Why is chain coffee so bitter?

I'm a huge coffee fan so let me explain what I mean...

Having worked in bars, restaurants and coffee shops I know that from each place you go, the maintenance and cleanliness of the machine varies. The attention to detail of the grind varies; most bars don't care for coffee and will produce double espressos in about 10 seconds - this is because they don't know you have to calibrate a grinder, it was calibrated when installed and hasn't been touched since. Also everyone also knows that Starbucks over roast their coffee anyway so I don't want to include them as a reference.

But if you buy a bag of Costa coffee beans (for example), take them home, grind them, and brew a coffee, be it Aeropress, french press, etc you get quite a bitter coffee. This is the same with all the places I've worked at.

Essentially, all these blends designed for the average coffee drinker (middle-aged caramel latte whore), are bitter and horrible. Why don't they serve single origin coffee? Or at least a blend that isn't bitter. Why do they serve bitter tasting coffee.

I've worked for a large pub company for 2 years here in the UK and I buy my beans from the same supplier to them. Their single origin stuff I buy is amazing. The blend designed for this pub company is horrible. So I have no doubt that the roaster isn't to blame, simply the blend for pubs.

submitted by sephers2
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