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Brewing your coffee at home has many benefits. It can save you money, gives you complete control over the brewing process, as well as a certain sense of satisfaction.
Yet millions of people still opt to wait in the long lines at the coffee shop every morning. Why is this?
Many people tend to think that brewing at home is a choice between having bland coffee from the 1950’s coffee maker and paper filter, or some high-tech gadget that requires a NASA scientist to run. The reality is that good coffee can be both quick, economical, and easy to make – you just have to know the tricks to make it so.
We’ve put together 5 tips on how to brew a better cup of coffee. Give them a shot and you’ll soon wonder why you’re spending over $100 every month on a cup of store-bought coffee that has more sugar in it than is reasonably healthy.
Buy Fresh Coffee Beans
This is where most people fall short when they try to brew their own coffee. Instead of buying premium coffee, such as Kona coffee beans, they buy the pre-ground stuff you find in the grocery store. Or worse yet, they spend extra money on inferior “Kona blends”, which only require 10% of the product to be authentic Kona beans.
Store bought coffee is usually well past its expiration date by the time it reaches store shelves. It also might have artificial preservatives added in order to extend the shelf life upwards of 1 year.
In order to have fresh coffee, you need fresh beans. Try buying from such farm-to-cup suppliers as Carta Coffee. It’s the only way to get fresh beans unless you literally live next door to the coffee farm.
Filtered Water
Tap water can contain unwanted additives such as chlorine and minerals that will heavily affect the taste of the coffee. Walmart sells pitchers that you can filter your tap water through. They will remove many of the chemicals in your city tap water than can befoul the perfect cup of coffee – yet will leave in such beneficial minerals as magnesium which helps with the coffee extraction.
Filtration pitchers are the most cost-effective means of getting fresh filtered water. The filters usually last up to 3 months and wind up costing you $2.50 per month. The overall cost of the pitcher itself is a one-time expense that will come down as you use it and time goes by. As a bonus, you can use the rest of the filtered water for cooking and drinking!
The Grind
Good coffee requires a good grinding technique. If you’re already buying beans, but are using a cheap blade grinder you bought at Walmart, you’re doing it wrong. Blade grinders chop up the beans into particles that are not uniform in shape or size. This means that when you grind beans with a blade grinder, you’re going to get big pieces of coffee grinds and small pieces of coffee grinds.
It’s the small pieces you should be worried about.
Also known as “fines”, the dust that’s created when using a blade grinder will result in bitter, unpleasant coffee flavors – no matter how good the beans you’re using.
A burr grinder is the only way you should be grinding your beans. You can find one for as cheap as $20 and they will prevent the fine coffee dust from being created and spoiling your morning cup of joe.
Don’t make waste
When trying to brew a better cup of coffee, you’ll need to get the water-to-coffee ratio just right. While you can run out and buy an expensive scale to measure coffee grinds out exactly, the general rule of thumb is that 4 tablespoons of ground coffee will produce one cup of coffee. You don’t need an entire mound of coffee grinds to make one cup of coffee. Less is more.
The actual ratio of grinds to water is 16:1 and that is somewhat contingent upon your brewing method. If you really want to get scientific, research the particular type of coffee you’re trying to brew and see what the ratio recommendation is.
Brew a Better Way
Another major reason why people give up trying to brew coffee at home is because they’re using an old school coffee pot. There are hundreds of ways to brew a cup of coffee, why stick with the brewing method that great-grandma was using in the 1950’s?
Moka pots, siphons, French presses, and even pour-over drippers all produce a different taste to the coffee. You can easily find one of these devices on Amazon for relatively little money. Give it a shot and see which method suits your taste buds the best.
Conclusion
Brewing the perfect cup of coffee is equal parts science and personal taste. The best way to figure out how to brew the perfect cup of coffee is to experiment. It won’t cost you much money up front, and the savings you’ll realize from not standing in line at Starbucks every morning will more than pay for your daily cup of premium coffee that you’ll actually enjoy.
Without a doubt, the most important aspect of brewing coffee is the beans. Buy a batch of premium coffee beans and you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it!
