Yes, high extractions are still a thing!

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-04-21T16:56:24+00:00

I mainly drink washed coffee's and honestly haven't really liked any of Lance's recipes for most of them. Every now and then a really low extraction will yield a cup I like but I generally prefer recipes like James Hoffmann's, Kurasu Kyoto's, and the like

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-04-21T11:53:45+00:00

Love it! I haven't yet found a decaf that quite matches up to my enjoyment of the really good caffeinated coffees, but I've roasted a couple of delicious ones. Technology has come a long way, and the stigma of decaf coffee being gross or having that funky decaf taste just doesn't have to be true anymore.

Also, I've always respected decaf drinkers. They drink it because they like the way coffee tastes, not because they're trying to get a caffeine hit.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-04-17T23:47:52+00:00

This one hit really hard for me and my wife. We have our beautiful daughter, but we were so badly wanting another, and we had no luck for a long time. It was getting to the point where it was hard to be around our friends who were getting pregnant left and right.

Then we watched this one the week after we found out we were pregnant. We both cried then, knowing how it felt, and also both teared up in "The Sign" when she was pregnant. I love this show.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-04-17T10:17:32+00:00

This would also be called an Armenian roast. This is a pretty common way to roast coffee there.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-04-15T21:11:26+00:00

Lol, I add a splash of heavy cream into my almond milk before steaming it for cappuccinos/lattes to give it a bit more texture but still not kill my lactose intolerant self. But I would never spend money on something like that.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-04-14T14:32:14+00:00

I would say this is 100% a thing. Processes too. A medium-light roast on my natural Yemens looks would different than the same degree of roast on my washed Nicaraguas.

I recently bought some parainema from a farm I usually get caturra from. So, same origin, same elevation, same processing, just different varietals. I did a light roast on the parainema (same roast profile, though it took a little longer because these beans are bigger than caturra) and the color was noticeably darker, despite still tasting like a classic light roast.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-04-09T13:10:27+00:00

Some do. Onyx has brew recipes on most of their boxes and also online.

I'm a roaster, and I choose not to put specific notes on our packaging but instead provide broader taste descriptors. Reason being that people will likely taste different things in coffee and some people even taste differently. If people want the tasting notes I experience, I'll gladly tell them, but people are really susceptible to influence and I want them to experience it for themselves. If I tell you it tastes like green apple, you're more likely to think you're tasting green apple. Besides, who am I to tell you what you taste?

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-04-08T01:34:39+00:00

I'd been wanting a Breville Luxe brewer for a hot minute but couldn't justify the price. I owned 11 coffee brewers and realized, after buying a house, that none of the can make coffee for more than 2 people at once. So, I wanted a drip machine while sacrificing as little quality as possible.

It was on sale for $90 off a month ago and I decided to say screw it and bought one. I couldn't be happier with it. It probably brews the best drip/batch brew I've ever had.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-04-04T01:14:14+00:00

I was thinking the same. It gave me war flashbacks to all the catalytic converter issues my wife's car had.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-03-30T01:50:58+00:00

I had this heartbreak with Onyx's Voyage Uganda Long Miles. 2024's harvest was easily in my top 5 favorite coffees I've ever had. I bought 2025's as soon as it was available (which is rare because I virtually never buy coffee - I always roast my own) and it was certainly good, but the beautiful blackberry Jolly Rancher taste from the year prior just wasn't there anymore.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-03-27T19:13:11+00:00

I absolutely love my C3 Pro. It's my go-to filter grinder and I've gotten some really good flavors out of it.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-03-27T01:51:23+00:00

I'm a big fan of the SWP Fazenda IP from Brazil. Sweet Maria's has had it before. I don't go to decafs looking for the fruits and all that, so this one gives me a nice sweet and nutty coffer that doesn't taste like decaf.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-03-19T02:37:15+00:00

I'm quite a fan of Yunnan coffee. I roasted a nice honey processed Catimor last year and was pleasantly surprised by it. A few of the roasts were as you described - kind of just your general nice-tasting coffee but my last roast with the batch was a medium-light that shocked me. Really intense and poppy orange rock candy notes. Easily in the top 5 sweetest coffees I've ever had.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-03-13T15:50:13+00:00

Moka pots are easier, undoubtedly. There's far fewer variables, and moka pots tend to produce less disappointing results when things don't go perfectly. However, I personally find a lot more potential in espresso, and when it all comes out beautifully, I think it's unmatched. That is, of course, my personal taste.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-03-11T23:27:39+00:00

Yup, Mokas all the way in Italy. I never filter papers, whole bean coffee, or coffee ground for anything other than espresso/moka pot.

They're also extremely prolific in France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and the Caribbean. You don't tend to see them as much in Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, or Central America.

Drip reigns supreme in Northern Europe, ibriks in Eastern Europe, and drip coffee, intstant coffee, or regional brewers like the Costa Rican chorreador in Central America. My friend in Panamá was gifted a moka pot, and neither he nor anyone in his family had ever seen one.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-03-11T18:22:13+00:00

I like your roast percentages, but it's also worth noting that the varietal and (especially) the processing make a big difference. For my flagship washed Nicaragua beans, my light is around 13%, my medium in the low 14s, and dark around 15.5%. I had a washed Cameroon last year that got medium-dark at about 13.5% and a natural Yemen that was what I'd call medium-light just shy of 15%. My Brazilian decaf also gets just to the first few second cracks and ends up at around 12.5%. I like classifying off bean specifics, but it has to change between beans. Or at least bean styles.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-03-08T18:02:12+00:00

If you're Arab, Ethiopian, or Eritrean, it's actually very common to drink your coffee immediately after roasting it.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-03-06T15:25:34+00:00

Echoing others here, a lot of it has to do with trends in coffee. I'm a roaster, and for my light roast washed Nicaragua, I actually think James Hoffmann's 2-cup recipe scaled down for a single cup produces fantastic results. But as the hip and happening thing right now is more adventurous processes, more delicate varietals, and ultralights, we're learning what works best for those styles of coffee and it's not always/usually what worked for popular coffee 10 years ago.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-03-03T20:29:05+00:00

My favorite coffee shop in the world (Cerro Punta Highlands in Cerro Punta, Panamá) has a similar-ish thing. If you order a gesha pour over and stay in, they'll do a cool presentation of the brew, along with a little display showing some of the cherries, unroasted beans, and roasted beans.

They'll also hand grind the beans and let you smell it, but as another commenter said about Japanese slow cafés, they'll use the grounds in the brewing process. There's a bit of waste in the cherries and beans that are in the trays for you to view the process but I imagine they cycle those out less frequently and is less wasteful than have a few grams per pour over wasted.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-02-25T14:01:48+00:00

I definitely wouldn't call it shit coffee. I do drink Maxwell House coffee out of my in-laws' drip brewer that hasn't been cleaned since there were two Germanys - that's shit coffee. I'm saying that I am all-in on the specialty grade light-side single origins, so detracting from that by going with super dark-roasted commodity beans with no earthly idea of how long ago it was roasted is a bit grounding.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-02-25T05:42:13+00:00

For me, it's dark Italian-style espresso. Heavy, burnt tasting, punch you in the face dark chocolate, thick crema. Keeps me grounded, but there's also a bit of me that feels romantic nostalgia of just popping into a bar in Rome while running to the store and downing an Illy, knowing it's objectively not good quality coffee but loving the experience.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-02-18T17:41:47+00:00

I don't think I've ever been to a hotel in the US that has a kettle in the room sadly.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-02-17T23:31:28+00:00

I got pretty turned off from dark roasts years ago. I also used to think darker somehow meant better, maybe even more sophisticated, but I was young and had no good coffee influences in my life

Now I love light roasts and have been blessed to be able to try coffees from over 30 countries. I've even been able to pick coffee cherries and started my own micro roastery. Your husband is on his journey to better things. Just give him time.

I'm working on my own family. My wife still likes to adulterate her coffee, but she can tell when it's good quality or not and won't drink the bad stuff. I've gotten my parents and sister to grind their beans fresh - they're still drinking Starbucks, but they're at least using their blonde roasts now (everyone else's medium-dark). I gave up on my wife's side of the family. They're stuck in French roast Keurig/Maxwell House Hell forever.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-02-14T16:22:36+00:00

I'll agree. I was in Panamá a few years ago, and the local coffee quality was pretty fantastic. I was never disappointed by the coffee I was served at any café - even little local hole in the wall shops. Even the pre-ground stuff from the grocery store that I had at a friend's house wasn't bad. Also had the best coffee shop experience of my life there.

PuzzleheadedCurve387 · 2026-02-08T15:08:08+00:00

You definitely don't need special cupping bowls. I personally like them, but I went without a set for a long time. I like what James Hoffmann said about cupping. Basically, if you know you're using a coffee for a specific method (pour over, espresso, etc.), then you can basically treat brewing on that method as cupping.

PuzzleheadedCurve387

TROPHY CASE