How Deneen Pottery creates their mugs

How Deneen Pottery creates their mugs

Florencia y Fortunata: A Café Empowering Women in Peru

The Cusco café, founded by Carolina Peralta Minaya, sells coffee from women producers and features women demonstrating their skills behind the bar. BY JORDAN BUCHANANBARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Photos courtesy of Carolina Peralta Minaya Traceability, sustainability, and conscientiousness are key values pervading the specialty-coffee trade. For many consumers and traders, these values inform their decision to […]


Understanding the Process: Anaerobic Processing

We continue our series on fermentation with a look at the anaerobic process, which has quickly become a favorite in cafés worldwide. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos courtesy of Bram de Hoog for Ally Coffee A simple cup of well-brewed coffee can have endless variations of flavors and aromas. These are closely linked to […]


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 […]


Understanding the Process: Carbonic Maceration

Continuing our series on coffee processing, we learn about carbonic maceration—a unique, newer processing method. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos courtesy of Cafe Imports Editor’s note: Check out more entries in our “Understanding the Process“ series here. The rise of the specialty-coffee scene has helped many people understand that talking about coffee as something […]

How Deneen Pottery creates their mugs

4 Coffee Shops Worth a Visit in Madrid

In recent years, the Spanish capital has developed a vibrant specialty-coffee scene. Here are some cool cafés to visit for a caffeine fuel-up. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Featured photo by Jorge Fernández Salas via Unsplash The espresso bar at HanSo. HanSo Café, a Perfect Spot for Breakfast   In Chinese, HanSo roughly translates to “a […]


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…


Toronto’s Pilot Coffee Roasters Acquiring Bridgehead Coffee for $3.6 Million

Toronto, Ontario-based specialty coffee roaster and retailer Pilot Coffee Roasters is acquiring Ottawa-based Bridgehead Coffee in a deal worth approximately US$3.6 million.  Bridgehead, which has 21 coffee shop locations throughout…


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…

How Deneen Pottery creates their mugs

How to Make the Best Coffee at Home By James Hoffmann: Book Review 

James Hoffmann’s new book, How to Make the Best Coffee at Home, is finally out, and is the perfect guide for both professionals and amateurs. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos by Tanya Nanetti James Hoffmann is one of the most recognizable people in the world of specialty coffee. His YouTube channel is both informative […]


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…


Sumatra Coffee Farmers See Gains Through Agroforestry and Organic Fertilizer

Farmers in Indonesia’s Lampung province are making their own organic fertilizer in order to lessen reliance on volatile external supply chains. They’ve also diversified the number of crops they grow,…


3 Elements Coffee: Supporting Veterans, One Cup at a Time  

The Australian roasting company helps to create opportunities for veteran communities.  BY VASILEIA FANARIOTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos courtesy of 3 Elements Coffee  Brisbane, Australia-based 3 Elements Coffee, founded by Navy veteran Terry McNally in 2016, has a mission to support the transition of ex-military personnel into the commercial workspace. To help achieve their goal and raise […]

How Deneen Pottery creates their mugs

How Deneen Pottery creates their mugs

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...

How Deneen Pottery creates their mugs

A MUG’S LIFE

By Angela Garrity, Guest Blogger

The most beloved mugs from Death Wish Coffee fans begin their journey entrusted in the hands of artists at Deneen Pottery. In this episode of Fueled by Death Cast, Jeff has a heart to heart with Niles Deneen, owner of Deneen Pottery to uncover a few secrets about the highly coveted mugs. 

These mugs do not come from molds, so let’s dispel any notion of that nonsense right now. Deneen explains how this process for his mugs starts. 

It all starts with clay.

“We start with logs of clay that we extrude because we process our own clay in house. We cut them up into perfect bite-size pieces. Our potters will stack up like 200-300 pieces, so in the morning, when you walk past Potter’s Lane, everyone has huge piles of clay. Halfway through the day, halfway gone. At the end of the day, all gone. So that transformation is amazing.” 

This is where the clay undergoes some serious changes.  

“Once a pot is thrown, we let it set for a day. When it comes up the next day, we apply a handle. We put a medallion on it, we let it air dry for three days. Then we bisque fire it at 1600 degrees, which takes about 16 hours. It comes out, we do a quality inspection. We’ll paint the medallion to pop out the detail, then it moves through and glaze is applied, which is done through suction, so we’ll take a mug and dip it into a bucket, pull it out if it’s solid. If its marble, you have to wait for the glaze to dry and you’ll dip just the top in one or two more dips. Then, remove the glaze off the front of the medallion and glaze is covering the whole thing, so you got to wipe off the foot. Stack it in the kiln to fire for another 24 hours.”  

Deneen gives a serious word of warning about the heat. 

“You never want to touch a mug right after it comes out of a kiln. You can crack the doors at 800 (degrees), if you were to open the doors at full temp, the thermal shock would ripple through. At 400 degrees, if you touch a pot, you’ll have no fingerprints. Not a good thing.” 

We hear you loud and clear. Let’s leave the art-making to the artists. 

“After it cools, you take it back to the shipping department where it gets inspected again, grind the bottom to make sure it’s super soft, pack into a box and ship it out. So all in all, from start to finish, the time it takes is about 21 business days.” 

Please take your time, Deneen Pottery. Your mugs are definitely worth the wait. 

Yearly Death Wish Coffee Mugs aside, those fortunate to receive even numbers at each even 100 can find mugs signed by Dad Deneen himself. Autographs are applied “Right before the first firing”, Deneen explains. 

“If you’ve got a hand-signed one, post them up, share them up. We want to see them!” Deneen says enthusiastically. 

It may come as a surprise to learn how the mug handles are applied. They are added later. 

“We extrude handles so if you’ve ever played with Playdough and they have the little kind of deal that you put the template you want you to squish it down and it comes out, we have one of those that produce the handles themselves. We cut them into 6-inch lengths. “ 

Want to know more secrets about the fan-favorite mugs that contain the World’s Strongest Coffee? While Deneen can’t tell us every detail about the family business, you can shape form to the fact regarding the medallion facing mugs and more in Fueled By Death Cast Episode #144 – Niles Deneen.  

How Deneen Pottery creates their mugs

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.

How Deneen Pottery creates their mugs

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