09/29/2026
It's International coffee ☕️ Day!!!
Here are some coffee facts (compliments of ) and an invite to join me tomorrow:
☕ Espresso has less caffeine per serving than drip coffee — a shot is about 63 mg, while an 8-oz drip cup runs 95–165 mg, because the water contact time is shorter.
☕ "Coffee" comes from the Arabic qahwa — originally meaning w**e before it became the dark brew we love.
☕ A shot of espresso has more caffeine per ounce than drip coffee, but a regular mug of drip usually has more caffeine overall because it's so much bigger.
☕ Coffee "beans" aren't beans at all. They're the seeds inside a red fruit called a coffee cherry.
☕ Finland drinks more coffee per person than any other country, and many Finnish workers are guaranteed coffee breaks by labor agreements.
☕ Espresso isn't a bean or a roast — it's a brewing method. The same beans in a drip machine make drip coffee; force hot water through them under about nine atmospheres of pressure and you get espresso.
☕ Water just off the boil (195–205°F) pulls the best flavor from grounds — full boiling water scorches them and makes coffee taste bitter. Let it sit about 30 seconds after boiling before you pour.
☕ Grind size should match your brew method — too fine for a French press over-extracts and turns bitter and muddy; too coarse for espresso under-extracts and tastes sour and weak. Match the grind to the contact time: longer brew, coarser grind.
☕ Get your ratio right before anything else: roughly 1 to 2 tablespoons of grounds per 6 oz of water is the standard starting point. Too little coffee and you're just extracting bitterness from over-diluted grounds; too much and it turns muddy. Adjust from there to taste.
☕ Let your coffee bloom before you finish pouring: for pour-over or French press, pour just enough hot water to wet the grounds, wait 30 seconds for the CO2 to escape and bubble up, then continue pouring. Skipping the bloom means uneven extraction.
☕ Start with good water: coffee is roughly 98% water, so use filtered water. Very hard water leaves scale and dulls flavor; very soft or distilled water tastes flat because a little mineral content helps extract flavor.
☕ Use a burr grinder, not a blade grinder. Blades chop beans into uneven chunks and dust, so the small bits over-extract into bitterness while the big ones under-extract into sourness — in the same cup. Burrs crush beans to a uniform size, which is the single biggest equipment upgrade for most home brewers.
🔗 to sign up for this event tomorrow- https://www.mobilize.us/gwinnettdemocrats/event/1047977/?referring_vol=13602271&share_context=dashboard-event-details&sharer_role=2
Will there be coffee?! I don't know. 😂🤷🏿♀️
