Learn coffee by topic.
Five topics, each one a short shelf of articles. Read them in any order; every term is explained where it first appears.
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Three short reads that cover what specialty coffee is, how to taste it and how a drip bag brews it.
Specialty Coffee Isn't a Marketing Word. Here's What It Actually Means.
Specialty coffee is a technical grade, not a slogan. Here is how the 80-point score works and why it changes...
How to Actually Taste Coffee (Without Feeling Like a Snob)
Tasting notes on a coffee bag aren't marketing fluff — they're real observations anyone can learn to make. Here's a...
What Is Drip Bag Coffee?
A drip bag is single-serve pour-over — a pre-measured dose of ground coffee in a paper filter that hooks onto...
Taste & flavor
What you are tasting, and how to name it.
Acidity: The Trait That Actually Separates Specialty Coffee From Everything Else
The tart, bright quality in specialty coffee has a name: acidity. Here is what it actually is, where it comes...
How to Actually Taste Coffee (Without Feeling Like a Snob)
Tasting notes on a coffee bag aren't marketing fluff — they're real observations anyone can learn to make. Here's a...
What Coffee Tasting Competitions Can Teach Beginners About Flavor
Tasting is a skill of noticing, not vocabulary. What coffee tasting competitions show beginners, plus a two-cup exercise to try...
What Roast Level Actually Does to Your Coffee (Light, Medium, Dark — Explained)
Light, medium and dark roast, explained: what heat does to a bean, how each level tastes, and whether dark roast...
Specialty Coffee Isn't a Marketing Word. Here's What It Actually Means.
Specialty coffee is a technical grade, not a slogan. Here is how the 80-point score works and why it changes...
Origins & varieties
Where coffee grows and the plants it comes from.
Bourbon Coffee Explained: From Bourbon Island to Latin America
Bourbon is one of two family lines behind most modern arabica. Learn where the name comes from, how missionaries spread...
Typica Coffee Explained: Where It Came From and Why It Matters
Typica is one of two family lines behind most modern arabica. See how a single plant from Java reached the...
Gesha Coffee Explained: Where It Comes From and Why It Became So Famous
Gesha began in a forest in southwestern Ethiopia and reached Panama by way of Tanzania and Costa Rica. Here is...
Arabica vs Robusta: How the Two Coffee Species Differ and Where Varieties Fit
Arabica and robusta are the two coffee species behind almost every cup. Here is how they differ, and where Gesha,...
What Is a Coffee Microlot? A Beginner's Guide to Scores, Traceability, and Taste
What a coffee microlot is, what a cupping score does and does not tell you, and how to read the...
A Coffee Lover's Guide to the World's Major Growing Regions
Why coffees from Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific taste so different, and how to learn origin by tasting coffees side...
Processing
What happens between the cherry and the bean.
Co-Fermented Coffee, Explained: How Processing Changes Flavor and How Beginners Should Choose
Co-fermented coffee is showing up on more bags and menus, but it's not the same as washed, natural, or honey...
Natural, Washed, Honey, Wet-Hulled: How Coffee Processing Changes What's in Your Cup
Washed, natural, honey and wet-hulled: what each processing method does to the coffee cherry, and how to read it on...
From Cherry to Cup: How Coffee Gets Its Flavor
Coffee starts as a fruit. Follow the cherry from the farm through processing and roasting to see where the flavors...
Brewing
Heat, grind and water, and what each one changes.
Why Brewing Temperature Changes What Coffee Tastes Like
Same beans, different water temperature, a different cup. How an engineer finally measured why, and what it means for brewing...
Why Water Temperature Matters Twice — Brewing and Tasting
Temperature changes coffee twice: once in the kettle and again as the cup cools. How to use both to taste...
How Grind Size Affects the Taste of Your Coffee
When a familiar coffee suddenly tastes bitter, sour or thin, grind size is often why. Here is what grind changes...
What the World Barista Championship Has to Do With Your Morning Coffee
How the World Barista Championship and the US Coffee Championships work, and why their results are a useful signal for...
Drip bags
How a drip bag works, and why it is a pour-over.
Drip Bag Coffee vs. Instant Coffee
They look almost identical on the shelf — small, single-serve, just add hot water. What’s inside them isn’t close. Here’s...
What Is Drip Bag Coffee?
A drip bag is single-serve pour-over — a pre-measured dose of ground coffee in a paper filter that hooks onto...
The Drip Bag Is a Pour-Over. It Just Doesn't Need You to Do Anything.
A drip bag is not an alternative to pour-over. It is pour-over: the same filter, grounds and gravity, with no...
Why We Started with Specialty Coffee
Why Brewspecialty starts with specialty coffee in drip bags, and what we are building toward: an easier way to explore...
Learn your own taste.
Seven questions about what you already drink. You get one of five taste profiles and a plain explanation of what it means.
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