2 posts tagged with "Primer"

It should be mildly unsettling that by 2026 we still don't agree upon the color of coffee, or at least, the color of roast coffee.

Coffee beans go through as extensive a process as any food on the planet when it comes to translating what grows on the tree to what brews in your cup. They transform from a red ripe cherry to a little green bean to a roasted, lovely chocolatey (or cinnamon, or greasy black) bean that you then grind up and brew with.

The problem is in the roasting part. We all agree that you start with a coffee bean (technically a seed) that's green. We agree that in the beginning parts of the roast, as moisture is driven out of the bean and its amino acids and sugars start browning in what's called the Maillard reaction, the coffee bean starts to turn yellow.

After that, pandemonium.

Water for coffee at scale is expensive and complicated, but it is not a mystery.

The basic sequence is:

1. Protect the treatment equipment.
2. Remove the stuff in your source water you don't want.
3. Make a clean blank slate.
4. Add back exactly what you do want.
5. Deliver that finished water at the right pressure.