A fresh perspective
Stories, conversations, and ideas from across the coffee world.
If you're in the US I'd look at trying some stuff from Black and White in North Carolina (Red Fruits I just tried both regular and decaf, both good but different to each other. Decaf was more subtle on the funky notes, the regular was really good but definitely gave boozy vibes).
I find the Hario has the best adjustment of the lot.
Yep you did, boiler is probably wrapped In asbestos
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA we don't.
Two things came up again and again. Stainless steel. You wanted it inside the machine.
there is a, probably justified, scepticism towards "espresso" makers
If you can order through Shopee, I’d highly recommend NORA Coffee Roasters and wonderroom.bkk. Very reasonably priced and quite lightly roasted compared to a majority of other roasters in Thailand. Paga is another fantastic roaster but a lot more expensive.
Turned out really nicely, and tastes great (the beans were a bit oily though, and i got a lot of static when grinding). Pretty full body, not that much difference from regular.
Another coffee tool I dont need. But will probably end up buying anyway.
IMO you've got everything you need. If you can get a IMS/VST/Pullman basket, I think that's very valuable.
A series of pop-ups around the world—sharing exceptional coffee with friends, both old and new. Our first chapter takes us to Asia, with stops in Guiyang, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Seoul.
That's the lever from the trolley problem
The simple version of this is, crema tastes bad.
Fellow steps past coffee with a $199.95 cocktail kit, ROEST pushes its lab roaster to 3 kg an hour, and a De'Longhi Dedica turns fine grounds into sludge. In Los Angeles, a Silverlake bean wall starts an argument about mark-ups.
Fellow's first cocktail kit is $199.95, pre-orders are open, and delivery is promised for early November in either a glass or a double-walled stainless mixing vessel. The eight pieces are a single-sided jigger, the mixing vessel, a cobbler-style shaker with a built-in strainer, a Hawthorne strainer, a fine mesh strainer, a weighted muddler, a forged bar spoon and a tray cut to hold each tool. Fellow's own framing is vintage Fellow: "A complete set of tools for more intuitive, precise, and satisfying mixology, with eight pieces designed to control temperature, dilution, and clarity in every drink." Forbes called the launch the brand's "first big move beyond coffee", which is fair for a catalogue built on kettles, brewers and grinders. USA TODAY's reviewer, who put the set at "around $200", singled out the shaker lid that solves the familiar problem of a top that will not budge once it is ice cold.
ROEST's new generation runs from the S200 and L200 Plus to the flagship L200 Ultra, and the Ultra's headline claim is throughput: "15 batches or 3kg per hour", with counterflow mode rotating the drum against the airflow to double heat transfer. The capacity is 50 to 200 grams a batch and the machine weighs 14 to 16 kg; Sweet Maria's lists five temperature sensors, first-crack detection and a browser-based interface. The US distributor sells the L200 Ultra for $9,990 and currently shows it out of stock, describing it as "an important tool for our sample roasting and evaluation process". ROEST's own page carries a testimonial from coffee consultant and author Scott Rao: "Counterflow mode doubles the heat-transfer efficiency of the Ultra." The roaster behind the channel Roaster Kat has already posted an unboxing and first roast.
The machine is a De'Longhi Dedica 885, and two consecutive shots produced nothing but a basket of wet grounds, which the owner photographed in the sink with a cat peering in. The most-liked answer skipped the diagnosis entirely: "That's a cat, not an espresso machine. Easy to confuse. Honestly, im impressed with how far you got." The technical answer was that the stock basket is pressurized rather than broken, so it wants pre-ground or deliberately coarse coffee and drains slowly through a small hole that owners of the same model clear with hot water and a safety pin. Kaffeemacher, a German coffee retailer that publishes its own Dedica guide, explains the same mechanism in blunter terms: "These baskets are designed for pre-ground coffee."
The photograph is the retail wall at Dayglow's Silverlake shop on Sunset Boulevard, holding the cafe's own boxes alongside bags from other roasters. The top reply was pure neighbourhood pride: "Truly blessed in Silverlake with this and Ondo". Then came the complaint from two customers who like the shop but not the pricing — one praised "the baristas are super knowledgeable and they seem to dial in their pour overs well" and still called the retail bags "absurdly priced. Always a huge mark up". Another framed the shelf as a test of how much mark-up a buyer will accept when other multi-roaster shops in the city sell the same bags for less, and Dayglow itself did not reply in the discussion. Other commenters flagged the new Drop bag designs on the bottom shelf, which regulars hunting the older plain brown bags might miss.
The poster owns an espresso machine and a pour-over but still bought an iced coffee every morning for the walk, the cold cup and the ten minutes outside. The most-liked answer suggested simulating the whole ritual: preheat the machine, walk around the block while it warms, brew, then take the cup outside to a bench and watch the street. The argument underneath it was that the enjoyable parts are leaving the house and drinking outdoors, so a cup made at home will not compare unless those parts still happen. Cheaper substitutions followed — one reply would pour the brew into a travel mug and bank $5 in a jar for each home coffee instead, which comes to $150 by the end of a month, while another keeps a single cafe morning a week so the treat stays special. (The photograph is a separate home-coffee post from the same week.)
Everything is about temperature. Everything everything.
An $8 thrift-store Fellow Stagg EKG was the week's luckiest find, though its handle came with a burn warning. A Lavazza order arrived dated 2024, John Cena posted a flat white, and coffee jelly refused to leave its mold.
The owner bought it at a local thrift store for $8 and confirmed it "works perfectly fine", against a list price of $199.95 for the current Stagg EKG. The first replies judged condition rather than luck: "entirely dependent on whether the electronics still work." one long-time kettle owner wrote. Then came the detail worth carrying forward — that the wooden handle is held by "ONE SCREW", which a commenter said worked loose as she poured and left her with second-degree burns. Others asked whether the kettle was genuine or a copy, and a regular thrift shopper noted that rising reseller traffic has pushed charity-shop prices up.
The buyer ordered direct from Lavazza, paid €8 for 250g and found a 2024 date on the bag, which he called "absolutely ridiculous" and no better than the November 2025 bags before it. Most replies skipped the date and questioned the purchase: the most-liked answer was that 32€/kg buys specialty coffee from a Munich roaster, "days since roasted when I buy it". The technical claim came next — one reply wrote that the printed date "isn't even the roasting date it's just when they were put in the bag". Suggestions ranged from Croatian Illy at about €7 a can to a Dutch roaster at €26.95/kg, and Lavazza has not responded in the discussion.
The image is a screenshot of Cena's Instagram, showing a flat white with latte art on a wooden table and a bag of Sey's Susan Meneses Pink Bourbon from Colombia. The most-liked reply stated the case plainly — "he has said his hobby is attempting to find the perfect flat white" — and his reputation is on the record:
Australian coverage in 2025 reported him calling Melbourne's flat whites the best in the world. One commenter admitted he had been calling his drinks cappuccinos for two years before realising flat whites were his actual favourite. Another noted that Sey, the Brooklyn roaster on the bag, could hardly buy better advertising.
The attempt was specific and small: coffee jelly set in flower and heart silicone molds, most of it shredding as it came out. The best-liked reply asked for the recipe before diagnosing anything, and the practical answers arrived quickly — more gelatin or agar, a firmer set, and a warm-water dip to break the suction. One reply called silicone molds "a trap for set gels because the walls flex when you pull", shearing the corners, and recommended rigid plastic or metal instead. The warm-water advice is the standard one for unmolding gelatin, which is dipped rather than pulled.
The setup was a gift for a son's 21st birthday, and the total came to $400 after a Pasquini Livia and a grinder were bought off Facebook Marketplace and rebuilt by the buyer himself. The response was warmer than the gear: "Epic parent moment." and a run of jokes about being adopted. Commenters picked out the details — a bag of Milkman beans, a milk jug, a knock box — and one argued it was "everything he'll need", of higher quality than most first setups. For scale, a Livia 90 still lists at one retailer for $1,732.50, though used examples sell far cheaper.
It is simply the EG-1. After over a decade of refinement improvements, we decided to get rid of versioning.
This is very different for roasters, and it's about giving confidence to roasters and producers and creators to be able to understand that what they test as a recipe can be executed [by customers] to the same level.
I wouldn't say that this is something you need to add to your arsenal unless you are really looking for the full convenience factor.
Coffees will be blindly judged by professional coffee cuppers.
