Coffee Blogs To Follow This Holiday Season: Part Two

The holiday season is quickly coming upon us. I spend a fair amount of my free time reading and I thought it would be nice to write lists of the places I go to read about coffee. When I started writing my first post, I realised that I could not fit every blog that I've read a few posts from this year in one post. To avoid trying to squeeze too much detail into one post, I decided to write a second post, which is the one you are reading right now.

If you have not already read the first post in this series, you can do so by clicking here.

Coffee blogs have been a great source of education and entertainment for me this year. Reading cafe reviews gets me thinking about all the places I could go after lockdown. I do not have an up-to-date formal list of places I want to visit but I have my eyes on a few places. I've learned a lot about home brewing from blogs. I hope you can find just as much enjoyment out of some of the blogs below as I have this year.

The Pourover

thepourover.coffee

Written by Fionn, the Pourover focuses mainly on coffee news. Each week, Fionn, who was originally Scotland focused before the author moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, writes a post on some of the top coffee headlines from that week.

If you are not interested in coffee news, The Pourover has more to offer. I spent some time reading The Pourover's bean reviews to help me understand how I could improve my coffee reviews. Although the bean reviews are older, they are an entertaining read nonetheless. There are a few cafe reviews on the site of establishments still around today.

Although I have only read one post in this series, Fionn has a Coffee at the Movies series which chronicles coffee in movies. If you are a movie buff and like coffee, this series is a match made in heaven.

Coffee Snob Blog

coffeesnobblog.com

With reviews of cafes all around the United Kingdom, Coffee Snob, maintained by Louisa, is a great place to go if you are looking for a cafe to visit. I've read a few of the cafe reviews on Coffee Snob, each of which has been a delightful read. I like how the author summarises their experiences at the top of each post in a few bullet points.

Coffee Snob posts always contain a good amount of detail, balanced with some excellent photography. Important parts of a blog post are accentuated as quotes, and each post ends with some traveller details. While I am not travelling at the moment, I could see the "Planning your visit" guidance at the bottom of each post as an invaluable resource.

Brewing Coffee Manually

brewingcoffeemanually.com

Brewing Coffee Manually, written by John, publishes more coffee brewing advice than other blogs. I've read many posts on this blog, from recent ones on mud coffee and barrel-aged coffee to older posts like whether you should freeze coffee beans.

I've learned so much about the boundaries of coffee from this blog. I did not know mud coffee existed until I read it on this blog. I did not think freezing coffee beans was something you should do until I read a post on Brian's Coffee Spot and Brewing Coffee Manually about the topic.

This blog comes with plenty of actionable advice for the home-brewer. For instance, author's post on mugs made me appreciate why I prefer ceramic mugs over any other type of brewing vessel.

Bean Thinking

beanthinking.org

"Where entertaining science meets good coffee", Bean Thinking is a coffee blog with a unique twist. Many of the posts are about coffee but not all: some of them are about science. This blog combines the author's passion for coffee with science, leading to posts which delve deep into many aspects of coffee from a scientific perspective.

One post I read, on the coffee degassing, featured a full experiment that tracked how beans degassed over the period after they roasted. The author does a great job of explaining the science behind coffee. My knowledge of science is mainly limited to that I have learned in the context of coffee but this blog does not seem overwhelming for me.

Edinburgh Coffee Shops

edinburghcoffeeshops.com

Because I am based in Scotland, I have spent a lot of time reading about the Scottish coffee scene. Edinburgh Coffee Shops has not been around as long as most of the blogs I've talked about in this series. But, they have got some great content on the Edinburgh coffee scene.

I was introduced to this blog in my research on Edinburgh police box coffee shops, which are exactly what you think they are. Some people bought old police boxes and converted them into coffee stands. An incredible idea indeed. The blog has a few interesting reviews of Edinburgh cafes, many of which I intend to visit after lockdown is over.

I cannot say for sure that I have covered all of the blogs I read on coffee. I have found dozens of blogs on coffee this year and I am sure there are many more I am yet to discover. This series is a look at some of the blogs whose content I have enjoyed. If you find yourself with some free time over the holiday season, check out one of the blogs I've mentioned.

This post was inspired by a post on cafespaces, another blog about coffee. Check out the cafespaces 2017 "Learning about the coffee and coffee shop industry" blog post for more websites about coffee to follow. Many of the sites on that list have not been featured in my own as I've tried to focus more on small-size blogs.