03 Sep 2026What Acidity Means in Coffee
The word arrives on a bag as praise and lands on most people as a warning. Roasters print high acidity meaning something closer to lively. Plenty o...
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Notes on coffee, the objects it is made with, and what we will not sell you.
13 Aug 2026Stainless Steel Grades, Decoded
Two numbers stamped on the underside of a pot, and nearly everyone reads them as a score. 18/10 sounds like it beats 18/8, which sounds like it bea...
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08 Aug 2026The 80-Point Line
Most words on a coffee bag have no definition behind them. "Specialty" is the odd one out, because for about twenty years it had a number attached,...
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05 Aug 2026Why "Strong Coffee" Means Four Different Things
Two people can agree they want strong coffee and want opposite drinks. One means a dark, smoky roast. The other means something that will keep them...
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05 Aug 2026Washed, Natural, Honey: The Three Words on Every Bag
Origin gets the attention on a bag of coffee, and processing gets a single word in smaller type. For predicting what the coffee will actually taste...
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05 Aug 2026Five Millimetres Versus Ten: Foam as a Drink Definition
Ask three cafés for a cappuccino and you will get three different drinks. This is not sloppiness. The drink is defined by a measurement that almost...
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05 Aug 2026Coffee Is for Grown-Ups
Almost nobody likes their first cup of coffee. It is bitter, it is hot, and the appeal is entirely invisible to the person drinking it. And yet nea...
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05 Aug 2026A Best-Before Date Two Years Out Is a Confession
There are two kinds of date on a bag of coffee, and the one printed largest is usually the one that tells you least. Supermarket bags lead with a b...
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