The Reading Room

Today’s brewed coffee experiment – does the grind convention (coarse vs fine) hold or is this something people do because it is what they do?   I really like James Hoffman’s blog and I find it especially interesting when this world...

Continued from OE Pharos hand grinder from Orphan Espresso -Part 2: First Impression Here's Part 1: OE Pharos hand grinder from Orphan Espresso -Part 1:Introductory   Retention: Titan conical grinders tend to have a bad name for their ground retention....

A hand grinder for espresso produces excellent results at a fraction of the cost of a quality electric grinder. Here is what to expect, the real tradeoffs, and the technique changes that make it work.

Fish lovers can rejoice and add some of their favorite sea foods back to their diets. This week, study results were released that showed cooking fish lowered the mercury levels. Even better, and more surprisingly, eating the cooked fish with...

This is a short series of blog entries on how living in Italy many years ago converted me from a coffee snob to an espresso snob. I had always enjoyed my coffee at home black (well not always – when...

reflections on my debut with roasting I was lucky enough that when I was just getting into espresso my wife gave me an iroast 2 as a gift.  I googled user advice and found some on Coffee Geek and plugged...

Hard water builds scale that clogs and shortens a coffee maker's life. Learn the signs, how to prevent scale, and how often to descale.

The Hario Mini Mill mod fixes shaft wobble and burr wobble in under 10 minutes using tape or a plastic shim. Here is exactly how to do both modifications.

The Robur – is it what every home enthusiast should aspire to? Coffee enthusiasts often figure out that as they move their budgets up their espresso gets better and better, so they wonder if going to the “top” of the...

With recent posts about where people got their start in their interest in coffee, (including my post about a moment when I changed the way I thought about espresso) I thought I'd recollect a bit about how my first interest...

For those of you who are following the coffee forum, you probably have heard about OE Pharos hand grinder that was released this year's April (on the April fool itself!) This is one of the huge breakthrough in coffee thus...

There is a lot of excitement in the world of espresso machines and there are a slew of machines that are coming out this year with new and exciting features. A machine that received a lot of buzz among the...

After dinner coffee closes a meal with warmth. Learn what roast to serve, when to reach for decaf, and how to brew a smooth, low-bitter evening cup.

What does a marketing exec do when he gets fired? If he’s Tom Vincent, he reinvents himself as the founder/director of an in-depth coffee school. Vincent’s “second calling” is teaching the science and business of coffee at his Texas Coffee...

An espresso macchiato is a bold shot marked with a dab of milk. Learn what it is, how it differs from a latte and cortado, and how to make one.

This post summarizes my second exchange with Velton Ross of Velton's Roasters.  The first exchange was before I tried the coffee and blogged about it, this exchange came after I finished my batch and had already blogged about it.  I...

Espresso tamping has one job: create a level, even puck that water flows through uniformly. Pressure matters less than most people think. Levelness matters more than most people think. This guide covers the correct espresso tamping technique, the 5 tamping mistakes that cause channeling and uneven extraction, and what to look for in a tamper.

http://www.coffeeshop.us/blade-grinder-560.jpg" width="560" height="560" align="middle" /> My hobby with coffee got started when I walked into Starbuck and look at the bags of whole bean coffee that they had. Before that, I was not aware of the many different "origins" of...

When it’s an origami coffee cup, you do. And if you add in a graphic designer, you may revolutionize to-go coffee cups! The cup, which even has its own name - the Compleat – won out over 93 other prototypes....

It is not secret that I really enjoyed Velton’s Bonsai Blend when I picked it up a few weeks ago. At the time I contacted Velton’s to see if they had any advice on how to pull it and unlike...