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Category: Coffee Trends (Page 1 of 7)

A Guide to Coffee Gifts- How to Buy Gifts for Coffee Lovers

Buying gifts for coffee lovers can be a bit overwhelming . The coffee gift space is vast. It runs the spectrum from punn-y cat mugs to the super obscure Bripe, a manual coffee brewing pipe. How do you find the right gift for a coffee enthusiast? Hopefully I can help.

How to Buy Gifts for Coffee Lovers

Finding the best gift for a coffee enthusiast starts with some observation. Not all coffee lovers are the same. Some are really into espresso, some are into pour-overs, some just really love good coffee. There are coffee nerds, coffee snobs and the ‘everyman’ coffee lover. You can start by observing what your gift recipient values.

A great way to make these observations is to turn a conversation towards the coffee sphere. Most coffee lovers will like to talk about their passion, so ask them a few questions. These questions can be simple, direct or more covert.

Where do you go from there? The more you know about the person you are buying a gift for, the easier it will be to pick a gift.

If you don’t know much about your coffee enthusiast, don’t despair. Here are some ideas from a wide range of the spectrum. From coffee subscriptions to coffee artwork, the Brewing Coffee Manually blog has you covered.

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How to Make Vietnamese Iced Coffee With a Phin Coffee Filter

Traditional Vietnamese iced coffee is a strong, slow sipper with a big caffeine kick. It is sure to give you an energy boost (and the caffeine jitters if you are not careful). I have yet to featured the Vietnamese coffee maker known as the Phin in my manual coffee brewing guides. Talking about the Phin coffee filter along with it’s most popular recipe seems like the best way to introduce it.

Below is my Vietnamese iced coffee recipe, some discussion on sweetened condensed milk and a Phin coffee filter brewing guide.

What is Vietnamese Iced Coffee?

Vietnamese iced coffee is a drink containing a highly concentrated coffee (brewed with a Phin) combined with sweetened condensed milk and served over ice. It is also known as cà phê sữa đá and is a very popular way of brewing Vietnamese coffee. If you have a favorite restaurant that serves Vietnamese food, cà phê sữa đá is likely on the menu. 

Phin Coffee Filter- The Vietnamese Coffee Brewer

The Phin coffee filter is the most common way to brew Vietnamese coffee. It is a small tubular brewer with four parts: a base, a body, a filter and a lid. 

Brewing with the Phin is a sort of melding between infusion brewing (like the pour-over) and immersion brewing (like the French press). You don’t need a disposable paper filter for the Phin, it is a coffee filter on it’s own. 

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Bourbon Barrel Coffee-An Interesting Trend. Is It Worth Checking Out?

Recently, I was corresponding with a coffee company and they mentioned their bourbon infused coffee was one of their top sellers. This surprised me. If you keep tabs on a few favorite coffee roasters or get the occasional promotion coffee email, you might have noticed this trend too. More and more roasters are advertising bourbon barrel coffee programs and featuring bourbon infused coffee. 

I poked around on the internet a bit and was bombarded with companies doing bourbon coffees. You can find coffee infused with Blanton’s and Jack Daniel’s. There are even infused K-cups (these are likely done with artificial flavorings). Good Folk’s roasts a coffee for Pappy and Co. that is aged in Old Pappy barrels. 

It is not just bourbon either. Roasting companies are featuring tequila, rum, red wine, white wine and plain ol’ whiskey infused coffees. 

If you don’t know much about bourbon barrel coffees you may have a few questions: How did this bourbon and spirits infusion trend get started? What exactly is bourbon barrel coffee? Are spirit infused coffees different from flavored coffees? And maybe most importantly, does the finished product contain any alcohol? 

Let me unpack some of these questions. 

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