2020 HOLIDAY COFFEE-GIFT GUIDE

2020 HOLIDAY COFFEE-GIFT GUIDE

The coffee industry’s biggest competition: The story of the World Barista Championship

Every year, the global coffee industry gears up for one of its most exciting and groundbreaking competitions: the World Barista Championship. For more than two decades, the WBC has been one of the biggest catalysts for change and innovation in specialty coffee, and continues to set even higher standards for baristas around the world to […]


Know Your Sweeteners: Agave: Part Two—Environmental Concerns

Agave has become an increasingly popular sweetener in the coffee industry. But is it as environmentally friendly as people claim it to be? BY EMILY JOY MENESESBARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Featured photo sourced via Pixabay In recent years, you may have noticed an increase in demand for “alternative sweeteners” like agave. While today, the nectar serves […]


Weekly Coffee News: Grounds for Health Week + Iconic SF Shop Closes

Welcome to DCN’s Weekly Coffee News. Keep up with all the latest coffee industry stories and career opportunities by subscribing to DCN’s newsletter. Tell our editors about your news here. Registration Opens for Inaugural…


3 Noteworthy Cafés in the Borough of Brooklyn, N.Y.

We explore three standout Brooklyn cafés: drip, BKG, and Coffee Project New York. BY EMILY MENESES BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Cover photo by Nelson Ndongala via Unsplash Whether you’re a New York local or planning your next NYC trip, you won’t want to miss out on Brooklyn’s vibrant (and constantly evolving) coffee scene. Today, we’re exploring […]

2020 HOLIDAY COFFEE-GIFT GUIDE

Pick Your Pourover: Comparing and Contrasting the Most Popular Models

The Hario V60, Kalita Wave, and Chemex are three of the most popular pourover devices. Today, we’re comparing the three to help you determine which is the right choice for you. BY EMILY MENESES BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Featured photo by Julien Labelle via Unsplash Ah, the pourover—this tried-and-true form of brewing is sacred in the […]


U.S. Coffee Championships 2023 Denver Qualifiers Reach New Heights

The next group of coffee champions moves on to nationals at the Denver qualifiers. BY KATE VAN PETTENSPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE Photos by Matthew Temple and courtesy of Specialty Coffee Association The high-flying world of U.S. CoffeeChamps competitions reached new heights as coffee professionals flocked to the Denver qualifiers for the 2023 season, hosted in […]


U.S. Coffee Championships 2023 Baltimore Qualifiers Results

More than 100 competitors brought their talent to Baltimore to take part in six competitions, and 63 will progress to nationals in April. BY NATE KLOCKBARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Photos by Matthew Temple courtesy of the U.S. Coffee Championships Last weekend, my hometown welcomed the U.S. Coffee Championships (USCC) qualifiers with the charm only Baltimore could […]


Study Shines New Light on the Complex Arabica Coffee Genome

Researchers in Italy say they’ve shed new light on arabica coffee’s large and complex genome, which may ultimately help breeders seeking desirable traits such as high quality and disease resistance….

2020 HOLIDAY COFFEE-GIFT GUIDE

What I Learned from My First Tea Ceremony

After taking in a brief moment of a tea ceremony in Thailand, I finally had the chance to participate in the full experience recently in Malaysia. BY TANYA NANETTI SENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos by Tanya Nanetti In the years that I worked as a barista in a café, tea always played a marginal role in […]


Why it’s easier for wealthier producers to grow specialty coffee

It takes money – and sometimes a lot – to grow specialty coffee. Producers not only need to continuously maintain and improve quality and yields, but they also have to invest back into their farms. Whether it’s replacing equipment and machinery or planting more resilient varieties, producers need to turn a profit to operate their […]


3 All-Women Coffee Roasting Companies that Are Changing the Game

The world of specialty coffee is still largely governed by men, but these all-female specialty-coffee roasters are helping to close the gender gap. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Feature photo courtesy of Lot Zero/7Gr As is the case for many commercial sectors, the world of specialty coffee continues to display gender disparity along the entire […]


Design Details: Brewing Reinvented at ULA Café in Melbourne

Welcome to Design Details, an ongoing editorial feature in Daily Coffee News focused on individual examples of coffee shop architecture, interior design, packaging design or branding. If you are a coffee…

2020 HOLIDAY COFFEE-GIFT GUIDE

2020 HOLIDAY COFFEE-GIFT GUIDE

minimum dose size?

Jan 31, 2024 |

I use the Hario switch to brew my coffee and am trying to reduce my caffeine consumption. Hence I would like to brew smaller cups of coffee. I am currently using 10g of coffee with 160g of water. (1:16 Ratio) I am wondering if there is a minimum amount of coffee...

2020 HOLIDAY COFFEE-GIFT GUIDE

As we enter the holiday season, I thought it would be nice to make some gift recommendations for the coffee enthusiast in your life. I admire and enjoy all of these items personally, and strongly recommend them. Please note that I have no financial interests in any of these products, other than my own book and the Decent Espresso Machine.

  

The World Atlas of Coffee by James Hoffmann is simply the best all-around book ever written about coffee. James has recently updated the book’s data for the producing countries he discusses, and he has added sections such as one on home roasting. The book is available in English, German, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Russian, Korean, Japanese, Norwegian, Thai and even Italian!

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Barista Hustle Subscription Whether you’re a home barista or work in a cafe, there is no better way, especially during a pandemic, to deepen your barista skills than by taking the Barista Hustle online course. Barista Hustle, led by Matt Perger, is the world leader in making geeky baristas even geekier. If you’re going to learn, learn from the best.

  

If you’re in Europe and want to order some special beans for a loved one, I recommend the honey-processed Costa Rican Geisha Sumava from one of Europe’s best and most underrated roasters, Doubleshot in Prague. Nothing says “I love you” like a bag of Geisha, right? (But if I send you a bag of natural beans…)

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I’ll say it out loud: The Espro Bloom is my new favorite pourover brewer, despite the funny-looking filters ;). The Bloom is the fastest pourover brewer I’ve ever seen, it makes delicious coffee, and is a pleasure to use. I can’t recommend it enough.

 

The Flair Espresso Maker is a wonderful new manual espresso maker. Just fill it with boiling water, flex your biceps, and in 30 seconds you’ll have cafe-quality espresso. The design is lovely, and it’s fun to challenge yourself to apply pressure smoothly and consistently (if you’re into that sort of thing).

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The Peak Water Filter Jug

I use the Peak everyday at home, and it’s revolutionary: the Peak allows me to adjust the amount of ion exchange to target whatever water alkalinity level I prefer for coffee brewing. Given that my tap water at home is quite hard, the Peak has been a godsend and has saved me a bundle on bottled water.

 

The Decent Espresso Machine Whether you really, really want to make a loved one happy, you’ve got too much cash burning a hole in your pocket, or you just want your significant other to make you extraordinary coffee every morning, the Decent Espresso Machine is the splurge gift of the year. The DE1 pulls beautiful espresso and is easily the world’s most versatile machine. Try the Blooming Espresso, the Allongé, or create your own custom flow and pressure profiles. For the uber-geek in your life, the real-time flow, pressure, and temperature graphs are fascinating to watch while pulling shots. This machine has truly revolutionized espresso, and now it even makes consistent, extraordinary filter coffee.

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Coffee Roasting: Best Practices

Call me biased, but I am very happy with my new roasting book. It’s the book I’ve always wanted to write: detailed, prescriptive, and data-driven. I developed the roasting system in the book over many years of offering seminars and consulting for some of the world’s top roasters. Whether one is looking to roast more consistently, manage RORs better, or just avoid ROR crashes, this is the right book. If you have a roasting enthusiast in your life, this would make a great gift.

 

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2020 HOLIDAY COFFEE-GIFT GUIDE

Perfect Little Beans

Chinmey Hill Coffee uses specialty-grade beans with zero primary defects (such as black beans or sour beans) and less than five secondary defects (such as broken beans). This is important because primary defects will greatly affect the taste of the coffee. Having zero defects allows the coffee to be the most optimal flavor.

Window for Optimal Flavor

Chimney Hill Coffee ships our coffee the same day it was roasted, so you will receive it before it enters the window of optimal flavor.  This means you’ll never miss the opportunity to enjoy the coffee’s peak flavor.

Coffee Ratings

Coffee undergoes many scoring processes by professionals who achieved their Q Grader certification. Coffee is first graded when it’s green. If there are defects the coffee is determined to be “not-specialty grade”. For those coffees that pass green grading, they are sample roasted and cupped. (Cupping is the official term for critically tasting and scoring coffees. The official cupping form is standard worldwide, and where the 100-point scoring system comes from.) A coffee’s dry fragrance, wet aroma, flavor, aftertaste, body, acidity, balance, and overall impression are taken into consideration while uniformity issues and defects, will lower the overall score.

Specialty Coffee

Specialty coffee, coined by Erna Knutsen in 1974, refers to a coffee that receives a quality grading score of 80 percent or higher. While “premium” or “gourmet” seem like they’re synonymous with “specialty,” they simply are marketing terms with no defined standards. Specialty coffees are grown in specific and ideal micro-climates, and have distinctive and unique flavor profiles, with little to no defects.

Third-Wave Coffee

We’re currently in the third wave of coffee. The first wave of American coffee put pre-ground, vacuum-sealed cans in kitchens across America. The second wave started with the late ‘60s introduction of Peet’s coffee (by Alfred Peet) through the proliferation of Starbucks. The third wave of coffee focuses on origin transparency, nuanced flavors, and artisan roasting. The term “third wave” is synonymous with specialty coffee.

2020 HOLIDAY COFFEE-GIFT GUIDE

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