From now on, when someone asks me to explain why I am passionate about coffee, or anything relating to gear and brewing techniques, I am pointing them towards this concise post from friend, Allan Georgia (also guest on Robby Burns + Friends, episode 5). Read it!
On Coffee Makers: Don’t Put a Machine Between You & the Most Important Drink of the Day:
But there's an even bigger reason to dump the electric machine altogether. Coffee is, in its rich and complex heart, a ritual that defines our morning. Consider how many other drinks define a time of day. For many of us, coffee even becomes part of how we experience the passage of time itself––one cup leading to another, morning after morning, a companion as constant as the Sun. To craft your coffee by hand is to participate in the ritual and embrace the chance to make something with your own hands. Its a opportunity that is squandered if you outsource the labor to a machine and pass by a hands-on craft for the sake of convenience.
But there's more. The call to craft your cup has never been more relevant than now when a true coffee renaissance has filled the world with beans that are the product of passionate producers in the coffee-growing regions of the world.
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once you have your hands on beans that have been lovingly farmed and expertly roasted, it is an outright calamity to put them at the mercy of a lukewarm drip machine and a scorching hot-plate. Crafting your cup does require some specialized equipment, but nothing too crazy.