The best way to start your day is with a nutritious breakfast and a cup of good quality coffee. There is nothing like a smell of that freshly brewed coffee that spreads through your home in the morning. Even if you are not a trained barista, it doesn’t mean you cannot prepare that perfect cup of coffee, and in the following text, we are going to tell you everything you need and give you some tips you can use.
There are many ways to prepare coffee, and coffee heads like to think that all of them are popular. All specialty coffee blogs mention at least ten brewing methods; however, in reality, there is only a handful that are popular. Coffee-Brewing-Methods.com has a decent list, with coffee preparation methods that we know to spell, and we can even attempt to brew.
The Most Popular Brewing Methods
The three most popular ways of brewing coffee in the Western hemisphere are pour over, French press and drip. Pour over is a variant of drip coffee, but because brewing is done manually, it qualifies as a distinct technique – you can check it at kujucoffee.com. All three of them are equally popular, and it all comes down to your personal preference and the equipment you have at your home.
We could not miss from our list espresso. Not only because coffee experts consider it the epitome of gourmet coffee, but also because espresso is part of all coffee beverages at Starbucks and all other chains. Latte, cappuccino, flat white, or mocha, are made with one or two shots of espresso. Do you see now why?
There is also Turkish or Arabic coffee, or Greek coffee, which is the choice of brewing of the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Does it seem weird to drink coffee that you didn’t filter? Maybe for you, but for the millions of people who brew it that way, is just natural. They never drink a filtered cup.
Back to our three popular brewing methods, pour-over as we mentioned, is just a fancier way of making drip coffee. Pour-Over is also called hand drip, or manual drip. The methods consist of pouring boiled water over a bed of ground coffee, in a controlled way. Manual drip is very popular because it allows the home barista to control and tweak all aspects of the preparation perfectly: water temperature, brewing flow, grind size. We trade convenience for excellence.
A French press is a brewing method and a coffee maker. The unique thing about the French press is that it uses immersion as a technique. Coffee grounds are immersed in hot water and allowed to steep for 3-5 minutes, and the result is a fuller extraction and a stronger coffee. The French press is a thick, strong coffee compared to pour-over that is a clear and bright cup. To learn more about French Presses head over to Coffee-Channel.com.
Finally, automatic drip, the most convenient method, and the most popular require a coffee machine. The typical drip coffee machine brews 8 to 12 cups at once, and the taste and flavor are decent. If we are to compare it with a manual brewing method, we go back to the personal choice: convenience vs. perfection. No matter how good your coffee machine is, you can do a better job with a manual dripper.
Tips To Improve You Daily Coffee Cup
If you love coffee as I do, you always test new tips and tricks to improve your home-brewed cup of joe. Here’s how to make sure your next coffee cup is close to perfect.
First, using freshly roasted coffee beans is of utmost importance. You should buy your seeds from a local roaster and avoid getting it in the supermarkets. Since supermarket sellers do not handle coffee properly, oxygen and light will reach the seeds and destroy the taste. If you insist on buying it in a supermarket, at least get the one that is packed in sturdy, vacuum-sealed bags.
Okay, you have bought fresh coffee, but now it’s your turn to store it properly. You need to maintain the taste for the next few days, what do you do? The answer is – use the right containers. Airtight glass or ceramic containers with rubber-gasket seals are the best choices. Also, you should never refrigerate coffee or freeze it. Purchase up to 14 days supply of fresh coffee beans and keep them in airtight containers. Do not refrigerate the beans.
When it comes to choosing specific beans, be an adventurer, and try some that is not a commercial brand. There are so many different flavors that are waiting for you to taste them. On almost every bag you can find the country or the region of origin as well as the description of the flavors. Try them all until you find the best one. Your best source is, again, your local roaster.
If you can afford the grinder, you should grind your coffee minutes before brewing. Coffee starts to lose its aroma the minute you grind it. So buying pre-ground is the worst choice.
Water is an important ingredient of your morning drink. Avoid tap water and use bottled kind. Furthermore, you shouldn’t save money on filters. Get the ones that are “oxygen bleached” or “dioxin free”.
If you are a drip coffee lover, you can invest in long-lived gold-plated filters that deliver the best flavor. This will make a stronger cup and will impart a great taste to your final container.
The recipe is many time the most difficult part. You need to follow the recipe, at least the first few times you are making coffee. The amount of coffee you use and the water temperature and the grind size are equally important, and if you don’t follow the recipe, your drink will be bitter, or too strong, or too weak.
Lastly, don’t forget to regularly clean all the equipment you use, because there is nothing worse than the taste of stale coffee leftovers.
If you follow the tips on this page, your coffee will improve dramatically and you’ll be steps away from making a perfect cup at home.
