Global traditions
& reading the bag
The world makes coffee in very different ways — and the practical payoff of the whole map: how to read a bag and buy well.
How the world brews
Beyond the specialty café, coffee has deep regional traditions. Click through:
Reading the bag
The practical skill this whole block builds toward — turning a coffee bag from marketing into information. Click each label element in priority order:
Grade a bag, then buy one
Audit a bag you own
Find roast date, origin, variety, process, roast level. Score how much real information it gives.
Buy one deliberately
Next purchase: choose a bag with a roast date within a few weeks and a named origin and process. You now know what every word means.
Questions
Flashcards
Lock it in
From memory:
- Name three global brewing traditions.
- Where does the V60 come from?
- What is the #1 thing to check on a bag?
- List four other useful label elements.
- What signals commodity coffee "in disguise"?
Extraction
theory
The step that’s yours. Everything before this set the potential; brewing decides how much of it reaches the cup. Start with the one model that explains almost every good and bad coffee you’ll make.
What extraction is
Brewing is dissolving flavor out of coffee with water. How much you dissolve — the extraction — lands you somewhere on a band, and where you land is the difference between sour, balanced, and bitter. Click through:
Strength is not extraction
The distinction beginners miss most. Strength is concentration — set by your brew ratio. Extraction is how much you dissolved — set by grind, time, temperature. Use the calculator to fix strength in your head, then remember the levers (Session 15) move extraction independently.
Taste under and over
Brew deliberately coarse
Grind coarser than usual and brew normally. It should taste sour, thin, empty — that’s under-extraction.
Brew deliberately fine
Now grind much finer. It should taste bitter, harsh, drying — over-extraction.
Feel the compass
You’ve just felt the sour→finer, bitter→coarser axis in your own cups. That’s the tool for Session 16.
Questions
Flashcards
Lock it in
From memory:
- Define extraction and the rough target band.
- How does under-extraction taste? Over?
- State the strength-vs-extraction distinction.
- What sets strength? What sets extraction?
- State the sour-vs-bitter compass.
The four
levers
Extraction has a handful of controls. Know what each does, which is strongest, and you can move any cup toward balance on purpose instead of by luck.
The levers of extraction
Five controls, one dominant. Click through — note grind is the one you’ll reach for first:
If you upgrade one thing, upgrade the grinder. A good grinder produces even particles, which extract evenly; a bad one makes dust and boulders that over- and under-extract simultaneously — a cup you can’t fix with any lever. The grinder is the foundation the other levers stand on.
Move one lever
Fix everything but grind
Hold ratio, temperature, and method constant.
Step the grind
Brew, taste, then adjust grind one step toward the compass (sour→finer, bitter→coarser) and brew again.
Watch the cup move
You should taste the cup shift toward balance — proof you’re driving extraction, not guessing.
Questions
Flashcards
Lock it in
From memory:
- Name the five levers.
- Which is the biggest, and why?
- Does ratio change strength or extraction?
- Give the filter temperature range.
- Why upgrade the grinder first?