Hooboy, am I glad you asked!

TL;DR: I work from home, so I can brew individual cups rather than filling a big thermos. I use pourover methods like a V60 and a Koar (I have the acrylic one) or the humble Melitta filter holder. Each one is good in its own way. They require some other gear, so if you want something real easy to use, go for the Clever dripper or especially the Aeropress. Sorry if you weren’t looking for recommendations.

Here’s my process: I buy my coffee green, either from local farmers or from dealers who do coffee hunting around farms in central Brazil, in Minas, north of São Paulo and sometimes Espírito Santo or the north of Paraná. Green beans are much, much cheaper than roasted. I usually get like 5-10kg (11-22lb) at a time because green beans keep for a very long time.

Once every two weeks or so I roast a batch, which I usually will do in one of these ways:

• The hot air gun + bowl method, in which I put the green beans inside a stainless steel colander placed inside a steel pot, and then I’ll just blast them with hot air while whisking them around for usually 10-11 minutes depending on what degree of roast tickles my fancy at any given time.

• The cast iron skillet method, in which I put the beans inside a heavy ass cast iron skillet with high walls and then I’ll stir them with a whisk until, once again, I reach the level I’m looking for. This method is not as messy but seems to make much more smoke.

• The Hive roaster which I don’t use as often because I think it’s better suited for pros who want a sample roaster. I’m not a pro, I roast for myself, so I don’t really need to do much testing - I love (almost) all the coffee I roast.

• An electric popcorn popper. This one I haven’t used in a very long time because the batches are very small. It’s very easy, though, and more hands-free than the other options.

Regardless of which method I decide to use, after roasting I immediately dump the roasted beans into a cooling box that I made from plywood, and which is connected to my vacuum cleaner. It sucks room-temp air through the beans and helps them cool down ASAP, which is what you want.

Now, my methods for preparing my coffee all involve freshly ground beans. I bought a Bravo IT, AKA a Bravito, a very very fancy bougie grinder that a local coffee pro makes, it’s on par with a Comandante C40 or a Kinu, but I got it on prerelease before it had become famous (locally, at least) and paid less than half the current price. I will protect it with my life. My secondary one is a Timemore Slim, which doesn’t seem to be available anymore.

On a regular day, as I said before, I’ll use a V60, a Koar or a Melitta pourover, but I always use regular ass Melitta filters folding them as necessary in order to fit all these filter holders, and that’s because I don’t want to spend a lot of money on filters. I’ve used cloth filters in the past, too, and they’re great if you know how to take care of them.

I always make my pourover coffee with a gooseneck kettle. I just have a cheap one, the Hario was way too expensive. I don’t know all the fine details about how exactly it is better than a regular kettle, but I know for sure that it’s a hell of a lot easier to control and handle. Which is great when it’s early in the morning and you haven’t had your first coffee yet.

I’ll also sometimes brew with my 3-cup Moka pot, a Clever dripper (although I haven’t used mine in a while) and there’s an Aeropress that I leave at my mom’s place for whenever I go visit. I’m not a fan of French press, but I do enjoy using the press itself as a container for cold brew, which actually sounds lovely right now and I should get a batch ready for tomorrow.

I also have a Flair NEO, which is a lever espresso machine for dummies. There is no way I could afford a really good, proper espresso machine, so the NEO really fits the bill for someone like me, a very enthusiastic amateur who doesn’t work with coffee and doesn’t really have a ton of money to spend on this. Mind you, all of this stuff I’m talking about has been acquired over the past five or so years.

I think that’s it. The specific method depends, once again, on what I feel like doing at any given moment. I’m satisfied with where I am right now and I don’t want to spend more money on this hobby anymore, because the next steps would be very very expensive: courses, a proper roaster for larger batches, a large volume grinder to sell pre-ground beans, and so on. The sky is the limit.

If you or anyone has any questions to ask, I’d be happy to be the resident coffee nerd!