Coffee, the Most Complex Drink in the World

We had the opportunity to make friends with coffee enthusiasts and experts from across the world, and in testing our prototypes there was one thing that kept coming up: “there is no ‘best cup of coffee, there are only differences in personal taste.”

You can take an award winning Ethiopian Gesha Coffee, roast it 6 different ways, brew it 6 different ways, and you’ll end up with 36 cups of coffee that taste remarkably different. What makes this even more complex is if you take 6 random people and get them to try all 36 cups, they’ll each choose a different cup as their favorite. 

What makes coffee so complex and diverse? 

The answer is simpler than you think. Unlike other popular beverages like soda, wine, whiskey, and beer, coffee comes as an unfinished product.

• Just like wine, coffee is a plant that is cultivated in different climates and conditions all around the world. Coffee from Indonesia has very distinct flavor profile from Africa or South America.
• Additional factors like terroir (climate, elevation, rainfail, soil composition), species & varietal (arabica, robusta, liberica, Tyica, Bourbon, Caturra, Maragogype, Gesha, etc) and the processing method (dry, washed, semi-washed) also affect the flavor of your coffee before it reaches your cup.
• Coffee Roasters take the unfinished green beans harvested from coffee farms and add their own personality and flair when they roast a particular coffee to bring out different tastes inherent in each coffee bean.
• Lastly, whether you have your coffee made by a barista or brewed at home, the approach to coffee brewing can also have a profound impact on the finished cup.

The coffee plant, roast level, brew method, water-to-coffee ratio, brewing temperature, extraction time are all variables that play into the equation of your final cup.

With the exciting new developments in coffee culture in recent years, we’re only just tapping into the latent potential of coffee and the flavors it has to offer, and this what inspires us to create tools that allow you to express and experience those flavors to the fullest.