Lately I've been on a mission. Maybe it was boredom sneaking in or simply the need to change things up, but I had grown bored with how I was brewing coffee at home. As I'm always looking for new brew methods and buying ones that pique my interest I recently picked up the Coffee Gator Pour Over Brewer. I had been watching numerous Youtube videos about the Kinto slow coffee style and the Coffee Gator looked like a (cheaper) similar set-up I thought, "why not?"

My kitchen cupboard is overflowing with random manual coffee brewers whether new ones I find and order or old ones I find on the cheap at thrift store. I have a $3 percolator from Goodwill, a used $5 moka pot from the bargain basement of an outdoor adventure store, and many other brand new ones I've either purchased online or were sent to me to test out and cross promote with Loam Coffee. I'm always on the hunt for new manual brew methods.

Lately I've been on overdrive mixing and matching. Why? I want to see how our coffee tastes with each brew method. For example, our Boondocker (Colombia Santander) tastes great using a v60 pour over but SPECTACULAR using the Coffee Gator Pour Over Brewer. Or, the Boondocker is smooth as butter as iced coffee using the Coffee Gator Pour Over brew filled with 100-140g of ice in the carafe and then I brew 17g of coffee with 300g of water in my Bonavita 5-cup brewer (as I continuously experiment and tweak coffee-to-water ratios). I'll then turn around and make more Boondocker with the Nanopresso sent to us by Wacaco as an iced Americano and my socks are blown off.

The point? I've been on a self-proclaimed brew method challenge. That is this: to take one of our coffees at a time and brew it using every conceivable brew method I have or can find. As I do this I'm always amazed (and I know I shouldn't be) as to how the nuances of the flavor change from brew method to brew method. I'm issuing a challenge to you ... join the brew method challenge.

Words by Sean Benesh, Loam Coffee Founder and Brand Manager.