From Rebecca Delaney ....... A Wonderful Resource : 40+ Online Sources for Fabulous, Affordable Fashion Fabric

40+ Online Sources for Fabulous, Affordable Fashion Fabric: I have a lot of FEELINGS. Sometimes, I deal with these feelings by watching Girls, but only if I’ve already taken my Prozac. (There are only so many times you can scream “JESUS, ALL OF THESE PEOPLE NEED TO BE MEDICATED” at the screen before feeling guilty about not taking your own pills. And of all the feelings I [...]



 

Brew the Perfect Cup: The Complete Guide....

Brew the Perfect Cup: The Complete Guide:
We spent last week learning all about coffee with our friends from Tonx, the fresh roast subscription service. We covered everything from why you should care about quality coffee and how to pick the best beans, to the nitty gritty of gear selection and the best resources to tackle a coffee hobby head on. Here's the complete guide in all its glory.

Lesson 1: The Case for Better Coffee

In this first lesson, we tackle the case for a better cup of joe. Is there really much difference between gas station sludge and an expensive cafe blend? And if there is, why should I care?

Lesson 2: How to Select Your Beans

Even the most simple brewing device can produce otherworldly brews when paired with great coffee. Finding an approach into the often confusing landscape of consumer coffee bean choices is the essential first step to improving your morning ritual.

Lesson 3: The Basics of Brewing

Contrary to how it might seem if you listen to many hardcore coffee geeks, brewing good cups of coffee at home doesn't have to be approached as if taking on a whole new hobby. A few basic principles will give you a toehold into almost every brew method and with just a bit of trial and error (and of course good beans) you'll discover that a great cup doesn't have to be hard to find.

Lesson 4: How to Choose Your Weapons

There are many manual methods to choose from, and some that appear simple are actually somewhat fussy. Others that look complicated at first glance turn out to be easy and reliable with practice. There is no absolute "right" way to prepare a cup, and most of the popular methods will give you good results if you begin with great fresh roasted beans and take a bit of care with your measurements.

Lesson 5: Additional Resources

Now that you've subjected yourself to our good coffee propaganda, learned the basics of brewing, and explored some of the popular brew methods, we'll cut through much of the online clutter and leave you with some selected resources that can continue your path to full-on coffee nerdity.

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These posts were written by Tony Konecny, cofounder of Tonx, with help from Ryan Brown and Nick Griffith. Tonx is an innovative coffee subscription service aiming to source, roast, and ship the best fresh roasted coffees for people who brew at home. Right now, the first taste is free!



 

Make Your Own Cheez-Its to Create New Flavors and Ditch the Processed Additives

Make Your Own Cheez-Its to Create New Flavors and Ditch the Processed Additives:
Cheez-Its and other cheezy snack crackers are delicious, but if you want to control the flavor yourself, make them less salty or more spicy, or would just prefer to enjoy your Cheez-Its without all of the chemical additives used in the mass production of them, they're surprisingly easy to make at home. America's Test Kitchen shows us how.
You'll need the ingredients here and the time to make the dough, let it chill, and bake it, so don't expect this to be a more convenient solution than just grabbing a box at the grocery store. Even so, making your own lets you completely control the flavor and ingredients, and lets you make your cheesy crackers just right for your tastes. The base recipe is pretty straightforward, and uses ingredients you may already have in your pantry.
ATK even shows you the secret to that orange color that's so characteristic to Cheez-Its if that's what you want (Spoiler: It's crushed annatto seeds, available at most grocery stores.) Hit the link below to grab the recipe, and see how they're made—complete with photos for each step.
How to Make Homemade Cheese Snack Crackers | America's Test Kitchen



 

Brew the Perfect Cup, Lesson 5: Additional Resources...

Brew the Perfect Cup, Lesson 5: Additional Resources:
So now that you've subjected yourself to our good coffee propaganda, learned the basics of brewing, and explored some of the popular brew methods, we'll cut through much of the online clutter and leave you with some selected resources that can continue your path to full-on coffee nerdity.

Further Brewing Resources

The internet is full of esoteric guidance about every conceivable coffee brewing method. Almost any public forum post on coffee will bring out a handful of folks claiming to have figured out the one essential secret to a perfect cup. Well, in spite of the title our editors chose for this Morning School series (way to set the bar high for me guys, thanks!) perfection is an ideal we can always get closer to but perhaps never quite touch.
But for the idealists, perfectionists, and compulsive optimizers a great resource to explore is Brewmethods.com. Organized by brewing device, this is a handy compendium of links to brew tutorials from around the internet, from the simple to the complex to the completely confounding.

And You Thought Gram Scales Were Nerdy?

For the most serious of optimizers, a refractometer is the tool that leads all the way to the bottom of the rabbit hole, giving you precise data about how much you're extracting from your beans. Gizmodo ran a very good piece on Vince Fedele, creator of the ExtractMojo system that some coffee nerds have come to trust more than their own tongues.

More on Espresso

As we discussed in the previous lesson, home espresso has a tendency to metastasize quickly into a full blown hobby and is difficult to approach casually. Expect to do a healthy amount of research before taking the plunge and purchasing expensive gear. Some additional resources for those who feel the call:
Scott Rao's The Professional Barista's Handbook is a great guide to get started with and will introduce you to some of the conceits and concepts you'll see argued about in coffee geek forums. His second book Everything But Espresso is one of the best guides to precision coffee brewing and stirs many coffee nerd debates.
Seattle espresso pioneer David Schomer sits deep in the lineage of many current "third wave" coffee bars and his books and videos are a classic resource on the topic of espresso preparation.
Home-Barista.com is an excellent resource for equipment reviews and discussion. The forums there are full of folks who are ready to indoctrinate you into the espresso cult and help you solve your shot pulling riddles.

Home Roasting

The only coffee hobby with a deeper rabbit hole than mastering espresso preparation is roasting your own beans, though the basic gear for getting started doesn't have to cost a small fortune. Many people roast on simple electric popcorn poppers with often decent results, and aside from some smoke and mess, getting started isn't too difficult.
Even if you lack the inclination to dive deep into the requisite trial and error explorations or the time to regularly roast yourself up a fresh supply, there is something really great about experiencing close up the sights and smells of the roasting process and the rapid transformations that occur with the coffee. One online resource stands above all the rest in catering to the needs of home roasters from supplies to tutorials, Sweet Marias.

History of Coffee and General Coffee Knowledge

There are too few books on coffee and a really good, comprehensive guide to approaching the bean remains unwritten. But here are a few of the books I like from my collection that are worth your time.
Mark Pendergrast's Uncommon Grounds contains a good overview of the early history of coffee, the first coffee shops, and the beginnings of the modern coffee era.
Two books that look at the contemporary "third wave" coffee culture worth noting are Hanna Neuschwander's Left Coast Roast, and Alon Halevy's The Infinite Emotions of Coffee.
A good, concise resource to the formal art of tasting coffee, the SCAA's Coffee Cupper's Handbook , is a good introduction to classifying coffee flavors and recognizing common flavor defects. Contains an excellent glossary.
On the many issues of sustainability, I highly recommend Michael Sheridan's CRS Coffeelands Blog which does an excellent job of giving producer perspectives on the evolving state of the global coffee market from commodity to high end specialty.
Showing up to coffee industry events like barista competitions or conferences as a civilian can be a little overwhelming but provides a great opportunity to pick up some knowledge and experience some of the scale and chaos of the trade. Ultimately, getting out there and tasting coffee from many regions and many roasters is the best way to build your understanding of the bean. And brewing at home is a great and economical way to explore. More quality focused roasters are cropping up in more towns and most of the well regarded roasters have mail order options (I might be slightly biased toward one of them in particular.
Thanks to everyone who gave comments, notes, and critiques on this series. Happy drinking!

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Tony Konecny likes his coffee like he likes his (insert your own punchline). As a founder of Tonx he crusades for better coffee in the kitchen by offering a hassle-free subscription program of fresh roasted coffees sourced from top farmers. He lives in Los Angeles with his lovely Chemex and a collection of hand-cranked grinders.
Top image remixed from etraveler, Subbotina Anna, and Oros Gabor (Shutterstock).
All other images via Tonx.



 

Indoor Plants From Kitchen Scraps: The ‘Towering’ Radish...

Indoor Plants From Kitchen Scraps: The ‘Towering’ Radish:
In January, I shared with you my latest garden experiment; “An Unorthodox Winter Gardening Project”, which entailed growing indoor plants using kitchen scraps like garlic cloves, lentils, carrot tops, a sweet potato and a radish.  I enjoy garden projects – especially ones that you can do indoors during the winter months.
A couple of weeks later, all but one of my kitchen scraps was growing very well and my garden experiment was a success.  You can see how they looked just after 14 days after planting in my post “Indoor Plants From Kitchen Scraps” Success!”
What I was NOT prepared for was how huge one of my kitchen scrap plants would grow.
Here is a collage of what my radish plant looked like for the first 14 days…

Here is what it looks like just 6 weeks after planting…

Look how tall it has gotten!

I must admit that I had no idea that my radish would grow so tall.

The flowers are pretty – small and delicate.

All of my other kitchen scraps are doing well, but none has approached the status of my radish plant



 

Brew the Perfect Cup, Lesson 4: How to Choose Your Weapons

Brew the Perfect Cup, Lesson 4: How to Choose Your Weapons:
So far this week, we've made a case for drinking good coffee, given tips on scoring good beans, and covered the essential basics of coffee brewing. Now we're ready to dive into some specifics.
There are many manual methods to choose from, and some that appear simple are actually somewhat fussy. Others that look complicated at first glance turn out to be easy and reliable with practice. There is no absolute "right" way to prepare a cup, and most of the popular methods will give you good results if you begin with great fresh roasted beans and take a bit of care with your measurements.
Previously we made the case for using gram-accurate scales to get precise repeatable results in your daily brews. I expect not all of you have rushed out and purchased the very finest gram scale available, so the recipes below also include approximations in standard kitchen measures. Though it will vary coffee to coffee, you can assume that 1 tablespoon of coffee is equal to about 6-7 grams, and know that there are 30 milliliters in one ounce. Whatever method you use to measure coffee dose and amount of water, the important thing is that you are using a good ratio and that you can repeat the results.
With any of these recipes, taste is the ultimate arbiter. Upping the coffee dose slightly (from a standard 1 gram per 16 ml to a stronger 1 gram per 14 ml for instance) to suit your taste is totally acceptable. Different coffees will find their sweet spots with different parameters, and the ratios below should be regarded as simply decent baselines from which to begin fine tuning.

Pour Over Coffee: The Chemex

In essence, manual pour over coffee methods are simply doing the same thing as ubiquitous drip coffee machines, but giving you more control over the process. Even if you lack the patience to approach pour over with the precision of a professional barista, odds are you'll still bring more finesse and land better results than the average Mr. Coffee. (Image via Tonx.)
Invented in 1941 the Chemex is made of durable borosilicate glass, has a lovely hourglass shape, and comes in several sizes. It differs slightly from other pour over methods in that the chemex paper filters are a bit heavier than most allowing for slower flow rate, longer extraction, and more room to play with grind size.

• 48 grams (~7 Tbsp) fresh ground coffee to 770 grams (25oz) water, near to boiling
• Grind the coffee beans so they are about the coarseness of fancy sea salt—you can go a bit coarser than a typical filter grind
• A quick pre-rinse of the filter with warm water can help remove any "papery" taste that might show up in the cup in the cup
• Using a timer, add about 1/5th of the water to the settled bed of grounds in your filter (a gentle stir can help saturate all the grounds) and allow the fresh coffee to "bloom" for about 45 seconds
• Slowly pour the remaining water, aiming to finish the pour at about the 2:30 minute mark
• Coffee should be finished dripping and ready to serve between 3:30 - 4 minutes

You can adjust the coffee and water amounts down when brewing smaller amounts and get good results. If the coffee is slightly sour, try going finer on grind. A little bitter, try nudging coarser. As a word of caution, it can be easy to brew too fast, too slow, or inconsistently if you're not leaning on a timer.
For those with an aversion to paper filters, the well made stainless steel Kone filter is a great Chemex accessory, and a slim spouted japanese pouring kettle such as the elegant Hario Buono will allow you to do a nice slow pour that most tea kettles stumble at. Similar brewing methods worth exploring would include the Hario V60 dripper, the Kalita Wave, and the common Melitta pour over filter.

Automatic Drip Machines: The Bonavita BV1800

The ubiquitous automatic drip coffee machine has to be one of the most successful consumer appliances in history. When most people think of coffeemaker, they picture one of these devices. A relatively simple contraption, the drip brewer essentially does a version of what we did with the Chemex above—dribbling hot water over a bed of coffee grounds in a paper filter. There are countless versions of this product in every color and size imaginable with numerous features, chrome, big brand names, and blue LEDs. But very few get high marks when it comes to giving you the requisite near-to-boiling water temperatures.
The Bonavita BV1800 is one of the few that coffee nerds will give praise to (another popular one is the pricier Technivorm Moccamaster). Correct water temperature, a modest kitchen counter footprint, and a thermal carafe make this an exemplary brewer.

• 52 grams (7-8 Tbsp) fresh ground coffee to 825 ml (28 ounces) water
• Grind should look like typical preground canned coffee, slightly coarser than most table salt and reasonably uniform
• Pre-rinsing the filter to minimize papery taste isn't a bad idea
• Pre-heating the carafe doesn't hurt either

The French Press: Easy to Use, But Easy to Screw Up

Many people have one of these hiding neglected in their cupboards collecting dust. Some will swear up and down that there is no better way to make coffee. The classic french press or press pot is in some ways the most simple of methods. Hot water steeps with coffee grounds in a glass. When you're ready to decant, a filter/plunger mechanism keeps the grounds out of the way and (mostly) out of your mug. A well prepared cup can show off a lovely body and mouthfeel that paper filter methods sometimes don't get.

• Use about 15g (or 2 Tbsp) of coarse freshly ground coffee per xxx ml (xxx oz) of water just below a boil
• Give just enough of a stir at the beginning to allow the grounds to settle
• Total steep time of 3:30-4 minutes (if you're using a less than awesome grinder with irregular grind sizes and dust, cutting down the steep time is helpful)
• Decant completely and enjoy!

Simple, right? But there are a number of easy ways to screw your brew. Here are a few tips to help you keep it simple and tasty.

• Keep it clean. Making a habit of disassembling and washing the filter mechanism right away each time before it becomes a bigger chore will keep things from getting rancid.
• That plunger mechanism? Don't think of it as a plunger. It is merely a filter to keep the grounds out of the way while you pour out the brew. Getting too aggressive with the plunger can muddy up your mug—or worse: we've seen presses shatter from an intense plunging.
• Measure carefully. Just eyeballing your coffee dose and water fill can leave you with a different ratio each time, resulting in some not-always-needed tail chasing around other variables like grind size or water temperature.

A very similar brew can be had from the elegant Eva Solo Brewer, which has a unique filter top that lets you gently pour off the coffee at the end of the steep time. And in a pinch, one can MacGuyver a press pot like brew with almost any vessel and some creativity applied to the straining process.

The Aeropress: Easy Geek Cred

The Aeropress is sort of a giant syringe with a simple filter attachment on one end producing a very quick and easy cup of coffee. Inexpensive, portable, nearly indestructible, fast, and easy to clean makes this a no-brainer for brewing at home or cubicle. The Aeropress has a strong and vocal geek following, as the comment threads on almost any coffee blog post will attest.
As is true with many coffee brewing devices, you can begin by disregarding most of the instructions that come in the box. After all, the company that sells you the spatula might not be the best source for the flapjack recipe. With the Aeropress there are numerous methods and techniques that people have advocated and even a World Aeropress Championship where pro baristas try to out-syringe each other. The possibilities given just a bit of fiddling are seemingly endless. (Image via Ryan Brown.)
Here is a method that has worked well for us.

• Use 14 grams (about 1 Aeropress scoop) freshly ground coffee to 225 ml (7.5 ounces) near boiling water
• Grind just a bit finer than typical filter coffee, similar to table salt
• Place the paper filter disk into the holder and rinse
• Assemble the plunger and cylinder so the rubber sits at the "4" mark
• Invert the Aeropress so the brew chamber faces up and load in the grounds
• Add about half the water and stir to saturate the grounds
• Add the remaining water, stirring gently to encourage the grounds to settle—let it sit
• At the 2 minute mark attach the filter holder and filter and flip (un-invert) atop a sturdy mug
• Press down gently on the plunger and enjoy your coffee

With a finer grind you can decrease to total dwell time. Another popular method is to brew much stronger and dilute the resulting brew after the plunge, allowing you to produce a finished cup of higher volume. Sticking with a tried and true coffee to water ratio first and adjusting grind and dwell time as your variables should quickly yield good results with just a little trial and error.

Cold Brew

It is easy enough to make simple iced coffee by brewing up coffee at increased strength and diluting with ice, but the long-steep cold brew coffee is a rather different experience—sweeter tasting with very little bitterness, refreshing, and packing a real caffeine punch. Cold brew coffee is aiming to be this summer's bottled beverage fad, but is very easy to make yourself at home.
Devices like the Filtron or Toddy are simple ways to make small batches of concentrate that can last for a couple weeks in your refrigerator. The coffee dose is typically 2-3 times as much as normal for the amount of water, ground very coarse, and left to soak for 12-14 hours. It is then allowed to slowly drip through a large reusable filter pad resulting in a very clean and potent coffee concentrate brew.

Espresso: The Slippery Slope

Ah the romance of espresso. And, as is so often the case with with romance, there is also heartbreak. Espresso isn't just another brew method—it is a full on hobby, maybe even a calling. There is a reason baristas take themselves so seriously. Much goes into the preparation of a proper espresso and achieving mastery, let alone competency, dedication, and some pricey toys. Even a talented barista will find it difficult to step up fresh to machine and dial in that first good shot of the morning—changing grinds, discarding bad shots—a lot of work just for one morning cup, only to be followed closely by a non-optional cleaning regimen that is necessary to keep the machine clean and ready for the next day.
Unlike brewed coffee where almost anyone can produce results equal to the best coffeebars with minimal investment, espresso perfection is hard to attain outside of the cafe environment. Still, some people insist on taking the difficult path that leads to drinking cappuccinos in their own kitchen. (Image via Tonx.)
If you're not the type to be intimidated by these warnings, and you have the resources to invest in good gear, here is some broad advice to share to help you along your quixotic journey toward espresso utopia:
A good machine is a must. Much of what is sold as consumer espresso machines fail to hit the mark in terms of producing the correct pressure or temperature stability necessary for proper espresso extraction. The makers of many of these devices often make deceptive claims and very few of them will make anything close to resembling what you've come to expect from good cafes.
A good and precise burr grinder is a must. The most common mistake would-be home espresso geeks make is to focus too much on the espresso machine at the expense of investing in a proper espresso-capable burr grinder. A good truism is that a great espresso machine and a mediocre grinder will make a mediocre cup, while a mediocre espresso machine and a great grinder can produce something rather good.
Managing an inventory of fresh coffee can be difficult when you are tossing out multiple shots to dial in your grind or season the machine as it warms up. For espresso at home this can present an extra logistical challenge and expense.
If you start too far toward the bottom or middle tier with the gear you select, you will feel the upgrade urge grow for fancier and more commercial grade equipment.
Baristas are often hard up for cash. Consider taking one home with you and paying them for some private lessons. It is much easier to learn the skills with hands on coaching.
In our final lesson we'll cover further resources for brewing geekery, home espresso, roasting your own, and general coffee knowledge.

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Tony Konecny is on a mission to improve the current coffee status quo and is a cofounder of Tonx which delivers fresh roasted coffee from some of the world's top growers to people looking to make great coffee at home.
Nick Griffith is a coffee industry veteran and one of the founders of the coffee subscription service Tonx. In addition to time as a roaster and on the business side of coffee, Nick landed a pile of trophies as a competitive barista—though he'll really win you over when he is making cocktails.
Top image remixed from etraveler, Subbotina Anna, and Oros Gabor (Shutterstock).



 

Brew the Perfect Cup, Lesson 3: The Basics of Brewing...

Brew the Perfect Cup, Lesson 3: The Basics of Brewing:
Morning School is chugging along, and today we're moving beyond propagandizing for good coffee and getting into the nitty gritty of what to do with your high quality, fresh roasted beans. Contrary to how it might seem if you listen to many hardcore coffee geeks, brewing good cups of coffee at home doesn't have to be approached as if taking on a whole new hobby. A few basic principles will give you a toehold into almost every brew method and with just a bit of trial and error (and of course good beans) you'll discover that a great cup doesn't have to be hard to find.

Coffee, Water, Grind, and Time

Coffee brewing is essentially a "just add water" situation. The caveat is that you want to measure the amounts of coffee and water, use water at the right temperature, find the appropriate grind size, and control the amount of time that the coffee grounds and water are in contact. Every brew method recipe, whether filter style (drip machines, chemex, pour over) or immersion style (french press, eva solo, siphon) can be largely expressed within these variables.
Clean filtered water of the sort you'd happily drink is a must. Most manual brew methods will perform best at temperatures just off of a boil (~195-205F). You'll discover some coffees are more sensitive to water temperature than others—unusually dark roasts are able to tolerate much lower brewing temperatures (accounting for much of their continued popularity as the bulk of cheap automatic drip brewers tend to not get water hot enough).

Coffee to Water Ratio

Coffee nerds differ by degrees about what the most correct coffee to water ratio is, and you'll want to explore nudging your coffee dose up or down to suit your own tastes and specific gear. A good general starting point is just over 60 grams of coffee per liter of water. (Or in simple measurements: about 2 tablespoons of coffee for every 6 ounces of water.)
For those with a slightly nerdier bent for exact numbers and a full embrace of the magical metric system—in which 1 gram of water equals 1 milliliter of water—you can aim for a ratio of 1:16 or 1 gram of coffee per 16 milliliters (or grams) of water. I keep an online ratio calculator bookmarked for just this purpose. I'll make the case below for owning a good kitchen gram scale which can actually make precise manual brewing a breeze.

(Image by Jory Felice.)

Brewing Tools: An Overview

There is no one "right" way to make coffee and hundreds of devices out there to choose from. In the next lesson, we'll explore in more depth some popular brew methods, gear, and techniques.

The One Essential: The Grinder

Every coffee nerd will give you the same lecture: pre-ground coffee just doesn't cut it. The full flavor and aroma that make good coffee so intoxicating is mortally wounded when ground coffee is left to sit for long. Fancy packages, plastic pods, and inert gas flushing do very little to change this cruel fact.
Blade Grinders: The ubiquitous blade grinder works by chopping the beans, not unlike a blender, resulting in non-uniform grind size ("dust and boulders") that can lead to some over-extraction or bitterness when brewing. Most of my colleagues in the strident forefront of the coffee trade will tell you a meager blade grinder is a nonstarter, but the truth is even an imperfect fresh grind is better than buying pre-ground beans. Some brew methods are sufficiently forgiving that you can still get very nice results with cheap blade grinding. Blade grinders are easily found for well under $20 dollars and they all produce roughly similar results.
Burr Grinders: Not cheap, but far and away the best investment you can make in your coffee universe outside of buying top quality fresh roasted beans. A burr grinder crushes the beans between two sharp burrs—one stationary, one rotating—and adjusting the gap between the burrs lets you dial in a specific grind size and produce relatively uniform grinds for better extraction.
Many people make the mistake of purchasing expensive drip brewers with blue LEDs and timers and numerous buttons and then balk at dropping dough on the grinder. This is exactly backwards. A good burr grinder is a unmatchable precision tool whereas any automatic drip machine is merely a fancy way to dribble hot water on your grounds.
Best: I can't recommend enough the prosumer class grinders from Baratza. My Baratza Virtuoso is a workhorse in my kitchen, but their entire line from the entry level Encore to the espresso-grade Vario is great and Baratza's customer service has been awesome.
Pretty good: There are a number of grinders hovering around or just below the $100 range that are solid. My top pick here is probably the Capresso Infinity.
Satisfactory: These represent a big step up from a blade grinder but lack the quality of burr sets or higher torque motors of the prosumer model burr grinders. Generally closer to $40-50, and with a lot of familiar brand names from other kitchen appliances. I'm hesitant to emphatically recommend any particular model here, but I've used the basic Krups GVX Burr Grinder and it seems typical of the category.
Kind of awesome: I have a habit of collecting hand cranked burr grinders, and though a bit more work than pressing a button, they can be great for folks making one cup at a time, for camping, or for keeping in your bug-out-bag when the end times roll around. My three favorites:

• The light but tough Porlex Mini
• The affordable and elegant Hario Slim
• The classic Zassenhaus box grinder you hold between your knees

Timers, Scales, and Kettles

A timer is useful for almost every manual brew method and can even come in handy when figuring out the best grind size for automatic drip machines. Most smartphones are good for this, but if like me you prefer to check Instagram and Twitter while your coffee is brewing, then a dedicated digital count-up kitchen timer is a worthwhile investment.

The Case For a Gram Scale

A gram-accurate scale can bring some great precision into your brewing and remove some of the guesswork when pouring water from kettles. For instance, when filling a french press directly from your kettle, it can be hard to correctly eyeball where to stop pouring as wet coffee grounds bloom up with escaping gasses. A scale lets you dodge having to pre-measure your water into a kettle or fuss with finding a fill line. Just put the whole kit and caboodle of your brewing device on the scale, tare it out, and start pouring to the desired water weight (remember 1 gram = 1 milliliter).
It actually makes brewing easier. Though it might feel like adding a scale makes your morning routine into too much of a chemistry class, you'll find it actually makes the process a much more brainless and autopilot affair once you've dialed in your "recipe." Thanks to my slick looking kitchen scale I'm able to make my first cup of the morning with barely any brain activity involved.
Whether you're using precise gram scales or just simple scoops, the important thing is that you make sure your measurements are repeatable and adjustable. In most cases, if starting with a baseline brew recipe and ratio, just a few brews and a small amount of trial and error—little adjustments in grind, dose, dwell time, and a bit of technique—will get you to a reliable sweet spot. And expect to pour a few brews down the sink at first whenever introducing a new brew method to your kitchen.
In the next lesson we'll dig in on several great methods and peek into the deep rabbit hole that is home espresso.

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Tony Konecny wears a number of hats at the awesome coffee subscription service Tonx which he cofounded as part of his long crusade to bring great coffee into kitchens, cubicles, and caves. Beloved by shut-ins and coffee connoisseurs alike.
Top image remixed from etraveler, Subbotina Anna, and Oros Gabor (Shutterstock).



 

How to Deal with Negative People...

How to Deal with Negative People:
We all have negative type of people in our lives who manage to bring us down on a perfectly good day. While you likely can't avoid these people entirely, you can deal with them in a way that you both walk away from the conversation better off. That means figuring out when it's worth listening to them.
To help figure out the best way to deal with negative people, I spoke with Roger Gil, a mental health clinician who specializes in marriage and family therapy. As Gil notes, dealing with negative types is primarily about learning to differentiate between the opinions you should consider and the ones you should ignore—to distinguish between the pessimist who's just being a sour puss, and the pragmatist who's actually offering valuable insights. After all, if those negative nancy's aren't adding to the conversation you're probably best off ignoring them:

There is no foolproof way of distinguishing needless pessimism from productive pragmatism when seeking advice or opinions. But by assessing what goes into the formulation of the third-party opinions that can influence your own decisions, you can separate the skewed opinions from the more well-thought-out ones.

Gil's point is that you'll always run into negative people, so the best thing you can really do is figure out if their advice is worth following or not. Whether it's a friend, or a new co-worker at the office who seems to always wear the grumpy hat, here's how to root out the underlying truth in what they're really saying.

Find the Critic's Baseline

First things first, Gil recommends you find the baseline of a person before you assume they're being negative. We all have our bad days, and unless you have an idea of where a person stands you can't know whether they're just in a bad mood or if they're always like that. Gil suggests that before you assume they're negative, you spend a little time figuring out exactly how they work.

If you hang around someone long enough you will get a feel for whether they're the type to be more optimistic, pessimistic, or pragmatic. This knowledge is valuable because while you might expect a "yes" from the optimist, a "no" from the pessimist, or a "let's look at the big picture" from the pragmatist, it's the times that the responses don't follow the "party line" that should interest you. By knowing what is your critic's norm, you will be able to differentiate between the times that "they are just being themselves" versus the times that they may be recognizing something truly noteworthy.

Essentially, when your negative critic ventures off the beaten path, and offers advice to you that's surprising, that's when you should really take note. Even if they're typically the pessimist in a situation, when they break that norm, something interesting is going on there that's worth noting. Photo by deovolenti.

Follow the "Three's Company" Rule

Just because a person's a pessimist doesn't mean they're not right now and again. Gil notes that the easiest way to figure if their advice is worth following is to simply ask around, and figure out if a consensus exists that falls in line with the person's view:

If one or two people give you similar opinions, it could just be that they are drinking the same Kool Aid. If three or more people that have nothing to do with one another have similar opinions, then you are increasing the odds that the opinions you are getting are more accurate assessments of the way things are because each of those people is coming from their own unique perspective.

If it's a unanimous opinion, then perhaps that person isn't as pessimistic as you think, and their advice—whatever it may be—is worth considering. While you certainly don't need to treat the three's company rule like a law, it's worth considering if you're unsure if someone's opinion is based on their grumpy mood.

Ask the Right Questions

Eventually, your grump-spotting is going to need a little more investigation, and that means asking questions. To get to the root of why a person's opinion is the way it is, Gil suggests one question you might want to ask is the simplest:

"Why?" is the most powerful question you can ask a person who is giving you their opinion because it allows you to determine what assumptions inform their opinions. If the response you get is one that indicates a lack of insight (e.g. "I don't know, that's just how it is," "Because everyone knows that's how the world always works," etc.) then you can pretty much assume that the person's emotional baggage is informing their opinion. However if the response is one that suggests that some good, old-fashioned contemplation was involved (e.g. "The data suggests that this outcome is likely.") then you may want to lend a little more credence to the response you get.

To further root out the origin of someone's advice, and whether it's worth pursuing, you also want to ask another simple question, "would you do it again?" when it applies. The reason is pretty simple: it requires a bit of an emotional response, and that can help you differentiate their opinion even further.

When seeking the advice of someone who has walked down a path that you are considering pursuing, asking them if they would do it again and what they would do differently will reveal valuable insights into whether or not they are being objective in their assessments. If their response to "would you do it again?" feels like it's more of a reflection of their own emotional baggage than of someone who has their eyes on the situation at large then you know to give less weight to their opinions on a topic. If the person can tell you what they would do differently or can expound on why they would keep it all the same then the opinion you are getting is that of a proactive thinker instead of a passive person who is just coasting along.

The hope is that your questions will lead to a better understanding of their history, and subsequently, you'll know whether their advice is worth following in the future. When it boils down to it, the best way to root out and deal with a negative person is to figure out how much of their opinion really matters to you, if you should take it, and how much you should care about their advice moving forward.
If it's a co-worker, boss, friend, or family member, they'll likely be in your life no matter what—learning how to decide whether or not to pay attention to them helps inform your decision making moving forward. If their pessimism ends up being too much of a bummer, you can always call them out on their BS and try to remedy the situation a little. Photo by Anders Sandberg.

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Thanks to mental health clinician Roger Gil for helping with this post. You can find him on Twitter here and be sure to check out his podcast as well.
Photo by PSD Graphics, PSD Graphics, and eurobanks (Shutterstock).



 

Brew the Perfect Cup, Lesson 2: How to Select Your Beans

Brew the Perfect Cup, Lesson 2: How to Select Your Beans:
Yesterday we argued the case for better coffee, and today we're diving into selecting the best beans. Often lost in our gadget-obsessed culture is the basic fact that no fussy brewing method, precise technique, or pricey gear matters as much to your mug as the coffee beans you choose to brew. Even the most simple brewing device can produce otherworldly brews when paired with great coffee. Finding an approach into the often confusing landscape of consumer coffee bean choices is the essential first step to improving your morning ritual.

A Matter of Preference

When it comes to coffee, chaos often reigns in determining what lands in your mug. Everything from the chosen seed, to the hillside the seedling got planted on, to the mood at the mill the day the coffee cherry was processed, to the cleanliness of the coffee grinder, to your barista's preoccupation with that ambiguous drunk text they got last night from their ex can affect the final cup. Hard and fast toeholds for landing on specific preferences are few and fleeting.
A good cup of coffee is subject to more variables than the sort of beverages we can get in bottles. Think of beer or wine as being like novels or books, while coffee is closer to a magazine or newspaper—a product best enjoyed in its moment and time. Coffee's ephemeral nature makes it much harder to pin down—but that's also a big part of its charm.
A better approach is to embrace ahead of all other minutiae a sort of first order preference for coffees that are above all good—possessing the essential characteristics that elevate them above most of the products cluttering the marketplace.

What Is Good Coffee?

Mediocre or just plain bad coffee is everywhere. Store shelves are stocked with stale beans. Capsule, pod, and K-Cup coffee reigns but is a very poor value in both the machines and the consumables, and the results are a far cry from fresh coffee. In terms of raw material, most of these coffees edge closer to commodity coffee and not much care is demonstrated in their roasting. The marketing prose on a can of Folgers doesn't sound very different from the copy on a bag of "gourmet" coffee, so the consumer is often left with very few clues. (Photo by -0- (Flickr).)
Fresh roasted. The full flavor and richness of coffee diminishes dramatically and rapidly after roasting. The broadest range and intensity of flavors is experienced within the first two weeks, and no technology or fancy packaging can do very much to stop that decline. Once you experience the aroma and presence of drinking coffee from fresh roasted beans, it's hard to go back to the stuff on the supermarket shelf. Only buy coffee that has a roasted-on date and will get consumed within a couple weeks of that date.
Good green. Long before a roaster gets into the picture, great coffee begins at the farm with great land, great plants, great farmers, and great processing. An enormous amount of effort and care goes into growing the best coffees and there's typically a strong correlation between higher quality and more sustainable agricultural practices. Look for coffee that's traceable back to individual farms or cooperatives and from roasters who are dedicated to paying farmers healthy premiums for high quality.
Whole bean. Coffee's oomph is best experienced freshly ground. The minor convenience of buying beans pre-ground doesn't outweigh the massive loss of flavor and freshness that you'll incur. Buy whole bean coffee.
Sweetness. Balance. Flavor. A truly good coffee will have all three of these in spades: a natural sweetness that carries through each sip, a good balance of organic acids, a pleasing mouthfeel that makes for a cup that's lively without being bitter, flat, or rough, and an intensity of good flavors that add up to deliciousness. Seek out roasters who are discerning in their green coffee sourcing and meticulous in their roasting.
There are a growing number of small and medium sized coffee roasters doing great work and putting honest effort into their product. Starting your coffee upgrade journey by exploring the best releases from top-tier roasters is the right road (of course this author is a bit biased towards one in particular.)

Geography

Coffee is cultivated throughout the tropics, and more countries and more growers are getting on board the quality coffee bandwagon. A perusal at the offering lists from a bunch of top roasters is likely to push the limits of most people's geography knowledge.
While individual growing regions might show distinctive flavor characteristics or have particular processing styles that tend to give them a signature taste, it's important not to fall into the easy trap of dismissing or embracing an entire region or country based on just a small set of experiences. Again, coffee's slippery nature is such that even at the level of a single individual estate during a single harvest season there may be coffee experiences awaiting you at every end of the spectrum. If you keep an open mind, there are surprises to be found from almost every corner of the coffee growing world.

Roast Styles

Roasting styles run the gamut from charcoal black to light golden brown and many consumers feeling their way through the murky consumer coffee landscape find roast degree to be one of the few graspable features to lock onto as a stated preference. Even among experienced coffee pros, absolutes about degree of roast rightness and wrongness persist, though many other less visible nuances of the roasting process arguably play bigger roles in determining the ultimate awesomeness (or lack thereof) of the finished bean. Keep an open mind on roast degree and you'll likely encounter pleasant surprises across a wide swath of the spectrum.

Labels and Certifications

Sustainability, from both an environmental and economic justice perspective, is the subject of endless dialogue inside and around the coffee industry. Consumers looking to feel good about their buying choices will encounter an array of certifications on packaging labels. Each certification has its strengths and its flaws and ultimately, as with almost all agricultural products, there are no magic bullet solutions that fits every farm. Organic certification emphasizes the farm's inputs, while some of the other eco-certifications focus on bird habitat or biodiversity. Several others focus on setting floor prices for struggling farmers and building market access for cooperatives.
Some of the most exciting progress in coffee sustainability is happening with small and medium size roasters and boutique exporters and importers working to improve traceability and better prices for producers based around quality. For a newer generation of microroasters and sophisticated coffee farmers, meeting face to face and doing business more directly is paying dividends for everyone in the supply chain and resulting in the extraordinary leaps in cup quality that underly some of the current hype around high end coffee.

A Note On Tasting Notes

Inside of the coffee trade, the formal system of cupping—a procedural way to taste and evaluate coffees—leads a lot of us to develop a pretty baroque lexicon for describing a coffee's flavors. Sometimes these flavor descriptions are right on the mark ("you really can taste the apricot in that cup!"). Other times the descriptions hint at a general constellation of flavor rather than a specific taste (general citric acidity) or might even be euphemisms for something unpleasant or disappointing (calling it "fruity" instead of "fermented"). All this talk of fruits, flowers, and nuts or "cleanliness" can seem a bit intimidating and often takes away from the real gestalt of the cup. (Pictured at right: stages of maturation at Finca Matalapa in La Libertad, El Salvador. Photo via Tonx.)
The process of applying pretty prose to coffees is fun, but not always good for guiding you toward coffees you'll love or away from ones you'll dislike. So while there is much to learn about the complexity of coffee by digging into tasting notes, trusting in your tongue and worthy roasters ahead of your thesaurus is the best approach.

Finding That Perfect Bean

Sadly, it's close to impossible. Green coffee too has a shelf life and good coffee roasters manage their green inventory based on the harvest cycles. Falling too deeply in love with a newly-landed bean from Guatemala in April might lead to heartache come November. But exploring beans from roasters that share or cater to your emerging tastes can keep you very happy. Those practicing artful blending can provide you a relatively consistent flavor experience even as the components shift with the tilt of the earth.
In our next lesson, we'll start digging in to the nitty gritty of brewing.

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Tony Konecny is on a crusade to get more good coffee into more homes. When he's not busy making the world safe for great coffee with his teammates at Tonx, he can be found staying up all night rewriting short pithy autobiographies for productivity websites. You can taste what he's drinking here.
Ryan Brown has trotted the globe meeting farmers and millers and tasting coffees for the likes of Ritual and Stumptown and currently heads up the Tonx green coffee team. You can get a glimpse of the coffee world from a sourcing perspective by checking out his lovely Instagram feed href="http://instagram.com/tonxcoffee">Instagram feed.
Top image remixed from etraveler, Subbotina Anna, and Oros Gabor (Shutterstock).