The AeroPress is one of the most innovative brewing methods to come along in coffee in a long time. It combines elements of a French Press with many similarities to an Espresso Machine. The result is a smooth cup of coffee with very low acidity. I have been using my Aeropress at home since March […]
Here at Achilles Coffee Roasters, we are constantly searching for the world’s best coffee beans. Often times that means working with independent farmers and co-ops in areas that are a little off the beaten path. It’s this dedication to quality that led us to find Eduin and his Microlot coffee beans. What is a Microlot? […]
With more people brewing at home than ever before, some people are probably missing their cafe favorites. Making Cold Brew coffee at home is much easier than you might expect and it’s a great way to beat the San Diego heat. Follow these steps and you’ll be on your way to sipping some tasty Cold […]
ATTENTION ALL ACHILLES CUSTOMERS *UPDATED 5/1/20* ALL SHOPS ARE CURRENTLY OPEN: Ash Street Roastery703 Ash Street(619) 738 – 8652Hours7:30 AM – 2:00 PM KITCHEN HOURS:8:00 AM – 12:00 PM The Rey800 B Street(619) 230 – 5979Hours7:30 AM – 2:00 PM KITCHEN HOURS:7:30 AM – 1:00 PM Park 12100 Park Blvd(619) 915 – 6151HoursWeekdays8:00 AM – […]
Whether you call it a caffe latte, cafe au lait, or cafe con leche, the Latte is a drink that has stood the test of time. It has become one of the quintessential drinks of the modern coffee shop, but how did it get there? The history of the latte is a long and fascinating […]
If you’re anything like us, you have lots of used grounds lying around. With over 6 million tons of coffee grounds ending up in landfills each year, the question becomes, “How can I reuse these grounds responsibly?” Just because the grounds can’t make another cup doesn’t mean they are useless. By spreading the grounds out […]
Coffee Gifts That Won’t Break Your Budget Trying to find the perfect gift for a coffee lover in your life? It can be difficult sifting through all of the options out there to find something that is useful, so we are here to help. Brewing This is one of the largest debates in the coffee […]
The coffee industry is notorious for being wasteful. Find out all the ways that Achilles Coffee Roasters is taking to improve our sustainability.
Achilles Coffee Roasters opened their 3rd location in new Park 12 building in Ballpark Village
At Achilles Coffee Roasters, we are crazy about our Pour Overs. While it may take longer than other brewing methods, we believe it is the best way to deliver an incredibly consistent cup of coffee. There are many ways to make Pour Over coffee (Hario V60, Chemex, Kone, etc.), but this will serve as a […]
Coffee Shop Design Trends Search ‘coffee shop’ on Instagram or Pinterest and you will discover an eclectic world of design trends. Where we buy and consume our coffee has become an important third place, not only in the U.S. but around the world. The first place is home. The second place is work. The third […]
Climate Change Could Threaten Your Morning Cup of Coffee Climate change is affecting everything from polar bears, coral reefs, sea levels, the intensity of storms and even your morning cup. Coffee is a fickle plant and doesn’t grow just anywhere. The majority of the world’s coffee is grown in the Bean Belt, a narrow region […]
Remember the cola wars? Similarly, we might soon see the cold brew coffee wars. The way we drink coffee is dramatically different from the days when Maxwell House and Folger’s were household names. We prepared and consumed it at home using grounds coffee from a can. Furthermore, we certainly were not concerned about origins or […]
You probably didn’t notice but 4th wave coffee is here. The proliferation and exponential growth of the 3rd wave players created a new wave in coffee. We have come a long way since cans of ground robusta beans filled the grocery shelves, but the more things change the more they stay the same. Whoever thought […]
Venture Capital is betting on Sudden Coffee and its new approach to an old staple, instant coffee. The specialty coffee sector is booming, but why so suddenly? The third wave of coffee made an appearance around 2000. Over the span of these 18 years the percentage of adult specialty coffee drinkers grew from 9% to […]
Innovations to Recycle Spent Coffee Grounds The coffee industry creates the second most traded good in the world, coffee. An estimated 90% of brewed coffee ends up as Spent Coffee Grounds (SCG). Up until recently, companies have been sending their grounds to the landfill. To maintain coffee’s immense presence in daily life, we must understand […]
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch In the North Pacific Ocean there are over 79,000 metric tons of floating debris. Humans have created this immense patch of trash which mainly consists of plastic. In addition to the huge amount of debris, scientists are concerned about the ability of the plastic to break down properly. In this […]
Guatemalan Coffee Farms Guatemala holds the title of 9th largest exporter of coffee in the world. Combined, Guatemalan coffee farms make up 2.7% of the world coffee market. Diverse regions throughout this small country contain varied soil, rainfall, humidity, altitude, and temperature. The result, seven distinct types of Arabica coffee. Coffee Production in Guatemala Traditionally, […]
The Partially Hydrogenated Truth Whether you’ve heard it from your doctor or your health-nut friend, partially hydrogenated oils are not good for you. As of June 18, 2018, the Food and Drug Administration prohibited most manufacturers from adding partially hydrogenated oils (or trans fats) to their products. However, the food industry is complicated and can […]
Flat White vs Cappuccino So, what’s The Difference Between Flat White and Cappuccino? Lately, there has been a lot of talk and debate over two very traditionally different drinks that are slowly becoming very similar. As the Third wave of coffee is crashing over the world there are a lot of changes being made to […]
The Bean Belt Ever wonder where the coffee you had this morning came from? The Bean Belt is comprised of the major coffee growing regions of the World tucked between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. From Africa where it originated, the cultivation of coffee has expanded to the East and to the West to […]
Green Bean Coffee Processing 101 Many factors influence coffee from the cherry to your morning cup. The green bean coffee processing method chosen is one of the most influential factors. This process takes the coffee cherry and turns it into dried green coffee beans. Traditionally, two methods of processing were used; washed or natural. Recently, […]
Plastic Straws: Coffee’s #1 Pollutant Chances are that you’ve in some way or another stumbled upon a chilling viral video of a Costa Rican sea turtle getting a 10cm plastic straw pulled out of its nostril. The emergence of the video sparked a stronger movement of activism to ban all single-use plastic products worldwide. Though […]
Fitting Fruit Into Your Morning Coffee Ritual We all know that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but why? According to the USDA, the optimal recommendation for fruit intake is 5 servings per day. Leading busy lives, it can be difficult for people to maintain those 5 servings each and every day. Therefore, […]
To the modern day environmentalist, the new reeling question is “what’s the deal with paper coffee cups, are they recyclable?” Most people will tell you that these “paper” products are recyclable. The staff at Achilles is here to tell you about the plastic paper coffee cup dilemma. According to CNN, each year about 60 billion […]
Community Composting At Your Local Coffee Shop The United States creates 30% of the waste in the entire world. However, the U.S. only holds about 4% of the world’s population. That means each American creates approximately 7 pounds of waste per day. And even more dismal, according to a report, landfills will reach capacity in a […]
Coffee Cultivators Papua New Guinea is a popular coffee cultivator in the specialty coffee world. Coffee from Papua New Guinea, PNG, as roasters refer to it, have a bright and delicate acidity. PNG’s typically have a less earthy profile than other Southwest Asian Archipelago coffees such as Sumatra and Sulawesi. The country predominately uses wet […]
Introduction to Costa Rican Coffee Coffee drinkers worldwide recognize Costa Rican coffee for robust flavor profiles created from a mixture of favorable growing factors. Following natural gas, coffee is the second most traded good in the world. As of 2011, over 45 different countries export coffee. Surprisingly, Costa Rican coffee beans makes up only 1% of the […]
Coffee As An Antioxidant These days everything seems to be harmful to our bodies. However, there are coffee health benefits in your morning cup. Would you ever believe that coffee is a good source of antioxidants? Coffee, as a great source of antioxidants has recently been getting a lot more attention for its health promoting benefits. […]
If you’re a coffee shop owner you might have considered roasting your own beans at some point. But the cost can be prohibitive for some — when you consider equipment, leasing space, building out that space, getting the right permits, and so on, the costs soon mount up. Now that’s all starting to change with […]
The Art of Being an Expert Barista You’ve probably been to a cocktail bar and been served by one of those incredibly skilled bartenders — the people who can simultaneously mix great drinks and put on a performance. But did you know that it’s not just bartenders who do this? Baristas, the artisans of the […]
Much like wine, beer, and tea, the way in which coffee beans are grown can drastically affect the flavor of the cup that you eventually drink. There are many factors that affect the quality of a coffee bean, but none more important than the altitude it’s grown at. To understand why altitude has such a […]
Achilles Coffee Roasters is proud to contribute to local San Diego community gardens and farms through our partnership with Food2Soil, a collective of restaurants and gardeners seeking to make better use of waste products in the food and beverage industry. We’re making every effort we can to get to Zero Waste, through composting, recycling, and/or […]
3rd Wave Coffee Expansion The growth of third wave coffee is an undeniably good thing, both for coffee lovers and coffee shop owners alike. Coffee’s place in our culinary landscape has been cemented as a legitimate culinary experience as opposed to a simple drink we consume in the morning. The 3rd wave created a market […]
Coffee In Its Purest Form For many coffee aficionados, espresso is coffee. They consider it the purest form of the coffee bean. But what is espresso and how did it become so popular today? Most people know of it due to the proliferation of artisanal coffee shops, but couldn’t define what espresso is if you […]
Coop Coffees is an interesting player in the 3rd wave coffee movement. What they do is simple: they import green coffee from smaller-scale farmers and their exporting cooperatives all around the world. That’s not so unique, is it? After all, the fair trade coffee movement has been around for quite some time. What makes Cooperative […]
The Macchiato Recently there has been much misunderstanding when it comes to what the names of common espresso based drinks really mean. If you go to Starbucks and order a macchiato you will get one drink, while if you go to any third wave coffee shop and order a macchiato you will get something entirely different. […]
The Filters There are many ways to create a delicious cup of coffee at home. Today I want to talk about making a great cup of coffee using the pour over coffee method. To get started, you need to make sure that you have some fresh roasted coffee beans and all of the right equipment. […]
Third Wave Coffee Movement You’ve probably noticed the third wave coffee movement happening around you already, without even realizing that’s what you’re seeing. Increasing numbers of small shops, many of them with the name Roasters in their titles, have opened in neighborhoods across the US. Generally speaking, they tend to be Spartan in appearance, lots […]
You may have heard of the term cupping if you are involved in the coffee world or happen to be trying out lots of specialty coffee. Unfortunately, like much of the terminology belonging to the modern coffee industry, this one can seem pretty obtuse if no one has explained it to you yet. “Cupping?” You […]
A signature of the third wave coffee movement is latte art, espresso drinks finished with a design. You’ve absolutely witnessed this: lattes finished with ferns, hearts, or flowers freshly poured by your barista. It’s a testament to a well-pulled shot of espresso, milk with good micro foam, and a barista who knows what he/she is […]
In recent years, coffee drinkers have far more access to different types of coffee than ever before. The fair trade and direct trade movements have made it more likely that an at-home coffee consumer will get fresh, single origin beans- and know where they come from. But there’s no point in having access to amazing […]
Decaf Coffee Decaffeinated coffee has long been the outcast in the coffee world- especially among coffee connoisseurs, roasting snobs, and caffeine junkies. The reputation of decaf coffee runs from mediocre to downright dangerous, depending on who you ask. Some people hate the taste, some people are worried about chemicals or carcinogens in their coffee, and “Death-Before-Decaf” […]
The Stages of Pour Over Coffee The preparation of pour over coffee has experienced a real renaissance in recent years. Some of this might be attributed to the rise of Third Wave Coffee – the growing emphasis on single-origin cups of coffee, as well as the increased awareness of the complexity of flavor found within […]
If you’ve frequented any third-wave coffee shops lately, chances are you’ve heard more than a little talk of where the coffee comes from- third-wave coffee shops make it a point to know where the coffee comes from, what type of bean it is, and tend to forgo blends in favor of a single-origin cup of […]
Espresso Does the barista watch it the whole time? Espresso is a temperamental thing. Even the most seasoned of baristas will tell you that there is really no way to guarantee that each and every shot is perfect. A number of continuously changing factors can alter the quality of the pull of the shot- the […]
