There is an episode of the hit TV series Breaking Bad in which Walter White, high school chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin, meets a new colleague in front of a tangle of clamps, pipes and slowly dripping flasks. When the other character lets him taste what he has been brewing, White is stunned. “My God, that is the best coffee I’ve ever tasted,” he says. “Why the hell are we making meth?”
Coffee may not be – quite – as addictive as methamphetamines, but to some of its aficionados, the hunt for the perfect hit of bean, roast, grind and brew is as seductive as any drug. That search took another step forward this week with new research into the optimal height and speed from which to pour water on to coffee grounds.
