How to Brew Coffee, continued

The fascinating continuation of my general remarks about what every coffee lover should know can be found below.

1. Quality of the Water
2. Quality of the Beans
3. Time Since Roasting
4. Time Since Grinding
5. Good Measurement
6. Clean Equipment

4. The importance of the grind can be but should not be underestimated. There are several things to think about here. First of all, there’s the method used to grind the beans into bits small enough to make flavorful coffee in an efficient manner. Second, there’s the size of the grind, from coarse to fine, and what coffee brewing method each size lends it to. Finally, it is important to draw into consideration the length of time the beans will be sitting around after they’ve been ground into bits.

   Let’s take the grinding method. Most people are probably familiar with those blender-like grinders with the whirling blades. You know, the ones that makes the loud buzzing and crunching sounds. Then there are the more sophisticated machines that use a burr grinder. These consists of a mechanism that pushes the whole beans between two moving grinding surfaces at a given (and usually adjustable) distance apart. The beans are crushed all at once to the same size particles, instead of being chopped repeatedly into smaller and smaller bits, like in the mini-blender style grinder. These devices range from expensive electric models that have sophisticated controls for grind size to the traditional (and far less noisy) hand grinders you see in antique stores for around $120. Not that you can’t find a good hand grinder manufactured nowadays, like Zassenhaus. Finally, there’s the oldest of the traditional methods for reducing the roasted bean to dust, the mortar and pestle. Unless you’ve never seen one, you already know how they work. And if you haven’t seen one then be very careful when you type the word ‘pestle’ into a search engine to find a picture.

   The size of the grind is nearly as important when it comes to making a flavorful cup as the roast. In general, a coarse grind lends itself to slow brewing methods where the water is going to be in contact with the grounds for an extended period of time, like French Press and percolator. A medium grind is good for every day use and can be used for many brewing methods without sacrificing too much. A fine grind should be used for fast brewing methods, like espresso and moka. Read more about which grinds should be used for which brewing methods on my brewing methods page.

   The time since the beans were ground should be as short as possible. If you don’t have a grinder, get one. it’s worth it. Never have the beans ground for you in the store because that defeats the purpose of buying whole beans. Whole beans can stay fresh for up to two weeks (if you push it and pray a lot to the gods of freshness and anti-rancidity). Ground beans stay fresh for about a day (if you really push it). So if you insist on buying whole beans and having them ground for you, please: only buy enough for one pot and then make it right away. This brings up the contentious point about how to store coffee and how long to store it. Most people agree that you should store it in an airtight, glass container, out of sunlight (just in case light is bad for beans...we wouldn’t want them to get sunburned). The airtight bit is important because contact with air make the coffee stale and hastens the day when the coffee oils lose that wonderful rich flavor and take on the savor of a can of used motor oil. Using glass is important because plastics sometimes take on the flavor of what’s stored in them and this means they can take up coffee oils...which then become rancid despite our best efforts and contaminate later batches of beans. You could probably use ceramic, but that’s up to you. You take the risks and leave me out of it. Now comes the really contentious part: do you store the beans in a pantry, refrigerator or freezer? There are those that say the coffee stays fresher when kept cold and I tend to agree with them. But then there are those who say that if you keep the beans in the fridge or freezer you risk getting condensation on them when you take them out of the cold area and into the warm. And we all know that pre-mature moisture (while fun when we were teenagers) isn’t good for coffee. Add into the mix those that contend that delicate coffee molecules lose their coherence and fall all to pieces when frozen, and you’re left with nowhere to store your coffee!! You can’t store it in the pantry because they might get too warm and lose flavor. You can’t store them in the fridge because they might get moisture on them and lose their flavor. And you can’t store them in the freezer because they might lose their flavor due to being frozen. What’s a coffee lover to do? Here’s what I suggest: But about a half pound. Brew it all at once. Drink it down to the last drop. In your caffeine-induced frenzy you should have enough inspiration to come up with the perfect scheme for storing coffee. Once you come down off that holy mountain drop me a note and let me know what you came up with.* Or just buy the stuff in fairly small quantities and store it anywhere you want. If you use it all in a short enough period of time you shouldn’t have to worry over much about whether the last fews beans don’t taste as good as the first few. I find that Kahlua helps a lot if your coffee is low on flavor. Or scotch or brandy or Bailey’s Irish Cream or......or you could try visiting this guy’s page where (near the bottom) you can read an interesting coffee storage scheme involving sealed mason jars (a good idea in my estimation) and, get this, argon gas. Now that’s obsessive. top

5. Coffee can be measured in two ways. On the one hand you can be very precise in search of the perfect cup according to the scientific standard of the perfect level of coffee extraction. On the other hand you can just practice with different amounts of coffee for a given amount of water and stick with what tastes best to you. But that isn’t why you’re reading this, is it? Just to be told to fool around until you figure out what works? You want good information so you don’t have to mess with it. You want good coffee, not dishwater or pudding, and you want someone to tell you how to do that. Well, fortunately for you I’m just conceited enough to tell you the only way to make good coffee: Measure your water at room temperature at six ounces per cup of coffee and use two tablespoons of grounds for each six ounce cup. A can of Folgers™ should have that much information on it, but it doesn’t: Folgers™ recommends only one tablespoon of grounds…you would think they would want you to use it up faster. If you’re weighing the coffee instead of measuring by volume use the rule of 10 grams (0.36 oz.) per 6 oz. cup. But let’s get a little more precise. When you measure the coffee in increments proportional to the basic six ounces of water you have to keep the following factors in mind: 1.) the roast 2.) the grind 3.) the extraction method. I. Roast: With a light or medium roast the amount of coffee by weight or volume will be less than for darker roasts. Darker roasts weigh less and take up less volume so if you like the flavor of a darker roast you should remember to use a slightly heaping spoon or add a gram or so. II. Grind: Finer grinds take up less space than coarser grinds. it’s that simple. So if you need a coarse grind for the brewing method you’re using (say French Press or, God forbid, percolator) you should use the standard measure and if you’re using a finer grind (say for drip or espresso) you should use slightly more. III. Extraction Method: As I indicated in the previous sentence, the method of preparation you use should be taken into account when you measure your coffee. For percolator, drip and French Press methods you use a coarse to medium grind so use the standard measure. For moka (stove-top espresso) and espresso methods you use a fine grind so measure slightly more than the standard amount. One caveat: for moka and espresso you basically fill the basket given in the equipment. don’t stuff the container and don’t underfill it and you’ll get a great cup as long as the grind is fine enough. Well, that’s still not that precise but at least now you know some of the factors involved in doing your guesswork. Oh, and since you’ll almost never be measuring ground coffee since you’ll only be buying whole bean coffee (right?) there’s one other thing to keep in mind. Think of the beans as a very coarse grind and measure accordingly. A slightly heaping spoonful of beans is roughly equal to a level spoonful of grounds. I took the standards and information given here from this page at the SCAA .
   
   Above and beyond the factors that come into play when measuring coffee for yourself at home is an important factor to keep in mind when making coffee for company. Make it strong enough to light people’s hair on fire: they can always dilute it with hot water from a tea pot or the microwave. And it makes you look like a real fanatic. However, there is an exception to this rule and I learned about it the hard way. Read about what I call now the “Aunt Clare Incident” here. top
6. Make sure you coffee equipment is clean! You should wash everything using hot soapy water every time you use it. It may look clean if you just rinse it out, but it’s not. Coffee oils cling and go bad and taste bitter and ruin your perfect pot of coffee. Someone told me once that I should never use soap on my moka coffee maker. The foolish thing is that I followed her advice! don’t be afraid of soap ruining your coffee. Be afraid of rancid coffee oils from last time ruining your coffee. Just use lots of hot water to rinse. Oh, and regarding decalcification of your equipment: please follow the directions that came with it. You didn’t throw those out did you? Well, I’m sure you’ll think of something. top

Now that we’ve established some ground rules as to what you should know before you make coffee (see some more here) let’s get down to the nitty gritty on the various methods you can use to brew. Click here to continue.