Coffee Explanations

by Matt Gibson

Coffee filters not only help strain the coffee from your ground coffee beans, they also keep some harmful compounds out of your brew, such as cafestol, which raises LDL (bad) cholesterol levels which can increase your risk of heart disease. But what kind of filter should you use? There are so many different coffee filter options available to consumers that many people don’t know where to start.

There are different kinds of filters that are suitable to certain brewing techniques, or coffee making machines. There are different shaped filters and filters made from different kinds of materials. There are disposable filters that are to be tossed out after a single use, and reusable filters that can brew up to 2000 cups of coffee before needing to be replaced. 

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by Matt Gibson

In 2016, a Harvard Health blog article was released that discussed some reasons why French press coffee could potentially be bad for your health, specifically, that drinking too much of it could increase your LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Because of the big name on the source of the article, there have been countless articles from smaller publications that have come out since, which echo the same basic information that was stated in the original post.

Basically, the claim is that unfiltered coffee contains lots of compounds that filtered coffee removes, and some of those compounds can be bad for your health, namely cafestol and kahweol, which can raise LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglyceride levels. 

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by Erin Marissa Russell and Matt Gibson

You’ve probably seen lots of Colombian coffee described as Arabica coffee beans, and you may be left wondering what the difference is between Arabica coffee beans and Colombian coffee. Because almost all of the coffee beans you’ll encounter that were produced in Colombia will be Arabica coffee beans, this can be a confusing topic.

The easiest way of explaining is that the word “Arabica” refers to the type of coffee beans, or the variety of coffee plant that the beans came from, while “Colombian” refers instead to the country where the coffee beans were grown. But we’re here to explain exactly what Colombian coffee and Arabica coffee are, how they are related, and the differences between the two.

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by Erin Marissa Russell

No doubt you’ve heard lots about the Chemex coffee brewer and how delicious coffee made in a Chemex can be—so no doubt you’re wondering what it is about the Chemex that makes its coffee so delicious.

For a lot of coffee drinkers, nothing can hold a candle to coffee brewed in a Chemex. And it’s not just admiration for the latest trend in coffee brewing systems that makes people sing the praises of the Chemex. Coffee brewed in a Chemex is truly in a class of its own. Keep reading to find out exactly what it is about the Chemex that makes Chemex coffee so good.

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by Matt Gibson

Invented back in the 1940’s, the Chemex coffee maker is considered the quintessential pour over brewing device and is a staple in the kitchens of coffee connoisseurs around the globe. The simple and elegant design remains the same as it did when the first line of Chemex brewers were released, and the very same components are used to make modern Chemex models, as they have throughout the history of their product line.

Chemex coffee makers consist of a tapered glass cone shaped filter holder and coffee carafe, a wooden handle that fits together where the cone shape converges, and a leather cord that is knotted in the middle to hold the whole package together. 

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by Matt Gibson and Erin Marissa Russell

The country of Colombia and the coffee industry are inseparable entities. Colombia’s unique geographical area and biologically diverse landscape makes the country well equipped to create some of the most beloved coffee in the world. Colombia’s coffee coalition, the National Federation of Coffee Growers, dubbed the FNC for short, is responsible for a marketing effort that has kept Colombia’s coffee sector in the spotlight of international media since the 1950s. 

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by Matt Gibson

Do you find yourself going to Starbucks or other coffee shops every morning to get your caffeine fix? If you buy an espresso drink every day or just about every day, you will save a lot of money purchasing a home espresso machine and making your own espresso instead, unless of course, you continue to buy espresso at the coffee shop as well. In fact, if you drink espresso regularly, you can save a tremendous amount of money from buying your own espresso machine, but we’ll get into the numbers later on in this article. There are plenty of other factors to consider besides cost as well. Let’s dive in. 

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QUESTION: Why is my pour over coffee so weak? I’ve made several cups, and it looks more like tea and doesn’t taste right. – Victoria F

ANSWER: Pour over coffee is a much more involved brewing process than electric drip coffee machines, and getting used to the technique can take some practice. If you find that you are getting a weak brew from your pour over coffee, there are several ways to alter your technique to get a better technique. Pour over coffee is all about perfecting your pour, and you may need to invest in a better piece of equipment to improve your control over the pour as well. 

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QUESTION: Can I use regular ground coffee for pour over? Like could you make it with Folgers or Starbucks ground coffee that you buy at the grocery store? – Elliot F

ANSWER: Yes, you can technically make pour over with Folgers. But using pre-ground coffee to brew coffee in a pour over device is like hiring the London Philharmonic Orchestra to play the two chord punk-rock song that your high school band wrote.

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by Matt Gibson

Both the pour over coffee brewing technique and the standard electric drip coffee maker produce coffee by pouring hot water over coffee grounds and straining the liquid out through a filter. However, the end result of each of these two brewing methods is very different. Drip coffee is typically done with very little involvement or input from you, while the pour over technique is a very hands-on way to make coffee, where the brewer is in control of many different elements of the brewing process, which allows for a much more customizable cup. 

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