This is the last Chemex brew guide you'll ever need.

The Chemex is one of our favorite coffee brewers because it's easy to use, environmentally friendly, and makes an excellent tasting cup. Once you have your basic pouring technique down (basically just don't fill it all the way up so the coffee is stuck to the sides of the filter, keep it all as low as possible), the tricky part is dialing in the variables to match your own taste preferences. To help you, we've compiled this list of Chemex recipes from top roasters (and coffee subscription competitors). :) Basically everyone agrees on a 0:30-0:45 bloom, water temp in the range of 195-205℉, and a grind that's slightly coarser than average for a pourover (because the thick filters drain a little slower). The remaining variables are brew time and brew ratio. Here are how other brew guides compare: Roaster, Coffee (grams), Water (grams), Time Blue Bottle, 50-60g, 600-700g, 4:00 Intelligentsia, 33g, 525g, 5:00 Stumptown Coffee, 42g, 700g, 4:00 Sightglass Coffee, 40g, 600g, 4:00 Craft Coffee, 36g, 600g, 3:30 Mistobox, 38g, 600g, 4:30 Ritual, 45g, 700g, 4:30 Coava, 40g, 600g, 3:45 Average, 41g, 621g, 4:09 The table above measures water in grams because it's generally best to weigh your Chemex on a scale as you brew it, to keep measurements as accurate as possible. If you don't measure water in grams, you can go in fluid oz instead. To convert, 20 oz = 591 grams. You'll also notice your Chemex has a little glass bump on it. That bump marks the half-full line, but it can also tell you how much coffee you've brewed. Here's the bump volume based on Chemex size: Chemex Size, Bump Volume, Grams 3-cup Chemex, 7.5oz, 212g 6-cup Chemex, 15oz, 425g 8-cup Chemex, 20oz, 567g 10-cup Chemex, 25oz, 709g That should be all the info you need to get moving in the right direction. Enjoy a delicious Chemex!

A decent bottle of wine or a decent bag of coffee each cost maybe $15. But for a nice Bordeaux, it’s easy to spend over $100. The best coffee, however, can be yours for only $19/bag. That’s only $0.25 more per cup to go from supermarket brands to carefully selected single origin beans. But these prices aren’t going to last. Markets are changing, consumer preferences are changing, and coffee prices are going up. In 10 years from now, $100 coffee bags (and $30 chocolate bars) won't be uncommon. So if you want to get into coffee, better do it now!

$396 Panama Geisha

What proof do we have? How about the fact it already exists. Here's a 10oz bag of Panama Geisha for $396. That's $643/lb! Truth be told, I've never heard of the roaster and I'm not recommending you purchase that coffee. Aside from this outlier, the highest priced Geishas typically come from Hacienda la Esmerelda and fetch $80/lb (sometimes more, but dependent on volatile auction pricing). They're seasonally available in the winter and early spring from well known roasters such as La Colombe, Verve, or Square One, and Angels' Cup offers a special Geisha Tasting Flight that ships the week before Christmas.

Geisha vs Gesha (or what is Geisha)

Just like wine, coffee comes in varieties (think Syrah vs Merlot). Some varieties do better in different climates or elevations, have different disease resistance, and of course, different flavor profiles. Geisha is a variety that originated in Gesha, Ethiopia, and was planted sparingly in Costa Rica where it gained a reputation for resistance to a coffee disease called "leaf rust". Eventually it was planted in Panama, and rumor has it that after a particularly bad year for leaf rust, single variety lots of Geisha were picked and processed for the first time, giving the growers at Hacienda la Esmerelda an opportunity to discover its unusual flavor profile. That discovery occurred in 2004, and Geisha has maintained its reputation as an exceptionally unique variety. The flavor profile is delicate and floral, with honeysuckle and bergamot almost always dominant. It also lacks sour and bitter notes. Today it's variably marketed as Geisha or Gesha (the word carries no meaning). Panama still seems to be the place Geisha grows best, but Costa Rica, Colombia, and even Ethiopia are now experimenting with the coffee and trying to replicate the success experienced in Panama.

The Best Coffee Will Only Get More Expensive

There are many factors driving coffee prices. Climate change and coffee rust (a disease that kills coffee plants) are two major risks that all coffee drinkers can expect to pay for. But I believe the biggest factor is something else. Hint: where did Starbucks grow the most in 2014? You guessed it, China. In 2014, Starbucks opened 742 new stores in China/Asia Pacific, representing 14% growth. That's 2x the growth rate in Europe and 3x the growth rate in the US. And it makes sense, because young Chinese people are starting to make the switch from tea to coffee. Here's a quote from a recent article: "Our parents don't drink coffee at all. They are afraid it will affect their sleep, so they prefer tea," said Wang Xiaozhe, one of the women, a 24-year-old office worker from Beijing. "But we drink coffee, coffee and coffee. Now I feel tea doesn't have any taste." China-breifing.com also reports "Soaring demand led China to import 1.6 million 60kg bags of green coffee in 2012-13, a staggering 270 percent increase from 2008-2009". That's some serious coffee demand.

Enjoy the Best Coffee Today, Before it's Too Late!

A lot of people wonder if a pound of Panama Geisha coffee could be worth $80 (or if a cup could be worth $12). If you're serious about coffee, I think it’s worth experiencing before it’s too late. If you decide it’s not for you, that’s awesome! You can forget about it and never have any regrets. Beyond just Geisha though, there are a lot of amazing coffees out there. With a coffee subscription like Angels' Cup, you can get in on the action while it's still affordable, try some great stuff, and figure out exactly what you like and where the good value is. The only people who lose are the ones who like coffee but refuse to give the good stuff a try because it’s an extra $0.25. In 10 years when coffee prices are making headlines, people are going to regret missing out!

PS - Don't Buy Kopi Luwak

There are other expensive coffees out there. The most commonly cited one comes from Indonesia called Kopi Luwak and it can fetch prices in the $400/lb range. It's famously ingested and pooped out by a civet (a small ferret-like rodent), a process that's supposed to mellow the flavor. In general, the coffee community agrees that a) the practice of harvesting Kopi Luwak is inhumane, and b) the coffee doesn't taste good. It's a novelty for tourists and you're better off saving your money for legitimately interesting coffee, like Geisha.

Many People Believe So. The Origin of this Myth Lies in the Explosive Growth of Starbucks.

Every generation, there's a revolution in the way people drink coffee. And every generation takes a step in the right direction. Many people today think of Maxwell House and Folgers as truly terrible brands. Pre-ground and left in tins for months, they're blends of low grade arabica beans and robusta, a cheap, disease tolerant coffee species that grows well at low altitude but lacks flavor. The fact is that these coffees replaced even worse coffee. Lots of coffee brands (before Maxwell House and Folgers) had random coffee-like additives in their coffee like bread crumbs and chicory root. It was the coffee equivalent of cutting cocaine with Draino, and practiced on an industrial scale. Given the competitive pressure, Maxwell House and Folgers did still have to minimize prices. One way to do this is by light roasting. As the bean roasts, it loses a lot of weight. If you buy coffee per pound, and sell coffee per pound, you want to lose as little weight as possible. (This is the same reason why beef jerky looks so expensive. $6 for 1/4 lb looks like $24/lb. It's not. The beef loses half its weight as it dries out.) So dark roasting didn't make any sense for the big roasters.

Enter Starbucks (and the dark roast)

Then Howard Schultz came along, bought Starbucks, and did things differently. First he focused on espresso-based drinks, which benefit from darker roasting. Most people who make coffee at home, measure their coffee with a scoop, which is a volume based measurement. When coffee is made in a shop, it's measured by weight. Dark beans are less dense, so when you measure by weight, you end up using more beans to make the same size cup. And this is where the myth was born that Starbucks coffee is "stronger" or has "more caffeine". Neither statement is true, they're simply putting twice as much coffee in your cup. If you doubled the number of tablespoons you put in your Maxwell House coffee, it will be stronger and have more caffeine too. Because Starbucks was synonymous with dark roast, people began to associate dark roast with quality, strength, and caffeine.

The Third Wave

A new generation is now latching onto a new type of coffee, and it's called the third wave. Third wave coffee moves away from espresso based drinks (which benefit from dark roasts), towards regular drip coffee. It's also moving towards lighter roasts. BUT it's not to save money, it's to maximize flavor. No matter where coffee's from, will taste the same if it's roasted very dark. Lighter roasts allow the subtle characteristics of the origin to shine through. In the 60's, all you could hope for at origin was to avoid defects. Now consumers are discovering the interestingly subtle wine-like characteristics of great coffee. Ethiopian coffee often has citrus and blueberry flavors. South American coffee often has graham cracker and honey characteristics. Indonesia often has an earthy spiciness, and full body. While it's easy for us in the third wave to look back on the second wave (Starbucks) and lament on how terrible it was, it's easy for the second wave to look back on the first wave (Folgers) and say the same thing. But even that first wave was a giant step in the right direction. If you're interested in learning more about third wave coffee, Angels' Cup can help. We ship coffee tasting flights, making it easy to try four different single origin coffees for just $7.99. It's just like a wine tasting but with coffee.

Click here to learn more! angelscup.com

photo above courtesy of our friends at www.wareaglecoffee.com