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A well roasted coffee brewed with care can be a source of joy and a comforting daily ritual. It doesn’t have to be time consuming or complicated. 

To dial in your preferred recipe, may we suggest you have yourself an at-home coffee competition.

Gather different coffees and brewers and take notes. Your coffee expertise will grow immensely, and you'll enjoy the process, trust us, it may lead you to start a coffee company.

Try Different Coffees

Trying different coffees is an obvious starting point for an at home tasting competition. Single origins, while the most variable, can be an ideal starting point. 

Each month we release two new single origins (single origins are coffees that represent one grower/region, rather than a blend of different coffees). We choose based on how delicious each coffee is, and also we like to showcase distinct differences in both how they're processed and the flavor imparted by said difference.  

Natural processed coffees are dried with the coffee fruit still intact and covering the whole coffee bean. Natural process coffees can vary immensely in flavor due to differences in drying times, temperatures, sun exposure, and a whole host of other tiny details, but they tend to be fruit forward. The very best can yield immense, exciting flavor.

At the other end of the spectrum, washed coffees have the whole coffee skin removed from the bean prior to drying. Washed coffees tend to lean to the chocolaty or floral side of the taste spectrum, and tend to be (all of this stuff is subjective) celebrated for their nuance and sophisticated taste.

In between the washed and natural poles exists a spectrum of honey processed coffees that have a varying amount of the coffee skin removed prior to bean drying. 

In the more niche (but growing) corners of the coffee-nerd world you'll find anaerobic naturals, where fermentation is involved, co-fermented coffees, where coffee is processed with literal fruit... new processes are being developed every year, and while we're here for them, natural and washed are a great starting point.

The Black Oak Tasting Club is a fun, delicious way to understand the huge influence in coffee flavor that processing method makes. It's an opportunity to learn about coffee in a way that is sometimes only available to coffee professionals.

Roast Level

Another simple test is to try a dark roast vs a medium roast vs a light roast. Finding your lane is easy when you have your options lined up. Explore for yourself, but adjectives often used with dark and medium roasts are "comforting" and "rich", whereas for light roasts the focus is on "sophisticated", "unique", "depth of flavor". 

Water: Does it really matter?

This is the one that may blow your mind. If you have access to spring water and/or distilled water, try brewing with that instead of tap. Even if you only have access to tap, try letting a bit sit out for 24 hours to dechlorinate and compare. A cup of coffee is mostly water after all. Compare and be amazed at the difference water makes. 

If you have a way to measure temperature, this can be very insightful as well. We recommend pour overs at 205° F as a starting point, some coffees are delightful at a lower temperature.  We don’t recommend trying anything below 180 degrees. Try a range and see how much variance you can conjure.

Brew with Different Brewers

Whether you use a “standard” drip coffee maker, a pourover immersion dripper, a french press or an aeropress: each can help bring out a unique coffee flavor profile. Line up your brewers and give each a test using the same coffee. It's pretty mind-blowing. 

A Quick Drip Coffee Maker Recipe

They’re convenient and quick. Try our recipe and see if it gives you a better profile:

10 cup coffee maker

Coffee 

60-65 grams coffee, 2.1 ounces, or 11 tbsp

Grind

Morton’s kosher salt sized

Water

1000 grams , or 32 ounces (4 cups), water should be filtered

Brew and enjoy

Read our full blog post on better coffee with a drip coffee brewer

Give Cupping a Go

Each month we taste literally dozens of coffees using the cupping technique. It's a practical way to judge the quality of coffee before we go all in.

Even if you only have a drip coffee maker, you can try your drip brewer’s coffee vs a “cupping” method: pour hot water directly on grounds in a cup and let steep for four minutes.  Knock the crust of coffee of the top, skim any grounds and gently sip. We use 12.5 grams with about 175 to 200 grams of water.

An Easy French Press Recipe

Have a french press lying around? Compare it with your drip coffee maker using our tried and true method:

Grind   

75 grams, course*

Water 

1 Liter, 205° F

Steep 

4-5 Minutes

Plunge, Pour & Enjoy

*What do we mean by "course"? Think chunky sand. 

Read our article and watch a video on the ideal French Press brewing method.

Rise and Grind

Grinding too fine makes your cup much more bitter. Too course can make it too weak. Try adjusting your grind and taste the results. Only you know what you prefer. This process can help you get acquainted with one of the most critical parts of your coffee making arsenal: your grinder.  

Read our article on which grinder we recommend.

Our Easy Pourover Recipe

Use our recipe for a Hario V60 for most pour overs:

Water 

225 grams, 200° to 205° F 

Dose 

15 grams coffee

Grind

Table salt fine sized

Pour 30-40 grams of water & stir to saturate all coffee

Pulse pour until you reach 225 grams

Taste and adjust grind to maximize flavor

Read our article on brewing for two with a Hario v60

Learn the Lingo

As you try different methods, it might be helpful to borrow some of the semantics that the pros use. Counter Culture offers a very intricate version of the tasting wheel that professional coffee folks use: https://counterculturecoffee.com/learn/resource-center/coffee-tasters-flavor-wheel

Feel free to use your own descriptions. We recommend taking notes and writing down your impressions as you cup. It's fun, we promise. Notes will help you adjust and recalibrate as you go to find exactly your preferred combination of brewing nuances. 

Let us know what you learn as you try different tastings.