Coffee and tea charts

Most of these sheets exist to settle an argument that comes up in every kitchen: what actually makes one cup different from another. Usually not what people assume. The espresso drinks are the same coffee in different proportions of milk. Koicha is not stronger matcha, it is four times thicker. Grind size controls taste rather than strength.

The coffee side covers the bean — arabica against robusta, and the varieties under each — the drinks by proportion, and brewing ratios for six methods with weight, grind and time. The tea side runs from the six kinds and what really separates them, through green, yellow, oolong and black in detail, to the cultivars behind the leaf and what ageing does to puerh and the other post-fermented teas. Matcha has two of its own: the drinks, and the grades, including why “ceremonial” is a promise rather than a standard.

These are kitchen sheets. They go beside the kettle or the grinder, where a ratio is wanted with wet hands and no time to look anything up.