Help Madtown make awesome coffee (aka coffee-making tips)

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OT,

I'm not good at describing tastes, but I'm guessing it was stale grounds. "Stale" is just the best word I can think of to describe it.

The coffee maker had been out of commission since at least August, when I moved in. The guy who I replaced was the one who used it.

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Yuck. If you don't want to go the route of buying new gear (the press suggestions above) definitely get some white vinegar and run two or three pots of water + a cup of vinegar through the coffee maker. You can just keep reusing the vinegar-water mixture when you do this. Then, dump it out and do two or three more pots of plain water, replacing the water every time.

If you don't want to get whole beans, get the beans ground at the store and then keep the grounds in a Ziploc bag in a cool, dry place. Figure two tablespoons of grounds per cup...give that a shot.

Good luck!