What’s Important in Making a GREAT cup of coffee?
- Quality — To make good coffee, you need quality beans, that’s a given.
- Freshness — Always use freshly roasted beans. ALWAYS!
- Grinding — Grind the coffee to the fineness or coarseness appropriate to the brewing method, right before brewing it.
- Water — Your water MUST be good tasting and free of any notable taints (such as chlorine or minerals)!
The General Formula...
Start with one heaping tablespoon for each six-ounce cup of coffee you plan to make. If you want a stronger, full bodied decaf, then you may want to use two tablespoons. Adjust the amount up or down according to your taste.
What’s the BEST Method of Brewing?
The first thing to remember about brewing methods (and coffee in general) is that there is NO BEST! It’s what you like that’s important. If you really like your coffee on the weaker side, that's okay. Strong? Even better... Second, what you like may be a result of what you’ve grown accustomed to. But don’t be afraid to stretch and experiment. There’s often something a lot better right around the corner! Here are some thoughts and helpful tips on a few brewing methods that the Diva has personally TESTED...
Electric Drip Brewers
With drip brewers, make sure that the normal brewing cycle does not exceed 5 to 6 minutes. If it does, try making a half pot at a time. Four minutes is the target time you are aiming for, for the ideally brewed cup. And NEVER let your coffee sit on a burner for more than 20 minutes; use a thermos-style carafe to solve that holding problem!
French Press
The key to the French Press is using a little extra coffee and grinding it more coarsely. If you haven’t used one before, try letting the coffee in the pot steep at least four minutes before pushing the plunger down.
Melitta®
The Melitta filter and cone can make great coffee! When using a paper filter, always rinse it with hot or boiling water immediately before brewing to get rid of that papery taste. While pouring the water over the grounds, stir them around so all the grounds get wet.
Chemex®
The Chemex paper filters are thicker and therefore make a clearer cup of coffee. Again, rinse the filter and pot with hot water immediately before use, and gently pour the hot water out. Also, you may want to add a bit more coffee, since the thicker filter can remove a little more flavor than the thinner Melitta filters. Again, stir those grounds.
Espresso
Although the best advice is to get espresso brewed by professionals at your favorite espresso bar, iff you do want to make true espresso at home, buy the best machine you can afford, make sure it will generate 9 atmospheres of pressure, using water at 190 to 203°F, producing a 25 to 30 ml shot, in under 29 seconds! (If the seller doesn’t know what all this means, take your business elsewhere.) Use your machine regularly and remember that practice makes perfect!
Moka Pot
The Moka Pot, also known as an “Italian coffeepot,” usually sits directly on a stovetop or heat source. It is a three-chamber design, which boils water in the lower section, forces the boiling water through coffee grounds held in the middle section (separated from the top section by a filter mesh) and into the top, upper section. The resultant coffee is almost espresso strength, but without the crema and deep full bodied flavor of a true espresso.
Keurig
The Keurig is a brewer designed to brew a single cup of coffee at a time (called K-Cups), in under a minute. Each K-Cup is a plastic container that contains ground coffee beans and a coffee filter, sealed air tight with a combination plastic and foil lid. All you do is pop the K-Cup into the Keurig and press a button! It punctures the lid and the bottom of the K-Cup, forcing hot water under pressure through the K-Cup, and the coffee into your waiting mug. A variety of decaf coffees, teas, and even cocoas, make up a steadily growing market of available K-Cups.
*Note: You can purchase an optional filter called the My K-Cup. This reusable K-Cup filter assembly allows you to use your own ground coffee or tea.
Toddy®
Some people swear by the “cold brew” method that removes most of the acids in coffee. (But most people happen to like the balance of acidity and body.) It does produce great coffee extract for iced coffee and recipes that call for liquid coffee in cooking.
Turkish
Making Turkish coffee requires the traditional “Ibrik” or Turkish coffee pot, which is a long handled metal pot that narrows toward the top. This method uses the finest grind possible and gently boils the coffee so that it foams up to the top of the pot three times. It produces a strong bitter cup of coffee (even with the copious amounts of sugar used to sweeten it) and is loved by those that drink it. The small cups of Turkish coffee, when finished, leave grounds in the bottom that fortune tellers read... maybe the best part of the experience!
Cowboy
Traditionally, you boil a pot of water, take it off the heat, add ground coffee and stir. When the grounds sink, it’s ready to drink. Don’t leave it on the heat, though, either during or after brewing, no matter what that cowboy tells you!
The Percolator
Timing is the key here. Percolators can actually produce a halfway decent brew if they are only allowed to perk until the coffee bubbling up is deep reddish brown in color and not getting darker… often as little as four minutes, never more than six max. And please, never NEVER “cook” your coffee in it for 15 to 20 minutes!
My Husband’s Favorite Method
My husband uses the filter basket from a restaurant coffee maker and the flat bottom filters he buys at Costco. He puts the paper filter in the black plastic basket and fills it with hot water and lets it drain. He pre-warms a thirty-two ounce glass-lined carafe and puts 4 ounces of medium grind coffee in the basket. He then slowly pours just boiled water (but not actively boiling) over the grounds while gently stirring with a big spoon. Brewing takes a little over two minutes, and yes, the coffee is strong, but that’s the way he likes it!
Have a favorite brewing method not covered here? Send it to the Diva!
