My dad unintentionally tested me in coffee again - this time with a bulk bag of coffee beans from Costco, from the dreaded Starbucks.

In tea‑drinking communities, people tell variations of this story that you must know bad tea to know good tea. From r/tea:

A lot of this reminds me of a weird story that I can't remember the origin of. It comes down to a master tea farmer and his apprentice, and to start off his apprentice on training for tea tasting, he gives him the worse, most bitter tea. The apprentice is confused as to why he would do this, since they have access to the best tea they could think of. The master says “you cannot learn to appreciate the best of teas until you can appreciate the worst teas”

Or similarly from TeaForum:

I once read a story of a person being taught about tea by a tea master. The tea master would only allow him to drink the lowest grades of tea until he found characteristics in each material he enjoyed.

So following that story, I used the hand grinder, and the Aeropress, and the recipe I got from James Hoffmann.

The coffee I made still tasted overly bitter, even burnt, just like how people meme on Starbucks. However, to know good coffee I must know bad coffee. My next coffee will taste less like union-busting and more like fruit.