Let me tell you what this site is not.
It's not a place where I'll tell you that your current coffee setup is wrong, that you haven't really tasted espresso until you've had a properly extracted 9-bar shot from a temperature-stable machine, or that the pour-over you're making with your $30 dripper is somehow beneath consideration.
I've spent time around enough coffee professionals — including a stint at a Starbucks roasting plant, where I watched millions of pounds of coffee pass through an industrial drum roaster and then get packed for shipment — to know that the world of "serious" coffee can get incredibly gatekeep-y incredibly fast. And that's a shame, because coffee is one of the great pleasures, and it doesn't owe anyone a tasting certification.
So what is this, then?
Coffeesquared is where I write about coffee the way I think about it: with real enthusiasm, genuine curiosity, and exactly zero pretension.
I'm an avid home espresso person. I have a setup I love. I care too much about grinder burrs. I've gone down the rabbit hole on water chemistry and then decided I cared more about the beans than the water chemistry and walked back out of the rabbit hole. I hate drip coffee and I have strong opinions about how to solve the office coffee problem without spending your entire lunch break making a single cup.
I also run SmallCoffeeRoasters.com — a directory of over 5,600 independent US roasters — and every week I'll be featuring one of them here. Because the best thing you can do for your morning cup has nothing to do with technique: it's buying fresh, interesting beans from people who care about growing and roasting them.
What we'll cover
Brewing methods — all of them. AeroPress, V60, Chemex, Moka pot, French press, espresso, cold brew, Clever Dripper, siphon. Each has its own logic, its own sweet spot, its own crowd of passionate devotees. I'll dig into what makes each method tick and when you should reach for it.
Gear — the honest version. Not "this machine was provided by the brand for review." Not "sponsored by Fellow." Just what I'd actually buy, what's worth the premium, and what's not.
Tasting notes — in English. Every week I'll taste something new and describe it the way I actually experience it, with occasional reference to the SCA Flavor Wheel when it's useful and zero obligation to sound like I'm in a wine tasting.
The Efficient Geek — how to get great coffee without making it a second job. I'm busy. You're probably busy. But life's too short for bad coffee.
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Let's get into it.