Welcome to our blogs!
This page is where members of the (Be)Caffeinated team share what they're thinking about, whether it be their favorite business books, coffee tips, or fun things to do in Chattanooga after you get a coffee. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases made through links on these blogs at no cost to you. Enjoy the blogs!
Learn The Basics Of Coffee Roasting
Love coffee and want to learn more about the roasting process? We recommend that you pick up a copy of "Coffee Roaster's Handbook" by Len Brault. It's a great guide for someone looking to learn how to roast at home or in a cafe. Click the link below to get a copy of the book and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Click here to get "Coffee Roaster's Handbook"
Store Your Bagels In Style
Need a place to put all of your delicious bagels from Morning Bee Bakery? Grab a few donut/bagel stands! Click the link below to get a bagel stand and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Make Delicious Baked Goods At Home
Learning how to make delicious baked goods like the ones at (Be)Caffeinated at home? You are gonna need a mixer! Click the link below to get a mixer and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Coffee Distribution Kits
A new tool gaining a lot of attention in the coffee world is the distribution tool, a simple device that can be used to better distribute espresso grounds inside of a portafilter. Click the link below to get a coffee distribution tool kit and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Click here to get Coffee Distribution Kit
Keep Your Grinders Clean With A Brush
Coffee grounds can end up getting EVERYWHERE and few spots in a coffee shop or a coffee corner are as messy as the area around the grinder. Pick up a coffee grounds brush to keep your grinder and the area around it clean! Click the link below to get a brush and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Click here to get Coffee Grounds Brush
Coffee Flavor Wheel Poster
Looking for a gift for the coffee lover in your life? Get them a coffee flavor wheel poster that they can proudly display over their home coffee set-up! Click the link below to get a poster and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Click here to get Coffee Flavor Wheel Poster
Grab A V60 Pourovers
The V60 is a classic pour over loved by baristas and coffee fanatics. Click the link below to get a sleek V60 for your home coffee set up, and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Use A Thermometer To Perfectly Steam Milk
As you start steaming milk for lattes and other cafe drinks, you'll want to make sure that you are steaming your milk to the perfect temperature. That's why you need a drink thermometer! Click the link below to get drink thermometers and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Click here to get Thermometers
Use Milk Frothing Pitchers To Make Lattes At Home
An essential tool for making any lattes, cappuccinos, and many other delicious cafe drinks at home is your milk frothing pitchers. Click the link below to get your pitches and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Cut Down On Pollution With Metal Straws
Love iced coffee and other drinks but worried about plastic waste? Get a set of metal straws for your household! Click the link below to get a pack of metal straws and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Click here to get a Metal Straws
Make Delicious Coffee Fast With A Bunn
If you are like us, you probably drink a lot of coffee. Like A LOT of coffee! If you are looking for a way to keep making a lot of great tasting coffee fast, you need to get a Bunn Coffee Brewer! These are great not just for the home but also for an office or even a cafe! Click the link below to get a Bunn Coffee Brewer and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Click here to get a Bunn Coffee Brewer
Make Foamed Milk At Home
Want to be able to enjoy your favorite cafe drinks like lattes and cappuccinos at home but have trouble capturing that milk texture that you love? Get a milk frother for your home coffee setup! Click the link below to get a Milk Frother, and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Click here to get a Milk Frother
Use A Knockbox to Avoid Coffee Messes
One of the essential tools for anyone making espresso at home or in a cafe is a Knockbox where you can knock out your espresso grinds after pulling an espresso shot (often referred to as a puck). Click the link below to get a Knockbox, and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Toast Delicious Bagels At Home
In love with our bagels but not able to give them that perfect toasted crunch at home? Grab a toaster for your home! Click the link below to get an awesome toaster, and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Never Have Improperly Sliced Bagels Again
Love our bagels and want to enjoy them at home but having trouble slicing them? Get a bread knife just like the ones we use in our coffee shops! Click the link below to get your bread knife for slicing bagels at home, and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Click here to get a bread knife
Discover The History Of Coffee
As you continue down your coffee journey, you might want to learn more about this delicious drink that has shaped human history in some surprising ways. We recommend that you pick up "Uncommon Grounds" by Mark Pendergrast. This thorough and fascinating book goes through the history of your favorite caffeinated drink. Click the link below to get "Uncommon Grounds" and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Click here to get "Uncommon Grounds"
Use The Right Equipment: Flavor Organizers
A crucial tool for any coffee shop setup is a way to hold all of those delicious sauces and syrups you'll be utilizing. Anyone whose worked in a cafe will tell you that a big issue that comes with those bottles of sugary goodness is keeping them clean and easy to use. The best way to do this i by having an organizer to keep your syrup and sauce bottles within easy reach and easy to clean off. Click the link below to get your own flavor organizers for your coffee bar, and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Click here to get Flavor Organizer
Use The Right Equipment: Bar Spoons
As you continue to add on to your home coffee corner (or even your own budding coffee shop business) you'll want to make sure that you are getting the right equipment, even when it comes to tools as simple as spoons! We recommend that you get a few sets of bar spoons to help you with your drink mixing. These long metal spoons are easy to clean, don't take up much space, and can reach down to the bottoms of cups and drinks to make sure you perfectly mix in all your yummy flavors! Click the link below to get some bar spoons, and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Home Coffee Scale
One of the most important factors in making great coffee is ratios. You want to make sure that you always have the right amount of coffee and the right amount of water, especially when using popular pour-over methods like the V60, Chemex, or Aeropress. The best way to ensure that you've got the right amount of coffee, water, or anything else you need for your coffee is to use a scale. Click the link below to get your scale to use for your coffee at home, and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Another Great Coffee Book By James Hoffman
You may remember that a few weeks ago we recommended that anyone wanting to explore and learn more about the coffee world pick up the great book "The World Atlas of Coffee" by James Hoffman, barista champion and popular coffee youtuber. That isn't James only book though! A great companion to "The World Atlas of Coffee" is his newer book "How To Make The Best Coffee At Home". You can buy this great coffee book with the link below, and when you do you'll also be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Click here to get "How To Make The Best Coffee At Home"
Keep Your Drinks Cold With A Mini-Fridge
Summer is on the horizon and it brings with it scorching hot and drenching humid days to Tennessee. It also means that frappes, iced lattes, and cold brews will be returning to folks hands to keep them caffeinated and cool. The perfect tool to help you keep your drinks nice and cool is a mini-fridge that you can take with you anywhere! Click the link below to buy your own fridge, and when you do you'll be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Click here to get mini-fridge!
Feel Like A Barista With Espresso Shot Cups
If you love the cafe experience and are looking to try to bring that magic home, we've got the perfect thing for you! No espresso bar is complete without the little cups that will hold that delicious spro', and nothing compares to the satisfying feeling of watching as the coffee drips down into the cup. You can practically taste the rich flavors and caffeine just watching it! Click the link below to get your espresso cups to use at home, and when you buy your set of espresso cups you'll also be supporting (Be)Caffeinated since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Click here to get espresso cups!
Slice Bagels Like A Pro
Our sister company Morning Bee Bakery has been serving delicious New York-style bagels at all (Be)Caffeinated locations for a few months now and we know that y'all are loving them! We are now serving bagels Monday-Saturday at our shops, so you can get a dough-licious bagel almost every morning. You also can buy bagels by the half dozen when you visit to enjoy at home, and we recommend that you get a bagel slicer to make this experience even better! With a bagel slicer, you can easily cut your bagels in half and toast them at home for guaranteed freshness. Click the link below to buy a bagel slicer for your home, and when you buy it you'll also be supporting (Be)Caffeinated and Morning Bee Bakery since we'll get a commission from your purchase!
Click here to get a bagel slicer!
Upgrade Your Coffee At Home With Dosing Tools
A new trend you might have seen in the coffee world is at-home baristas and coffee fanatics spraying their coffee beans with a spritz of water before grinding them. Why are they doing this? Well, a common problem that folks face when making coffee at home is waste, especially when it comes to fine grounds. Grinders can create huge messes of coffee grinds flying around and getting clumped together during the grinding process, wasting coffee and creating a chore. By spraying the beans with water before grinding, the water prevents the friction forces during grinding that make the grounds bunch up and fly around, cutting down on your coffee waste and removing the mess! If that sounds great, click the link below to buy your tools for dosing your coffee beans before grinding, including a spray bottle, and when you buy them (Be)Caffeinated will get a commission from your purchase!
Click here to get coffee dosing tools!
The Coffee Book You HAVE To Own
We don't just read books about business and mindset, we also read a lot of books about coffee, and we mean A LOT of books about coffee. If there is one book that we would have to recommend though for a budding barista becoming a coffee enthusiast, it would have to be "The World Atlas of Coffee" by James Hoffman, who you might know from his popular YouTube channel or barista championship competitions. This book is the perfect stepping stone into the world of deep coffee knowledge, and if you click the link below you'll be able to not only buy this great book but also support your favorite local coffee shop while you do it since (Be)Caffeinated will get a commission from your purchase. Happy reading!
Click here to get "The World Atlas of Coffee".
9 Books To Change Your Business Life
On the most recent episode of the Startup Heroes podcast, which you can listen to here, the HiveThink team discusses 9 (technically 10, Chris threw in a bonus) books that have shaped their business mindsets, helped guide their paths through life, and equipped them with valuable skills and tactics. If you loved the episode and want to read those books, below are links to purchase each of them. Not only will you get these great books that have shaped HiveThink and (Be)Caffeinated, but you'll also be supporting us since (Be)Caffeinated gets a commission from your purchase.
Click here to get "The One Thing".
Click here to get "The Start-Up J Curve".
Click here to get "The Road Less Stupid".
Click here to get "Start With Why".
Click here to get "Unreasonable Hospitality".
Click here to get "Radical Candor".
Click here to get "The Artist's Way".
Click here to get "Trust Me, I'm Lying".
Click here to get "Think Like A Game Designer".
Click here to get "The Lean Startup".
Up Your Coffee Game With A PuqPress
Ever visited one of our locations to order a delicious espresso drink and then wondered 'How do they make their drinks so fast'? Well, one of the tools in the (Be)Caffeinated arsenal is the PuqPress! We make a lot of drinks every day at our shops, and we mean A LOT of drinks. To increase efficiency and ensure quality, we use the PuqPress to help us tamp our espresso. Tamping is a part of the process of creating espresso where you place coffee grounds into a device called a portafilter. The portafilter is what attaches to the espresso machine, allowing the machine to then run hot and pressurized water through the coffee grounds to create delicious espresso. Tamping can be a long process when done manually and has a lot of room for human error, so using a PuqPress ensures that our shops can tamp down our espresso coffee grounds quickly and perfectly every single time! If you want to up your efficiency at your cafe, we recommend that you get a PuqPress, and you can buy one with the link below. Not only will you get a PuqPress to make your cafe faster, but you'll also be supporting another cafe since (Be)Caffeinated will get a commission from your purchase.
Click here to get your PuqPress!
Geek Out With Us: Mistborn
We aren't all business over at (Be)Caffeinated, we also play hard. One of our team's biggest obsessions right now is the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. They love it so much that a few months ago some of our team went all the way to Utah for Dragonsteel 2023, a huge convention all about the fantasy books written by Brandon Sanderson. If you're a fan of Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, The Wheel of Time, or any other fantasy book series, then you HAVE to check out Mistborn. Click the link below to get the first book in the series, and when you do (Be)Caffeinated will get a commission from your purchase.
Click here to get "The Final Empire: Mistborn Book 1"!
Grind Time!
There is nothing quite like that smell of freshly ground coffee. The taste is even better! While coffee can taste good for days to weeks after being ground, there is always the chance of staleness creeping in the longer that your coffee grounds aren't being used. If you want to guarantee that you always have delicious and fresh coffee, we recommend getting a coffee grinder. At all of our locations, we use several grinders to create our delicious drinks, but you can likely get by with a simple hand grinder. With a hand grinder not only will you be able to grind your fresh coffee at home, but you can easily take it with you just about anywhere. Click the link below to get your own hand coffee grinder, and when you do (Be)Caffeinated will get a commission from your purchase. After you get your grinder, make sure to stop by one of our shops to grab a bag of whole-bean New Wave Coffee!
Click here to get your hand coffee grinder!
2024 Book Club: "How to Win Friends & Influence People" by Dale Carnegie
One of the common resolutions we have heard folks say they have for 2024 is to read and learn more. We want to make that easier for y'all by starting a digital book club! Every month we'll recommend you a book that we think can help you turn 2024 into an amazing year. We are going to start with an oldie but a goodie, "How to Win Friends & Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. This book is often one of the first books that people interested in business read, as it is full of great tips on how to start creating meaningful connections and better understand how you can communicate with others to build relationships. If you want to join us in reading and learning more in 2024, click the link below to get "How to Win Friends & Influence People", and when you do (Be)Caffeinated will get a commission from your purchase. Let us know what you think of the book when you finish!
Click here to get "How to Win Friends & Influence People"!
New Year, New Brews
Happy 2024! It's a new year and with that comes new possibilities. For lots of folks, this is a time of exploration, a chance to look for new ways to enjoy old things, including coffee! Nowadays there are lots of great ways to create a tasty cup of coffee at home and we want to highlight one of our favorite ways: French press! If you've been into coffee culture for a while now, you've probably encountered this brewing method. All you have to do is add your coffee grounds, add hot water, steep the coffee for around 4-5 minutes, and press down the plunger to separate the grounds from the delicious coffee you've just brewed. There are also several great tutorials online for how you can use your French press to create cold brew at home! If the French press sounds like the perfect coffee tool for you, click the link below to get one for your kitchen, and when you do (Be)Caffeinated will get a commission from your purchase. Happy New Year and happy brewing!
Click here to get your French press!
Books That Inspire (Be)Caffeinated: "Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action" by Simon Sinek
If you spend enough time in the (Be)Caffeinated community a few phrases you will hear thrown around are things like 'foster community' or 'cultivate kindness'. These phrases aren't just part of our mission statement, they're part of why (Be)Caffeinated exists in the first place. Much of the inspiration for our mission comes from the great guidance of Simon Sinek, author of several great books on business leadership and management, including "Start with Why". You might not have heard of the book, but you've probably seen Simon's TedTalk where he discusses how a business focus shouldn't be what they do, it should be WHY they do it. (Be)Caffeinated doesn't exist because we thought Chattanooga needed more coffee, it has an amazing coffee community that we are honored to be a part of. (Be)Caffeinated is here because we think that through small business we can create positivity in our communities and encourage people to get involved and want to create a better and happier world. If you want to get inspired, click the link below to buy "Start with Why", and when you do (Be)Caffeinated will get a commission from your purchase.
Click here to get "Start with Why"!
How 'Matcha' Do You Love Matcha Tea?
About a year ago (Be)Caffeinated began selling matcha tea due to popular demand from our customers and we are so glad that we did! If you haven't tried matcha before or don't know much about it, matcha is a tea made from a green tea leaf powder that has traditionally been consumed in East Asia but has taken coffee shops around the world by storm. Matcha has a bright and earthy flavor that really isn't like anything else, and at (Be)Caffeinated we often serve it in the form of a delicious latte. If you love matcha and want to try enjoying it at home, we highly recommend getting a matcha whisk. These specialized whisks are made from bamboo and perfect for blending matcha powder to create a tasty matcha tea that you can use to make your own matcha drinks at home. Click the link below to get a matcha whisk set that includes a whisk, a whisk holder, and spoons, and when you get them you'll also be showing us some love as (Be)Caffeinated will get a commission from your purchase.
Click here to get your matcha whisk set!
Business Book To Buzz About: "The ONE Thing" by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
At (Be)Caffeinated our owners and team members often end up wearing a lot of hats. It can be easy to get distracted and caught up in the day-to-day obstacles that come with running a small business, and that's why this book has been so inspiring to members of the (Be)Caffeinated and HiveThink team. "The ONE Thing" is about creating focus, eliminating multitasking, and developing better time management skills to make your life easier. If all of that sounds good to you, click the link below to buy "The ONE Thing", and when you do (Be)Caffeinated will get a commission from your purchase.