Bean Discovery (formerly the BeansTalk Coffee Podcast) is coming! Get updates at BeanDiscovery.com!

Campfire coffee, cowboy coffee, call it what you will. There is something iconic about a gritty, scalding cup of coffee when waking up in nature. Whether brewing for a bunch, or going ultralight with a couple of friends, here’s a breakdown of the brew methods you can count on in the backcountry:

Cowboy Coffee | Ideal for large groups when you have room to spare. 1.5 Cups of Coffee to 2 Gallons Water.

French Press | When room is no problem and you’re serving 5 or so people, get a large, plastic French Press. 1 Gram Coffee to 12 Mils Water for a bold cup.

Moka Pot | Show off with espresso-like coffee and dress it up with French-Press-frothed milk for a poor man’s campfire cappuccino.

Aeropress | Dial in great coffee for 1-2 people, following recipes from Aeroprecipe.com.

Steeped Coffee | Take all the fuss and equipment out of the picture with Steeped Coffee bags and enjoy compostable, single-serve coffee without sacrificing for weight.

Join the Word’s Largest Coffee Tasting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5uCK3OhlKM

Sources:

“Cowboy Coffee: Horned and Barefooted”

“The Lonesome Art of Cowboy Coffee”

For some reason, decaf seems to be a bit of a polarizing topic in the coffee world, with many adhering to the mantra “Death Before Decaf” proudly. Some go so far to get this tattooed to their bodies.

I’m here to dispel that nonsense. Coffee can, and should, be enjoyed for more than just a delivery device for caffeine. In this month’s episode, we talk about caffeine and deconstruct decaf to help shed some light on the ‘why’s’ and ‘how’s’ of caffeine-free coffee.

There are surely hundreds of excellent decafs out there, but Slow Motion Decaf from Counter 

Culture Coffee in North Carolina is a standout. I highly recommend you pick up a bag so you can enjoy your coffee well into the evening without compromising your bedtime.

Sources:

https://counterculturecoffee.com/shop/category/coffee
https://counterculturecoffee.com/sustainability
https://science.howstuffworks.com/caffeine4.htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223808/
https://coffeeconfidential.org/health/decaffeination/

Showcasing their innovative, proprietary brew method, Steeped Coffee pairs the simplicity of on-the-go full immersion brew with the quality of well-sourced specialty coffee blends.

Join me to day as we discuss coffee grind and how different grinds interact with different brew methods. Using these principles, it is easy to begin recording your brews and becoming a homebrew coffee guru!

From Cape Town, South Africa, we’re featuring the ridiculously delicious Black Honey Blend coffee of Truth Coffee Roasting (twice featured as one of the worlds best coffee shops by The Telegraph).

This is the first coffee blend we’ve featured, and boy is it a special one! It showcases an excellent washed-process heirloom coffee from Ethiopia Yurgacheffe that brews beautifully alongside a honey-process Pacas from El Salvador Comasagua. If you’re able to get your hands on a bag for this episode, I highly recommend you brew it in an Aeropress—a recipe I got directly from one of their talented roasters!

Inverted Aeropress:

18g Coffee

210g Water @80°C (176°F)

Bloom: 50g for 30 seconds

Begin extraction at 03:30

Total time: 04:00 Minutes

Being that this is our first coffee blend on the show, we’re diving into what a coffee blend is and how it compares to single origin coffee, which has accounted for all of our other featured coffees thus far. Tune in!

P.S. We’re taking a week off from the podcast to review our first five episodes and get ready for more to come. We hope you don't’ miss us too much!

Sources:

Post Truth vs. Truth Coffee

Everything You Need to Know About Single Origin Coffees

A Roasters Guide to Creating Coffee Blends

Traditional Blend Names

Blends vs. Single Origin Coffee

We’re drinking Ethiopia Limu from Form & Function Coffee, located in Boise, Idaho, this week as we tackle the modern history of coffee and how it can help us distinguish between, and better choose, our coffee shops.

This week, I’m keeping things simple and brewing it in a standard drip coffee pot. No ‘fancy’ hand pour or press needed! That said, it’s still important to get a couple things right. First, I used a medium grind setting to freshly grind my beans just before brewing. I also followed the golden cup ratio for standard coffee brew, which is 1:18 or one gram of coffee for every 18 ml of water. I brewed 6 cups or roughly 1420ml of water, and so ground 79 grams of coffee to brew.

Last week we talked about what defines specialty coffee. This week, we tackle how to find specialty grade coffee, so you know you’re enjoying the best coffee possible, whether at home or at the cafe. The trick? Understanding a little bit of coffee history.

Sources:

Ultimate Guide to Buying Specialty Coffee Beans

What Is “Third Wave Coffee”, & How Is It Different to Specialty?

The History of First, Second, and Third Wave Coffee

Enjoy a cup of Peru El Huayacan from Jubilee Roasting Company this weekend as we talk about Specialty Coffee and what makes it so special in the first place.

I brewed it in a Chemex, which is a favorite pour-over method of mine for its clarity. If you have a Chemex and want to follow along, I brewed 46g of medium coarse Peru El Huayacan with 700ml of hot water, just off boil. I let the coffee bloom in 150ml for 45 seconds before adding another 300ml of water. At a minute and 45 seconds I added the remaining 250ml of water, pulling the filter and ending the brew at a cumulative 4 minutes.

In simplest terms, Specialty Coffee refers to coffee that receives a specific score when being graded by professional tasters. In Episode 03, we dive into how those scores are given, and what they mean in a broader sense. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, and learn to enjoy your coffee more!

Hopefully, Episode 01 (Conscientious Tasting) inspired you to be a little more present with your coffee and begin paying attention to your senses as you enjoy your cup. It’s a critical first step in enjoying your coffee more. Episode 02 (Aroma and Taste) is all about providing some tools and language to begin describing the key attributes your coffee has on display, using memory as a reference point as well as the Coffee Flavor Wheel.

In Episode 02, we enjoy a cup of Sumatra from 81301 Coffee Inc. in Durango, CO. This independent coffee roaster and cafe is pretty close to home for me. This coffee, which I’m told was shade-dried on patios for a cleaner flavor, is super bright and acidic with lemongrass and a hint of peppercorn if you look for it.

I brewed it in an AeroPress, a nifty hand-brew method that is super portable and yields very rich and tasty coffee. I referenced a recipe from the 2018 Portuguese AeroPress Champion, called “Love me some acid”, due to the brightness of this particular single-origin coffee. I hope you’re able to get a bag of it to sip alongside me as you listen to Aroma and Taste!

 Between work or school, friends or family, netflix, podcasts, commutes, and everything else whizzing through our lives at a given moment, it can be hard to slow down and consider our coffee. But when we think about how it feels on our tongue, how it smells, how it tastes, how it lingers, and how that all plays into our preferences, we start unlocking our potential to appreciate coffee.

Besides not actually paying attention to our coffee, another major hurdle for many of us enjoying coffee is actually drinking QUALITY coffee. We’ll define that in a later episode, but if you want to join me fully on this journey, you can buy the featured coffee of the week ahead of each episode and get it in time to sip alongside me come Saturday morning, or whenever you’re able to tune in. I’m working hard to find exciting specialty coffee from quality roasters. 

Subscribe to our newsletter and follow along at  https://www.beanstalkpodcast.com/ 

Did you know that the average person spends over $1,000 on coffee each year? With that kind of price tag, I believe you deserve to learn how to enjoy your coffee more. Introducing the BeansTalk Coffee Podcast, where your coffee has something to say! 

Each week, I'm going to taste different coffees from roasteries around the U.S., uncover different parts of the industry, and investigate everything that coffee has to offer. There's a world of flavor, nuance, and information to explore, and I truly hope you'll join me!

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along at www.beanstalkpodcast.com where you'll be able to find out about episode 1's release and look ahead to upcoming coffees and topics. I'll even show you where to buy the same beans I'm drinking each week so you can follow along with the experience and taste your way around the world alongside me. 

I'll talk to you soon, and until then, sip, sip, share!