A Few Brewing Tips: Grinding and Brewing the Perfect Cup!

A person's entire future might rest upon the art of brewing a good cup of coffee. You know the ones; they are the people in those commercials who live with or work for Mister Hypercritical Coffee Critic. Are you looking to brew that perfect cup? Does your marriage or career depend upon pleasing someone important with your brewing ability? Before we get our pink slip or a divorce notice, let's take a good look at the how to's of coffee excellence. After all, nobody should have to settle for lousy coffee.

Consider coffee brewing as a scoring process. Start with 100 points. For each oversight, you lose a few points. A score in the middle 90's or higher is an 'A' in anybody's grade book.

Start with good quality, FRESH coffee. Buy it from a source you trust. There are many things that can be made with cheap components, but a great cup of coffee is not one of them. The crud found in most supermarkets is institutionalized mediocrity. If the coffee is stale or of low quality, you lose major points. If you serve a cup of instant coffee, you should go directly to jail!

Grind the coffee appropriately. If you are using an automatic drip machine, grind your coffee to medium coarseness. If you grind it fine to get more extraction, you can end up with muddy, bitter coffee and lose points again. One more word about grinding: don't grind it at the store. Grind the beans as you need them with your own grinder, preferably one with burr wheels instead of a blade. Blade grinders are actually choppers. Some coffee gets pulverized and some doesn't. The powdered coffee can impart a bitter taste, while some of the larger grounds will be too coarse to brew evenly.

Since brewed coffee is 98 percent water, use good water. Get bottled water or install a simple water filter. It can really make a big difference if you live in the land of foaming tap water. Another consideration is your brewing equipment. Clean the machine if it's dirty. The black, oily stuff around the spray head or in the brew cone can introduce some nasty flavors into the brew. Attention to coffee detail pays huge dividends.

Coffee should be brewed between 190 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit. If the brewing temperature is too low, the coffee will taste thin. Many of the essential coffee flavor compounds will not be extracted. Never boil coffee. Avoid aluminum coffee makers.

As for a filter, some coffee connoisseurs won't even use paper filters. For less than $15 you can get a gold plated metal filter that will last for years. With gold filters more of the essential coffee oils and fine sediment end up in the cup, adding a richness not found with paper filters.

Finally, a word about strength. Coffee strength depends on how much coffee goes into the brew cone. Remember this: if you make it too strong, you can always add water. If you make it too weak, you're stuck. Although some coffees taste stronger than others, even the mildest coffee will taste strong if you dump enough of it into the brew cone. Try about 2 tablespoons of coffee for each 6 ounce cup.

Storage & Handling: Keeping Your Coffee Fresh