There are countless variables that contribute to the complex flavors of your favorite coffee before it even reaches your cup. Many people know that the country of origin, coffee tree varietal, and roast color have an immediate impact, but fewer people know about the on-the-farm processing methods that also play a huge role in the flavor profile of the finished product.

DRY PROCESS

The ripe cherries are picked and immediately put on the drying patio in the sun to dry. The skin and pulp remain attached. The skin shrinks, locking the fruit sugars in. The cherry raisins up and drys hard around the seeds. The mass, when hard and dry, is milled (like white rice) to remove the hardened pulp and skin.

The taste produced is sort of like blueberries or strawberries as the fruity flavors penetrate the porous seeds within. A mix of sweet and sour fruit. The acidity is softer and mellower.

WET PROCESS

When the cherries are ripe they are picked, the skins and pulp removed mechanically, and the seeds are wet and slippery, gooey with a honey-like outer taste. They are allowed to sit, slightly fermenting in the heat of a day/night rest in contact with each other. They are then soaked for 12-36 hours in a water bath, washed, and removed to drying patios where they will dry down to about 11-12% moisture over a 2-4 day period.

The wet process produces a citric-like acidity or brightness with a slightly lemony flavor. In the extremes like coffees from Guatemala and Ethiopia and Kenya, the brightness is palatable. However, wet process coffees produce a softer plum-like acidity as well. Wet process coffees are more forward on the -palate than their brothers and sisters of the Dry Process.

We produce two blends that combine these processes into one flavor profile: Mocha Java Blend and Paul’s Blend. However, these Ethiopian coffees presented to you today are the most clarifying examples of two on-the-farm processes. These distinctive flavor profiles are not caused by varietal differences, country of origin or agricultural practices.

In this offering, we allow you to taste the words on this page. Try them straight at first and then see how they taste as a 50/50 blend or any combination. I prefer my coffee a bit on the fruity/ jammy side so I use a 70/30 blend with the Dry Process in the majority. But the reverse will do quite well for those who prefer a bright and lively acidity on the citric side but want a bit more body and fruit. Enjoy!

We would like to acknowledge Hasbean Coffee in the UK for their excellent videos about coffee processing.

Yields 1 drink

• 1 1/2 ounces cold brew coffee concentrate*
• 1 ounce bourbon
• 1 ounce heavy cream
• 1/2 ounce maple syrup
• Ice
• Ground Nutmeg

Add the coffee, bourbon, cream and maple syrup to a cocktail shaker (or other airtight container) with ice. Shake vigorously for about 15 seconds. Strain out the ice, pour into a glass and top with ground nutmeg.

Note: If you want to make this to serve a crowd, adjust the recipe using 3 parts cold brew coffee concentrate, 2 parts bourbon, 2 parts heavy cream and 1 part maple syrup.

*Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate

You can easily make cold brew coffee using a Toddy Cold Brewer. However, if you don’t have a Toddy, here’s an alternative method that uses a French Press.

• 1 cup coarsely ground coffee
• 4 cups cold water

Add coffee to a French Press. Pour the cold water over the grounds, ensuring that all of the grounds get wet. Let steep overnight, or for 8-16 hours. After coffee has steeped, use the plunger on the French Press to strain your coffee.

Pour brewed coffee concentrate into a container that can be covered and stored in your refrigerator. leftover refrigerated for up to two weeks used make iced lattes baked goods and other treats

What exactly is espresso? It is the highest form of coffee. By definition, it’s strong black coffee made by forcing steam through grounds. For a more extensive description, we dedicated a whole blog post to what exactly espresso is.

The common misconception of requiring a fancy, expensive espresso maker can discourage many of us from brewing it ourselves at home.

Although our espresso blends are designed for that high-pressure extraction that an espresso machine delivers, they can be equally as satisfying when brewed like any other coffee blend.

The proof is in the… coffee. We made a 1-minute Bialetti Stovetop tutorial video as well as a French Press tutorial using the same espresso blend – with instructions from our brewing guide page. It really is as easy as it looks, and the whole process only takes about 5 minutes to complete.

To help you start your home espresso-brewing journey, we’re giving you 10% off our Italian Espresso Blends all throughout April!

Our Northern Italian Style Espresso, featured in our tutorial videos, is a delightfully smooth espresso, not at all toasty or burnt-like, but intense enough to show up and vote in a latte or cappuccino when properly pulled.

For a more intense, pungent blend, try our Southern Italian Style Espresso. The blend consists of equal parts Guatemalan, Ethiopian, and Indonesian coffees. These are some of the finest coffees in the world, roasted dark to express a smoky punch, deeply toned notes of licorice, chocolate, and earthy sweetness.

Happy brewing!

Grinding coffee at home is an excellent way to improve your coffee experience. The fresher your coffee is when you brew it, the better it is going to taste. To help you get the most flavor out of your coffee beans, this post will cover a variety of methods to show how anyone can grind their own coffee at home. But first, let’s cover the…

Grind basics

Regardless of what you are using to pulverize your perfectly roasted beans into grounds, there are a few basic principles to keep in mind:

1. Grind Size

Using the correct particle size in ground coffee is one of the most important steps in coffee brewing. In general, a finer grind will produce a more intense brew and a coarser grind will produce a less intense brew. At the same time, a grind that is too fine will produce an over-extracted, astringent brew, and a grind that is too coarse will produce a weak, under-extracted brew lacking flavor.

Not sure what grind size to use? Here’s a handy guide:

COARSE (looks like Kosher or sea salt)
Cold Brew Coffee, French Press, Percolator, Coffee Cupping

MEDIUM (looks like sand particles)
Pour-over Brewers, Auto-Drip Coffee Machines, Aeropress (with 3+ minute brew time)

FINE (looks a bit finer than granulated sugar)
Espresso, Moka Pot (Stovetop Espresso Maker), Aeropress (with 1 minute brew time)

2. Consistency.

The size of the grounds should be consistent or uniform, meaning you don’t want to see large bits and super tiny bits in your grind. The reason: it is easier for smaller particles to become water soluble than larger ones. If there is a wide variety in the size of the particles in your coffee grinds, there will be a wide variety in the extraction time of your brew. The more consistent your grind size, the easier it is to extract the full flavor from your brewed coffee.

Now that we’ve got the basics covered, the next step is how to get the best grind at home!

How to grind your coffee

The Burr Grinder

Burr grinders are made of two burred plates with ridges that draw in and crush / grind the beans to a uniform size. This is what the pros use, and with good reason. Burr grinders deliver the most consistent grind with the least amount of work on your part. Just fill up the hopper, turn the dial to your desired grind setting, and turn it on. A burr grinder will cost between $60 — $250 depending on what features it comes with.

The Blade Grinder

While not ideal, a blade grinder will do a fine job if you put in a little effort. The first thing to remember is to pulse grind. Don’t grind all the coffee beans needed for your brew at once, instead, grind smaller quantities and pause regularly to shake the grinder. This will loosen all the bits and help you get a more uniform grind.

Take your blade grind to the next level: Got a sieve?

Sift the grounds through your sieve until you are left with just the large pieces. Then grind those large bits again until you are left with just medium and small grinds.

Pro-tip: Use a paper towel to get rid of the ‘fines’

‘Fines’ is coffee lingo for the tiniest powdery particles in ground coffee. Too many fines will leave your coffee tasting bitter and over-extracted. A nifty trick to get rid of them is to dump all of your grinds onto a paper towel and then rub them down into the paper towel with your fingers. A few passes is all it will take. Then gently transfer the grinds onto a plate (or right into your brewer). This will trap the powdery fines on the paper towel, leaving you with the best (most uniform and consistent) grind possible from a blade grinder.

Es·pres·so – /eˈspresˌō/
noun: espresso; plural noun: espressos; noun: expresso; plural noun:
1. strong black coffee made by forcing steam through ground coffee beans.
from Italian (caffè) espresso, literally ‘pressed out (coffee)’.

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The Upsetter Espresso has been named a Good Food Award Winner, and it seems like a great time to talk about espresso roasts and perhaps clarify what that means. So let’s start with the basics:

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What is espresso?

Espresso is coffee of Italian origin, brewed by expressing or forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely-ground coffee beans. Espresso generally has more body than coffee brewed by other methods, has a higher concentration of suspended and dissolved solids which gives it a satiny mouthfeel, and has crema on top, which is a foam with a creamy consistency. As a result of the pressurized brewing process, the flavors and chemicals in a typical cup of espresso are very concentrated. Espresso is also the base for other drinks such as a caffè, latte, cappuccino, caffè macchiato, caffè mocha, flat white, or caffè Americano.

What is an espresso roast?

Espresso is both a coffee beverage and a brewing method. It is not a specific bean, bean blend, or roast level, though it is more finely ground. An espresso roast is simply a way of roasting any green coffee with the intention of it tasting good brewed as espresso. Any bean or roasting level can be used to produce authentic espresso. For example, in Southern Italy, a darker roast is generally preferred. Farther north, the trend moves toward lighter roasts, while outside Italy a wide range is popular.

By lightly roasting a blend of high quality coffee beans from three different countries of origin, our Roastmaster developed a new espresso flavor profile; one with deeper complexities than many darker roasts.

What is the difference between espresso beans and coffee beans?

This is a question that we hear in various forms all the time. Fortunately, our friends over at Earl of Coffee made a fantastic post that covers this question in detail!

Can I use an espresso roast in my home brewer?

The Upsetter Espresso has been named a Good Food Award Winner, and it seems like a great time to talk about espresso roasts and perhaps clarify what that means. So let’s start with the basics:

Most people who love their coffee go to great lengths to get exquisite beans, a capable burr grinder, and an expensive device for brewing.

For some reason, however, they never seem to give the water a second thought. The truth is that water constitutes more than 98 percent of the final drink. Perhaps we ought to see it as the most crucial ingredient in a cup of coffee.

I had been a coffee geek for years before I realized the importance of water. Once I finally understood the role of water in coffee extraction it changed my brewing for good

Water chemistry can get pretty complicated, so this is my attempt to boil the most important aspects down to some actionable advice, so you can also brew better coffee at home.

Water is more than H2O

Water is water. It’s everywhere in our daily life, and we never give it a second thought. Sure, you can get some fancy mineral water in the supermarket, but that’s just marketing. Right? Well, it probably often is, but there’s also some truth to it. Water is a lot more than just H2O when you study it carefully. It usually contains minerals, salts, and some impurities.

Depending on where you are in the world the water composition will be somewhat different. Rainwater percolates into the underground where it will go through layers of limestone and chalk. This process makes the water harder as it picks up minerals on the way.

You probably never thought about it, but it’s not uncommon that a single liter of water contains enough minerals that it equates to the size of a headache pill.

People who live in areas with much calcium in the water, however, already know this since they have to descale their electric kettle and bathroom tiles regularly.

The science

One of the things that has become apparent in the specialty coffee community in recent years is that water isn’t just an ingredient in coffee.

The water – or rather the minerals in it – also acts as an extraction agent that pulls the delicious compounds from the coffee beans and into the cup.

The British barista champion Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood and chemist Christopher Hendon did a research project a few years ago that shed some light on the process.

It turns out that magnesium and calcium are the two most important minerals when it comes to coffee extraction. Especially, magnesium is vital if you want to be able to taste the fruity and lively flavors of light roasted coffees.

It could be tempting to think that more minerals equate better coffee but that isn’t the case, argued Hendon and Colonna-Dashwood in their research paper. Instead, there is a sweet spot where minerals and a buffer are balanced to create the ideal water.

When their book, ‘Water for Coffee,’ was published it made headlines within the specialty coffee community.

However, beer brewers had been aware of the importance of water for centuries. In fact, that’s the reason why beers from London, Prague, and Brussels historically had their own style.

Test your water

So how do we boil all this science down to some actionable advice? Well, luckily you don’t have to study water chemistry to start making better coffee.

One thing you can do today is to stop using hard water for brewing coffee if you live in an affected area. You should be able to obtain this information from your local water station easily. Otherwise, you can buy a cheap TDS pen online (I recommend the Xiaomi brand) and measure it yourself. Unfortunately, the majority of Americans have hard water in their taps.

To find out if a certain water is right, you can check the label and see what the amount of total dissolved solids (TDS) is. If it’s between 50 and 150, the water will most likely be great.

However, if the water has a TDS score from 0 to 20 – which is typically the case with reverse osmosis water – it will not be ideal for brewing. The flavor compounds of the beans need some minerals to adhere to in order to be extracted properly. The taste will be astringent and somehow artificial.

Soft water is better.

What if you have soft water in the area where you live? Then you’re one of the lucky ones.

You can probably get away with using a filter pitcher such as Brita. If you can find specific cartridges that convert calcium to magnesium, you should go for that.

It may sound like a lot of trouble to go through, but using the right kind of water makes a huge difference when brewing manually. If you’re still unsure whether it’s worth the effort, I’d encourage you to test it at home. Just brew a cup of coffee with tap water and bottled water and taste them next to each other. The difference should be obvious.

If you already care about buying freshly roasted coffee and have the right equipment, this last step will take your cup from good to great.

You may have scrolled past our espresso blends in the past, on the hunt for the newest single origin to try. We don’t blame you, we also search out the best in limited edition and micro lot single origins. But while we love these excellent coffees, this post is about something different. We want to tell you why we love espresso blends, brewed at home without the use of an espresso machine.

What is a Coffee Blend?

Need a quick overview on the coffee blend? It’s simple: two or more origins, mixed together. Creating a coffee blend is an art form. You have to understand and appreciate the nuances in different coffees, and bring the flavors together to be transformed into a more complex cup of coffee. With 46 years of history sourcing coffee from all over the planet, we have a unique relationship with the coffees arriving at our roastery, and can create some truly spectacular blends with the coffees we receive.
One thing that’s special about a blend is the subtle shifts in flavor that we create to maintain freshness. We regularly modify the recipes for our blends, adding in our latest arrivals of coffee, while keeping a consistent flavor profile.

Espresso Blends

Now let’s talk espresso. What makes an espresso blend different from any other coffee blend?

Our four espresso blends have certain characteristics: softened acidity, a smooth experience throughout the cup, and a heavy body with a really spectacular aftertaste. These traits are specifically built into the blend for the purpose of pulling a superb espresso shot, but using our espresso blends in your home brewer also makes an equally excellent cup of coffee.

One of our favorite things to do at Thanksgiving Coffee, is to encourage you to try new things. The world of coffee is vast, and there is no way any one person would be able to try all the amazing coffees out there. What we do have is the opportunity to experience and taste more than ever before as our world becomes better connected, and we love bringing these alternative coffee options to you.

Every sip of coffee is a new experience, and we are honored to be a part of your coffee rituals.