Mical Robert
Editor of Brewnote. Writes every article here, and checks every number in them against the source.
Last updated
Mical Robert is the editor of Brewnote. He writes every article on this site and checks every figure in them against the published source before it goes up.
Why this site exists
Coffee is unusually well studied, and almost none of that research reaches the people actually making coffee. Search for something ordinary — how much caffeine is in a cup, whether dark roast is stronger, why an espresso tastes sour — and you mostly get confident assertions with nothing behind them. A good deal of it is simply wrong, and it gets repeated because repeating is cheaper than checking.
That gap is the reason Brewnote exists. The research is public, the standards bodies publish their figures, and government agencies publish theirs. Someone just has to read them and write down what they say in plain language. That is the whole job here.
How he works
The process behind every article
Step 1: Start from the question, not the keyword
Each article answers a question people actually ask, in the words they ask it. The answer goes in the first three lines, because that is usually all anyone wants — the rest is there for the people who want to know why.
Step 2: Find the primary source
Peer-reviewed research, FDA and USDA data, Specialty Coffee Association standards, and industry bodies. Never a secondary write-up of a study when the study itself is readable, and never a figure whose origin cannot be traced.
Step 3: Check every number
Every DOI is confirmed through Crossref and every link is checked with a live request before publication. If a figure cannot be traced back to something citable, it does not appear in an article.
Step 4: Say when the evidence is thin
Several popular coffee beliefs are poorly supported and a few are simply false. Those get flagged in the article rather than quietly omitted, because the reason a claim is wrong is usually more useful than the correct figure on its own.
Step 5: Give ranges, not false precision
Much coffee data is an average across a wide spread. Where the spread matters — and with caffeine it almost always does — the range goes in, along with what moves it.
Step 6: Fix mistakes in public
Errors get corrected and the correction is noted. Nothing is quietly edited to look as though it was always right.
What he covers
37 articles across 6 areas, all of them written and edited here:
- Brewing — Ratios, grind, water and time — the four dials that decide how a cup tastes.
- Espresso — What actually defines espresso, what a shot contains, and what you can do without a machine.
- Cold Brew & Iced — Steeping cold for 12–24 hours makes a different drink from pouring hot coffee over ice.
- Roast Levels — Light, medium and dark describe how far a bean went in the roaster — not its strength.
- Caffeine & Decaf — How much caffeine is actually in a cup, a shot, a pot — and in decaf.
- Beans & Origins — Where coffee grows, how the cherry becomes a bean, and what to buy.
What he will not write
- Health advice. The articles report what agencies and researchers have published about caffeine and point readers to a clinician for anything about their own health. That line does not move.
- Sponsored articles or paid mentions. Nobody has ever paid to appear in an article here, and nobody will.
- Affiliate roundups. Equipment gets explained so you can judge it yourself, not ranked to earn a commission.
- Confident answers to open questions. Where the research genuinely has not settled something, the article says so instead of picking a side.
Independence
Brewnote is not a retailer, a roaster or an equipment manufacturer, and has no commercial relationship with anyone in the coffee trade. The site is funded by advertising, and advertisers have no input into what gets published or what any article concludes. That independence is the point: it is what makes it possible to write that a heavily marketed benefit is unsupported.
The full sourcing and corrections process is set out in the editorial policy, and the site's funding and limits are described in the about page and disclaimer.
Contact
Corrections, questions, and anything you think is missing: contact@trysix.online. See the contact page for what gets answered fastest.
Latest articles
- Beans & OriginsThe Best Coffee for BeginnersStart with a medium-roast washed Latin American coffee, a burr grinder and a scale. What to buy first, in what order, and what to skip.
- Beans & OriginsWhat Does Coffee Taste Like?Bitter, acidic, sweet, and a body you feel rather than taste. How to describe what is in your cup, and why origin notes are not added flavourings.
- Beans & OriginsWhere to Buy Coffee BeansRoast date beats brand, price and origin. Where to find beans roasted within weeks, and the cost-per-cup maths that makes it affordable.
- Beans & OriginsHow to Store Coffee BeansOxygen is the enemy, not time. An airtight opaque container at room temperature — and an honest answer on the freezer question.
- Beans & OriginsTypes of Coffee Beans ExplainedArabica, robusta, liberica and excelsa compared — plus what single origin, blend and breakfast blend actually mean on a bag.
- Beans & OriginsWhere Do Coffee Beans Come From?The Bean Belt between 25°N and 30°S, the top producing countries, coffee's Ethiopian origin — and whether any is grown in the United States.
- Beans & OriginsHow Coffee Is Made, Cherry to CupPicking, pulping, fermenting, drying, hulling, grading, shipping and roasting — and how washed, natural and honey processing change the flavour.
- Beans & OriginsWhat Is Coffee?Coffee is the roasted seed of a fruit, brewed in water. The whole chain from cherry to cup, and a map of everything else on this site.