The Buddy System
CoffeeBuddy
Log every brew, then let the journal tell you your own taste
Everyone has an opinion about how you should brew. CoffeeBuddy has no opinion at all. It just logs what you actually did, and after a few weeks it starts telling you where your own best cups came from.
Free on the App Store · from $10/year on the web · 7-day free trial
What you get
- Eight methods: espresso, pour-over, French press, AeroPress, moka, cold brew, drip, siphon
- A pour-by-pour timer, with bloom handled properly
- Insights that read your journal back to you
- A brew-water calculator with eleven community recipes
- Rest time for fresh roasts, and a freshness curve for every coffee
- Your gear on file, so Insights can say whether the V60 or the Switch is winning
Two ways to use it
Free download, no account
Cancel any time
or $10/yr
All five apps together: $3/month, or $30/year
A look inside
The bits worth explaining
Insights, not dashboards
The Insights tab writes sentences: “your best filter brews cluster around 1:16”. It only speaks when a pattern has at least two rated brews on each side and a clear half-star gap, so it stays quiet rather than making things up.
Every method already knows its recipe
Pick AeroPress and the dose, ratio, temperature and step timing are already filled in, along with the grinder and brewer you used last time. The grind box asks for the setting on your own grinder (“clicks on the K6”), because a generic “medium-fine” means nothing. You never start from an empty form at 7am.
Water is a variable too
Eleven community water recipes plus your own, and a calculator that turns a GH/KH target into grams of Epsom salt and baking soda. The water gets frozen onto the brew, so it shows up in your ratings later.
The bag, not just the cup
Every bag has its photo, roast date, process, origin and a cost-per-brew figure, and moves from unopened to open to the freezer (which pauses its age) to finished. Add a rest period the day it arrives and Home marks the ready day on the calendar. Brew it a few times and the bag draws its own freshness curve.
Get CoffeeBuddy
Download it free on iPhone, or run the full web version in any browser.
