Coffee 101

Myth: Pre-ground coffee isn’t significantly different from grinding coffee fresh. Busted: With pre-ground coffee, you lose much of the aroma and flavor compounds that make the coffee taste its absolute best. While you don't necessarily want to brew your coffee hot and fresh out of the roaster, you DO want to grind fresh right before brewing to maximize your coffee's tastiness. What's happening to the good stuff when you use pre-ground coffee? Encapsulated within that tasty little coffee bean are the aroma and flavor compounds; these are basically what makes our brains perceive great tasting coffee. Once coffee is ground,...

Some of us drink iced coffee all year long, while others keep it reserved for the hottest months (which is, unfortunately, becoming pretty much every month in Tennessee). Though iced coffee may seem like a one-trick pony, there are a number of interesting ways to brew up your cold coffee concoctions right at home. To get you started on your journey to your new favorite heat-squelching drink, we’ve laid out a different ways for brewing iced coffee. Cold Brew Instant Iced Coffee Iced Espresso Drinks (including a recipe for our Iced Cuban!) Flash-chilled coffee (also referred to as the ‘Japanese’...

So, you’re feeling good. After researching and asking advice from your coffee pals, you’ve procured your perfect home coffee setup. You’ve figured out your coffee brewing ratios. You’ve nailed that pouring technique. You’re cruising through those beautiful bags of Crema beans. Then, you notice that your Kalita is starting to stain a bit. Your coffee pot practically looks black inside where once shiny silver stared back at you. There are bean bits that seem to never quite leave your grinder.   “Oh, no!”, you exclaim, “what have I done wrong?!” Fret not! These are totally normal ‘side effects’ of coffee...

A COFFEE BREWING GUIDE: HOW MUCH COFFEE SHOULD I BUY? Figuring out how much coffee to buy at once so you can brew up the perfect amount doesn't have to be a guessing game or feel like math homework. (But, shout out to all the math teachers out there who we’re sure wouldn’t assign any more homework than what’s necessary. )  We crunched the numbers so you don't have to. We based these coffee brewing estimates assuming one 12-ounce cup of coffee per person per day using a 25 gram dose — what we recommend for most brewing methods. (Not sure how...