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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
Coffee Reflection: Gear vs Understanding
In this reflective episode, I share my birthday thoughts about what really matters in the coffee journey. I talk about how I've accumulated so much coffee gear and knowledge about brewing techniques, but I realized I've been missing the forest for the trees. I discuss how we often get caught up in the latest grinders, brewers, water recipes, and extraction methods, but forget to truly understand the coffee itself. I use the Hario V60 Switch as an example of how even when trying to talk about coffee fundamentals, we slip into gear talk. I emphasize the importance of knowing which coffee varieties we actually like, understanding why certain flavor profiles resonate with us or turn us off, and learning how to make simple adjustments to bring out the best in each coffee.
By listening to this episode, you'll gain a new perspective on your coffee journey and learn why focusing on understanding the actual coffee—its origins, varieties, roast levels, and flavor profiles—matters more than accumulating equipment. I'll help you think critically about your own coffee preferences and inspire you to develop a deeper, more meaningful relationship with the coffee you brew every day, regardless of which method or equipment you use.
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
[00:00:04] You know, when it comes around my birthday, as you probably go through this too, you start to reflect. You start to think about things that you've done, things that you still want to do.
[00:00:54] You're in this case, buying. And I sat there for a little bit, but I kind of quickly responded to him. Now I don't need anything. I'm really good right now, you know.
[00:01:06] And then I just let it sit for like a couple of days. And then for a week.
[00:01:43] My birthday, you know, spent it right. I was like, wow.
[00:02:13] As of right now, I'm good.
[00:03:02] There is for you. I'm good.
[00:03:32] The biggest thing that I really do need to do or focus on is actual coffee.
[00:03:58] This is kind of weird or some people may say hypocritical when, like I said, you see the board over there and I'm telling you that you're probably good too with what you have.
[00:04:20] What coffee is like, do we truly really know which coffees, which variety, roast, which degree of roast that we actually like.
[00:05:17] Or a minute bloom. But are we forgetting the whole essence of it all?
[00:05:25] At least I am. I know that I am. I know that a lot of times whenever I talk about stuff, it's about the gear.
[00:05:37] Like this technique, this water, this swirling method.
[00:05:43] But sometimes do we really think about the coffee we're brewing?
[00:05:48] Why we're brewing it. What we don't like about it.
[00:05:52] What kind of easy tweaks that we can do in order to bring out the best out of that coffee.
[00:06:01] That's what I'm thinking about right now on my soon to be birthday.
[00:06:07] That's what I'm reflecting on. Really just getting back and deep into the rabbit hole of the coffee, understanding the coffee, different types, why I like them, why I don't, what other people may think that they may like in them. Those are some of the things that I'm thinking about, that I'm contemplating about, that I know that I need to focus on more than anything because that's really where we're at with this.
[00:06:42] Let me show you the thing that I'm talking about that has given me this sense of pause and understanding of coffee. Yes, it's a coffee gear, but I think it kind of goes back to the whole thing that I'm talking about in general.
[00:07:06] Here it is.
[00:07:09] Okay, this is a Hario V60 Switch. This is a coffee brewer. This can be used for a one person brewer or even a two person brewer. It does okay with a big capacity of immersion brew.
[00:08:05] This is the best for that you can buy. First of all, you can get the Hario V60 Switch, but I bring this up because if you were to get this in the beginning of the year, you got different papers, you got the Hario V60 papers, you got the fast filters and all that stuff, and then you can go ahead and get like a fast cone.
[00:08:30] And you can get that. That's all you need. You have all the different variables that you can play around with this. You can even put like a metal filter, cone shape filter on here too if you wanted to.
[00:08:52] This thing is pretty cool, but again, we're talking about the gear. I'm telling you about how cool it is and things that you can assess and accessories you can buy on it to play around with it.
[00:09:07] I'm not talking about the actual coffee.
[00:09:11] And I think that's where we get in trouble with this stuff. And again, I'm not trying to be a Debbie downer, but at least for me, those are some of the things that I think about constantly, things that I try to understand more and more as I go deeper into this rabbit hole. Because truthfully, let's say I bought all the gear. So what? I have it all. My toolbox is full. And now I'm wondering how to use all the tools in there. But if I had a couple tools like I said in the beginning, then I will probably more than likely be fine. I could reach my conquering of that coffee a lot faster. I understand coffee even more. Understand that if I like Geisha or Yellow Bourbon, I know I don't like Geisha as a light roast. I can get to liking them as much as I can as it relates to my taste buds the way that I am right now in present day.
[00:10:39] The things I like, why I like them and all that stuff.
[00:10:44] Then I'll start to think about why do I like fruity but not so acidic coffees? Why I don't like grapefruit rind? Why does that flavor profile annoy me? How can I eliminate it in the brew? Those are the type of journeys that I would like to go on even more so as I keep going down this rabbit hole. This rabbit hole will never end. It will end when we end, right? And I think as long as we're on that journey of figuring out that particular coffee at that present moment, we're going to be in a better place. We're going to be in better light. We are going to be in a place to where we get it. We truly really get coffee, whichever method that we want to use. If we want to do espresso, if we want to do a Mr. Coffee machine coffee, we want to do a Moka pot, percolator. People hate those. I think they're kind of cool. AeroPress brewer. It doesn't matter. We can use any of these gadgets as long as we're one with our coffee. That's the only thing that really matters. And as we do that...
[00:12:11] I think we're going to be happy. That's when it comes down to it. We're just going to be happy majority of the time just trying to understand that coffee. So that's my reflection. Those are the things I'm thinking about. I can't wait to actually make my next cup of coffee. I got a couple of ones that I'm really enjoying right now. New ones, part of the washed series. Those are some of the things that will really kind of just propel me forward and hopefully propel you forward as you go down your journey to understand coffee, not coffee gear. It's part of it, but again, let's, again I'll speak for myself, I'm going to get back to the coffee. I'm going to really try to do that. That's going to be...
[00:13:10] My goal for the next revolution around this earth for myself. I have other goals and all that stuff about clarity and all that stuff. We'll do an update in the next couple of months. But right now it's about being one with the coffee. So let me know what you think. This is just me reflecting on coffee. Since I talk about coffee all the time, I put coffee out there, but sometimes I don't think we talk about it too much. We want to talk about the gear, we want to talk about pushing extractions and flavors and all that stuff, but really what does that mean for you? This is Okey at Everyday Being signing off. I'll talk to you later. Bye.