Matthew Berk ’92, BA ’93, is the cofounder and CEO of Bean Box, a leading online source of curated specialty coffee—so it may be surprising that he doesn’t drink the stuff all day long. But his single daily serving, sipped from a chipped-but-beloved Cornell mug, is something of a meditative ritual.
He uses freshly roasted beans, grinding them on the spot with a burr grinder. He favors bottled water over tap, heating it to around 200 °F. He employs no fancy brewing gadgets—just the pour-over method with a 16:1 ratio of water to coffee—and drinks it black.
“I don’t consider myself a coffee snob at all,” says the Arts & Sciences alum, who frequented Goldwin Smith’s Temple of Zeus in his undergrad days. “I haven’t always been in touch with coffee, although I’ve always enjoyed it.”
