Every Thursday, 6 a.m.

18.5 grams in. 37 grams out. We time it so you don't have to guess.

A coffee newsletter for people who already own a scale. Roast breakdowns, origin reporting, and brew ratios that hold up when someone asks “why.” The 30-second version is worse and we can prove it.

Issues sent: 52
Average read time: 5 min
Origins covered: 31

Roast log · Yirgacheffe, lot 14

Charge to first crack, 5:30

Drum roasted, 12kg batch. The dip after charge is normal — panic if it doesn't happen.

Hover a wedge, or tab to it and press enter, to filter the issues below.

The wheel is load-bearing

We taste everything before we write about it. This is how.

Eight tasting notes, cupped the way roasters actually cup: slurped loudly, scored on acidity and body, argued about for longer than is reasonable. Hover a wedge and the issues on the right will sort themselves — no dropdown, no filter button, just the wheel doing what a wheel is for.

Recent issues

5 of 5 shown

Issue 52Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia

The washed Yirgacheffe that made me apologize to a natural-process Sidamo

18.5g in, 37g out, 28 seconds. The 30-second version is worse and I can prove it, with a refractometer, in front of you.

Citrus
Florals
Stone fruit

6 min read

Issue 51Huila, Colombia

Why your V60 tastes different on a Tuesday

It's the water. It is always the water. I ran the same bean through five filtered waters and only one of them was worth the plumbing.

Citrus
Cocoa

5 min read

Issue 50Mandheling, Sumatra

A defense of the second crack, briefly, before someone yells at me

Everyone's afraid of dark roast the way everyone's afraid of well-done steak. Some beans want it. This one wanted it badly.

Cocoa
Spice
Nutty

4 min read

Issue 49Chiriquí, Panama

Anaerobic Gesha, or: how to spend $40 and regret nothing

Funky, wine-forward, borderline offensive at first sip and then you go back for a second cup within the hour. Tasting notes included, unedited.

Fermented
Stone fruit
Florals

7 min read

Issue 48Tarrazú, Costa Rica

The caramel trap: why your medium roast keeps tasting like a candy bar

Maillard reaction, explained without a chemistry degree, plus the exact bean temperature where it stops being nutty and starts being dessert.

Caramel
Nutty

5 min read

Roasted coffee beans piled inside an open burlap sack. — Straight out of the sack. Lot 14, Yirgacheffe.

Digital scale mid-weigh with coffee grounds being dosed for brewing. — 18.5 grams, checked twice.

Close macro of fresh coffee grounds showing texture and grind consistency. — Grind consistency, up close, no filter jokes.

Thursday, 6 a.m., before your first cup

Not a summary. The whole issue.

The Daily Brew <letters@dailybrew.coffee>

The washed Yirgacheffe that made me apologize to a natural Sidamo

8:02 AM

Issue 47 · 5 min

Morning —

I owe Sidamo an apology. Three issues ago I called it “the reliable middle child of Ethiopian lots” and I stand by roughly none of that now that I've cupped the new washed harvest against it side by side.

“It tasted like biting into a nectarine that knew it was being judged.”

Three things worth your Thursday:

The exact wash-station timing that separates this lot from a merely-good one
A dial-in recipe for V60 that holds even if your grinder runs coarse
Why the natural-process comparison isn't fair to either bean

Go weigh something.

— Dana
Editor, The Daily Brew

“I bought a refractometer because of issue 41. My partner thinks I need an intervention. I do not. The TDS chart was correct.”

Priya Nair — home brewer, 2 grinders, no shame

“Sent the washed-vs-natural breakdown to my whole café's floor staff. We changed our default dial-in the next morning and nobody complained, which never happens.”

Mateo Reyes — shift lead, Corvid Coffee, Austin

28 seconds, not 30. Read why every Thursday.

Free, weekly, and written by people who will time your pour if you let them.