Coffee Explanations

by Matt Gibson

There are two types of coffee drinkers in this world. There are those who enjoy drinking coffee, and there are those that require coffee like an automobile requires fuel. Many coffee addicts have trouble waking up without a cup of coffee each morning, and simply cannot function properly until their system gets its first cup. But what happens when such a person does not have access to a coffee maker? When the cat knocks the glass French press off the counter and sends it crashing to the kitchen floor in the middle of the night, how can you make your morning cup without a coffee maker?

Before the invention of the electric drip coffee maker, people used a variety of simple brewing techniques to make their coffee without a machine or a non-electric device. As long as you’ve got coffee beans and access to a kitchen, you should be able to brew yourself a pot of coffee with the supplies you have on hand. People have been brewing coffee for ages, long before electricity, or fancy pod-based machines, and the brewing methods they used are still viable options today.

Without electricity, you can make pour over coffee or use a French press device. Without any coffee making device, there are still several brewing methods that you can use in a pinch, including cowboy coffee, the strainer method, Turkish coffee, the coffee bag method, and a makeshift, device-less French press technique.

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QUESTION: What Is Hawaiian coffee called? What makes it different than regular coffee? – Kitty M

ANSWER: You’re probably thinking about the name Kona coffee, which is an area on the big island of Hawaii where coffee is grown. Have you ever had Californian coffee? It is highly unlikely, because there is no coffee that is grown in California, or any other state in the U.S. for that matter, other than the island state of Hawaii. This is because the best coffee is grown in high altitudes in highly volcanic soil and the only place well suited to coffee growing in the U.S. is Hawaii.

There are coffee farms all over the state, but the most farms, and the best farms, are from a very small area on the largest island of Hawaii, Kona. The area is called the Kona Island Coffee Belt, and it’s a very exclusive region for coffee growers. Not only does the coffee have to be grown within the borders of the Kona Island Belt to be considered Kona coffee, it also has to be graded by their strict system of coffee bean judging in order to be called Kona coffee. 

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by Matt Gibson

There are many differences between a standard cup of coffee and a shot of espresso. But what is the difference between coffee beans and espresso beans? The difference is not just in the way that the beans are roasted, but also how they are ground, and of course, the process in which they are transformed into coffee via brewing. 

The origin of the coffee beans that are used for brewing espresso and the coffee beans that are used to make regular coffee are the same. They are either Robusta or Arabica beans. Coffee beans that are produced specifically for espresso brewing are simply roasted more, ground into a finer grind, and brewed in an espresso machine or aeropress instead of a regular coffee maker. 

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by Erin Marissa Russell

There is more to determining how much caffeine is in your cup of coffee than simply the brewing preparation you use. This is why you usually see caffeine content for certain preparation methods described as an average or a range instead of a particular number that applies to every cup. In addition to the preparation method you use to make your coffee, the caffeine content is set by variables like the coffee beans you choose to make your coffee with, the ratio between water and coffee grounds that you use when you prepare coffee, the water temperature, your grind size, and more. But here’s a general breakdown of the caffeine content you can expect from various preparation methods.

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by Erin Marissa Russell

No doubt you’re here because you love the taste of coffee, but you don’t love the acidity that can sometimes go along with this favorite beverage. Certain types of coffee are more acidic than others—and we’ll explain that ranking so you know what it is. Fortunately, there are several things you can do to reduce the acidity of the coffee you make or the coffee you drink.

You don’t need to suffer from acid reflux just because you enjoyed some freshly brewed coffee to start off your day. Let’s take a look at the ways you can make your coffee less acidic, then we’ll explain why coffee is acidic in the first place and the factors that go into how acidic your drink will be.

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QUESTION: What’s the difference between #2 and #4 coffee filters? I was looking at some Bonavita pour over drippers, and one of them says #2 and one says #4. — Jerry F

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QUESTION: What is honey process coffee? I saw an ad for it on Facebook, but I don’t really understand what it is. — Lina T

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