Pour yourself a better cup.
Mug Cult is a free field guide to brewing coffee at home: 102 guides, 13 calculators and timers, and a directory of 47 roasters and 24 brewers and machines.
House rules
Five habits behind almost every good cup. Each one links to the guide that explains why.
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Weigh everything.
A level scoop holds anywhere from 4 to 7 g of coffee depending on the bean. A scale that reads to 0.1 g takes the guessing out of every recipe.
Coffee scales: what matters -
Grind just before you brew.
Ground coffee loses its aroma far faster than whole beans. Buy whole, grind each dose fresh, and use burrs rather than blades.
Burr vs blade grinders -
Mind the water.
Coffee is 98% water. Around 93 °C suits most beans; go hotter for light roasts and cooler for dark ones.
Water temperature for coffee -
Let it bloom.
Wet the grounds with about twice their weight in water and wait 30 to 45 seconds. Trapped CO₂ escapes, and the rest of the water extracts evenly.
Why coffee blooms -
Change one thing at a time.
Sour means under-extracted, so grind finer. Bitter means over-extracted, so grind coarser. Adjust one variable, brew again, taste.
Fix sour or bitter coffee
Grind size
Finer grounds extract faster, so every brewer is built around a particle size. Slide along the scale to look closer.
Open the grind size guideThe library
102 guides written for home brewers, from a first pour-over to pressure-profiled espresso.
New here? Start with How to make coffee, The coffee-to-water ratio or Every brewing method compared.
- Brewing 33 guides
V60, Chemex, AeroPress, French press, Moka pot, Cold brew, Kalita Wave, Vietnamese phin
- Espresso 16 guides
Espresso basics, Puck prep and tamping, Milk texturing and latte art, Espresso ratios, Turbo shots
- Beans & Origins 15 guides
Reading a bag label, Processing methods, Ethiopia, Kenya, Colombia, Varieties
- Gear 13 guides
Burr vs blade grinders, Budget grinders, Your first espresso machine, Hand vs electric grinders
- Coffee Science 12 guides
Caffeine by brew method, Light vs dark roast, Resting fresh beans, Train your palate
- Coffee Culture 13 guides
Espresso martini, Shaken espresso, Coffee cocktails, Syrups at home
Instruments
13 free calculators, timers and troubleshooters. Nothing to sign up for.
- Fix My Cup Coffee tastes off? Answer a few questions about the cup and get a diagnosis, with fixes in the order to try them.
- Ratio calculator Coffee and water amounts for any ratio or cup size.
- Brew timer Step-by-step timers for pour-over, French press and more.
- Grind size guide The right grind for each brewer, with texture references.
- Water temperature guide Brewing temperatures by roast level and method.
- Extraction calculator Extraction yield and strength from a refractometer reading.
- Dose calculator How much coffee to use for the strength you like.
- Brew scaling Scale a recipe up for a crowd or down for one.
- Serving size converter Convert recipes between mug and cup sizes.
- Bean cost calculator What a cup, a batch or a month of coffee really costs.
- Water mixing calculator Mineral additions for brewing water made from distilled.
- Flavor wheel matcher Name the flavors you taste and learn how to push or pull them.
- Altitude brewing adjuster Adjust your brew for lower boiling points at altitude.
Roasters
47 roasters across 8 countries, with what they roast, where they ship and how to order. Each bean below is one roaster.
- Australia 11
- United States 8
- United Kingdom 8
- Canada 6
- Japan 6
- New Zealand 5
- Germany 2
- Norway 1
Machines
24 brewers and espresso machines compared on price, capacity and what each one does well.
La Marzocco Linea Mini $4,500
Chemex Classic Pour-Over $45
Hario V60 Dripper $25
Rancilio Silvia $825
Breville Barista Express $699
AeroPress AeroPress Original $39
Bialetti Moka Express $35
Technivorm Moccamaster KBG $359
Make a V60 tonight.
Fifteen grams of coffee, 250 grams of water and about three minutes. The guide walks you through every pour, and the brew timer keeps count.