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Everyday Beans Podcast - Mostly About Coffee and Other Stuff
It's about coffee, food, life and what other randomness I feel that'll be helpful to the common coffee drinker or to anyone who likes to be entertained by a stranger, briefly.
Everyday Beans Podcast - Mostly About Coffee and Other Stuff
Brewing Life: Coffee as Teacher & Guide
In this episode, I explore the profound connection between coffee brewing and life philosophy, focusing on how having options transforms our relationship with both coffee and daily living. I share my personal journey from being a "coffee slut" who would quickly move from one bag to the next, to someone who now savors and explores each coffee's multiple personalities through different brewing methods and water chemistry combinations. I discuss how having various brewers - from affordable $10-12 options to my favorite $25 "little cute one" - has allowed me to discover that what initially seemed like a grapefruity coffee can transform into something completely different with a darker roast profile and coarser grind settings.
Throughout the episode, I draw parallels between coffee exploration and maintaining excitement in relationships, explaining how options prevent boredom and create opportunities for deeper appreciation. I reflect on my preference for medium to dark roasts and how African coffees pushed to second crack reveal unexpected sweetness and complexity. By the end of this episode, you'll understand how embracing options in coffee brewing can teach valuable lessons about creativity, patience, and finding joy in the present moment, whether you're working with abundant choices or creative constraints.
For good tasty coffee, check us out at: everydaybeans.com
For tips, tricks and still trying to figure it out: https://www.youtube.com/@everyday-beans
[00:00:00] They call me... Let me adjust this lighting. There we go. A little bit more moody, right?
[00:00:53] We're live right now. Today is June 2nd, Monday, 2025. And we're doing pretty good right now. I hope that you're doing pretty good right now.
[00:01:12] You know, I think about topics all the time and something that will hopefully help you. And right now, I got a couple of interesting ones, but this one in particular - what coffee is teaching me about life right now? I was like, okay, here we go again. Somebody's talking about coffee, trying to make it enlightening. But we can do that. This is a coffee podcast, but we are living life, right? We're enjoying life.
[00:02:05] And believe it or not, this coffee right here is one of the reasons why we're talking about this. Whenever I think about something like that, when I ask the question to myself about how I feel about life and coffee and what it's teaching me, I think about options. Options to choose whichever coffee you want to brew.
[00:02:43] A lot of times in life, we have options. Sometimes we take them, sometimes we don't. If we have too many options, sometimes we get overwhelmed. We tend to not do anything or express ourselves or take advantage of the situation. But I think in coffee, at least for me right now, since I have so many brewers, I have options to choose whichever brewer I want in order to express myself and enjoy the coffee for what it is for that time period.
[00:03:50] Not only just in brewers, it's also in water choices. By me mixing different percentages of light roast or medium roast or dark roast or even a low acidic profile in water chemistry, I can drastically change the dynamic of what the water really tastes like. It's pretty cool because it gives me that ability to not get bored so quickly with coffee.
[00:04:28] A lot of times, especially in my younger days, even a year or two ago, I would literally have about 50, 60 grams of a coffee, and I'm good to go. I am ready to go on to the next one - as I coined it, a coffee slut.
[00:04:47] And now I'm able to just sit there and enjoy it and express myself differently and see what different brewers will do to a particular coffee or what combinations I will actually create. I do like that part because it keeps it fresh. It keeps it fun. It's like you're in a relationship, right? And at times, it can get mundane. You have to figure out how to keep it going. You have to figure out how to keep it spicy. You have to figure out different things that you can do within your relationship to keep it exciting.
[00:05:42] That's the same thing with coffee. And I think I like the part that this is life. This is what we're dealing with. And as we deal with that, it gives us that opportunity to truly understand the things that we're trying to do in this whole grand scheme of life.
[00:06:08] This coffee was a little bit more grapefruity up front, but since today I used a dark roast profile - this coffee is truly like a medium to light, but with the variations of the way that I actually roasted this coffee, it brings out more of the acidity that I don't really like for myself. Other people do like it, but it gives me a different look into this coffee, gives me a different perspective, gives me a way to challenge myself.
[00:07:16] I had about 30, 40 grams of actual coffee, and on the EK43, I had it at like a nine - that's relatively coarse. And I'm really loving these coarser grinds to just bring out more flavor and clarity. Now that I ground up a decent amount, I will have to use that coffee for what it is. Or I could just put it in a Mr. Coffee Machine for my wife when I'm not home.
[00:07:42] When we have the options, when we can play and explore, it's almost like that coffee is almost endless. It has so many different characteristics, so many different personalities. Don't get me wrong, that coffee is what it is. You're tasting that coffee for what it is. Are there variations in taste and flavors and consistency? Yes. But the boredom takes a long time to creep in, and by the time it creeps in, I'm ready to move on to the next bag of coffee.
[00:08:26] Having the options, having the way to figure out the coffee - it's not even so much of a conquering type of thing that I used to be really big on. I still like to conquer coffee. I still want to see what this coffee brings to me, and how it talks to me, and how it gives me that opportunity to see what I like about coffee at the present time and day.
[00:08:58] Because our taste buds change. Our likes, our dislikes change. I've told you many times that I'm a medium to dark roast person. I love how sweet coffees can be. I love how when you push an African coffee just to second crack, it gives it a totally different personality. It can be sweet. It can be salty sometimes. It can be something that you never really thought the coffee could be.
[00:09:39] Even now, I've been trying a bunch of these lightly roasted coffees, and they all mostly taste the same to me. I don't know if it's just because my palate has changed. But now that we have the opportunity to try different brewers - I don't think you have to break the bank. Most of the brewers that I have gotten have been $10, $12. The most expensive one is the little cute one, as I call it. It's $25.
[00:10:08] But it gives you that chance to explore and have fun and see the things that you may have thought you've been missing out on. I think that's what life does to us sometimes. It gives us that opportunity, especially when we have the options to pick and choose what we want to do with it. We can really enjoy it for what it is.
[00:11:09] Options is one extreme where we have plenty of choices and ideas, and we're trying to see what we like for that time and moment. In other cases, we can have one brewer, one water chemistry. We probably change it up with temperature, with grind, with technique to bring out the best of that coffee. When you have constraints, it allows you to be creative in what you're trying to do when you're understanding that coffee.
[00:12:13] Options give you the point of view that you're in control, that you can manipulate the coffee and express and enjoy that coffee for what it is as long as possible.
[00:12:18] What do you think about that? Do you think having options is helpful to you? Do you think not having as many choices is helpful for you? I think it's very critical that we analyze and be real with ourselves when it comes to this whole coffee thing. A lot of times we're going to think about how this relates to our workflow in life. Having the options to choose whichever brewer, whichever water chemistry I want to use for one coffee - it's giving me that chance to simply love coffee.
[00:13:10] This is Oki at Everyday Beans. We'll talk later. Bye.