OK - this is where I'm going to sound like a coffee nazi. I generally prefer Americano's, I have a La Pavoni lever action espresso machine and pull short ristretto's, and drink a double espresso with roughly 6oz of water added as my prefered way. I would also take a $20 French press, filtered water and fresh whole beans w/ grinder over nearly any drip machine on the market.
For beans, I prefer single origin, stuff from Costa Rica and central America. I'm also into some blends that include Rwanda beans and similar Northern Africa beans. Roast, well that depends on the bean, Full City roast for most does great.
I'm also extremely spoiled; my boss (I work in IT, not a coffee shop) craft roasts coffee in a custom 6lb roaster to feed his own habbit (and his wife's) and sells the "other" beans to friends, co-workers and who ever else hears about his coffee. I usually end up with beans 48 hours post roast, at which point they've degassed enough to start grinding and brewing.
Because he's in a few buying groups, he often gets 10lbs of this or 30lbs of that and we enjoy it when it's around and move on when it's gone. Hence my mention of whole countries and not specific estates. He did buy a domain name more than a year ago but has been sleeping on putting a site up / selling online as small craft roast batches. He typically charges $10 / pound, not sure how much shipping would be, but my friends are all hooked now because it's really not that spendy when you compare it to the prices Intelligentsia gets for a pound. If anyone is really interested, shoot me a PM with your email address and I'll pass it onto him.
