Maybe You Should Just Follow the Recipe

In this episode, I get honest about something I usually don't talk about: most days, my own coffee brewing is boring and simple. I walk through my actual go-to recipe, a short bloom, one main pour, a pulse or two, and water around 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and I explain why I only start experimenting once a cup stops tasting right. I also unpack why I've spent so much time pushing you to find your own recipe and go deeper into the coffee rabbit hole, and why that advice was never meant to be a requirement.

If you've ever felt behind because you use one simple coffee recipe instead of chasing every brewing tip and ratio online, this episode is for you. I talk about why a recipe that works is enough, why endless tips can turn into noise, and why an automatic drip machine is a perfectly valid way to make great coffee. Whether you are a tinkerer who loves testing every variable or someone who just wants a good cup and to move on with your day, you will walk away with permission to trust what already works for you.

Transcript

[00:00] Maybe you should just follow the recipe. I do, most of the time. Let me explain.

[00:11] Most of the time, when I actually make my coffee, I stick to one or two recipes. I do a thirty-second bloom, sometimes stretching it to a minute depending on the coffee and the roast degree. After that, one pulse, then another pulse or three, and that's it. That's my typical recipe. I keep the water at about 200 degrees Fahrenheit, adjusting for the fact that my kettle lies about its actual temperature. For the most part, the coffee tastes right, so I just keep doing that recipe. Truthfully, I don't really start inventing until it stops working.

[01:15] But this isn't really about me. This is about you. Maybe you have a recipe you love, one you made up yourself or picked up from somebody online who walked you through the intricacies of it, told you they were more of a light roast drinker or whatever the case may be, without giving you many details about who they are or why they do what they do. It doesn't really matter. You've come to the conclusion that this recipe works for you, most of the time or all of the time. I can't tell you to second-guess that just because of what I'm doing. Continue doing the things that are working for you.

[02:27] I've talked about the recipe constantly, actually. My biggest focus right now is breaking down the parts and segments of a recipe to understand flavor and extraction. And I've been telling you that you need to find your own recipe, that you need to go deep into the rabbit hole and figure it out for yourself, which I still think is true to an extent, no matter what you do.

[03:15] But it's kind of snobbery, mine or anyone else's, to tell you to do this, stop that, don't do this, when you're perfectly fine with the recipe you already have. You probably don't want to go deep into the rabbit hole. The coffee, the method, the recipe you're using just works for you. I've never really had that experience myself, depending on the coffee, the situation, my mood. I always felt like I needed to change the recipe because it wasn't working for me. But again, this isn't about me. This is about you and why you do what you do, and what you probably feel when you're hearing people tell you to go harder, go deeper, ask yourself more questions, keep a notebook, look for patterns.

[04:36] I'm here to tell you what you probably already know: you don't need my permission to do anything in your life, let alone with your coffee. If a recipe you've been using for a long time works, use it. Just use it. It's been working out great for you already. That's all you want from coffee, a beverage that's delicious in the moment, so you can get on with the bigger things in your life. It's perfectly okay to want a simple recipe and a simple cup of coffee, whether or not it challenges you. If it makes you happy, that's all that matters.

[05:45] The only time I'll tell you to change your recipe is when it stops working for you. That's when you start inventing, start figuring things out, even if it's a little frustrating. You probably don't need to stray far from your recipe, maybe just adjust the water temperature if that makes sense.

[06:20] A lot of us, even while harping on this recipe or that recipe for this situation, are creatures of habit. We do a couple of different things, especially if they work. Why would we tear away from that? I know I would, just to see if I can push things further, but you are who you are, and that's the most important thing here. If it works, just do that. So don't feel bad if somebody's telling you to follow a specific protocol, a 3-6-1 ratio or whatever it may be, with different approaches for light roast and dark roast.

[07:16] After a while, I hope you realize that's just noise, noise that pulls you off the path you're on, the path you're probably happy with. You and your coffee, that's what matters. So remember, whenever you need pointers or tips, you know exactly where to find them: online, in books, in forums, on Reddit. You can get all the recipes and all the reasons why people do what they do. But at the end of the day, it's about you, your walk with coffee, and what you want to do with it.

[08:15] If you think about it, when you're using an automatic drip machine, the recipe is built in. When I make my wife's coffee in her Mr. Coffee machine, or my own in my Moccamaster, for the most part, after grinding the coffee, the machine is the recipe. And for the most part, it works. Don't get me wrong, I do tinker. I play around with it more than a normal person would, swapping baskets and other things. I've been called out before for turning it into a glorified manual drip machine, basically pour over. That's what I do.

[09:07] I'm a mad scientist with this coffee stuff. I just love it. That's me, and I'm sure there are other people like me, or who geek out about coffee even more. We're probably just in different stages of our lives when it comes to coffee. You might have geeked out before and don't anymore, and you're just as happy as can be.

[09:51] That's really where it matters most, your walk with coffee and the guiding light of what you actually care about. You probably care more about the beans themselves than the gadgets and accessories I keep telling you I care about, and then here I go, buying another brewer, buying another grinder. I'm not going to lie, I'll say it a couple of times: I'm kind of envious of you.

[10:23] Because you can just have your recipe, and for the most part, it works, all the time or most of the time. You're not second-guessing yourself, not blaming the coffee, not blaming yourself either way. It just works. Sometimes I wish I was there. I wish I wasn't the one tinkering with coffee constantly. I wish I could just make a cup and move on instead of psychoanalyzing all of it. So yeah, I'm jealous. I really am.

[11:24] But thinking about it, this brings me back to other things in life. Take music. I don't know how to play any instruments. I just listen to what I like without asking myself why I like it, and I move on. Cooking is similar. I can see how cooking is just something people do, especially when they follow a recipe to the letter, making sure not to mess it up because an expert told them this is the way it works for their situation.

[12:16] That's coffee for a lot of people, for the majority of folks out there. Maybe not so much in the specialty game, where we tend to want to do more than we need to. But there are people, in specialty coffee or outside of it, who just use one or two recipes.

[12:43] So if you've felt a certain way about your coffee because of people telling you to go deeper into the rabbit hole, I'm sorry, at least on my part. I'm sorry if you felt like you needed to do more, express yourself more, or try this particular part of the recipe, this blue method here and there. Whatever it may be, you don't have to do anything. If you're happy with your coffee, your ratios, and the gadgets you have, if you're happy with the direction your coffee is going, stay there. Be happy. That's all that matters.

[13:40] So, what type of coffee drinker are you? Do you tinker? Do you play? Do you wonder about every variable out there? I know how crippling that sounds, but I still love it. That's just me, and I'm sure there are others like me. Or are you the person who just makes a cup of coffee and moves on? Tell me more. Explain to me why you're like that, why that one recipe just works for you across most of your coffees. I want to understand your logic and reasoning. Maybe I'll get there eventually, maybe not, but it's your journey. I'll talk to you later. Bye.