Which grind made your best espresso?

BeanRitual keeps, for every bag of coffee, the espresso that tasted right. Made for people who make espresso at home, free app on the App Store.

Get it free on the App Store

The problem

You find the right grind once, then it's gone

Every bag of coffee needs its own settings. You find the right grind after three or four espressos, it tastes great, and a month later, when you buy that coffee again, you've forgotten it.

BeanRitual remembers it for you.

A black coffee pouch with a cream label reading Ethiopia Guji, Northfold Roasters. — Was it grind 9 or 10?

A terracotta coffee pouch with a cream label reading Brume No. 3, Atelier Brume. — 18 g in, or 17 g?

A green coffee pouch with a cream label reading Kenya Nyeri, Hill and Kettle. — 25 seconds or 30?

How it works

Photograph, pull, star

Step 1 Photograph the bag The label fills in the coffee, the roaster and the roast date. Step 2 Pull a shot, note it Dose, grind, time and yield. Two taps for how it tasted. Step 3 Star the one that worked Next time, the recipe is waiting on the card.

Step 1 · Photograph the bag

The label fills itself in

The app reads the label: the roaster, the coffee's name, the roast date, where it comes from and its flavours. You check it and fix anything that's wrong.

The coffee gets its own page, and the days since the roast show on your shelf.

The screen “Is this your bag?” with Ethiopia Guji, Northfold Roasters and the roast date filled in from a photo of the bag.

Roasted 17 days agoCounted from the roast date on the label.

The shot screen for Ethiopia Guji with a dose ruler at 18 g, a grind ruler at 9.5 and a ring timer at 29 seconds.

29.0 secondsIn the usual window. Stop with the pump.

Step 2 · Pull a shot, note it

Slide to set each number

How much coffee went in, your grind setting, how long it ran and how much ended up in the cup. Slide your finger along the rulers, and start the timer with the pump. Time and yield are optional.

Then say how it tasted.

Good
Not yet
Sour
Bitter
Too fast

Every try is kept, including the ones that didn't work, so you can see what changed.

Step 3 · Star the one that worked

Next time, the recipe is waiting

Open that bag again and its best espresso is on its page, with the machine and grinder you used.

You pull the same espresso again instead of starting from scratch.

The page of Ethiopia Guji with the starred recipe on top and three tries below it.

My gearThe machine and grinder you used are saved with the recipe.

The shelf

All your coffees in one place

Your coffees sit on one shelf, grouped by roaster and easy to search. Each one shows its starred recipe and how many days it has been since the roast.

The shelf: five coffees grouped by roaster, each with its starred recipe and days since roast.

Questions

Before you download

Is BeanRitual free?

Yes.

Do I need an account?

No. The app never asks for an email address, a name or a password. Open the app, photograph a bag and you're set.

Where are my coffees stored?

On your iPhone, in the app's own database: your coffees, shots, gear, notes and label photos. We can't read them. Delete the app and they go with it.

What happens to the photo of my bag?

The app sends it to our server, along with the names of the roasters already on your shelf, so a roaster you know is spelled the way you spell it. Our server passes it to Claude, an AI made by Anthropic, which reads the label. Our server doesn't keep the photo. Anthropic may keep it for up to 30 days to run its service safely, longer only if its safety systems flag it. Your own copy stays on your phone.

What else leaves my phone?

Three anonymous counts go to TelemetryDeck: the app was opened, a shot was saved, a coffee was reopened. No name, no email, no account. Our server also sees your IP address for up to 24 hours, only to cap how many labels one phone can read in a day. We show no advertising and we sell nothing. The full text is on the privacy page.

What if the label is read wrong, or I have no signal?

You check every field before you save, and you can fix anything. Without a network, or if the reading fails, the app says so and you type the fields yourself.

Which machine and grinder does it work with?

Any. You name your machine and your grinder, and each recipe remembers which ones you used.

Can it read a bag in another language?

Yes. Labels in any language can be read.

Which phones does it run on?

BeanRitual is an iPhone app, used in portrait.