every time you use it''

x ''You're such a coffee snob''

me ''erm''


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## Thecatlinux (Mar 10, 2014)

I have found calling it 'coffee flavoured drink' normally shuts most people up


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## hotmetal (Oct 31, 2013)

Funny how people get all eggy and bent out of shape when you decline the offer of instant or make your own with an Aeropress or V60 and they have to resort to calling you a 'snob'. It's not as if anyone ever says "pah! Instant? Get thee behind me". You don't get this with beer - if you say you like [insert craft beer of choice] people tend to be cool with that, or even interested (unless it's just a mass produced lager in a poncy bottle that is well known as a poseurbräu).


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## hotmetal (Oct 31, 2013)

Thecatlinux said:


> I have found calling it 'coffee flavoured drink' normally shuts most people up


You should see the flaming that happens on certain cycle forums when someone refers to a cheap bike as a "BSO" (bike shaped object)!


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## johnealey (May 19, 2014)

Recently having got fed up with comments like the preceding, I started offering to make the individual a "cup of snob" as a side by side with the cup of instant machiney stuff, works a treat every time.

Downside, I now make lots of coffee for people when out and about









John


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## MediumRoastSteam (Jul 7, 2015)

Welcome to the club. Don't worry, soon enough they will be asking you about machines, coffee beans and grinders. I have actually sold my old setup to someone at work, and another colleague asked me to buy a grinder on his behalf. ;-)


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## hotmetal (Oct 31, 2013)

It was talking to a bloke at work about his aeropress (first time I had seen one) that got me onto this forum. ... we all had to share a big cafetiere and pre-ground, but Neil was there with his AP and quality beans. I tried a sip, next thing you know he's told me about CFUK and now look what happened!


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## Hairy_Hogg (Jul 23, 2015)

The one retort I have used in the past that makes people pause to think is "if you were making a cake would you not weigh the ingredients to ensure it tasted the way to expected it to". I must admit only about 3 in 10 people agree...


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## CoseleyKen (Oct 12, 2016)

Well you know what they say..............You can't educate pork!


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

hotmetal said:


> It was talking to a bloke at work about his aeropress (first time I had seen one) that got me onto this forum. ... we all had to share a big cafetiere and pre-ground, but Neil was there with his AP and quality beans. I tried a sip, next thing you know he's told me about CFUK and now look what happened!


You are now richer in experience and poorer in pocket


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

I was paid a compliment two days ago. My niece and her friend who I had not met before came around. I made them a coffee and her comment was, 'oh, this is just like Costa'

e thinks of the old adage, you cannot polish a turd!


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

AndyDClements said:


> A colleague was set to do a "coffee run", well people walk and the liquid from the vending machine really isn't coffee. As part of the polite routine to decline I passed comment that I'm only drinking decent coffee now so not even the stuff from the canteen (it's a B2C machine that produces really bitter brown liquid). The colleague commented that I could become as bad as Chris Hoy who he'd seen on TV making a comment about making coffee from ground beans* and how Mr Hoy measures the amount that comes out over a set time.
> 
> My response seemed to me, quite reasonable, I just explained how it's about getting the right amount of liquid from the weight of grinds, over the right duration. *I didn't even ask what else decent coffee can be made from.
> 
> ...


Brings to mind the words of the Poet Emily Dickinson

Much Madness is divinest Sense -

To a discerning Eye -

Much Sense - the starkest Madness -

'Tis the Majority

In this, as all, prevail -

Assent - and you are sane -

Demur - you're straightway dangerous -

And handled with a Chain -

Emily was seen by many in society as mad and probably wrote this as a defence of her beliefs. In as much as, people who really understand, what seems crazy is actually the right way and what seems sensible to most is actually crazy e.g. Nespresso or instant coffee and coffee made fresh ground beans. So you're in good company.


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## PeterF (Aug 25, 2014)

You can imagine the stick I get. As well as being into all things coffee my other passions are Traditional Wet Shaving & Hi-Fi.


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## hotmetal (Oct 31, 2013)

She can't have been that mad - her verse is spot on. Mind you she did rhyme 'Eye' with 'Majority' - clap her in irons!

Society as a whole is scared and mistrustful of anyone a bit different or eccentric and dissenters are often vilified or even chained up literally. You should see the stick I have to deal with at work since I once let slip I don't watch TV! And I mean nasty, not teasing. Apparently my busy lifestyle and interest in/preference for music (and posting on here) somehow threatens their self-identity and boy do they let me know it! Honey badger doesn't care though.


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

dfk41 said:


> e thinks of the old adage, you cannot polish a turd!


No,, but you can roll them in glitter


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

I think we've all been there. I'd rather get a headache than drink bad coffee if I'm running late in the morning. If I've barely slept I might make an exception. I got a black coffee from Greggs as part of their breakfast deal (extra 20p) and it was the most disgusting bitter tasteless thing I've ever had. Worse than the worst instant. The next time I was desperate enough I got an espresso figuring I could just down it but it actually turned out to be really nice - smooth, caramel, chocolate, no bitterness at all. It was never repeated. I think I just got lucky and they got some fresh beans in and cleaned the machine...


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## billt (Jul 10, 2013)

As a long established coffee geek/snob, my sympathy is with the masses.

Drinking instant isn't going to kill you; if I'm offered instant at a friends or relatives I'll drink it quite happily. I used to drink it at work. Why should you belittle people (which is what you are doing when you turn your nose up at instant) just because they don't have the obsession that you have?


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## Jacko112 (Oct 29, 2015)

Agree with the above - if I'm with a customer and offered a coffee then I always accept, regardless of whether its instant.

However when I'm office based I'm always laughed at for using my Cafflano - but then I see people getting coffee from one of these mobile espresso/cappa/latte units & spending £3 3 or 4 times a day! Who's the crazy person now??


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## dsc (Jun 7, 2013)

billt said:


> Why should you belittle people (which is what you are doing when you turn your nose up at instant) just because they don't have the obsession that you have?


Since when turning down a drink is belittling people? you can simply not be in the mood, like other coffee drinks (espresso straight up for example) or prefer tea / water. Just because they drink shite doesn't mean you have to, it's not like you have to share that experience with them just because they asked.

And yes I sometimes too drink instant, especially if I'm falling flat on my face and there's a long day ahead of me and I've got no access to anything better.

T.


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## AndyDClements (Aug 29, 2016)

I didn't do anything to belittle them, as far as I can tell. If offered a coffee at a friend's house etc I don't ask whether it's instant or not before deciding. The stuff from the vending machine is very much a brown liquid with some form of taste, a different taste to that of the liquid dispensed when tea is selected but neither really result in anything flavored of tea or coffee.


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

billt said:


> As a long established coffee geek/snob, my sympathy is with the masses.
> 
> Drinking instant isn't going to kill you; if I'm offered instant at a friends or relatives I'll drink it quite happily. I used to drink it at work. Why should you belittle people (which is what you are doing when you turn your nose up at instant) just because they don't have the obsession that you have?


It isn't belittling to have different taste. People turn their noses up at different brands of instant, tea, and even chocolate (Nescafé vs Douwe Egberts; PG Vs Tetley; Cadbury Vs Mars). There's nothing wrong or belittling about not liking the way something tastes.


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## rn-hilton (Nov 18, 2012)

Rob1 said:


> It isn't belittling to have different taste. People turn their noses up at different brands of instant, tea, and even chocolate (Nescafé vs Douwe Egberts; PG Vs Tetley; Cadbury Vs Mars). There's nothing wrong or belittling about not liking the way something tastes.


Agreed! I really dislike instant coffee and would far rather drink almost anything else. If somebody gets offended by that then they have far too much emotional investment in instant coffee...

On a side note, since I brought my AP into work there has been a really positive response to it. Lots of people have asked me about it and more often than not they are impressed. The same can even be said for hand-grinding, some colleagues have specifically asked to see if they can taste the difference (which they can) and have then gone on to get their own AP and hand grinders. Amusingly though, one person who sits a few metres away from me thought I had a lot of pencils to sharpen for about 6 months!!


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## AMCD300 (Feb 11, 2016)

I get asked now how my late art is coming on, so I have to show them my latest breakfast-time creation. Mind you, having shared coffee with them - either ground or whole bean - for their own home use they all admit to seeing how much better it is than mass produced shop-bought coffee. So a coffee geek I may be, but in a good way! Convert them or disown them...


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## Grimley (Jan 18, 2015)

Because I drive a LGV, if I get an offer of a vending machine coffee from a customer I say I've not long drunk one. I drink various levels of 'quality' from Mcdonalds (Better than instant but only just) to Greggs to Costa, then a decent flat white on Tuesdays while in Suffolk. Generally I don't get branded a weirdo when I tell anyone my coffee making methods. My mum seems to think I go a little too far when I make myself a coffee though. (She doesnt drink Coffee)


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## seeq (Jul 9, 2011)

I've heard all sorts. Especially from my family when they don't understand spending £600 on a grinder (I'm told Argos do one for less than £30). But it does pay off when you get complimented on it. This weekend my brother brought his new girlfriend to visit. She had met the rest of my family the day before and was apparently told that my place was the best place to get coffee anywhere around. I felt quite touched!


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## AndyDClements (Aug 29, 2016)

As compared to several people who think we are touched (in the head).


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## BBCoCo (Jul 26, 2016)

This reminds me of my time working in the NHS, I was regularly branded weird for my brewing methods. Soon enough when my colleagues had ran out of instant mix they asked me to brew one of my ground coffees for them, they soon kept me on coffee making duties permanently after that. They were obviously using me to get their coffees made but I got a buzz (no pun intended) off their compliments. Everyones a winner


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## Absollom (Oct 15, 2016)

It really depends on the circumstance but usually I just politely refuse. There is the odd occasion with people I am close to where I say yes to the beverage they class as "coffee" for social reasons,but it can be a struggle to drink it.


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## AndyDClements (Aug 29, 2016)

Well, I may have moved out of the weirdo sphere.

Two weeks ago I made some cold brew and took it in to work, one bottle of standard (Monsooned Malabar) coffee and one of decaf, and provided both along with cold milk and explained that if anybody wanted a coffee- how to use and. Several people tried them and comments of approval were made but I didn't now whether this was just the people being polite.

Well, today a colleague asked if I was going to do it again. I'll take that to mean two things, the coffee wasn't horrible to their tastes and they actually could see that ti was very different to what's available via the B2C machine. perhaps they still think I'm mad, or that I have a coffee problem but at least they seem to realise that coffee can be nice. Trouble is they mainly used decaf, and I'm about to run out..... Oh well Smokey Barn here I come.


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## benjbob (Apr 25, 2016)

Im the "coffee obsessive" at my work for owning more than one type of brewing method so don't you worry too much ?i prefer the term that im "uniquely coffee enthusiastic" ?


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## ajevans (Dec 18, 2016)

Hey, if it's only coffee you're getting weird looks for at work it could be worse. Not only do I get weird looks for my aeropress or v60 at work, I get them for my drawer full of fountain pens and inks, and for my use of a HP RPN calculator. I just like using good quality things!


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## Muahahaha (Dec 20, 2016)

haha I get laughed at about my love of coffee, though no-one minds when Im making it


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## PaulL (May 5, 2014)

Yup, been called snob, geek etc through the years. Most recent one was eccentric.

I just smile and have begun to have a laugh offering my mates a beer or wine and then asking them which granules they would like. Beer granules? they typically ask looking at the cupboard I'm about to open. Sure, I say, everyone makes their drinks with a jar and a spoon, right? All tastes the same, crazy snobbery and prices around these drinks don't you think? Or in an office by asking which beer or wine granules people use. They get the point.

Which means you get left alone when you say no thanks and tolerated as the crazy one, until you grind some coffee and give it to someone, they can't believe the aroma then it seems you really get left alone.


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