Tools Needed

Kitchen Scale

Recipe

Brews about 32 fluid ounces of coffee

1,150 grams filtered water

72 grams coffee

Steps

1. Tare a large pitcher or coffee carafe on your scale. Fill with filtered water to 1,150 grams
2. Grind coffee to the consistency of kosher salt
3. Add coffee to filter and tap / shake to level bed
4. Add water to coffee maker reservoir
5. Press brew!

Pro Tips For Drip Coffee Machines

This recipe is designed for the max capacity of an 8-12 cup coffee filter. If your brewer dispenses water too fast you may get some grounds overtopping. If so, reduce your water and coffee according to the ratio above (for example, try 60 grams and 1000 grams of water)

What's in a cup? In coffee maker measurements, one "cup" is typically 5 ounces (150-180 mL) of brewed coffee, not the standard 8-ounce U.S. cup. This is because coffee makers use a smaller cup measurement, likely based on traditional European coffee serving sizes. We find this misleading when trying to dial in a coffee makers

Most home coffee makers can’t brew “good” coffee at their rated capacity. We like brew ratios for most of our coffees of between 14:1 and 17:1 (mass of water to mass of coffee). If you were to try and use this ratio for a “10 cup” or 50 ounce brewer you would need about 90 grams of coffee. Unfortunately, if you were to put 90 grams (almost 1 cup) of coffee into a coffee maker it would make a huge mess by overtopping the coffee bed and getting an ugly slurry of coffee all over your counter. 

Used bleached coffee filters. Bleached filters are almost always oxygen bleached and are fully compostable. Best of all, they don’t impart your coffee with as much papery flavor as an unbleached filter. 

Don’t use mesh or reusable filters, they are hard to clean well and in many cases impart stale flavors or the flavors of dish soap into coffee. Lets be real about our impact, we are brewing coffee sourced from around the world, honor it by making it taste good and look to other places to save on your waste footprint than fully compostable filters.

Play with your grind size around the recommended setting to optimize your brew. Taste and iterate. Probably the only other piece of gear we do think is worth an investment in, along with a decent kitchen scale, is a conical burr grinder. What we want is consistency and a decent machine is the price of admission for that.

Tools Needed

Measuring Cup

Tablespoon

Recipe

Brews about 32 fluid ounces of coffee

12 tablespoons (¾ cup) ground coffee 

40 fluid ounces water (5 cups aka “8” ‘coffee maker cups’ )

Ratio ~2.5 tbsp of ground coffee per 8 fluid ounces of water

Steps

1. Fill your coffee maker with a bit more than 4 cups of water (8oz cups from a liquid measuring cup)
2. Grind coffee to the consistency of kosher salt
3. Add coffee to filter and tap / shake to level bed
4. Add water to coffee maker reservoir
5. Press brew!

Pro Tips: Coffee Makers

This recipe is designed for the max capacity of an 8-12 cup coffee filter. If your brewer dispenses water too fast you may get some grounds overtopping. If so, reduce your water and coffee according to the ratio above (for example, try 60 grams and 1000 grams of water)

What's in a cup? In coffee maker measurements, one "cup" is typically 5 ounces (150-180 mL) of brewed coffee, not the standard 8-ounce U.S. cup. This is because coffee makers use a smaller cup measurement, likely based on traditional European coffee serving sizes. We find this misleading when trying to dial in a coffee makers

Most home coffee makers can’t brew “good” coffee at their rated capacity. We like brew ratios for most of our coffees of between 14:1 and 17:1 (mass of water to mass of coffee). If you were to try and use this ratio for a “10 cup” or 50 ounce brewer you would need about 90 grams of coffee. Unfortunately, if you were to put 90 grams (almost 1 cup) of coffee into a coffee maker it would make a huge mess by overtopping the coffee bed and getting an ugly slurry of coffee all over your counter. 

Used bleached coffee filters. Bleached filters are almost always oxygen bleached and are fully compostable. Best of all, they don’t impart your coffee with as much papery flavor as an unbleached filter. 

Don’t use mesh or reusable filters, they are hard to clean well and in many cases impart stale flavors or the flavors of dish soap into coffee. Lets be real about our impact, we are brewing coffee sourced from around the world, honor it by making it taste good and look to other places to save on your waste footprint than fully compostable filters.

Play with your grind size around the recommended setting to optimize your brew. Taste and iterate. Probably the only other piece of gear we do think is worth an investment in, along with a decent kitchen scale, is a conical burr grinder. What we want is consistency and a decent machine is the price of admission for that.

Tools Needed

Timer

Gram Scale

Recipe

18g ground coffee with the consistency of table salt

270g water (15:1 ratio)

Steps

1. Grind coffee to the consistency of table salt
2. Rinse filter (optional), its better, but it will still be good if you don’t (unlike Chemex)
3. Add coffee to filter and tap/shake to level bed of grounds, tare scale
4. Pour ~60g water, ensure even saturation by stirring or swirling dripper
5. At ~0:30 add 110g water, try to pour to saturate grounds evenly
6. At ~1:00 add additional 100g water, gently swirl to get the grounds off the side of dripper
7. Coffee should finish dripping around 2:45 (coffees from Ethiopia can take longer we have found)

Pro Tips: V60s

V60s and other cone shaped brewers produce the best cups, in our opinion, with doses at or below 20 grams, which keeps the bed depth lower and balances the great brightness of the brew method without bitterness.

If you want to do a bigger dose, coarsen up your grind and consider using the bypass method (adding water after the brew cycle)

Play with water temps from 185 to full boil, it's fun to see how the coffees change.

Play with your grind size around the recommended setting to optimize your brew, taste and iterate

Tools Needed

Timer

Gram Scale

Recipe

Filtered water, around 200°F

21g coffee table salt grind

300g water (14:1 ratio)

Steps

1. Grind coffee to the consistency of kosher salt
2. Rinse filter (optional), its better, but it will still be good if you don’t (unlike Chemex)
3. Add coffee to filter and tap/shake to level bed. Tare scale.
4. Pour 100g water, ensure even saturation by stirring or swirling dripper
5. At ~0:30 add 100g water, try to pour to saturate grounds evenly
6. At ~1:00 add additional 100g water, gently swirl to get the grounds off the side of dripper
7. Coffee should finish dripping around 2:30 (coffees from Ethiopia can take longer we have found)
   
   

Pro Tips: Flat Bottom Brewers

These are our favorite brewers (Fellow Stagg, Kalita Wave) because of their even, consistent draw down rates. You can play with your dose a bit more, making it bigger or smaller without compromising your cup quality as much.

If you want to try a bloom, go ahead, add an additional pour of about 60 grams and delay your other pours by 15-30 seconds

If you want to do a bigger dose, coarsen up your grind and consider using the bypass method (adding water after the brew cycle)

Play with water temperature from 185 to full boil, it’s fun to see how the coffees change.

Play with your grind size around the recommended setting to optimize your brew, taste and iterate

Tools Needed

Timer

Recipe

Filtered water, around 200°F, or just off the boil

3.5tbsp coffee 

10–11oz water

Steps

1. Grind coffee to the consistency of kosher salt
2. Rinse filter (optional), it’s better, but it will still be good if you don’t (unlike Chemex)
3. Add coffee to filter and tap/shake to level bed. Tare scale.
4. Pour a third of your water, ensure even saturation by stirring or swirling dripper
5. At ~0:30 add the second third of your water, try to pour to saturate grounds evenly
6. At ~ 1:00 add the final third of your water, gently swirl to get the grounds off the side of dripper
7. Coffee should finish dripping around 2:30 (coffees from Ethiopia can take longer we have found)
   
   

Pro Tips: Pour Overs

You can play with your dose a bit more (bigger or smaller) without compromising your cup quality too much

If you want to try a bloom, go ahead, add an additional pour of about 2oz water (or enough to wet the grounds but not much more) and delay your other pours by 15-30 seconds

If you want to do a bigger dose, coarsen up your grind and consider using the bypass method (adding water after the brew cycle)

Play with water temperature from 185 to full boil, its fun to see how the coffees change.

Play with your grind size around the recommended setting to optimize your brew, taste and iterate

Tools Needed

Timer

Gram scale

Bleached paper filters

Recipe

Filtered water, around 200°F

30g coffee, table salt grind 

450g water (15:1 ratio)

Steps

1. Grind coffee to the consistency of kosher salt
2. Insert filter with the triple fold layer on the spout side
3. Rinse filter thoroughly as it’s very thick
4. Add coffee to filter and tap/shake to level bed, tare scale
5. Pour ~90g water, ensure even saturation by stirring or swirling dripper
6. At ~0:30 add 180g water, try to pour to saturate grounds evenly
7. At ~1:30 add additional 180g water, gently swirl to get the grounds off the side of dripper
8. Coffee should finish dripping around 4:00 (coffees from Ethiopia can take longer we have found)

Pro Tips: Chemex

Chemex can be a very challenging brewer to dial in due to its very thick filter paper and its cone shapes. If you try to do a big dose (more than 40 grams) you are going to get long brew times and more bitter flavors as the brew bed tends to cool down and gets stuck. This can be an advantage as you can add body to coffees but it can be challenging to get good cup clarity out of a coffee with a large dose from a chemex.

Seriously, the best way to get good results from a chemex is to use it as a beautiful carafe with a glass V60 on top. It's a beautiful piece of industrial art, just not a great dripper.

If you want to do a bigger dose, coarsen up your grind and consider using the bypass method (adding water after the brew cycle)

Play with water temps from 185°F to full boil, it’s fun to see how the coffees change.

Play with your grind size around the recommended setting to optimize your brew, taste and iterate

Tools Needed

Timer

Gram Scale

Recipe

32 fl oz (or  1L) French Press

55g coffee

800g water heated to around 200°F (or 30 seconds off boiling)

Can be adjusted for other size french presses, using ~14.5 to 15:1 water to coffee ratio

Steps

1. Grind coffee to the consistency of kosher salt
2. Add heated water to french press to warm carafe then discard
3. Add coffee to french press, tare scale
4. Add full amount of water until french press is full up to the level of the plunger
5. At 1:00 give a good stir, saturating all grounds
6. Plunge at 4:00 and serve
   
   

Pro Tips: French Press

Very coarse grinds are not recommended for french press, standard kosher salt (medium grind) will produce a better cup. 

Try different ratios (you can use more coffee for lighter roasts)

Play with your grind size around the recommended setting to optimize your brew, taste and iterate

Tools Needed

Timer

Recipe

32 fl oz (or  1L) French Press

9tbsp ground coffee, use 1tbsp for every ~3oz water in the french press

3.5 cups water (28 fl oz)

For example, if you have a 16oz french press, use about 5tbsp of coffee

Steps

1. Grind coffee to the consistency of kosher salt
2. Add heated water to french press to warm carafe, then discard
3. Add coffee to french press, tare scale
4. Add full amount of water until french press is full up to the level of the plunger
5. At 1:00 give a good stir, saturating all grounds
6. Plunge at 4:00 and serve
   
   

Pro Tips: French Press

Very coarse grinds are not recommended for french press, standard kosher salt (medium grind) will produce a better cup. 

Try different ratios (you can use more coffee for lighter roasts)

Play with your grind size around the recommended setting to optimize your brew, taste and iterate

Tools Needed

Timer

Gram Scale

Recipe

20 grams of coffee

190 degree water

Steps

1. Grind coffee to the consistency of kosher salt
2. Wet your filter, attach to Aeropress, place on sturdy cup
3. Add coffee to Aeropress, tare scale
4. Add full amount of water to the #4 mark (about 220g)
5. Stir the grounds, wait about 1 minute
6. Plunge slowly until you hear the hiss
   
   

Pro Tips: Aeropress

Try different ratios (you can use more coffee for lighter roasts)

Play with your grind size around the recommended setting to optimize your brew, taste and iterate

Tools Needed

Wide mouth quart size mason jar, or even better a jar with a spigot

Alto Filter (or similar paper filter)

Gram Scale

Recipe

70g coffee, kosher salt grind

Filtered Water

Medium Dark Roast Coffee (Duomo is perfect for cold brew)

Steps

1. Place filter in mason jar (or polycarbonate container)
2. Add ground coffee
3. Add water almost to the top and stir
4. Brew for 8-24 hours in fridge (longer brews will be more rounded in flavor)
5. Remove bag from jar

Pro Tips: Cold Brew

We really like the compostable single use bag method for cold brew for the same reason we prefer paper filters when brewing. We think this method produces an easy, repeatable cold brew with no mess, no complex washing process and can be done cheaply. We have made cold brew in our cafes using filters from our friends at Alto and we love the results.