On the right ratio of cardamom to coffee

The question arrives every other week: how much cardamom do you put in?

The answer is less than you think. Most recipes call for one crushed pod per tablespoon of ground coffee. We use about two-thirds of that. The reason is simple: cardamom is not seasoning. It is atmosphere. You should smell it before you taste it.

Our supplier sends green cardamom from Guatemala, which we prefer to the Indian variety for its floral sharpness. We crack the pods by hand, discard the husks, and grind the seeds with the beans. Not before. Not after. With.

The ratio changes with the bean. Our Yemeni Mocha needs less. The Ethiopian Yirgacheffe takes more. The Saudi Khawlani sits in between — it was born alongside cardamom and knows how to share space.

We have a rule: if the cardamom is the first thing a guest mentions, we have overdone it.