Finding Your Perfect Brew

A Behind-the-Scenes Guide from the Original Source Collective Team

When it comes to brewing great coffee, there’s no one “official” ratio carved into stone tablets somewhere in the Andes. Every machine, every bean, every grinder, and every human preference shifts the flavor in beautiful (and sometimes surprising) ways. So before we publish our Official Brew Guide™ for Original Source Collective, we ran a team experiment, and we want to share it with you!

This is how we dial in our coffees for the perfect balance of clarity, aromatics, sweetness, and strength. And yes… things got a little nerdy.

Step 1: Brew It the Way You Usually Do

Before we ask you to try new ratios, the first goal is simple:

Make it your normal way.

Use:

your machine
your grinder
your water
your usual amount of scoops

We want your baseline — your everyday cup — so we can build upward from there, because if coffee can’t shine in your real-life setup, it doesn’t matter how fancy our ratios are.

Step 2: Make Two More Batches — One Stronger, One Lighter

To find the true “sweet spot,” we ask the team to try:

One batch with a bit more coffee
One batch with a bit less

This helps map out the edges:

Where does it taste muted?
Where does it taste too intense or muddy?
Where do the aromas pop?

This “triangle test” is how baristas fine-tune new beans.

A Special Note About Brewing Our Sagrada Harvest

Sagrada Harvest is a "Gesha" Variety, and it is aromatic. Floral. Delicate.It can be a diva, in the best way, and it behaves differently than your typical Latin American drip coffee.

For example:

In a moka pot, 2 tablespoons per 8oz water works beautifully for Heritage 1805 (Barahona Typica), but the same ratio is too strong for Sagrada Harvest's (Gesha) aromatics.

Sagrada Harvest needs a touch more breathing room to let its jasmine, citrus, and honeyed florals come through.

So for moka pot lovers:

Heritage 1805 (Barahona): 2 tablespoons per 8oz water = excellent
Sagrada Harvest (Gesha): Start with 1.5 tablespoons per 8oz water

Then adjust based on your taste!

Step 3: Perform a Simple Cupping (Team Style)

This is one of our favorite team rituals; a small moment of ceremony where the beans speak for themselves.

Here’s our quick beginner-friendly cupping method:

Sip with no air on intake. Hold it.This gives you the base profile: body, sweetness, structure.
Sip again while pulling air through your teeth. Sounds weird. Works wonders.This aerates the coffee and unlocks aromatic compounds.
Swish gently.You’ll taste acidity, fruit notes, and floral complexity more clearly.
Use a spoon to smell the aroma at the surface. Some call this the soul of the coffee.
Write down what you notice. No right or wrong answers, only your experience.

Step 4: The Art (and Nerdiness) of Dialing in Your Machine

Different brew devices extract differently:

Percolator (perc) pots brew slower and deeper.
Stovetop percs brew faster, meaning you may need a coarser grind.
Drip brewers love medium-fine grinds.
Moka pots prefer a medium grind.

Your grind size + machine speed impacts extraction more than any other factor. Or as one teammate put it:

“The grind and the volume per pot is the sweet spot you gotta find… and each bean changes the math.”

For example:

Cocoa Canuco (Cibao Mocha) brews stronger → use slightly less coffee
Heritage 1805 (Barahona Typica) brews softer → use a little more
Sagrada Harvest (Gesha) is delicate → use a touch less coffee but a finer grind

This is where coffee gets fun — and incredibly nerdy.

So What Is the Goal of All This?

We’re not trying to turn anyone into a barista.

We’re trying to help you discover:

Your machine’s perfect ratio

Your favorite grind size

Your personal flavor zone

How each of our coffees behaves when you brew them your way

And from everyone’s notes, we’ll publish, The Official Original Source Collective Brew Guide with recommended ratios for:

Drip
Pour-over
Moka pot
Espresso
French Press
Perc
Aeropress

All tested in real homes with real machines.

Final Thoughts

Coffee isn’t just water + coffee grounds.It’s technique, intuition, flavor memory, and personal preference.It’s culture.It’s ritual.It’s art.

And the best part?There’s no wrong way to discover what you love.

We’ll share our official guide soon, but until then, experiment, taste, adjust… and enjoy the process. After all, that’s the magic of where coffee began.