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5 Coffee Rules That Don't Hold Up
Description
There are a lot of rules in coffee, and after years of brewing and roasting I have quietly stopped trusting a few of them. In this episode I walk through the ones that sit at the bottom of my list: the strict 30 second bloom, the fixation on hitting exactly 30 grams of coffee, the 200 degree Fahrenheit water rule, the advice to buy the most expensive grinder first, and the habit of brewing with whatever recipe came printed in the box with your brewer. None of these are wrong. What I take issue with is the way we treat them, like a line you cannot cross instead of a starting point you are free to move.
What I keep coming back to is that coffee is far more forgiving than we give it credit for. I throw beans into a roaster near 400 degrees Fahrenheit, they take 7 to 10 minutes to hit first crack, and then I pour 200 degree water over them. That bean has been through a lot before it ever reaches your cup. Listening to this, you will learn why the bloom matters more as a concept than as a stopwatch number, how to use water temperature as an actual flavor tool instead of a fixed setting, why starting cheap on a grinder can be the smarter move while your palate is still developing, and how to read a manufacturer recipe critically instead of following it blindly. I also share a story from my old photography days about a camera I almost replaced too early, and what maxing out a piece of gear really teaches you. If you want to stop second guessing your brew and start trusting your own palate, this one is for you.
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