Here is the most common question I’m ask: “Why doesn’t my home brewed coffee ever taste as good as the coffee you brew at your coffee house?” There are a lot of reasons for this. A few things are important; quality coffee, water and brewing equipment.
The quality of the coffee. Start by buying a 100% Arabica coffee. Most supermarket brands are blends of both Arabica and Robusta. Also, a lot of the cheaper brands will have “debris” in it. Yes, I said debris. The FDA actually allows up to 30% by volume to be debris. Debris accounting to the FDA can be moldy or unripe beans, rocks, stems and leaves, or other “inert matter.” So you tell me why you can’t make a good cup of coffee with some brand named coffee?
As the price of coffee continues to rise the amount of “inert matter” will be pushed to 30% so the manufacturers to maintain their margins. I would caution most against some of the brand name or supermarket brand coffee. Honestly, the freshness of the coffee is never there when talking about supermarket/brand name coffee. You cannot roast, package, distribute and then retail on the scale that most brands and even brand name coffee houses do while maintaining a high degree of freshness. You can however at least eliminate the “inert matter” by buying a major coffee house brand product in your grocery store, it won’t be that fresh but it won’t have a bunch of junk in it. The down side could be the length of time a package of coffee has spent on the shelf but that can be hard to determine.
You want truly fresh coffee go right to the roaster-retailer in your area or one of your independent coffee houses. Why a coffee house? In our case we buy coffee directly from the roaster. The products we order are roasted for us and we receive these products with five days of roasting. We only order what we can use in a 7 day period. Everything we buy is whole bean and we grind as we need it. This is the case for most of the independent coffee houses in your area too. So buy whole bean from your local coffee shop to ensure the freshest possible coffee if you can’t buy directly from a local roaster.
Dos and Don’ts of Coffee: Do not buy more coffee than you can use in a week. Buy whole bean coffee and grind it yourself as you need it. Don’t grind it the night before, grind it that morning. Do not store your coffee in the freezer or the refrigerator. Most whole bean coffee will come in a re-closable bag so just use that and store it in a cabinet.
Grinding coffee: Without going into the science of varying particle size and how it affects extraction quality let me just say that a bur grinder is the best style of grinder to buy. The problem with blade grinders is you end up with a very un-even grind. A bur grinder provides and even cutting surface for the beans to pass through with gives you an even grind. Now, the cost of a bur grinder is higher verses a blade grinder but most bur grinders will be of higher quality and should get much more use out of it. Grinding flavored coffee in your grinder is taboo unless you have a designated grinder for flavored coffee.
Why use different grinders for regular coffee and flavored coffee? Coffee is flavoring is made with oils and after the coffee has been roasted and cooled it is coated with the favoring. This flavoring will taint the grinder with that flavor so the next time you grind a regular coffee it will pick up the flavors. There is a way to clean the grinder that is pretty effective but not recommended buy most “coffee snobs.” If you want to clean your grinder after using it for flavored coffee you can grind rice through the grinder followed by a little regular coffee. As funny as this statement is I have to make it: do not use cooked rice! Use a regular white rice and preferably not minute rice.
How much coffee should you use when brewing? We brew in 72 once increments and use about 4.25 ounces for each pot. If you have a standard 10 cup machine I would suggest you do the same. Most people however do not use this much coffee in their home brewer, they generally use about half that amount which give them an over extracted cup of watery coffee – Thus answering part of the question of why your coffee at home is not as good as the coffee at a coffee house. I would suggest you use a minimum of 3 ounces per pot.
What is the best way to brew coffee? My favorite way is to use a press pot or also called a French Press. I like the overall taste of the coffee made this way. You also get some of the “mud” with this method. If you aren’t using a press you are probably using a drip coffee maker.
We have a drip machine that has a built in grinder. This machine was a gift but I would suggest you stay away from “gadgety” if that is a word, machines like this. Stick with simple high quality home use or light commercial quality drip brewers. Ideally you should buy a coffee maker that has a reserve tank of hot water. Having a hot water reserve decrease brew time and provides you with a steady flow of water which allows the ground coffee to be flooded and floated in the filter for a better extraction. Bunn makes a couple of home use models and even a light commercial model called the A-10. The a-10 is a $230 - $275 machine and is designed for small offices. Bunn also has home use models: BX or NHBX which should be around $100.00 at most stores.
Some of the “coffee snobs” overdue it on the water aspect of brewing. They would have you set up a filtration system that will first filter then deionize and then place the correct amount of minerals back in the water. Deionized water is not okay since it has been cleaned of everything. You want to some dissolved solids in your water to help with a better extraction. Here is the thing; your tap water is probably okay. The only drawback to tap water is the amount of chlorine bleach in the water. Chlorine bleach doesn’t really add taste as much as it will cover some of the aroma of the coffee.
Follow the three things we covered, quality beans, good water and a good quality brewer and you will be able to make a better cup of coffee at home.
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