Coffee for Thanksgiving: what to brew and what to give

Thanksgiving morning usually means brewing for more people than usual, guests included, so a big drip batch or a full French press beats single cups made one at a time. If you are also bringing coffee as a hostess gift, a familiar medium roast is the safer choice over anything unusual, since you likely do not know exactly how the host takes their coffee.

Brewing enough for a full house

That table scales from 60 grams of coffee per liter of water, the ratio printed on several of our own labels. A drip machine handles the larger batches easily, and a full French press works too if you have one big enough, just press and serve rather than letting it sit on the grounds.

Timing it so it is ready when people actually arrive

If guests are arriving over a window rather than all at once, brewing the full batch right when the first person shows up means the last cup poured could be an hour old. Brewing half the batch first and holding the rest as beans and water measured out but not yet run through the machine lets you start a fresh pot partway through the morning instead of stretching one pot across several hours. If the kitchen is already busy with the turkey and sides, a large French press is often easier to manage than a drip machine taking up counter space, since it can be set aside once brewed and does not need to stay plugged in near the stove.

Coffee after the meal

After a big dinner, a smaller pot brewed a bit stronger tends to get finished, instead of a full pot no one wants. Keep the same 60 grams per liter ratio but brew a smaller batch, a 500 ml (17 oz) French press instead of the full one, so the after-dessert round does not sit on a warmer for two hours going bitter. If dessert runs long, a second small batch brewed fresh right before pie is a better use of five minutes than trying to stretch the dinner-time pot across both courses.

What to bring as a hostess gift

For a gift you are bringing to someone else's kitchen, familiar beats interesting. No. 1 Common Sense is the closest thing we sell to a house blend: medium roast, cocoa and red apple, and it takes milk without falling apart.

Each of our coffees, including Common Sense, is sold whole bean or already ground, at the same price either way. If you are not sure whether the host owns a grinder, the ground option removes the guesswork, though whole bean will taste fresher if they do have one and can grind it themselves the morning of.

If the host already drinks black coffee and likes something brighter, No. 2 Good Sense, a natural Ethiopian with milk chocolate, fruit and caramel notes, is a good alternative, though it is worth knowing black coffee drinkers still vary in how much brightness they actually want, so if you are not sure, Common Sense remains the more broadly safe choice of the two. For a lighter, dessert-style option after a heavy meal, No. 5 Canela, a cinnamon roll flavored coffee, fits the day, especially if it is going to be served alongside pie rather than at the start of breakfast. All three, and the other seven, are on the full coffee collection page.

Setting up a subscription for someone who hosts often

If the person you are buying for tends to host, a subscription can be a more useful gift than a single bag: it runs 11 percent off the one-time price and can be skipped or canceled in one click, so a fresh bag shows up before the next gathering without anyone having to remember to order it. Read about how our subscription cadence works, or set one up on the subscription page. It is also worth knowing that none of our bags carry a printed roast date, since the coffee is roasted on demand rather than pulled from a shelf, which is a detail some hosts will notice and appreciate rather than something to explain away.

Brew for the number of people who are actually awake, and bring the bag that works no matter how they take it.