In our noble quest to educate you on how to prepare a perfect coffee in the comfort of your own kitchen, we assembled some of the most useful pieces of advice for this process. You do not have to be a barista or coffee wizard to make a perfect cup of coffee.
Table of Contents
Pro Tips You Need To Know
- Store your beans in airtight containers, and do not let them be exposed to air for too long. Keep them in a dark place, like wine, and the less they are exposed to air, the better. If you want to prevent any kind of inconvenience, then you can make small doses that are opened right before brewing.
- Do not measure your coffee with scoops and cups, but grams and ratios. This is the method applied by the best bakers and best baristas to do exactly the same.
- If your water tastes bad, then your coffee will taste the same. Do not overthink this, you will not need a fancy filtration system, a convenient water pitcher will do the job.
- The worst thing you can do is to pour boiling water over your grinds so in order to avoid this scenario, you will have to control the water temperature. However, you will need a water kettle that maintains the temperature, and it is virtually impossible to maintain the temperature constant. So, the best thing you can do in this scenario is to turn off your kettle before water starts boiling.
1. Coffee Beans
Before you start preparing your coffee on a whole new level, it is mandatory to educate yourself on the coffee bean types and to know what coffee beans you are dealing with. Factors like acidity, flavor, and strength highly depend on the region where the coffee comes from. In this line, beans from Africa are acidic and dark; coffee beans from South Africa are medium roasted and less acidic; Guatemala beans are the best ones to start with. Even though these beans are complex, they are still well-balanced in flavor and medium roasted.
2. Whole Bean Coffee
Good beans result in tastier coffee. You might be asking yourself why whole beans over grounded coffee? Whole beans are more flavorful and aromatic, on the other hand, grounded coffee is exposed to some factors that affect its quality.
If there is a coffee roaster nearby, you can purchase some good quality beans, roast them, and grind them yourself. There are multiple types of grinders. In the words of the specialists at Brew Coffee At Home, a good grinder is an essential part. Electric grinders, manual, blade, and burr grinders have different features and treat coffee in different ways. Therefore, picking the right grinder for your whole beans is crucial if you want to maintain a good coffee taste.
3. Scale
Invest some money in purchasing a scale. According to some skillful baristas, if you try to measure coffee with a spoon, it will just not taste the same. There is huge importance in measuring your coffee precisely because you should know what is a perfect amount of coffee for making a tasty cup of coffee.
With the scale, you will achieve desired strength and balance that suits you the most. For instance, if you are willing to make coffee at home and use six regular-sized cups, it is the best option to measure 90 grams of whole beans before grinding and brewing for achieving a perfect taste.
4. How to Store Your Coffee?
Just as we have already indicated, it is best to keep your coffee in airtight canisters and kept in a dark place. Once the canister is opened, it should be kept away from the sunlight.
Therefore, if you want your coffee to maintain a rich flavor, it is best to store it in dark ceramics and glass containers with airtight, vacuum lids. Airtight lids keep the flavor strong and fresh. It is also important to point out to avoid coffee freezing because the coffee will absorb moisture that will seriously affect its flavor and strip aroma.
5. Clean Coffeemaker
If you are one of the happy ones to have a coffee maker, then you should clean it regularly. Coffee beans contain oil and if you do not clean your coffee maker, then the oil is going to stay, and the more you brew your coffee, the more collected oils will affect the taste. If you do not clean your coffee maker regularly, then the coffee you brew will taste as if it is burnt because of the collected oils. That is why professional baristas clean their coffee machines every day.
6. Filtered Water
Just as we said in the introductory part, water matters when it comes to coffee brewing. If the water tastes bad, coffee will taste bad as well. In this line, this is why most professionals use filtered water for brewing. You do not have to use the whole house water filtration system, a small water pitcher will do the job. The best piece of advice is actually to keep filtered water in the fridge and brew your coffee with water heated between 195°F and 250°F.
7. Brewing Method
Before you start brewing, you will have to decide which is the brewing method you are going to use. Not all the methods are the same and are not equal so it will take you some time to realize what is the method that works the best for you and your lifestyle. For a mild cup of coffee, the best one is an automatic drip coffee maker. On the other hand, if you are a fan of darker and stronger coffee, a French press will be the best pick for you. Additionally, the French press is extremely convenient and low maintenance.
All of the pieces of advice are some of the best professional methods for coffee brewing that will work for any household. In the end, it is most important to figure out which taste and method suits you the best and therefore comply with your own requests.
