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...

 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...

 A good cup of coffee should always be enjoyed hot — that’s when you can truly experience its full range of aromas and flavors. This is one of those little mantras I often repeat to my friends. Yet here I am, still wearing short sleeves as autumn slowly creeps in. The air indoors is already getting chilly, and a freshly brewed cup of pour-over coffee cools down far too quickly. Before I know it, the rich aroma fades, the taste dulls, and what was once pure pleasure becomes something “too bland to enjoy, too precious to throw away.” Naturally, the thrifty part of me wonders: can I just reheat it? What Happens When Hot Coffee Cools Down? When coffee is first brewed, hot water extracts a variety of flavor compounds and sets them in motion. We enjoy coffee because we not only smell its aromatic compounds released into the air, but also taste the balance of acidity, sweetness, and bitterness on our tongues. However, as coffee transitions from hot to cold, those sensations change dr...

  “Peaberry” coffee beans (commonly called male beans) are a unique type of coffee bean that develop as a single oval-shaped seed inside the coffee cherry. This usually happens due to unusual pollination, drought, or other environmental factors, causing only one of the two seeds that normally grow in a cherry to fully develop. The lone seed then absorbs all the nutrients, forming a round bean. Unlike the typical flat “regular beans” (sometimes called female beans or flat beans), peaberries have a plump, oval shape. Because they develop individually, round beans usually have a higher density. In terms of flavor, peaberries are often described as having a richer body, brighter acidity, and more concentrated flavors—though this is debated, and not all coffee enthusiasts agree that they taste better than regular beans. Another key feature of peaberries is their rarity: they make up only about 5% to 10% of a coffee harvest. Their scarcity and the need for manual sorting mean that peaber...

 Finally! With the arrival of chilly air, we can truly feel the crispness of autumn — even if it’s only for a short while, it’s still something to celebrate. As temperatures drop, coffee behaves a little differently. And this change doesn’t just affect brewing — it also affects the coffee you’ve already made. Once a cup of coffee is brewed, it cools down much faster in cold weather than it would at room temperature. The greater the temperature difference, the faster the heat escapes. This rapid cooling shortens the coffee’s ideal drinking window , since we all know that hot coffee just doesn’t taste as good once it’s gone cold. But not everyone can finish a cup quickly. That’s why many coffee shops have started experimenting with ways to extend coffee’s “flavor life” — in other words, slowing down the cooling process. The Temptation to Make It Hotter Naturally, one simple idea is to start with a hotter drink. By brewing with slightly hotter water for an Americano or steaming mil...

 If you’ve ever ordered from an independent coffee shop, chances are the barista reminded you: “Coffee tastes best when it’s hot.” Seasoned coffee lovers even swear by the “15-second golden window” for espresso. But many people wonder — is this just a habit or superstition? What really happens when coffee cools down — does it just taste different, or does it actually go bad ? 🔥 The Science of Heat and Flavor The truth behind “drink it hot” lies in how temperature shapes flavor. When we taste coffee, aroma and flavor are inseparable — aroma comes from volatile compounds, and temperature directly determines how much of that aroma reaches our senses. At higher temperatures — especially around 61–62°C (about 142°F) , widely considered the optimal drinking temperature — the fruity, caramel, and floral notes in the beans are released most vividly. Take the “Mozart” beans from Costa Rica’s Musician Series, for example: right after brewing, the jasmine fragrance hits you first, fo...