Coffee Science Wiki

The two numbers that describe every cup of coffee — how much you dissolved, and how concentrated it is — and how they relate.

3 min read

Why 1:16 became the filter default, what changes as you move away from it, and why espresso and cold brew use completely different numbers.

2 min read

Every brewer is a variation on two ideas — water flowing through coffee, or coffee sitting in water. What each one does to extraction.

3 min read

Surface area is what water actually sees. How grind size, fines and grinder design shape extraction.

3 min read

Coffee is 98 % water. Hardness, alkalinity and how to build a brewing water that flatters extraction.

2 min read

The three extraction levers you use after grind is set — and why they interact.

3 min read

Drying, Maillard reactions, caramelisation, first crack and development — and why roast level dictates how you brew.

3 min read

Washed, natural, honey, anaerobic and wet-hulled — what happens between picking a cherry and bagging green coffee, and how it shows up in the cup.

3 min read

Arabica vs Robusta, the family tree of Bourbon and Typica, what altitude and density really do, and why Gesha costs what it costs.

3 min read

Taste it, name the problem, change one thing. A practical diagnostic flow for any brew method.

3 min read

What happens to roasted coffee over days and weeks, when it peaks, and how to slow the decline.

2 min read

What to measure, what the instruments actually tell you, and how to turn a refractometer reading into an extraction number.

2 min read