jameshoffmann posts
Posts: 274
Files: 167
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 w...
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 ...
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 kno...
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 siph...
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 wha...
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 t...
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 ...
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://gleam.io/1PhzS/win-an-artif...
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, be...
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 ...
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 fascin...
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...
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 vide...
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 c...
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 ...
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 MagazineHi 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,...
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 toVince 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 testi...
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...
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 o...
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 gath...
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, ...
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. ...
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 -...
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 ...
Video: The Secrets Of My Morning Coffee Routine
Another day, another video. I would stronglyrecommend 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 th...
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 sligh...
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 ...
