Making coffee at home isn’t a challenge at all. With appropriate methods, it may taste just as good as the coffee served in our cafes. You’ll be well on your way to improving your home brewed coffee if you stick to these 11 easy suggestions!
Image (c) Mike Quinn
Aromatic chemicals found in roasted coffee beans play a significant role in why coffee smells and tastes so deliciously complex. Immediately after roasting, these compounds begin to escape from the bean in a process called degassing— taking a lot of flavor with them! Up to 70% of such chemicals will have disappeared within 8 days. More flavour is lost over time, leaving you with stale-tasting coffee. Grinding coffee will make this process happen faster; exposing more surface area of the bean makes it easier for the compounds to escape.
Only by using fresh coffee and grinding right before you brew will ensure you to get the most flavourful cup from your beans! Try to buy your coffee beans every week for fresh coffee.
- The straightforward rule of using 2 teaspoons of coffee for every 6 ounces of water is known to many of us. And while you can undoubtedly make coffee using that recipe, they lack the accuracy you need to advance your brewing. Because the size and density of different coffees and mixes can vary greatly, a tablespoon of one coffee may actually weigh substantially less than a tablespoon of another. Utilizing a scale enables you to measure by weight (instead of volume), ensuring that you always know how much coffee is going into your cup, regardless of the type of coffee you’re using.
- Strong or weak- the cup of coffee is depend on how much coffee you use in comparison to how much water you use. The cup gets stronger the more coffee you use; the cup gets weaker the less coffee you use. How do you determine how much coffee to use, then? The best way to conceptualize it is as a ratio between the quantity of coffee and water utilized. As a rule of thumb we use a ratio of roughly 1:12 (35 grams of coffee to 400 grams of water).
- One of the most essential equipment in the brewing of coffee is a great grinder. The speed at which tastes are extracted from coffee beans depends on the size of the ground coffee particles; smaller particles extract flavors more quickly than larger particles.
To ensure that the coffee grounds brew at the same rate, you want your grounds to be roughly the same size. You have a lot more control over the brewing process if you can precisely regulate the size of your ground coffee. You can achieve this using burr grinders since they make it exceedingly simple for you to consistently produce a very particular grind size. The Handground Precision Grinder is one of our favorite home grinders; with 15 different grind settings, it enables you to consistently generate the ideal grind size for your brew.
- To create superb coffee, different brewing techniques require various grind sizes. However, how can you be sure you’re utilizing the appropriate size? Time and flavor are two very simple indicators. We aim to brew the coffee using our pour over recipes in about three and a half minutes. The grind was too coarse if the coffee brews too rapidly. The grind was too fine if it brews too slowly. Also, if a coffee tastes too bitter, the grind was probably too fine, and if it tastes too acidic and sour, the ground was probably too coarse.
In general, French presses, pour-overs, and AeroPress call for a coarse grind, while espresso calls for a fine grind. You can make great coffee at home by adjusting your grind setting according to time and taste. For additional information on the grind settings we utilize in our coffee shops, check out our Brew Guides!
- Around 98.5% of brewed coffee is merely water, did you know that? As a result, a lot depends on the taste and quality of the water you use to prepare your coffee. Your coffee will taste unpleasant if the water you’re using has an unusual flavor or smell. One of the nicest things you can do for your morning cup is to use filtered water. In most locations, however, you may wish to use water that has been through home filtration. Tap water is typically sufficiently pure to use for brewing.
- Your coffee must be brewed with water that is between 195 and 205 degrees F in order to extract the best flavors from it. The temperature influences what gets extracted as well as the speed of the extraction (colder water brews coffee more slowly than hotter water).
Coffee brewed with water below 195 degrees F wouldn’t have as much of the delightful acidity and distinctive aromas we like in our coffees. On the other hand, water heated above 205 degrees Fahrenheit will make the coffee extract much more bitter flavors. The sweetness and complexity of our coffees will be enhanced by brewing in that sweet zone without over-extraction of the bitter qualities.
Despite the fact that a thermometer is the best tool for measuring temperature (the Excellent Stagg kettle even comes with one built in), water that is roughly 30 to 60 seconds off boil frequently falls well inside the acceptable range.
- Make sure everything your coffee will contact is as near to the brewing temperature as feasible before you start brewing. If you don’t do this, the water temperature will be dramatically lowered during the brewing process by your brewing apparatus stealing heat from the water. Understanding how important correctly heated water is to the success of your brew, you’ll want to avoid lowering the temperature of your water unnecessarily.
Moreover, be careful to set up your filter by soaking it in hot water and allowing it drain before brewing a pour over. This not only heats the filter to the proper temperature but also removes a significant amount of the paper flavor that would otherwise get up in your coffee.
- Have you ever observed how coffee grounds rise up when hot water is first applied to them? It’s referred to as “the bloom.” This event happens as the soluble components in the beans begin to dissolve in the boiling water. As a result, pressure builds up inside the coffee grinds, forcing CO2 out of them.
While making coffee from freshly roasted beans, you’ll find that it “blooms” more. Young coffee beans contain more carbon dioxide gas, a natural consequence of roasting, than older beans do.
A crucial phase of the brewing process is the bloom. For a cup of coffee that is more fragrant and aromatic, it allows water to fully permeate the coffee grounds. By pushing water away from the ground coffee and impeding extraction, CO2 can adversely effect your brew. Hence, you should add a modest amount of water at the start of the brewing process and wait for the coffee to bloom for around 30 seconds before adding more water.
Typically, you should use twice as much water for the bloom as you used for the coffee (for instance, if you used 35 grams of coffee, you should use 70 grams of water).
- Make sure all of the ground coffee is in touch with water for the same period of time when making coffee. And while it might appear that the coffee in your pour over or French press is fully saturated when you first add water, it’s not unusual to find pockets of dry coffee.
- Experimenting with various brewing techniques and coffees is part of the fun of making coffee! You might frequently use a Bee House Dripper to make your coffee and enjoy the flavor, but have you ever tried an AeroPress or a French Press?
Perhaps you enjoy our House Blend a lot because of its caramel and flowery undertones, but have you ever tried brewing one of our Single Origins to see how it tastes? Why not add a few extra grams of coffee to your morning brew and see how it tastes?
There are many different ways to play around with coffee. Each one will help you understand your current coffee-drinking habits and how to improve them.