Everyday Beans Podcast - Mostly About Coffee and Other Stuff

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I went into this episode with something I had to get off my chest. The ZP6 surprised me, and not in the way you might expect. The marketing around this grinder tells you it is made for light roast coffee and clarity, and for a long time I accepted that. But I started experimenting outside those boundaries, testing it on medium roast, dark roast, Kenyan, Ethiopian, fruity naturals, and what I found genuinely caught me off guard. The clarity and lack of fines that make this grinder famous do not just serve light roast coffee. I went all the way down to a setting of two on a dark roast and walked away impressed. No bitterness. Real complexity. It gave the coffee its legs in a way I did not expect a grinder like this to do.
What I really want you to take from this episode is that the labels we put on gear stop us before we even start. I do it too, with my own coffee descriptions and roast profiles. But your grinder, your brewer, your coffee, they do not know what the marketing said. In this episode, I walk you through my actual brewing experience across multiple roast levels and origins with the ZP6, share the specific settings that worked and the ones that did not, and explain why low fines production is a bigger deal than most people realize regardless of what you are brewing. If you have ever wondered whether your grinder is limiting you or the label on it is, this one is for you.
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For good tasty coffee, check us out at: everydaybeans.com

For tips, tricks and still trying to figure it out: https://www.youtube.com/@everyday-beans

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In this episode, I sit with a cup of Kenyan double-washed pea berry coffee and confront a question I have been turning over for weeks: is this coffee not landing, or have I simply changed? I walk through everything I did to make it work. I roasted it light, medium, and dark. Fast roasts, slow roasts, careful attention to development and sugar expression. I brewed it on a flat bed brewer, adjusted temperature, slowed down the drawdown. Nothing clicked the way I expected. What I kept coming back to was this: the coffee presented exactly the same as it did years ago. The tomato-y strawberry up front, a little chocolate through the middle, that grapefruit-like finish on the back end. The same profile. The same story. And therein lies the problem. Familiar is not the same as good. I also question whether the double-washed processing was an R&D advancement or compensation for a quality issue in the preparation. I do not know the answer, and I sit with that honestly.
By listening to this episode, you will understand how palate evolution is a real and often quiet process, and why asking yourself why a coffee is not working matters just as much as dialing in your brew variables. I get into what the word "winey" actually means when you stop using it as shorthand, why coffee as agriculture means we cannot always hold it to the standard of our memory, and what my next step is to finally answer whether it is the coffee or me. If you have ever had a coffee that used to move you and now just sits there, this one is for you.
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For good tasty coffee, check us out at: everydaybeans.com

For tips, tricks and still trying to figure it out: https://www.youtube.com/@everyday-beans

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In this episode, I sit down with a cup of natural processed Costa Rican coffee and get real about something I've been circling for a while: naturals just don't do it for me the way they used to. I walk through what it's like to taste this coffee, noting how it hits you with a bold, fruit-forward punch right up front and then fades quickly, leaving me wanting more from the cup. I roasted this same coffee as both a light and a dark roast, and neither version gave me what I was looking for. I talk about why that first sip is everything with a natural processed coffee and why, for me, that's also the problem.
I also reflect on how my palate has evolved over the years. When I first got into specialty coffee, natural processed coffees were revolutionary to me. The intensity of fruit in a black cup was unlike anything I had experienced. But now, coming from a place of deeper knowledge, years of brewing experience, and a real understanding of water chemistry, I gravitate toward washed coffees that reveal themselves slowly. I contrast this current experience with one of my all-time top two coffees: a Bozo Black Honey Costa Rican natural that actually kept building and getting more interesting. By listening to this episode, you'll learn what it truly means to know your own palate, why your coffee preferences change over time, and why understanding the reason behind what you like or don't like is one of the most valuable things you can develop as a coffee drinker.
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For good tasty coffee, check us out at: everydaybeans.com

For tips, tricks and still trying to figure it out: https://www.youtube.com/@everyday-beans

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In this episode, I share the conclusion of a months-long filter paper experiment, and the answer might surprise you. I tested slow, medium, and fast filters across different coffees and roast levels, and what I discovered is that filter paper is probably the least important variable in the cup. No matter which filter I picked up, I found myself adjusting grind size and recipe on the fly, and the coffee still came out great. The specialty coffee industry pushes us to obsess over paper, but the honest truth I landed on is that we are adjusters. Adjusters do not need ten filters to brew good coffee.
You will also hear my practical recommendation for how many filter papers you actually need, which ones to pick if you want to cover the full spectrum, and why grind size remains one of the most powerful variables you can actually control. If you have ever wondered whether the right filter paper is what is standing between you and a better cup, this episode will give you a clear and direct answer.
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For good tasty coffee, check us out at: everydaybeans.com

For tips, tricks and still trying to figure it out: https://www.youtube.com/@everyday-beans

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In this episode, I sit with a question that's been quietly bothering me about pour over brewing. Why are we so afraid to let the coffee bed run completely dry? It's one of those rules in the specialty coffee world that gets repeated until it feels like law: keep water on the bed, never let it dry out, race your next pour in before the surface cracks. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to just test it. I brewed an Ethiopian white honey coffee two ways. One with a careful Melodrip pour, water always on top of the bed. The other where I let the bed go completely dry after my pours. The difference in the cup surprised me, and it changed how I think about pour over technique.
What you'll learn in this episode is what actually happens when you let the coffee bed run dry: a bolder, heavier cup with more body, almost like a French press came through your dripper. More importantly, you'll hear me work through the bigger question this experiment opened up for me. How many other coffee rules am I following without ever asking why? How much of what we call "wrong" in pour over brewing is actually just a tool we haven't learned to use yet? If you've ever felt boxed in by specialty coffee dogma, this conversation is for you. I'm encouraging you, as always, to trust your own palate, run your own experiments, and remember that you are the one drinking the coffee.
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For good tasty coffee, check us out at: everydaybeans.com

For tips, tricks and still trying to figure it out: https://www.youtube.com/@everyday-beans