For the vast majority of coffee consumers, coffee is first and foremost a form of fuel. It’s not expected to taste very good unless it’s hidden inside several hundred calories of added fat and sugar. At best it’s seen as a warm and comforting fix, a frequent ritual, an addictive excuse to step [...]

Some guys invest a lot of time in learning the arts of mixing drinks as a way to impress the ladies. But honestly, women impressed by prowess in handling alcohol are probably too easily impressed to begin with. If you really want to lay the love mojo upon your special overnight guests, its [...]

Gird your wallets gentlemen, the time has come for us to talk about grinders.

No single investment in your coffee ritual (outside of the purchase of fresh roasted, ethically-sourced coffees) will have greater impact than the quality of your grinder. Those $9 “coffee mill” whirly-blade grinders just chop your coffee into a dusty mess, cursing [...]

A lot of us coffee nerds will tell you with great sincerity that one of the easiest and best ways to brew coffee at home is the presspot or french press. What we don’t say is that its also quite easy to screw it up and few of us have batting averages worth bragging [...]

We’ll wade into the deeper waters of espresso later in the week, but for now there are two main brewing methods to discuss: filter brewing and total immersion brewing. I’ll give my propers to my favorite tools for each method this week, but let’s lay some groundwork.
Total immersion brewing is where all the ground [...]

A great cup of coffee begins with great coffee beans. The long aisle in the grocery store and the seeming plethora of options can be daunting but knowing a few brutal truths about coffee will help you see the landscape as it really is.
There are a few things the giant coffee companies [...]

Its easy to take for granted, but that black liquid in your morning cup is a remarkable thing.
By many accounts coffee is the most popular beverage on earth after water. According to the World Bank, as many as 500 million people are involved directly or indirectly in the global coffee trade. [...]

It’s pretty pathetic that I’m sitting in a hotel room in San Francisco, trying to get cleaned up to go down to the lobby to get some crap drip brew—or at best take a run over to a Peet’s—yet we’re about to be schooled in the ways of the bean by my friend and professional [...]

I’ve never had too much luck roasting my own coffee. I tried using a popcorn popper; The beans seemed to turn out fine, but the coffee tasted like hell. Clearly I was doing something wrong. (If only we could get a professional coffee roaster and expert in to write about coffee… next week.)
It’s unlikely that [...]