Anna Brones

Unless you work in specialty coffee — or come from or have spent time in New Zealand or Australia — I will bet that a few years ago, you had never heard of a flat white. Our friends Down Under have been drinking flat whites for years, but even within the coffee world there tends to be some confusion as to what “exactly” they really are.

There’s nothing worse than pouring a big cup of coffee to go with your breakfast sandwich, bringing it to your lips, taking that first sweet drink, and realizing that it’s bitter as sin. Your cup of coffee should be a burst of good flavor, not an overpowering dose of bitterness. So why does it end up bitter? It’s interesting that coffee is often associated with bitterness.

Have you had coffee from a siphon? While you may have seen siphon coffee makers popping up at more and more specialty coffee shops and retailers, the trend of vacuum coffee makers is nothing new. A siphon coffee maker brews coffee using two chambers where vapor pressure and gravity produce coffee. In fact the concept dates back to the mid 1800s, when people were in agreement that boiling their coffee killed the taste, and so were experimenting with vacuums and vapor pressure.

While not everyone is a lover of the French press, it’s one of the most classic methods of brewing coffee, and if you do it right, it can produce a great cup. Want to perfect your morning French press? Avoid these three common mistakes and you’ll be sure to get the best brew every time. The beauty of a French press is in its simplicity — grind your coffee, add water, and go.

Up until the last few years — when pour-over coffee started garnering cult status in the specialty coffee world, making filter coffee cool again — espresso had often been deemed by many as the “best” way to drink coffee. When it was introduced in the United States, a country where we had become used to drinking drip coffee, it was an entirely new way to experience coffee.

Would you pour coffee into a sippy cup? Probably not. Culturally, childhood consumption of coffee is usually avoided — at least during the very early years. But as children grow older into adolescence, the world of lattes and macchiatos can be hard to resist. So, how young is too young? We asked a few experts to weigh in. As coffee shops become places where adolescents hang out and congregate, thinking about their caffeine consumption is increasingly important.

Coffee and Instagram seem to be meant for each other. Even those who aren’t obsessed with coffee have probably posted a caffeinated photo or two at some point in their Instagram career. If you’re looking for visual coffee inspiration, here are 10 great coffee Instagram accounts to follow.

Is your daily dose of coffee just not enough for you? Are you looking for something a little extra? Perhaps some coffee education? Or the latest gossip in the coffee industry? Then a coffee blog just might be for you. If you’re a coffee lover, coffee geek, coffee nerd, or just someone looking for more information about coffee, here are my favorite online coffee resources. Brew a fresh batch and start reading.

If you’re a coffee lover, then you look forward to that moment when you take your first morning sip of deep, dark goodness. Even when you’re sleepily going through every other motion, if you have that coffee cup in your hand, you know everything is going to be ok. So there’s nothing more disappointing than a bad cup of coffee, especially when you’ve been looking forward to it since the night before. Do you feel like your morning coffee just isn’t up to par?

When you’re making coffee for yourself in the morning, your routine is simple. Serving coffee to a crowd, however, is a whole other story, with a few extra things to remember and the necessity of having the right tools at your disposal. Let’s be honest: coffee that has been sitting for an hour on the warmer of the coffee machine isn’t any good, which means the easy coffee machine option is out.

There are those who will tell you that putting milk and a sweetener in good coffee is practically sacrilegious. I agree. That being said, I do have one exception: fancy café drinks. Because come on, they’re tasty things, especially when they’re iced and you’re sipping one on warm spring or summer days.

Whether it’s a French press, a Bialetti or a latte, if you have a love for coffee, there’s a high chance that it’s a fierce love. An all consuming love. An “I can’t live without you” love. Sure, you may take a break every now and then, but once you’ve fallen in love with coffee, it’s hard to ever really commit to a long term separation.

While we may think a lot about what coffee we buy and how we brew it, most of us are pretty disconnected from the coffee production process. Coffee has become such an everyday item that we forget to even think about where it comes from and how it came to be, but in fact, the quality of a coffee is even more important than what you do with it when it finally reaches your kitchen. Today we’re going to take a look at coffee production, and how it goes from seed to cup.

If you’re a lover of coffee drinks with milk, then it’s safe to assume that at some point you’ve been handed a cup, looked at the formation made by the combination of coffee and milk and thought to yourself, “how did they do that?” Here are a few facts about latte art that just might make you respect that cup even more. Recently I had my own chance to try my hand at doing latte art. Let’s put it this way: it’s not at all easy.

A common question for people looking to jump into the world of French press is, “What kind of coffee should I brew?” Is there one right answer to this? Do some coffee beans taste better when brewed in the French press? To answer that let’s step back for a moment and ask: Why are so many people in love with the French press? Of course, French press coffee brewers are often beautiful objects. Be it glass or stainless steel, the French press always maintains a beautiful shape.

The only thing better than a kitchen with freshly brewed coffee is a kitchen with a coffee print, and no matter what your brew preference is, there’s probably a poster for you. Here are nine creative prints that will brighten up any kitchen and remind anyone that visits how much you love your favorite drink. Life Begins After Coffee, $15.

Serving up a big dinner sometime during the holiday season? While you may have your menu all planned out, have you thought about coffee yet? In some parts of the world (France and Italy, for example), not having coffee after a long, drawn-out meal would be unthinkable. And while even in those places there are people who will opt out of after-dinner coffee, you’re always offered a small black cup to round out your meal.

To say that the world of coffee is a complex thing would be an understatement, which means we need some help in understanding it. From the history of coffee to perfect brew methods, there are some excellent resource books out there. For any coffee lover, here are some essential titles to put on your bookshelf. Understanding the world of coffee requires a little more knowledge than nailing the difference between a French press and a Bialetti.

It’s no surprise that technology and coffee go hand in hand. While the act of brewing can be a very simple thing Technology can in fact help you to make better coffee. For all you tech and coffee lovers out there, here are nine different apps that are all coffee-related, from helping you make coffee to helping you find the best cafe wherever you are. 1.

If you’ve switched to manual brewing at home, you know that there are a few things to nail down in order to ensure a good cup. In this column, we have previously discussed the importance using freshly roasted beans, getting your grind right, and figuring out the right water to coffee ratio. All of these things are part of ensuring that you end up with the best cup possible.

While the coffee beans you buy and make your morning cup with are brown, they don’t start out that way. I’ve had many a person in the coffee industry tell me how shocked they are to realize how many people think coffee beans are just picked off the coffee tree as-is. So we’re here today to break down that myth, in case there are any of you who think someone just picks the beans and makes a cup.

There are many ways to get into the coffee profession, from roaster to coffee journalist (yes, that exists!) to green coffee buyer. But probably the most common is becoming a barista. Of course, there was a time when getting a job in coffee was as easy as walking into a cafe, dropping off a resume, and giving a good smile. Oh how times have changed!

There are a lot of questions when it comes to buying and storing coffee, but there’s an easy answer. In fact, the answer is much the same to buying fresh food: buy small amounts and buy regularly. While it may seem time-efficient to stock up on six months of coffee at a time, that isn’t doing your coffee beans any justice. But obviously we don’t go and buy fresh beans every other day, nor do most people consume coffee in those kinds of quantities.