HOLIDAY COFFEE GIFT GUIDE

HOLIDAY COFFEE GIFT GUIDE

Brewing at Home and on the Road with Justin Pierce

In this series, we ask coffee professionals how they like to drink their coffee while at home and when traveling. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Feature photo courtesy of Justin Pierce Coffee professionals tend to spend most of their days brewing coffee. Baristas brew coffee behind the bar for their customers. Roasters brew it to […]


Girlsplaining Workshop Unites Women in Coffee in Quito, Ecuador

Meet Camila Khalifé, the brains behind Girlsplaining, a unique coffee learning experience with an emphasis on creating space for women in the industry. BY JORDAN BUCHANANSPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE Photos courtesy of Camila Khalifé Men may hold most of the positions of authority and teaching roles within the specialty-coffee industry, but Camila Khalifé, the owner […]


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 […]


Understanding the Process: Koji Fermentation

Continuing our series on coffee processing, we learn about koji fermentation, a unique process usually associated with the brewing of sake. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos courtesy of Forest Coffee If brewed properly, a cup of coffee can offer countless variations of flavor and aroma. The quality and complexity of these attributes depend on many different […]

HOLIDAY COFFEE GIFT GUIDE

In Tbilisi, Parsek1 Merges Comic Books with Specialty Coffee

We take a look at how this innovative café has changed the face of comics and coffee in the capital of Georgia. BY VASILEIA FANARIOTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos courtesy of Parsek1 When it comes to coffee and comic books, Japan is a longtime leader in the field. Manga cafés have been around for decades, combining […]


The Caripe Variety: A Groundbreaking Milestone in Venezuelan Coffee Farming

Today, we unveil the story behind the Caripe variety and its significance for the Venezuelan coffee industry. BY VASILEIA FANARIOTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Featured photo by Carlos Felipe Ramírez Mesa via Unsplash In the heart of Venezuela, nestled among the picturesque states of Monagas, Anzoátegui, and Sucre, lies a legacy deeply rooted in coffee cultivation. This […]


10 (More) Minutes With Helena Oliviero

Today we continue our conversation with Helena Oliviero about her coffee career and life on a Colombian finca. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos courtesy of Helena Oliviero Barista Magazine: Let’s talk about living on a Colombian coffee farm, Finca Palma Roja. How do you spend your days? What’s usually happening on a busy coffee […]


Breaking New Ground: A Sicilian Coffee Plantation, Part 2

The Morettino family has successfully cultivated a coffee plantation right in Sicily. Next on the agenda: making the island an international coffee hub. BY JOSEPH PHELANSPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Feature photo by Tomas Anton Escobar via Unsplash Editor’s note: Check out part one of this story here. Andrea Morettino’s family has proven that coffee […]

HOLIDAY COFFEE GIFT GUIDE

Philadelphia’s Café Don Pedro Seeks to Build Up Small Businesses

A Dominican-owned coffee roasting company called Café Don Pedro recently launched in Philadelphia with ambitions for direct trading and boosting more Latino-owned small businesses throughout its supply and distribution networks….


4 Cool Cafés to Try Out in Bologna

Bologna, the Italian city home to the world’s oldest university, is traditionally famous for its food and drink—and it has some stellar specialty cafés. BY TANYA NANETTI SENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Featured photo by Annie Spratt via Unsplash Bologna is home to the oldest university in the world and is the unofficial “capital“ of the porticos […]


Thread Coffee Roasters Opens Tailor-Made Roastery in Baltimore

The interwoven actions of Thread Coffee Roasters in Baltimore are finding exponentially more space this week with the grand opening of a brand-new production roastery and training lab. The worker-owned…


Torr Launches the Hive Cafe Countertop Coffee Concentrate System

Commercial cold coffee equipment company Torr Industries recently rolled out a countertop-friendly version of its signature Hive Brew cold coffee system, called the Hive Cafe. The northern California coffee company…

HOLIDAY COFFEE GIFT GUIDE

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...

HOLIDAY COFFEE GIFT GUIDE

 

 

Welcome to my semi-annual Holiday Coffee-Gift Guide. I thought it would be nice to suggest a few coffee-related gifts for the coffee nerd in your life. I won’t tell if you buy yourself the gifts or ask me to send this blog post to a family member ;).  

These suggestions are completely biased: they are all products I enjoy, and some that I sell.

 

Barista Hustle Subscription

Forget overpriced, dumbed-down industry courses; the BH Unlimited Subscription is hands down the best all-around online coffee education money can buy. As someone who offers coffee education for a living, hopefully my words carry weight. Whether for you or for your café staff, BH is the best option. In 2023, BH Unlimited is going to get even better, as a certain blogger you follow will be contributing to the subscription’s roasting content.

Click HERE to sign up and get a 14-day free trial. 

Lagom P64 and P100

If you *really* like someone, get him or her a Lagom grinder. The Lagom P64 and P100 are the best single-dosing grinders on the market, in my opinion. The grinder are beautiful, have low retention, excellent burrs, adjustable RPM (an important, underrated feature), and the grinders are well-aligned at the factory (Thank you, Option-O, for caring.)  In other words, the Lagoms offer everything you can ask for in a grinder. 

Photo @Juheegrapherever

 

Spinware Ceramics

Crafted by my friend Martina in Golden, CO, Spinware Ceramics are clean, beautiful, functional, and durable. Martina’s work would make a great gift for anyone who drinks coffee or tea. 

From Spinware’s website:

“When you buy a handcrafted piece from a ceramic studio, you are buying more than an object. You are buying hours of experimentation and error. You are buying moments of frustration and happiness. You are buying a piece of heart, a piece of soul, and a piece of someone else’s life.”

The Fellow Ode

was already the best-value home grinder on the market for making filter coffee (note: it is not designed to grind fine enough for espresso or aeropress) before they released their v2 burrs in late 2022. Now it’s the best-value home grinder with even better grind quality (but still not made for espresso.)

 

March Online Roasting Class

I don’t usually pre-sell my online classes, but in case someone would like to give or receive a class as a gift, I thought I’d make tickets to my upcoming March online roasting class available now. The class comes with daily access for one month to a private group in which I will answer any and every question asked, and help students manage their roast curves. This the most factual and practical roasting class in the world. 

 

Clever Dripper

The Clever Dripper doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Compared to a pourover, the Clever produces delicious, non-astringent coffee with less effort and skill required. Pro tip: add the water first to yield higher extractions at higher (read: better) temperatures. When adding the water first, one avoids the two most challenging problems in pourover brewing: achieving even extractions and extracting at high-enough temperature to make acidity “pop.” 

 

What I know about running coffee shops

By Colin Harmon

I’ve owned enough cafés to say with authority that this is a good book. While it’s tempting to dismiss the book as “mostly common sense advice,” it is packed with great advice aspiring and current café owners should follow, but few do. Colin’s writing is informal and pleasant, and the book is peppered with stories and lessons he learned while building his successful company 3fe in Ireland. 

 

Doubleshot Christmas Set 

Doubleshot from Prague doesn’t get the attention it deserves, perhaps because they don’t roast super-light, but attempt to highlight the juiciness and ripe fruit notes in coffee by roasting light/medium. Regardless, Yara from Doubleshot is one of the world’s best green buyers, and his production-roast cupping tables are as delicious as any I’ve experienced. Doubleshot is offering a Christmas Coffee Set featuring two washed Colombian coffees from the Imbachi family, whom Yara has worked with for eleven years. Both coffees, caturra and pink bourbon, are grown on the same farm and processed identically. This set is a unique opportunity to taste the influence of coffee variety on flavor. Expect big, juicy, ripe fruit notes with a hint of spices (it is Christmas, after all.)

Click HERE to purchase in North America and HERE to purchase in Europe and the rest of the world. 

 

Lotus Water Drops

Lotus Water Drops: While there are plenty of powder sachets you can buy to optimize your coffee water, I prefer the Lotus Water Drops, both because many of the sachets on the market produce inconsistent results, and because the LWD are easier to use. To be honest, I’ve spent a few too many Saturday mornings exploring how different LWD recipes affect coffee flavor. If you need suggestions for how to use the drops, see my blog post here. 

 

Last, but not least: Introducing Prodigal

After 15 years of writing and consulting, I’ve missed producing something tangible, and decided to get back into roasting. My new company Prodigal, based in Boulder, Colorado, has no intention of becoming large or taking over the world. What we want is that thing we’ve never been able to find: a source of clean, juicy, delicious coffees that are always roasted meticulously. Our promise to you is every coffee we ever ship in a Prodigal bag will be well developed, not baked, and not roasty (and not funky haha).  If we make a mistake, it’s our problem, not yours. Count on it. 

Our first offering is a set of four gorgeous, clean, washed Colombian coffees. Not only will our first month’s offering come as a set of four coffees, but we will offer our customers an online, interactive cupping session with Shared Source founder Andrew Kelly, who imported the green, and myself. Prodigal customers are welcome to cup and score with us, and ask questions along the way.

Click HERE to try Prodigal 

 

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.

HOLIDAY COFFEE GIFT GUIDE

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