12 parts, read in order
I run a Turkish coffee company, which means I spend my days thinking about a seed most people never see.
Before it is a cup, coffee is a cherry on a shrub on a mountain somewhere in the tropics. Then it gets picked, dried, shipped, roasted, ground and brewed, and every step changes the taste. I wanted to put that whole trip in one place, from the tree to the cup, one short part at a time.
Read them in order, ideally with a coffee in hand.
Muhammed Cam, founder of Lezzet
A shrub in the Ethiopian highlands, a legend about goats, and the monks in Yemen who made it a drink.
Two species, one family tree, twice the caffeine on one side, and what "specialty grade" means.
Africa and Arabia, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific: what each part of the belt does to the cup.
Deeper dives: Ethiopian Coffee · Brazilian Coffee
Why a cherry that ripens slowly on a cold mountain tastes nothing like one from the warm lowlands.
The lift in a good cup, where it comes from, and why low-acid coffee tastes smooth.
Nobody adds blueberry. Here is how a seed ends up tasting of fruit, chocolate or flowers.
The bean lives inside a fruit. What happens to that fruit decides half the flavor.
What happens in the roaster, the caffeine myth, and why one blend might use both.
When one coffee is a whole cup on its own, and when two make a better one.
A rich one roasted dark, a bright one roasted lighter: the thinking behind our blend.
Coming soon
Grind size, water and time: how the same coffee turns into espresso, pour-over or a French press cup.
Coming soon
The finest grind, a small pot, slow heat and the foam: where everything in the series ends up.
Coming soon