How to Brew the Perfect Cup of Coffee

Tristan Coulter of Chicago's Metropolis Coffee Explains the Pour-Over Technique

I discovered the first inklings of my obsessive nature while making coffee in college. So many things can go wrong. So many ways to go right off the cliff. What should be routine and pleasurable becomes stressful, maddening, disappointing. The beans, the water, the tools, the process, and the thin line between greatness and mediocrity. None are exempt from mistakes.  And of course, no one has i...

A Weekend in Seattle and Olympia: Day 1, Coffee and Street Food

I didn’t realize it until I’d checked my bag, removed my shoes, been frisked, walked onto the plane, stowed my baggage, sat down, belted up--until the plane itself had taken off--that a flight to Seattle is not a couple hours away.  No, it’s on the other side of the country, over the Northeast, Midwest, the giant state of Nebraska, past both Dakotas and Montana--over five hours by plane...

Steingarten on Why We Turn to Espresso

From Jeffrey Steingarten's essay "Explaining Espresso," via his collection It Must Have Been Something I Ate :

It's no wonder that humankind's most persistent activity over the past few hundred years has been inventing new ways of making coffee.  How many coffeemakers you have at home depends on 1) your age 2) your love of coffee 3) your love of toys, and 4) your total inability to...

Ham Steaks with Red Eye Gravy

By the second day the roughly 8 pound ham I had foil-wrapped in my refrigerator had started to express its full potential.  What had tasted perfectly fine the day before became a sensuous, hands on event the next, as it had somehow increased in flavor as it waited in the fridge.  I wanted nothing more than to slouch over the kitchen table, picking hunks right off.  How could anything...

What''s the best way to make Iced Coffee?

When I started sweating heavily during my morning walk to the subway and began considering a set of "commute clothes," which I imagined would be composed of a pair of running shorts and a tanktop, I figured it was time to stop trying to drink a steaming hot cup of coffee on the way to work.  There is simply nothing more miserable than thick New York humidity, being full of sweat, descending on...