The Pangea Brewing Guide: a smoother cup, any method

By Sam Salhab, founder · Updated October 2026

Most "bad" coffee isn't bad coffee. It's good coffee brewed a little too hot, ground a little too fine, or sitting in the pot a little too long. This guide fixes that in about five minutes, whatever beans you have today. If they're ours, there's a section for each roast further down.

Start here: the four things that matter most

1. Freshness. Coffee peaks between about 5 and 30 days after the roast date. If the bag doesn't show one, you can't know. (Ours do.)
2. Grind right before you brew. Ground coffee goes stale in minutes, not days. A $100 burr grinder changes your coffee more than a $1,000 machine.
3. Filtered water, a touch off the boil. 195–205°F (90–96°C). If you don't have a thermometer, boil, then wait 30 seconds.
4. Weigh it. 1 gram of coffee to 16 grams of water is the starting point for almost everything except espresso and cold brew. A kitchen scale makes every cup repeatable.

By brew method

Drip machine (most popular)

• Ratio: 1:16 (60 g coffee per liter of water; about 2 tablespoons per 6 oz cup)
• Grind: medium, like coarse sand
• Pre-wet the paper filter with hot water, then add the grounds
• Pour the pot into a carafe or mugs within 20 minutes. A hot plate cooks the coffee.

Pour-over (V60, Chemex, Kalita)

• Ratio: 1:16 (20 g coffee, 320 g water)
• Grind: medium-fine
• Water: 200°F
• Pour 40 g to wet the grounds, wait 30–45 seconds, then pour the rest in slow circles. Total brew time 3–4 minutes.

French press

• Ratio: 1:15 (30 g coffee, 450 g water)
• Grind: coarse, like breadcrumbs
• Steep 4 minutes. Break the crust, skim the foam, press gently.
• Pour all of it out right away. Coffee left on the grounds keeps extracting and turns bitter.

Espresso

• Dose: 18–20 g for a double
• Grind: fine. Adjust grind, not dose, when the shot runs too fast or too slow.
• Yield: 36–40 g (a 1:2 ratio) in 25–30 seconds
• Sour and thin: grind finer or pull longer. Harsh and bitter: grind coarser or pull shorter.

Espresso vs lungo. Same dose, more water. A lungo runs to about 1:3 (18 g in, 50–60 g out) in 40–50 seconds. You get a bigger, lighter cup with less body and more of the roast's sweetness up front. If a straight double tastes too intense, try a lungo before you reach for milk.

Cold brew

• Ratio: 1:4 for concentrate (1 cup coarse grounds to 4 cups cold filtered water)
• Grind: coarse
• Steep 12–16 hours in the fridge, covered
• Strain through a paper filter or cheesecloth. Dilute 1:1 with water, milk or oat milk.
• Keeps up to two weeks in the fridge.

Cold brew tastes rounder and less sharp than hot coffee, which is why many of our customers start there.

Dial in by roast

Origins rotate with the seasons. The roast profile is the promise: Hope stays light, Unity medium, Bold Respect dark.

Got the Discovery Pack? Brew all three the same way first (drip or pour-over at 1:16). Then change one thing at a time. Most people find their roast within a week.

For a smoother cup

Our coffee is already low-acid, mold-free and sensitive-stomach friendly. If you still want the softest possible cup:

• Go a step coarser and a few degrees cooler. Both pull less of the sharp, sour edge.
• Start darker. Bold Respect is the roundest place to begin; move to Unity, then Hope, as you like.
• Try cold brew. The gentlest method by taste.
• Have it with breakfast, not before it.

When it tastes wrong

Grinders worth buying

• Under $50: a manual burr grinder (Hario Slim, Timemore C2). Slow, but consistent.
• $100–150: Baratza Encore or OXO conical burr. The sweet spot for drip, pour-over and French press.
• Espresso: a grinder with fine, stepless or near-stepless adjustment (Baratza Encore ESP, Eureka Mignon). Espresso lives or dies on the grinder.
• Blade grinders work in a pinch. Pulse in short bursts and shake the grinder between pulses.
• Shared store grinders: we don't recommend them if allergens matter to you. You can't know what went through them before your beans. Our coffee is SPOKIN-verified Top 9 allergen-free; a shared grinder is the one step we can't control.

Keep it fresh

Do: keep the bag sealed (the one-way valve lets CO₂ out and keeps air out), store it in a cool, dark cupboard, and use it within 2–3 weeks of opening.

Don't: refrigerate or freeze an open bag (condensation), store it next to spices, or leave it open on the counter.

If you grind ahead, use it within a week in an airtight jar.

New here?

The Discovery Pack is all three roasts, 30 oz total, for $49.99. It ships free (free shipping on orders $35+). Brew each one with the chart above and you'll know your roast by the second week.

Try the Discovery Pack →

Already a customer?

Once you know your roast, a subscription keeps it coming before you run out, roasted fresh weekly, and subscriptions and memberships ship free. Skip, change the frequency, pause or cancel any time from your account.

Set up a subscription →

Questions?

Text us, email info@pangeacoffee.us, or message us on Instagram. If a bag isn't right, tell us and we'll make it right: our money-back return guarantee, no questions asked.

— Sam & the Pangea Coffee family