Dialing In Great Coffee
Like Duolingo, but for Dialing In Great Coffee. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
22 levels across 4 sections, about 44 minutes end to end, roughly 9 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Dialing In and Extraction Control, Palate Calibration and Bean Selection, The Hidden Chemistry of Brewing, and Roast Chemistry and Bean Physics. It assumes you already know the basics.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Dialing In Great Coffee
- Fats and fruit acids dissolve instantly upon first contact with brew water
- Caramelized sugars require sustained heat and flow to dissolve fully
- Heavy plant fibers and bitter tannins dissolve only late in the brew
- Sour and salty notes dominate when water pulls acids before balancing sugars
- Under-extraction cuts the brew off before sweetness can round out the cup
- A fast flow rate through coarse grounds leaves heavier compounds trapped
- Over-extraction pulls out harsh polyphenols that bind salivary proteins
- Astringency creates a distinct physical dryness rather than just clean bitterness
- Excessive contact time or heat strips bitter, woody notes from bean cellulose
- Crushing beans finer dramatically increases the surface area water can wash over
- Dense beds of fine coffee particles increase resistance and prolong brew time
- Coarse grinds open wide drainage channels that speed water past the grounds
- Shifting only one brewing variable isolates the direct cause of a cup defect
- Coarsening the grind setting reduces contact time and trims over-extracted bitterness
- Changing grind size and water temperature simultaneously hides which change worked
- Micro-cracks let water bypass density, leaving untouched sour zones.
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 Dialing In Great 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.
What does water need to extract the sweet, caramelized sugars from ground coffee?
Get it right to open this lesson and 21 more in the app.
Where Dialing In Great Coffee takes you
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.
- 1
Dialing In and Extraction Control
- The Core Levers of Extraction
- Diagnosing and Fixing Brew Flaws
- 2
Palate Calibration and Bean Selection
- Cupping and Calibrating Your Palate
- Decoding Bean Labels and Processing
- 3
The Hidden Chemistry of Brewing
- Water Chemistry for Coffee
- Thermodynamics and Immersion Dynamics
- 4
Roast Chemistry and Bean Physics
- The Physics and Chemistry of the Roast
4 sections · 7 units · 22 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Dialing In Great Coffee is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. 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
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.
Dialing In Your Coffee
Move beyond basic brewing by learning how to diagnose extraction, adjust variables intentionally, and unlock the distinct flavor profiles hidden in specialty beans.
Dialing In Your Coffee
Move beyond the recipe and learn to manipulate variables like a professional barista to find the 'sweet spot' in every bean.
Brewing Specialty Coffee
Learn to taste, dial in, and brew specialty coffee like a seasoned barista. Master the levers of extraction, diagnose flavor flaws, and understand what makes specialty beans unique.
Brewing Coffee by Taste
Move beyond rigid recipes and learn to dial in any bean using taste diagnostics, extraction physics, and bean processing knowledge.
Dialing in Your Daily Brew
Move beyond the basic recipe and learn to manipulate the variables of extraction to craft the perfect cup every morning.
Start Dialing In Great Coffee today.
Download Tomo, search Dialing In Great Coffee, and play your first lesson in under a minute.