Roasting controls how your coffee will taste

A world-famous barista's primer on coffee appreciation

If you think you can tell good coffee from bad but don’t know how to put the distinction into words, world-famous barista Nicole Battefeld-Montgomery is here to help. Her instructions for breaking down a cup of coffee rivals any sommelier’s wine-tasting guide.

Cultivate your coffee taste with this interactive flavor wheel

Coffee is one of the more complex things humans consume, and taste can vary drastically based on bean genetics, roasting technique, and more. Using this flavor wheel, you can more accurately describe your coffee's aroma by starting from the center and moving outward.

Why the James Beard Awards finally recognized a coffee professional

Jack Benchakul is the sole coffee maker at Los Angeles' Endorffeine and the first in the coffee world to be recognized by the prestigious food and drink awards. His attention to detail mirrors the level of craft cocktail makers whom the awards have historically praised.

'The Bean Belt' is where your morning coffee likely came from

Know how to tell your Java from your Kaffa? This quick explainer of major coffee-growing regions and their flavor characteristics helps. It breaks down the Bean Belt into three major regions: Central and South America; Africa and the Middle East; and Southeast Asia.

Different brewing methods require different grinding methods

With so many brewing methods—AeroPress, Moka Pot, and French press to name a few—knowing the right grind size for your coffee beans is essential. Danish coffee expert Asser Christensen, also known as the Coffee Chronicler, explains how grinding works and recommends the best grind choice for different coffee makers.

Coffee is made by brewing the seeds from the coffeea plant

The cherries from the coffeea plant are milled into coffee beans. After processing, the beans are dried and roasted.

Slow pour-over coffee resists the haste of 'espresso' and commodification of drip

Pour-over coffee involves what its name suggests: slowly pouring hot water from a gooseneck kettle over a funnel of ground coffee, usually requiring at least 3 minutes. This trend developed in the 1970s in opposition to on-demand drip coffee and "espresso," literally invented as an "express" option to save time.

The importance of volatile aroma compounds in the flavor quality of food

Processes such as air movement and heating cause food to lose aroma molecules, which studies have shown play a major role in our sense of taste. While losing these molecules to the environment leaves fewer to be processed during consumption to intensify flavor, it can also produce previously nonexistent aroma compounds or release previously trapped ones, altering or enhancing the food's flavor.

Revolutionary ideas were brewed in 18th-century coffeehouses

After the Boston Tea Party (1773), colonists boycotted tea and turned to coffee, with coffeehouses becoming hubs for revolutionary discussions. The stimulating import from the Caribbean helped shape the nascent American taste.

There's a grading room on the eighth floor of the New York Stock Exchange where experts loudly slurp coffee and then spit it out to test its quality

Since many agricultural commodities are traded through futures, testers ensure that the physical product that reaches the market accurately reflects the price. Coffee graders at the NYSE have to pass a four-day-long exam that's only offered every five years and has a less than 10% pass rate.

Coffee is, generally, good for your health

While overconsumption certainly has its drawbacks—hello, not sleeping until the sun rises—on the whole, coffee is fine, even beneficial, for your health. It can even help prevent serious health conditions, like heart attacks and liver cancer.

The Oscars of food

Every year, the James Beard Awards spotlight the best in food, media, and hospitality—often called the "Oscars of the food world." But behind the prestige is the story of James Beard himself: a failed actor turned culinary icon.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

Exclusionary ads can help win over customers, some marketers argue

Slogans like "if you don't like dark roast, this coffee isn't for you," also known as "dissuasive framing," can entice specific groups of customers, some marketers say. The shift comes from the perceived authenticity of a company admitting that a product is not perfect for everyone.

What's inside an Oreo?

If you look at the ingredient list on your Oreo packaging, you may discover that you don't recognize—or can't even pronounce—some of the listed ingredients, let alone know what they're used for! For instance: Did you know that soy lecithin helps makes oil and water mix? Or that cocoa processed with alkali becomes darker and less acidic? A food scientist breaks down what's inside an Oreo in this seven-minute video.

Watch experts blindly taste test Champagne and other sparkling wines

Champagne’s prestige typically comes with a high price. So is it worth it? Professional wine judge Dr. Matthew Horkey invites a Champagne expert and a producer to a blind taste test to find out. The individuals try sparkling wines from across the world and do their best to sniff out (sip out?) which is the real-deal Champagne.

Eggshell color doesn't indicate taste or superiority

Brown, white, and blue eggs taste and cook identically. Despite popular notions that brown eggs are superior, the shell color reflects the genetics of the hen alone. What actually determines egg quality is freshness and the diet of the hen (where grass and leafy greens lead to denser yolks). And freshness can go both ways: older eggs peel more easily than fresh ones.

A quick guide to rosé wine

What is a rosé? Rosé wines are technically reds, though they’re typically served cold and have more flavor characteristics in common with white wines. This primer explains the basics of the fastest-growing wine category in the US. It covers production and rosé-making regions and styles, along with some common tasting notes for each bottle.

Professional vocalists explain the mechanics of singing

Ever wonder how your favorite singer hits those high notes? Have you been amazed at someone bringing down the house at karaoke? The secret behind singing is that it's more technical than most realize. In this video, a handful of professional vocalists break down the basics to demonstrate how you can develop a more musical voice.

Exploring how directors decide where to place the camera

The seamless experience of watching a film is the result of countless aesthetic decisions, one of the most important of which is the placement of the camera taking the shot. In this 8-minute video, directors and actors weigh in on the factors that shape the angles of cinematography, using famous scenes to demonstrate their observations. Watch it here.

A photo's brightness can be controlled by the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO

Aperture refers to the size of the opening of the camera lens and controls the amount of light that reaches the sensor. Shutter speed impacts how long the aperture is open, while ISO affects the camera sensor's sensitivity to light.

Learn how to make a print like Andy Warhol

Warhol's signature printing style was a practiced balance of mass-production silk-screen techniques and deliberately introduced hand-painting and imperfections.

The word 'toasting' goes back to the 17th century

The act of clinking drinks and wishing fellow revelers good fortune is an ancient tradition, but the term for it dates back to the late 17th century. Although there are numerous explanations for its origins, the most likely is that people associated the act with the toast placed in wine, which provided flavor and absorbed acidity.

How your subconscious influences your decisions

How much of your desires and daily choices are truly yours? One of the most effective ways to influence someone's subconscious is when they're asleep. To study this possibility, researchers trained participants to be able to dream lucidly, a phenomenon that occurs when a dreamer knows they're dreaming.

Location is the most important factor for profitability in real estate investing

“Location, location, location” is a saying for a reason. From the neighborhood’s status to its proximity to its tax implications, location is among the most important factors for real estate investors to consider in transactions.

Barbecue is a cooking style practiced across the globe

How many ways are there to cook meat over a fire? Tons, it turns out. Every continent, barring Antarctica, has a local version (or versions) of barbecue. For instance, in Japan, it’s meat-laden skewers cooked over Japanese oak charcoal. Head down to Argentina, and you’ll find parillas—open-flame grills that impart a smoky char to the ingredients.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

The deadliest aspect of volcanic eruptions is often not lava, but pyroclastic flows—avalanches of ash, gas, and rock that can move more than half the speed of sound.

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.