Tag: homebrewing

coffee, guide

How To Get Your Pourover Brew Tasting Perfect

Ashe

I love learning new techniques. Makes me twice as excited to make a cup of joe in the morning.

The pourover is one of the most user-friendly ways of brewing coffee at home. That doesn’t mean it still can’t be improved! The Perfect Daily Grind has a great five-minute read on how to improve your pourover technique. They go into the scientifics behind blooming, stress the need for filtered water and explore different pour methods. Some of the most common problems facing pourover users are incompatible filters or the wrong water temperature. You don’t want to burn all the flavor out of your beans, right?

I’ve used my pourover dozens of times since I got it a few months back, so I can safely say I’m improving. For instance, I can literally see the difference between using hot water and boiling water. Hot water lifts a delicious, amber crema from the coffee, clinging together even as you keep pouring. Boiling water, on the other hand, results in a more bubbly crema with a weaker color. When I’m spending anywhere between $15 to $22 on a bag of coffee, I’ll be damned if I don’t pull the best possible extraction.

coffee

Travel Around The World Without Leaving Your Room: Atlas Coffee Club Subscriptions

Ashe

Coffee is such a trip sometimes, both metaphorically and literally. It’s a taste of somewhere else right in the palm of your hand.

The coronavirus has added a few caveats to the day-to-day coffee experience. Cafes are a health hazard. Grocery stores are much the same. Homebrewing is an increasingly popular option…provided you have a little disposable income left for equipment, that is. Atlas Coffee Club is one of many coffee subscriptions to crop up over the past year, though with additional incentive: they want to give you a worldwide tour through single-origin, specialty coffee delivered to your doorstep. Nicaragua, Uganda, Ethiopia, Colombia, Mexico, the list goes on.

That’s not the only appeal. They offer two coffee sizes — 6 oz and 12 oz — if you don’t want to over-commit to a blend you’re not quite sure you’ll love. You also get different shipping frequencies depending on your coffee drinking habits. It takes me between two to four weeks to get through a 12 oz bag, as I switch off between coffee and tea. I originally wasn’t interested in a coffee subscription due to preferring direct orders, as well as concerns about freshness. It just seemed like another middleman without the benefits of being selective.

Reading this, though, really has me reconsidering. This could be both cheaper and much more fun in the long run. …Also, the packaging is gorgeous. I could look at these bags all day.