1:3 — The bear necessity

Edition No. 77

1 Fun Thing

A zoo in eastern China has reassured visitors that its sun bears are authentic, after videos of the animal standing like a person went viral on Chinese social media, prompting rumours that it was a human in disguise.

3 Coffee Facts

1. If you own the Flow Control Cap or the Fellow Prismo accessory for the AeroPress, try adding the water first, then dump the coffee grounds in and stir. This idea comes from a Clever dripper recipe and seems to reduce the number of fines that settle on the paper and clog it, resulting in cleaner and more consistent brews.

2. Meticulous just announced v10 of their espresso machine, which now has a larger brew chamber capacity, no visible screws, back-to-back shot mode and a host of other improvements. This is the first production-ready version and is the one that will ship to all their kickstarter backers (us included) at the end of this year.

3. Relational memory is the ability to remember arbitrary associations between objects or events. These memories include things related by location, order, and context. A good example of this is when you smell of taste a coffee and something about that cup triggers a random memory. This a powerful technique used by professionals to pick out different tasting notes when cupping coffee.