VERY #NCP but what the heck. Hiked up Mt Tolmie the other day (that was a serious workout for me) with one of our two dogs (Jack) and while I was huffing and puffing, I took this photo of Jack surveying all of Victoria, BC below him. #victoriabc #vancouverisland #canada #dog #miniaussie

I feel super blessed we have a writer like Natia on our staff. Months back, I suggested she work on a pulse-pour technique article for CoffeeGeek. Nats was getting more into pour over coffee, and she liked Tetsu Kasuya's 4:6 method and such. Then I promptly forgot about the assignment. But Natia didn't. This eve, she submitted her draft. Here's a coupla snippets for an early look. She even covered anaerobic coffees!

#NCP Me and my doggie Jack after we hiked up the 2nd highest "peak" in Victoria, Mt Tolmie. A bit of a hot day for it, but we enjoyed the journey. Going down a helluva lot easier! #miniaussie #mttolmie #victoriabc #summer #vancouverisland

A bit of a late night, #NCP. Not bad for a car that’s just passed twenty years of life, right? I just had my Japanese domestic Mazda MX-5 Roadster detailed, got some minor paint correction done, and even had the A-pillar wrapped in satin black vinyl. She cleans up nicely. Now the backstory. I’ve wanted a British two-seater sports car for as long as I can remember. When I was sixteen, I spotted an MGB and thought, “That’s the car I’ll buy when I’m a millionaire.” A year later I saw a Fiat 124 Spider and decided, no, that’s the one. By nineteen, the Lotus Elan had stolen the crown, and I figured one day, when I finally became a real adult, that would be my car. Fast forward a few decades. About five years ago, I started poking around at listings for old British sports cars. Asked some friends who actually know how to turn a wrench what they thought. They laughed and said, “Get a Mazda MX-5. It’s basically a Lotus Elan that actually works and won't break down.” Given that I’m useless with car repairs, that advice stayed in the forefront of my limited brain cells. For years it was just a dream. I window-shopped, nearly pulled the trigger a couple of times, but always backed away. Then this year came along. First, I cancelled all my US business travel, which saved me about $8,500. Second, I fell down the rabbit hole of JDM imports and got hooked on the idea of a right-hand drive version to really lean into the “British” vibe. When a 2005 Copper Red Mica model popped up at auction with a 4.5 rating, 100,000 km, and a landed price under $11k CAD, I jumped. In March, it was mine. After decades of dreaming about owning a little British sports car, I finally do. Sure, it’s Japanese. Even better.

John, flippin' Cena: actual CoffeeGeek. Who would have thought. I'm kinda like John, but where he judges cafes on their flat whites, I judge cafes on how they do americanos. I especially love that he's doing this video for Bon Apetit magazine, a Conde Nast publication, and he kinda blasts the Conde Nast cafe for phoquing up the flat white. #coffeefeed #espressofeed #flatwhite #espresso #johncena

Coming tomorrow on CoffeeGeek! Our excellent writer Allison Gainey is back, with a nice little guide on getting something extra out of your Gaggia Classic (or most single boiler espresso machines). Landing at 8am PDT time on CoffeeGeek. Here's a screenshot of the article lead!

Let's talk about the brewer graveyard. You know, that cupboard where expensive, well-intentioned coffee gear goes to be forgotten. For some of us, the Espro Bloom is sitting right there in the back. It was a brewer with a real identity crisis. The paper filters were expensive and hard to find, and brewing without them was a masterclass in frustration. You’d either get a fast, sour cup or a choked, bitter stall. Many of us just gave up. After spending way too much time with this thing for CoffeeGeek, we realized the problem wasn't the brewer, it was us. The big secret is to stop treating it like a pour-over. It's a unique no-bypass brewer that demands a smaller dose and a coarser grind. Once you work with its fussy design instead of against it, the results are stunningly clean and consistent. It’s so sensitive, in fact, that we now use it as a benchmark for testing new grinders. We’re putting the finishing touches on a definitive guide that covers the whole story: the history, the step-by-step recipe (with grinder settings), and the deep-dive theory. If you have one of these brewers, get ready to rescue it. The coffee it can make is absolutely worth it. #Coffee #SpecialtyCoffee #CoffeeBrewing #HowTo #EsproBloom #NoBypass #BrewingGuide

Been thinking a lot about a brewer many of us gave up on: the Espro Bloom. It was fussy, misunderstood, and a lot of them ended up in the brewer graveyard. Turns out, it just wasn't meant to be used like a V60. After a ton of testing, we found a different approach that lets it do what it does best: brew a seriously clean, no-bypass cup of coffee. Shame it's discontinued. Our full How To explaining the story is coming soon to CoffeeGeek. If you still have yours, you'll want to dust it off.

One thing I'm beyond grateful for, in my nearly 25 years now of reviewing coffee gear, writing opinion articles on coffee, and doing educational content including guides and how tos is this: I **own** the platform I publish on. This has a whole ton of benefits (and some detriments). For instance, I'm not beholden to the whims, changing rules, and expectations of an enshittified platform like Youtube or TikTok or Instagram. Or platforms becoming enshittified like substack or medium. I don't have to constantly evolve because of their rules which ultimately benefit the platform owner. I don't have to A/B stuff, do insane screenshots of me gaping at some gear, because that gets "more clicks". I don't have to script what I write to max out the algorithm. And I definitely don't have to produce content based on what the algorithm likes best, or what generates the most "clicks", something every Youtube content creator I've spoken to speaks about as if its second nature. That last part is the one that kind of bothers me the most. Most Youtube creators in the coffee space will specifically avoid certain content, certain products, certain topics, not because they're controversial or edgy, but because it might get half the views of something with a title like "The TRUTH about Trendy Product XYZ!" Of course, there's detriments to owning your own platform. Bugs, server issues, compatibility issues (like how the Fediverse MastoDDoses ya when a link is posted), and for younger sites than mine, constantly chasing SEO. (as an aside, I do big nods to SEO, but given the stature and longevity of our website, we're almost always favourably "ranked" in search engines).