Coffee 101

"So, is your coffee organic?" It's a question we get a lot.   And the answer is...yes? Sort of? I mean, technically it isn't? But, like, technically it is?   As you can tell, we are very eloquently equipped to address this complex issue. So we enlisted the help of Edwin Martinez, the owner of Finca Vista Hermosa in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Our friendship with Edwin dates to 2010, when he became the first farmer we ever bought coffee from.   "Organic," like any other title, carries a lot of weight, and, perhaps, a lot of false assumptions. It is perhaps a...

All coffee falls into one of two categories: commodity and specialty. Commodity coffee is coffee that is traded just to get the job done. You often don’t know where it was grown or details about who grew it. Its flavor is less complex and is often a bit more bitter. The name of the commodity game is quantity. Specialty coffee is entirely about quality. All coffee is graded on a 100-point scale. To be considered “specialty,” a coffee must score at least an 80*. In this way, specialty coffee stands as the direct alternative to commodity coffee. It’s not that...

HOW TO BREW COFFEE 101 Coffee is composed of a world of chemical compounds. When you grind whole bean coffee and introduce water to those grounds, some of those compounds (specifically soluble flavor compounds) are imparted to the water. This process of imparting is called extraction and it’s how we get brewed coffee. The best brewed coffee has an even extraction, full of all of the great stuff and none of the not-so great stuff. A skilled brew is all about learning how to finesse the three three key variables that determine how many particles end up extracted: temperature, turbulence,...

DECAF COFFEE: DEBUNKED We’ve got a secret: we love decaf coffee. (Ok, so maybe it’s not exactly a secret and we certainly don’t intend to keep it one!)   Decaf coffee is often viewed as caffeinated coffee’s slightly worse relative that’s usually just there for those times when you physically can’t handle any more caffeine. But, regardless of the reason you may reach for a cup of decaf coffee, we’re here to tell you that it doesn’t have to taste bland, bitter and lifeless.   There’s a better way to make coffee decaffeinated and it involves just a bit of science...