Dec 01 2023
Kona coffee has one of the most recognizable names in the coffee world. Grown on the western side of Hawaiʻi Island, it has developed a reputation for smooth flavor, careful cultivation, limited production, and a distinctive sense of place. But the words Kona coffee can also be confusing. Is all Hawaiian coffee Kona coffee? What …
Nov 26 2023
You probably don’t have enough room in the backyard for a coffee plantation—but you may have enough room for a coffee plant. Coffee plants can be surprisingly attractive houseplants, with glossy dark-green leaves, an upright shrubby shape, fragrant white flowers, and, if conditions are right, clusters of colorful coffee cherries. Inside those cherries are the …
Nov 26 2023
That bag of roasted coffee in your kitchen has already completed an extraordinary journey. Before coffee reaches a grinder, brewer, or espresso machine, it begins as the seed of a fruit growing on a tropical plant. The fruit must ripen, be harvested, processed, dried, milled, sorted, transported, roasted, and packaged before you ever scoop the …
Nov 06 2023
Walk through the coffee aisle and you will probably see bags labeled espresso beans, espresso roast, coffee beans, breakfast blend, French roast, and dozens of other variations. That makes it easy to assume espresso beans are a completely different kind of coffee bean. They aren’t. Espresso beans and regular coffee beans come from the same …
Nov 06 2023
If you have spent any time browsing coffee bags, you have probably noticed one phrase appearing again and again: 100% Arabica coffee. Arabica is prized for its aromatic complexity, sweetness, acidity, and wide range of flavors. Depending on where it is grown and how it is processed and roasted, Arabica coffee can taste like chocolate, …
Nov 05 2023
Vietnamese coffee is easy to recognize when it arrives at the table: dark, concentrated coffee slowly dripping through a metal phin filter, often followed by a generous spoonful of sweetened condensed milk and a glass packed with ice. But the distinctive character of Vietnamese coffee begins long before the condensed milk. It begins with the …
Nov 05 2023
Pour-over coffee has a way of revealing things about coffee beans that other brewing methods can sometimes hide. A bright Ethiopian coffee may suddenly taste like berries, jasmine, and citrus. A Guatemalan bean can reveal chocolate, spice, and orange. A carefully roasted Colombian coffee might balance caramel sweetness with red fruit and gentle acidity. That …
Oct 14 2023
Coffee roasting is the transformation that turns a dense, green coffee seed into the fragrant brown bean we recognize and brew. Before roasting, green coffee smells more grassy or vegetal than like your morning cup. Heat changes everything. As the beans roast, they lose moisture, expand, become increasingly porous, change from green to yellow to …
