$ beantag cup/1

Tag: cup/1

54 bean(s) match this tag.

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06:11bean log 2026-10-27

burnt ground rhinestones

2026-10-27 Tue: nuthatch’s cup and codekiln’s cup on either side of a starred divider, the SEY card, discussion, listen, sip, and grounds sniff

grounds & water

Lizeth Samboni
La Esmeralda
Sidra - Washed
Colombia

(bag)

new! distilled water

nuthatch’s cup codekiln’s cup
grounds 22.9 g 25 g
water 368 g 400.9 g, poured by 0:40
immersion 3:24 3:35
draw-down 1:00 1:00

discussion

War of Art
by Steven Pressfield
and Rethinking
Creativity
by Rob
Weisberg

listen

gitpa 26.10.26

sip

licious
riend
uice
air
slip
ubtle
onsideration
lip
entrant
irror
all
ecco
clap
reinforza
recay
colate
firenze
forest
must
drown
wilighten
aide

grounds sniff

[cup/1 · tuesday · method/easy-immersion · water/distilled · colombia · sidra · listening/gitpa · companion/nuthatch · companion/unicorn]

bean log 2026-10-17

pensieve

2026-10-17 Sat, pensieve: handwritten brew notes inside a red brick border, grind sniff comments, the pensieve poem, neighbors, and a margin crossword

grind & brew

Lizeth Samboni
La Esmeralda
Sidra - Washed
Colombia

(bag)

25.0 g beans

1.9.3 (↑1) on Timemore

purified water
248 g water @ 0:20
404 g water @ 1:40,
poured w/ spout,
clockwise spirals

Easy Immersion recipe
immersion until 3:20
draw-down until 4:20

patagonia no dams mug
Hario Switch w/
brown Hario paper filters

grind sniff

listen

Answer (2026)
Bibio & Dorian Concept

pensieve

unlidded calm aroma
sipping sweetened complexity
chocolate-sided squint
pulse of a flower
fizzing into wind,
the rough, the sigh,
the hemisphere, the right
air, tiny cinnamon
nails, vaporized
fantasy

neighbors

aking winds’
lavor: roma’s
licious gaze
imulates altitudes
ossible earth
co- minglings
magined priors
ixtures & estiny

       c
       a
       r
       r
       o
       toward
       i
l factoids
o      n
w      p
     xdependence
       r
       i
       e
       n
       c
       e

[cup/1 · saturday · method/easy-immersion · water/purified · colombia · sidra · listening/bibio · listening/dorian-concept · companion/unicorn]

06:22bean log 2026-10-15

quiet attention gleam

2026-10-15 Thu, 0622 quiet attention gleam: handwritten brew notes in star-bordered boxes above a two-column poem that curves from quiet down to attention and gleam

grind & brew

Mbature
Family
Kamavindi
Estate Lot #2
Kenya

25.0 g beans
and somehow
25.2 g grounds

3 spritz RDT
1.9.3 on Timemore

immersion time: 3’20”
draw-down time: 60 sec

listen
Erupcja (soundtrack)
Charles Watson, Isabella Summers
2026

quiet attention gleam

quiet

little figure
chocolate ripple
curled dimple
smooth brown
thin ooze
crystal ribbon
honey noise
gathers to
morning’s table
stable floral

attention gleam

[cup/1 · thursday · method/easy-immersion · kenya · listening/erupcja]

bean log 2026-10-14

sidra ascent

2026-10-14 Wed, Sidra ascent: handwritten brew notes, bag sniff, photos of the beans on the scale and the grounds in the filter, the SEY coffee card for Lizeth Samboni La Esmeralda Sidra, and the new bag and box

new bag

New bag from Sey:
Lizeth Samboni
La Esmeralda
Sidra - Washed (Colombia)

(new bag)

Roasted
2026-10-05

the SEY box stamped “ROASTED 10/05/2026, BEST AFTER TWO WEEKS”, the opened bag, and the bag’s round Lizeth Samboni sticker

SEY coffee card for Lizeth Samboni, La Esmeralda, Sidra - Washed, Colombia, with tasting notes, pricing details, varietal, region, altitude, and harvest

back of the SEY card: processing, about Lizeth Samboni, and about Sidra

grind & brew

Timemore Grind 1.9.2 (↑2)
Heated 450+ g purified water

bag sniff

very stubborn /
tough. quite
a little
workout for
hand strength

400 g purified water : 25 g beans
16 : 1

immersion time with Hario Switch
until 3 min 20 sec. Normal is
2’30” – 2’45”; going ↑ for
light roast extraction.

mug: Patagonia / ferris
with lid

Listening: Boards of Canada, Inferno (2026)

sipping

sipping first juice’s
slippery remoulade
locomotive stability
bitter chocolate puffing
tracing concentric rails
mountain ascent

echo
glinting nectarines
reflecting window
gazing widening
spiral gentile
sweet thrum
ascent

sight virga
smooth fricative
lick light
column holding
cry rite
dissolve salt
pillar spell
out blood
ascent

[cup/1 · wednesday · method/easy-immersion · water/purified · colombia · sidra · listening/boards-of-canada · companion/unicorn]

04:10bean log 2026-10-13

first cracked the puff

October grinds 2026: handwritten title over a black page with climbing orange roses

new bag

new bag cracking: handwritten notes beside photos of the white SEY bag with its Mbature Family Lot #2 sticker and the SEY box with its yellow coffee card

New bag cracking:
Mbature
Family
Kamavindi
Estate Lot #2
Kenya

(new bag)

light roast
from sey

a bestowment
from the
twinkling
eye of
the unicorn

SEY coffee card for Mbature Family, Kamavindi Estate Lot #2, with processing, family history, and SL* variety notes, framed by pencil-drawn letters

first cracked the puff

first cracked the puff: photo of the opened bag of beans, handwritten aroma notes, and the inside of the SEY box printed with YES

Listening to Brooklyn Rider Almanac, 0410 ET. The cello soars
in the sweet cream aroma of these beautiful beans, a crescent
that dives to meet anticipation. Belief can be the antecedent of experience.

is SEY backwards for
YES?
the answer isn’t no.

Aroma of honey,
issues of wood,
shadows of breeze,
hand drills of
fair linen, lavender
lines of asters.

grind & brew

handwritten brew notes with unicorn comments on the bean bag sniff and grind sniff, photos of whole beans and grounds in the filter, and a poem in brown ink

25.1 g beans
1.9.0 on timemore
3 spritzes RDT

hardest grind!
switched hands.

bean bag sniff

brew

purified water
75 g → 295 g → 403 g
20 sec · 65 sec · 3:20

immersion until 4 min 15 sec → Hario Switch
not intentional! water just
evaporated during preparation

draw-down
until 5 min 45 sec.

Patagonia / No Dams / Ferris mug
sipped with lid this time.

grind sniff

reflection

peel the gilded
berry of guilt.
go grind gratitude,
candy its density,
see the autumn
transform into wind.

sweet round hips
of sour round sun
peeking into books’
ancient sheafs,
dissecting the
seed body anatomy,
flavor heredity.

over her mountain
shoulder glance,
the shade in
bird song weaves
tesseractional
riposte to
the grinder’s
dark maw.

the whole embrace
whiffs of generosity,
while fastens are
unhooked, the milk
pours into the forest
in an inexorable flow
white rivers
seeking dark
cavern comfort.

[cup/1 · tuesday · method/easy-immersion · water/purified · kenya · listening/brooklyn-rider · companion/unicorn]

06:00bean log 2026-08-29

travelogue app

bean log 2026-08-29 sat 0600: handwritten brew and tasting notes for trader joe’s ethiopian coffee, russian mind listening note, and travelogue app sketches

grinding & brewing

beans: trader joe’s ethiopian
(new bag) (first time)
25g beans + 3 spritzes RDT

grind: 1.9.1 on timemore

immersion: 2 min 45 sec
draw-down: 1 min
mug: patagonia — barely fit
with lid to prevent spill
water: 400 g — poured w/ gooseneck

tasting

closer to dark roast, that bitter burn
edge, enjoyed, oral flowers, no tiers,
pleasant and gradual.

listening

oneohtrix point never: russian mind (2009)

thinking: travelogue app

basic idea

make it as easy and fun as possible
to reflect on, create and share
memories and experiences that happened
in specific places,
presentational format vs archival.

“back of house”

upload / import
record reflections
(write / voice)
curate / edit
return to a
scrapbook aesthetic

“front of house”

share
“comment”
add cards for
bulletin board
and yarn

design / aesthetic

simplify complex images
and map elements
with an illustrative overlay
that gradually fades
to the real photo / map
with each tap or scroll

illustrative styles are
themed with prompt collections
by default; they
increase signal to
noise by starting
simple (3 lines)
then becoming more
detailed

trip representations

  1. timelines
    (like subway maps)
    scroll; heading; focus; paragraph about
    what happened; fade in
  2. geographical
    maps
  3. “hand-drawn”
    diagrams / illustrations

[cup/1 · saturday · method/easy-immersion · ethiopia · listening/oneohtrix-point-never]

bean log 2026-08-23

pemigewasset psalmfruit

handwritten poem titled pemigewasset psalmfruit, 2026-08-23 sun, with a five-node graph of initials and nested notes on a camping pad, worship, and falls

connect

  • into all ·········· (JST · DM · MR · MN · OG)
    • time’s
      turn.
    • feet,
      legs,
      shoulders’
      unfinished
      roar.
  • with growth / spirit:
    • camping pad
      from storage
      hiked up to camp,
      pulled out, unfurled,
      inflated to purpose.

let worship echo in [green third lung]:

  • fill capacity.

with continuity:

  • the
    • falls
      curling
      the pool
    • granite
      weeping.

[cup/1 · sunday]

05:20bean log 2026-04-26

nested in tangles

bean log 2026-04-26 sun 0520: handwritten brew, taste, and listening notes for nested in tangles by hannah frances

grind

315.9 g purified water for
preheat

18.0 g beans (kenya mamuto aa)
18.0 g grounds

timemore 1.9.2

grounds sniff

brew

target water 288 g
281.6 g poured by 1:10
immersion - 2:40
draw-down - 1 min
brew finished - 3:40

taste

first sip is multi-
-dimensional, inter-
-continental. a flange
of chocoliberation.
second chutes fine,
smooth honey thru
narrow mental prob-
-oscus, flip flopping
bits, pleasure and in-
-quisition. not sour
at all but cherry smears
over the sky of this
appreciative palette.

what stages does app-
-rehension need to be-
come more real, to be
realized more deeply?
experience may not be
sufficient. sequence
may be necessary for
worship, devotion.

listen

nested in tangles
by hannah frances.

this is fresh chimmi-
-churri, / a bit drizzly
popomo / post-postmodern
swirly cream soda fizzy
tilting revival dance, not
yet thwarted in / by retro-
-grade amnesiata, like joni
seen waving from the truck
of a hay rack ride. life’s
contours are bizarre
flowers, thicker than
strife, driven together by
the density of the breeze,
bobbing heads, nodding
minds, jagged morning
breath readies its
apprehension of the day
by bootloading a pre-
-diction market, a par-
-liamental health
checksum taken at
breakfast, on an empty
heart, with fierce denial
of mortality.

[cup/1 · method/easy-immersion · water/purified · listening/spotify · listening/hannah-frances · kenya · companion/unicorn]

04:22bean log 2026-04-16

spiked icosahedron

handwritten notes with a drawing of a pink origami spiked icosahedron

prep

bit earlier than normal.
aimed for slightly higher
18 g mamuto to 288 g purified water
which would have been the same
1:16.

bean sniff

popping the bag, the papaya
has depened somewhat, gone
down an octave.

grind

1.9.2 on the timemore, same
as yesterday.

sniff

brew

18.0 g mamuto aa
ended up with 274.4 g purified water
after evaporation, poured by
1:20, immersion until
2:40, draw down until
3:40

sip

first and second sips
deep, round, without
burr or edge, the
smoothest bass
dripping into the
cavery. superb
telemetry. the kind
of balance that
is pulled over
like a sweather, an
embrace. relinquish
the forces, it’s
going to be
okay.

listening

the chromatics, shadow (the remixes) 2021

[cup/1 · method/easy-immersion · water/purified · listening/spotify]

05:25bean log 2026-04-15

pinwheels in the breeze

bean log 2026-04-15 wed 0525 pinwheels in the breeze with grind, sniff, brew, listening, taste notes, color swatch, and Mamuto AA Kenya label

grind

came back down to 1.9.2
after yesterday’s brush
with sour cherries.

sniff

brew

16.0 g mamuto aa
255.7 g water
immersion: 2:40
draw-down through 3:40

sip

first, sour again.
second, sour cherry (again).
third, wet and brightened,
sprightly.
fourth, better balance
on the boundary condition
between plum and blister.
after, a breath of violet
perfume. the aroma
of the coffee
is almost
not there
but taste is ripe
and tiny
iridescent, bright.

listen

angine de poitrine
vol. ii (again),
asymmetrical,
ecstatic, dialectic
between klek and khn.

sip

it is pinwheels
in the breeze
when it gets
going.

palette

  • cherry
  • plum
  • blackberry
  • coffee

[cup/1 · method/easy-immersion · water/purified · listening/spotify · kenya · companion/unicorn]

05:26bean log 2026-04-14

place of brightness

bean log 2026-04-14 tue 0526 page one: mamuto aa kenya opening notes, unicorn and codekiln grounds sniff comments, brew details, and bag label

prepare

finished off the gallon of purified water
and opened another, closing and noting
the span.

popping the bag of mamuto aa, the puff
of flower, slightly different, deeper,
the possibility of aging.

planned, recalibrated 1.9.3 on timemore.

grounds sniff

brew

dose: 16.0 g
water: 255.1
quite hot, audibly
jumping, but not
quite sizzling

immersion: 2:45
draw down: 1:15
total: 4:00

pour technique
1st 175 g vigorous
2nd pour smooth

bean log 2026-04-14 tue 0526 page two: tasting notes, daudi kabaka listening notes, kirinyaga map sketch, and bag label

taste

first sip is a sour
toffee candy.

second, bitter edge,
sparklines of acidity

in the third, a reflection
of the flower in the bag
apparates and fades.

deeper in, the nut
peels and hides
a smile of
pliant moisture.
in the finish, a gleaming
violet top, spinning
on a table above
a ravine.

listen

the very best of daudi kabaka
1950s-1960s pre benga
kenyan music

situate

kikuyu name “kirinyaga”
means “place of brightness”
or “mountain of
brightness”

[cup/1 · method/easy-immersion · water/purified · listening/spotify · listening/daudi-kabaka · kenya · companion/unicorn]

05:22bean log 2026-04-13

felt uncertainty.

bean log 2026-04-13 mon 0522 page one: prepare, bag sniff, grind, grounds sniff, brew details, and Mamuto AA Kenya label

prepare

heated 312.7 g purified water.
the gallon jug has no more than
136 g water in it,
so tomorrow will close that span.

bag sniff

pop the bag for a sniff:

grind

after yesterday’s delicious
accident, went up to
1.9.3, finest grind yet.
this is a light roast,
push it to the edge of the
wind.

forgot to measure the grounds,
but 16.1 g beans went into
the timemore.

sniff

brew

water sizzling hot, 256.2 g
poured by 1:22
immersion to 2:45
drawdown to 3:45

listen

long cool world
by north americans

taste

bean log 2026-04-13 mon 0522 page two: listening note, tasting poem, and blue abstract line drawing

the first sip’s flapjacks as the
pale blue horizon
lifted its
eye

on the way down the hill
from the
first breath,
perfume-soaked
magnolia sidewalk
pre-dawn spotted
pink panther
prowled

attention, toward the riches
of the earth for nuggets
of peaches, buried
fires, pharaoh
pheromones,

phonophilia writ only
into edge sense,
scrawled
in chalk out-
lines

in the language of vagrants,
itinerant philosophers
pruned of experience,
arid iridescence
or any egoic film
whatsoever,

a single swan’s white back,
heads deep down in seeking
glimmering and ovular,

a sip’s inward pull and hold,
the truck wheel’s hand
passing finger-nod
as the sun warms
the cool shine
of morning

reflect

bean log 2026-04-13 mon 0522 page three: felt uncertainty reflection diagram with Pollan, Damasio, Solms, and Friston notes

chapter 2 of michael pollan’s 2026
book about consciousness,
a world appears,
antonio damasio and karl friston were
mentors to mark solms, who says,

consciousness is felt uncertainty.

self-organizing systems,
like crystals, ant colonies, weather systems,
ecosystems and humans,
are selected or evolved towards
persistence. these consume
error signals to improve predictions
about their environmment,
so as to better survive.

in a dark forest at night, is that
black splotch a bear? … examine with adrenaline
no, just a boulder.

as organisms, we evolved to feel
uncertainty, to sense it.

in a moment of decision,
feeling asks which way to go:
making a model of the world
that leads the path that
decreases uncertainty.

[cup/1 · method/easy-immersion · water/purified · listening/spotify · listening/north-americans · companion/unicorn · kenya · person/george-howell · person/michael-pollan · person/antonio-damasio · person/mark-solms · person/karl-friston]

05:15bean log 2026-04-12

avatamsaka realm

bean log 2026-04-12 sun 0515 page one: prepare, grind, sniff, and Mamuto AA Kenya label

bean log 2026-04-12 sun 0515 page two: brew, listen, drawing, and Mamuto AA Kenya label

bean log 2026-04-12 sun 0515 page three: eval grid and Mamuto AA Kenya label

prepare

in the ultimate dimension,
thich nhat hanh advises,

these rites will
bloom and open with a
fuller stretch
with a breathfull presence.

grind

popping the bag, pouring 16.1 g beans into the cup, the floral
fume is an incense, inviting
the mind. grinding the timemore
at the same fine 1.9.2, the
perfume escapes its dark chamber
and speaks of papaya.

sniff

unscrewing the catchment,
the tone changes to darker leaves,
husky porcupinal spikes,

after pouring 16.2 g
sniffed the hollow body
for the echo of the grind.
not much in the space;
full with emptiness.

brew

256.8 g purified sizzling water
poured in by 1:04
opened switch at 2:45
let 30 sec draw, before
confusion took hold,
momentary dysphoria of
phase and sequence
a thought the switch was
down when it should
have been up.

re-poured from patagonia
mug back into the switch’s cone
for another go-around.
first time for this
class of mistake, perhaps
attending to these words’
writing pulled focus from
the moment.
by 5:18 brew’s adventura
done; 1:18 late.

some accidents are spices.

listen

Beaunoise,
buchlaworks: module ii

hands off the bright
to glow inside the pen,

first sip so struck the
soundboard, a floral tuning
fork resounded,___echo
of that bright berry
papaya ghost that haunted
grind, earlier,
hithering a suggestion:

bring in, come in,
huddle the eyes
about the can
of interbeings’
kiss. solitaire
is a class
in self-
deceit.

eval

metric intensity preference notes
aroma 4 5 as above, so below, shifting sands from cinnamon to violet
acidity 4 4 was worried about overbrew because of the mistaken repour but it’s just delicious
sweetness 4 4 rippling shapes, differing kaleidoscopic views of the island of sweet berries
body 2 4 it’s coffee. what else is there? is it wet? is it thick? no. is it thin? no.
finish 3 5 a brown violet bloom awaits the second breath
flavor 4 5 what multifarious contours, so delicious
overall 4 5 distinct, distinguished

[cup/1 · water/purified]

06:10bean log 2026-04-11

a continuity of context

bean log 2026-04-11 sat 0610 page one: new Mamuto AA Kenya notes, bean and grounds sniff, brew details, rating grid, and Mamuto AA Kenya bag label

grind

new bag, first cup: Mamuto AA, Kenya.
freshly opened, room temp.
16.1 g beans measured,
0.1 g to spares for
16.0 g dose.

preheated with
210 g purified water.
recalibrated the timemore
to 1.9.2, finest grind yet,
preparing for the lightest
roast to date.
3 spritzes, 4 shakes
of r.d.t..

bean sniff

grounds sniff

evaluate

metric intensity preference notes
aroma 3 4 rich, wet, nutty
acidity 4 5 so gentle yet balanced
sweetness 4 4 spikey and sweet
body ? ? what is body? the body is the reason for love
finish 2 4 so many different loves, on the way to memory
flavor 2 5
overall 4 5 this is going to be legendary

listen

the sparkling universe
of just intonation:
the sonny downs
quartet’s 2020
village melodies.

taste

bean log 2026-04-11 sat 0610 page two: tasting poem, continuity reflection, balance poem, and abstract branch drawing

first sip, cracking
nut, then the after
flower burn, clean
with fruit. fistules
of smiles. sweet
even at tip edge.
amazing nut bloom,
gentle and present.
amazing nut fruit,
worship at dawn.

sine bloom, sign
of riches.

reflection

feelings tether
to the ground of breath.
feel being in the waves
translating episodic memories
into what it is like
to be with
a continuity
of context.

balance is
grown in time.
so genius ferments
sense from chaos
with nudge
and re-
birth, a few
bits control
the game.

[cup/1 · water/purified · listening/spotify · listening/sonny-downs-quartet · person/alexander-calder · balance]

05:22bean log 2026-04-10

finca simulacra

bean log 2026-04-10 fri 0522: finca simulacra notes, talib kweli listening notes, unicorn grounds sniff, brew math, and last cup banner

taste

_____looking back,
___sip staring out
sideways__over dozens
of days’ cups, finca
fresh, sparkling,
remembered,
faded photo’s
simple perspective,
reductio admi-
ration.

this watery
pale cup
ghosth aunting
echoes of
finca’s crackle
opening palette,
now a copy of something
that does not
exist, endure.

does retrospection ask,
what’s next?

listening

listening to recent
talib kweli, gotham.
like this cup,
a long chain
of rich recollections
not quite met
by this time around.

“on mamas” has a bach
toccata on a bright
square-wave synth.
whose mama had an l.p.
of switched on bach that
found a turntablist’s palm?
that party’s ra rad radience
glowing with the fantasy
fiction, nostalgia.

“pick ya head up” grooves
enough to sneak like
“billie jean.” second
to last, “i’ll tell ya later”
picks up the shift.

what’s changed?

grind

14.3 g finca beans
left in the bag.

1.9.1 on the
timemore.

grounds sniff

brew

0.7 g spares poured in,
15.1 g total.

246.1 g water target.
246.0 g purified water
poured in by 1:00.

2:45 immersion time.
4:00 total.

last cup.

many thanks, l.s. + j.a.b.s!

[cup/1 · water/purified · listening/spotify · companion/unicorn · finca]

05:05bean log 2026-04-09

organizism

bean log 2026-04-09 thu 0505: handwritten brew notes, unicorn grounds sniff, listening note, organizism reflection, anatomical sketch, and finca los angeles stamp

its been a few days.

heated 309 g purified water.

the timemore is still at 1.9.1, quite fine.
16.1 g finca beans.
3 spritzes, 4 shakes of r.d.t..

grounds sniff

the aroma is still delicious,
hard to describe, but not
as potent as it was closer
to the roast date
(2026-02-16). this is
likely the last full cup;
the bag is nearly done.

brew

measured 16.4 g, removed
0.4 to spares for 16.0 g dose.
256.8 g sizzling hot water
poured in by 1:06.
immersion of 2:45.
total brew time 4:00.

listening

“wilder” by ogre sound / robin ogden.
opening met first sip
in lidless patagonia mug.

satisfaction. rich, bold.
both, paired, form embouchure
enclosure, greet the day. chocolate
legendary, twinkling
sweetness glistening
tongue-edge.

organizism

vs organization
vs organ. an internal
boundary that, when
breached, breaks life’s bioelectric field
draining and
then ceasing
life.

to organize is
to sustain
life. entropy,
disorganization
is felt as friction
sliding into
death’s chasm.

[cup/1 · water/purified · workflow/rdt · companion/unicorn · listening/spotify · finca]

05:26bean log 2026-04-06

black hole v listening

bean log 2026-04-06 mon 0526: black hole v listening, brew notes, unicorn grounds sniff, and finca los angeles stamp

grind

1.9.1 on timemore
16.0 g ground finca beans
used 0.1 g spares

grounds sniff

brew

257.0 g purified water,
sizzling in the pan
poured in by 1:15
clockwise pours with the gooseneck
first pour: aggressive, bubbling
second pour: gentle
first spiral out to center
second spiral center out

immersion through 2:45
drawdown through 4 min

listening

vladimir sofronitsky
pulls scriabin sonatas from
a loving, living machine
butterfly in cathedral
mystical wedding
spirit, with
organic, legendarily
fierce temerity.
let the goslings
of spring blush
with adolescent
sincerity yet again
this year again, deepening
the return journey.

black hole v listening

the silent
black hole
period of
epilogue at
the end of
the largest
stars.

that, into which
nothing returns.
an abyss that has
ceased communicating
with the universe
except through
what disappears
at its edge.

this silence is
the opposite of
listening. it lacks
the active ingredient
of being-with, of
anticipation, of
asking in return.

[cup/1 · water/purified · listening/spotify · companion/unicorn]

05:25bean log 2026-04-05

utzp's tessellation

bean log 2026-04-05 sun 0525 page one: grind, sniff, brew, and taste notes with finca los angeles stamp

grind

timemore @ 1.9.1
very fine, like yesterday
16.1 g beans finca, room temp
16.3 g yield
-0.3 g spares
= 16.0 g dose

sniff

brew

256.2 g purified water
poured by 1:30
spiral clockwise pours
in two batches of
the gooseneck (175g, then
remainder)
2:45 immersion,
4:00 total

on the news: artemis
mission to the far side
of the moon

taste

once more into the angine
de poitrine
, a minute into
fabienk’s groovy jam,
let the first sip rip. its
been a while since these
two ears said, “come back”
two days in a row
to the same album.
its a strange charm,
a flirtation chasing the ridge
to loves summit, without
looking up. instead, gaze down

into the cup, peer into the mouth
of fortune, without asking
what’s next
as a post doc biologist
entering a bear cave
the body, at attention,
alert respect for the sheer face
of the cliff.
how long the fall,
how high the climb,
these enter the moment,
do not let the gyroscope
wobble just yet,
behold yet participate
in the sleepy adventure
of existence, let the gods
answer in their time,
but do not look away
except, close the eyes
and look, in silence
and ask
well

bean log 2026-04-05 sun 0525 page two: utzp’s tessellation notes and notation with finca los angeles stamp

listening

5:57 utzp, from vol. ii by angine de poitrine

[musical phrase for guitar and bass, repeated 9x]

[play(i) for i in range(random.randint(2,5))]

lossy, equal tempered
projection of what
the ear sees
it is, is not; it
can be both in
fact it must, this
is, no no, no
normal guitar.

that major seventh pickaxe
mining rock ore from
the ear

remembering r.a.t.m.’s
minor ninth dagger,
killing in the name of

[cup/1 · listening/bandcamp · listening/youtube · water/purified]

05:37bean log 2026-04-04

polyrhythm gestalt madness

grind

finca beans were at room temp
measured 16.1 g
recalibrated the timemore to 1.9.1
finest grind yet!

sniff

brew

heated 310.8 g purified water
preheated patagonia mug and hario switch
with brown paper filters, as per
usual. 16.2 g yield, pulled out
0.2 g for reserves, 16.0 g brewed.

a bizarre brew. switch down for
first 80 g, pouring through.
turned switch up, poured from the mug
back into switch cone. finished
248.6 g pour (all the water
that remained in the pan) by 1:20,
immersion until 2:45,
draw down until 4:00.

handwritten notes page one: grind, sniff, and brew

taste

with the lid off
beholding pink clouds
outside and berry steam
inside, the rich force
enters through the tip
of the tongue’s eye,
listening in retrograde
to the drawing down liquor
throat-well jazzdark cream
a beautiful coffee garland
then bequeathed about the teeth
sparkling, alive at the edges
of dawn, smelling with the gums,

smiling at the eyes, the patter
of belief, of resurrection,
fermenting a weekend rebellion
against the enemies of a freenerdery
learning manifesto
curiosity destiny

handwritten notes page two: taste

listening

farther down the cooling barrel
of this breakfast club
of rich champion companions
of angine de poitrine
of finca
of jamming in the utzp
of fierce tildes
of chocolate ideas
of experiential hashcodes
of elided resolution
polyrhythm gestalt
madness

handwritten notes page three: listening

[cup/1 · listening/bandcamp · water/purified · companion/unicorn · fun]

05:33bean log 2026-04-01

chocolate forest sparkling tree adornment

Journal scan: 2026-04-01 Wed 0533 — chocolate forest sparkling tree adornment

prep

drinking electrolytes & sparkling water
finca beans at room temp.

grind

went finer in grind to 1.9.1, just to see
what happens; first time
this fine.

aroma

gave unicorn the first sniff
and the third
to notice the burst
of intensity, then
how quickly it dissipates

brew

255.4g purified water
sizzling hot
poured in by 1:14
immersion time 2:40
total brew time 3:40

listen

wish bing and ruth
had more albums like
species (2020), reminded
of the tiny chapel organ
improvising in the quiet
dark space

taste

Surprising balance to
this cup. acidity is present
as a decoration or
a sparkling tree adornment in a chocolate forest
as it cools with lid off,
free to radiate from its
dark surface, the structure
is cohesive; feels safe
somehow. many moments
after swallowing
the resonant fluid
sparkles of delicious,
sweet crystals popping
mid-palette and at
the edges, too. little
cerebrations, looking
up from the first
time they were detected
in one of finca’s first
cups. the joy of
gentile acidity.

study

  • palate (taste)
    • palatum (latin)
      • roof of the mouth
  • palette (colors)
    • pala (latin)
      • spade, blade
  • palette (french)
    • small shovel blade

a flat, hand-held surface for mixing paint

[cup/1 · listening/spotify · water/purified · workflow/rdt]

05:17bean log 2026-03-31

the elements

bean log 2026-03-31 tue 0517: handwritten the elements tasting notes in three columns with finca los angeles el salvador stamp

prelude

having trouble deciding on a recipe
after yesterday’s sour/bitter combo.
pallette is not articulated enough.

grind

based on observation of sourness,
lets keep moving finer, from 1.8.4 to 1.9.0.
16.1g beans, 4 spritzes r.d.t..

aroma

swear: that the first few seconds
after the catchment opens
are the strongest, then it dissipates.

brew

256 g purified water.
0:00 - 2:45 immersion
2:45 - 3:45 drawdown

acidity

sour/bitter confusion
yesterday? this cup: balanced.
acidity present
at at sidetongue.

sweetness

noticed as the cup cooled as pockets exploding

body

both wet and oily
both foreground and reverberation

finish

delicious, lingering. this confusion:
end of cup or aftertaste? probably
the former

experience

first sip pierces
back with arcs, overtones
sparkling. last sip
still launches
single firework

flavor

little spikey. finca bag says
“blackberry cobbler,” which can
apparate to mind even in
this present cup.

listening

album “pioneers of electronic music”
starts with ussachevsky, creepy spacey,
continues with luening.

pioneers of electronic music

[cup/1 · water/purified · listening/spotify]

05:31bean log 2026-03-30

rebuilder's curse

bean log 2026-03-30 mon 0531: handwritten grind, brew, taste, and listening notes with finca los angeles el salvador stamp and rainbow reflection photo

grind

heated 316 g purified water
planning 1.8.0 on the timemore
coarser … is that right?
finca is light-medium roast
wouldn’t that mean finer grind …

tried 1.8.4 instead of the 1.8.3 baseline.

measured 16.1 g finca beans,
then trimmed 0.1 g to the spares
for a 16.0 g dose. roast date
matches the guatemala bag just
finished: 2026-02-16.

3 spritzes r.d.t.,
4 shakes.

grounds sniff

brew

by 1:14, poured 256.5 g
purified water. active agitation
for the first 175 g, then
smooth clockwise spirals
in and out.

taste

tim hecker’s haunt me
before first sip, which
smacked sour, then
bitter on the right, in
the back. second shipped
same valence. when
holding the liquid
darkly focused with
language, gaze
sizzles on juicy
horizon: what does next
cup need? shorter
immersion, coarser grind.

the will to experiment
comes from the chaotic
central tendency
or curse.
break it
to rebuild it.
live with the broken
to inhabit the
builder’s spirit.

listening

haunt me, haunt me do it again
by tim hecker.

[cup/1 · water/purified · companion/unicorn · finca · workflow/rdt · listening/bandcamp]

05:20bean log 2026-03-29

earthy sweetness, beets. red. root-like and sweet.

bean log 2026-03-29 sun 0520: handwritten grind notes, unicorn grounds sniff, let it go poem, Rosenau and Sanborn listening note, and guatemala acodihue huehuetenango stamp

grind

it’s the last few beans of this delicious,
juicy bag of guatemala beans from
parable coffee co, roasted on 2026-02-16,

so it’s going to be a bit of a stronger cup;
measured 16.8 g beans plus a few spares
reset the grind to the timemore’s 1.8.3.

with the spares, ended up with 17.2 g
grounds, so target pour is 275.2 g
purified water, ended up with 265.5 g
water. immersion time was 3:09 with
the typical one minute draw-down. much
longer than normal; was writing and let it go.

grounds sniff

let it go

first starbursts: pockets
unlatching these
ears into
resonant ’istening,
a priori pings of
super sensational
verification
of injected consciousness,
plants with caffeine
know that other lifes
look at them.

it’s their song, singing,

slow, slow down
slow way way down
until vim is seen
across the frames,
[not in the chains
of causal blinks, but]
in aeons, bound
together in tethers,
of co-creation

listening

two by rosenau & sanborn.

[cup/1 · water/purified · companion/unicorn · guatemala · listening/bandcamp · person/rosenau · person/sanborn · workflow/rdt]

05:45bean log 2026-03-28

airy, like on a mountain

bean log 2026-03-28 sat 0701: handwritten brew notes, listening notes, unicorn quote, and guatemala acodihue huehuetenango stamp

grind

r.d.t

refilled the lisapack atomizer
with purified water
used 4 sprays
and 5 shakes

16.0 g guatemala grounds.

brew

244.0 g purified water poured
in by 1’14”.

0:00 - 2:45 immersion
2:45 - 3:45 drawdown

getting to the rattling
end of the bag.

still need to
find a way
to track
the ‘span’
of jug
vs bag
vs bottle
in beans.

grounds sniff

listening

“lake deep memory” by
pye corner audio. strug’d
a bit to figure the ear’s
needs. soothe and sway,
not deep but calm.
took six
tracks to
immerse.

note

a tree grown
indoors lacks
the adverse wind
it needs
to become
a strong
adult

time is
not just
mass and
energy.
creations
require
embedded
duration
to become
enriched
entities.

[cup/1 · water/purified · listening/spotify]

06:30bean log 2026-03-27

tahrir

bean log 2026-03-27 fri 0630: handwritten grind, brew, taste, and listening notes with guatemala acodihue huehuetenango stamp

grind

16.1 g guatemala beans
4 spritzes rdt / 5s shakes
it felt nearly empty
yes! nearly out of purified water
will replace this weekend

on the timemore, decided that 1.8.0
is when the line is just to the
right / clockwise side of 1.8 marker

used 1.8.3, measured from that.
16.0 g grounds, added 0.1 g to spares

brew

0:00 - 0:36 176 g water poured
0:36 - 1:07 255.9 g water poured
0:00 - 2:45 immersion
2:45 - 3:45 drawdown

taste

more acid than normal.
juicy. smidge of sweet.

listening

some persian music from n.t.
don’t normally watch performers
but something freshly noticed
in a singer like dariush 2000:

this is about norouz, the persian new year.
sticken by the expert’s “tahrir”
a quick vocal turn
or half-mordent-like motion

تحریر (tahrir): writing, composition,
editing and, in music, a vocal
ornament.

this is mohammad-reza shajarian’s 2003 album,
delshodegan.

[cup/1 · water/purified · guatemala · listening/spotify · listening/youtube · country/iran · persian/calligraphy]

05:53bean log 2026-03-26

splitting kindling with the hatchet, inside the dry wood

bean log 2026-03-26 thu 0553: handwritten grind, groundsniff, brew, listen, taste, and guatemala acodihue huehuetenango stamp

grind

316.6 g purified water heated
opened a new gallon of purified water
how long does a gallon last ?
no leftover grounds, so +0.1 g;
16.1 g guatemala beans
3 sprite, 4 water r.d.t
1.8.3 timemore grind
16.4 grounds poured in, how … ?
pulled 0.4 g grounds into spare cup
16.0 g net grounds

groundsniff

brew

256.1 g purified water poured
by 1’10, vigorous first 175 g
with gooseneck spout, remainder
a gentle spiral clockwise in
from hario rim, making the
surface smooth.

0’00”-2’45” immersion time
2’45”-4’00” drawdown

listen

benge’s 1996 album,
beautiful electronic music:
aleatoric lyricism
inside the geodesic
machine of sparkling facets
and blinking
counterparts

taste

first sip’s salt rim
smacked the deep
fist of breath, an
acidity of halo’s kiss
pulsing, reflection of
the teeth. in the dark
surface, the grid of
lamplight wiggles, brown-
-ian emotions, nascent
flecks of day,
emergence and
dissolution in
grace as tuples
without guarantee
or mutual
entanglement.

[cup/1 · water/purified · companion/unicorn · guatemala · listening/spotify · listening/benge]

05:27bean log 2026-03-24

warming hands over coals beneath the sound field

bean log 2026-03-24 tue 0527: handwritten grind sniff brew listen taste, guatemala acodihue huehuetenango stamp, storm field sketch

grounds

16 g guatemala beans
1.8.3 on timemore
16.0 g guatemala grounds

groundssniff

brew

255.7 g purified water.
all water in by 1’10”, watching
the maestri house timer.
2’45” immersion. brew
finished in 3’45” total.

sipping from the
patagonia no dams mug.

listening

with emily sprague,
in a moment of
cloud time
again, better
to concentrate
soundness of mind,
to nuzzle a phonon
and wait @ the gate
before vast, soniferous
fields, asking air
to let into
to admit a spirit
of inquiry
to unlatch the entrance
below a spring storm
horizon wall
so the memories
can wander in
and graze below
a single, quiet clap
of lightning

taste

satisfying, rich.
must admit
the guatemala
is easier
brew than finca.

[cup/1 · water/purified · companion/unicorn · comment/rin-vale · guatemala]

05:37bean log 2026-03-23

meditation in a tool shed

bean log 2026-03-23 mon 0537: handwritten grind sniff brew listen converse taste, guatemala acodihue huehuetenango stamp

grind

16 g guatemala beans
1.8.3 on timemore
16.0 g guatemala grounds

sniff

of the grounds:

that tracks! rich, earthy, subtle.

brew

overpoured 25 g; 281.8 g
purified water. staring at
the maestri house timer instead of the scale
compensated by using a
longer immersion of 3 min
(normal is 2’50”)

listen

yesterday’s log
anticipated the rite
of spring, but morning
drizzle needs emily sprague
to fog the lens a bit, get the
eardrum wet, to hear the patter
of time, not the pulse but the vibrating hum
especially after begonia’s brash score is
still unfinished after last night’s viewing. hard
to watch but still the kernel of its problem rings
out: what can be said to one whose reality is bent
in the wormhole of trauma?

converse

who predicted the energy
blocade at the strait of
hormuz, and what is iran’s
strategy? revenge, rage, or
sticking it to the man?

taste

a bit diluted; expected
at same, sweet hint
still delicious, sip-
ped from lidless
no dams mug

yesterday, learned the term “llm psychosis” from andrej karpathy

[cup/1 · water/purified · companion/unicorn · comment/rin-vale · guatemala]

06:00bean log 2026-03-22

army of snails

grind

guatemala bag
getting lower.
even so
can’t yet hear
beans as rattling,
so the feeling of plenty
remains.
mostly reproduced yesterday’s
delicious cup.

sniff

of the grounds, fresh from the catchment:

smooth, rich.
satisfying.

converse

engineering teams
token leaderboards

chloe zhao’s symbolic
fluency; deep aftereffect
of hamnet

brew

overpoured by 2.1 g
2’45” immersion time.

listen

stravinsky,
suite from firebird,
played by l.a. phil.

some parts,
iv. infernal dance of king katschei,
bring to mind the spring rites.
haven’t listened to those
in ages;
tomorrow?
on the doac podcast,
guests leave a q for
the next, a type of
recursive inquisition.
maybe these logs should
set up the anticipation
of listening.

love the term philharmonic:

the love of joining,
of fitting together,
of orderly arrangements.

taste

gone too quickly,
but deep with satisfaction.

[cup/1 · water/purified · companion/unicorn · guatemala]

08:42bean log 2026-03-21

rich, delicious with the lid off

bean log 2026-03-21 sat 0842: brew, context, taste, guatemala acodihue huehuetenango stamp

brew

310.5 g purified water heated
16.1 g guatemala beans
1.8.1 grind setting
15.9 g grounds + 0.1 g catchup
2’45” reference immersion
time from mar 16 used
259.1 g purified water poured
by 1’30”
patagonia / no dams mug used for
the full cycle.

context

listening to jasmine sun
mar 20 hard fork podcast
how she uses claude
as a writing editor,
don’t normally listen
to podcasts during
coffee time, but
this was thought
provoking

“I feel like I really cracked this over the last couple months… if I make Claude into an editor that is not just trying to grade and give feedback on my work against some genericized standard of what good writing is, but actually against my personal aspirations for writing, it can give feedback that I find much, much more helpful.

I fed Claude my entire Substack archive of the writing that I’ve previously done … I also personally write retro notes to myself after everything I publish… just a few bullet points about what was good and bad. … I wanted it to learn my taste—what I aspire to be, where I see myself falling short, what I’m proud of.

From those things, plus a bit more about my audience and goals, we co-developed a rubric… [and] it would ask things like: does this take advantage of your ‘insider anthropologist’ position? Or it would notice patterns in my writing, like moving between registers or blending policy and personal scenes.

Then I split it into phases—ideation, structure, prose, fact-checking—and told Claude: your job is to evaluate my drafts based on this criteria, not to do the writing for me, and to prompt better thinking out of me.

So when I give it a draft, it might say things like: your conclusion is just a summary, and that’s boring. In a previous piece you ended on a scene—why not try that here? And instead of inventing the scene, it asks me questions: what were you thinking in that moment? what did you feel? can you recall a specific conversation?

That kind of feedback I actually found incredibly useful… it’s about me becoming the best version of myself as a writer, with Claude pushing me to do that.”

compelling. this morning, used cursor-agent cli
to be a terminal / cli coach. similarly,
had to make it clear what the goals were.
alignment must be intentional.
so many discourses about ai
revolve around foreclosure
on creative ways
to use a reflective
partner.

taste

rich, delicious with
the lid off, first sips
satisfy, wouldn’t change
a thing

listening

inoyamaland, commissions: 1977-2000.

[cup/1 · water/purified · guatemala · listening/podcast · listening/spotify]

05:09bean log 2026-03-20

bed of lilies before bloom, roughness farther down the mug

bean log 2026-03-20 fri 0509: brew, grounds sniff, listen, taste, finca los angeles stamp

brew

finca: 16.0 g grounds
at room temp.

1.8.1 on timemore
grinder.

patagonia no dams mug
used for preheat cycle
for first time; fits 310 g
water and hario.

poured 255.8 g water
by 1’30”, spiraling in
from hario edge to center
in two gooseneck pours,
175 g, then remainder.

immersion 2’50”, a
bit longer than intended.
brew finished by 4’.

grounds sniff

today is the first
day of spring

taste

a few sparkles of
acidity but more bitter
/ sour than expected.

the experience changes
farther down the mug:
a roughness and even, yes,
sweetness. does the
cup need
to breathe?

listening

stockhausen: gaze through
the stars
(2018), a
variety pack of sonic cereal.
reminds me of tangerine
dream soundtracks, interstellar
6 sounds like the pollywog
from stranger things. in general,
the interstellar series sticks
in the ear more. according
to spotify, sao paulo listens
to karlheinz the most.

[cup/1 · water/purified · companion/unicorn · listening/classical]

06:17bean log 2026-03-18

peppery today, sour edge

bean log 2026-03-18 wed 0617: brew details, grounds sniff, listening, taste, finca los angeles el salvador stamp

grounds sniff

brew details

16.0 g finca grounds, room temp.
roast date 2026-02-16 — a month out.
timemore 1.8.3.
257.2 g purified water.
2’45” immersion, 3’50” total.

taste

sour. not the best. how did the room temp shape the brew?

not feeling the pull these questions normally exert.

probably the grind too fine at 1.8.3. forgot finca’s sweet spot @ 1.8.1.

listening

vol. 1 by the quebec-based masked math rock duo angine de poitrine. too fun. microtonal scales, hidden identities, funny masks with floppy noses. how does a mask/identity change how creativity shows up in a life? avatars are a type of abstraction.

[cup/1 · water/purified · companion/unicorn · comment/rin-vale · listening]

05:52bean log 2026-03-17

herd of horses, bitter ridge towards dawn

bean log 2026-03-17 tue 0552: grounds sniff, grind, brew, taste, listening, and reflections with finca los angeles el salvador stamp

grounds sniff

grind

1.8.3 on timemore
16.0 g beans finca (frozen)
15.8 g grounds finca
+0.2 g leftovers

brew

256.8 g purified water
poured in by 1’10”, with
two pours of gooseneck,
first @ 175 g, 2nd remainder
2’45” immersion time
patagonia mug

taste

first sip
satisfies, plies
the attention.
second, the bitter
ridge, descending
from the sleep-encrusted
mountain, towards
the dawn. nothing
definite, everything between.

listening

evgeny kissin, the salzburg
recital. first was berg’s
piano sonata, op. 1. is it
frustrated? relaxed? distorted?

reflection

yesterday, listened to
doac with daniel priestley
who suggested a creative
practice.
nerd safari
led to donald a. schön,
mit social scientist,
who wrote ’83 book, the reflective practitioner.

schön has “knowing-in-action”
— skilled people often can’t explain what they do
— reflection is a type of dialog with a situation

many agentic loops are built
on similar “technology”

language is a ghost
or maybe a spirit

what’s the difference?

[cup/1 · water/purified · companion/unicorn · listening/classical]

05:30bean log 2026-03-16

five dimensional, reverberation in the mouth's hall

notes

a bit of a colophon today.

original

these are not strictly the original notes
for today; they are superimposed on a newly generated
background image, but the handwriting here did not
pass through an ai.

original handwritten log for today

ai modified

before adding the background image above,
asked chatgippity’s image generation
to add the embossing and card stock … note the subtle mistranscriptions here.
fascinating, how it retained the proximity
without the literal meaning. its
squinting at the mind.

Handwritten log 2026-03-16 Mon 0530: grind, sniff, brew, taste, listening, guatemala acodihue stamp

grind

1.8.1 on timemore.
16.0 g beans (guatemala).
3 spritzes RDT.
15.8 g yield, topped up to 16.0 g
with leftovers, which are now
stored in a dedicated unicorn
cup, not catchment of timemore.

sniff

five dimensional.
sideways tingle

brew

by 1’10”, added 255.7 g purified water
pouring technique: mid-radial clockwise
no splash
immersion time: 2’45”
pour-down finished: 3’45”

taste

first sip bitter
sweet. rich. these
simple, monosyllabic
portals. a rhythmic
flow, an eddy. a
shudder. juicy balance
breathing through
the taste after the slip
of the throat, reverberation
in the mouth’s hall.

listening

fauré: orchestral
works. prelude to
pénélope, violin
concerto. not as familiar with this one.
2’20”, it creeps on stage, inch worming. pierre fouchenneret’s
instrument is a sweet and nimble wand of delicacy.
comforting warmth.

[cup/1 · water/purified · companion/unicorn · listening/classical]

05:45bean log 2026-03-15

rim walking the switch, dreamy poulenc

Handwritten log for 2026-03-15: brew specs, groundsniff, during brew, tasting, and listening sections on textured paper with a coffee ring stain

brew

16.0 g Guatemala beans, grind 1.8.1 on Timemore.
By 1’28” poured in 256.4 g purified water;
pouring technique mostly rim walking the switch.
Immersion 1’50”, total brew time 3’55”.

groundsniff

during brew

n.p.r. prep for the oscars
charging the maestri house scale

tasting

first sip: sweet
return: bright bitter
edge. delicious.
full-bodied.
working on companion-
ship

listening

Poulenc’s Trois pièces, op. 48, played by André Previn.
dreamy…

[cup/1 · water/purified · guatemala · companion/unicorn · listening/classical]

07:40bean log 2026-03-14 0740

sproglo sips the finca from the unicorn skull

march 14 cup 1 handwritten brew notes with sproglo visiting and choosing the inky black unicorn mug for a finca los angeles brew

context

dear companion sproglo came over
and picked the inky black
unicorn skull.
their finca cup was first.
aimed at reproducing the 2026-02-28 cup
with its “spectacular fireworks of acidity.”

sproglo mentioned that coffee cuppings
at home are a thing; they will
send you a kit that’s easy
to reproduce. hm.

brew

used 263.1 g purified water and 15.8 g
grounds at 1.8.3.

pour technique

a bit in the center for the first ~50 ml,
then clockwise rimwalks of the switch
for the rest. resulting spend bed
was flat, with no ring like the early
finca days. so maybe that
affects taste.

groundsniff

observe

listen

paderewski’s the american recordings
were a dream from a land of grace, nuance.

taste

first sip sour.
only had a few, very few
sparkles of fruit.
that tongue vapor-conden
sensation hung
in cup.

[cup/1 · water/purified · listening/spotify · companion/sproglo · companion/unicorn · person/ignacy-jan-paderewski]

05:31bean log 2026-03-13

金継ぎ

i. early

blaring beeps pierced
the nightdark @ 1:30.
silenced the warbling
banshees. falseness
of alarm.
(a)mend the sleep

ii. then

reached for a wider bone
china cup, to measure
beans, so they would not
spill. saucer stuck,
flying saucer, broken
floorcrack gasping unicorn.
salty tears;
morning electrolytes.

A graphite drawing of a broken floral saucer beneath handwritten brew notes dated 2026-03-13

on morning edition:
highest energy prices,
bombings, shootings,
bipartisan housing bill
targeted at institutional
investors purchasing sfh’s
with hundreds of properties.
really, will that make
any difference?
putative gestures,
war-torn times.

iii. grind

catchment held 1.4 g grounds
from earlier in week.

two rdt spritzes
before the mister ran dry

used this guatemala’s
standard grind: 1.8.1
took a deep sniff
of fresh catchment grounds
rough, old beams
high pitched fizz

toasty chocolate — 🦄

ii. brew

the numbers landed neatly
but the morning did not

iii. listen

eliane radigue’s trilogie de la mort,
“kyema (intermediate states).”

iv. observe

first sip’s sour.
second sip’s flash
with acid sparkles,
astonishingly juicy.
not distasteful, though.
by the third, peering
back to that high, rough
groundscent.
bitterness shifted
into chocolate
sitting mostly along the right edge,
the tongue’s gutterball.

cocoa, apple butter, and juicy sweetness —parable’s guatemala notes

cocoa, maybe; juicy, definitely;
no early sweetness.
after enough time, the rounded edge
becomes a sweet mirage.

today, no real apple butter
detected. 🔍

[cup/1 · listening · water/purified · comment/rin-vale]

05:45bean log 2026-03-11

fresh grounds first

prep

heard on radio:

an excursion in iran —trump

sure, just a little escapade. a romp.
sounds fun.

brew

hand-written notes from today

found a surplus of grounds
in the grinder catchment
displaced them to china cup,
measured 1.7g
then set aside. then measured 15.9 fresh grounds into
the hario switch, using a spoon to top it
up to 16.0 g. this new technique,
what’s a good name for it? spare grounds cupping?

observe

listen

william kapell, piano, on album

here is schumann’s 3 romanzen, op. 28: 2. einfach. played this as a teen, but not like this, with kapel’s
adult respect and long lines.

it is so important to study music in youth
then return later.

a strange thing that happens to aging
pianists, when fingers have traversed
enough keys to forget whether familiarity
means having played
a piece.

when 14, could play every piece
ever learned.
a decade later, no longer the case.
now, it’s not clear
what was even played
mostly, the fingers know
by twitching.

yes:

taste

tingles of acidity.

[cup/1 · method/easy-immersion · water/purified · listening/spotify · guatemala · idea · person/ludwig-van-beethoven · person/william-kapell]

06:12bean log 2026-03-10

walking through wet leaves

brew

hand-written notes from the brew for today

groundsniff

needed to go find my fastidious unicorn, who
wanders about,
organizing things.

a lukewarm smell.

like walking through wet leaves —🦄

there were grounds left in the catchment from yesterday,
possible explanation for why?

observe

some meanderings getting into the seat of observation.

technical phlogiston

when did ctrl+[ overtake esc as the vim mode switcher?
staring at the hands.
no answer. need to remap capslock again.

new to nvim; noticed mouse cursor change:
clicked appreciation.

wow: nvim split mode works with mouse wheel
perfectly

idea: what if a comment of x on y was
recorded on a dialectical blockchain?
the discourse, weaving
leaving immutable footsteps
in the snow of time

listen

(continuing celebration: nytimes.com: Éliane Radigue: Composer of Time, Silence and Space, Dies at 94)

Jetsun Mila Pt. 1
connected through great earbuds
to spooky actions
at a distance, spinal tingles
vibrating 💀
buzzing ☕️ growls @ 30’ from the deep
36’ has a frensel lens.
lighthouses had a “characteristic” - a unique flash pattern that
identified it in the dark.

consider

homonymic cousins

  • veil - a covering, something that hides, she veiled her disappointment
  • vale - a valley, she noted the snow in the vale
  • vail - to lower or remove in respect, she vailed her bonnet

taste

took a while to enter the cup.
it’s like the flagpole, still.
a call from a bird around the crag.
two heaps of silence.

listen

continued to pt2.

3’ over tones gentle hummingwarble

taste

now it’s cooler than before, yet
the patagonia mug still cradles
some heat.

question

when and how should one clean the Timemore grinder?

[cup/1 · water/purified · listening/spotify · guatemala · person/eliane-radigue · idea · nvim]

06:18bean log 2026-03-09

a dewy morning

brew

measured the bags of both finca and guatemala this morning.
guatemala had more, so that won the slot at 16.1 g.

spilled beans while starting the RDT sequence.
picked them up, then 15.7 g beans remained. looked all around,
couldn’t find stragglers, so topped it back up to 16.1 g.

then immersed the dose in water, shook it up, and ground at 1.8.1 on the timemore, same as yesterday.

groundsniff

gave unicorn a sniff after the immersion. rich smell.

a dewy morning —🦄

for a moment, we wondered whether the brew cycle had begun just by having too much moisture inside the grinder. for a moment, unicorn heard the coffee grounds talking. blink, blink. nope.

grounds weighed 16.3 g, overshooting because of the added moisture. left a good chunk waiting in the catchment for tomorrow.

observe

it will be spring today.

listen

éliane radigue, carol robinson, julia eckhardt, rhodri davies.
Occam Ocean 1.

nytimes.com: Éliane Radigue: Composer of Time, Silence and Space, Dies at 94

taste

bitter shiver! no sweetness
at first.

memorial

in honor of our departed beans and brujas,
raise the eyes to the horizon
and become fearless

con sangre nueva, indestructible! —Ray Barretto

[cup/1 · method/easy-immersion · water/purified · listening/spotify · guatemala · person/eliane-radigue · person/carol-robinson · person/julia-eckhardt · person/rhodri-davies]

05:51bean log 2026-03-08

mythical purple embers and ash

March 8 cup 1 handwritten brew notes with a map of the Guatemala coffee region

sketch

↑ a little map of guatemala
for this morning’s wake-up meditation
in life, as in engineering, seek the source.

of course, this doesn’t do anything to help one
visualize the incredible reticulation of the huehuetenango mountains.

consider google maps on terrain mode here. looks like aluminum foil that’s been crunched up into a ball then expanded again because there are so many mountains in the region.

snapshot of google maps terrain mode of the huehuetenango mountains, including the three districts for ACODIHUE Heuheutenango Organic, including Huehuetenango, San Marcos, Totonicapán.

makes the blood boil for hiking and adventure.

on npr: a bit of talk about prediction markets;
bets on kalshi and polymarkets related to iran
war.

drank some very fizzy water with apple cider vinegar and potassium electrolytes.

brew

heated 311 g purified water.

didn’t try to change anything for today’s cup; followed rin’s suggestions from friday: a bit coarser grind on the timemore at 1.8.1, and a +15” longer immersion for a total of 2’45” for 3’45” brew time.

weighed 16.1 g guatemala beans.

grounds first came out at 15.9 g, so one more bean went through the grinder to land at 16.0 g total.

poured 256.1 g purified water.

easy immersion release at 2:45, holding the same increase of +15 seconds from the baseline.

groundsniff

“mythical purple embers and ash” —🦄

observe

the handwritten board includes a sketched map of the guatemala coffee region, set against southern mexico, belize, honduras, and the yucatan. it turns the cup into a small geography lesson before sunrise.

listen

columbia masterworks issue ML 2196. Bach: Concerto in D Minor for Three Pianos and Strings / Bach: French Suite No. 6 in E Major.

performers: robert, gaby, and jean casadesus on pianos, with the philharmonic-symphony orchestra of new york, conducted by dimitri mitropoulos. the french suite performance credited to robert casadesus, piano.

listened to it twice through.
while normally, don’t prefer it when
earbuds pop and hiss, but for this album,
when it was finished, a little sonic pop
gave me the sense of an needle
returning to its anchor after playing
an LP

taste

deliciosity of guatemala’s sweetness.
presence, richness.

bag notes again,

cocoa, apple butter, juicy sweetness

what is the difference between
the taste of cocoa and the taste
of chocolate ? what an art, to craft these descriptions. it’s a type of poetry.

grandma’s apple butter is, remarkably
detectable in this cup. similar acidity.
though, less cinnamon and allspice than in the memory, more like
the preparatory roasted apple pulp,
pressed through the massive sieve
of the chinois:

a metal sieve with a wooden handle in front of a neutral background.

of course, it’s an echo of a reflection.
or a reflection of an echo.

round acid at the edges of the mouth … reminded of finca’s sweet valence.

and juicy!

[cup/1 · method/easy-immersion · water/purified · listening/spotify · guatemala · person/johann-sebastian-bach · person/robert-casadesus · person/gaby-casadesus · person/jean-casadesus · person/dimitri-mitropoulos]

05:45bean log 2026-03-07

the land of weirdos.

prelude

sparkling water with
acv and electrolytes.
breakfast: chia seeds, slivered
almonds, kefir and blackberries.
kitchen radio: interviewing parents
whose partner is deployed to the war in iran. trump’s quote:
a “friendly take-over” of cuba.

grind

looked at what rin said yesterday, followed that advice.
guatemala coffee again today,
310g purified water heated, 296.8 remained for preheat.
measured 16.1 g beans and 16.0 g grounds.
typical rdt procedure.

groundssniff

“frizzante!” —🦄

brew

immersion: 2’45” (15” longer)
total brew time: 3’45”

observe

listen

anne efternøler, maria laurette friis, johanna borchert
we are. profoundly. predisposed. to drowning.

the land of weirdos.

talented voice manipulation.

taste

prep palette salty from electolytes
and acidic from the ACV.
first sip’s river, thick chocolate leather.
again the salty crystals.
the word, “splurge”.
something about the desert,
it’s dry smell. acid around
the rim.

research

about the producer

Asociación de Cooperación al Desarrollo Integral de Huehuetenango (ACODIHUE)

established in 1996, this is a co-op with over 40,000 farmers.

region number of municipalities
Huehuetenango 16
San Marcos 2
Totonicapán 2

Parable’s product notes for this coffee highlight ACODIHUE’s work across multiple municipalities in focus on poverty reduction, food security, and environmental stewardship.

[cup/1 · method/easy-immersion · water/purified · listening/spotify · iran · person/anne-efternoeler · person/maria-laurette-friis · person/johanna-borchert]

05:39bean log 2026-03-06

friday cup 1, 5:39 am

brew

hand-written notes of the brew from this morning

measured 16.0 g frozen guatemala beans
baseline grind at 1.8.3 on timemore; landed at 15.9 g grounds.

preheated with 315 g water.

for brew, used 255.8 g purified water with 2:30 immersion.

water condition at pour: many bubbles, steaming, but no sizzling.

groundsniff

unicorn sniff:

“woody, like the inside of a tree!” —🦄

very floral.

observe

listen

machine a trois, aka mà3
unlearn.
laurent warnier [vibraphone]
rachel xi zhang [marimba]
pascal meyer [piano]

reminded of the japanophilic vibraphone play in breath of the wild. jigsaw miyazaki
montreal jazz memorial
“nature is our scenery” pops cheerful chorus:
“decompose!”

wish: spotify liner notes
@ each track.
why doesn’t it already?
🧹💨🧐

the written form of improvisation from an oral tradition
— composer louise volkmann

taste

salty rim.
sour in the back.
bitterness hiding behind
behind acidity, peering into into it, concealment,
thick oils, so much
acidity.
where is the bitter laugh?

[cup/1 · water/purified · listening/spotify · comment/rin-vale]

bean log 2026-03-05

sleepy steam, cup 1

brew

preheated with 310.0 g purified water.

measured 16.1 g finca beans. used RDT with 3 spritzes from the aerosolizer and 4 shakes.

ground at 1.8.0 on the timemore, about 3 clicks coarser than recent cups; not consciously chosen, just left over from yesterday.

after grind, only 15.8 g grounds despite no visible clumping or cling.

used 255.7 g purified water for brew with easy immersion, 2:30 immersion.

accidentally left the pan heated during preheat cycle, so the re-pour was steaming. sleepy.

groundsniff

“the dark wind” —🦄

observe

kitchen conversation drifted through ramadan and iran.

listen

“el ten eleven” self-titled album from the early aughts.

not so familiar with them, but good!

taste

first sip rich, acidic. curly chocolate.
a bit more sour than previous fincas.

[cup/1 · method/easy-immersion · water/purified · iran · comment/rin-vale]

05:44bean log 2026-03-04

lahze didar

March 4 cup 1 setup hand-written notes

brew

pre-heat started with 308.9 g purified water.
used 299.2 g for pre-heating the switch; the rest evaporated.

measured 16.1 g beans before RDT, taken out of the freezer.
used 3 spritzes of RDT and 4 shakes.
grounds landed at 16.0 g. after a grind at 1.8.0 on the timemore, a bit coarser than normal.

only after grind, realized that this guatemala hue. is a medium roast. suspected darker.

used 256.3 g water for brew, steaming, sizzling at the edge of pan. immersion ran 3:06, an accidental 36 second overhang.

groundsniff

wooden barn converted to store with coffee provisions. obvi, sorry.
perhaps the ceiling is corrugated tin, lol.
the coffee merchant smell. maybe burlap sacks.

imagination fails to swish the half-court word shot.

the “pipeline experience:” this improvised term
for what happens to the morning brain when a nose
enters the catchment of the grinder and is
transported to the coffee dimension.

observe

listen

“khazan” from compilation lahze didar, behdad babaj, parviz meshkatian, mohssen kasirossafar:

taste

first sip surprising, fresh.
second there’s a gasp notch,
smooth chocolate. true
partnership: bitter’s acidity
shimmering

richness; chugs
electrolyte water
leveling the palete.

first time guatemala’s aftertaste
stepped into the foreground.
back tongue cupping spotlights
a sweet, sour rhymeshot/echo.

nothing pierces anything
here. sideways glance at grape?

listen

haunted by the title song, lahze didar.

sounds like phrygian on “a,” but sumptuous microtonality emerges in the ornamentation and elsewhere, and then some lower melodic starting on e♮. yum yum.

recently was introduced to the concept of microtonality in pulse, and that has now informed the experience of this piece. so many things going on that cannot appropriately be called rubato.

[cup/1 · water/purified · listening/spotify · iran]

bean log 2026-03-03

the future is now

brew

guatemala measured 16.0 g beans, used RDT, then ground in the timemore at 1.8.1, a bit coarser than recent cups. produced 15.9 g grounds.

preheated 309 g purified water. after preheat, used 257.4 g water for the brew and poured the rest back into the jug.

for easy immersion, poured in two stages from the gooseneck kettle: first at 175 ml, then a second pour with the remaining water.

turned on the timer before finishing the grind, to prevent some lapse of measurement. nevertheless, while writing, immersion lasted one minute longer. depressed the hario switch at 3:30. whoops.

groundsniff

viscous, malty, maroon —🦄

right richness.

observe

recall the moon

the waxing gibbous night
light trickling in the window,
with disco joe
bathroom vine
drinking in tangles
of rich milklight crying over tehran too .
fellow humans, nobody
deserves this

listen

voodoo chile from electric ladyland

the night i was born, i swear the moon turned a fire red —jimi hendrix

enjoyed this track, but by the end of the album, felt a bit of vertigo from all the flanger flagella.

taste

first impression watery
with coffee’s classic flavor, sure
with darker roasts, words still blunt
near to dark chocolate shavings,
bitter curls. viennese
torte topping

ensh!tt!f!cat!on

while looking for the term “viennese torte” so as
to finish morning coffee poem,
chatgpt shoved in a bunch of products
for purchasing pleasure on the $20/month plan

“hand drawn” rendering of advertisements for various cakes in chatgpt

nope, didn’t ask for that.
what’s next, meta raybans with
advanced adblocking rays
for the low, low price of
all the information

the future is now

can i get a six pack quickly?

how can i communicate better with my mom?

[cup/1 · method/easy-immersion · water/purified · listening/spotify · person/jimi-hendrix]

05:45bean log 2026-03-02

jurassic howl

prep

brew

a bit of fog; some not-so-critical mistakes.
while talking to the 🦄.

thought a bit about the term “happy accident.”
what does it mean to hope for the best?
how many things had to go accidentally right
for this moment to be possible?

handwritten brew notes in a journal entry on top of a notebook sketch of the finca los angeles farm in el salvador

observe

listen

here is “the sun roars into view” by saxophonist Colin Stetson and violinist Sarah Neufeld, from their 2015 album, Never Were the Way She Was. buzzy undercurrent, brighting the overtones, voice worship. the morning may greet us raw.

dinosaur howl@6:34
calling from/to horizon:
give the type of love
that’s just intonation
or take the kind of love
that’s messy around
the edges of the art

on bbc this morning, oil prices up,
people down in bomb shelters.

“The … dinosaurs were around for 165 million years and … humans so far only 300,000.” — Dr Henry Loomis, Jurassic World Rebirth (2025) source

so much depends upon decayed remains

taste

first and second sips off balance for finca. but by the sixth, the sweet, bubbly fizz
gave synesthesia with stetson’s buzz.
it’s a type of para-noia, an extended technique
finca brings to the mouth.
makes me wonder about the types of suffering
plants endure, finca’s farm has seen
rough times.

παράνοια (paránoia) meant “madness” or “derangement”
being outside one’s mind || beyond reason

“hand-drawn” image of iterm2 with the find dialog opened up, searching for the unicorn emoji

[cup/1 · method/easy-immersion · water/purified · person/colin stetson · person/sarah neufeld]

05:45bean log 2026-03-01

sunday cup 1, 5:45 am

brew

second day using handwritten notes.
already preferred to audio transcription.
more contemplative, less dictatorial.

notes

handwritten brew notes superimposed on top of a hand-drawn sketch of coffee grounds with a flat bed

the catchment of the timemore feels just a bit loose now. it’s 1.5 months new.
not a problem, just hold it with the hand in grind.
still, how hard could it be to magnetize it DIY?

wear and tear; the little plastic switch of the hario prone to falling out, feels flimsy. maybe will splurge for
Flip Switch (Metal Lever Upgrade for Hario Switch)

groundsniff

a single gentle fmoment shared with 🦄, complex and rich. caramel.

observe

listen

here is “seventh etude” from kevin volans and jill richards, from the whole album of etudes

inquisitive yet approached without hesitation.
near-reverance. later, the fourth etude is like
combining a slow shutter with flash photography :
the resonant blur etched with the stillness of
a moment’s coincidence.

evokes berio’s six encores, particularly, the first one, “brin:”

transition

primed the entry during pre-heat this time, worked well.
still having troubles with codex. need to set the problems
aside and live in the vim of the moment to truly
be here.

taste

took until fifth
or sixth sip to taste finca’s sweet
acidity aftertones, little sugar crystals
sticking at the back of front teeth. probing them.
letting the “resonance” saturate the mouth’s
apprehension of the flavor.

happy surprises. sometimes precision and plan is not everything.
still, what is the plan for tomorrow’s cup?

[cup/1 · method/easy-immersion · water/purified]

05:25bean log 2026-02-28

saturday cup 1, 5:25 am

context

embraced 🦄 holding space for witnessing the present
for u.s. attacked iran this morning.

brew

prepared with electolytes and sparkling water with apple cider vinegar.

meant to return to baseline, accidentally deviated.

notes

image of coffee-stained notebook with hand-written notes of the day’s brew

diffs

[[technique/new]] use time of grinding beans
to measure preheat of the Hario Switch glass and filter

groundsniff

measured 16.0 g grounds in the pre-heated filter of the Switch.
changes the experience - heat of the water gets in the way, warming cheeks
… does the hot, wet filter carry an aroma of its own?

🦄 prefers sniffing the grounds in the grinder catchment. agreed.

observe

listen

album Marjan Mozetich: The Complete Piano Music.
first rec from spotify in a long time that really hit the mark.
last track evokes the moment’s anxiety. worth two listens today.

transition

got distracted with debugging tmux panes not behaving correctly sometimes it’s hard not be captured by what’s going wrong.

taste

by sip three, seeing spectactular fireworks of acidity.
generous curls of chocolate.
breathing through it, tongue divets
tidepools of flavor.

fantastic.

[cup/1 · method/easy-immersion · war · listening/piano]

05:39bean log 2026-02-26

the heart has many rooms

prep

brew

used the same slightly finer grind setting 1.8.4 from yesterday by accident.

groundssniff

smells of amber and musty tobacco this morning. delicious. —🦄

re-ceive

got a valentine in the mail from a young and dear Friend

The Heart

has many rooms doors that open doors
that don’t still a lock to pick a key to find or borrow
or have carved by the right smith
some doors only open when another shuts
some never open the locks red with rust and glazed
with spider’s web sometimes I think I want no doors only arches
or windows you have to scramble through when no one’s watching
you might think it was but it’s not a storage space neither holding cell
nor jail you have to let the light come and go as it pleases
the heart can’t be bought or owned it’s terribly difficult
but not impossible to lose sweet friend I found a room
inside my heart I think could suit you
a place I hope you will return you can turn the fire on
or leave it cool you can shut the shades or leave them open
write your poems on the wall or only lie on the floor dreaming

-Brionne Janae

ob-serve

mind

pulled off by technical ruminations and investigations.

listening

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli playing Beethoven, Chopin and Brhams live in Arezzo in 1952. the beethoven at the start has such a firm, warm, generous sound.

Michelangeli’s spooky funeral march is, in contrast, sub-zero

taste

a bit sour. why? yesterday’s was watery, too.
maybe attention needs to be more rapt to pull
the honey from the divet in the tongue.

re-flect

maybe go back down to 1.8.3 tomorrow. swirling around the spectacular things seen in that first cup from Bean 2026-02-22 bean1 or Bean 2026-02-24 bean1, which, were the best of the Finca Los Angeles | El Salvador so far.

[cup/1 · method/easy-immersion · listening · listening/beethoven · listening/chopin · listening/brahms]

05:06bean log 2026-02-25

finer notch, higher ratio, emperor morning

brew

smells

of beans in bag: dominated by bag smell.

of grounds:

smelled of amber: warm, glowing —🦄 nicorn

technique

slightly finer grind (1.8.4) to increase extraction in tandem with slightly higher water volume.

  • yielded 15.9 g after grind
  • two additional beans into the hopper and ground directly into the filter to compensate (first time doing this)

fremen technique: after heating ~313 g for the pre-heat, return post-brew excess water to the purified water jug for the love of circles

grinding two beans directly into the filter feels like baking. less batch-like, more custom.

soundscape

redux of state of the union on NPR.

observe

listening

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.5 played by Michelangeli (1982).

taste

slightly diluted, which does not surprise.
tempted to use words from a lexicon
i have not: “lighter body”

[cup/1 · listening/npr · listening/spotify · listening/beethoven · method/easy-immersion]

bean log 2026-02-24

coffee chronicler, winter sidewalks, finca los angeles

prelude

The sidewalks have been scooped outside. The heater is whistling.

Inspiration - watching The Coffee Chronicler’s tips for learning about coffee. He’s something akin to a sommelier for coffee, and the most important step forward for him was when he started “cupping with professionals” and trying many different coffees at the same time with other people that were more experienced. That sounds amazing; are little conferences or workshops for that?

I’ve been a coffee geek for 16 years. That coincides with when I started roasting coffee at home for fun. But actually the first few years of my learning curve was rather slow. The really big change in my coffee understanding came when I started cupping coffees with professionals and that’s really the cheat code if you want to understand coffee much deeper and much faster, trying many different coffees at the same time, ideally with someone more experienced who can help you to understand the difference. — The Coffee Chronicler, I have been a coffee geek for 16 years. Here’s my best advice. - YouTube

brew

typical RDT: three sprays of purified water with four bean shakes. measured 16.0g beans before spritzes. After going through grind, 15.8g remained (including the weight of the spritz), ≈0.2 g retention/loss. accepted the shortfall out of curiosity; the Finca from two days ago was more memorable than yesterday, similar shortfall then? yes.

Brew Details > Dose > 15.9 g Brew Details > Water > 267.8 g (intended 256 g) Brew Details > Ratio > ~1 : 16.8

typical pre-heat ritual for these days: pouring all the water into hario switch with filter, waiting a bit during the grind, then switching it through to the patagonia mug under. then reheat before pour.

water in pot had visible gas release; it was hot.

for easy immersion, used typical two pours (immersion blurs the term “bloom”) different this time: first pour ~175 g with clockwise spiral, reaching into center. second pour beginning around 0:25. at ~1:00, shifted to tighter concentric circles in the middle ring. switch released at 2:34 (four seconds later than intended). drawdown complete at 3:36.

groundsbed

Like other brews for this coffee, spent bed forms a clear upper water ring at the perimeter — a dark high-tide mark against the filter wall. Inside that, the grounds slope inward like a shallow mountain range, descending toward a small central mound — a modest pitcher’s mound at the core.

Not flat. Not evenly settled. Instead, a conical inward migration pattern: outer ring → sloped interior → central peak.

observe

’isten

Debussy: Images Books 1 & 2; Arabesques played by Zoltan Kocsis

taste

first sip is bequeathed to me in a waterslide
of gentle acidity, a a a bright, sweet flute
of flavor. zero pucker or reticulation. thirdly,
holding the tongue in a pouch, the sweet honey …
there! the little sparkles of acidity, that blackberry
cobbler!

reflect

in retrospect, this was a better cup than yesterday. the special thing about this Finca is the aftertaste; the acidity has a signature sweetness. perhaps tomorrow should try this Finca with the same 16.8 ratio, but keep the very hot water and the modifications for having the first pour with ~175 g.

[cup/1 · weather/winter · listening/debussy · listening/spotify · learning/cupping]

05:28bean log 2026-02-23

haydn, blizzard, finca 2nd cup

Context

Woke up from a deep sleep to sound of snowblowers and scoops. Nor’easter in progress, intense pre-dawn blizzard. Branches, twigs coated in snow. Window screens caked in white. Hard gusts blowing snow off the distant rooftops. Inside, the kitchen is warm. NPR is on. Shared a square of dark chocolate moment with 🦄.

Blizzard conditions through the kitchen window with hanging pothos and ornaments

Groundsniff

a forest, like an enchanted forest, like a dark green color, an ecosystem of complex notes — 🦄

Took the grounds to the corner of the room to sniff. Subtle and layered. It does not hit as bluntly as Mocha Java.

Brew Notes

Measured 16.0 g beans and yielded 16.0 g grounds on scale with roughly 0.1 g in grinder catchment. Why? This Maestri house can display tenths of a gram but its sensitivity is likely something like +/- 0.05 g. Final brew water landed at 255.8 g. Switch release at 2:34, about four seconds later than planned. No extra agitation and no structural process changes from yesterday.

Normal Techniques

  • RDT: three spritzes and four shakes of the beans. It’s become a standard.
  • Two blooms: 1.) to 200 g, 2.) remainder.

Brew Ring

Spent bed again formed a defined dark outer ring, then a lighter ring where paper shows through, with grounds sloping inward to a central mound. Not flat. Looking down at the way the grounds slope in towards the bottom of the cone and then up to its little pitcher’s mound, something about the ridges evokes desert mountain ranges. Maybe these grounds are nostalgic for their mountain birthplace. But the description of their farm was characterized by flatness.

Something notable about this farm is its topography. It is a practically flat farm with very young nearly 100% Pacamara trees. — Description of finca los angeles

Presence

Tasting Music

Today’s tasting is accompanied by the simplicity, graceful lines, and hooks that Alfred Brendel carves when playing Haydn. It’s like skiing. Fingers still know this one, its ticklish swiftness. Need to dig the sheet music out.

Tasting, Writing

Yesterday my attention was rapt around the sparkles and aftertastes of this new coffee. Today it is a gentler, simpler experience. Thinking about only having one cup today. Maybe experiences should be dense and sparse.

Re-watching the LOTR series, thinking about AI as a “precious” object that upends the world.

“I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.” — Bilbo, in Bag End. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Here he’s describing what long possession of the Ring has done to him - not physical aging, but a kind of spiritual thinning and depletion. In a similar way, ingesting too much information at a cursory level leads to a diluted mind, not concentrated mind.

Vimmery

In tmux today, writing in vim. Feels good to be home. Needed a reminder that gj and gk were the keyshorts for moving up and down a “visual” line, and w and b are for navigating by word forwards and backwards.

Got a bit confused after splitting the window with a vim pane rather than a tmux pane, and then using tmux keybindings for navigating panes rather than vim panes. Need to update muscle memory; probably makes more sense to prioritize tmux now.

[cup/1 · weather/noreaster · listening/npr · listening/piano]

05:32bean log 2026-02-22 0532

New Coffee - Finca Los Angeles

Parable Finca Los Angeles bag, dose cup, and Hario Switch setup before dawn

Context

New Coffee

  • Coffee name: Finca Los Angeles
  • Bag notes: Blackberry cobbler
  • Components / origin: El Salvador - Finca Los Angeles
  • Roast date: Not visible on bag as far as I can see.

Many thanks to JB and LS for this new coffee that just arrived as a gift. It is a light-medium roast, and I am interested to see how the grind setting will shift for it. The roaster description is compelling; see finca-los-angeles for more info. I want to visit the farm.

Setting

In the pre-dawn kitchen this morning, NPR Morning Edition from yesterday’s broadcast played in the background. There was a segment about memory and RAM shortages, then conversation with 🦄 moved in and out of the brew flow.

A nor’easter is coming. New bag, opened into darkness.

Brew Notes

Preference is to only change one variable in each experiment. So the plan was to hold the recent baseline technique for this brew and only change the beans.

  • Water was purified.
  • Preheat: 310 g poured through filter into the mug, then reheated.
  • Three mists of RDT before grinding.
  • Full pour, with an accidental overpour of 1.8 g for a total of 257.8 g water.
  • Immersion held until 2:30, then drawdown.
  • A clean clockwise spiral ring appeared at the top during immersion.

Observe

Sniff, sniff the grounds

so potent, fresh, electric, I’m seeing a gold color. — 🦄

What is the right word? “Aroma” sounds like chemistry to me, “aromatic ring.” “Smell” always sounds like it belongs to stink. Still thinking about how strange it is to smell with intention. I hold a bit of silence, listen to the molecules, and wait for words to bubble up and form an exoskeleton around the experience. It reminds me of trying to capture the butterfly of my dreams in a net of words.

Nose in: it is layered and expansive in there. telescopic, like peering into another dimension that’s opening. Blackberry cobbler actually detected! Exciting.

The filter bed looks

Pay no attention to the glaring numbers on the instrument panel. It was neither 6:29AM nor was anything measured as 26.9g. That said, the bed did look like this.

Top-down post-brew bed with dark outer ring and central mound

Each coffee roast leaves a signature look in the spent filter bed. Brews with coffees like the Parable Coffee Co Mocha Java leave a dense black hole at the bottom of the filter bed, very uniform, unpenetrably dark.

Others like Ruby Colorful Coffees Organic August — Seasonal Blend have left tiny patchy holes in the filter bed.

I also want to compare this pattern against Parable Guatemala ACODIHUE Heuheutenango Organic on a future brew.

The spent bed for Finca has a high dark ridge ring at the top water mark, then more of a blank ring, then a bed where the grounds crawl up the sides, forming a bit of a valley out of the cone.

The phrase “lunar halo” popped up:

Lunar halo around a bright moon

Tasting

A bit of sweetness on first sip. Sparkling acidity by sip two.

Around the edges, a slight bitter curl in a good ornamental way. Third sip lifted: what the bag calls sparkling fruits lands accurately. Honey showed up as a thin sweet rivulet and a lingering sugar drizzle. Delicious.

Could these be first hints of this single-origin’s capabilities? Gentle power.

This was, without a doubt, the most exciting cup of coffee to date. Long after the sip goes down, little sparkle pops of taste emerge on the tastebuds. That’s the “sparkling fruits” on the bag, certainly.

Listening

Perfect for this moment: “In a Landscape” by John Cage, Alexei Lubimov, from album Der Bote.

Spooky. Other-worldly tone helps get into this new world of coffee. The rest of the album plays in familiar ghostly nostalgia.

Reflect

Prior days have included measured Folgers instant coffee, moving attention from beans log entries to less austere routines. It has been useful contrast against these stronger cups.

What a bag this will be.

[cup/1 · coffee/new-bag · gift · weather/noreaster · weather/storm · listening]