[ylhert]

Coffee friend here! This is the way! When people get me coffee or coffee paraphernalia as a gift, they tend to fall into a number of traps:

- Not understanding my nuanced preferences and getting me something I know about and don't like

- Not appreciating how to choose a good product (for example, with beans, an old roast date of more than 30 days means sad & stale coffee)

- Getting me something I like but I already have

In many cases I of course smile and am polite, and of course I am truly grateful for the thought, _but_ there is a level of disappointment which I have to hide because it saddens me to be wasteful, and I don't like putting on a performance. There are very few if any coffee things that I like but don't have, and are at a gift level price point (<$100). For consumables like filters and beans I have nuanced preference and it's unlikely that you'll happen to choose something that I like, but very likely that you'll choose something I know I don't like.

From this experience as a recipient, I have learned to be very careful about the gifts I give to others. I steer clear of things in the realm of someones passions, and try to share something I know and love. For example, I don't give whiskey lovers whiskey, or whiskey glasses, because I don't know what kind of whiskey they like, and I'm likely to give them something they know and don't like! So often times I'll use my superpower of knowing a lot about coffee to give the whiskey lover a high quality coffee that they would probably have more difficulty finding or choosing themselves. A great conversation can ensue where I can share why I think that coffee is great and interesting, and why I think they'll enjoy it.

Conversely, when Whiskey person wants to get me a gift, I would much prefer they give me a whiskey they like and think is great, and explain it's merits to me. I don't know much about whiskey, so it's easy to wow me and I love learning about it from friends who do!

[kibibyte]

One of the funnier problems I ran into recently was when a friend who actually understood my coffee preferences pretty well (though I don't think he actually grasps my preferences fully) got me coffee that was actually not bad, except that I already had way too much (and more preferable) coffee in the freezer.

Fortunately, even if I don't end up brewing all of it, I don't let it go to waste. In the past, I combined all of this throwaway coffee to season some new fancy burrs.