Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Jon, I live in the short coastal region of New Hampshire. I grew up doing all sorts of outdoors activities and got really into sports. Today, I try to get as much time as I can outside moving, training, or having fun on the water with my partner or friends. I love working with my hands, building things, improving my house, and crafting projects (Sashiko, zines, etc.) I used to photograph concerts in another stage of life, now I just try to get to see a show a month or so.

To pay the bills I work in the marketing agency world as a strategist. It can be a bit opaque as to what that means, or what I “do”. In effect, I figure out the plan for brands to sell their wares to the right people, at the right times, with the right messages.

What does your brewing setup look like?

I have a lot of different brewing methods available. I got into coffee on a year long road trip around the country with my partner a decade ago, and since then I’ve kept growing and evolving my capabilities, both in the equipment, and in the gear. I don’t have the best of everything, but I have what works well and performs for our use case with only two people in the house. I have equipment for brewing and for espresso.

Espresso: Breville Duo Tempo Espresso Machine

• Normcore Spring Loaded Tamper
• Normcore WDT Distribution Tool (looks like a mini whisk of sorts)
• Normcore Dosing Funnel
• Normcore Espresso Measuring Cup
• Greater Goods Espresso Pocket Scale
• Home Effect Knock Box

Pourover

• 6 - Cup Chemex
• 10 - Cup Chemex (For when we’ve got coffee drinking company)
• Miir New Standard Carafe (I backed the kickstarter for this, it fulfilled something I’d been wanting for a long time, an insulated Chemex to keep my brew hot. This - thing is a game changer.)
• Miir Digital Scale (Great scale…BUT it doesn’t warn you when the battery is getting low and it will leave you high and dry mid brew if you don’t regularly charge it up preemptively)
• Miir Airlock Coffee Cannister (Coffee is only getting more expensive, and good coffee is never cheap, so I have two of these to keep my coffee as fresh as possible)
• Miir Pourigami (Good travel pourover set up)
• Snow Peak Folding Coffee Dripper (Works with Chemex or V60 filters, got this one when I lived in a camper van for a year)

Other Brewing Methods

• Aeropress Go Travel (Makes a great cup of coffee and easy to pack. I usually bring it on weekend trips to friends and family where the coffee situation is unknown.)
• Baratza Encore Grinder (Love this grinder, it’s about 10 years old now. I’ve had to repair it with some new parts a few times, but Baratza has great support.)
• Bonavita Classic 1.0L with Thermometer

What is you preffered brewing method?

Chemex is the go-to, though we usually use the Miir carafe for it now with Chemex filters. It makes enough for my partner and me for the morning and it keeps it till around noon. Tough to beat.

Lastly, any coffee bean recommendations?

Anything from Brandywine Coffee Roasters is a safe bet. Their Galactic Standard is what I’d pull for you for an espresso most days. Their Ethiopian’s are a go-to for the pourover. If you can snag one of their anaerobic Ethiopian’s do it, they’re great.

Revelstoke is a shop started by two friends of mine in Concord, NH and they do a great job. I always snag a couple bags when I make it up their way.

My favorite local coffee shop (Breakaway Cafe) also started carrying Passenger Coffee beans which has been really good.