How to make better coffee at home, simply and without expensive gear

Table of Content

• Best Coffee Water Temperature
• Make Sure Your Water is the Right Temperature
• Skip the Pricey Cafe Latte: How to Make Good Coffee at Home
• A coffee pro spills the beans on how to get coffeehouse quality in the comfort of your home
• How to make cold brew coffee in a French press
• Grind At The Correct Coarseness (Or Fineness) Setting

Earlier on in the brew, the fruitier and more acidic-tasting compounds are extracted. Then comes sweetness, and finally, the more bitter ones. In other words, if your coffee is tasting too sour (and it’s not because of the roast/beans), it’s probably under-extracted. This is the one rule you need to understand when brewing coffee. "Try adding spices to your coffee grounds when you make your cold brew," Zad told Insider. Invented in the early 2000s, this popular brewing device makes a range of styles, such as espresso-like brewed coffee, drip coffee, cold brew, and many more.

A sampler like this one from Blue Bottle is a smart way to go. A gooseneck kettle is necessary for even water flow. This .8-liter electric kettle allows slow, precise pouring control, which is great for brewing coffee and tea at home. This kettle features an ergonomic design and temperature presets to make startup fast. It's the budget version of the Stagg Kettle which is the Red Wing of trendy kettles. While experimentation is fun, here are a few suggestions to get you headed in the right direction.

Best Coffee Water Temperature

This is important because you want all of your coffee grounds to be evenly and continuously saturated by the stream - we want every bit of water to reach every particle of coffee. Adding fresh mint to your iced coffee, with coconut milk and just a touch of sweetener, instantly ups the refreshing qualities of the drink. Frozen fruit in iced coffee — either as ice cube substitutes or blended in — can be a fun way to add dimension to your drink. Blackberries or blueberries parallel a brew's sweetness, while more tropical fruits like mango and pineapple highlight its acidity without being overpowering.

According to Zad, flavored coffee can be full of artificial ingredients that don't complement the natural flavor of the beans. If you're pouring hot coffee into a cold mug, it's just making the coffee colder the second it hits the ceramic. In order to maintain your coffee's freshness, proper storage is also important. Zad suggested keeping it away from heat, light, moisture, and the freezer. The problem is, unless you know a few fundamental coffee-brewing techniques you’re not going to achieve the results you want.

Make Sure Your Water is the Right Temperature

At about $7 a bag, he says for his tastes, he enjoys it more than many of the home options costing three times as much. All to say, experimentation is how you will truly find a home brew you love. At home in the morning, my palate wants consistency in flavor so I brew the same one or two favorite coffees over the Kalita. After brewing thousands of cups of coffee at home I’ve settled with the Kalita which suits my lifestyle and palate. Occasionally on the weekends or when I get a new bag of coffee I’ll experiment with the V60 pour over or the Chemex. When we think about grind size or grind setting a good base to start out with is espresso; fine, pour over; medium, French press; coarse.

The amount of water used to bloom is usually double the amount of coffee you’ve used (ex. if you’re using 35 grams of coffee, you’ll want to use 70 grams of water for the bloom). Pour-over coffee is a method of brewing coffee that requires pouring hot water over coffee grounds in a filter; it’s also referred to as hand-brewed coffee. In a traditional electric coffee maker, water pours in a steady stream over the coffee grounds and you have no control over how the coffee is extracted. (Trust us, it’s one of the yummiest types of coffee). Most automatic coffee makers don't properly prepare the coffee grounds for full extraction. Skipping this step will allow the carbon dioxide to repel water during part of the brewing process, effectively making the brew weaker.

Skip the Pricey Cafe Latte: How to Make Good Coffee at Home

Be sure to remove the water filter first if your machine has one. Depending on your brewer, your tank may be safe to throw in the dishwasher. First, make sure the coffee maker is powered off and unplugged. Next use a damp cloth to wipe away dust and other debris from the outside of the machine.

The next thing you'll want to check on is whether or not your local coffee is grown in a way that's ecologically responsible. All of these factors work together to allow you to taste more flavors in your coffee than usual. A pour over allows you to pinpoint those flavors that are often described on a bag of fresh coffee - apricot, toffee, baked apple, dark cocoa, and Meyers lemon for example.

A coffee pro spills the beans on how to get coffeehouse quality in the comfort of your home

If you’re adding a sweetener or spice to your coffee, such as lemon zest, cinnamon, or chocolate, add them to the beans before grinding them, not after. Whole-bean coffee stored in a cool, dry place will last up to a month. I buy in bulk every two months, and I can't tell any difference between the end of the old beans and the fresh new beans.

On the other hand, too fine a filter will increase the contact time (the brew’s flow will also be slowed down). Contact or brew time refers to the amount of time your coffee grinds spend in the water. But despite the simple definition, this is one of the most important parameters. Coffee brewing is the process by which we extract these compounds.

How to make cold brew coffee in a French press

Once finished, aim for the scale to read about 240 grams and the timer to reach about 1 minute, 30 seconds. After your timer reaches around 30 seconds, begin your second pour. Starting with the center of the coffee grounds once again, pour in a spiral motion slowly working outward without quite touching the outermost rim of the grounds.

Once you’ve nailed down your process, be sure to experiment with different beans to find a flavor profile that suits your taste buds. Overall timing is important because you will want to end up with 500g of coffee in about 3-4 minutes. If you pour too quickly, the pour over may end up weak tasting and a bit sour.