Section
Foundations
Ratio, grind, water, time, temperature, agitation, bloom, tasting. Eight levers, one cup. Every recipe you follow is a snapshot of where someone parked these — learn how each one moves the cup and you stop chasing recipes, you start adjusting them.
- 8
- Articles
- 01 Grind size The first lever, and the biggest one. Before water temperature, before ratio, before pour technique — the grind decides how fast water can pull flavor out of the bed. Move it and everything else follows. Intro Read 4min
- 02 Water temperature Hotter water pulls flavor faster. That's the whole rule. Everything else is matching the temperature to what you have in the bag. Intro Read 3min
- 03 Coffee to water A ratio is two numbers: how much coffee, how much water. Read 1:16 as one gram of coffee for every sixteen grams of water. Lower numbers mean stronger coffee. Intro Read 4min
- 04 The bloom Fresh coffee holds CO₂ from roasting. If you pour the full brew at once, that gas pushes water away and the extraction goes patchy. The bloom is a small first pour that lets the gas vent before the real work starts. Intro Read 4min
- 05 Pour technique How the water enters the bed is half the recipe. Same coffee, same grind, same ratio — three pour techniques give you three different cups. Intro Read 3min
- 06 Stages of a brew Every pour-over is four phases, in the same order, every time. Knowing what each phase does is the difference between following a recipe and reading what's happening in front of you. Intro Read 3min
- 07 Brewer families Brewers split into three families by how water meets coffee. Each family has a character. Knowing which family you're using tells you what kind of cup to expect — and which mistakes are easy to make. Intro Read 4min
- 08 Read the cup Your tongue is the most accurate diagnostic tool you'll ever own. The hard part isn't tasting — it's naming what you taste, and knowing which lever to move next. Intro Read 5min