How can I get the best home brewed coffee?
Question by : How can I get the best home brewed coffee?
I drink a lot of coffee but want better quality coffee. I work the night shift and survive off it. Any and all advice pertaining to home brewed coffee is welcome.
Best answer:
Answer by CCRN
First of all buy some coffee! What I mean is something that is made in smaller batches and preferably from somewhere close to you that roasts their own beans. Next, if you use it relatively quickly grind it at the store from whole beans or, if you don’t use it quickly bring home whole beans and grind yourself. Finally find a brewing method you like the most. For a very strong cup get a French press but keep in mind that it will be messy. Otherwise get a drip coffee maker that lets you adjust the brewing strength and play with it until you get it to where you like it.
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Technique has a lot to do with it. Some coffee makers run the water through so fast that there isn’t a lot of time for the extraction of the flavor from the coffee. However, since we are an impatient lot and want that first cup of coffee now; that is a real balancing act!
Clean pot, clean coffee maker, cold water, good water (filtered if you don’t have really good water and a good quality, fresh ground coffee all add up to better results. We grind our coffee ourselves; it stays fresher in the whole bean state and usually don’t grind more than about 2-3 days worth ahead. Keep the ground coffee in an airtight container. The advantage of buying beans and grinding your own is that the manufacturer can’t put a bunch of cheap filler in the coffee. And yes, some do that!
We prefer 8 o’clock’s 100% Colombian coffee. Experiment until you find a blend you like or if you have coffee somewhere that you really like, ask what it is.
Also experiment with how much coffee to use when brewing a pot. If you like it strong, you’ll need to use more. And I prefer the unbleached filters over the bleached ones but I can’t always get those out here in the sticks. Coffee is almost a personal choice, some like it strong, some like to be able to read through it.
But try buying the beans and grinding your own; that’s the first big step towards better coffee. A good coffee grinder isn’t expensive. We’ve had our Braun one for years and it keeps right on grinding. However, I do have a back up stashed in the cupboard, just in case! Grabbed it at a yard sale, never used.
I was not much of a coffee drinker up until recently. All I had in the past was black coffee and didn’t even know about flavored coffee, espressos, cappucinno etc. We recently bought a coffee machine and I think I’m getting addicted.
My advice is to research the different coffee machines that are available and check out ratings and reviews on coffee that other people like. It’s always interesting to see what others find popular, it can be a good starting point to find out your own tastes.
A clean high quality coffee maker is a good start. If you brew by hand make sure you pour the hot water through the filter slowly as to give the coffee enough time to release its flavor. So is using filtered water. I would recommend quality coffee as well. Organic coffee is very good. Fair trade shade grown organic coffee is the best you can get aside from the very expensive esoteric types of coffee such as Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee. Always use fresh ground beans for brewing your coffee. Do not store your coffee in the fringe or freezer but rather in a air tight container in a cool dark place. Here’s to your next cup of brilliant coffee enjoyed. Hope this helps.