Origins
How Is Green Coffee Imported Into the United States?
How a hundred-pound lot of green coffee actually clears US Customs and FDA prior notice before it reaches a small roaster, and what that process costs.
Learn
Notes from the roastery: what we buy, how we roast it, and what we have learned building coffee programs on the Gulf Coast.
Tagged “explainer” · see all of Learn
Origins
What Is the Timor Hybrid?
One 1920s arabica-robusta cross gave coffee its rust resistance. The genetics behind Catimor, Sarchimor, and two coffees on our own shelf, explained.
Origins
Why Does Wet-Hulled Coffee Risk Mold?
A 2004-05 FAO/ICCRI trial measured exactly how fast mold risk builds in wet-hulled Sumatran coffee, and what the extra days in wet storage cost in the cup.
Brewing
Does Grind Size Matter More Than Grind Consistency?
Grind size isn't the variable that predicts taste. The spread around it is, and only a burr grinder's fixed gap can hold that spread steady.
Brewing
What Does SCA-Approved Water Mean?
Our own guide calls a product "SCA-approved." The SCA certifies brewers, not water. Here's what its real water standard says, and what we got wrong.
Origins
Is Excelsa a Different Species of Coffee From Liberica?
Liberica and excelsa were treated as one species on paper since 2006. A 2025 genomic study says that was wrong, and names a third, largely unknown coffee species: Coff...
Origins
Does Honey-Processed Coffee Ferment While It Dries?
A 2024 microbiology study traces exactly what takes over a honey-processed coffee bed while it dries, bacteria first, then yeast, and shows why "no fermentation tank" ...
Origins
What Is Carbonic Maceration in Coffee?
Carbonic maceration borrows wine's 'intracellular fermentation' claim, but the one peer-reviewed study on coffee cherries never actually measured it.
Taste
Why Does Coffee Taste Like Fruit When Nothing Fruity Was Added?
Why does coffee taste like fruit when nothing fruity is in the cup? The answer is retronasal smell, the mechanism most tasting notes never actually explain.
Brewing
What Is Pour-Over Coffee?
Pour-over coffee is hand-poured water through grounds in a filter, no pump or machine. What you need to brew it, and two Inheritance coffees built to hold up.
Brewing
How Does a Percolator Work?
A percolator doesn't brew water through coffee once. It runs the same water back through the grounds over and over, on a timer nobody set. What that recirculation actu...
Origins
What Is a Coffee Cherry?
A coffee cherry has five layers around its seed and usually two of them inside. What happens to the fruit after picking is why the same shelf can hold both a washed an...
Taste
What Makes Coffee Taste Strong?
Strength isn't roast level or caffeine content. It's the ratio of coffee to water. Here's what actually sets how strong a cup tastes.
