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Chelation therapy lives in two different worlds now. Emergency rooms use it all of the time as a legitimate treatment for acute lead poisoning, and it genuinely saves lives when somebody has serious metal toxicity. At the same time, on Instagram and in wellness clinics across the country, the same concept gets marketed as a routine cleanse that supposedly everyone needs if they feel even a little tired or foggy. Prescription chelating drugs like EDTA actually do bind to metals in your body and pull them right out of your bloodstream. The chemistry behind it is legitimate and well-documented. The...

That slick layer with the rainbow sheen on your coffee is normal and nothing to worry about. These are natural oils from the beans, and they carry most of the flavor in your cup. Coffee oils actually show quite a bit about the beans you're brewing with. A French press with a dark roast develops this thick, oily film on top. But a paper-filtered light roast stays clean and oil-free. I've watched cups form rainbow patterns after just a few minutes, and others won't separate at all. The bean oils also tell you plenty about what has been happening with...

Espresso beans are a bit tough to use when trying them in a standard coffee maker. These beans are roasted much darker, and they're specifically blended for the 9 bars of pressure in an espresso machine. The water gets forced through the tightly packed grounds in just 25 seconds. A drip brewer is different, though, because it relies on gravity to pull the water through the grounds over 5 whole minutes. The grind size is probably the biggest factor to get right. Using that ultra-fine espresso grind in your drip maker will either clog the filter or get you a...

The debate gets pretty heated about taste. Some coffee drinkers insist that unrinsed filters add a papery flavor that ruins expensive beans. Others say they've never picked up on any difference whatsoever. The Specialty Coffee Association has actually run taste tests on this. Even the filters themselves are all over the map in terms of quality and thickness. Chemex papers are very thick and behave differently from thin V60 filters. The brown unbleached filters have much more leftover compounds than the white bleached ones do. A wet filter sticks to the dripper walls differently than a dry one does. Water...