Coffee 101: Introduction
Still trying to brew the perfect cup of coffee? Such a simple process should be foolproof, right? It goes something like this:
A. Add hot water to ground coffee.
B. Wait a bit.
C. Discard coffee grounds and enjoy!
D. Or not . . .
Most coffee experts and aficionados agree that brewing good coffee is more difficult than it seems. If good coffee were that simple to make, there wouldn’t be hundreds of different styles and methods of brewing coffee developed throughout the history of coffee, each of them touted by some expert at one time as the key to coffee nirvana.
We at Hunter Bay can help!
We realize that coffee is a very personal experience: a brewing method that works well for you may be unacceptable for your friend simply because everyone has different tastes in coffee. Instead of a recipe designed with a specific brewing method in mind, we’ll offer guidelines that can be used with almost any brewing method. It will take some experimentation on your part, but with these guidelines you should be able to develop a brewing method and recipe that works for you every time you brew your coffee.
Very basically, coffee brewing is comprised of the steps outlined above: steep ground coffee in water until the flavor is extracted from the grounds; discard the grounds; enjoy the coffee. What’s so frustrating is that we can follow these instructions religiously with very unsatisfactory results. Surely there must be some magic formula.
There’s no magic, but there is a formula. More accurately, there is an easy to follow quality checklist that we’ll call the “Five Golden Rules of Coffee Brewing”. Ignore these rules and your coffee will taste bad no matter how fancy your brewer or how much money you’ve paid for your beans.
The Five Golden Rules of Coffee Brewing:
Golden Rule #1: Use Fresh Filtered Water
Chemicals, algae, and minerals in your tap water will ruin the taste of your brewed coffee. Even if your home tap water tastes good to you, we recommend that you filter it before using it to brew your daily dose. [Water]
Golden Rule #2: Heat Water to the Proper Temperature
A lot of research has confirmed that heating water to the proper temperature is key to brewing good coffee no matter what the method. Water that’s too hot damages the essential flavors of ground coffee. Water that’s too cool (unless you use a cold-process method) results in coffee that is sour and under-extracted. Sadly most automatic drip coffee brewers are incapable of delivering water at the correct temperature during the entire brewing process. This is why the brewing method of choice here at Hunter Bay is the French Press method. It takes a little more time and effort than using an automatic drip brewer, but the resulting coffee is well worth it. Follow the link at the bottom of this article to go to Hunter Bay’s French Press Instructions. [Temp & Time]
Golden Rule #3: Match the Brewing Time to the Brewing Process
If the brewing interval is too short, coffee will be UNDER-extracted. Coffee that’s brewed too long will be OVER-extracted. [Temp & Time]
Golden Rule #4: Match the Grind to the Brewing Process
If coffee is ground too coarsely, the resulting brew will be UNDER-extracted and will taste sour, thin, flat, and acidic. If coffee is ground too finely, the brew will be OVER-extracted and will have the following unpleasant tastes: woodiness, earthiness, bitterness, sediment, ashy, and tarry. In general, the longer the coffee grounds will be in contact with hot water, the coarser the grind. For example, in espresso, hot water is ‘pressed’ very quickly through the ground coffee, so the coffee is ground very fine for espresso. In a French Press, the ground coffee steeps in the hot water for 4-6 minutes, so the coffee is ground coarse for this method. [Grind]
Golden Rule #5: Use Only High Quality Freshly Roasted Coffee Beans
Buy the best quality, freshest coffee you can find, and store it properly: buy only enough coffee to last a week or two; store coffee in an airtight container at a cool temperature; buy coffee whole bean and grind just before brewing (in later articles we’ll discuss the standards of coffee quality in depth). [Quality]
Over the next few weeks we’ll describe simple-to-follow procedures for making improvements in your home kitchen, the one place where you can completely control all the factors listed above as you pursue the perfect cup. The good news: the procedures are easy to follow. The bad news: you may need to invest in a new brewer and coffee grinder.
In the meantime, follow this link to see Hunter Bay’s French Press Instructions: [French Press Instructions]
