Everyday Beans Podcast - Mostly About Coffee and Other Stuff

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In this episode, I tackle a question that every coffee brewer has faced at some point — why doesn't following someone else's recipe actually work? I break down the core reason: recipes are personal. They're built around the creator's palate, their water chemistry, their preferred roast levels, and their brewing habits — none of which are fully disclosed when they hand you a step-by-step guide. I share how I spent a long time blindly following recipes, stripping myself of my own preferences in pursuit of someone else's "perfect cup," and why that approach was setting me up to fail every single time.
I draw a comparison to the world of cooking, referencing how understanding foundational flavor principles — rather than memorizing recipes — is what actually empowers you in the kitchen. Coffee is no different. I encourage listeners to stop outsourcing their coffee experience to someone else and start asking the real questions: What water temperature brings out the flavors I enjoy? Does my brewer shape how acidic my cup tastes? What roast profile actually matches my palate? By the end of this episode, you'll walk away understanding why your recipe keeps falling short — and more importantly, what you should be doing instead to brew a cup of coffee that's genuinely yours.
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For tips, tricks and still trying to figure it out: https://www.youtube.com/@everyday-beans

For good tasty coffee, check us out at: everydaybeans.com

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In this episode I dig into a distinction I think most coffee content skips right over: the difference between being taught coffee and actually learning it. I can hand you a recipe, but I can't hand you the palate that knows when to break it. I walk through a recent cup, a dark roasted Nicaraguan that kept lingering with a fruity, tannin-heavy finish I personally don't enjoy. My palate told me it was over-extracted before I ever touched a refractometer, and when I ran the TDS for fun it came back right in range. The point isn't the number. The point is that it took me years of brewing to trust what my own mouth was telling me, and no recipe written by someone else's palate was ever going to get me there on its own.
I also open up about my own path, the years I spent using my V60 almost blindly, running the same recipe and only nudging the temperature, wondering if the bright, acidic light roasts I kept brewing were what I was "supposed" to like. I talk about going darker against the voices telling me I was doing it wrong, discovering more sweetness, falling for African dark roasts, and learning what flat-bottom drippers, different filters, and different waters actually did to my cup. If you've ever followed a recipe to the letter and felt frustrated that your cup didn't match the promise, this one is for you. You'll learn why getting taught is genuinely useful for speeding up the journey, why it can never be the finish line, and how to start tailoring coffee to your own taste the same way you already doctor a recipe in the kitchen. You can't be taught coffee. You can learn it, and that part is up to you.
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Go deeper than the episode, in the newsletter: https://itsmellsbetterthanittaste.com

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

For good tasty coffee, check us out at: everydaybeans.com

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I can't hand you my water, and nobody else can either. My tap tested at 273 ppm the other day. Yours might be 150, or 100 if you're lucky, and even then neither of us knows what minerals are actually in it. So when you go looking online for the right water, you get one opinion, then another, then another, and you end up more confused than when you started. What water did they start with? What kind of coffee do they like? Are they trying to sell you something?
Here's where I've landed. Pick one voice you trust, understand why they do what they do, and start with the water you already have. A $10 TDS meter will open your eyes. Then let your palate take over, the same way mine pulled me toward more developed coffees while everyone around me was chasing light roasts. I walk through my own path, from tap to Third Wave Water to blending my own sweet and acidic profiles, and why once water's figured out, that's where the work gets fun. Let me know what you think.
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Go deeper than the episode, in the newsletter: https://itsmellsbetterthanittaste.com

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

For good tasty coffee, check us out at: everydaybeans.com

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I just watched a World Brewers Cup recipe from a competitor named Simon Gauteren, and it sent me down a rabbit hole I had to record. In this episode I break down his brewing recipe step by step: an immersion percolation method that intentionally throws away roughly thirty percent of the finished coffee to chase clarity for the judges. I walk through why competitors go to these lengths, what "playing God" with a coffee actually looks like when you control every variable from roast to grind to water, and what happened when I tried the recipe myself.
But this episode is really about something bigger than one recipe. I get into why competition brewing exists in its own world, separate from the coffee you and I make every day, and why I think specialty coffee doesn't need this level of engineering to taste great. I share why I'm drawn to simple, fast pour over instead of long, tedious recipes, what instant gratification has to do with how I brew, and I turn the question back to you: would you actually make this recipe every day, or is it just entertainment? If you've ever wondered what really separates a competition cup from your everyday cup, this one's for you.
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Go deeper than the episode, in the newsletter: https://itsmellsbetterthanittaste.com

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

For good tasty coffee, check us out at: everydaybeans.com

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I own seven grinders, and in this episode I do something I almost never do: I recommend just one. The 1Zpresso K-Ultra has been in my rotation for the past four or five months, and after putting it through its paces I've landed on a strong opinion. It is not the single best grinder I own on every metric, but it is the most versatile, and for most people that matters more. I walk through why it lets you brew essentially any cup you want, from pour over at around six clicks to French press near six and a half, all the way down to a no-choke espresso shot on my Olympia Cremina. I talk about the build, the magnetic catch can, the 130-click adjustment system, and the external dial that lets you see exactly where you are instead of second-guessing yourself.
The bigger idea here is what a grinder this capable actually frees you to do. When you trust that the grinder is not the weak link, you stop obsessing over it and start paying attention to your water, your pouring technique, and your brewer. By listening, you will learn how I think about grinder versatility versus outright clarity, how to read grind settings across brew methods, and why the price stops mattering once a tool quietly gets out of your way. If you are starting out and curious, or you have been chasing gear for years, this is my honest case for the one grinder you could start with and comfortably stop at.
Support the show
Go deeper than the episode, in the newsletter: https://itsmellsbetterthanittaste.com

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

For good tasty coffee, check us out at: everydaybeans.com