Making Great Coffee
Transform your morning cup from an unpredictable routine into an intentional craft. Learn to fix bitter or sour brews, choose the right equipment, and read coffee bags like a pro. Master the foundational variables of extraction, tasting, and bean origin.
Like Duolingo, but for Making Great Coffee. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
27 levels across 4 sections, about 54 minutes end to end, roughly 11 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Brewing a Better Cup, Tasting and Ordering with Precision, Selecting and Storing Coffee Beans, and Where Flavor Comes From. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Making Great Coffee
- Coffee beans vary in size and density, making scoops wildly inconsistent in actual weight
- Weighing both dry grounds and brew water with a digital scale ensures the exact same brew strength every morning
- Stopping extraction too early leaves the brew sour, thin, and unpleasantly sharp
- Pulling too much flavor out of coffee grounds leaves an astringent, bitter cup
- Tasting the difference between sourness and bitterness guides your brew adjustments
- The standard golden brew ratio sits between 1:15 and 1:17 grams of coffee to grams of water
- A 1:16 ratio means multiplying dry coffee weight by 16 to find total water weight (20g coffee × 16 = 320g water)
- A cup of brewed coffee is more than 98 percent water
- Chemical taints like tap chlorine extract right into the cup and overpower subtle coffee flavors
- Using clean, filtered water is essential before bean quality or technique can make a difference
- Water straight off a rolling boil (212°F / 100°C) is slightly too hot and tends to scald grounds or over-extract bitter compounds
- Letting freshly boiled water rest off the heat for 30 to 60 seconds naturally brings it down into the sweet spot (roughly 195°F–205°F)
- Bright and sour fruit acids dissolve almost immediately into the water
- Pleasant, sweet sugars dissolve in the middle of the brew
- Dry, bitter tannins take the longest to dissolve
- Grinding finer creates more surface area, exposing more coffee to water quickly
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 Making 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.
Your coffee tastes great on Monday but watery on Tuesday with the same scoop. What tool solves this?
Get it right to open this lesson and 26 more in the app.
Where Making Great Coffee takes you
- 1
Brewing a Better Cup
- Quick Fixes for the Everyday Brew
- Controlling Extraction with Grind, Time, and Water
- Mastering the Classic Home Brew Methods
- 2
Tasting and Ordering with Precision
- Learning to Taste and Describe Coffee
- Demystifying Espresso and Milk Drinks
- 3
Selecting and Storing Coffee Beans
- Reading the Coffee Bag
- Preserving Freshness and Upgrading Gear
- 4
Where Flavor Comes From
- Varieties, Terroir, and Processing
- What Happens in the Roast
4 sections · 9 units · 27 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Making Great Coffee is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. 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
Making Great Coffee
Unlock better coffee at home. Learn the simple mechanics of balanced extraction, how to taste and buy exceptional beans, and what shapes flavor from farm to roast.
Brewing Better Coffee
Transform your everyday coffee routine into a delicious ritual. Learn to dial in your brew, decode coffee bags, and understand where exceptional flavors actually come from.
Coffee and the Barista Craft
Learn to brew better coffee at home and master the essential craft of the barista. Decode roast levels, master grind sizes, understand caffeine myths, and steam silky milk with confidence.
How Coffee Gets Its Flavor
Go from ordering 'just a coffee' to understanding exactly what's in your cup. Learn to navigate cafe menus, choose the right beans for your kitchen, and brew a better morning ritual.
Finding the Sweetness in Coffee
Ditch the bitter burnt brew and unlock the fruit, chocolate, and caramel notes hiding in quality beans. Learn how to taste, brew, and pick coffees that are naturally sweet.
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.
Start Making Great Coffee today.
Download Tomo, search Making Great Coffee, and play your first lesson in under a minute.