BrewdexGet the app

Brewdex: Coffee Rankings · free for iPhone

stop guessing,measure!scientifically.

Brewdex turns every cup into a blind taste-off. Pit two coffees, or two recipes, head to head. Pick the better sip. The Elo system that ranks chess grandmasters does the rest, until your true favourite rises to the top.

Download on theApp StoreRead how it started
  • No account
  • No ads
  • No tracking
An illustrated AeroPress pressing into a mug covered in tasting charts, star ratings and a caffeine molecule.

The origin story

Ten days. One bag of coffee. Six recipes named after Friends.

Brewdex didn’t start as an app. It started with a gift: an AeroPress and a copy of James Hoffmann’s World Atlas of Coffee. A new obsession followed, then a slightly unreasonable decision to enter a regional AeroPress championship.

Ten days before the event, every competitor received the same bag of coffee. Same beans for everyone. The only thing left to win with was the recipe.

So I built a grid. Two water temperatures. Three grind sizes. Six recipes, each named after a character from Friends. Friends and family tasted them blind, two cups at a time, and every verdict went into an Elo rating, the same system that ranks chess players. K-factor 42, because the sample was small and I wanted the ratings to move.

The shootoutComandante clicks · lower is finer
25 clicks35 clicks45 clicks
95°CRossfavouritePhoebefavouriteRachel
90°CJoeyChandlerMonicalast place

↖ hotter + finer = more extraction = happier tasters

The verdict

Ross and Phoebe, the two highest-extraction recipes, won the room. Monica, the lowest, came last. One more nudge to 27 clicks and 92°C, and the recipe was locked.

The result

Knocked out in the first round. I wouldn’t change a thing. The cup wasn’t the prize; the search was. Brewdex puts that search in your pocket.

“Life is a search problem.”

How it works

Your taste buds, ranked like grandmasters.

  1. 01

    Log the line-up

    Add your beans (origin, process, roast, variety) and your recipes (dose, ratio, temperature, bloom, brew time). Or start from a classic template.

  2. 02

    Taste blind, two at a time

    Sample A against Sample B. Pick the better cup for acidity, sweetness, body, balance, finish and overall. Names stay hidden until you submit, so the label on the bag can’t sway you.

  3. 03

    Let the maths settle it

    Every verdict moves both ratings. Beat a favourite and you climb fast. Lose to an underdog and you drop. A few rounds in, your real favourite is at the top.

Try it

Run a blind round, right here.

These are the six recipes from the original shootout. You can’t taste through a screen, so trust your gut and watch the league react. Same formula as the app:new = old + K × (score − expected)

Round 1 · Which cup do you prefer?

The leagueK = 42
    Brewdex player card for Gesha Village: 87 overall, Elite tier, with a flavour radar and stat bars.

    Player cards

    Every coffee gets a player card.

    Ratings become a 10–99 stat on a trading card: an overall score, a flavour radar and five stat bars. Climb from Bronze to Elite, one blind tasting at a time.

    • Bronzeunder 50
    • Silver50–69
    • Gold70–84
    • Elite85+

    Inside the app

    A league table for everything you brew.

    Rankings: eight coffees ordered by overall score, from Gesha Village at 87 down to Sumatra Gayo at 49.
    Rankings Coffees and recipes, ordered by what you actually prefer.
    Library: a list of logged coffees with origin, roast level and overall score.
    Library Every bean and every recipe, with the details that matter.
    Experiments: Light vs Dark Roast, AeroPress Recipe Shootout and Ethiopia vs Kenya, each with coffees, rounds and tasters.
    Experiments Blind tastings with friends, over as many rounds as you like.

    The details

    Built for coffee nerds.
    Friendly to everyone else.

    • Quick Compare

      Any two coffees, or any two recipes, side by side in seconds. Perfect for the new bag against the old favourite.

    • Experiments with friends

      Add tasters, run rounds, and Brewdex handles the pairings. Light vs dark, Ethiopia vs Kenya, or six AeroPress recipes on one bean.

    • Six ratings per cup

      Acidity, sweetness, body, balance, finish and overall each get their own Elo. Find out what a coffee is actually good at.

    • Simple mode

      Not here for chess maths? Rate one to five stars instead. Switch whenever you like; nothing gets thrown away.

    • Recipe templates

      Start from a V60, AeroPress, Chemex, French press, espresso or cold brew. Duplicate a recipe to tweak one variable, or save your own.

    • Private by design

      No account. No ads. No tracking. Your tastings live on your iPhone and nowhere else.

    Brew this tomorrow

    The recipe that started it all.

    It’s a lovely cup. It might not be your best one. Log it in Brewdex, put it up against your everyday brew, and let the blind tastings decide.

    AeroPress · championship edition

    Inverted, 92°C

    Coffee
    14 g
    Water
    230 g at 92°C
    Grind
    27 clicks, Comandante
    Bloom
    40 g water, 40 s
    Method
    Inverted

    found with Elo, K = 42

    Brewdex app icon

    Your perfect cup is out there.
    Go find it.

    Brewdex: Coffee Rankings is free on the App Store for iPhone.

    Download on theApp Store

    Requires iOS 17 or later.