Coffee Lab

Coffee Lab

How to brew what we roast

Four brewers, the numbers we use for each, and which of our bags to put in them. Brew it as written the first time. Then change one thing at a time until it tastes like yours.

Brew guides

The four we get asked about

Ratios here are by weight, not by scoop. A kitchen scale is what makes any of this repeatable, and it is the one thing that turns a good cup into the same good cup tomorrow.

Pour over

Clean, bright, and aromatic

Grind
Mediumlike sea salt
Water
200°Fjust off boil
Ratio
1:1660g per liter
Time
2:30-3:30start to finish
  1. Rinse the paper filter with hot water, then pour that water out. It takes the paper taste with it.
  2. For one big cup, 22g of coffee to 350g of water.
  3. Bloom: a small first pour, just enough to wet every ground, then wait 30 to 45 seconds. The bed will puff up and settle.
  4. Pour the rest in steady circles. Keep the bed level and moving.
  5. Total around 3 minutes. Much faster and it will taste thin; much slower and it will taste heavy.

Tip If it tastes sour, grind finer. If it tastes bitter, grind coarser. That one adjustment fixes most cups.

Good with Ethiopia Yirgacheffe or Guatemala.

French press

Bold, full-bodied, and rich

Grind
Coarselike breadcrumbs
Water
200°Fjust off boil
Ratio
1:1567g per liter
Time
4:00steep
  1. Coarse grind into the empty press. Work off 67g per liter and scale it down to the press you own.
  2. Pour the water over all of it at once, so no grounds stay dry.
  3. Lid on, plunger up. Leave it 4 minutes.
  4. Press down slowly and evenly. If it fights you, the grind is too fine.
  5. Pour all of it out now, even the part you are not drinking yet.

Tip Coffee left sitting on the grounds keeps extracting and turns bitter. Decant it into a mug or a carafe the moment you press.

Good with Brazil: milk chocolate and caramel, smooth and low acid.

Espresso

Intense, concentrated, and sweet

Grind
Finelike powdered sugar
Water
195°Fstable temp
Ratio
1:218g in, 36g out
Time
25-30 secper shot
  1. 18g of fine grounds in the basket. Level them, then tamp flat. Flat matters more than hard.
  2. Water at 195°F, held steady. A machine that swings in temperature is the hardest thing to brew around.
  3. Pull until the cup reads 36g. That should take 25 to 30 seconds.
  4. Miss the window and change the grind, nothing else. Running fast means grind finer; stalling means grind coarser.
  5. Weigh the shot rather than watching the stream. The stream lies.

Tip Fresh beans matter more here than anywhere else. Espresso magnifies staleness, so check the roast date on the bag before you blame the machine.

Good with the Espresso Blend, which is blended for exactly this.

Cold brew

Smooth, sweet, and low-acid

Grind
Coarselike breadcrumbs
Water
Room tempor cold
Ratio
1:8for concentrate
Time
12-18 hrsteep
  1. Coarse grind, 1:8 coffee to water. That makes a concentrate, not a drink.
  2. Room temperature or cold water. No heat anywhere in this.
  3. Stir until every ground is wet, then cover it.
  4. Leave it 12 to 18 hours. Longer inside that window means stronger, not better.
  5. Strain it, twice if you can, and keep the concentrate in the fridge.

Tip Start by diluting the concentrate about 1:1 with water or milk, then adjust from there. It is easier to add concentrate than to take it back out.

Good with Brazil for the classic version, Ethiopia Yirgacheffe for a fruity one.

Which coffee

What to put in each one

None of this is a rule. A good coffee brewed any of these four ways is still a good coffee. But some of ours are built for a particular brewer, and it is worth knowing which.

  • Pour over

    Pour over shows more of where a coffee came from than any other method, so it suits our brighter mediums. Ethiopia Yirgacheffe is the clearest example we sell: floral and citrus, with a honey sweetness underneath. Guatemala is the gentler version of the same idea.

    Colombia works the same way with more caramel behind the citrus. If you want the least ordinary cup on the shelf, Tanzania Peaberry Plus is blackcurrant and wine-like depth, and pour over is where you will actually taste that.

  • French press

    Full body, no paper filter, and forgiving about the details. That suits darker roasts and chocolatey coffees, which is why we point people at Brazil: milk chocolate and caramel, smooth and low acid, and it stays smooth even when the press runs a little long.

    Half-Caffeine is our espresso blend cut with the Colombia decaf. Smooth chocolate, bright citrus, and it presses just as well. Mexico brings gentle cocoa and toasted almond, the lighter-drinking option if Brazil is more than you want in the evening.

  • Espresso

    The Espresso Blend is four of our origins blended for this one job: Brazil, Honduras, Mexico and Ethiopia. It lands on rich chocolate and smooth caramel. It is good as drip too, so a bag is not wasted if the machine is down.

    For a shot late in the day, Half-Caffeine is our espresso cut with the Colombia decaf. The Decaf is there when you want the cup without the caffeine: Colombian Huila, warm malt and brown sugar.

  • Cold brew

    Cold water pulls less acid out of the grounds, so every coffee comes out rounder than it does hot. Chocolatey ones get sweeter: Brazil makes the cold brew most people are picturing.

    Bright ones keep more fruit than you would expect. Ethiopia Yirgacheffe makes a cold brew that still tastes like citrus and flowers, and Honduras sits between the two: sweet, fruit-forward, soft berry.

Still deciding? The Trio is Honduras, Ethiopia and the Espresso Blend in three 12 oz bags, one of each idea, and it ships free.

Grind

Coarse to fine, and why it matters

Grind decides how fast water gets through the coffee. Too coarse and the water runs past before it has taken much with it. Too fine and it sits there, pulling out the bitter part.

Most people can skip this entirely. Every bag we sell comes Ground or Whole Bean at the same price, picked at checkout. Choose Ground and it arrives ready to brew.

Need something specific? Espresso, drip, pour over, French press, cold brew, a commercial urn. Any grind, made to order: put it in the special requests box when you add the bag to your cart.

  1. Coarse

    Big, chunky pieces. Made for brewers where the coffee sits in the water for several minutes before you pour or press it.

  2. Medium Coarse

    A little finer than French press. A good middle ground if your coffee tastes a bit weak or watery at coarse.

  3. Medium

    The everyday all-rounder. If you have a standard drip coffee maker on your counter, this is the one you want. Start here if you are not sure.

  4. Medium Fine

    A bit finer for a brighter, cleaner cup. Good for pour over drippers and pod machines that take your own grounds.

  5. Fine

    Fine and even, made for fast brewing under pressure. This is the grind for home espresso machines and stovetop espresso makers.

  6. Extra Fine

    The finest setting, nearly a powder. You only need this for specialty espresso machines that ask for it. Most people never use it.

If a cup is off and you only change one thing, change this one. Sour means grind finer. Bitter means grind coarser.

Roast

What light, medium and dark actually mean

Green coffee is a seed, and it tastes grassy and flat. Roasting is what wakes it up.

Two reactions do most of the work. The Maillard reaction puts sugars and amino acids together into hundreds of savoury, roasty compounds. Caramelization browns the sugars into sweetness and deeper aroma. How far we push the roast decides how much of the origin stays in the cup, and how much the roast itself takes over.

The three stages

Beans crack audibly as they roast. Those cracks are how a roaster knows where they are, and every roast level is named for one of them.

Light
Stops at first crack
Medium
Past first crack
Dark
Into second crack

What a light roast tastes like

  • Acidity High
  • Sweetness Medium
  • Body Med-Low
  • Bitterness Low
  • Roast flavor Low

Jasmine, citrus, honey, floral, bright.

Medium and dark is where we have the most variety, and it is why the list below leans the way it does. Single origins rotate through over time, so what is on changes.

The ten coffees, by roast

  • Medium

    Past first crack. Origin still leads. See them all

    • Honduras Direct trade, Hacia el Futuro co-op. Sweet, fruit-forward, soft berry.
    • Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Bright floral, lively citrus, natural honey sweetness.
    • Colombia Excelso grade. Bright citrus, rich caramel, warm toffee.
    • Guatemala High altitude. Bright citrus, soft melon, warm caramel.
    • Mexico Shade grown, Chiapas and Oaxaca. Gentle cocoa, toasted almond.
    • Tanzania Peaberry Plus Rare peaberry. Deep blackcurrant, wine-like depth, bright peachy sweetness.
    • Espresso Blend Brazil, Honduras, Mexico and Ethiopia blended. Rich chocolate, smooth caramel. Espresso or drip.
    • Decaf Colombian Huila, natural Ethyl Acetate process. Warm malt, brown sugar.

  • Dark

    Into second crack. Roast character leads. See them all

    • Brazil Smooth, low acid, naturally sweet. Milk chocolate, caramel.
    • Half-Caffeine Our espresso blended with the Colombia decaf. Smooth chocolate, bright citrus.

Freshness

Reading the date on the bag

Every bag has a roast date printed on it: the day that coffee came out of the drum at 231 E Main Street. You can see how old it is and decide for yourself, which is more than most bags on a grocery shelf will tell you.

Whole beans hold their aroma longer than ground coffee, since less of the coffee is meeting the air. That is the whole argument for owning a grinder. Either way, keep the bag closed, at room temperature, out of the sun.

As the about page puts it: we do not sit on inventory for months, and your order ships as fresh as we can possibly make it. If you are in town, the roaster is behind the counter in full view. Come and see it.

More on sizes, grinds and delivery on the shipping and delivery page, and the rest of the questions we get on the FAQ.

The numbers get you a good cup. Your own taste gets you the right one.