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How to's

How to Make Coffee with A Clever Dripper

November 25, 2020 By Michael Leave a Comment

The Clever Dripper might be the most underrated coffee brewer. The device is a sort of hybrid brewer that offers elements of both immersion and gravity drip methods. It’s easy to use, and most importantly, capable of making a really great cup of coffee.

Essentially, the device is a pour-over dripper with a sealable valve at the bottom. The valve allows you to steep the coffee as long as you desire. The resulting brew is somewhere between the body of a French press and the clarity of a Hario V60.

There are several practical reasons I love the Clever dripper:

1. It doesn’t need a gooseneck kettle like pour-over drippers.
2. İt uses Melitta #4 filters, easily the most ubiquitous coffee filter in the world.
3. The BPA-free plastic dripper and accompanying lid is very temperature-stable, which makes for easier extraction.

The only drawback, in my opinion, is that the draw-down can be hard to predict. If your grinder produces a lot of fines, it could easily take 2+ minutes for your brew to finish draining. Different coffees will drain at different rates, so when you’re brewing a new coffee there’s a decent amount of guesswork.

Without further ado, here is our Clever Dripper recipe.

1. Place 24 grams of medium ground coffee in the Clever Dripper.

2. Briskly pour 400 ml of 96° C water. Try to evenly saturate all of the grounds.

3. After 1:00 minute, gently stir the slurry, making sure all coffee grounds are immersed. Then place the lid on top of the dripper.

4. At 2:00 minutes, carefully place the Clever over the carafe, initiating drawdown.

5. Aim for 4:00 total brew time, plus or minus 30 seconds. If your brew takes much longer than that consider adjusting your grind size or shortening your steep time.

If you did steps 3 and 4 properly, the coffee bed should be perfectly flat at the end of brewing with little to no coffee grounds stuck on the sides of the filter. Be careful when placing the Clever dripper over your carafe— I’ve tipped more than one brew over at this step!

Have you experimented with a Clever Dripper? Feel free to share your go-to recipe in the comments section below.

Filed Under: How to's, Stories

How to Make Cold Brew With a Chemex

April 27, 2020 By Michael Leave a Comment

how to make cold brew with a Chemex

One of the summer’s most popular coffee beverages is also the easiest to make, provided you have some time on your hands. Cafe-quality cold brew requires very little technique and can be made with just about anything, like a Mason jar or French press. In fact, you probably already own one of our favorite devices to make cold brew with: the Chemex.

Peter Schlumbohm’s iconic brewing device has been the go-to brewing device of aesthetically-minded coffee enthusiasts since the 1930s. It’s even featured in the MoMA’s permanent collection.

Although the device is designed for brewing hot filter coffee, the hourglass shape of the Chemex makes it a perfect vessel for steeping and decanting cold brew….

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Filed Under: How to's Tagged With: brewing guide, Chemex, cold brew, tutorial

One Easy Way to Brew Better Coffee

February 7, 2020 By Michael Leave a Comment

The SCA identifies seven essential elements of coffee extraction, and in my experience, one of the most fundamental elements is the most ignored. In fact, it’s actually the first decision people typically make when they brew coffee, whether or not they realize it. That variable, of course, is coffee-to-water ratio.  …

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How to Brew Dark Roast Coffee

October 15, 2019 By Michael 2 Comments

How to Brew Dark Roast CoffeeI recently bought a bag of coffee from one of my favorite European roasters. When I opened the bag I was surprised to discover the coffee was quite a bit darker than I expected. Brewing the coffee revealed a flavor profile to match the color: bitter chocolate, roasted nuts, and — dare I say — ash.

Even though many specialty coffee drinkers prefer a light to medium roast, there’s still a significant number of people who prefer something darker. For them, coffee should taste like, well, “coffee.”  And though I will admit my personal preference is for a coffee dropped closer to first crack than second, a good dark roast can be enjoyable if prepared properly. But dark roasted coffee needs to be brewed differently than light or medium roast coffee to get the best results….

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Filed Under: How to's Tagged With: brew guide, dark roast

How To Make Iced Coffee With an Aeropress

March 13, 2019 By Michael 2 Comments

Last year we published an Aeropress guide with a rather presumptuous title: “The Only Aeropress Recipe You’ll Ever Need.” We stand by the recipe, but we’ll be the first to admit the Aeropress is an extremely versatile brewing device that can be used in a variety of ways. You can even use your Aeropress to make iced coffee.

…

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Filed Under: How to's Tagged With: Aeropress, iced coffee

How to Make Iced Coffee with the December Dripper

May 9, 2018 By Michael 4 Comments

Last year, the December Dripper emerged on the scene with a simple but revolutionary design. The brewing device uses a silicon gasket to adjust the flow rate with a simple twist. One of the more interesting applications of this design feature is making flash-chilled iced coffee– sometimes called Japanese iced coffee or an iced pour-over.

The biggest problem with brewing over a bed of ice is that it’s difficult to get a full extraction. The best iced pour-overs are light and bright with a lively acidity, but they lack the deep sweetness of a fully extracted coffee. The ability to slow and even stop the flow rate with the December Dripper means you can …

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Filed Under: How to's Tagged With: brew guides, December Dripper, iced coffee, Japanese Iced Coffee

What’s the Difference Between Cold Brew and Iced Coffee?

April 10, 2018 By Michael 1 Comment

Iced coffee has never been hotter, but a crowded market place often leads to product confusion, and it seems one needs a degree in coffee studies from UC Davis to navigate all of the iced coffee options on the market these days. While we’re certainly not here to tell anyone how to enjoy their coffee, it helps to know the difference between cold brew and iced coffee before you get an unsolicited lecture from an overzealous barista. More so, each way of making iced coffee has its pros and cons, which is helpful to know before you drop your hard earned cash on that next brewing device.

Cold Brew

Technically speaking, all cold brew is iced coffee, but not all iced coffee is cold brew. …

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Filed Under: How to's Tagged With: cold brew

The Best Coffee Brewing Set-Ups on Any Budget

December 11, 2017 By Michael 4 Comments

It’s one of the most common questions we get: what’s the best home coffee set-up? Like most things in life, that depends on what budget you’re working with. Whether you’re looking to get going on a bare bones budget or are ready to take a second mortgage out on your house, we have some ideas as to how you should spend your money….

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Filed Under: How to's Tagged With: buying guide

How to Read a Coffee Bag

October 9, 2017 By Michael 4 Comments

Most specialty coffee roasters put a lot of information on their bag that few people understand. It might be interesting to know your coffee was grown at 1800 meters above sea level (MASL), but who really cares? Lucky for you, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide to understanding what’s going on with your coffee bag. …

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Learn How to Make a French Press With James Hoffmann

October 9, 2016 By Michael 6 Comments

James Hoffmann French press
Almost everyone owns a French press. The ubiquitous brewing device is prized for its simplicity and yet hated by many coffee aficionados for the sludgy mouthfeel.  But according to James Hoffmann, you’re probably using it wrong. In a new brewing guide entitled The Ultimate French Press Technique, Hoffmann explains how to get a rich, fully-extract French press with less of the silt. Everything you thought you knew about press pots will be brought into question!

Filed Under: How to's Tagged With: French press, James Hoffmann

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