Steep or Brew? One and the same or different?
There are many unknowns in coffee. Regardless of how scientific some of us can make it sound, most of the brewing practices are a product of tradition, not science. At best, it’s practical observation,...
View ArticleThose Little Scoops
How many of you measure coffee using a tiny scoop that came with your coffee maker? Maybe things are different around an august group of coffee aficionados, but I just returned from a weekend retreat...
View ArticleColombia Coffee and Rediscovering “That” Coffee Taste
I recently received an email from a self-proclaimed, coffee obsessed reader. The question she asked was a difficult one to answer. It had to do with that feeling many coffee drinkers have had. You know...
View ArticleSowden SoftBrew Review
When I first laid eyes on this brewer, visiting Oren and Nancy Bloostein, I thought it was a teapot. Elegant, it was attractive. Maybe I thought it could serve coffee, but who transfers coffee from the...
View ArticleResuming with Sweetness
So let’s blog again like we did last summer. Reviewing three or four descriptive terms per week is the new plan. Judging by an occasional puzzled email, sweetness may be one of the more confusing terms...
View ArticleMore Coffee Aroma/Flavor Notes: Flowers and Aromatic Wood
Flowers and aromatic wood situate at opposite ends of the sensory range for coffee, though they both are among the most common and attractive of aroma and flavor notes. Floral notes appear to be a...
View ArticleLearning from Chocolate: The Pairing Experiment
A few weeks ago I took a few steps across a relatively new frontier of coffee connoisseurship known generally as “pairing,” i.e. recommending certain coffees that best pair with certain foods. Although...
View ArticleHario V60
There is hip and there is hip. The Hario V60 is definitely what the doctor ordered for the new slow coffee movement, that is brewed coffee done by hand, one cup at a time. I heard some marketing guru...
View ArticleThe Presso Non-Electric Home Espresso Machine
If you frequent any one of the high end specialty coffee shops around the country these days you have observed the popular revival of manual, hands-on brewing. The movement has spawned books and...
View ArticleThe Aeropress Coffee Maker
About five years ago or so Alan Adler, the inventor of the Aerobie Flying Disk, created the Aeropress because he wanted a cup of coffee was full and rich, similar to the results from a French press...
View ArticleWhat Does a 96-Point Coffee Taste Like?
What does a 96-point coffee taste like? Well, you can find out for yourself. Three coffees in 2013 have received ratings of 96 points… and at least two of them are still available from the roasters....
View ArticleSingle-Serve Coffee and Espresso Reviews
Machines that utilize a pod, capsule, or K-Cup packed with ground coffee to brew a single serving of coffee (or espresso) are very popular. According to the latest data from the National Coffee...
View ArticleHow Does One Rate Milk!?
We’re currently testing new capsule espresso systems for July’s featured article. There are three: the Starbucks Verismo, the Keurig Rivo (with coffee capsules produced by Lavazza), and a dark horse,...
View ArticleSneak Peek: Honduras Cupping
Our August issue, featuring specialty coffees from Honduras, should post tomorrow, Sunday, August 4. The cupping is complete. Nine coffees scored 90 points or higher. We’ll include all of them in...
View ArticleGuatemala Cupping: Sneak Peek
Sneak peek from the lab… According to Kenneth: “We have cupped about twenty Guatemalas with about ten more to go. We’ve encountered a very wide and impressive range of cup profiles, particularly in the...
View ArticleA Morning Cup by Jason Sarley
Many readers ask us about the best way to brew coffee, and the short answer is: whatever way is best for you and your tastes is the surest way. Although there are some worthwhile guidelines that can...
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