Have you seen this chart from the UC Davis research group? It helps understand which sensory perceptions are more likely to show up at any given extraction point. I find it very interesting, it can be used as a guide to dial in your coffees, and map your own sensory preferences. Refractometers like the DiFluid R2 include this type of chart in their app. I created my own chart and did 2 tests.

Semiwashed Geisha: by changing the brew variables, I was able to navigate the chart at ease. Intentionally moving up,down,left and right, noting how widely the whole sensory perception changed.

Natural Geisha: I tried finding the sweet spot for this coffee and found it around B3 settings.

Being able to visualize your extraction results (TDS,EY) and link them to your actual taste is quite eye-opening. You can map your taste and dial your golden cup faster. Have you tried this before?

I recently got a chance to try Lume Roasters after seeing it mentioned in this sub. I ordered the Luz Helena Pink Bourbon back in July. Finally tried it and it is very aromatic with lots of red fruit and a nice sweet finish. Happy to have found another ultra light roaster!!

I would love to support more micro local roasters that are passionate about the craft.

Drop some of your favorite micro roasters doing light roasts. Please exclude big-name roasters and the ones we see mentioned every day in this sub. I am not denying they are great, but I want to help the little guys.

My first order from Glitch Coffee & Roasters in Tokyo finally arrived.

For pour-over I picked Colombia Cauca El Paraíso “Red Plum”:

• Castillo
• Double Anaerobic Washed
• 1,960m
• Tasting notes: hibiscus tea, apricot, red plum
• Juicy / tea-like

The hibiscus note was what originally caught my attention.

I’ll probably start it on the Kalita Wave, then run the same coffee through my Weber BIRD to see how much the fruit definition, sweetness and body change between the two.

For anyone who has brewed Glitch’s Red Plum before: what brewer and recipe gave you the best cup?

After a recent traveling experience I decided, I’m NEVER traveling without my travel setup again. In fact, I decided to add to it by buying an OutIn Mino and frother.

This is v2 of this setup and I’m just some CAD drawings and a CNC machine from it being PERFECT…for me anyway.

Can someone explain why water to coffee ratio matters and when I would change it?

That is a variable I never touch. I only every change grind size, temperature and pour style.

The $311 doesn’t include international shipping and the taxes / import fees. That puts the kickstarter pricing at one of the highest of any hand grinder on the market.
When I bought an early bird M01 last fall it was $270 shipped.
I guess I had anticipated this grinder would fall between a S5 and a M01 in pricing. Then again I shouldn’t be surprised from a company that sells plastic drippers for $50

DIdn't plan it that way, but there they are :)

My in-laws are Italian, but they are all about espresso machines and Moka pots. No pour-over anywhere in sight. I understand - I guess that's the culture.

I generally drink out of a ceramic mug that I purchased while on a vacation. I like that the mug reminds me of the vacation, but it doesn't do anything directly to the coffee. It's not insulated, so it's not keeping the coffee temp longer. It's not tied to a coffee that I tried in the spot. And so on. When I need to head out with my coffee, I have a few travel mugs that I turned to based largely on size and whether I want a handle or not.

Recently, I picked up a double-walled glass cup. I'm surprised at how much I enjoy drinking coffee out of it. It's the visual aspect of being able to see an entire cup of coffee. I get to more fully see the color of the cup of coffee, and I've been pleasantly surprised at how much I like that.

Single stream pour for little agitation. Doesn’t look like it went too well?

Maybe I notice this more often, but the last few coffee shops I went to didn’t have the price listed anywhere. Is this the norm?

I noticed this at SEY, Obscure, and a couple other shops in NYC this weekend.

Probably my anxiety and fear of disappointment, but I’d rather not go up during busy hours to realize that the box I selected is out of budget. I know one of the SEY bags was 50$ and it wasn’t listed on the site.

I have no problem asking if they aren’t busy, but why aren’t prices on the coffee? Has anyone else experience this a bit?

I just wanted to give a quick shoutout to this community for all their advice and also give a little update on how things have gone for me so far.

Well, I’m one week into my pour over journey and after brewing two to three cups a day and experimenting with the CV3 burrs on the Zerno and also using the K-Max… I think I actually prefer the cups I’m getting from the K-Max.

Honestly, it’s a win, win for me though… As before I started dabbling in pour over, I had the Zerno running the HU burrs for espresso and I much prefer the shots I was pulling with those as apposed to the CV3s.

So now I’m able to swap back to the HU burrs to grind my espresso and use the K-Max for pour overs without constantly adjusting grind sizes and or swapping burrs.

Love it and thanks again!

We've all seen them. Every so often a post comes along on this sub with the detailed description of some maniac losing their mind over the amount of minerals dissolved in their coffee water and the difference it makes to their bean juice. Today is my turn.

For a long time I was content with the coffee I made at home, first in the Netherlands and now in Paris. I started out just using tap water, then switched to brita-filtered water, and then graduated to mixing my filtered water with Spa bottled water to what my tiny little mind conceived to be delicious coffee.

Since moving to Paris, I have been using Volvic bottled water, because my local barista recommended that brand as a good starting point since the tap water here is of abysmal quality. The cups were pretty good, some even great, and I was having a lot of fun with my coffee hobby.

More recently, a friend recommended trying Montcalm water, which is very low hardness and alkalinity. It was definitely an improvement over the Volvic, but I started having a hunch that there might be more to this water business. Volvic made my cups taste kind of chalky and astringent, while Montcalm made them very muted. Neither were bad, but surely there is a way to make my coffee at home taste like that at the cafés, and I was starting to wonder whether water was that way.

I looked up the SCA water recipe and what some companies like Lotus and TWW recommended, and mixed the Volvic and Montcalm in a 3:7 ratio.

Wtf, it's actually good? I know people have been saying this since the dawn of this sub, but I always refused to believe how much of a difference water makes. I thought it might improve the cup a tiny little bit, but no. This might be the biggest improvement to my coffee ever. Even the perceived improvement from upgrading a Hario Skerton to a Comandante C40, and then to a ZP6S, was not this big.

Thank you all. I'm genuinely blown away, absolutely ecstatic to try all of the coffees in my drawer, and I hate all of you nerds.

Monday - Sey Halo Hartume (a floral start to an otherwise cruel Monday)

Tuesday - Sey Georgina Puma (a delicate and expressive coffee for a rough Tuesday)

Wednesday - H&S Abel Salinas (a sweetness kick towards a bitter Wednesday)

Thursday - H&S Juan Peña (an intense and complex distraction from midweek madness)

Friday - Picky Chemist La Esmeralda Trapiche (a prestigious Panama coffee for an early celebration of coming weekend) 🥳

Saturday - Ordinary Pepe Jijon Gesha (reserving the most relaxing day of the week for the Wave Washed complexity that needs time to appreciate and loosen up)

Sunday - Substance Café Mi Finquita Chibor (a fun, although expensive coffee to prepare myself for the next week)

Let me know how you’d place your coffees for the week

I went to NYC yesterday to celebrate my birthday drinking coffee and eating around Chinatown. While I was there I picked up these beans from PARK at KIMS. I meant to ask the barista about the two dates on the box but had to rush out to catch my ferry and forgot. I'm assuming the first date is the roast date is the second date the recommended date to start brewing them ? Also does anyone have experience with this roaster and their rest times for beans on average? I didn't know anything about the roaster but decided to splurge on Hacienda La Esmeralda for the first time. Any advice on these beans would be greatly appreciated since I only have a few brews worth. Thanks in advance !

Coffee setup:
Not all shown in photo
Gaggimate pro gaggia classic e24 with flow and pressure profiling and PID
Shardor 64mm with gorilla gear burrs for daily spro (trad shots mostly)
Femobook a2 for travel/home use
Next level Pulsar mini for travel dripper
1zpresso zp6 special
Cafec t90s papers
Plastic + ceramic v60
Bluetooth scales with connectivity to gaggimate
Ikape k2 pro 51mm portable espresso machine with ikape stand and paper filter for soup shots if I want them but I also do trad spro
Big bang IMs basket 58mm for soup shots
Also separately a 58-49mm step down for trad spro only
Foldable kettle to use with pulsar
Gooseneck kettle for home v60s
Blind shaker

Been brewing on my V60/185 for many years now. Snagged a Pulsar Mini to try something new. But I can’t seem to get it right.

Main questions I have for people are:
What grind size on a C40 are you using?
What does your normal brew time finish at?
If you have both Pulsar and 185, what differences have you noticed between the same coffee beans between these brewers?

I bought the Gen 1 right when it came out and shortly after upgraded to the SSP MP burrs. I went to the Fellow store to get them installed 1 click off of chirp. I'll be honest, I feel like I haven't found my ideal grind setting in the last 5 years of owning the grinder. Previously I had the Baratza Encore and just left it at 20. Very rarely did I change the grind setting but I felt like I consistently had really good coffee. Generally I have been unimpressed with my brews with my new combo, often tasting pretty harsh and overwhelming without the clarity I often see other folks talking about, regardless of how course or fine I grind. Am I missing something with this set up? In 2026 there are so many other options now but I am wary of chasing shiny new things when I know I have a decent set up.

I often brew a pour over or use my Ratio 6. Usually a medium to medium-dark roast because my wife prefers more of those chocolatey notes. I sometimes will do lighter roasts when I'm feeling fancy.

So, is it the flat burrs that are not working well with the roast level? Is there some hidden secrets about the Gen 1 and SSP burrs that I should know about?

Since last fall, I’ve gotten more and more into clean, light roast, washed-process coffees, first, through a sub to Thankfully Coffee for about 6 months, and now to Flower Child.

Grinders have been primarily an X-Pro, secondarily but less often an Ode with Gen 2 burrs, and last week I finally broke down and bought a ZP6 (which I’m loving).

I have V60’s (size 01 & 02), Kalita Mino’s (155 & 185), but tend to prefer the V60 and use it probably 75% of the time at least.

For the V60’s, I’ve always used the standard tabbed Hario filters and resisted the urge to keep multiple different types of filters on hand. But I just went ahead and ordered a pack of T-90’s to try out, because I feel like 95% of what I drink is dense, high-grown, African or genetically African beans (Colombian pink bourbon, Chiroso, Gesha), and the Hario filters have the tendency to clog really easily with these dense beans that produce lots of fines, and I feel like with the faster flowing T-90’s, those will give me at least the option to go finer and push extraction a bit with these dense, washed, light roast beans.

I also bought some T-92’s a while back
To experiment with. Wow. The T-92’s nearly DOUBLE TBT when compared to the Hario’s. I bought them to try out the brew method promoted by Prestin of Flower Child. He likes fairly high extraction and uses a method where he goes 1:18 or 1:19 and uses a Melodrip with the T-92’s and goes 4-5 min TBT for a “high extraction, high clarity, high body” cup. I’ve tried it a few times and it is interesting… I’ve gotten a couple of good results with it and a couple of not so good.

Anyway, for about the last 3 years I’ve been using Zero Water with TWW minerals at about 50% strength.

I think it’s decent, but it makes sense to me that would work better to tailor the minerals to the individual beans.

I also do modern light roast espresso on a Flair 58 or a portable Hibrew H4C with the same kinds of beans. And I would stand to reason that the same water used for pourover might not work best for espresso.

Anyway, I’d like to hear from some of you who have made the jump from using TWW to drops or making your own mineral blends, what has worked for you, what have you liked, etc, especially if you’re drinking these kinds of light roast, washed coffees.

If you made it this far, I know this was a wordy post, thank you for reading!

I look forward to hearing from you guys.

Has anyone used both? I have a Pulsar but have been looking at the Z1 for a travel dripper.

Just seeing if anyone has any noticeable experience between the two.

Brand new A4Z here, made 2-3 cups. I’m at 1.6 with an Inmaculada Fellows Columbia geisha, 1700 masl, very light roast at 92°, V60-02, 22gr 350ml, I’m getting decent taste but quite astringent. Obviously I’ll go coarser, but how coarse for the next cup makes sense to try? At 8 microns per/click seems like maybe 5-10 just to make any difference.

Was in Raleigh, NC this past weekend to visit family and made a stop at 2 B&W cafes!

First I visited their downtown location and it was fantastic! Had a great flat white and pourover. Also picked up 2 bags. The Natural for espresso and Nector Lasso thermal shock for some fun pour overs! Had both of those coffees before and had to buy again.

Then on way back home I passed a B&W cafe in the RDU airport! I don’t know at this point if I was more shocked to see them or the espresso machine they were working with…. Safe to say I avoided this one. Maybe they just serve/distribute B&W coffee at this location and don’t have any say in equipment

my local shop’s descriptors lol. next thing you know they’ll be using emojis instead of words

I've been using a V60 with a Baratza Encore grinder for 6 months. I'm a dark roast guy. I wanted chocolatey smoothneess. I wasn't getting it. It was kind of bitter and astringent. I tried doing lots of pours. I tried doing a single pour. I stirred. I didn't stir. I thought maybe I need immersion and almost bought a Hario Switch. But $35? And such a small capacity?

I ended up buying a $70 Ninja 12-cup that the NYT recommended. Only twice the price of the Switch. If I double the manufacturer's grounds recommendation and use the 15:1 ratio I learned from doing pourover, it is PERFECT. It is SO much better than any pourover I ever made. I've been beaten by a machine, a budget machine, albeit the best of the budget machines. It's smooth and chocolatey. It's perfect.

I think what the machine is doing right would have helped me with my pourover.

1. It uses a Melitta #4 cone instead of a V60. The NYT says that style is more forgiving and easier for beginners. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/gear-for-making-great-coffee/

2. It uses a big sprinkler head like a Melodrip. I thought I needed stirring and immersion instead of more gentle dripping, but I guess not

3. It seems to be doing the equivalent of lots of pours instead of immersion. (Why do we count and time pours instead of just adding more water to a certain depth then repeat when the bed dries out or when the dripping slows?)

So that's how I'd do pourover differently. But I'm going to admit defeat and stick with the Ninja.

hey! I currently have a timemore C2 hand grinder, as well as a DF54. I got the C2 a while ago for v60 pour overs, then bought the DF54 to get into espresso.

if you had what I have, and wanted to minimize fines/go for a very consistent grind size for pour overs, how would you do it? Is either grinder clearly better than the other for this task? Any techniques that make a big difference in distribution, ie hand feeding the beans to the df54? is there a significant difference between these two grinders that it even matters what I do or use?

for reference, I usually opt for the C2 at 16-17 clicks, which should be around 55 on the DF54. I use light to medium roasts too if it makes a difference. TIA!