The Journal

The Journal.

Essays on origins, on mycotoxins, on the ritual of making coffee at home. Written by us. Published when they are ready.

A Blaq Coffee jar in Emberwood orange on a textured brown ground.

Ritual & Sensory

How to store coffee at home

Coffee keeps best airtight, dark, cool, and whole. Skip the fridge, skip the freezer for your daily bag, and grind only what you need.

Glass mug of black coffee beside a clothbound book in morning light, is organic coffee worth it

Is organic coffee worth it? Reading the evidence slowly

Worth it at the farm, not in the cup. Reading the organic evidence in both directions, slowly.

Coffee canister with a blank kraft tag on linen, what traceable coffee means

What traceable actually means in coffee

One farm, one lot, one harvest. Why the chain of custody is what makes every other claim checkable.

Filter coffee poured slowly into a glass mug. The ratio, not the bean, decides the cup.

Ritual & Sensory

The coffee-to-water ratio that fixes most cups

Most weak or bitter cups are a ratio problem, not a bean problem. Start at 1:16, weigh both sides, and adjust by taste.

Green coffee beans spilling across a plain paper sheet, mycotoxin screening before roasting

Organic coffee and mycotoxins: what the seal does not cover

Certification audits the farm. Mycotoxins arrive during drying and storage. Only a laboratory tells you what a lot carries.

Carved wooden bowl of green coffee beans in warm highland light, Sarawak Liberica from Long Banga

Sarawak Liberica, from Long Banga

Long Banga, a Ragi polyhybrid, thirty-six hours sealed, and a cup that keeps changing as it cools.

Blaq Coffee Ethiopia Kayon, grown at 1,900 to 2,200 metres in Guji.

What altitude does to a coffee

High altitude means cooler air and slower ripening, which builds density and acidity in the bean. Here is why elevation appears on so many bags.

Coffee canister with a coffee-leaf sprig and green beans on raw wood, does organic mean pesticide-free

Does organic coffee mean pesticide-free?

Organic restricts synthetic pesticides but permits copper fungicides. What the certificate covers, and what it cannot.

Sealed coffee canister beside a kraft shipping tag on linen, where to buy Liberica coffee

Where to buy Liberica coffee

Under one per cent of world supply. Where Liberica grows, how to read the bag, and what a single estate lot costs.