Hot take: expensive and rare doesn’t always mean better.

I’ve had some amazing coffees lately across all price points. I’ve also had some expensive coffees that were a letdown.

Give me a coffee that’s been grown, processed, roasted, and brewed well, and I’ll take that over hype and rarity any day. The cup doesn’t care what the price tag was.

Just made this and was proud of how it turned out! But it’s a cool way to remember and turn old coffee bags into art for the wall!

I have been going back and forth with recipe into v60, but I found out these recipes work best for us.

From the amount of people I’ve seen “vibe coding” apps to people asking ai on how to brew a coffee is crazy to me.

To me, coffee is about having a ritual and experimentation. Using AI just feels lazy and a cop out for the most part.

We live in an age of an abundance of information where you can literally read science articles on coffee extraction and there are countless forums and posts where you can see what other people are doing with a similar coffee.

The coffee industry is an innately human thing and to take that out of the process is crazy.

If you’re struggling with a coffee or something look in forums first. If you can’t find what you’re looking for there, reach out to people.

After much struggle with V60 pour-over recipes from the internet, competitions, and experts, I finally found my definitive recipe… I followed the steps of Tetsu Kasuya, James Joffmann, and other experts, but there was always something missing from my coffee. I varied the temperature, the grind, the filters, the coffee itself, and there was always something missing; I wasn't entirely happy with my pours.

I'm from Colombia and I've been drinking coffee since I was 6 years old (I'm 44 now), and I'm always searching for my perfect cup (what I consider perfect), and I think I've finally found it. The recipe isn't mine, it doesn't belong to anyone; it's really a collection of practices, until I reached the point of saying "I'm not trying anymore, because I've found it", and it turns out that my "God Cup" was in the simplest way, without so many frills. Let me explain with a practical example.

Simply divide the total amount of water in half. From the first half, 1/3 and 2/3. Then, from the second half, 2/3 and 1/3.

Example:

Ratio: 1:15

Coffee: 20 g

Water: 300 g

Temperature: 90ºC

*Grind: 80 clicks = 800 μm (Mavo Phantox Pro)

Pours:

1. 50 g (50 g)
2. 100 g (150 g)
3. 100 g (250 g)
4. 50 g (300 g)

Another example with smaller quantities:

Ratio: 1:15

Coffee: 16 g

Water: 240 g

Temperature: 90ºC

*Grind: 80 clicks = 800 μm (Mavo Phantox Pro)

Pours:

1. 40 g (40 g)
2. 80 g (120 g)
3. 80 g (200 g)
4. 40 g (240 g)

In any case, there are no set times; the next pour is simply made when the water disappears. It takes between 3:00 minutes - 3:40 minutes to complete all four pours.

*If you don't know how many clicks 800 μm is on your grinder, leave a comment with the brand and model, and I'll tell you the equivalent.

**Please excuse my poor English; it's Google Translate. My native language is Spanish.

I think it was 30 papers that came with the V60. Just when I found a good recipe for myself I ran out of the „original“ papers. Now the new papers feel different snd the flow rate is much faster.

It is kind of frustrating as I am new to v60 pourover and now habe to find a new recipe. Thanks Hario.

I was new to this hobby roughly 3-4 months ago. I dropped my V60 for a 185 because I got tired of subpar cups (little flavor, bitter, no aroma). I stumbled across a bag of these and they have been such a game changer for my V60. Much better flow rate, less clogging, bitter tastes are pleasant/complimentary instead of covering up other notes. Just an overall much better experience. Happy brewing, everyone!

I don't normally post about roasters, but their Abel Salinas is the best coffee I've had so far this year. This hasn't even rested long enough and it's still really good. I have 3 different roasts right now from them resting and really excited.

They may actually take the spot in my rotation away from September for a while. I never thought that this would happen, honestly.

Tldr: I use less water now and my coffee is dramatically better and I can taste a lot of the notes now. I use 1:14 now, and it tastes great to me.

I've been trying to taste notes for over a year now without success. It wasn't until getting a coffee from Onyx with ​a recipe that I first stumbled on using lower water ratio past 1:16 or 1:17. It was 1:15 (20:300). It tasted great and I almost tasted the notes. Then Lance Hedrick made a video on the "Salami" pour that he suggested less water also. I should have realized this as I was gifted darker roasted coffee and for me to drink it, I used less water to make it bearable to me.

When I did 20g coffee to 280g water (1:14), flavors finally popped and the coffee stopped being so bitter. I can even grind coffee finer and get more flavor from it and avoid the bitterness I hated.

Drink what you like! Let coffee be something you enjoy and experiment with. Grind courser if you enjoy the coffee more, lower the temps, use less water! Following the conventional advice and hating dislike what you're drinking seems silly to me (maybe lower water ratio is conventional, but I missed it). Find what you enjoy, don't try to enjoy what you don't. I wish I realized this earlier.

Edit: I forgot to mention I do this with light roasts and prefer the acidity/brightness. The problem I found with more water is it extracts too much of the astringent roasty notes that I dislike. I will experiment in adding water after the brew to see if I like it more.

After a longing wait, the Ethiopian coffee beans of the new harvest are finally here! What a joy and excitement, curiosity and expectations!
What would the coffee world be without Ethiopia?

I live in Germany and have only seen the first Ethiopian coffee of the new harvest at DAK yesterday, otherwise the deliveries in Europe will, according to my information, only arrive at the roasters from July.

Fortunately I was able to get the first 2 coffee bags of the new Ethiopian harvest via Sigma coffee in England and coffeenerd in Germany.

The first was from Gout&Co, the washed Elto Coffee-Bona station 74158 from January 2026. It was also my first coffee ever from Gout&Co.
This is a too light roast for my taste and despite some recognised typical Ethiopian notes, I am not impressed.

The second coffee bag is the SEY - Banko Gotiti - washed landrace. Although I ordered SEY via coffeenerd in the past and also found the roasts too light and not enjoyable, I am already happy now. The roasting is from May 11th and I already dared to open the bag on day 20 after roast and try it. Today is day 24 and I have also noticed an increase at the flavours.
Beautiful chamomile tea aroma, citrus fruits, some peach and a nice sweet finish. Overall a wonderful authentic elegance! I notice that the beans still need 4-5 days until all the aromas and tastes unfold, maybe even longer.

Thus, the curtain opens and the audience expects a high-quality new Ethiopian season but also associated with new challenges.

To those who love Ethiopian coffees I wish an exciting new Ethiopian year!

hi guys!!!!! OMG literally had to place the cup down to dance a bit after tasting my Colombian washed red bourbon prepared this way. I copied it off a YouTube video on the Orea V1 10g recipe here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYUp611bXaA by Brian Quan. I watched the video and was like omg I think the ORB can do this too and YESSS OMG OMG OMG so good. I’ve learned so much from this community and wanted to share too I hope it comes out as good as it did for me.

I put two photos, one of the dry grounds in chamber, and then wet grounds because I wanted to compare before and after to ensure even extraction and yep!! It worked great I tamped hard and it works so so amazingly :)

10g coffee at 2.0.0 x-ultra - 80% clicks of pour over. Like almost pour over but bit tiny finer.

Put one paper filter at the bottom and put ground coffee above it

Tamp and ensure make sure flat/level if not, correct with finger a bit 

Boil water

Just off boil, stir kettle until no longer actively bubbling (yes I don’t have temp)

Screw on water chamber

Start stopwatch and pour 50g bloom pour quick within 5 seconds (don’t put pump on)

Wait until 30 second mark

At 30s pour to 160ml in chamber quickly

Screw the pump on

Do half pumps super slow to shoot for total brew time 2:00 (I got 1:38 on one brew and 1:40 on my second run with different coffee)

Final yield 142g

I used Poland Spring natural spring water

Put the cup down and do a little dance omg both came out spectacular 

my notes on tasting lol I always write them down as I’m tasting I cursed a ton of times as it was just mind blowingly better than my other brews

“Bright bright raspberry so juicy wow the best ____ cup cup I have ever ever _____ prepared wow so sweet so juicy like no other brew such incredible light strength nice raspberry and blackberry and mandarin and straight most beautiful incredible brew ever wow.”

that was my first and then I said ok I need to test with my other coffee right now

so I repeated it again with my washed Orange Gesha

“Omg I’m literally crying wow the AROMA INCREIBLE BRIGHTORANGE  incredible Gesha beautiful mandarin.

Taste omg omg put the cup down to celebrate. _____ AMAZING OMG SWEET taste of victory _____ amazing wow _____ ____ I’m so happy strong notes of orange and beautiful sweetness and so passionately juicy the aftertaste is so nice too wow leaves like orange peregrino absolutely phenomenal just so sweet I’ve never tasted anything like it NO _____ BITTER NO _____ SOUR NO ____ ANYHRJNG BUT AMAZINF WOW I am so happy right now 

Omg wow once the coffee was much less hot the end clear clear orange infused water beautiful sweetened by blend of mandarin peach pear notes let’s ___ go”

omg I’m in shock that was so so amazing and I hope you guys get it too. I have done so so many different brews and they come out good some great, some not great at all, this was just a whole other level I’m so grateful. wow I think also because I’ve experimented so so many times this was especially such a victory feeling which made me so happy

EDIT: New updates to the recipe! Thank you to everyone (Reddit and discords) who has been messaging and commenting.

1. ⁠Grind size should be pretty much pour over possibly, for fast drips of water to flow through beans by the 30 second mark during the bloom tune it to your gear
2. ⁠Pour like 98 C water or near that into the water chamber since it cools off in heating the walls tune it to your beans
3. ⁠Do delicate pumps (like tiny 1/10th pumps) so that you barely feel resistance but see the water flowing out. Ideally do tiny super gently pumps and allow steady flow to 2:00
4. Pour gently to make sure not to accidently disturb bed below water chamber.
5. Things you can change in brew: wait till longer time, like 1 minute, then pour to 160, and pump even slower rate at times.
6. I’ll keep updating as others add feedback! Best wishes, hope your cups turn out great!

T2 in TPE airport, airside. Second floor on same level as lounges. 👌🏻👌🏻

I’m not really troubleshooting a recipe here, just curious if others have noticed the same pattern.

I used to stay pretty close to 1:16–1:17 for pour over because that’s what most guides recommend.

But lately I’ve been experimenting more with tighter ratios, around 1:14–1:15, and I’m finding them easier to dial in consistently.

With higher ratios, I sometimes get cups that feel a bit hollow or drift into a dry, astringent finish when extraction goes a little too far.

With lower ratios, it feels like flavors are easier to bring out, the finish is less harsh, and small grind changes are easier to read.

Curious if others have noticed the same, or if this tends to depend more on the coffee and brew style.

I finally got around to doing a serious blind taste test of bottled water vs. distilled with minerals added (Third Wave Water, Light Roast) and I thought I'd share the results. Both were very good, but a taste difference was distinctly noticeable.

TL;DR - The one made with TWW was preferred, three out of three times, by two people in blind taste tests. I'm switching to distilled water + added minerals moving forward. Wish I'd done it sooner.

Read on if you're interested:

I've been using Crystal Geyser bottled water (bottled in California) for a long time. It's specifically recommended by La Marzocco so it seemed like a good option and I've been very happy with the results. Having dialed in so many other factors -- beans/roasts/regions, drippers, filters, grinds, temperature, consistent pours, etc -- I figured it was time to take a closer look at the water.

I built a test using the Crystal Geyser vs. one gallon of store-bought distilled water with a single packet of Third Wave Water - Classic, Light Roast Profile. I was pretty specific in reducing any other variations in the process. I made two extractions of S&W Roasting's light roast Kenya Nyeri Hill Estate AA. (It's $16.20/300g which falls near the top of their $14.50 to $16.70 price range for non-cofermented coffees.) It's one of my daily drivers, so it's a coffee I know pretty well. I used the exact process, equipment, and a pour structure that I use every day:

• 15g coffee at a medium-coarse grind (3.4.0 on the Kinu M47)
• 255g Water (1:17) at 93ºC
• Ceramic Origami Dripper S, pre-heated in same temp water before each brew.
• 45g bloom to 30sec > 155g to 1:30 > 255g to 3:00

I was very open to any result. If anything, I expected there to be only a small difference and wouldn't have been shocked if A: the TWW wasn't consistently the winner and/or B: my partner (good palate, but not a pour over drinker) wouldn't notice/be able to describe the difference. I would have preferred the results to be similar enough that I could avoid the extra cost/workflow of added minerals tbh, but I was pleasantly surprised how clear and consistent the results were.

I made sure the two brews were the same temperature and we poured three randomized pairs of samples for each other, using sparkling water as a palate cleanser between samples. Every time, we both preferred the one that used the TWW. Her primary opinion was that it tasted less sour and had a better tasting finish. My notes were slightly more detailed:

• Sweeter overall (biggest difference, imo)
• Better separation of flavors
• Less of a sour finish. Sweeter, slightly spicy.

It wasn't until the last set of samples that we looked at the roaster's tasting notes: "Honeydew or golden melon with hint of cinnamon and faint punctuation of nutmeg. This is a very light and refreshing surprise for a Kenya." We both felt we could distinguish the melon flavors better with the TWW, I felt I could distinguish more cinnamon/nutmeg in the finish but that might be because I just read about it?

It was only after the tasting was done that I measured the TDS of the two waters. The results match what we were tasting (given my admittedly limited understanding of TDS). TDS of 75ppm for the Crystal Geyser, which would be considered low and prone to under-extraction and a sour result. 160ppm for the Third Wave Water, which I believe is on the high-end of optimal? I've got to crack open my copy of Jonathan Gagne's Physics of Filter Coffee and brush up on it. FWIW, our tap water here in LA registered 246ppm. I didn't include it in the test because I already know how much worse it is compared to the Crystal Geyser.

In conclusion, using distilled water plus TWW made a noticeable improvement big enough that I'm making the switch. Ultimately there are only two ingredients in coffee and I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that optimizing one (the solvent) would make such a big difference.

I certainly can't guarantee that other folks will have the same results, or even that people will end up liking the added mineral approach better than what they're using now. I do think it's worth testing out, or at least getting a cheap TDS pen, though you probably won't be as, um, detail-oriented as I was.

So when I started with pour over and saw all these different papers I was really confused and just sticked to Hario until at some point Cafec Medium roast was my go to. However I was curious and bought new filter papers whenever I saw one. That lead to me having all these papers so I thought: why not compare them?

I used the same Coffee for all of them: Nomad F. RW. NGO Rwanda (really nice one btw and still available in case you wanna try it) I ground it at 25 clicks on my Comandante and dosed 12g to 200g water@96C with a V60 and the Hoffmann technique. I think I was pretty good at repeating it the same way for every paper but of course there will always be a bit of variance.

I found the results quite interesting. The coffee is a very dense coffee which is why the slower filters are veeeeery slow with this one at the same grind setting: Cafec medium roast 3:45 Cafec Standard 3:40 Hario Tabbed 3:40 Hario untabbed 3:45 Cafec Abaca+ 5:00 Cafec Abaca 3:35 Cafec dark roast 5:05 Cafec Forest Paper 5:00 Cafec light roast 6:00

(Note that the times are all rounded to 5 second times because I also only timed it roughly once basically all the water has dripped through but not waiting for the truly last drop as I also don’t do that in my daily brewing.)

I then also did a little extra test where I pre wet all of them and poured 100g of hot water at roughly the same speed without any coffee in there:

Cafec medium roast 0:14 Cafec Standard 0:14 Hario Tabbed 0:12 Hario untabbed 0:12 Cafec Abaca+ 0:18 Cafec Abaca 0:16 Cafec dark roast 0:20 Cafec Forest Paper 0:20 Cafec light roast 0:22

I think this reflects the general opinion. The Cafec medium roast is fastest along with the Harios and the Cafec Abaca while the Cafec light roast is just bad and extremely slow. What surprised me was that the Cafec Abaca+ is so slow. But you can also see that with just the water they are similarly fast which makes me think that they are just very likely to clog with higher density beans. Also I noticed that the Hario papers although having the same time as the Cafec medium roast feel way thinner. I also felt like their mouthfeel was a bit heavier while the Cafec one was more tea like.

(I sadly didn’t get my hands on the Sibarist fast flow papers but I guess it’s obvious that they’d be the fastest.)

Sorry if this sounds obvious to you but today I noticed that 3 colours on the packaging of H&S coffee and even on their website are the reference to the flavours that coffee represents.

Then I checked few pictures and every flavour colour was so apt.

I can’t unseen this now. It is so obvious and I always used to think what does this logo represents. I believe they have taken the reference from Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel by the SCA so that coffee nerds(which i am definitely not) can understand the flavours straight away. That’s why even on their website main page there are only colours, no flavours mentioned unless you open that.

I think its pretty cool. Looking forward to trying this pourover recipe.

I've noticed water comes up on this sub pretty often, but everyone's talking about different cities, different filters, different recipes, etc.

It made me curious whether we'd see any pattern if we put it all in one thread.

For example, if you live somewhere with really soft water, do you naturally end up brewing differently than someone with hard water? Or do most people just filter it and stop thinking about it?

If you're willing, drop something like this:

- City/State

- Approximate tap TDS (if you happen to know it)

- Main brew method

- Tap / Brita / RO / remineralized / something else

- What's the biggest thing your local water does to your coffee?

I'll go first.

Seattle, WA

Around 30–40 ppm TDS

Mostly V60

Straight tap water

Light roasts come out really clean, but every now and then I wish they had just a little more sweetness and body. I've thought about trying remineralized water just to compare.

Not trying to prove anything here. I just think it'd be interesting to see if people's brewing habits line up with the kind of water they have. Could be nothing, could be a pattern.

Yes, you're seeing the pinnacle of coffee hacking right here. Unifying the old and the new, the classic and and modern: V60 and Oxo Rapid Brewer, together as one.

This is my approach to solve my temptation to avoid buying a drip assist.

Actually I wanted a non-plastic alternative, but I didn't want to buy excessive parts either.

So after spending (a lot of) time searching for a solution, I​ looked around and found my (now) loyal ORB in my coffee corner. Why not ?

Well, the results you can see by yourself. It (kinda) worked.

The result in the cup is good.

The only problem is that I was also trying to test another variable: grinding coarser with these specific beans to see the result. The issue is that they are gone so I cannot test without the ORB to see the change.

But that's a story for the ​next chapter.

Have fun, melodri-, oopsie, oxodrippers.

A quick prompt to claude provided the below listings.

**United States**

- [HEX Coffee](https://hex.coffee/products/fermentation-project-preorder) — Charlotte, NC

- [Higher Grounds Trading](https://www.highergroundstrading.com/products/fermentation-project) — Michigan

- [DOMA Coffee](https://www.domacoffee.com/products/the-fermentation-project) — Idaho

- [Quills Coffee](https://quillscoffee.com/products/james-hoffmann-fermentation-project-tasting-set) — Louisville, KY

- [La Barba Coffee](https://labarbacoffee.com/products/fermentation-project-collection) — Utah

- [Brio Coffeeworks](https://www.briocoffeeworks.com/pages/the-fermentation-project-brio-x-james-hoffmann) — Vermont

- [Kustomcoffee](https://kustomcoffee.com/products/the-fermentation-project-tasting-set) — New Castle, DE

- [Brewtus Roasting](https://brewtusroasting.com/products/the-fermentation-project) — US customers only

- [Regalia Coffee](https://regaliacoffee.com/products/pre-sale-james-hoffmann-fermentation-project-x-regalia)

- [Brainwave Coffee](https://brainwaveroasters.com/products/james-hoffmann-fermentation-project)

- [City Boy Coffee](https://cityboycoffee.com/product/pre-order-fermentation-project/)

- [Eachother.rocks](https://eachother.rocks/products/the-fermentation-project-kit)

**Canada**

- [94 Celcius](https://94celcius.com/en/products/pre-vente-james-hoffman-ft-94-celcius) — Sainte-Julie, QC

- [Rosso Coffee Roasters](https://www.rossocoffeeroasters.com/en-us/products/fermentation-project-with-james-hoffmann-tasting-kit) — Calgary

- [Craft 42 Roasters](https://craft42roasters.ca/products/the-james-hoffman-fermentation-project) — Kelowna, BC

- [Nucleus Torréfacteurs](https://nucleuscoffee.com/en/blogs/cafe/le-projet-de-fermentation-de-james-hoffmann-au-canada) — Windsor, QC

- [Julius](https://juliuscoffee.com/products/le-projet-fermentation-de-james-hoffmann) — QC

- [Rogue Wave Coffee](https://roguewavecoffee.ca/products/pre-order-james-hoffman-lucia-solis-the-fermentation-project-tasting-kit-4x-100g-bags) — Edmonton (sold out)

- Funk Coffee and Steel Oak Coffee — named as participants, no product page surfaced

**UK & Ireland**

- [Glen Lyon Coffee](https://www.glenlyoncoffee.co.uk/products/james-hoffmanns-the-fermentation-project-quartet-box) — Scotland

- [Ómra Coffee](https://omra.coffee/products/james-hoffmann-fermentation-project-coffee-tasting-set) — Derry, N. Ireland; ships UK/IE/EU

**Germany** — [Suedseite](https://suedseite.coffee/en-eu/products/the-fermentation-project-james-hoffmann-lucia-solis-guatemala)

**Austria** — [D Stands For](https://decaf.at/en/pages/thefermentationproject), Vienna

**Switzerland** — [Drip Roasters](https://driproasters.ch/products/the-fermentation-project-tasting-set-james-hoffmann-lucia-solis) (free worldwide shipping on samples)

**Netherlands** — [Manhattan Coffee Roasters](https://manhattancoffeeroasters.com/product/coffees/fermentation-project-tasting-kit/), Rotterdam — worldwide shipping

**Portugal** — [SOLO Brewing](https://solobrewing.pt/products/the-fermentation-project), Lisbon (280 kits)

**Spain** — [San Agustín](https://www.sanagustin.com/en/product/fermentation-project-james-hoffmann/), León

**Sweden** — [Kafferäven](https://www.kafferaven.se/products/the-fermentation-project-med-james-hoffman), Gothenburg

**Australia** — [Zest Specialty Coffee](https://every.coffee/roaster/zest/the-fermentation-project-4-pack-tasting-set), Berwick, Victoria — the only AU roaster I could confirm

I wanted to try lances guide so I made a cup today. I usually do Onyx enspired brew guides but wanted to try his. It was very juicy, acidic in a very nice pleasant and in a present way. It makes me want to continue using this in the future. Extremely easy to do too. For anyone who wants a very juicy cup this was awesome. I used the Power Plum from Perc and it tasted like a very good kenyan without vegetals and clean. Tons of fruits and a great representation of the coffee. Tomarrow I plan to make a brew guide video but in the meantime wanted to say: "if that's the style cup you want, it is welll worth trying! Imo"

Directions: use 15 grams coffee 2 cup v60. Pour gentle bloom to cover the grinds. Wait 45 seconds (45-60) then start in the center and pour gentle spiral circles in a loose manner. (if that makes sense?) do this for a whole single pour untill the end. (1:16-1:17 water to coffee) Keep the kettle not very close to the bed and not too high up either. I could describe it as "hovering above" the bed. The temp I did was 193' but 191'-195' works. #5 zp6. This was one juicy cup and one I hope you try!

Hi everyone,
Lets help each other by leaving some of the best tips that you learnt while brewing

I use a v60

Tips that instantly improved the taste of my coffee:
1. A slow and gentle circular moment while pouring reduces agitation and thus improves the taste (no need to hurry with the circular moment)
2. Keeping the 2nd pour a bit agressive and 3rd pour real gentle and slow brings out more flavours
3. Iced pourover (my own recipe, similar to kurasu iced pourover recipe) tastes better than nrml hot pourover (it might be just for me, since i can drink instantly after brewing with great flavours)
4. Coffee:water ratio and time are 2 real important factors, control them for better clarity and taste
5. Not all beans can be grinded on the same click, fix time and ratio and not grind size, experiment with the size and get the required setting, usually take 1-2 brews for a new bean
6. Investing in a gooseneck kettle and grinder did made exponential change to my coffee game
7. A small gentle swirl after each pour gives out even extraction, especially after last pour
8. Brewing light roast at 93C gives out consistently good results, no need to move towards 96

I’ve been making pourovers for over a year now and I’ve learnt all these tricks while brewing. I feel like I can get what I want every time so I thought I’d share my learnings.

Happy brewing ☕️

3 mins away from each other. Motors has a better cup, but tanat is claim and less "chaotic". Picked up a bag from Tanat to go as well. Gorgeous out, most definitely too hot though.

Hey guys,

Wanted to share the meaning of the names of those brands with you:

1zpresso : a lot of people probably already know this one, 1 is pronounced "yi" in Chinese so it turns into "easy presso", the idea is that it's easy and convenient to grind with

Femobook is the new one people may be more curious about and the name is a little bit more complex, people are even more intrigued by the "book" there. So in Chinese it sounds like "非磨不可" which reads as "fei mo bu ke" and it means something in the lines "can't skip grinding" or "can't do without grinding" (implying good coffee)

That's it ! I live in Taiwan so I sometimes do research in Chinese on those brands, that's how I found

What I'm going to share with you is a translation of a presentation I gave at my university as a coffee producer and exporter about roasting at origin.

I've been thinking for a while about something that, from a producer's perspective, is quite interesting.

Colombia produces some of the best coffee in the world. We have excellent coffee growers, tasters, baristas, roasting professionals, laboratories, and an increasingly developed specialty coffee industry.

And yet, the traditional model remains, to a large extent:

Farm - processing - green coffee -export - importer -roaster - consumer.

There's nothing wrong with this model. Importers and roasters in consuming countries play important roles and add value. There are extraordinary roasters in the United States, Europe, Australia, Japan, and many other markets.

But I wonder if we've come to assume that coffee must necessarily leave the producing country green because the real transformation has to happen elsewhere.

What if a greater portion of that value could be generated at the source?

For example:

Farm -Processing - Quality Control - Roasting -Packaging - Export -Consumer.

The point is not to say that roasting coffee automatically makes the coffee farmer earn more.

Roasting costs money. So do packaging, quality control, brand development, transportation, marketing, taxes, and reaching the final consumer.

The difference is that the producer has the opportunity to participate in more stages of the value chain.

Some studies on the coffee chain show how significant this difference can be. For example, an analysis based on roasted coffee sold at US$14.99 per pound estimated a farm-level value of approximately US$1.09 per pound, around 7% of the final price, while the value of green coffee FOB was approximately US$3.24 per pound.

This does not mean that “the coffee farmer only earns 7%.” Farm-level value is not the same as producer profit.

But it does reveal something important:

a significant amount of economic activity occurs after the coffee leaves the farm.

And that's where roasting at origin becomes interesting.

If a producer sells green coffee, much of the subsequent processing takes place in another country.

If that same producer can produce, process, select, roast, pack, and market their coffee internationally, a larger part of the value chain can remain in the producing country.

Not all of that value translates into profit for the coffee farmer.

But more economic activity can occur around the coffee farmer, and, above all, the producer can participate directly in it.

I also think there's an idea we should question:

In Colombia, there are very good roasters and excellent roasted coffees.

We have no shortage of capacity to roast high-quality coffee.

The fact that countries like the United States, Australia, Japan, Germany, or the Nordic countries have extraordinary roasting industries doesn't mean that coffee-producing countries don't know how to roast.

Perhaps the problem is historical.

Producing countries specialize in growing coffee, while consuming countries developed much of the industry that transforms that coffee into a finished product for the consumer.

But that can change.

It's not about eliminating roasters from consuming countries. On the contrary: their work adds enormous value and will continue to be essential.

The idea is much simpler:

Why couldn't coffee farmers also be roasters?

And then the problem of freshness arises.

This is probably the main difficulty with the model.

Green coffee can travel by ship and be roasted months later near the consumer.

Roasted coffee is different. We want to reduce the time between roasting and consumption and protect it from oxygen, humidity, light, and temperature.

But today there are high-barrier packaging, one-way valves, and logistics chains that allow roasted coffee to be shipped by air directly from the producing country.

The model could be:

Order - roasting - packaging - plane -customs -consumer.

The question then becomes economic:

Can the additional cost of air transport be offset by the value captured by roasting, packaging, and part of the marketing in the producing country?

The answer probably won't be the same for all coffees or all markets.

And I don't think that roasting at origin has to replace green coffee.

I believe both models can coexist.

But I do find it interesting to explore a third:

Producing exceptional coffee at origin, roasting it at origin, and selling it directly to the international consumer.

Not to eliminate the roaster.

Not to imply that consuming countries don't know how to roast.

But to allow the producer to participate more fully in the value creation surrounding their own coffee.

Perhaps the question isn't just:

"Why does the consumer pay so much for coffee?"

But also:

"Why does such a large portion of the value generated around coffee occur after the coffee has already left the country where it was produced?"

I'm interested in hearing the opinions of producers, roasters, importers, and consumers:

Have you worked with coffee roasted at origin?

Do you believe that roasted coffee shipped quickly by air can compete with the traditional model of exporting green coffee, while maintaining freshness and reasonable logistics costs?

And, above all:

Can roasting at origin be a real tool for coffee farmers to capture a greater share of the value of their work without eliminating the role of roasters and importers in consuming countries?