jameshoffmann

What's Interesting In Espresso Machines?

I confess to being a little torn about which aspect of espresso equipment I should focus on next. There are a few individual machines that would be interesting, but there are some comparisons that would be interesting too. So I'd like to hear from you on this - if you fancy it then just let me know which of these would be the most interesting to you.

I can't guarantee that the winning choice will appear quickly (some will take a fair while to prep) but your insights and guidance are alw...

Video: What Happens If I Get a Stone In My Coffee?

This is something I've been thinking about for years, so I hope it'll be a useful guide to see what can happen. It was bizarre to film but also a lot of fun, so I hope you enjoy it.

I still worry that something about this borders on irresponsible, perhaps because I can't reconcile what happened in our tests with the posts online about people's grinders breaking. So, for the sake of being a responsible adult: please don't put stones in your grinder on purpose, and definitely don't put bi...

We Made A New Mug!

An update! We’ve reached the maximum number of pre-orders we can take for this release. Thank you so much for your support! We did not expect this to happen so fast, so I’m sorry if you weren’t able to place an order if you wanted to. The mug will be back in different designs in the future and we’ll let you know when that is.

Hi all!

So - we've made a mug. It took quite a while, and was both fascinating and a little frustrating as all projects li...

Video: Understanding The Siphon

Hello from James's team! We've uploaded the newest YouTube video here for you, ad-free. We dive deep into some data collection and experiments in an effort to understand the most inscrutable of coffee brewers: the vacuum pot or coffee siphon. We found some super interesting stuff. This is the second in the siphon series, and the next stop will be our ultimate technique. (Though, as a warning - that might take a while. This video might have raised more questions than it answered...)
2025-10-27 15:30:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Cold Brew Bloops & Fake Arabica Plant Winner

Hello! We have now heard back from the winner of the artificial arabica plant and can confirm that it is heading to Harry in the UK. Congrats to Harry!

Since it's the end of day on a Friday, we're sharing a small snippet of bloopers from Wednesday's video about cold brew. Hope you enjoy!

Video: How Good Can Cold Brew Coffee Get?

*Apologies for the extra notification here: there was an issue with the ad-free version of the video going out which is why we're resending this post.

I wasn't sure I'd ever make this video for a few reasons: I've never been the biggest fan of cold brew, and what I might enjoy more may not align with what folks who enjoy cold brew would prefer.

What changed was that we focused on a problem worth solving: cold brew recipes tend to be very wasteful. Coffee is expensive, and any rec...

A Book Discount Snafu

I must begin with an apology. For those of you who pre-ordered a new edition of the Atlas, we failed to make sure the Patreon discount would apply. Rather than asking you to cancel and re-purchase, if you pre-ordered a book from Square Mile Coffee and would like the discount applied retroactively, then please fill in the form below. Also, this might take a day or two so I kindly ask for a little patience in the processing.

Google Form for order numbers: 2025-09-25 09:10:16 +0000 UTC View Post

Video: They Let Me Put Coffee Stuff In A CT Scanner!

Hopefully this is a fun and entertaining video, because I really enjoyed making this - even with the embarrassing errors (owing to a lack of forethought)!

There's not a lot to add to this one, except that I did take a couple of other electronic items to scan. I did see if we could fit the Decent in there, but sadly we could not! Would have looked very cool I think!

While chatting to the team from Lumafield afterwards, they did kindly run a couple more scans. Those didn't end up in...

Contest: A Full-Sized Fake Arabica Coffee Tree

In the recent book announcement video, you might have noticed me gently caressing a coffee tree. That tree, you'll be shocked to discover, was not real. Actually, there were two of these arabica impostors, but we are keeping one - and you can win the other one in this fun contest:

https://gl...

Some BTS on The World Atlas Of Coffee shoot

Hi all!

We took another camera to the recent shoot we did for the new edition of the World Atlas of Coffee, and put together a fun little BTS video covering the day. The shoot was fun to do, and - as always - we learned a lot.

We commissioned video footage from different videographers in each of the countries covered, because I didn't want to use Unreal Engine-generated landscapes. This was a little bit restrictive, but constraints are no bad thing!

We had quite a lot of dis...

New Cappuccino and Pourover Tier Discount Codes

Hello!

There are two new discount codes for your tiers from today onwards: one for Square Mile Coffee and one for TensHundredsThousands!

The new Square Mile Coffee Roasters discount code for you is active from today and will give you 10% off purchases of bags of coffee as well as my signed How To Make The Best Coffee At Home book from the Square Mile Coffee website. I'm afraid the discount ...

Is Grinding Fresh Always Better?

Here's today's video, ad-free, and I hope you enjoy it. It's a fun topic, and I genuinely really enjoyed getting to do a comparative tasting of one coffee going stale over time. It stales both as you'd expect, but also in a way you don't expect.

In particular, the consumer-focused tasting was fascinating. It is a very good reminder that the data you have is only as good as the question you ask - but the results were so interesting that we felt that we should include them even if they d...

Video: I Bought David Lynch’s Weird Coffee Maker

The minute that news of the auction went live, it felt like the internet simultaneously started sending me links. As I looked through the listings, I felt a little impressed and a little horrified. They were selling David Lynch's Keurig coffee machine. Someone was going to spend an appalling amount of money to have that. (Though I will admit that someone spending $4,500 to own his Mr Coffee made more sense to me. Not good sense, just more sense).

We talked a lot in the studio about bidd...

Announcing the Mysterious Coffee Maker Winner

Hello! We have now heard back from the winner of the Mysterious Coffee Maker and can confirm that it will be going to Lauren from the USA! We will all miss this coffee maker at the studio but are happy to know it will continue a life of adventure with its journey to Lauren. The mystery will be revealed in the next video.

Video: The Siphon

Hello from James's team! Here is today's video, uploaded for you on Patreon without an ad read in the middle. Let us know if there are variables or aspects of the brewer that you'd like us to explore in the testing phase for our next video about the siphon. That siphon testing video will then inform us in creating an ultimate technique for the siphon!

There is a public coffee giveaway mentioned in this YouTube video, for 25 bags of Red Brick espresso blend from Square Mile Coffee Roaste...

A very exciting (but mysterious) giveaway!

I must be honest, I'm usually very excited when the equipment I review finds a new home through the contests we run on Patreon. This one, this one not so much. This one hurts.

As such, the contest is slightly escalated. There is a question that is not easy (and obviously you must get it right). The contest timeline is quite short because it needs to close before the video goes live.

I'm being mysterious, I know. I make no apologies. Don't miss this.

Here's the link to the co...

Short BTS from the Cherry Bones Shoot

I forgot about this - here's some silly outtakes from our visit for the paper mill for the Cherry Bones video. Enjoy!

Our New Coffee Magazine: Cherry Bones

Here's the link: Cherry Bones Magazine

Hi all!

A fun announcement today, coming to you about a couple of hours before it goes public on YouTube (though we should have enough stock that it won't sell out super fast!)

We're launching our new coffee magazine today, it's made out of recycled paper coffee cups, and we're very proud of it. I don't want to repeat what is in the video (plus if you're curious how cof...

The Making of our V60 Papers Video & the Bunch of Mushroom Coffees Winner

We’ve now heard back from the winner of the bunch of mushroom coffee products and can confirm that it will be going to Vince from the UK! We hope it’s fun to recreate the side-by-side taste test.

Onto the testing for our V60 paper video update, posted last Friday on YouTube. Here is Šárka's account of the testing:

Getting to revisit the Hario V60 paper filter video was an exciting proj...

Video: V60 Papers: Our Excessive Testing Was Worth It!

Hello from James's team! Here is today's video, uploaded here for you without any ad read. There is a public coffee giveaway mentioned in this YouTube video, for 50 bags of Red Brick espresso blend, and if you're interested in entering, here are the links for you:

https://gleam.io/x4Cdh/summer-coffee-for-you-1
https...

A Quick Scam Warning

Sorry to have to send you all a message about this (because we all love more email...) but there's been a few DMs about this so I thought I should post something quickly.

A scammer went to the trouble of signing up to be a Patreon supporter to then try and get people to message them on whatsapp to arrange delivery of a prize, and I'm sure to ask for some spurious payment.

This obviously wasn't...

Video: What’s The Deal With Mushroom Coffee?

Hello from James’s team! Happy Friday the 13th to you. Today’s video is more on the light-hearted side of things and is a comparison review of a bunch of different mushroom coffee products on the market these days. James has (literally) been asked about his thoughts on mushroom coffee for years, and we finally gathered a selection of products for him to try. What you’ll see in the YouTube video (linked her...

Announcing the AeroPress Premium Winner

Hello! We've now heard back from the winner of the AeroPress Premium and can confirm that it will be going to Jessie from the USA! Here's hoping they'll find that cap closure satisfying and the brews delicious.

BONUS VIDEOS: How Starbucks Accidentally Popularised The V60

Warning: This is a very long post (but chock-full of goodness!)

Contains: Extended Cut, Individual Cut Scenes, BTS photos.

This video originated as a talk I gave at the 2024 Madrid Coffee Festival. It seemed like a fun story to turn into a video, and relatively simple to make. We were wrong...

This project is, I suppose, a continuation of the documentary-type work we started with the first Tiramisu video. We learned a lot from that first effort, and even mor...

New Cappuccino and Pourover Tier Discount Codes

Hello!

There are two new discount codes for your tiers from today onwards: one for Square Mile Coffee and one for TensHundredsThousands! There will be a matching post locked to the Espresso tier, as their Square Mile code is slightly different to yours, so don't worry that there will be a post you can't access. (This just prevents codes getting mixed up!)

The new Square Mile Coffee Roasters discount code for you is active from today and will give you 10% off purch...

The AeroPress Premium Review

This was a controversial one (on our side anyway)! I'll be interested in your feedback once you've watched it, but we felt that after the testing we had done there was some interesting stuff that was worth talking about. One thing to note now is that the price is even higher - which I guess is a tariffs thing - though that price jump may not be significant to those that this brewer is targeting (or at least the group that just wants the nicer thing, and has disposable income).

There's n...

Announcing the Zerno Z1 Winner

Hello!

We've now heard back from the winner of the Zerno Z1 grinder and can confirm that it will be going to David from the UK! We'll get it sent out to David in the next day or so, with a few coffee candies in there too (we do indeed still have quite a few remaining from that video).

Congrats to David, we hope that all of the augers and burr combinations will provide plenty of scope for experimentation.

Video: The Secrets Of My Morning Coffee Routine

Another day, another video. I would strongly recommend watching the video before reading any further. Seriously. Stop reading, go and watch the video. Then you can come back....

Hi there! Now you can see the BTS pictures, which are all extremely serious. Thank you to MB for the collage work on the first two!

Aside from the pictures, not sure what else I can add. Except that Berg really is water made from Canadian icebergs. (This is not an endorsement...)

Video: The Beginner's Guide to Latte Art

I’ll start with a confession: I was hesitant to make this video for a long time, mostly because I am not the world’s greatest latte artist (and never really have been). That said, I still thought I had something valuable to offer - having taught hundreds of people over the years to pour latte art.

This edit is slightly different from the YouTube version. Firstly, it has no ad read. Secondly, you’ve got a longer cut of the diagnostics section towards the end o...

The Zerno Review

After the last poll, we’ve decided to post the videos here with a little additional context. As part of this, we are going to share some thoughts from the team from time to time and with the Zerno it seemed a perfect opportunity to introduce you to Šárka!

Šárka joined a few months ago and oversees all the testing that goes on when we’re reviewing products. The Zerno is a complicated thing to test, but I’ll leave more about why to her.

From me I want to add a couple of ad...