The Weekly Roast

When you drink your coffee, you may not think much about where your coffee comes from. For many, coffee is simply a preference of light or dark roasts, black or with creamer and sometimes hot or iced. To the coffee purists, debates over light or dark roasts go down the same path as politics and religion — it gets complicated. To coffee purists, origin, roasts, and brewing methods are integral to the experience First, did you know there is an industry called “Third-Wave Coffee” or “Speciality Coffee”? — This begs anyone to wonder what about the First wave (think your...

The Hario V60 Pour Over combines chemistry, glass products, and coffee. The company Hario, founded in Tokyo in 1921 started by producing practical physical and chemical glass products. After several years of research, they produced Hario Glass and launched it into the coffee scene. The V60 was launched in 2005 and has become Hario’s best coffee invention yet. The name uses your geometry skills (sorry....no Pythagorean theorem) and V60 comes from vector 60, the 60° angle of its cone. It was designed for better heat retention, which leads to better extraction. Place filter into V60 and pre-wet filter. It sounds...

Inexpensive, durable, and portable brewing method.   Rather peculiar but popular brewing method. Invented in 2005 by Alan Adler (believe it or not, he also invented the Aerobie throwing ring, also known as a Frisbee. Place filter into AeroPress basket and preheat AeroPress by pouring hot water through it.  Lock basket into AeroPress and place on scale (If you are not using a scale ignore directions for using the scale and go by tablespoons for coffee and ounces/ grams for water).  Tare scale to zero with coffee cup underneath the AeroPress.  Pour freshly ground coffee into AeroPress and settle the...

The Chemex was designed by a German chemist, Peter J. Schlumbohm. A classic and elegant brewing device that is not only good at making a clean cup of coffee but it also can be a decorative piece on any counter.  Place the filter into the Chemex and pre-wet filter.  Pour 42g (~6 tablespoons) of fresh ground coffee into filter and settle the coffee bed so it’s even.  Place Chemex onto scale and tare.  Start time and slowly pour until all the grounds are saturated or until you reach about 150g. Stir with a spoon to make sure there are no...

Some just call this “The Wave” and it is offered from Kalita Co., a family owned Japanese company which has been making coffee since the 1950s. The Kalita Wave dripper is a pour-over, similar to the Chemex or V60 but has a noticeably different extraction configurations. Rather than the water dripping through a single hole, the water drips through three extraction holes with the Kalita Wave’s flat bottom. This allows for a crisp cup since there is no channeling of water in the coffee bed Place and rinse Kalita Wave filter in the dripper while on the scale. This will...

 The French press, also known as the coffee plunger is probably the most underestimated brewing method and surprisingly the most familiar method of the French press. It was invented and patented by an Italian named Attilio Calimani in 1929. This method is easy, repeatable, and good for almost anyone looking to get a rich cup of coffee Grind 31 grams of coffee beans  Set French press beaker onto scale and tare  Pour 31 grams (4 Tbs) of ground coffee beans into the beaker Tare Fill heated water (198° to 205° F) to 453g  Stir the coffee with a wooden or...