7 Tips to Help You Make Coffee at Home Successfully
By Space Coast Daily // March 10, 2023
Millions of people rely on coffee to wake them up. In fact, many people can barely function in the morning without a cup of coffee.
That’s why kitchens around the world are stocked with everything from regular coffee makers to luxury coffee makers.
Perhaps you enjoy freshly ground and roasted coffee beans in an elaborate coffee machine with a grinder. Maybe you just want a cup of coffee, and you’d better have it right away. That’s no problem, of course, as the coffee machine can do it all in no time and serve you a delicious drink. But even before this amazing machine was created, people could still make a delicious cup of coffee. Sometimes, the very traditional way is the right way, and many people still believe that the best coffee is simply brewed with coffee and water.
Making your own coffee at home is not difficult. With the right techniques, your coffee can be just as delicious as the coffee in the cafe. Follow these 6 simple tips and you can improve your homebrew coffee!
- Use fresh coffee beans.
A large part of what makes coffee smell and taste so complex and delicious is the aromatic compounds present in roasted coffee beans. After roasting, these compounds begin to escape from the beans in a process called degassing – taking away a lot of flavors! After 8 days, up to 70% of the compound would have disappeared. Over time, you will lose more flavor.
When you buy coffee beans, make sure to buy fresh, high-quality beans roasted with U.S. crude. It will be also helpful to check the ‘bake’ date. You can buy fresh whole beans at Vitacost, which offers various great coffee beans at an affordable price. Don’t forget to use Vitacost coupons to cut your cost if you would like to buy in bulk.
- Focus on the quality of the water.
You should acknowledge that tap water and pure water are different even after heating! A cup of drip coffee is about 98.5-99% water, and the minerals in the water help extract the flavor from the grounds during brewing. Using filtered water is key because you want to remove any chemicals, sediment, or flavor from tap water before brewing.
You can also buy mineral packs, such as those from Third Wave Water, to add to distilled water. It can have the same effect.
- Grind your own beans in a bean grinder.
It’s easier to buy pre-ground coffee. But grinding your own coffee will make it more memorable. Grinding your coffee before you use it will make your coffee the tastiest and most complex. Pre-ground coffee quickly becomes stale, losing complexity and aroma.
A Burr grinder is the key to success. Burr grinders crush your coffee into evenly sized pieces and allow you to control the size of the ground, while blade grinders (such as blenders or spice grinders) will only cut the coffee into different-sized pieces.
Different sizes of abrasives will ferment at different rates. It can affect the taste of the coffee. If it is ground more evenly, the flavor will be lifted more evenly, resulting in a more balanced and full flavor. Therefore, if you must buy a piece of coffee equipment, the grinder must be your first choice.
- Make sure the water is at the right temperature.
To extract the best flavor from your coffee, the water you use to brew must be at optimal temperature. The temperature usually used is between 195 and 205 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperature affects not only the speed at which coffee is brewed but also the taste of the coffee after it is brewed. There’s a lot of pleasant acidity and unique flavors in the coffee we love that don’t occur in the water below 195 degrees Fahrenheit. Conversely, water above 205 degrees Fahrenheit will extract more bitterness from the coffee. Brewing coffee when the water is at its optimum temperature brings out the sweetness and complexity of the coffee without removing unnecessary bitterness.
You can use a thermometer to check the water temperature. Alternatively, judging by time, boiled water after about 30-60 seconds will usually fall just within the desired range.
- Use a scale.
No matter what recipe you use (you can find many online), you need to measure the amount of coffee and water you use. Different coffees and blends can vary considerably in size and density, so the weight of a tablespoon of one type of coffee may be much smaller than the weight of a tablespoon of another.
Using a scale can be measured by weight (not volume), which helps ensure that no matter what coffee you drink, you know exactly how much you’re drinking. Ideally, you need a pair of scales that measure 0.1g or more. These products range from basic to high-tech.
- Prepare brewing equipment and filters.
There is a variety of brewing equipment available for beginners to choose from. The two main things you should consider are the flavor configuration and ease of use you want.
For filter/pour-over devices, the best known are Chemex, Hario V60, and Kalita Wave. Pouring coffee is cleaner than soaking it.
On the other hand, major immersion brewing devices are AeroPress, French press, and Clever. However, there are many more kinds of brewing equipment! You can actively explore innovative methods, provided you are already an expert in brewing.
- Froth the milk.
A very simple way to step up your home coffee game is to froth the milk. You can try a milk frother, although that can be expensive. If you want an alternative method, buy a frothing wand and use it to heat the milk on the stove to make it froth.
What are the benefits of this? Frothy milk will make your drink look prettier, and you can even try latte art.
Part of the fun of making coffee is trying different brews and different coffees! As you learn and master these techniques, you begin to understand how to make the perfect coffee every time, and how to adjust it to your liking. What could be more fun than that?
