First it was aluminum and Alzheimer’s, then it was too much fat, and then too much protein, and then mushrooms that could help you lose weight, and now coffee? But this is not a health article unless you consider attitude a health issue (my wife does).

Making good coffee comes from perseverance and practice. Apply the scientific method of controlling variables to the best of your ability and make use of the as much of the potential of your equipment, all in the hopes of coaxing from the bean all it has to offer. Days, months, and then years pass. If you keep at it, all your friends discover where the best coffee is in the neighborhood. Some may even ask why you don’t open a coffee shop.

So you have created a foundation of what good coffee should taste like. Your know the difference between a wet and a natural processed bean just by the smell. You can taste whether there really is any Yigcheffe in that blend. Well, maybe not, but you certainly have made enough coffee to know the difference between a drinkable delight and swill.

So you head into town with a friend and drop into a coffee shop. What is your brain telling you? What mass of thoughts haunt your imagination?

• The aroma in here is more disinfectant than coffee
• Do I really have to drink a cup of coffee here?
• That tattoo on her face must have really hurt

Or is it more like

• Should I get a cup of the house blend or a cappuccino?
• If I find something I like I hope they sell the beans.
• Are the “roasted on” dates posted?

Two very different attitudes. If you are serious at all about your coffee and have visited enough coffee shops you likely have had more mediocre and bad experiences than good. It has a lot to do with personal standards. If you have been using pre-ground, canned coffee in big red jugs from the supermarket and brewing in a $12, plastic drip brewer, then just about anything at any coffee shop will taste as good, and likely better. But if you have been using freshly-roasted beans, ground per use (and you should be), then your reticence to enter a coffee shop is understandable.

But my advice is overcome the fear and try to find a shop that is worth visiting. Like finding a life’s mate, it takes time. Ladies know, you have to kiss some frogs to find a prince. There are good shops around. The best bet is usually the independent shops. Competing against the national chains with their centralized roasting facilities and massive advertising and marketing budgets, the small-shop owner has to offer more to compete, and that means offering better coffee.

So my advice is grab the phone book, look up coffee shops, and try one you haven’t tried before. You just might find better a place making coffee and get an education as well.