Why Does Coffee Need So Much Help?

I've been brewing coffee for a while now, and if I'm honest, my journey started with something beautifully simple: a brewer, a filter, some coffee, and water. That was it. A simple recipe with a bloom and a couple of pours, and I was making fantastic, great-tasting coffee without any issues. But somewhere along the way, I fell deep into the rabbit hole — and I'll be the first to admit I'm guilty of it too. I've accumulated grinders, scales, boosters, specialty brewers, TDS meters, and gadgets I probably don't even need. In this episode, I sit down and ask a question that's been nagging at me: why does coffee need so much help?

I explore the world of specialty coffee gear — from distribution tools to melodrips, from new UFO drippers to the Hario Neo — and reflect on whether all of this innovation is moving us closer to the coffee or further away from it. I talk about the law of diminishing returns in brewing equipment, the role of consistency in why we chase new tools, and ultimately land on a truth I keep coming back to: coffee just wants to be brewed. It doesn't care if you're using a precision grinder or a simple pour-over filter. It just wants to be enjoyed. By listening to this episode, you'll gain a refreshing, grounded perspective on coffee gear culture and walk away with a clearer understanding of what actually matters when it comes to brewing a great cup of coffee.

Transcript

[0:00]  My journey with coffee started with a brewer, a filter, some coffee, and water. That's it.

[0:22]  I was able to make fantastic, great-tasting coffee — no problems at all. A simple recipe, a couple of pours, a bloom here and there. And that was it.

[0:38]  But now — and I'm guilty of it too — I have all of this.

[0:51]  And I'm sure I'm forgetting something too. Sometimes I ask myself: why does coffee need so much help? What are we really doing here? Is it just a cup of coffee, or is there something more to what we're trying to do?

[1:12]  It's interesting to really think about it. Coffee — especially specialty coffee — has always tried to push the envelope. We try to find things we struggle with, things that make us advance our taste. All of these tools and gadgets aren't just made because someone wanted to make money — though I know that's part of it. They exist because people wanted to make this beverage just a little bit better.

[2:00]  We want to taste clarity a little more. We want to grind finer so we can understand what it's doing to us. That's the reason we have all of this stuff.

[2:41]  And I'm not even close to having all of it — or more importantly, understanding why we would really need all of it.

[2:53]  As I sit here and think about the rabbit hole we put ourselves in — and it's not all of us; quite a few people are still using a simple coffee maker, some coffee, and water — I'm not saying any of this is bad. I'm in the rabbit hole. I see it for what it is.

[3:30]  But it does get you thinking. Why? Why do we need a TDS meter to check the extraction of our coffee? Really think about that — it's kind of wild, right? Or a distribution tool for espresso to decrease channeling. Or a filter booster because the flow rate is too fast.

[4:08]  We want to slow it down, collect everything, and achieve what people call even extraction. Then we can taste what the coffee is actually doing. And truthfully, it does come back to the coffee — it really does.

[4:33]  Coffee isn't exempt from all of this either. We have different processing methods now. We have ways to make coffee taste like bananas even though it never really tasted like bananas. Even just a hint of it — those are some of the things we go through when we're just supposedly drinking coffee.

[5:01]  But as I think about all the stuff we have at our disposal to make a single cup of coffee for ourselves or for others, I just wonder: where does it stop? Where do we really go from here?

[5:24]  Because if we're really honest with ourselves, it should be about the coffee. It should be about the seasonal aspects of that coffee, what different flavors we might taste, and the things we've learned throughout our journey in understanding coffee.

[6:00]  Does this stuff help? It does. Does it get us a couple of degrees closer to where we want to go? Sure. But there is a law of diminishing returns.

[6:13]  Take the booster, for example. We've created a situation where the flow rate is too fast, and now we're trying to dial it back down. There are boosters with varying degrees of restriction — some are very fine, some back off a little — and honestly, a lot of it starts to feel like a marketing pull.

[7:10]  I'll probably never have all of it. And to an extent, while it helps, why can't we just make a cup of coffee and be happy?

[7:26]  I love this device, and I've started using it more often just to understand coffee better — to understand what I'm doing and to replicate the results I'm accustomed to. I think that's where it comes down to: consistency.

[7:53]  Because when you're consistent and you brew a fantastic cup of coffee, you start to wonder about everything you did to make it happen. And then when you try again, it's not the same. You're baffled, wondering what happened and why it didn't repeat itself.

[8:31]  So I think that's part of the reason we want all of this stuff. But then again, you have the melodrip, the little discs you can adjust to bring out different levels of sweetness and acidity — allegedly. Is that really true? At the end of the day, we're all just trying to make coffee a little better. And that's the interesting part about all of this.

[9:09]  As I sit and think — not so much about the state of coffee overall — but where we are right now: there's a new UFO dripper out, kind of like a deeper version of the V60 but faster and steeper. There's the Hario Neo, which supposedly increases clarity and body and all the things people say happen when you drink coffee. I don't know if that's fully true.

[9:58]  I've played around with different brewers, and I've come to realize: coffee just wants to be drunk. It doesn't care if we use Third Wave Water versus tap water. Well, your palate might care — but coffee doesn't. It just wants to be enjoyed. It just wants you to see it for what it is, to see its personality.

[10:39]  Can you push it, massage it, and get the most out of it? Yes. With simple tips, tricks, and knowledge, you can. But the biggest takeaway here is that coffee doesn't care if you're using a basic filter in a kettle and calling it a day. It doesn't care if you're using a precision grinder to extract what you want from it. It does not care. It just wants to be brewed.

[11:27]  It doesn't care about your extraction percentage or how you poured. It just wants you to drink it. And a lot of times, we get carried away with what's new and what's out there to enhance our coffee.

[11:54]  The truth is, coffee really doesn't need that much help. It needs water at a decent temperature. It needs a grinder to grind it to your liking. And it needs you to be present for a little bit of time. That's it.

[12:20]  But I'm still deep in this rabbit hole, trying to understand what's actually needed. Because it would be great to just settle on a recipe — whether you found it or created it yourself — brew a cup, and be happy.

[12:43]  Because that's really what it comes down to. I know all of this has come from frustrations in the industry, at home, in competition settings. We're just trying to get closer to this coffee bean — absolutely amazing, mind-blowing — but then we realize that all of that is subjective.

[13:08]  What if we don't taste the notes we're supposed to taste? What if we realize we don't even like that type of coffee? Maybe we don't reach the point where we realize we don't need all of this stuff.

[13:40]  And when we come back down to reality — to where we actually are with all of this — maybe we can just sit down and enjoy that coffee for what it is. If it's good, great. If it's not, that's fine too. Move on, live another day, enjoy, and express what you love about coffee.

[14:04]  But I still think about it. Do you think about it? With all the stuff that's out there — why does coffee need so much help? Or does it? It shouldn't.

[14:15]  Yes, we've come a long way with technology and advancements. But when precision, when invention, when the drive to improve for improvement's sake becomes the point — are we too far down the rabbit hole?

[14:46]  When does it really stop? Because at the end of the day, I think all of this is just noise. We're not realizing it, but it's noise. Because at the end of the day, it's just about the coffee.

[15:08]  Let's just drink the damn coffee. Talk to you later.