Crafting Better Coffee
Bridge the gap between basic brewing and craft-level execution by mastering extraction, water chemistry, and bean diagnostics. Learn how to taste defects accurately, adjust brew parameters intentionally, and navigate coffee varieties and roasts with confidence.
Like Duolingo, but for Crafting Better Coffee. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
24 levels across 4 sections, about 48 minutes end to end, roughly 10 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Dialing In the Extraction, Brewing Dynamics and Mechanics, Bean Selection and Origin, and The Chemistry of the Cup. It assumes you already know the basics.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Crafting Better Coffee
- Polar fruit acids dissolve almost instantly upon water contact
- Complex sugars dissolve mid-brew to provide sweetness and body
- Dry, bitter plant fibers dissolve last with extended contact time
- Ratio fixes the proportion of dissolved coffee solids to water volume (TDS)
- Finely ground coffee exponentially increases surface area to speed dissolution
- Changing dose alone changes cup strength, while grind adjustment changes extraction yield
- Boiling water readily draws out astringent polyphenols and heavy bitters
- Cooler water (85–90°C) slows dissolution of bitter, woody compounds
- Light roasts need sufficient heat to extract dense sugars without scorching
- Turbulent agitation speeds extraction by stripping saturated fluid boundary layers
- Excessive or uneven stirring migrates fine particles down to clog the filter
- Clogged beds cause water to carve bypass channels rather than flowing evenly
- Astringent dryness signals over-extraction from pulling late-stage plant fibers
- Peak sweetness occurs just before harsh, drying polyphenols dissolve
- Coarsening the grind or shortening brew time cuts off late-stage astringency
- Underextraction extracts acids and salts first, yielding sharp sourness without sweetness.
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Crafting Better Coffee the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
When do the complex sugars dissolve into your coffee cup?
Get it right to open this lesson and 23 more in the app.
Where Crafting Better Coffee takes you
- 1
Dialing In the Extraction
- Controlling the Extraction Levers
- Diagnosing Flavor Defects by Taste
- 2
Brewing Dynamics and Mechanics
- Immersion Versus Percolation Dynamics
- Dialing In High-Pressure Espresso
- 3
Bean Selection and Origin
- Processing Methods and Cup Character
- Terroir, Cultivars, and Freshness
- 4
The Chemistry of the Cup
- Water Chemistry and Solute Extraction
- Roast Development and Degassing
4 sections · 8 units · 24 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Crafting Better Coffee is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
More Food & Drink on Tomo
Brewing Better Coffee at Home
Move beyond basic brewing instructions to understand extraction, grind mechanics, and water chemistry. Diagnose problem cups and dial in pour-over, immersion, and espresso methods with confidence.
Dialing In Great Coffee
Step past basic brewing and learn to troubleshoot every cup like a specialty barista. Master extraction variables, train your palate to diagnose off-flavors, and demystify how bean processing and water chemistry shape your cup.
Coffee Extraction and Flavor
Move beyond basic brewing by mastering extraction dynamics, sensory calibration, and origin chemistry. Learn how grind distribution, water minerals, and processing methods transform coffee from ordinary to exceptional.
Dialing In Great Coffee
Move beyond basic brew recipes to control the mechanics that determine coffee flavor. Learn to diagnose extraction flaws by taste, balance water chemistry, and read bean processing to brew with intention.
Brewing Coffee by Taste
Move beyond rigid recipes and learn to dial in any bean using taste diagnostics, extraction physics, and bean processing knowledge.
The Mechanics of Coffee Flavor
Move beyond basic brewing by mastering extraction dynamics, water chemistry, and sensory evaluation. Discover how harvest processing, roast profiles, and bean physics shape every cup.
Start Crafting Better Coffee today.
Download Tomo, search Crafting Better Coffee, and play your first lesson in under a minute.