Coffee Making Fundamentals and Facts
The Five Fundamentals of Making Coffee
1. Freshness
Start with fresh roasted coffee. Consumption closest to the roast date produces better flavor and aroma. Therefore only buy what you will drink within two weeks.
2. Water
Use fresh water. Bottled or distilled water is always best. Really, it is. Filtered tap water is Okay. I am always cautious of product like Brita, not that I am knocking them, but I try to stay cognizant of bacteria.
3. Grind
Use the correct grind. Too fine a grind will over-extract the coffee flavor thus making it bitter. Too coarse a grind: brown water and no flavor. The most common method is the Drip Method; most cone shaped paper filter type of brewers need a very-fine grind. Most flat bottom basket shaped paper filters need a fine grind. Metal or gold cone filters need a fine grind, because it is more porous than paper. Metal or gold flat bottom basket filters need a medium-fine grind. Espresso machines need extra-fine to very-fine depending on how much extraction one wants. The plunger-pot, press-pot or more commonly known as the French Press requires a coarse grind to get more contact area between the coffee and the water. This is the best way to drink coffee, it is known as the direct-contact method -- no filters, just pure coffee flavor. It is also the easiest way to prepare coffee
4. Proportion
Use the correct proportion. The industry standard is two rounded tablespoons of ground coffee for every six ounces of water. Everyone should start from this point, then make adjustments to your taste or the tastes of your fellow drinkers. (Better yet, weigh those two rounded tablespoons to find out how much weight per cup, and then multiply by the number of cups you are making. By weighing your beans every time you will consistently make the perfect pot of coffee once you find the right proportions).
5. Equipment
Use clean brewing equipment. Clean out your brewer once a month with a mix of vinegar and water. This will help clean out the accumulated oils that coat your equipment. Expired coffee taste is the taste that these oils leave.
In summary, the five fundamentals are: Freshness, Water, Grind, Proportion, and Equipment.
Additional Considerations and Facts in the making of coffee are:
Water Temperature
The perfect temperature for brewing coffee is water "just off boil" in technical terms somewhere between 195 and 205 degrees. Too hot and you burn the beans giving you a bitter taste, too cold and you won't extract any flavor or the oils off the bean. After the brewing process is complete, most equipment typically keeps the coffee served at 165 to 175 degrees. Coffee in a glass carafe stored on a warmer only lasts twenty minutes before taste is compromised. Coffee kept in an air-pot lasts up to an hour.
Grind
Never ever grind your pristine whole beans of any variety in the same grinder that you use for flavored coffees! If you must buy flavored coffee, buy them ground. They are so infused with other oils that they do not expire for as long as a month...even ground! Enough about flavored coffee, no maybe not...Did you know that the beans used for this product are the lowest grade, no flavor, no acid, may as well be Robusta pretending to be Arabica beans!
Let's get back to grind. They are in order: Turkish , extra-fine, very-fine, fine, medium-fine, medium, medium-coarse and coarse. These are standard grind settings. For the home, invest in an electric blade grinder. A coarse is about 5-8 seconds, medium is 10-12 seconds, and fine is 15-18. Cone filters: start with 25 seconds and if the coffee is too bitter or "strong" bring it down to 20 seconds.
Storing Your Coffee
Always buy fresh roasted coffee. Find a roaster that can provide coffee beans roasted within two days. Whole bean coffee keeps the longest. Yet it only keeps for fourteen days in an air tight container. Ground coffee expires within three days, therefore grind as needed or as early as the night before your morning brew. Never store your coffee in its original bag. Transfer your whole beans immediately into a ceramic or glass container with a rubber seal and preferably one that does not allow light through it. Enemies of storing coffee are air, light, heat and moisture. STOP freezing your beans! Never store your coffee in the freezer or refrigerator as this develops moisture around the bean.
Acidity, Flavor and Body,
Ever refer to a cup of coffee as "strong". Well, for most people that's the best description they have for a more acidic or a smoky flavored coffee. The industry professionals rarely use the term strong. Acidity is the sharpness in a cup of coffee, relative terms to describe acidity is mellow, soft, flat, dead, delicate, bland, and rough. Flavor is the combination of the aroma and the taste that the coffee impresses in the mouth. Terms relating to flavor are nutty, caramelly, earthy, spicy, fruity, smoky, musty, rich, grassy, chocolaty, neutral, sweet, turpeny and winey. Body is the "mouth-feel" in terms of weight and texture. These terms are best described as syrupy, harsh, lifeless, thin, heavy, medium, muddy, and of course full.
Caffeine
There is about as much caffeine in a 12 ounce cup of French Roast Arabica Specialty Coffee as there is in a 10 ounce cup commercial grade DECAF from Folgers, Hills Brothers, Chase and Sandborn, or the typical grocery coffee. You also get more caffeine from a cup of regular coffee than you would from a shot of espresso, even a double shot!
Varietals, Style, Roasts and Blends
Varietals is the term used for the coffee that comes from a geographical region. A Sumatra, Kenya, Costa Rica or a Java are varietals. As in wine...soil, climate and cultivation methods affect the taste of your coffee. Some generalizations are formed due to these inherent variables in every region. Typically, coffee from South America is medium bodied and mild in acidity. Central American coffee has good acidity, a medium body and full aroma. Costa Rican coffee is the stand-out in Central America, it is perhaps the best to blend with any other coffees. The only North American coffee produced in commercial quantities comes from Hawaii and it is a favorite of many coffee drinkers but its best description is buttery which is a rare example, it is mostly "earthy." African coffees are more often winey, well balanced in acidity and medium to full bodied. The Pacific coffees are a varietal, unblended and pure, perfectly balanced "coffee" taste sometimes sweet, sometimes spicy, low in acidity and full bodied.
Styles: a French Roast, Italian Roast, Vienna, or even the ever popular Espresso "bean" are NOT beans! There is no Espresso plant nor is there an espresso bean. These are styles of roast. Espresso is a blend of beans roasted in an espresso style. So are the blend of beans in the French or Italian. The typical roasts are: Light - which also consists of Cinnamon or Half City roasts. Medium - which are Full City, American, Regular, Breakfast and Full City +. Dark - Continental, New Orleans, Vienna, most Starbucks roasts. Darkest - are French, Italian, and Spanish.
Choosing the Right Coffee
The discriminating Coffee drinker hopefully rises to another level...that of a connoisseur. Coffee should be "experienced," not drank as a habit. Just as wine has no single flavor compound that gives rise to a wine like taste, there is no integral "coffee flavor." Certain coffees have two to three times more aromatic oils than others, so why do we limit our experiences to just one style of roast or one varietal?
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