Pu’er Coffee

 After talking with plenty of coffee enthusiasts, I’ve noticed that this seems to be one of the biggest curiosities people have about grinders: If it can grind coffee beans, can’t it grind other things too? And that’s usually when a few “mad experimenters” begin a series of questionable trials—only to fall into complete silence afterward… Let me put it plainly: please don’t use your coffee grinder to grind anything other than coffee beans , especially if you actually care about it. Seriously. 😄 To be honest, no matter which stage of my coffee journey I’ve been in, I’ve never even considered this question. To me, a grinder is a tool with a very clear, single purpose. Trying to repurpose it for other kinds of grinding just doesn’t make much sense. Sure, in theory , anything softer than the burrs might get crushed—but from a practical and safety standpoint, it’s a very bad idea. First, let’s be clear about one thing: the heart of any grinder is the burr set. Whether it’s flat burrs...

 There are many reasons why we might fall in love with a cup of coffee. It could be its rare and complex flavor profile, a rich and weighty mouthfeel, layered and evolving notes, or even the story behind where it comes from. Beyond these, there are also some more niche reasons. For example, I have quite a few friends who judge a coffee by one key word: “clean.” Here, “clean” doesn’t mean visual clarity, nor does it mean a coffee with low flavor complexity or “nothing going on.” Instead, it refers to a cup that is free of any unpleasant off-flavors, with flavors that are well-defined and easy to distinguish. It may sound simple, but achieving this level of cleanliness actually places very high demands on coffee quality. From growing and processing to roasting and brewing—in short, every step from seed to cup needs to be handled with great care. Before the concept of specialty coffee became widespread, exported green coffee was often processed in rough, unsophisticated ways by local...

 Before brewing coffee, most of us rinse the paper filter with a small amount of water. The purpose is simple: to soften the filter so it fits snugly against the dripper and works as intended. But here’s something many people overlook — the temperature of the water used to rinse the filter actually matters . Using water at different temperatures can subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) affect the final cup of coffee. Below are three key ways filter-rinsing water temperature can influence your brew. Impact #1: The Condition of the Paper Filter The first thing affected is, of course, the filter itself. As we know, water temperature determines molecular activity: higher temperatures mean faster molecular movement, while lower temperatures slow things down. A common example I often mention is extraction efficiency . When brewing with hotter water, coffee compounds dissolve more quickly; with cooler water, extraction happens more slowly. Paper filters behave in a similar way. When y...

 Be honest—do you do this too? Every time you buy coffee beans, the first thing you look for is the roast date. As long as it’s fresh, you feel safe. If the “best before” date is still a month away, into the cart it goes. If there’s only two weeks left, doubt immediately kicks in. Stop. Put that bag down. Here’s a little secret: the date on the bag is just the coffee’s birth certificate . What truly determines whether a coffee will surprise you—or disappoint you—are several far more important details that most people overlook. Learn to read them, and your coffee-buying skills will instantly level up. Your wallet and your taste buds will thank you. 1. Origin & Processing Method Let me ask you something: Why does someone from Northeast China sound completely different from someone speaking Cantonese? Coffee works the same way. Its “accent”—in other words, its flavor—has already been shaped by where it comes from. That small line of text on the bag, like “Ethiopia ...

 Cold brew, as the name suggests, is coffee made with cold water at low temperatures. The most common method is to soak ground coffee in room-temperature water, refrigerate it, and wait for the cold water to slowly pull out the flavors. After steeping, simply filter out the grounds and you’re done. But here’s something fun: cold brew doesn’t have to be made with room-temperature water. You can actually make it with ice water —a mix of ice cubes and water brewed together with the coffee grounds. The big question is: Does it taste better? Two Ways to Make Cold Brew For this comparison, I made two batches of cold brew—one with room-temperature water and one with ice water. I kept all other variables as consistent as possible so I could really taste the difference. 1. Room-Temperature Cold Brew I used my Colombian “Big Belly Button” beans, measured out 20g, and ground them to a coarse, sugar-like texture. Using a 20-mesh sieve, the grind had an 80% pass rate. (For reference: EK43s...

 Many baristas somehow reach the same consensus: if you want to judge the quality of a coffee shop, just order a flat white and you’ll know. If the flat white is good, the rest of the drinks are usually up to standard. When asked why, these baristas reply: because it is the milk coffee that is the easiest to “mess up.” The most controversial espresso-based coffee The flat white is a coffee with no definitive origin or agreed-upon method. Regarding the true birthplace of the flat white, the debate between Australia and New Zealand remains unresolved, but regardless of who invented it, we only need to know that it is a milk coffee from the Southern Hemisphere. As for its definition, the flat white likewise has no clear concept, so every coffee shop has its own “exclusive recipe,” but no matter how it changes, it usually sticks to three key points: less milk, thinner foam, and stronger coffee flavor. When making it, baristas reduce the milk and control the thinness of the microfoam ...

 If you often visit coffee shops for pour-over coffee and ask the barista whether a certain bean tastes better hot or iced, chances are they’ll recommend the hot version. Just yesterday, a friend buying beans complained about this and asked me, “Why do pour-overs have to be hot?” To be fair, the reason baristas recommend hot pour-overs isn’t because hot brews necessarily taste better than iced ones. As I’ve always emphasized, compared to iced pour-overs, hot pour-overs allow you to taste a more complete expression of a coffee’s flavors. Why does a hot pour-over offer more complete flavor? Most coffee shops — including mine — make iced pour-over using a flash-chill method. This means lowering the temperature by adding ice directly into the coffee so you can quickly get a cold cup of pour-over. But since the ice melts while cooling the coffee, the overall concentration inevitably becomes diluted. If we don’t want to end up with a watery cup, we need to increase the coffee concent...

 When it comes to pour-over coffee, the dripper is the heart of the entire setup. Once you decide to start brewing at home, choosing the right dripper becomes essential. But with so many designs and materials on the market—and each promising a different brewing effect—newcomers often don’t know where to start. So today, I’ll break down the real differences between the major types of drippers and show you how to choose the one that fits your taste and brewing style. And don’t worry—if you still feel unsure after learning all this, I’ll also give you a few foolproof recommendations at the end! 1. Powder Bed Structure Although drippers vary widely in shape and appearance, the mainstream designs fall into three categories : Cone-shaped drippers Flat-bottom drippers Fan-shaped drippers Their main difference lies in how the coffee grounds sit inside, which directly affects extraction and flavor. Cone-Shaped Drippers Cone drippers look like a funnel—narrow at the bottom a...