Just Make a Cup of Coffee Already

In this episode, I get real about something I've been thinking about a lot lately — the growing pile of tools, gadgets, and precision instruments that have slowly crept into my coffee routine. I walk through the contrast between my French press setup, where precision was never the goal, and the rabbit hole that pour-over brewing has sent me down — drip assist devices, melodrip, refractometers, special water, and everything in between. I ask an honest question that I think a lot of coffee enthusiasts avoid: are all these tools actually making your coffee better, or are they just making your routine more complicated?

I draw parallels to AI, manual vs. automatic cars, and my Olympia Cremina espresso machine to explore what it really means to stay connected to the human side of brewing. I've been pulling great cups lately with barely any assistance — and that made me stop and wonder why I keep reaching for more gear. By listening to this episode, you'll gain a fresh perspective on how to evaluate the tools in your coffee setup and why preserving your own sensory involvement might matter more than chasing a two or three percent improvement in your cup.

Transcript

[0:00] With the French press, precision was never the goal. It was just a routine to hopefully drink good coffee. That's all it was with this thing. Still the same.

[0:17] We do our four-minute steep time on the French press, and sometimes we grind a little bit finer. But for the most part, we're not playing that precision game with this device. We just make our cup of coffee — we're in the moment, we drink it, and that's it. That's all we do with the French press.

[0:45] But something about a pour-over device has gotten us going crazy. When I started with the V60 — not decades ago, maybe a decade — it was simple. You get a piece of paper, you fold the edges, you put it in the coffee brewer. Get your coffee, grind it. I wet the paper filter first because that's what we all do — we taste a little bit of the paper filter and we don't like that taste. And then we start our brewing.

[1:30] It's interesting because this whole thing has totally changed. I'm okay with advancements in coffee, but you still wonder — do you really need all of this?

[1:48] Do we need the refractometer? I'm guilty of it too — especially with my refractometer and my roaster, so I can see the actual degree of that coffee. And then we get more into the geeky and technical stuff, and we start to lose sight of the actual tasting of the coffee.

[2:12] That type of routine is embedded in everything we do. Hopefully we stop ourselves and pause to really ask: does this make the coffee better? Is the routine better because of all the things we have?

[2:46] Even if there are people out there telling us to buy this and go about it this way, we're still the ones doing it. We've got precision grinders, we've got little tools to help us get better.

[3:05] Here's a drip assist — fifteen dollars, works well. You put it on top of your V60 and other various pour-over devices. It just rips. It takes you out of the game to an extent. And then we have something more similar but elevated. You would think this device right here will help you make even better coffee — and it does, I'm not going to lie. It probably depends on the coffee, though.

[3:38] After using this for the past couple of weeks, it's kind of crazy thinking about it. This device allows you to go up, down, left, right — make sure you saturate the whole bed. But you're not doing the same thing over and over again. It's probably the least amount of human action involved. I know they have other add-ons where you can make it even more automatic, more like a robot machine.

[4:24] We've got devices like this, we've got special water. And I start to think about all the things that we're doing. I wonder how much of the human aspect we're trying to strip away from coffee. How much are we really trying to bring it in versus take it away? We are actually just trying to make a cup of coffee.

[4:54] Then I start thinking about different parallels — I start thinking about AI. It's big. We use it from time to time — ChatGPT, Claude, whatever it may be. And when you really think about it, why are we using it? Is it a co-pilot? Is it an assistant? Is it something to help us get out of our own way so we can actually get better? I think that's really the whole mechanism of it. Sometimes we go overboard where we're trying to make it do everything for us.

[5:27] Then I start thinking about cars. I drive a manual car — not a lot of people do. I like being in control. I like switching my gears, I like cruising. There are a couple places around town where I know I can drop a gear, rev up the engine, and go around that corner exactly how I want to.

[5:59] You can kind of do that with an automatic too, but there's a difference. An automatic allows you to pay attention a little bit more, stay focused on the road, feel things even more. You're doing the same with a manual, but it strips away a couple of sensory inputs — which hopefully makes you a better driver.

[6:34] And that gets me back to this whole coffee thing. Is using a drip assist a semi-automatic situation where I'm paying more attention to the smell, the process, the observation of how fast the drawdown is? Does it allow me to do that? Sort of — but you can't really see it because the device is blocking it. A simpler setup actually gives you a better shot at that.

[7:01] This thing isn't perfect either. You pour from your gooseneck, it comes down, and when you stop and tilt it, there are still some puddles of water that rush out. I tend to pour and then set it aside and dump it out that way. That's another piece of the pie I'm adding to this whole pursuit of precision and understanding the coffee. But I wonder if I'm really doing that — or if my senses are just going in five directions at once.

[7:36] Then I start to realize — I'm just having fun. It is what it is. Is it better? Does it make the coffee taste better? Yeah, it does. Very subtle, though. And sometimes you don't need it to be that much better. Sometimes you just want to make a cup of coffee and move on with your life.

[8:01] But then I think about other things in coffee. I think about my Olympia Cremina — my manual espresso machine. I gravitate toward things that require more from me than I probably should. But it's a manual machine. It's where I have to put in the work. I have to be 100% concentrated in the whole thing.

[8:27] I didn't go with a semi-automatic or even an automatic espresso machine. I wanted to be involved in the process. I wanted to feel and see how that coffee reacts — because that gives me enough sensory information to know what kind of adjustment I need to make, whether to change a setting or overdose a little. I'm dealing with the products I have, and I have to maximize what I'm doing with them.

[8:54] Even my automatic drip machines aren't 100% automatic — I still have to put the coffee in. But the actual percolation, the dripping, the temperature control — there's no control over that. Sometimes I wonder if I need that. But I think it's great to play around with temperatures, which is why I have this kettle.

[9:22] All the things we think about when we're making coffee — I think it still comes back to: does it feel better? Does the process still work? Are we happy?

[9:30] Because I'm not going to lie — this drip assist is cool. I've had it for about a week or two. The melodrip I've had for over six or seven months. I use it from time to time, but a lot of times I forget about it when I'm going into a recipe or a brewing technique. I wonder how often I'll actually use it. I wonder if it's just going to become a piece I forget about on the shelf. Maybe I'll only use it for lightly roasted coffees.

[10:05] Because here's the thing — I've been using the V60 for the past couple of weeks, really dialing in what I'm doing with this particular device and how it relates to everything else. I've been making some really good cups out of it — sometimes with the drip assist, sometimes without the melodrip. Sometimes following a recipe, sometimes not. And the coffees have been tasting awesome. With barely any assistance.

[10:36] So what are we doing here? Why do we have these tools? Is it because someone online told us we needed them? And after getting them, the coffee improved maybe two or three percent? If it does, then do it. But just be honest with yourself. We are really just trying to get there as much as we can.

[11:05] I'm challenging myself not to strip away the human aspect of all of this. Because we like and love coffee because it makes us feel alive. It makes us feel like this beverage is going to change our moment for that time period — and we'll probably think about it a little longer.

[11:28] Whatever emotions and feelings we have for coffee — let's not lose sight of that. Let's not replace our senses, our drive, and our emotions toward coffee for this gadget or that gadget or whatever else comes out promising you a sweeter, more balanced cup. I'm not saying that's not true. I'm just saying — after a while, you just want to make a damn cup of coffee. So let's do that.

[11:54] Let me know what you think. This is Fedelis and Everyday Beans — talk to you later. Bye.