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The Bitter Truth: When Tradition Outshines Craft

The Bitter Truth: When Tradition Outshines Craft

If you’ve ever wondered why your favorite brews feel so... perfect, you’re not alone. The beer world’s obsession with microbrews often masks a simple truth: lagers, the backbone of mass-produced beer, are harder to master than any craft style. Major breweries like Budweiser and Heineken didn’t just stumble into success—they spent decades refining recipes, hiring scientists to dial in consistency. Their lagers are engineered for reliability, not experimentation. Meanwhile, microbreweries, for all their hype, often lack the infrastructure to replicate that precision. So when you’re handed a lager, you’re getting a product that’s been tested, tweaked, and perfected. The same…
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Behind the Scenes: How Typhoon Coffee Roasters Turn Prague into a Coffee Tech Lab

Behind the Scenes: How Typhoon Coffee Roasters Turn Prague into a Coffee Tech Lab

Get ready to sip on this: Typhoon Coffee Roasters isn’t just brewing coffee in Prague—it’s engineering the future of coffee roasting. What starts as a sleek café in the heart of the city becomes a hidden lab for innovation, where electric roasters hum behind glass windows and machines are built to scale. For customers, it’s a chance to witness coffee’s transformation in real time. For the brand, it’s a blueprint for blending hospitality with high-tech precision. The café itself is a masterclass in understated ambition. Designed to feel like a modern oasis, it’s packed with seating and curated details that…
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Spain’s Rosado: A Pink Wine That Defies the French Norm

Spain’s Rosado: A Pink Wine That Defies the French Norm

Coffee lovers, wine enthusiasts, tea devotees—step aside. There’s a rosé rewriting the rules, and it’s not from France. Spanish Rosado, a category as vibrant as its hue, is quietly upending the pink wine hierarchy. While Provence’s bubble-gum pinks dominate global shelves, Spain’s take is a revelation: a blend of boldness, brightness, and a touch of mischief. This week’s Tasting Challenge unearths why this wine deserves a seat at the table—and why it’s worth savoring beyond the usual suspects. The magic of Spanish Rosado lies in its grapes. Tempranillo, Garnacha, and Viura form a triumvirate that’s anything but ordinary. Tempranillo brings…
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The Oxo Setup That’s Revolutionizing My Brews

The Oxo Setup That’s Revolutionizing My Brews

Listen up: this isn’t your average coffee machine. The Oxo’s design lets you dial in variables without sacrificing speed, and after a few days of testing, I’m convinced it’s redefining what’s possible in a home brew. I’ve settled on a 16g grind to 50g water ratio, a balance that delivers clarity without over-extraction. Tamping the grounds evenly is non-negotiable—any uneven surface and the shot turns sour. At 93C, the water hits the grinds just right, neither too hot to scorch the coffee nor too cool to extract properly. The key? Let the water do the work. I let the machine’s…
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Europe’s Best Roasters Crowned at Global Coffee Awards

Europe’s Best Roasters Crowned at Global Coffee Awards

Time to spill: Europe’s top roasters just got a global spotlight—and the results are as bold as the brews they serve. The Global Coffee Awards (GCA) European edition, held in Bordeaux in October 2025, crowned winners across 25 countries, from Belgium to the UK, in a blind-tasting showdown that blends precision and passion. This isn’t just about trophies—it’s about redefining how coffee is judged, sold, and celebrated. The competition’s genius lies in its balance of rigor and inclusivity. Judges, including Q graders and SCA coordinators, evaluated roasters on everything from aroma to acidity, using a scoring system that mirrors real-world…
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The Aeropress Hack That Turned My Brews from 8/10 to 10/10

The Aeropress Hack That Turned My Brews from 8/10 to 10/10

This is worth savoring: A single tweak to your Aeropress routine transformed my coffee from good to extraordinary. For years, I’d settled for 8/10 cups, chasing that elusive balance of sweetness and clarity. Then I stumbled on a method that unlocked something deeper—flavor that felt alive, not just extracted. The difference? A ritualized bloom, precise compression, and a rethink of how water interacts with coffee. The old approach was predictable: inverted, medium coarse grind, 15g coffee with 250g water, 205°F, and a 2-minute pour. It delivered consistency, but never transcended. The new method starts with a 50g bloom—letting coffee “breathe”…
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75% of Coffee from Top Buyers Now Meets Sustainability Standards

75% of Coffee from Top Buyers Now Meets Sustainability Standards

This is worth savoring: The coffee industry is finally catching up to its promises. A new report from the Global Coffee Platform (GCP) reveals that 75% of coffee purchased by 11 major buyers in 2024 met at least one sustainability standard—a record high. For context, these buyers, including Nestlé, JDE Peet’s, and Tesco, accounted for 21% of global green coffee purchases, representing 38.4 million 60-kilo bags. The jump from 73% in 2023 to 75% this year signals a shift, but the path isn’t without hurdles. The report highlights a growing embrace of sustainability, yet the metrics remain tangled. Third-party certifications…
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The MokaBot Redefines Stovetop Coffee with Tech-Driven Precision

The MokaBot Redefines Stovetop Coffee with Tech-Driven Precision

If you’ve ever wondered how to perfect the moka pot’s chaotic brew, meet the MokaBot: a sleek, touchscreen-controlled upgrade that turns guesswork into science. Born from a pandemic-era obsession with coffee technique, this smart moka pot reimagines a 90-year-old icon with PID-controlled heating, real-time pressure estimation, and user-defined heat profiles. For Javier Tellols, the creator, it’s not just about precision—it’s about reclaiming the moka’s potential for consistency without sacrificing its soul. The MokaBot’s genius lies in its ability to decode the moka pot’s hidden variables. Traditional stovetop brewing relies on intuition, but this device translates chaos into control. By integrating…
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How to Open a Wine Bottle Without a Corkscrew (No Mess, No Drama)

How to Open a Wine Bottle Without a Corkscrew (No Mess, No Drama)

Here’s something to stir your curiosity: What if your corkscrew is missing and you’re mid-wine night? You’re not alone. From mountain peaks to city apartments, emergencies happen. The good news? There’s a toolkit of hacks to save your pour—and your dignity. Push the cork in with a screwdriver, wooden spoon, or butter knife. This method forces the cork deeper, making it easier to manage. Once pushed, use a straw or chopstick to keep it out of the way while pouring. Or pour directly into a decanter to avoid the glugging of the cork getting stuck. It’s a workaround, but it…
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The Next Generation Tastes: Inside Decanter’s 2025 Issue on Family Wineries

The Next Generation Tastes: Inside Decanter’s 2025 Issue on Family Wineries

Here’s something to stir your curiosity: What if your family’s legacy wasn’t a business but a vineyard? The December 2025 issue of Decanter dives into the messy, magical, and often contradictory journey of heirs stepping into their parents’ winemaking shoes. From Bordeaux to New Zealand, 10 family-owned estates share their stories—raw, unfiltered, and steeped in the tension between tradition and reinvention. The meat of the issue lies in the quiet rebellion of younger vintners. At Château Pavie in St-Emilion, Georgie Hindle recounts how her approach to terroir-driven wines clashed with her father’s more commercial instincts. It’s a familiar struggle: parents…
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