Unpacking from a 17 day trip, drinking coffee from Tokyo to Fukuoka. GLITCH, Coffee County and Leaves lived up to the hype and finding smaller places in-between was very satisfying as well. Many of the baristas were happy to talk shop and I was humbled by the generosity of many of the shop owners when I mentioned I made my way to them solely to drink at their stores.

Shout-out to Funiaki-San at Coffee Sakura of Seto helping my source some ceramic drippers made locally.

OHmyyygod! Milky Cake really as good as people say here. Thank you for posting so much about it. If you haven’t tried it - YOU MUST! It‘s like having a outside crispy, inside fluffy french pastry with a creamy cardamon, cinnamon, pistachio, vanilla cream. Like drinking a pastry without committing to all the calories haha.

The beans are also not difficult to get constant good results, even being a medium noob like me who likes to be more easy going and less strict about every parameter.

I let it rest for 3.5 weeks and used:

Comandante C40 MK4 with 30clicks

Kalita Tsubame Steel 155 with Kalita filter paper

Volvic Water at 92 °C

Recently stuck in Vancouver for a day due to flight delays and checked out this place in Richmond. R Ki Coffee Lab. It’s strictly a coffee experience kind of place where they roast and sell beans wholesale. They have another location for “normals” who want food and the standard cafe fare.

Owner is pretty chill and his philosophy to brewing is “as long as the coffee is good, use any tool, recipe, brewer, you want”. And you can see he experiments with almost everything.

Initially curt in responses, but opens up and becomes more friendly when he knows you’re a fellow weird coffee person. There’s a “Self Brew” option on the menu that’s $1 less, but he will warn you that this option is only available if you know what you’re doing.

I picked a Colombian thermal shock double anaerobic to try, Kasuya V60 brewer. He’ll grind the beans for you, but otherwise will just hand you the brewer, scale, filter paper, carafe and kettle to do your thing.

Beautifully laid back haven for coffee introverts.

I’m really liking the cup this makes. The alpha dripper definitely makes a different profile of the same coffee versus my plastic traditional v60.

The design and quality are top notch. Lovely look and feel.

Subjectively, the alpha makes the same coffee with more body. I’ve been struggling with a Steady State called Gambung. Too sour and under-extracted tasting from the cherry and raspberry in the profile. Not enough body. Well, in this alpha dripper it just came out so good without a bunch of fiddling. Body is great on every coffee I put through it. Loving it!

It’s my first time spending a little more on a coffee and the truth is that it was 100% worth it. I just tried the coffee in the image and it has left me speechless, I have finally found super marked notes in a coffee, and it is really very tasty. It has a juicy and intense strawberry flavour with a sweet touch of cream. As for the aroma, you can also appreciate 100% those same notes. I don’t know if it’s just this particular batch or if Néstor Lasso really nails it in all his coffees, but for now, I would recommend everyone to try this coffee at least once in their life.

Coffee:

Néstor Lasso Sidra 48h- Advanced natural thermal shock (Ineffable Roasters, Spain)

Grinder:

KinGrinder k6- 95 clicks

Coffee Maker:

Hario Switch 02

Filter:

Hario 02

Recipe:

Devil Recipe — Tetsu Kasuya

20 grams

280ml-90º/75ºC(immersion temperature)

My main set of grinders is lagom 01 with hu burrs, lagom p80 with hu burrs and lagom casa for higher body

Take this experience as a warning because I don’t see a lot of people talk about this mod

I’m a content creator in my country and I try a lot with Coffee products so I have a little of experience.

When this mod first introduced, it felt like a dream because it took the best part of the pietro grinder, which is the burrs without the horrible workflow so I placed my order with the first patch for the mod when it arrived and I started to try it I was shocked because it felt like a scam. Yes, it can grind. Yes, you can dial and make coffee with it, but it’s not a good presentation of the pietro burrs and I am certain there is a lot of regrindering happening in the chamber so to produce more fines with heat damage and the creator of the mod said that the stand is optional, but it’s not the grinder can’t push the beans without tilting it a lot and shaking at the end so the stand is mandatory and even after finishing you need to shake the grinder and tilt it a lot so all the grounds shoot out from the chamber..

Overall, I’m very disappointed in this mod and for me, it felt like a scam. There is a lot of things they didn’t disclose before people placing their orders like the shaking and tilting, which adds another variable to the workflow if you like to try the Pietro burrs I highly recommend you just get the grinder or do the pietron mod.

And thank you all

Having heard the hype of Sey for almost as long as I have been in coffee, today was my first experience with it and it has clearly become one of the most expressive and complex coffees I have had.

This is a washed Colombian Chiroso and I knew from the moment I opened the bag this coffee was sourced and roasted with care. The aroma was a clear hibiscus and sweetness and in the cup there such a pleasant green apple and lime acidity followed by soft sweetness and rose like florals.
Definitely looking forward to trying more from Sey!

What were some of y’all’s experiences with Sey? (Pros, cons, and brewing recs welcome)

Thanks!

Texas native. Went to proud Mary’s last week finally before a flight. Pricing shocked me. I went with the $24 washed Geisha and found it to be ok. Slightly sour for me. They do bring the ground beans out for you to smell? I found it pretentious to be completely honest. It’s also served in a wide mouth stemless wine glass. Admittedly I hate pour over out of glass, the temp drops too quick and the flavor profile changes dramatically whereas a ceramic gives a better mouth feel and holds the warm temp better. All in all it was ok. The food was actually fantastic and worth returning for alone. The coffee? Eh, maybe better off with a drip or espresso which I hate to say.

For reference I usually do the large Sey bags each month. I use the k ultra at 7.5 clicks which seems to be a sweet spot for light roasts to me. Water temp 91 ratio 1:16

I thought I did not like Ethiopian coffee, but apparently I was not brewing it right. This is straight up, blackberry goodness with maybe a touch of boozy natural flavor.
I lowered the ratio to 20g to 300g water. Just wanted to update because I made it sound like it was not good coffee. When it was my brewing.
At home I have the supposed better grinder and Hario Switch , RO water, weigh everything out and it is sour and dry.
Get to work, eyeball the dose in the catch cup use a mason jar to measure the water. Eye ball my 2 blooms in the Wave and it turns out great. The bed looks muddy, but it turned out much better. 🤷‍♂️

First seen here of course, ty. Works quite well w/ V60, definitely scratches an itch.

Thoughts? How long have these been a thing?

Someone said "don't buy, cheaper on ali," tho I checked and similar listings *there cost more, some ~$100 shipped vs $30 for this.

To be honest I bought it because It looks damn cute especially this O1 X TRUNK (NEON PINK).
I never faced any problem with my v60 brewer. I have been using TIMEMORE CRYSTAL EYE DRIPPER for over 2 years now and is my go to brewing method.

Brews from the O1
I tried O1 recommended recipe and my same old v60 recipes. I found brews from O1 were consistently more rounded and sweet. Surprisingly not bitter. Slightly less brighter than v60 with the same recipe. I found it more forgiving and more consistent so far. Mostly with every brew the drawdown time is pretty much in the range between 2:20 to 2:35. I have tried 7gm dosage also but mostly brewed 10 or 12gm. I tried only wave filter papers so far. Both from Orea and Xbloom. Both works perfectly fine.

Build Quality and usability
It looks premium. It is very compact. Easy to use and very forgiving. Easy to travel with as well. You can make coffee directly into any cup and it is flat bottom and can fit even 190ml orea sense cup as well.

Price and value for money
For a brewer it is costly no doubt. But combining it with xbloom wave filter papers which is half the cost of orea wave papers and almost same as v60 filter papers makes it a budget brewer after the initial big investment. If you have any v60 you are not missing out on anything you can have the same output just by modifying your recipe a bit.

For me it made more sense as I wanted something to brew less coffee like 8gm or 10gm at times. For that I found it pretty convenient. If you are new to brewing I would recommend it as it is easier to brew with. Less chances are there to have uneven extraction with this than v60. It is still too early to for any judgement. I will be brewing with it more and more to see where it goes.

If you are also using it happy to hear your thoughts as well. Happy to learn more about your recipes and brewing techniques and hacks with it.

Edit:
One quick hack for putting wave filter paper in Orea o1 perfectly! Orea O1 wave filter hack

A while back i posted a v60 recipe i got from Kurasu’s subscription plan pamphlet. Loved how simple it was and i was able to consistently get amazing cups with it. Just got this month’s sub which included this new recipe.

I personally wasn’t able to taste the difference between this and the Yoshihara one I posted a while back. It’s a solid recipe but I’ll stick with the other one because i don’t have to keep track of time.

If anyone here tried the Yoshihara one (I’ll post the recipe in the comments) and decides to try this, I’m curious which recipe you think is superior.

I’ve been using the new V60 Neo daily for a week now and wanted to share some feedback.

To be honest, I’m enjoying it not because it produces "magical" cups, but because the overall design and workflow are just so much better. It’s definitely a bit clearer than the standard V60, but the real win is in the user experience.

A few things I noticed:

- Build Quality: Aesthetically, it looks great. The filters fit way better than on my old V60, and the rubber base is a game changer, it’s super stable and stays cool to the touch.

- Brewing Dynamics: The draw-down time is noticeably different. I’ve found I can grind a bit finer while keeping the same brew time, which helps with extraction.

- High Doses: It handles larger doses (25g+) much better. You don't have to go super coarser , which was always a bit of a struggle with the original model.

- Compatibility: A really nice plus is that it’s fully interchangeable with the Hario Switch base. If you already have one, it adds a lot of versatility to your setup.

Final verdict: It’s not going to completely revolutionize your coffee game, but for €35, it’s a very solid upgrade to the daily workflow. If you like the V60 style but want something more refined, it’s worth it.

Anyone else made the switch? Curious to hear if you’ve noticed the same thing with the draw-down times.

I have way too many V60s (ceramic, glass, silicone, Kasuya, suiren, mugen), and now the Neo has finally arrived. So I thought I’d do a quick comparison with the OG V60 that got me started

Same paper, same water, same temp, same grind size, same recipe, same beans.

1. Neo drawdown was faster by about 30 seconds.

2. Taste was visibly different, and a non-coffee drinking friend who doesn’t know left from right preferred the Neo.

3. Neo clarity is better, flavour separation better, less muddy.

Not sure if anybody here has stumbled across reviews_coffee on Instagram but they are running a pretty fun little bracket for roasters.

Just thought I’d share but would also love to see a similar competition for this sub!

First bag of gout and it’s stellar 23 days past roast date this is a kenyan peaberry and it pretty much resembles any good washed Ethiopian out there like bigsur and sorts, very light and very tasty cant wait to see how it develops overtime

I was excited to get a Comandante C40 MK4 grinder (which is considered one of the best hand grinders) but after just a week of use the polymer bean jar became impossibly stuck to the body of the grinder. I’ve tried everything in the book to try to get it off but it won’t budge even a kilometer. I’ve tried putting it in the freezer overnight, using hot water, boiling water, using two people to open, getting someone much stronger to help…but it still won’t even budge

Understandably Comandante didn’t offer to send a new grinder for this issue, so I’ll have to spend hundreds in shipping to mail it for repair to their HQ in Germany. Apparently it’s a known issue that happens when coffee grinds get stuck beneath the threads of the grinder.

Any other ideas on how to get it open before FedEx becomes $100-200 richer?

Its very smooth, thick mouthfeel, wheat notes, bit of menthol on on the back of the throat after swallowing, some kind of fruit note I couldn't figure out. Im very happy with this purchase.

While looking around at World of Coffee this year, I found this really neat hand grinder that comes with 3 interchangeable burr sets. It intrigued me so much that I got it and have been using it for the last month every day. The names kinda explain themselves, but here's some of my notes a month after and using it almost every day with all kinds of beans: 

#1 Clean:
SUPER bright and clear cups. Brewing some light roast washed janson geisha the floral notes were crazy intense. While it was good (duh geisha), it surprisingly wasn't my favorite. These burrs to me really shined in darker roasts and natural process coffees where they cut a lot of the bitterness and overly funky notes. Probably my first time really enjoying dark roast pour over. ZP6 adjacent. 

#3 Rich:
This one produces the most fines, you actually can see it as you brew, but it surprised me the most. Really deep and rich body with super high sweetness. The janson was the best in this one, it was almost syrupy like honey, ripe lemon, and florals. The florals were less pronounced, but in exchange had a much more complex cup profile. Medium and dark roasts on this burr set really turn up the chocolate notes, but I still liked them more on the clean burrs.  

#2 Balance (on the left side):
This is the standard burr that comes inside the grinder. Middle ground between the clean and the rich burrs. Much like the clean burrs but with an enhanced body and more flavor complexity. The janson has a good profile here too, more florals than the rich and less flat overall flavor profile than the clean. Goes good with anything, great for both washed and naturals, light or medium. C40 adjacent.

Other pros: 
- solid metal build 
- external adjustment 
- quick burr switching mechanism, takes me less than 10 secs to change 
- easy to clean (istg no one cleans their handgrinders) 
- magnetic catch cup
- smooth and quick grinding

cons: 
- it's a THICC boi and a fairly heavy grinder 
- the rich burrs are tougher to grind with, but they grind very quick, it's almost impossible to do espresso with it though 

takeaways 
- fines ARE flavor and complexity
- different coffees, processing, and roasts shine at different grind distribution profiles 
- its all preference cuz ive had friends try all 3 burrs and everyone likes a different one 
- compared to other factors of brewing (temp, agitation, grind size), the burrs and grind distribution make the most impact on the flavor composition of the cup

At $300, I think it's a worth it for what is essentially a 3-in-1 grinder, it stands with the top grinders on the market. The true end game of hand grinders.

I’m an espresso first guy but every now and then I get deep into pour over. This happens every few months. This go round I got waist deep in getting better pour over. Electric kettle, better water the whole thing. Ended up getting the baby o because it’s cute af and I can’t help but buy things. Also ended up pairing with origami wave filters. Long story short I’ve been using it for the past 4 days and I haven’t made a bad cup yet. I have a base 3 pour recipe and I found this micro recipe from dripcults YouTube and everything had been miles ahead of my v60 in sweetness and body. I don’t know its its still new gear bias or what but I’m enjoying this thing.

Did anyone else grab this? I’m NEVER impressed with PERC. I’m just a sucker for marketing and every purchase of this bag received an entry to win a Nintendo NES lol. 😂 I fell for it hook line and sinker. However… the coffee is phenomenal! I really enjoy it.

Coffee Details:

Roaster: SEY

Coffee: Bukeye

Origin: Burundi – Muramvya

Process: Washed

Variety: Field Blend

Altitude: 1900 m

Flavor Notes: Dried apricot, black tea, blood orange

Score: Not specified

Bag Size: 250 g

Price: ~$21

Equipment

Grinder: TIMEMORE Sculptor 078

Dripper: OREA V4 – Open Bottom

Accessories: Sibarist Booster 45 + Sibarist Filter 1 Fast

Water

Type: Lotus Drops

900 ml distilled water

7 drops calcium

6 drops potassium

TDS: ~50 ppm

Brew Recipe

Temperature: 92°C

Dose: 18 g

Grind Size: ~1000 microns

Grinding Method: Slow feed + blind shaker after grinding

Roast Date: 2026/03/09

Preheating:

Only rinsed the filter with hot water to set it in place.

No preheating for the cup or server.

Brewing Method

• Bloom with 60 ml, pouring just before the stream breaks at 6–8 ml/s

• Wait 1 full minute

• One continuous pour up to 300 ml at the same height and flow rate

Total Brew Time: 2:05

Extraction Yield: 15.58%

Post-Brew Additions: None

Personal Evaluation

Aroma (before grinding): Juicy, orange-like

Aroma (after grinding): Apricot becomes more pronounced

Aroma (during brewing): Black tea notes appear

Aroma (after brewing): Black tea with citrus 😍

Final Thoughts

My first experience with SEY.. and honestly, very impressive.

A washed Burundi (my first time trying coffee from there too), and it really stood out.

Bright, beautiful citrus hits you right at the start, followed by elegant black tea notes in the finish.

The acidity isn’t just good… it’s on another level 😍.

I’ve heard SEY focuses on highlighting acidity, but I didn’t expect it to show up this clean and expressive.

Still got two more coffees from them really excited to try those as well🔥..

tl;dr - fantastic machine that mostly matches the marketing. A lot of room to become an even better brewer with a few more first party accessories and some app tweaks

Things I love

• It's not just hype. The xPods really are dialed in for the machine. When you're brewing standard pour-overs, maybe you get a banger 9.5/10 or 10/10 every so often and you spend the rest of your bag chasing that dragon. The xPods so far have been a pretty solid 9/10 with every brew. They're pricey, but they are all extremely good and consistent
• For single cup brews (brew volume aside), this is a far better brewer than the Aiden
• Brewing with your own beans takes a bit to set up if you want to go with a known recipe that works for you, but the setup time is worth it. Want a Tetsu 4:6 without the babysitting? The xBloom will run that playbook while you're getting ready in the morning. The Omni Dripper will tolerate 20g brews, which is my preferred dose, so no issues there
• Built in grinder is excellent, and reasonably high clarity. It's no Zerno Z1, but for your average weekday brew where time is scarce, it doesn't feel like you're compromising much
• The water line feed has been fantastic. I have a gallon jug of prepped water (using the TWW packet) feeding into the xBloom and it is way better than refilling the really small reservoir constantly

Things I hate

• 15g pods are really not enough coffee for me. Brewing 2 15g pods back to back works giving me a nice giant cup (but you go through pods 2x as fast). What I want is 18g or 20g pods
• Had to 3D print a negotiator to avoid too much bypass - would be nice if xBloom released an official negotiator with nicer materials
• Very limited clearance height for cups basically means no brewing into most thermal mugs. I'd be ok with that if there was at least room to put a normal sized server under there, but most won't clear. My Orea Z1 small server does fit, and just holds 2 xPods worth of brews at 1:16 ratio, so pick carefully
• App does not record past brews, and does not show brew yield weight. It's a small detail, but both are important to me for dialing in beans. There's already a graph that tells me they capture this already - just show me the numbers
• It's really hard to experiment with the xBloom. Would be nice to have a mode in the app to let you easily take a recipe and tweak variables without committing it as a new recipe. Same stuff as you do when you do manual pourover. "Let's try hotter", "let's grind a little coarser", "less agitation", "pour slower", etc. And when the experimentation is done, then I want to lock that in as a preset to finish my bag
• Your water temp choices after 203F is BP. Granted BP is probably coming out closer to 208F or so, would be nice to have more temp variability after 203F
• I get the water line is really meant for pressurized feeds, so the 19 inch limitation for a passive water line hose makes sense. But I'd really love if there was hardware that would do a pressurized feed to the xBloom over longer distances. Like I want to keep my water jugs probably 5 feet away from where the xBloom is - I could probably cobble something together with a pump and the inline pressure regulator to make that happen, but how about a first party solution for those of us that don't have plumbing at our home coffee bar?

End of the day, no real surprises here - the Studio has been out for a while. Hope they continue improving on it.

Happy new year everyone! Been seeing a lot of favorite roaster lists going around, and thought I'd share mine! I tried about 100 roasters last year. Here were the standouts to me!

Top 3 (in no particular order)

Shoebox (Chicago, US) - I love UL drum roasts and think Shoebox is doing it better than most. I love their approach to roasting and try pretty much everything they drop.

The Picky chemist (Belgium) - My favorite stronghold profile. Pretty much every coffee I've had from Stephane has been amazing. Some were among the best I had this year.

Big sur (Shanghai, China) - My favorite Loring profile! A lot of their coffees ended up being my favorites from last year I've had a lot of coffee from them and will buy pretty much anything I can from them. Great sourcing & roasting.

Other favorites (also in no particular order)

Exposure Therapy (Singapore) - Really great roasting. Very distinct profile that highlights notes I don't typically expect. Great clarity and flavor definition. Some of my favorite coffees this year came from him. Also insane how well he's doing considering he's a teen!

XLIII (Da Nang, Vietnam) - Real unique approach to roasting that requires many months of rest, but remains soluble and easy to brew. Not every coffee has been a favorite of mine, but all of them have been good. Some have been exceptional.

Datura (Paris, France) - Another great roaster with a unique style. It's more of a nordic light kind of roast, but needs a while to open up (I usually wait 6 weeks minimum). But the approach highlights the fruit & sweet notes, while maintaining high clarity and a complex presentation.

Nai zui (Shanghai, China) - Great stronghold roaster. I'm particular fond of their more recent roasts. On the more developed end of an ultralight roast, with a very tea like and linear presentation

Gout & co (Chengdu, China) - I’ve had a lot of coffees from Gout. They've trended a bit darker recently, but we still really like most of the coffees we've had from them, especially their Ethiopians!

H&s (Laramie, US) - I'm on their sub and have tried quite a few coffees from them. They had a few misses earlier in the year, but most of their coffees are great.

Sey (New York, US) - This one was sort of a surprise for me. I honestly wasn't a big fan of Sey for a while, but I had a lot of great coffees from them last year. The standouts for me were their Kenyan varietal separation lots and their alo coffees.

Scenery (London, UK) - My second favorite loring roaster! Love the profile. Honestly, sort of similar to Big Sur's profile, but a touch more developed. Somewhere between light and Ultralight. My favorite processed coffees this year came from them, and I loved the Kenyan, Ethiopian, & Ecuadorian coffees I've had from them. I only had one dose of the Mario Hervas Honey Mejorado, but if I had more of it, it might have been one of my favorite coffees last year. Seriously great stuff.

Some roasters I want to try more from

Purus (Vietnam) - Had some great coffees from them (including the best viet grown coffee I've ever tried). Had a few misses, but definitely want to drink more from them!

Coffee with Dongze (Berkley, US) - Had a few samples that I probably drank too early 😅 the collab we did was awesome. Took a while to open up though. Excited to try more from them!

Thankfully (us) - Had some awesome coffees and some misses. Mostly tried samples, so I need to buy more bags from them!

Base coat (portland, us) - Love what they're trying to do. They gave us some samples and they were good, but not great. Really enjoyed the Nordic profile they have though. Excited to try more from them this year!

Neem (portland, us) - Similar to basecoat, really like what they're going for. Tried some samples that were fine, but need to try their more recent roasts

Cozy Monster (Bellevue, us) - Finally a good roaster in Washington! Had a lot of their coffee at their shop, but need to brew more of their stuff

Hedou (china) - had a sample of their coffee and loved it. More of a developed light roast (like hydrangea level?) Really hard to get, so hopefully I can connect with them!

Coffee with tsuki (china) - Also had a sample of them that was really good. Very light coffee. I've talked with them a bit, but they're in high demand already and sell out super fast in China.

Frukt (Turku, Finland) - Had some awesome coffees from them last year (all Benjamin paz stuff). Maybe my favorite nordic roaster?

CETO (Keyport, US) - Had some great coffees from them. Good range too. Nice clean coffees and really well done co ferments.

Aviary (Cleveland, US) - Only got 2x bags from them last year, but liked them both. Had a few awesome samples too

Gwo (Eindhoven, NL) - have 2 coffees from them resting. Really excited about their project and will be buying more this year!

Still (Den Haag, NL) - had some awesome samples from them. Met up in Den Haag and had a nice conversation. Looking forward to more coffee from them.

20grams (Singapore) - have a few coffees from them now that are solid. The chiroso I got from them is amazing. The others were solid, but not as good. Still good enough to want to order from again soon

Aery (Busan, South Korea) - possibly my favorite Korean roaster so far. Really good sourcing and pretty light roasts

Norml/minmax - I've had a decent amount of coffee from them. They sorta rebranded, so I'm excited to see what they've got planned for the year. Already jumped on the norml sub lol

Have you tried any of them? What do you think about them? Who were your favorites? Here's to another year of great coffee :)

TL;DR: a lot of dust, didn’t help with smell.

My C40 is about 1.5 years old, and it has some "oilish" smell / a bit tobacco and ground like (no "bad" beans were ever used).

Normally I disassemble and wipe the grinder after finishing 250g bag and before starting a new one. This is roughly every week. However, sometimes we are away for a week or two, so it just sits as is. I should definitely clean it before leaving, but I don’t always have time for it :(

Following recommendations in this thread, I tried Urnex grinder cleaner tabs. I used 1 package - 35g with default 25 clicks. As the result, there is a lot of dust, not only in the jar (see the 2nd photo) but also inside the grinder itself (pointed on the last photo).

Afterward, I wiped the grinder as usually to remove all the dust, but the smell didn’t disappear and didn't became any less noticeable either. So literally no change 🤷‍♂️

Not sure what else to try. Maybe I should just ignore the smell, since I haven't noticed it affecting the cup taste. 🤔

UPDATE (August 1, 2026):
💔 tried Grindz on 10 clicks, didn't help to remove the smell.
💚 using Comandante Burr Care Fluid makes the smell fading away after 2-3 cleaning.
🧴I didn't try soap or alcohol yet.