The Pulled Journal
No credit card required. Works at any coffee shop.
301 posts
May 15, 2025
Start with a latte or mocha. Both have enough milk to soften the espresso while still tasting like coffee. Work toward a cappuccino when you want more espresso flavor.
May 12, 2025
Know your size in ounces. Know your milk. Know whether you want espresso or brewed coffee. That is 90% of what you need.
May 8, 2025
Hotel room coffee is a crime. The single-serve pods, the ancient drip machine with a stained carafe, the powdered creamer. You did not come this far to drink that. You have options.
May 1, 2025
Black coffee is an acquired taste. The reason most people put milk and sugar in their coffee is that most coffee is bad. Start with coffee worth drinking black and the rest follows.
April 28, 2025
Tasting coffee is a skill. It starts with slurping, moves through vocabulary, and ends with trust in your own palate. The difference between a casual drinker and someone who can articulate what they are tasting is not talent. It is attention.
April 24, 2025
Japan takes coffee as seriously as it takes everything. The country has two distinct coffee cultures running in parallel. Understanding which one you are walking into determines what to expect.
April 21, 2025
Italian coffee culture is governed by unwritten rules that Italians absorb from childhood and tourists violate within seconds of entering a bar. Nobody will stop you from ordering a cappuccino at 3 PM. But the barista will know.
April 9, 2025
An iced latte is espresso poured over ice and topped with cold milk. One of the simplest drinks in coffee and one of the most frequently overpaid for. At home, it costs about $0.75.
March 20, 2025
The French press costs $20 to $40, needs no electricity, no paper filters, no special skills. It produces a heavy, full bodied cup that drip machines and pour overs cannot replicate. Four minutes from boil to cup.
March 19, 2025
Cold brew is the most forgiving coffee method that exists. No heat, no burning, no over-pouring. Combine coffee and water, wait, strain. The result keeps in your refrigerator for two weeks.
March 13, 2025
Ranked by how good they are when made well, not just how popular they are. Iced Americano at the top, frappuccino-type drinks at the bottom.
March 10, 2025
Ranked from most intense to most approachable. Start at one if you want to drink like a coffee professional. Start at twelve if you want something that tastes like dessert.
March 6, 2025
Espresso, latte, cappuccino, cortado, flat white, americano, pour over, cold brew, and everything else on the menu explained in plain language.
March 3, 2025
A matcha latte is finely ground Japanese green tea whisked into hot water and combined with steamed milk. Vivid green, earthy, slightly sweet, and rich with a particular kind of calm energy that coffee cannot replicate.
February 28, 2025
Espresso is not a bean. It is not a roast. It is not a size. It is a method. And it is the foundation of almost every coffee drink you know.
February 27, 2025
A London Fog is Earl Grey tea with steamed milk and vanilla. Warm, floral, and caffeinated without the coffee. It belongs on this site because Pulled is for everyone who buys a barista-made drink.
February 24, 2025
Dalgona coffee is instant coffee, sugar, and hot water whipped into a thick foam and served over milk. A pandemic phenomenon with real staying power.
February 22, 2025
A coffee flight is a sampler of three to five small coffees served together so you can compare them side by side. Usually three 2 to 3 oz pours, often single origin beans brewed the same way.
February 15, 2025
Turkish coffee is among the oldest continuously practiced brewing methods on earth. Coffee ground to powder, simmered in water, poured into a cup, grounds and all. Nothing removed.
February 10, 2025
Vietnamese coffee is dark roast brewed through a phin filter with sweetened condensed milk. It should not work on paper. In the glass, it is extraordinary.
February 7, 2025
Boba tea is a Taiwanese drink made from tea, milk or fruit juice, and chewy tapioca pearls. The pearls are made from cassava starch and have a gummy, satisfying texture.
February 6, 2025
An affogato is a scoop of vanilla gelato with a shot of hot espresso poured over it. Dessert and coffee in the same glass. Neither fully one thing nor the other.
January 30, 2025
A pour over is coffee brewed by hand, one cup at a time. Slow, precise, and the closest you get to tasting a bean's true character without anything in the way.
January 27, 2025
Nitro cold brew is cold brew coffee infused with nitrogen gas and poured from a tap. The cascade looks like a Guinness settling. The texture feels like cold cream without any dairy.
