Show HN: We're two coffee nerds who built an AI app to track beans and recipes

I think the "My Tasted Notes" section captures it, that is a really nice looking screen

Haha, fair enough! Totally see how that line might come across as a bit too “crafted.” What we meant is: many tools are great on data, but few feel fun, delightful, or reflect how expressive coffee culture really is.

But yep, emotions are tricky to “design for”—we’re trying anyway

Full respect to Beanconqueror! It’s an amazing tool for advanced coffee folks: open source, extremely customizable and supporting Bluetooth gear like scales and refractometers. We admire what they’ve built.

We’re trying things from a different angle:

We’re building for entry to mid-level coffee lovers—people who want to enjoy better coffee, stay organized, and reflect on their brews.

Most tracking apps start with forms.We start with senses, we thinking a lot what coffee looks like in our mind.

What makes BeanBook different:

- Snap-first design: No typing required.

- YouTube/photo to recipe

- Sensory-first interface

- Zero-config start

We want to build a Coffee app as a memory, not just numbers

We think there’s room for both kinds of tools: Beanconqueror is like a cockpit for pros. BeanBook is more like a beautifully illustrated notebook that fills itself in as you brew.

Let us know how it goes :D, btw the "single coffees" you mean the single origin coffee beans?

Thanks—that’s great input, and really appreciate you sharing your experience! We’re definitely working toward that direction: tool-first, then building more ways for people to connect and share notes—especially around specific gear or beans.

And yes, Android is on our radar too!

Google/Apple sign-in is a simple and secure way to reduce spam and support account-based features down the road. And having a sustainable model helps us maintain the team and keep improving the product.

Userbase for acquisition. We're on a site paid for by ycombinator remember.

Thanks so much! Totally feel you on the side project struggle—it took us a while to get this one across the finish line too. Would love to hear more about what you were working on if you ever revisit it!

Thanks for your feedback!

I’m home roasting too—using an entry-level FreshRoast SR800, which has been a ton of fun to learn on. I still buy from great roasters as well, since it’s a great way to rhetorically access to different processing methods and regions.

We also thought about home roasting. A few folks have mentioned wanting to log green bean origins, roast curves, and profiles—there’s a lot of potential there.

Right now, we’re focusing on making the bean & recipe tracking seamless for brewed coffee, we found good amount of people buying from roasters all around the world like us.

Appreciate you sharing your experience—it’s super helpful!

Thanks so much for the honest feedback!

That’s super helpful—we hadn’t considered how the glare and text overlap could affect first impressions. We’ll rethink the first screen

Looking forward to your feedback! Good idea! and Collecting gears is on our roadmap. but each grinder setting also depends on the types of beans and brew method, we'll need good aount of data for the suggestion, thanks for the idea!

Thank you for the support! And yes—great point bringing up Vivino. It really sets a strong example of where we could go with BeanBook. Lots to learn from that model!

Thank you! Coffee is a very expressive fruit, so we think the coffee app should be as well :)

Thanks for your interested, looking forward for your feedback!

Thanks for the feedback! Using a DiFluid Omni—you’re definitely a hardcore coffee enthusiast

We do have a notes feature attached to each bean, so you can always save that kind of data there for now. At the moment, we’re focused on building a solid foundation for entry- to mid-level coffee lovers, but deeper roast profiling and advanced tools like Omni integration are definitely on our radar.

Just FYI the text in each screen of the onboarding flow is cut off on my iPhone 14. For example screen 3/3 says "How far have your beans".

Thank you! Glad you like it! Looking forward for your feedback!

Vivino is a great benchmark!

Thank you for your kind words! That means a lot We’d absolutely love to connect! rokeyzhang@beanbook.app

We just two person team, currently we trying to stabilize on iOS developing, then we’ll definitely looking for Android version, lots of people asked for this too!

If you care for a similar cup profile with higher quality beans, I’d characterize Dunkin original blend as a medium-light roast (lighter than Starbucks’ Pike). Aroma: toasted cereal, brown sugar, roast almond, and hint of citrus. Flavor: caramel sugar, roast nut, hint of milk choc and citrus. Acidity: sweet/malic, soft and smooth. Body: light/medium, silky. Overall: Very well balanced but simplistic.

A blend to achieve this cup would rely on primarily (50-60%) Brazilian naturals for the core sweetness, with Colombian washed for the clean citric-malic acidity and silky body (~25%), and some mix of Guatemala/Honduras and Ethiopia washed for the last quarter to tweak body and acids.

If this profile (sweet-nutty, caramel-driven profiles with gentle citrus lift) is absolutely your jam, I’d check out the following blends for a similar cup put together from higher graded green beans:

  Counter Culture - Big Trouble
  Stumptown - Holler Mountain
  Onyx - Monarch
  Intelligentsia - El Gallo 
  Blue Bottle - Three Africas
  La Colombe - Nizza
  Square Mile - Red Brick Espresso
  Coffee Collective - Espresso Blend

Haha, based on you described, I'm in the same position as you were previously. I know its a lot of work, but also very satisfied! I'm very enjoying the process of making coffee, and also enjoy how people around me enjoy my coffee