Good Morning - Feb 25th - If you recently had a bunch of free time what would you do? Photo walk on Fremont St in Vegas, stroll thru the beer district with friends, build things with wood leaving the garage smelling like fresh cut lumber. Put a whoopin on your oldest son on the golf course. So many options and all of them an amazing use of your time. Also, who understood what’s going on in Severance? It’s like The Truman Show, but less funny.

This weeks grind:

• Home Roasting Newbie: Where Do I Get “Green” Beans.

• 3D Printing w/ Coffee: I’ll take a decaf pen cup please.

• Morning Health Routine: Coffee lovers get a health boost.

Home Roasting Revolution - Your Guide to Sourcing Countertop Coffee Magic

A fellow coffee enthusiast buddy in town recently rewarded his passion of coffee with a purchase of a Bellwether Shop Roaster. My first time seeing a Bellwether in the wild was at Public Works. They were sourcing their coffee from Mothership, but decided to try their hand at roasting themselves. This machine at Public Works was the Series 2 Roaster and it was the size of a refrigerator. After a couple test runs they got the device tuned in pretty nicely. This new Shop Roaster is half the size and can fit on a counter top in your coffee shop (or home!).

The question now becomes…where do I get coffee to roast?

Bellwether’s “Green Coffee Marketplace” claims to be The world’s only full service green coffee source that has you covered from farm to cup. This makes it easy since you just spent 15 big ones on your own roaster, but who else is serving up a green bean ordering service? I did some digging around these internets and found 3 well reviewed options below.

Coffee Shrub: They have an extensive list of coffee from all over the world. They do not mess around when providing details. They sell their beans by 50lb lots.

Sweet Marias: This service is the coffee cousin to Coffee Shrub, but this one is more consumer based due them offering up 1lb bags. This way you can taste a variety of coffee from regions all over the world. If you don’t like it you’re not stuck with 49lbs unroasted beans.

Coffee Bean Corral: They make the bold claim of being “the first green coffee bean store on the internet”. They have all the details listed for the farms and coffee. What’s nice about this site is they sell by the ½ bag all the way up to 50lb bags.

My Coffee Compadre hooked me up with a freshly roasted bag of coffee from his new roaster. I’ll be running that thru the AeroPress to max out flavor and report on the outcome in next weeks newsletter.

The Future of Packaging is Poured from Your Cup

3D printers have been around for a while now. They’re creating everything from car parts to an entire home. Most of the home based 3D printers are using plastics and resin to create these wild designs, but a doctoral student at the University of Washington has developed a printer that uses your old coffee grounds. Danli Luo got to work on her own version of a 3D printer that used your spent grounds.

In our caffeinated quest for sustainability, we’re buzzing about a groundbreaking idea that takes your used coffee grounds—yes, those very remnants of your morning ritual—and transforms them into a game-changing eco alternative to styrofoam. Come to think of it. I haven’t seen styrofoam much these days. Most of the items that arrive from Amazon are wrapped in fancy form fitted egg carton material. If this printing takes off your next phone case could be made from spent espresso pucks!

Sugar & Sweeteners Steal Your Coffee’s Health Boost

Every couple months there’s a new article or study about how awesome coffee is. I need to be part of a paid study where my goals are drinking 2 cups of awesome coffee every morning. I could crush that goal.

A fresh Harvard-led study confirms that your daily cup of joe might be doing more than just waking you up—it could actually be slashing your risk of type 2 diabetes by about 10% per cup when you drink it straight up. Drawing on a massive dataset from long-running U.S. health studies, researchers found that drinking plain coffee (no sugar, no artificial tweaks) has a solid protective effect against T2D. However, if you're prone to sweetening your brew with a teaspoon of sugar or a dash of artificial sweetener, that beneficial edge drops to around 5% or 7%, respectively. Even those popular coffee whiteners seem to throw a wrench in the works, although cream alone doesn’t appear to cause much mischief.

So, if you're serious about both your coffee and your health, the message is clear: keep it black to maximize your diabetes defense. This study not only reinforces what previous research has hinted at—that every extra cup might just give you a little more protection—but also shines a light on how our trendy additives could be undermining that advantage. In a world where type 2 diabetes is an ever-growing global concern (T2D affects an estimated 537 million people worldwide), it's a compelling reminder that sometimes, simplicity is the best recipe for both a great cup of coffee and a healthier life.

If you dumping sugar or sugary dairy drinks in your coffee then you’re not buying good coffee. We’ll keep hammering this home. Buy better coffee. According to this study it could help save you life.

Random Wakeups

• Grand Opening-Grand Closing: “Humane” AI helper device is done.

• Affordable 16e iPhone: Crazy to think $599 is a bargain for a cellphone.

• Stress Reducing Phone Calls: Apparently a call with your mom is as good as a hug.

• Brand New Full Frame Camera: Sigma’s new BF minimalist design is amazing

• 20k New Jobs: Bargain Phone and Spending $500B on US hiring!