If you’re looking for a coffeemaker that’s simple, beautiful, and makes a whole pot of coffee, meet the Chemex.

Let’s just get right to the heart of the matter—the Chemex brewer is simple, beautiful and makes a great cup of coffee—or eight. For these reasons, the brewer has a large and dedicated fan base. And it’s why the Chemex is the brew method we use at home.

That’s the short version of the story. The longer version is about your own needs and values when it comes to coffee. For us, we drink multiple cups of coffee daily, so we need a brewer that produces several cups at a time with a consistently great flavor. And we value simple, economical and ecological things, with huge bonus points for being beautiful.

What are your coffee making needs and values? This explainer can help you figure out if Chemex is the brew method for you.  

(We’ve also written about the Hario V60, the Aeropress, the automatic coffeemaker, and cold brewing. Check those out too!)

Your needs and values = your best brew method

For most of human coffee-drinking history, we used simple brewing methods that involved boiling water, mixing it with ground up beans, and putting the results through some kind of sieve. There were not a ton of options.

It was hundreds of years later—the early 1900s—when Melitta Bentz invented the first paper filter in an attempt to remove some of the bitterness of the brew, though her filters were not widely used until a few decades after that. From there, the world’s coffee making options multiplied, with methods that used some combination of pressure, steam, electricity, filters, plungers, and gravity. 

In short, nothing about your preferred brew method is a given. Instead, you can choose the brew method that best meets your needs and matches your values. 

Do you need multiple cups on a daily basis? Is speed important? Precision? The ability to use a kitchen scale to get the water-to-grounds ratio just right? How much storage space do you have? How important is simplicity? Do you have a kettle?

You get the idea!  

What is a Chemex and why would you want one?

According to the Chemex company’s website, the Chemex was invented in 1941 by chemist Dr. Peter Schlumbohm. He wanted a brew method that combined simplicity, excellent coffee, and art.

“Schlumbohm desired to not only make brewing the perfect cup simple, but also to have the vessel be a thing of beauty. Being a chemist, he studied and understood clearly the chemistry behind the extraction of flavor and caffeine from coffee beans.” 

It’s hourglass shape is designed with coffee science in mind to brew a great cup. And it’s probably the only coffee maker regularly featured and sold in art museums. 

Here are the advantages of the Chemex:

• It’s simple. Add a filter, ground beans and hot water. That’s it.

• It’s beautiful. You can leave it sitting on the counter and it looks great. 

• It’s economical. It will last for decades and costs less than $60 for an 8 or 10-cup classic brewer. Even if you decide to be fancy and buy the $150 13-cup handblown version, it’s a steal considering its durability and beauty. 

• It’s a pourover option for multiple cups. Whether you have multiple coffee drinkers in the family or guests visiting, you can easily make 6, 8 or 10 equally delicious cups.   

What about the special Chemex filter?

If you’re familiar with Chemex brewers, you’ll know that Chemex makes their own special paper filter. According to the company, they use “bonded filter paper to remove bad fats, bitterness, acidity and sediments that all other types of filters leave behind.”

Because CoffeeSock values simple, reusable, and ecological materials, we designed our organic cotton Chemex filters to work just as well as the lab-grade Chemex paper filters, but without the paper waste. In fact, organic cotton produces a brighter brew with a more balanced acidity level than paper.

Each organic cotton filter lasts from six months to one year, depending on how often you use it. And a three pack costs only $14. You can even buy a 3-cup or 8-cup Chemex brewer with filters directly from CoffeeSock!

How to brew coffee with your Chemex

With Chemex, you’ll start with a medium ground coffee, on the coarser side if you’re using their paper filters. 

For four cups of coffee, use around 50 grams of ground coffee and 750 grams of water. 

 From there:

• Boil your water in a gooseneck kettle.

• Dampen your cloth or paper filter with warm water and discard the water. 

• Line your Chemex with a filter and place on a kitchen scale. Zero the scale.

• Add 50 grams of ground coffee to the filter.

• Using a wide circular motion, pour about 100 grams of the boiled water onto the grounds and let stand for 45 seconds to one minute. This is the “bloom” when the coffee de-gases.

• Pour the remaining water using the same large, slow circles, pausing occasionally to let the coffee drip through a bit before continuing. 

• After pouring all of the water (measuring by weight) allow the coffee to fully brew and drip through. 

• Toss the grounds in the compost. If using cloth, rinse the coffee filter and hang to dry for next time. 

• You can keep your coffee warm by placing it on a glass stove top or gas flame on low.  (Don’t put it on an electric coil stove! Use this wire grid if you have a coil stove.    

How to clean the Chemex

Most Chemex brewers go right into the dishwasher. Or you can hand wash with a gentle dish soap. Be sure to read the instructions that come with the brewer you select. Treat your Chemex brewer well and you’ll have it for a lifetime.

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Kaffeeklatsch comes from the German words for coffee and gossip, and was long known as a women’s group that partook of both. “Gossip” in these groups was really just talk of domestic importance, which was talk of just about everything. These days, we might be missing out on the best parts of those informal gatherings. It’s time to bring back the coffee klatch.

If you were a man in the late 1600s, living in Paris or London or Hamburg, you may have been among the first to drink coffee at a European coffeehouse. You may have enjoyed a cup while discussing mathematics with Sir Isaac Newton or poetry with Jonathan Swift. You may have helped found the London Stock Exchange. 

If you were a woman in the late 1600s, living in Paris or London or Hamburg, maybe you too found yourself at a coffeehouse, though probably not, unless you were engaged in some kind of work. For all but the most wealthy of women, you more likely witnessed the coffee revolution from your home.    

As the centuries rolled on, coffeehouses and at-home coffee gatherings continued. In both cases, the location itself set parameters on the conversation. Where you drank dictated, to a degree, what you discussed. 

While coffeehouses specialized around topics such as science or business or literature, at-home gatherings, especially those hosted by women and for women, focused on domestic life. And here’s the thing about domestic life that still holds true today—our day-to-day life is as affected by the politics of the day as it is by childcare and our favorite recipe for roast chicken. And so women then as now discussed it all.  

What about happy hour?

It’s true that happy hour may be the modern stand-in for the coffee klatch. At happy hour, we gather to discuss the news of the day, our work, our home lives, our plans. It’s a time carved out to be in community, something we desperately crave and need. It’s also a time to drink booze, with a focus on “happiness” that doesn't always gel with our current realities.  

And there’s an interesting connection between booze-centered gatherings and coffee-centered gatherings that may have changed the history of the world. 

According to Michael Pollan “Before caffeine came to Europe, people were drunk or buzzed most of the day. People would have alcohol with breakfast. Water was contaminated with disease, but alcohol, because of the fermentation process, would kill a lot of microbes.”

In other words, before we started drinking lots of coffee and tea, and when we lived in cities without access to clean water, all of our gatherings were booze-centered gatherings. Historians like Micheal Pollan speculate that coffee changed more than what we drank together—but also what we talked about and did together. 

Drinking coffee lends itself to clear thinking and higher productivity. Drinking alcohol…doesn’t. It’s no wonder that coffee-fueled conversation tended towards big ideas and the means to see them through. 

There’s something else about happy hour that functions in a very different way than coffee gatherings. Happy hour is, by design, a time to sever ourselves from the stresses of work life and domestic life.

We are told we should enjoy a glass of wine or a stiff cocktail and relax. The concept hinges on the separate spheres of work, home, and play. If these spheres were ever truly separate, those days are two years gone now. 

Let’s bring back the klatsch

The coffee klatch doesn’t ask you to put aside life, and you don’t even need to be happy. In fact, you can hold a coffee klatch on a Monday morning before your first Zoom meeting.

The purpose is community and the topic is that which is on the community mind, from navigating school closings (again!) to strategizing a career switch, swapping plant-based dinner recipes, or attending the City Council hearings about the budget. (Really only one of you needs to go for all of you to be informed.)

Happy hour can still hold court for those times when wine and celebration fill the need of the day. Let’s bring back the coffee klatsch for its own sake and in its own place. To fortify our communities, strengthen bonds, swap ideas, inspire and encourage each other, and then get it all done. 

Maybe you’ll be talking to the next Marie Curie or Toni Morrison at your next klatsch. Maybe you’ll help found the Austin Sock Exchange. 

(Oh, and you can also make coffee mocktails if you want to do a happy hour/coffee klatch mashup.)

The Japanese brand Hario makes a popular line of beautifully designed pour over drippers. The V60’s shape allows you to dial in your perfect cup of coffee. Swap out the paper filters for cotton and get an even better brew.

If you’re a fan of the Hario brand or just Hario-curious, you’ve probably seen their popular line of V60 pour over drippers and gooseneck kettles (perfect for pour over coffee).  The V60 is popular for good reason—it’s beautifully designed, long-lasting, and comes in multiple sizes, materials, and colors.

We keep a sturdy plastic model in our camp kit for an excellent brew in the woods. And the design of the ceramic and glass models look gorgeous on a countertop and make great gifts. 

But the Hario shape is about more than beauty. It gives you control over the coffee grind size, flavor, and strength of your brew. To make it even smoother and avoid any papery taste, swap out the paper filter for a reusable cotton filter specially designed for your Hario V60. 

About the Hario company

The Hario company was founded in Tokyo in 1921 to make and sell glass instruments for laboratories. By the 40s, the company had researched and perfected their heat proof glass and expanded into making coffee carafes and other glasswares.

While the company has since expanded all over the world, they continue to make glass products in Tokyo.

In short, the Hario company has been researching and manufacturing high quality products for more than 100 years. And their V60 drippers and other coffee-making supplies benefit from their early research in lab instruments with an intentionally designed shape and look. 

What is Hario V60?

The Hario V60 is a V-shaped coffee dripper that sits right on top of a coffee cup or serving vessel. You add a filter and coffee grounds, and pour hot water through to brew the coffee. But that’s a super basic way to describe how you make pour over coffee. 

Check out our guide to pour over coffee for great detail.

If you’ve seen multiple pour over drippers, you’ll notice that the Hario V60 has a more conical shape than some and features wavy ridges down the side on the inside of the dripper. According to Hario, that’s more than a fashion choice.

According to the company’s website, “The V60's conical shape allows for deeper layering of coffee grounds, and its spiral ridges and lack of flow restriction allow the user to pour the water quickly for a delicate body or slowly for a heavier flavor.”

In other words, with slight changes to the way you pour or the size of your coffee grind, you can change the flavor of your cup to suit your liking. 

How to use the V60

To make a single cup of coffee with your Hario dripper, start with about 15 grams of medium to medium-fine ground coffee and about 17 times that much water, around 250ml. For two cups, double the amounts.

• Boil your water. Your water will be around 100 degrees when you pour it, give or take a few degrees.

• Wet the filter. We recommend you use a cotton filter (we explain below), but whether you’re using cotton or paper, pour your hot water over the filter and into the cup or pitcher. This primes the filter, removes the paper flavor if you’re using paper, and warms the container below. Be sure to pour out the water after a few seconds. 

• Add your coffee to the filter and bloom. Add ground coffee to the damp filter and even it out. Some people put a small “dent” in the center with a spoon to encourage the water to flow inward through the coffee instead of outward towards the filter. Using a gooseneck kettle for maximum control, slowly pour about 50ml of hot water over the grounds in a large circle starting on the outside and moving towards the center until grounds are evenly wet. Let it sit for 30 seconds to “bloom” and de-gas. 

• Finish pouring the water. Pour the rest of the water in slow circles, avoiding the outside edge or the very middle. It should take about 90 seconds to finish pouring the water. You can stop every few seconds if it seems like the filter is getting too full of water.

• Allow the coffee to drain through, and give the grounds a stir. Allow the water to completely drain through the grounds, giving a light stir of the coffee grounds after a few seconds to encourage the process.   

Experiment with slight variations on the grind size and your pour speed to get the coffee flavor just the way you like it. If you notice the water draining too fast, use a finer grind size. Too slow? Make it a bit coarser next time. 

Which V60 should I use?

The Hario V60 comes in three sizes. 

• The 01 is your best bet for a single serving. 

• Choose the 02 if you consistently want more than one cup or if you’re making coffee for up to four people. 

• Choose the 03 if you’re making coffee for up to six people—or two people who each want multiple cups. 

Can I make one cup in an 02 or 03?

Yes, but…. If you’re trying to be efficient and choose an 03 because you sometimes serve five people but usually only want one or two cups, be aware that the grooves and opening on the 03 will alter the way a smaller amount of coffee tastes. 

You can totally make one cup of coffee in an 02 or 03, but you’ll want to go with a small grind size and experiment with your pour to get it just right. 

Hario sells their own paper filters, why choose a cotton filter instead? 

The Hario paper filters are designed by the company to work with their product, so it’s very tempting to use them. But cotton filters make a better cup of coffee. 

Why? Two key reasons: Better flavor and less trash. 

Coffee made with cotton filters tastes better. 

If you watch all the videos of knowledgeable baristas showing you how to make the perfect cup of coffee, you’ll inevitably hear them tell you to wet the filter to remove the papery flavor. That’s because paper imparts flavor. Sadly, the bleached paper filters impart the least flavor, but at the expense of adding chemicals into the process of creating the filter. 

Organic cotton imparts no flavor and is made with no chemicals. It makes a brighter, more balanced cup of coffee. 

Cotton filters keep trash out of landfills

Humans consume 2.25 billion cups of coffee every day. Assuming that at least 1/3 of those cups are currently made with paper filters, we throw out about 750 million paper filters daily and 275 billion each year.

In one year the volume of trash created by the filters only (not counting the grounds) is enough to fill 128 buildings the size of the Louvre to a height of 10 feet.

Organic cotton on the other hand is reusable and totally compostable.  You’ll use your organic cotton filter for several months and when it’s time to replace it, you can put it right in the compost bin. CoffeeSock products are organic down to the thread. 

Choose your filter

Check out organic cotton filters designed specifically for the HarionV60 01, 02 and 03 drippers.

Shop Hario + CoffeeSock

Pour over coffee is simple, sustainable, portable and delicious. With a few small tweaks, you can refine your process to get it just right. Get all the details for your best cup of coffee yet. 

If you already make pour over coffee regularly, then you know the benefits it brings over machine-brewed coffee. If you’re new to the process and want to understand the differences between the pour over method and machine-brewed or French Press coffee, head over to our blog about the benefits of pour over.  

In this article, we’ll discuss the basic elements of making a great cup or two, and help you refine those basics to get your brew just right.

Looking for a recipe? We’ve got 101 brew instructions here and a <recipe for spiced pour over here>!

Start with the basics and refine

OK, let’s jump in with the basics. To make a cup of pour over, you don’t need much. 

• A kettle to heat the water. 

• Ground coffee

• A coffee filter that works for your coffee maker 

• Fresh water

Let’s dig a little deeper into each by answering the most-asked questions. 

Can I use any kettle?

Technically you just need a kettle that can heat water, whether a stove-top kettle or an eclectic one. However, it truly helps to have a kettle with a small spout so that you can more precisely direct the flow of water. 

A large spout allows a lot of water to come out all at once—which is great if you want to quickly get hot water into a cup quickly. For pour over, that is not what you want. To properly “bloom” your grounds (we explain this below), precision is better.  

Choose a “gooseneck” kettle

A kettle with a long, thin spout is called a “gooseneck” kettle. It works great for pour over coffee, and works fine for all your other hot water heating needs too. It’s worth a small investment if you don’t already have one. And you can find these kettles in electric and stove top varieties. 

Choose a “gooseneck” kettle

See that small opening on end? That will give you more control, allowing you to pour the water more slowly and direct it right where you want it to go.

What is the best coffee bean to use?

There are so many different flavors to play with for pour over, and no two sites agree on a “best.” The one you choose will depend on your preferred flavor profile. 

Here are the basic factors to help you narrow down your favorite. 

Blend or single origin?

A blend combines beans grown throughout a region or in different regions. A single-origin bean is just that—the beans come from the same region. 

According to Gear Patrol, a site that deep dives into hobby gear, pour over is a great way to explore single origin flavors.

Because the pour-over technique is effective at highlighting more delicate coffee flavors, you're more likely to be able to highlight origin-specific flavor differences. Similar to how wine tasting can evoke the terroir in which it was grown, coffee takes much of its flavor from the soil it grows from. In contrast, blends take beans of different regions and combine them to create a roaster's idea of an ideal flavor profile. 

In fact, our own sock papa, Robert, prefers “single origin Tarrazu, Chemex brewed.” 

Of course, if you have a favorite local roaster, you might experiment with their blends and benefit from their expertise.

Light roast or dark?

On this, most sites agree. Light roast better highlights the pure flavor of the coffee bean and is better for pour over. But again, experiment with flavor profiles to get the taste that works best for you. 

Pro tip: If you’re serious about finding your ideal brew, take notes! Note the origin, grind size, and roast of your coffee and how it tastes. Review your notes to figure out your favorite.     

Which filter should I use? 

We designed CoffeeSock filters especially for pour over coffee. The organic cotton filter results in a brighter, richer brew with just the right amount of acid. And while we started with a few basic sizes, we’ve developed socks for most brew methods. 

• Chemex pour over: Chemex makers come in multiple sizes. We use a six cup Chemex, but you’ll find filters for all sizes in the shop. 

• Small pour over drippers: For most small pour over devices that sit on a cup, you’ll use the #2 cone.

• Hario v60 style has a slightly different shape. And we’ve got a filter for it. Same goes for the Kalita wave style.

• Custom filters: Not finding what you’re looking for? We make custom filters too. 

What is the right ratio of coffee to water for pour over? 

We’ll let the experts over at Stumptown take on this one:

Using a consistent water to coffee ratio will help you with your dose. Then you can adjust for taste. As a general rule, we suggest about a 1:17, coffee to water weight ratio. In other words, for the Chemex we use 42 grams of coffee and about 700 grams of water.

This is close to the “golden ratio” you may have read about for a cup of coffee, which is 15-18 grams of water for every 1 gram of coffee. Again, play around to get your own golden cup!

Do I need a scale to weigh the coffee?

The short answer is no. You can “eyeball” your grounds and water or use a precise scoop if that’s your personality type. Some of our sockers definitely have a “devil-may-care” attitude about the golden ratio. 

Of course, if you’re going for precision in your experiments, it will be easier to play around with that ratio if you can weigh your coffee and water.  If you already have a kitchen scale handy, you’re in business. 

Place your coffeemaker on top of the scale with the filter already in it and “tare” or zero out the scale. From there, add your coffee grounds to correct weight for the amount of coffee you’ll make and then keep on the scale as you add water. Stupmtown gives you a great starter weight for a single cup of coffee brewed with a Chemex. 

How fine should I grind the coffee?

For this, you’ll want to do a little research to find out the right grind size for the coffee maker you’re using. As a general rule, you want a medium grind for pour over. Your grounds should look like table salt. Not a powder and not large sea-salt like pieces. But clearly defined individual grounds. 

Some coffee makers will use a slightly smaller or larger size grind for an optimal cup. But a medium ground works for most pour over methods. And home-ground, fresh coffee is best. But if you don’t have a grinder and don’t want to invest, ask a barista at your local shop to grind it for you if you can.

Should I use boiling water?

You’ll want to bring your water to a boil and then give it a few seconds “off the boil.” Your water should be between 200-210 degrees when you pour it.  

To start your pour over coffee, bloom the grounds

The “bloom” is your first pour. It allows the coffee to fully degas. Don’t skip the bloom! This method ensures that you get your grounds evenly wet and have a full flavor and even brew. 

To bloom your coffee, pour the hot water slowly over the grounds in a spiral, starting at the outside and working your way to the middle. Make sure you get everything wet, then let the grounds sit for about 30 seconds. 

You should see some slightly bubbling and rising action. 

After 30 seconds, use the same even, slow spiral method to finish pouring the water.

Put it all together, step-by-step

To make your ideal pour over:

1. Rinse and wet your coffee filter and place it in your coffee maker

2. Place the coffee maker with the filter in it on a kitchen scale and zero it

3. Grind your coffee, if doing so at home

4. Measure out your coffee at about 42 gram per cup

5. Bloom the grounds with hot water (about 205 degrees) and let sit for 30 seconds

6. Finish pouring the hot water in slow spirals until you have the right amount of water, about 700 grams per cup.

7. Pour into your mugs and enjoy

We cannot always be home and together. Through an ongoing game of chess, we stay connected, even when we’re apart.

In the fall of 2020, we were homebound when the wildly popular series The Queen’s Gambit gifted our family with a chess craze. In fact, so many people took up the game that chess sets (the affordable ones) sold out globally, probably the least predicted shortage of the pandemic. 

We played together, at length. Chess champions may play short games, but for a group of novices, the games could take hours. And hours, in the fall of 2020, we had. 

Our opening move

In the hyper-modern, screen-focused world on lockdown, chess was a true gift. An ancient and immersive game, it met some of our deepest needs during the pandemic, beyond mere survival. It gave our worn out and stressed brains something new, with simple rules, elaborate strategies, and a new language.

We set up a board on a corner of our dining table, and learned the unique talents and vulnerabilities of bishops, knights, pawns and rooks. We snuck off to study brazen openings and sneak attacks. We played in pairs and in teams, though I don’t think that’s regulation. 

For a while, we stretched a long-dormant muscle—focused and sustained attention. 

Until we couldn’t. Or didn’t. In came 2021 and, eventually, out went lockdown. In-person school returned and soon thereafter, homework and sports clubs and occasional meetups. Time became scarce again, and out went most things long, sustained, slow, leisurely and nonproductive.   

The family gambit

But we didn’t put away the board. 

We moved it. It got dusty. The cat knocked over the pieces, and the dog carried them away. But the board stayed out and opened. And every so often, one of us would dust it off, recover the scattered pawns, and make an opening. 

A chess board, all set up with one opening move, is an invitation. If it sits there long  enough, someone will respond. 

A day or two passed, and a second move appeared. Another few hours and there was a third. Within a week, we had a full-blown game in progress. We didn’t know who made each move. It’s entirely possible that someone played themselves. And it didn’t matter. The competition wasn’t the point.

Each new move that appeared on the board was a small gift of time and care. It meant that someone else had stopped in the midst of whatever else they were doing and engaged with this shared experience. It meant that the game, the experience, the connection had value. It meant we craved presence, even when we were apart. 

No endgame

As 2021 comes to a close, we’ve played through many week-long (month-long?) chess games. Each one is a victory for us—a little celebration of connection and a rebellion against the short-attention-span world.

I don’t know how long these epic chess games will last. I know that someday, I will probably close the board and put away the pieces. And when that day comes, I will thank every single one of those little avatars for reminding me every time they showed up on a new square, that I am loved.

When friends, families, and communities make small efforts together, the rewards multiply—for our health, our budgets, and the environment.

I don’t know about you, but we’ve been hearing mixed messages and having mixed feelings this holiday season.

Feel safe gathering with friends and family again! (But travel is still a little scary.) Feel free to shop! (But everything is more expensive or missing from store shelves. And for many of us, the photos of cargo ships idling in the ocean is really making us think twice about what we buy and where it’s from. ) The economy is recovering! (But the traffic is creeping back into our lives and emissions are at pre-pandemic levels.) 

If things are getting back to normal, are we good with that?

What if some of the most important lessons we learned during the pandemic can actually improve our holidays, our everyday lives, our communities, and the planet? What if small, meaningful, collective efforts can bring us joy?

How effort causes joy

You’re probably experienced it—a sense of accomplishment or pride, or a rush of endorphins or pure joy when you’ve managed a challenging task. 

I recently received a FREE treadmill from my neighborhood Buy Nothing list, and I vowed to walk or run at least five days per week. I don’t always want to do it. But every single time, about halfway through, I am proud of myself and feeling pretty great.

And this phenomenon extends beyond physical challenges. Studies show that meeting challenges through personal effort can make you feel more confident, stronger, and happier in the long run, even when the effort isn’t joyful in the short run. It’s true in academic accomplishments, in exercise, in building things, growing things, cooking, cleaning, making and more. 

Community efforts you can take this season (and the joy they bring)

Small shopping & gift giving tweaks

According to the Wall Street Journal, “Buy Nothing” neighborhood groups “added two million members between March 2020 and October 2021.” Part of the allure was necessity—with millions out of jobs, communities came together to help one another with food, clothing, and the goods of everyday life. 

But part of the allure was the community itself, and not all Buy Nothing exchanges were for goods. Many people gave gifts of service, do grocery shopping trips for those who couldn’t get out or rewrite resumes for those seeking a job. 

This holiday season, we can take a note from the values of Buy Nothing and bring that sense of community into our holiday celebrations.

A few ideas:

• Buy locally-made. No shipping container necessary for products that are made locally. And you’ll be supporting your neighbors. 

• Buy less, or nothing at all. Know a loved one who has worn out their favorite sweater, boots, or bag? Try mending or sending them out for repair.  Or offer up toys and other items in good repair to your Buy Nothing group and take advantage of a book or piece of art that someone you love would enjoy. 

• Pay attention to Love Languages. Thoughtfully purchased gifts can be perfect. But for some of the people closest to you, they may prefer acts of service or words of affirmation. Consider having your loved ones take the love language quiz. Use their results to offer handwritten letters, a clean house, a massage, or a one-on-one hiking trip. 

• Buy secondhand or reusable. I don’t know about you, but I’ve found some of my favorite articles of clothing at vintage, secondhand, and thrift shops. You can make an adventure out of it, taking friends, family, or kids to the thrift shop on a mission to uncover the hidden treasures. 

Small food tweaks

Eating and drinking is one of the biggest pleasures of the holidays, for kids and adults alike. During the pandemic, we came face-to-face with food shortages, the need to cook at home, and the missed pleaser of eating with friends. With a few small tips from the past two years, you can increase the joy of party food while benefiting your wallet, your waist, and the planet. 

A few ideas:

• Expand your side dish offerings. On the holiday table, side dishes are where we typically find the veggies. And eating more veggies costs less, is healthier, and is better for the planet. Check out these yummies and these for inspiration.  

• Eat more and waste less. We are big fans of making our own stock, which you can do with all the things you trim from your side dish veggies!  And this year, we plan to make dumplings with leftovers after taking this dumpling-making class from the Li sisters of Food Waste Feast. And what we don’t use up, we’ll compost. https://coffeesock.com/the-sock-life-1/2021/5/23/three-simple-ways-to-compost-at-home az

• Try the gift of foraging. If you’re one of the millions who watched the Netflix documentary Fantastic Fungi, then maybe you’ve already started noticing the mushrooms poking out of the ground around you. Of course, you don’t want to toss them in your mouth without knowing they’re safe. That’s where a guide comes in. Consider a foraging adventure as a gift or alternative to an indoor party. Hire a guide or take a course, and get to know the bounty of mushrooms, berries, nuts, fruits, and other edibles that grow right from the ground around you.  

Small transportation tweaks

The parties, the family gatherings, the happy hours and events! Travel seems like an inevitable part of the holidays. During the pandemic, we saw clear (literally) benefits from driving less. Many people saved time from not commuting, and virtually everyone experienced cleaner air from…people not commuting. And being outside instead of confined spaces, like cars, was safer. With a small amount of effort, you and your crew can even make the travel part your events!

• If it’s possible for you, walk or bike. With a little planning, you may be able to map out a route to your celebration by foot or by bike. And if it’s in the budget and makes sense for your commute, electric bikes are showing up more and more as a mode of transportation that’s much cheaper than a car and much better for the environment and the waistline. Even better? Build the walk or bike into the celebration’s agenda!

• If it’s possible for you, swap out public transport. If you have a bus or rail option, now may be a good time to see if it can work for you. Yes, it takes more planning. But it can also be part of your holiday adventure. And experience on public transit can be an excellent part of learning independence and safety for kids. 

• Try carpool, or even car repair. CoffeeSock is in Texas, so yes we drive cars regularly and have fewer public transport options than we wish we had. To offset our driving, we arrange carpools when possible and keep our tires aired up properly and our car in good working order. You can read more about the impact of car maintenance here.  

Small things, often. 

Have you heard of The Gottman Institute? Drs John and Julie Gottman have been teaching relationship skills for couples and parents for more than 40 years. And what does this have to do with small community efforts? A lot, actually. 

One of the key principles of relationships, according to the Gottmans, is making regular small efforts. It’s even the title of their podcast! 

And when we think about our relationships with our communities, our families, our own selves and yes, our significant others and children, the same ideas apply. Small efforts, done often, create lasting change and bring joy. 

What small effort will you make today?

Image by edbo23 from Pixabay

Yaupon tea is the only caffeinated, leaf-based infusion indigenous to the United States. Tribes in the southeastern states have been preparing and drinking this holly leaf brew for centuries. You’ve probably heard of its South American cousin, Yerba Mate. It’s time to get to know Yaupon. 

Here are 5 key facts about Yaupon tea.

Yaupon is a caffeinated leaf, but not from the tea plant

If you read our article on DIY tea blends, then you know that all tea comes from a single plant, the camellia sinensis, also known as the tea plant. But camellia sinensis is not indigenous to the United States. The tea plant is primarily grown in Asia, and the U.S. still imports millions of tons of tea each year from all over the Asian continent. 

Yaupon, on the other hand, is a plant in the holly family. It grows abundantly in the southeastern U.S., and it’s even used commonly in landscaping as a shrub. Yep, you may have it in your yard right now. 

Similar to traditional tea from the camellia sinensis plant, yaupon is made from the plant’s dried leaves. But take note: Most sources say you should avoid eating Yaupon berries. 

Indigenous people have been drinking it for centuries

Native Americans had been drying and brewing the leaves for centuries when Europeans arrived. According to our friends at Lost Pines Yaupon Tea:

Many Native American tribes made use of this plant, revering its energizing, healing and magical qualities. The Cherokees called it "the beloved tree." It was used as anything from a daily social drink to an ingredient in highly ceremonial beverages collectively called Black Drink. It was drunk before going into battle, entering into new business and making important decisions.

Other sources claim that indigenous people drank yaupon along with cacao in ceremonies and consumed the tea itself as a more regular beverage. 

According to the BBC Travel article, “Yaupon: The rebirth of America's forgotten tea,” “The oldest-known evidence of yaupon consumption comes from the Cahokia Mounds in Illinois, where the holly’s residue was identified inside ornately decorated ceramic vessels dating to 1050 AD.”

It’s related to Yerba Mate

There are hundreds of varieties of holly plant. Yaupon is one variety, while yerba mate comes from a different member of the plant family. The plant that produces yerba mate grows farther south, in Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. 

Mate or yerba mate has a long history in South America and is still very popular, especially in Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina.

You can calibrate the caffeine 

Most sources say that the caffeine in yaupon is roughly equivalent to the caffeine in green tea, about 60 mg per cup. According to Lost Pines, “Yaupon contains between 0.65 - 0.85% caffeine by weight.  Coffee is about 1.1% caffeine by weight.”

Of course, you can make it stronger by brewing more tea per cup of water. And, unlike teas, you can reuse your yaupon leaves for a second or third cup, with slightly less caffeine each time, perfect if you always want that extra cup, but don’t want the caffeine jitters.

You can reuse yaupon leaves because they don’t contain tannins like tea does. So, if you’re sensitive to tannins, this is great news.  

When you drink it, you’re helping conservationists and farmers

If you live in the U.S., yaupon may be especially attractive because it’s more local. No long voyage across the sea required. If you’re interested in local food, you might find a source of yaupon near your home.   

There are other benefits too. In some areas, like the Gulf Coast, harvesting yaupon helps farmers and the endangered Houston toad. Because it grows so abundantly, yaupon can take over fields and limit space for other crops. During a drought, a dense and dry mass of yaupon becomes a wildfire hazard.

We turn again to our friends at Lost Pines here:

“Most of the remaining Houston toads (only about 2,000-5,000 total!) live in Bastrop county, Texas, in the Lost Pines Forest area. Over time, largely because of human impact on the land, the forest has gotten out of balance and yaupon has formed massive, dense thickets, which are bad for the toad.”

In Florida, we see a slightly different story. According to the Orlando Sentinel, climate change has devastated some citrus farms. To help maintain their land and incomes, some farmers have turned to growing and harvesting yaupon.  

So, enjoy sustainably grown and harvested yaupon knowing you’re drinking more locally and supporting farmers and frogs!

Bonus fact from history class 

If you’re from the U.S., you probably remember learning about the “Boston Tea Party.” When colonists from England tossed all that tea into Boston Harbor, it made such an impact for a couple of reasons: No tea to sell meant no taxes to collect on the tea. But that was only meaningful because colonists drank so much tea and imported it all.

In other words, they either didn’t know about, or chose not to drink, the yaupon brew already growing on the local land. We can’t be sure why that is. But some speculate that people who wanted to continue profiting on the imported tea found ways to limit access to and knowledge about yaupon.

As more people lean towards local plants and ancient foodways, we’re excited to welcome back yaupon tea!

It’s portable, easy to clean, and makes an espresso-like brew. Here’s why so many coffee drinkers love their Aeropress—and how to use it.

If you’ve ever wondered about the Aeropress coffee maker, you’re not alone. It’s an intriguing little coffee device with a relatively short history. According to the company’s website, the first Aeropress made the scene in 2005, when it’s inventor, Alan Adler, brought his new invention to its first trade show.

An inventor and Stanford University engineering instructor, Adler believed he had invented a machine that brewed superior coffee. Plenty of coffee lovers agreed. 16 years later and the Aeropress has many devotees. And where there’s a popular brew method with a filter, there’s a CoffeeSock.

How does the Aeropress work?

Aeropress is a small plastic coffee maker that sits on top of your coffee cup and uses a filter and plunger method along with pressure to produce an espresso-like brew. You’ll use a fine-ground coffee, then stir the grounds and hot water for about 30 seconds before using the plunger to produce several ounces of concentrate.

The result is a very strong brew, which is just the way some like to drink it. If you prefer American-style coffee, simply add more hot water directly to your cup. 

How is it different from French Press?

It’s similar to French Press in that you pour the hot water directly onto your grounds and use a plunger to push the water through and extract the brew. A big difference with Aeropress is that you use a small disc-shaped filter, which some prefer since it removes any coffee grounds and filters out cafestol, a chemical which can increase cholesterol if you drink several cups per day.

Aeropress is smaller and more portable. It also makes less coffee, typically one cup at a time. But if that’s all you’re looking to brew, then consider this, from NYT’s Wirecutter: “This device, which has since been embraced by countless coffee professionals and enthusiasts alike, provides one of the quickest ways to brew a single cup of coffee ever invented.” 

It’s plastic. Is that OK?

The company’s website has a pretty cool feature showing you just how the materials have evolved over time from polycarbonate to BPA-free polypropylene.

According to the site, “The AeroPress has always been free of phthalates and has been free of BPA since August of 2009.”

While we tend to prefer the simplicity of plastic-free pour over methods, the Aeropress is sturdy and lasts for years. And it makes a very excellent cup of coffee and travels well.   

How do I use it?

We made a video using the Aeropress and our disc filter. 

What if I don’t have fine-ground coffee?

Several users have reported that you can use store-ground beans in the Aeropress. Part of the method requires you to stir the grounds and hot water together. If you’re not using fine ground coffee, try stirring a bit longer to give the water more time to mingle with and penetrate the coarser grounds. 

But is the coffee good?

This, of course, is in the taste buds of the drinker. Aeropress devotees will give an enthusiastic “yes.” And because you can choose your roast and decide on the exact strength of the coffee you drink, the method offers a lot of flexibility so that you can experiment and customize!

Do you use the Aeropress? Tell us what you think!

There’s a lot to love about pour over coffee. You need very little equipment and have maximum flexibility to customize your brew. If you’re not already doing it, here are six big benefits and two total joys to inspire you to give it a try.

 But wait—why is pour over even different from machine-made coffee or French Press? The magic is in  the method.

When you use an automatic coffee maker, you simply can’t control several elements of the brew process—like how hot the water gets and how fast or slow it pours through the grounds. And subtle changes to those elements change the flavor and texture of the finished coffee. In a word, you have more control over the end taste.

In the case of French Press, you also get the added benefit of a filter, which absorbs some of the oils and chemicals in the beans and results in a balanced brew. 

Need motivation to try it? We rounded up the top eight reasons people make the switch.

It’s so so simple

After years of having a big automatic machine sitting on the counter, it feels remarkable to have...almost nothing in its place.

You need ground coffee (of course!), a kettle, a filter and some way to hold the filter in place over your cup. We love our trusty Chemex, but you’ve got lots of options. 

When you’re ready to make a cup or four, just heat water, pour it through the grounds in the filter, then enjoy your coffee.

You don’t (technically) need electricity

OK—you do need to heat the water. So, if you have an electric kettle, then you’ll use a little electricity. But it’s not strictly required. If the electricity goes out or your travelling, you can break out the camp stove or build a fire and still have your perfect cup of coffee. 

It’s more sustainable

Because pour over coffee is so simple, the equipment is simple too. A glass, metal or ceramic dripper will last ages before you need to replace them, if you ever do. And if you’re reading this blog, then you know your can skip the paper filters too. 

Check out your sock options for drippers in our hot brew shop. 

Less waste—exactly the amount you need

Pour over is infinitely flexible and customizable. Because you have more control over the water and grounds, you’ll figure out the exact amount of each you need and minimize waste.  

Then there’s the filter—we toss out billions of paper filters each year. With a reusable filter, you’ll throw out less paper waste.  

It’s super portable

If you’re frequently on the go, this may be the biggest and best reason to love pour over. You can take it with you and always have your coffee just the way you like it.

Check out our blog on how to brew your coffee on the road or the trail. 

Easy to customize to your tastes

Experiment with coffee types, ground sizes, water temperature and how fast or slow you pour the water through. If you’re a budding coffee aficionado, you’ll have maximum ability to calibrate each input and savor the subtle differences they create.

For the scientifically minded, try isolating the variables and keeping notes until you get just the right formula for your own perfect cup. 

It really does taste better

We may all have slightly different tastes and preferences, but most agree that pour over simply tastes better than machine dripped coffee. That could be for a couple of reasons. The first is that you can get your brew just right (see “easy to customize” above), the second is the way pour over uses fresh water.

When you pour hot water slowly over the grounds, the water soaks through the grounds slowly, picking up more of the nuance of the beans. Then, you pour on more fresh water to do it again. So, the method deepens the flavors and tastes fresher. 

The method adds a sense of ritual

Some mornings, it can feel like autopilot—get your coffee and jump into the day ahead hoping we’ll be productive. When you have to slow down for just a few short minutes and pour water slowly over grounds, you can find unexpected joy in the stillness. You’ll feel the steamy water, small the fresh coffee, and have a minute or two to wake up and reflect.

That may be the biggest magic of pour over—what felt at first like an inconvenience becomes a lovely little morning ritual. 

Ditch the paper and never run out of filters again.

We’ve all been there. You wake up to prep a pot of coffee in a standard auto-drip coffee maker, you reach for the pack of filters and...it’s empty. Not a single stray filter hiding anywhere. You start looking  around for something—anything—you could plausibly use as a filter. Anything to keep you from putting on pants to head to the store. Not to be dramatic, but it really is the worst.

Even if you typically use a pour over or French press, you’ll likely find yourself using an auto-drip at some point. If you have guests over and need a larger batch, or when you’re in a vacation rental with an old-school brewer, you can swap the paper filters for cotton. 

Here, we answer the questions we usually get about making the switch.

Does a cotton filter work as well as paper?

Yes! In fact, we think it works better. Here’s why.

Organic cotton adds no flavor to your brew, unlike most paper filters. The flavor of the beans takes center stage. Cotton also traps more of the oils from your beans than French press, but less than with paper, which results in a more balanced brew. You’ll taste the difference.

Of course, you can reuse the cotton filters as well. So you’ll save money and keep trash out of landfills. 

But isn’t paper compostable too?

Technically, yes, most paper is compostable. But most paper also contains chemicals like bleach that leach into the compost. Even the premium filters may contain chemicals from processing. And of course, every paper filter originated as part of a tree.

For dry paper, you can also recycle, but recycling requires chemicals too. And while both paper and cotton production uses land and water, reusable and compostable cotton keeps more trash off of the ground and out of the water. 

What about metal filters?

To reuse is always better than to throw away, so a high-quality metal filter is better than paper in that respect. The trouble is, most metal filters don’t have a tight enough weave to filter out enough oils or other chemical compounds that you don’t want in your cup. And they typically have plastic parts, making them trash that doesn’t compost or recycle when the time comes to replace them. 

CoffeeSock basket filter.

Basket, #2, #4, or #6—which cotton filter should I use?

This will depend on your machine. Our basket filter is made to fit the standard, 3-6 cup, auto-drip machine with a rounded basket. If your machine has a cone-shaped basket, you’ll want a cone filter. The #2 is the smallest and usually meant for a pour over dripper. Try the #4 for a small machine or the #6 for a larger machine. 

Check out these hot brew filter options.

But what if I do run out?

With a cotton filter, you just need to compost the grounds, as usual, rinse the filter clean, then hang it to dry and use it again. You can typically use a CoffeeSock cotton filter for 6 months or more. When oils build up in the filer, simply boil it in water for 10 minutes and drip dry.

You’ll have plenty of advanced warning when you need to reorder, so you really should never be out. Each box comes with two filters, so order your next box when you start the second. Better yet, grab and extra box and put in your travel bag for the next vacation brew machine you encounter.

When you get stay in your PJs and out of the store, you’ll thank us!

Need help figuring out which filter you need? 

Email us at coffeesock@coffeesock.com! We’ll help you pick the filter that best for your brew method.

The world loves tea. Besides water, people drink more tea than any other beverage. It’s no surprise, since tea has been around for more than 2000 years—some say much longer.

Since tea is really just the dried leaves of a plant, it doesn’t take modern processes to produce an herbal blend and steep it in hot water. Whether you’re using the dried leaves of the tea plant, or an infusion of other plants, it’s actually pretty simple to make it yourself with a few of your favorite flavors.

This guide walks you through the basics to make your own signature tea blend.

In this article

• What makes is tea? Are herbal drinks tea?

• Building a tea blend

• Drying your ingredients

• Getting your mix right

• How to store your dried tea

• Brew methods for loose tea blend

First—what is tea?

To be totally honest, I was surprised to find out that all tea comes from a single plant—except many herbal blends (more on those in a minute). Tea, by definition, is a drink made from the dried leaves of the camellia sinensis plant—A.K.A the “tea plant.”

Green tea?  It’s from the camellia sinensis plant. And Oolong? It’s from the camellia sinensis plant. White tea though? Camellia sinensis. Same with Darjeeling, Ceylon, Earl Gray, English Breakfast, and...you get the picture.

So what’s the difference? The difference is where the plant is grown and how the dried leaves are processed. Different regions have different climates and soil, which naturally produces a slightly different plant. And of course, humans have long chosen their favorite crops to replant and reproduce. This is a key way we get teas (and wines and coffees) with different flavor profiles.

And local growers have developed their own methods for drying and processing the leaves, resulting in leaves of different colors and flavors. Pretty cool, huh?

Herbal “tea” isn’t tea—but we call it that

As for herbal “tea”—it’s not technically tea if it doesn’t contain the key ingredient. Herbal blends are typically infusions of fruits, flowers, herbs, and spices. Think peppermint, lavender, camomile flowers, orange, ginger, and so on.

Armed with this basic knowledge, your next step is to decide what you want to use in your blend.

Yes, there are other kinds too

If you know your teas, you’re probably thinking “what about fermented teas, and Rooibos and...” Yes, there are other plant varieties and blends we commonly call tea. And tea growers, producers, and aficionados are always finding new ways to produce, brew, and enjoy them. It’s more than we’ll dive into in this article, but there’s a fun and nerdy tea world out there if you care to explore. 

Building a tea blend

You don’t actually need anything other than dried tea leaves. If that’s your favorite way to drink it, then we recommend you find the highest quality dried leaves you can find in the varietal you prefer.

If you want to build your own blend, then let’s talk about flavor profiles. 

What’s a flavor profile?

Do you prefer smooth, spicy, floral, fruity, or herby? Are you a chamomile fan or do you go for mint? Maybe raspberry is your jam? (Pun intended, sorry.)

To build your blend in the flavors you like, you need to choose the ingredients that work with the flavor profile.

Here are a few examples.

• For a fruity blend: Try dried berries, citrus peel, pear, or apple. 

• For something spicy: Grab cinnamon sticks, dried ginger, cardamom, or cayenne.

• For an herby brew: Go for dried flowers such as chamomile, echinacea, or sage.

• For floral or minty: Dried mint is an obvious choice here, and you have several mint varieties to choose from. You can also go for lavender, rosemary, or rose.  

Select the ingredients you want to try from the grocery store, farmer’s market, or your own backyard garden. Then, it’s time to dry them. 

Drying your ingredients

To turn fresh fruits or herbs into a tea blend, you’ll have to dry it all out. That’s not the same as cooking it—though it does involve heat. To get everything dry, you need to remove the natural water. 

If you have access to a dehydrator, that’s great! But you don’t need one. For drying herbs, we’ve got a simple 101 over on our recipes page. 

For other ingredients, like lemon or orange peel, you can use the low-temp oven method described over at The Spruce Eats.

Getting your mix right

Once you’ve got your dried ingredients, it’s time to put together your mix. Here’s where your math skills will come in handy. We know that you want 1-2 teaspoons of your dried mix for a cup of tea. So, you can scale up from there to decide how much tea you want to store for later use. 

One cup has 48 teaspoons in it—about 25-30 cups of tea. So, to keep things simple, we’ll work with one cup in our examples. But you can adjust to the amount that works for you.  

A caffeinated brew 

If you want a tea tea, you’ll need those dried camellia sinensis leaves. Yes, you can grow the plant yourself, but it’s not as common as the other ingredients you’ll work with. So, you may need to purchase dried tea leaves for this. Choose the tea you like best. You can purchase bulk dried tea leaves in many stores or online.

Keep in mind that some are strong than others. Green and Oolong varieties play nicely with more delicate herbs. Black teas may work better with stronger flavors, like citrus, mint, or cinnamon.

You can also blend the tea varieties too for a mix of black, green, and herbs, for example.

Ratio of tea to herb

In general, we like a 2:1 ratio of tea leaves to herbs. For one cup, that means ⅔ cup of tea leaves and ⅓ cup of herbs. But you should experiment. 

A few to try:

• DIY Lady Gray: Earl Gray tea mixed with dried citrus.

• Minty Green: Add dried mint to green tea. I love a hint of chamomile here too. 

• Chai Spice: Mix black tea with cardamom, ginger, and cinnamon.  

Herbal blends

Herbals are a little different and there’s no magic formula. Simple choose the ingredients you like and blend them in the strength you like. But we’ll get you started with a few examples. 

• Try our Hibiscus tea recipe. We’ve got it put together for sun tea in a pitcher. But you can store the dried blend for hot te too. 

• Or try one of these eight options such as ginger tea or herbal chai.

How to store your dried tea

We love a mason jar—but any airtight container will do the trick, especially if you’ll drink the tea regularly. The key is that you don’t want tea leaves to get any oxygen—it will change the flavor since oxygen is one of the key ways tea gets processed. 

If you think you’re tea will sit for a long time, consider vacuum sealing or a container that you can hermetically seal. Keep this in mind if you plan to harvest your summer herbs and give tea to  friends and family for the holidays!

According to Tea Epicure, you need to keep your sealed tea from light, odors, and heat too. A cool, dry, dark spot is best. It’s not as simple as storing in the fridge or freezer. Check out their blog about how to store tea.

From the blog:

“Storing tea can be very simple. If you keep your tea in an airtight container and then store your container in a dark, cool, dry place free from strong odors, you will likely consume it before any degradation in aroma or taste occurs. However, tea is constantly deteriorating, very slowly, as soon as the leaves are picked off the plant.” 

Brew methods for loose tea

It’s finally time to make yourself a cup! What are the best methods for brewing loose tea? As with most things, you have options.

For hot brew

For tea, as coffee, it’s all about gathering the loose bits, allowing them to sit in hot water for a couple of minutes, and then removing them from the water without any leftover particles floating around. To do that without purchasing pre-bagged tea, try one of these methods.

• A tea sock is like a coffee sock, made the right size and weave for tea leaves. For dried herbs approximately the same size as tea leaves, use a tea sock. For larger herbals, try the infusion filter. For cold brewed tea, there’s a larger filter for that too!

• Lots of people use a tea ball to gather loose tea and steep. This typically resembles tongs with a mesh ball at the end. Simply place your tea inside, close the ball tightly, and steep.

• A tea strainer is more like basket brewed coffee. You place the loose tea in the basket and let it sit in hot water, then remove the basket and compost the leaves. You can also use a cheesecloth or similar cloth strainer to pour your brewed tea through and capture the loose bits.

FOR COLD BREWED TEA

Like cold brewed coffee, to cold brew tea, you let the tea steep in cold water rather than hot. This method allows you to easily brew a full batch of tea without heating the stove. Some say this method produces a richer flavor as the herbs and leaves steep more slowly. 

• There’s a tea sock made just for this method!

• You can use the tea sock to make sun tea as well. This allows you to apply some heat, depending on how sunny and warm the day is. 

• Again, you can use a strainer for this too. We don’t recommend the back type for cold brewed tea. But a cloth strainer works fine. It’s like using a sock, but at the end of the process rather than the beginning. 

We hope you find this guide useful! Have suggestions? Send them our way!

Get your tea gear

Pick up a pack of CoffeeSock filters specially-made for hot or cold-brewed tea and herbal infusions. Plus we partner with several eco-friendly businesses to bring you Dona loose leaf chai or herbal teas and Lost Pines Yaupon tea. Both brands come alone or packaged with CoffeeSock filters.

Grab an 8oz, double-walled insulated glass mugs to round out your tea brewing kit. And there’s gift sets and wrapping for the tea lovers on your list, too!

Mason jars have been around for more than a century for good reason. They’re affordable, simple, easy to find and easier to use. Here’s our favorite ways to save plastic with the humble glass jar.

Strawberry jam in January is a modern miracle. So too is warm tomato soup in February. You can thank John Landis Mason for his part in these cold-month treats. In the late 1800s he invented the heat-resistant glass jars that still bear his name.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Mason jars were already everywhere—an invention allowing families to preserve and store their summer harvests. Even after mass-produced food became cheaper and available all year, lean times would send families back to the jar to preserve, pickle, cure, and freeze. 

Sustainable, affordable and accessible

And here we are firmly in the 21st century, the Mason jar still making life easier. And while you may not pickle or preserve, these jars are still modern miracles—mostly because they are wildly versatile and very affordable. You can buy a case of 12 jars for less than $20, depending on the size you want. 

One of the key principles of sustainable swaps is affordability. Eco-friendly and green products can be expensive, which means most people can’t afford them and therefore they can’t go far enough to get plastic out of our lives. 

True sustainability is community-wide. That means it has to be affordable and accessible for all. That is ultimately what makes Mason jars such a heavy weight. They are cheap and have options for the lid to meet most accessibility needs. 

And less plastic doesn’t necessarily mean zero plastic. Glass jars have substitute plastic lids that can make it easier for some to open and close the jar—and you can even buy lid inserts to turn the jar into a sippable cup.

Add a lid, insert or funnel

The key here is to reduce plastic, so if an accessory helps with that, we’re all for it.  

Our favorite simple ways to use Mason jars—no pickling involved

Don’t get us wrong, we are here for preserving, pickling and freezing your summer bounty. We’re even planning a blog about it. For today, we want to highlight the easy stuff. 

So, here are our favorite easy ways to use Mason jars to reduce household plastic.

• Store leftovers. Use the 16oz wide mouth jars to store leftovers for one in the fridge. Or grab a 32oz size if you’re making soup, stew, or curry to eat during the week. 

• Sip on the go. This was a revelation to me. After one too many trips to the local coffee shop without a reusable cup, I grabbed a mason jar on a whim and the barista was happy to fill it with cold brew for me! If you’re really next level, you can even put your restaurant leftovers in a jar. 

• Buy from the bulk bin. If you ever study your trashcan, you might notice that a bunch of plastic waste is thin packaging from dry goods like rice, sugar, dried beans, and pasta. Since you can buy these in the bulk aisle, you can fill up Mason jars in the store. Most stores with bulk sections are happy to let you do this. Mason jars come in standard weights, so it’s typically easy to know how much to charge. Talk to the store manager before you go to get the scoop on BYO jars.   

• Store absolutely anything. That stuff you bought from the bulk section? You can just leave them in the jar for storage. And really you can store anything  I’ve currently got my office supplies in small mason jars and a few jars here and there for game pieces, spare buttons, and dog treats. 

What are your favorite ways to use Mason jars? Tag us over on Instagram: @coffeesock

From a single person to a corporation, we can celebrate independence because of our connections. Check out these five famous declarations that celebrate interdependence.

It’s summer 2021, Independence Day weekend, and many will emerge from 18-month quarantines to gather again within larger and larger communities. No longer confined to “pods,” we celebrate family, extended family, neighborhoods, whole zip codes and towns.

Maybe your town will send fireworks up and you’ll see the spark of so many smiles going off at once. Maybe hundreds. Maybe thousands. Remember collective smiling? 

Why we’re celebrating Interdependence Day this year

If we’ve learned anything about our collective independence, it’s that it cannot exist outside of interdependence. And that deep knowledge is something to celebrate and build on. 

Humans come together in so many ways, and what we do as individuals, families, friend groups, communities and businesses all matters—to ourselves and to others. The pandemic in your state, mattered in mine. And the global climate in the east matters in the west. Heat waves struck Oregon and Croatia. Flooding threatened Michigan and Moscow.

We’ve weathered many storms together, and we recommit this Indepence Day to a life and business with connection at the center.  

Five declarations, for people, communities, and businesses

We know we are better together. And people have been saying so throughout history. From individuals like Fannie Lou Hamer and MLK, to groups of business leaders and nations, these speeches and declarations reinforce that none of us can be truly free without working mutually for the freedom of us all.

Happy reading! And Happy Interdependence Day!

For individual dignity and freedom

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

• Fannie Lou Hamer, Until I Am Free, You are Not Free Either, 1971. “These young people...are enabling us to determine some of our destiny. And is enabling us to stand up as human beings. Not to try to take the State of Mississippi, because tonight I figure if the State of Mississippi would become a hundred percent black, I would be on my way out. But to make it a state where all human beings will have a chance.”

For the environment

• Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, 1972. “The protection and improvement of the human environment is a major issue which affects the well-being of peoples and economic development throughout the world; it is the urgent desire of the peoples of the whole world and the duty of all Governments.” 

For sustainable business

• The BCorp Declaration of Interdependence, 2006. “We envision a global economy that uses business as a force for good. This economy is comprised of a new type of corporation - the B Corporation -Which is purpose-driven and creates benefit for all stakeholders, not just shareholders.”

• 1% for the Planet, the Be 1% Better Initiative, 2021. “The climate crisis impacts everyone. It’s just as much about social justice as it is environmental justice. It’s just as much about food security as organic agriculture. It’s just as much about voting rights as air pollution. It’s just as much about a global pandemic as global warming. If this year has taught our world anything, it’s that we all can—and must—do more to create a better future.”

CoffeeSock is a proud partner of 1% for the Planet. You can read more about our contribution, here.

Every business in the world is run by humans, and they all live in a community. And so many businesses thrive through global, online networks. So what makes a business truly community based? And why does it matter

The short answer is this—a community-based business thrives by its community and it helps ensure the community thrives too. It’s accountable to a place or a group of people or both.

In a business like CoffeeSock, that means supporting not just the place where we set up shop—Austin, Texas—but also the larger networks that form our community. From on-site employees and our local neighbors, to those farther away who harvest the organic cotton that makes up our thread and fabric to the coffee growers who sustain the entire coffee-drinking world. 

Support for the whole coffee-growing community

And those businesses too have their own communities. Take the Maya Ixil coffee cooperative in Guatemala. Not only do they supply coffee for communities far away, they also work with local families to strengthen the local food systems so that the community itself has what it needs.

Maya Ixil and the larger coffee nexus are part of our community too. And as a community-based business, we remain accountable to them as to our own employees, customers, and the earth itself. That’s why we partnered with Food4Farmers through 1% for the Planet to send at least one percent of our sales to Maya Ixil in support of a thriving community there.

Image a world…

Imagine a world where every business that supplies everything you need to thrive also ensures that the larger ecosystems thrive, including people and planet. That’s the vision and mission of a community based business. 

According to Food4Farmers, here’s how it's playing out right now at Maya Ixil:

We just received funding to start three agroforestry programs with our cooperative partners in Guatemala, Colombia, and Nicaragua, so we're starting home gardens for all 205 member-families at Maya Ixil! They're adding nurseries, fruit trees, shade trees, and native trees, along with investments in soil and water health to restore biodiversity, feed people and pollinators, and boost community resilience. 

Community-based businesses are accountable. They place care over competition to ensure the communities they touch far and wide can thrive.

That’s the power of community-embedded business.

You don’t have to settle for gas station brew on your road trip or drink instant coffee in the woods. Here’s how to keep it quality on the go.

Imagine the scene

Dawn breaks in the canyons near Moab, or over the busy Colorado river. There’s you, a few feet from your camper or right outside your tent, blanket over shoulders, sipping your favorite coffee from a canteen and watching the sun come up on a new day. 

And this one

It’s mile 1,000 of your epic summer road trip through the Blue Ridge Mountains and down the eastern coast. Perfect time to stop at the nearest scenic overlook for a snack and iced coffee break. Good thing you have both already prepped and in the cooler. Just find your spot and enjoy. 

Three ways to brew your favorite coffee on the go

Space is a premium when you’re on the go—so these methods don’t require you to pack a bunch of extra equipment. Choose a setup that works for you and avoid expensive coffee stops or barely tolerable road brew. 

We’ve got you covered. 

If you have fresh water and a way to heat it

If you’ll have access to fresh water and you’re already packing a way to heat it, a travel filter requires almost no additional space. 

• Gear: Travel filter and your favorite ground coffee in a sealed container

• Space needs for coffee setup: Almost none. The travel filter has a handle—so no dripping device necessary. 

• How to use: Add coffee grounds to the filter, hold it over your cup or thermos, pour the hot water over it and let it drip into your cup. 

* If you have a folding dripper, you can use that too with the filter size that fits. Email us if you aren’t sure which size to choose. 

If you can’t heat water

You don’t need hot water to make coffee. Cold water and a cold brew filter works great. You just need time. So use this method overnight so you have coffee ready for you in the morning. 

• Gear: Coldbrew hiker and your favorite coarse ground coffee in a sealed container.

• Space needs for coffee setup: Small. The hiker is the size of a regular Nalgene water bottle and can double as a water bottle when you’re not sipping coffee from it. 

• How to use: Fill the filter with about one cup of coffee if you plan to brew 32 oz of cold brew. Scale down if you want less. Pour just enough fresh water to wet the grounds. Let the grounds “bloom” for a couple of minutes, then fill your bottle the remainder of the way. Tie off your filter, and let steep for 6-10 hours.

If you’ve got a cooler 

If you’re on a road trip or in a camper and have a cooler, you can always have cold brew at the ready. No need to locate a coffee shop or a gas station with fresh-ish coffee. Just pull over and grab it out of the cooler any time of day or night. (This method has transformed our road trips.)

• Gear: Coldbrew kit of your choice (filter and container with a lid) and your favorite coarse ground coffee in a sealed container.

• Space needs for coffee setup: Enough space in your cooler for the 32 oz hiker or (if you're me) a 64 oz mason jar. 

• How to use: Fill the filter with about one cup of coffee for each 32 oz of water. Scale up or down as needed. Pour just enough fresh water to wet the grounds. Let the grounds “bloom” for a couple of minutes, then fill your bottle the remainder of the way. Tie off your filter, and let steep for 6-12 hours (less for smaller batches). Overnight is the way to go here.

What to do with the grounds while you’re travelling

Coffee grounds are completely compostable. Treat them just as you would any other food scraps on your trip. 

If you need to use an animal proof container for feed, consider a separate wire mesh bag for scraps, including your coffee grounds. And if you can set your grounds out to dry before tossing them in the bag, they’ll be lighter.

Coffee grounds have chemical elements that are great for gardens and soil but, paradoxically, not so great in the landfill. If you’re tossing those grounds in the trash, try out these three simple methods instead. 

No matter what brew method you’re using for coffee, you’ll have wet coffee grounds to contend with when you’re done. According to experts, we discard six million tons of used grounds worldwide each year (1). 

And while it may be surprising, coffee grounds can cause problems when they go into a landfill.

In most homes—large and small—there’s a way to compost your coffee grounds, either directly into your soil, through your city’s composting system, or with a small at-home system. 

Why grounds shouldn’t go into the landfill

Here’s the thing—even though coffee breaks down, that doesn’t mean it’s safe to go into your trash can. In the landfill, the wet grounds emit methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas. And since air doesn’t really flow through the landfill and there are literally tons of grounds, this can cause a real problem.

Yes, coffee grounds emit methane in compost too (compost itself does), but the key difference is that compost gets mixed with air and other organic material, which decreases the methane and increases the carbon dioxide.

In less sciency terms—airflow = good for decomposing organic waste like wet grounds = good for the earth. 

What is composting? The short answer.

To way oversimplify—natural things die, break down, and eventually turn to soil or dust. It happens to leaves and sea shells and bugs and basically all plants and animals. When organic material decomposes and turns into something that looks like soil, it’s called compost and it’s full of nutrients that are great for your soil and garden.

It’s a natural way that the earth renews itself, using dead organisms to fertilize and grow new ones. And it’s a process you can help along at home by using a composting system.

Three simple ways to compost at home

If you don’t currently compost, you may have images of a large barrel filled with rotting food and dirt, sitting around smelling like...poop. And yeah - that’s one way to do it. But that’s not realistic for most people.

Here are three much simpler ways to compost coffee grounds at home—and other food scraps while you’re at it.

Put wet grounds directly in the soil. 

This method is all about small amounts. Remember that airflow = good, allowing the grounds to decompose and mix with your soil, adding nitrogen. So try sprinkling wet grounds on garden soil or in your container plants to enrich the soil.

You may have read that coffee is acidic—and fresh, unused grounds are both acidic and still contain caffeine. Some plants love the extra acid, but others not so much. Used grounds are more neutral and without the caffeine, so it works for a large variety of soils and plants.

This article by The Spruce also explains how to make a fertilizing “tea” with used grounds.  

Ask your city

In many cities worldwide, you can now deliver your food scraps and yard waste right to the curb alongside the recycling and trash bins. In the U.S., citywide composting services have more than doubled in the last decade.

If you live in a city that does not offer curbside composting, ask for it! You may be surprised to learn that your city does offer composting in specific locations if you’re willing to drive your bin a few miles every couple of weeks. 

Use a home composter

If you don’t have a city option or you would prefer to compost yourself, there are plenty of options for composting at home. You can find at-home systems for any budget and any space.

Need an inexpensive composter for a small apartment? You have options. Want a large, outdoor variety that you can also put your lawn cuttings in? You have options. 

Check out these picks from The Spruce and Wirecutter to get you started.

What to do with the compost

If you’re motivated to start composting but don’t have a yard, garden or enough plants to use it on, check with local plant shops, gardeners and farms. They may have a need. 

Or check in with your neighbors to see if you can share the bounty. There’s probably a patch of earth near you that could use the extra love.

From strong cold brew concentrate to smooth, flavored and ready to drink, we’ve compiled all the best tips for the perfect brew for you.

You don’t need a coffee maker or much in the way of special equipment to end up with several servings of a smooth brew that’s less acidic than hot brewed coffee. 

There’s no one “right” way to brew cold brew coffee—no recipe to rule them all. But there are some standard methods you can riff on to find the right brew to suit your personal tastes and preferences.

In the simplest terms, cold brewing coffee means steeping coffee grounds in cold or room temperature water for 12-24 hours. You don’t need a coffee maker or much in the way of special equipment to end up with several servings of a smooth brew that’s less acidic than hot brewed coffee.

Best of all, it’s already ready in the morning. Just stumble to the fridge, pull out your premade brew, pour and enjoy!

Let’s start with the standard stuff.

What kind of coffee beans should I use for cold brew?

The short answer: This one’s easy—use your favorite medium or dark roast. 

More details

You can use your favorite coffee bean for cold brew. It’s the size of the grind that matters more. (You’ll need coarse ground coffee. More on that below.)

Cold brewing brings out different flavor profiles from your bean. So you may find that you want a different roast for cold brew than you do for hot brewed coffee. Since lighter roasts tend to play up the acid qualities, cold brewing will mute that profile. You might love it, but most prefer darker roasts.

With a medium of dark roast, the cold brewing process will bring out the nutty and chocolatey flavors, resulting in a rich and smooth flavor. 

Feel free to  experiment, but we recommend a medium or dark roast coffee

Do I have to use coarsely ground coffee?

The short answer: Yes, you really should.

More details

To get the right grind, you’ll probably need to purchase whole beans and grind them yourself at home. No grinder? Many stores have one available to use on site, or you can purchase you beans at a coffee shop and ask the barista to grind for gold brew. 

Why is course ground best? You want the water to easily penetrate the grounds and fully steep the grounds. The finer the grind, the more likely you’ll get dry clumps. Finer ground coffee may also “over extract” meaning the water has pulled out too much of the bean’s flavors, leading to a bitter brew. 

If pre-ground coffee is all you can get your hands on, you can still make cold brew. Just experiment with small batches until you get a flavor that works for you. 

What is the best ratio of coffee grounds to water?

The short answer: If you want a concentrate, use a 1:4 ratio, or lower. For drinkable straight from the jar, use 1:8.

More details

When we make cold brew, we use 3 ounces by weight (1 cup dry) for a 32 ounce container of cold brew. That’s about 24 ounces of water and a 1:8 ratio. This will leave you with a smooth, drinkable brew. 

If you prefer to make a concentrate, increase the amount of ground coffee you use to make the brew stronger. So, 6 ounces of coffee for that same 24 ounces of water will get you a double strong batch at a 1:4 ratio. 

A concentrate is just that, twice as strong and twice as caffeinated. So, you’ll definitely want to dilute your finished product with water, cream or milk. 

How do I brew the grounds?

The short answer: Place the grounds in a cotton filter, pour enough water just to wet, let it sit for a minute, then pour the rest of the water slowly over the grounds. Close the filter bag and steep.

More details

If you don’t already have a cold brew kit, of course we recommend it. It’s the easiest and least messy way to make cold brew coffee. Because the filters are made from organic cotton, you’ll also note the difference in the taste. 

After you add your grounds to the filter, pour just enough water over the grounds to wet them completely. Then let it sit for 30 seconds to a minute. This is called letting the coffee “bloom.” It allows the water to fully penetrate the grounds so you won’t have dry pockets of coffee that don’t get steeped. 

You can also put grounds directly in a jar and pour water over it. Then you can filter the brew through a cotton filter at the end of the brewing cycle. And if you have a larger french press, you can use that too. 

Brew perfect cold brew coffee with your CoffeeSock cold brew kit.

How long do I brew the grounds?

The short answer: 10-12 hours for a 32 ounce container. Scale up to 24 hours for a larger batch. 

More details

The longer your brew steeps, the more it will extract. That’s great up until it isn’t. Just like when you use a too-fine grind, over extracted coffee tastes bitter. 

On a warm, sunny day, you can also brew outdoors or in a sunny window. The warmer the temperature, the lower the brew time. Of course, this will also change up your flavor profile, since it’s not technically cold brew if you're brewing in the warm sun. 

Here’s our general recommendations, though you can test your batches for shorter or longer to find your sweet spot. 

Brew your cold brew coffee according to your tastes using this general guide.

When should I add flavorings to the brew? 

The short answer: You can add fresh, whole spices while brewing (think cinnamon stick). For syrups or flavored sugars, add at the end. 

More details

Here’s where things get fun. You can play it straight and drink your coffee cold and without added flavors. Or, you can add your favorite flavors to the brew for a tailored and tasty experience. We love to add a cinnamon stick or two to the jar, then add the coffeesock and grounds. This imparts a subtle cinnamony flavor that really complements the chocolate notes of the coffee. 

We also like flavored sugars, though we add those when the brew is finished. Make sure to add some warm water to the sugar to melt the crystals first, the mix or shake to combine with your brew. 

Experiment with vanilla bean, anise, or your favorite whole spices. Or add spiced sugars or simple syrup at the end. 

How long will cold brewed coffee stay fresh?

The short answer: About a week in the fridge. 

More details

We’ve never had a batch of cold brew go bad! That said, your brew will taste its freshest in the first few days. After a week, you can certainly still drink it, but if the flavor isn’t there anymore, consider using the leftovers in cooking. Cold brew cookies anyone?

Keeping a well-stocked pantry is a little like investing in the stock market (stay with me here). You’re buying now in hopes that you’ll reap dividends later. And like the market, you want to minimize how much you spend so that your rewards are that much more rewarding. And, of course, you hope not to buy something that just sits around and goes bad, the financial equivalent of that mystery can that’s been in your pantry for years (maybe decades).

And we do think of stocking up sustainably in terms of investment. We want a sustainable backstock that makes it easy to pull together healthy food, doesn’t cost a fortune, doesn’t produce extra trash, and ensures we're covered in an unexpected situation (which are more and more expected these days).

If you’ve been following along, you know we’ve been thinking and writing a lot about how to stock up sustainably and what product swaps we can make along the way to produce less trash, especially plastic trash.

Trash Talk #3: Stock Options

Broth or stock is one of those pantry staples you always want to have around. It typically makes all the “how to stock your pantry” lists (like this one and this one) because it works versatile wonders in soups and stews and pastas and rice and, well, lots of things.

The thing is, most of the broth we buy comes in aseptic containers—the waxy-feeling cartons that seem like a cross between paper and plastic. As we learned with milk cartons, aseptic containers are not always recyclable or don’t get recycled if they are. 

And even in places where the carton is recyclable, the plastic lid is probably not. In fact, it turns out those plastic lids are consistently among the top pieces of consumer trash found in the ocean.

According to the Ocean Conservancy’s 2020 report (see page 15), four of the top five items found during their annual coastal cleanup are plastic, with plastic bottles at number three and small beverage and carton lids at number four.

Can we do better?

1. Ask your city. Find out if you can recycle aseptic cartons in your city. And ask what they do with the lids. In some cases, you can recycle the lid too, but only if you leave it on the carton or bottle. 

2. Consider canned and jarred options. Next time you’re in the market for stock, see what canned or glass options you have at your local shop. This includes jarred, scoopable bouillon powder.

3. DIY—It’s truly easy and so so cheap. It goes like this: Every time you chop veggies or spices, put the scraps in a jar in your freezer. When the jar is full, dump it in a pot, cover with water, and simmer for a bit. Adjust seasoning and strain. Done!  Yes, you can find more complicated recipes, but that’s the basic the simple and basic way to make your own broth. 

As with our other swaps—it’s not all or nothing. To cut back is not to eliminate. Some days are really busy and hectic and you need the broth but don’t have any made. That’s what you’re back stock is for. Reach in there and don’t feel guilty about it. Just make some more DIY stock when you have the chance. 

Because, now you’ve got stock options. And you're invested. 

The CoffeeSock gals cleaning our adopted beach on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Since the 1960s, we’ve used more and more plastics. And while we may attempt to recycle it, plastics end up in landfills, forests, beaches, and oceans. Despite recycling, we toss more plastics now than ever before.

Modern life seems to demand that we produce trash. After all, if you’re not growing all of your own food, you are probably purchasing it in some form of packaging. And some of that packaging is not reusable or recyclable. 

It’s not you—it’s U.S.

If you want to buy bread, even the highest quality you can find at the local market, the packaging is almost always plastic. Same goes for bags of pasta, dried beans, and even vegetables. And in the world of online pandemic shopping, plastic is nearly impossible to avoid.

So, even if you compost and recycle, you’re probably still filling up a trash can. And a lot of that waste is plastic.  

But you shouldn’t feel guilty if the pace of modern life—and your finances—mean you don’t have the time or money to buy reusable veggie bags, shop from bulk aisles and farmer’s markets, and scrutinize every package of every purchase. 

Most plastics come from manufacturing and industries that make parts for cars, planes, buildings, and machinery. 

We can collectively reuse, recycle, and pay attention to our plastic waste—but we also need the government to step in. From local plastic bag bans to national environmental standards, individual action is important, but collective action is key. 

Wait. Isn’t plastic recyclable?

Surprisingly, not really. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, plastics made up 18 percent of the trash found in landfills in 2018. And while that’s not the majority of our trash—it is the majority of non recyclable trash.

The EPA’s data shows that less than 10 percent of plastic gets recycled, though we make more and more of it each year. In 1960, the US produced 390,000 tons of plastic and recycled virtually none. By 2018, we produced 91 times that much, recycling only 8.6 percent.

And here’s another important caveat—even when we do recycle, we can’t keep recycling. According to NPR, “Here's the basic problem: All used plastic can be turned into new things, but picking it up, sorting it out and melting it down is expensive. Plastic also degrades each time it is reused, meaning it can't be reused more than once or twice.”

Unfortunately, most of the plastic we think we’re recycling ends up in landfills and waterways. 

What collective action looks like

We’re getting better and better at individual actions that make our planet clear and safer. Communities have sprung up around using less, reusing more, and choosing organic, sustainable, and trash-free alternatives when we can. 

As the pandemic took hold, we also saw bigger, larger, and more vocal movements around collective action and community care. 

For a world with less trash—we need both. So keep taking action in your day to day life to reduce trash. But consider these ideas for collective action too. But this isn’t all on you. It’s on the whole US.

• Call or write the stores you shop. From your local grocery to Amazon, if you want to know their policy on single-use plastics—just ask. And them ask them to consider changes to reduce the amount of waste they contribute.

• Call or write policymakers. At the local level, as for limits on single-use plastics, including plastic bags, cups, and straws. At the state and national level, ask policymakers to find ways to reduce the harms of plastic. NatGeo has a great primer on which states have plastic bans—and which don’t allow such bans.

• Donate to or volunteer with environmental organizations. From neighborhood cleanups to large scale movements like The Sunrise Movement, support the groups who are working for change. 

What to share this information, but make it entertaining? Check out Rollie Williams over at Climate Town.

It’s more than a joke—beans truly are magical. Toss cannellini beans in pesto and add some greens and sausage. Smash pintos and spices into a tortilla with sharp cheese. Mix kidney beans into minestrone, blend black beans and crema into a decadent  soup, or roast garbanzos in olive oil and paprika until crispy. 

Hungry yet? 

Beans are filling, inexpensive, versatile and yummy.  This you already know. If you’re trying to stock up and cut back on trash, what you may also want to know is this—should you switch to dried beans?

The answer is nuanced. It’s “yes.” And also “not always.”

Trash Talk #2: Bean Cans

Last year, we started a series called trash talk. In this series, we look at one common product at a time and see if we can do better, environmentally speaking. Since little steps can add up over time, simple product swaps can become a collective habit.

It’s been a minute since our first trash talk (it was about milk cartons, check it out here). But we’re here with our second installment—the bean can. 

As a reminder, trash talk has rules. We promise you two things:

• Sustainable swaps should be affordable and attainable. So, if we recommend a product swap, it won’t cost too much. In fact, it may cost less in the long run—and it won’t require a large investment at the beginning. 

• Swaps will be simple—no complicated processes or unrealistic DIYs.

Here’s the good news about beans cans—they are typically affordable, storable and recyclable. If you’re like most people, you’ve got a few cans in your cabinet right now, and they make a simple and fast  meal.

If you’re looking for affordable, storable, quick, and recyclable, you’re doing alright with canned beans. 

Can we do better?

Here’s the thing—dried beans are even more affordable and storable, and they typically produce less waste. It’s true that metal cans are easily recyclable. In fact, they are one of the most recycled products in the world.

Of course, cans themselves are not necessarily made from 100% recycled metal. They contain aluminum made from material that must be mined and then processed.  And while 70 percent or more of metal cans get recycled, plenty still finds its way into landfills.

By swapping in some dried beans, you can buy in bulk to avoid excess packaging—just check the label to see if the packaging you do get is recyclable.

There’s a freshness and flavor benefit too. According to Bon Appetit’s “Basically” site, soaked and cooked dried beans “Not only taste worlds better than their canned counterparts, you also get the bonus of a potful of delicious bean broth.”

We know—the soaking and the cooking though. It can take hours. That’s why we recommend you keep a few cans handy for busy (or lazy) nights. But if you typically default to canned beans, consider keeping dried around and soaking a big pot when you have the time.

Bonus? They freeze like magic.

In short, swapping dried for canned gives you fresher, tastier, and less expensive beans with less waste. But if you’re in a pinch, you don’t need to feel guilty about the cans. Just be sure to give the can a rinse before tossing it in the recycle bin.