Check Out the Big Brew Board at the Coffee Company
A great way to take your coffee tasting to the next level
One of my big learnings of the last 20 years or so has been just how much a particular brewing method can impact the flavor of a cup of coffee. I think most of us understand that a coffee from Guatemala tastes totally different from a coffee from Ethiopia. But the fact that the same batch of Guatemalan beans brewed using four different methods will yield four distinctly different profiles in the cup is still, to this day, something of a “secret.” The Big Brew Board at the Coffee Company on Plaza Drive, at what we call Zingerman’s Southside, is a great way to explore those differences—so many combinations to explore, so many fun flavors to enjoy.
The Big Brew Board is hanging from the ceiling, so you can’t miss it when you walk into the shop. Brewing options and flavor descriptors from the crew—who are constantly brewing and tasting to compare—are up there for the rest of us to learn from.
For those who’ve studied the subject in depth for decades, this is hardly new news. I certainly knew at some level that there would be a difference from one brewing process to the next. But when we started offering the same coffee brewed in half a dozen different ways at the Coffee Company, I suddenly had the chance to experience the difference firsthand. What stopped me in my sipping tracks was the chance to taste two or three or even four different brewing methods of the same coffee side by side.
The Big Brew Board holds the key to making the experience both easy and interesting—six or seven different brewing methods, all arranged top to bottom on the left side of a grid, and a dozen or so different coffees arrayed across the top. All of which means that you or I can stop by the Coffee Company and sip and sample, compare and contrast. To make the main point again, the same beans brewed in, say, a pourover taste pretty different than the same exact coffee brewed in a siphon pot. Or a Clever or a French press.
A few weeks ago, the Coffee Company crew brought the Big Brew Board into the 21st century. I love chalkboards, as the Big Brew Board was for the last 10 years or so, but when the crew can simply type in new tastings every 10 or 15 minutes, it is way more likely that the board will be filled in with great tasting notes to help folks like me and maybe you decide what brew method to have them make for us.
For my taste, having this is an exceptional service to a coffee drinker like me who loves to taste and learn but doesn’t want to do the work (or take up the counter space) at home. Thanks to the Coffee Company crew, too, for bringing back what we refer to as “the third grinder,” which allows us to make the Coffee of the Month into an espresso. The shots of Honduras I’ve had this past week have been super smooth and terrifically tasty. Order one and raise a toast to the good work we can all do together in 2026.
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