Hard water, and a winter of flat cups
The beans were fine. The kettle had been quietly adding chalk for a month.
Weighing water as well as coffee
Measuring the beans to a tenth of a gram and the water by eye made very little sense.
How long off the boil, and whether it matters
Thirty seconds made more difference than I expected, and two minutes made less.
The second-hand brewer I should not have bought
It was cheap, it was pretty, and it pours at an angle nobody intended.
Letting it bloom for longer than the instructions say
Forty-five seconds instead of thirty, mostly for fresher bags.