About

Everyday, millions of coffee-lovers either drink awful commodity coffee at home or plunk down $2 or more for coffeeshop coffee. That’s a lot of wasted time and money – not to mention the bad coffee.

But, anyone can enjoy great coffee at home to save money, and enjoy a subtle, high-quality cup of coffee that you’d find in an independent coffee shop.

This website will show you how. There are 4 steps to making great coffee at home. The Beans – The Grind – The Brew – The Taste

Within each step, I break down exactly how to get that beautiful (and coffee-lovers know that’s an appropriate word) cup of coffee.

In addition, I have a running Blog where you’l learn tips, techniques, and factoids that can drive your appreciation and preparation to new heights of an aficionado.

While you’re learning and developing the art of great coffee, you may want to check out my Essential Guide to Beans . It’s a concise look at coffee beans and everything about them. Enjoyable, enlightening, and engaging. Every coffee-lover will love it.

Techniques to Brew Coffee

There are several ways to brew coffee. The correct method of brewing coffee is the technique that you prefer. The taste and quality of coffee is determined by the brewing process, the type of coffee selected, and the quality of your water. The options can range from cold brew coffee to using a grind brew coffee maker.

Depending on how you choose to brew coffee, there are still a few guidelines you should consider to get the best cup of coffee. Try different brewing techniques with different qualities and blends of coffee to fine-tune a brewing routine that is the best way to brew coffee for you. Few people can resist the aroma of fresh roasted coffee beans and the smell of fresh roast coffee.

Coffee Tips

Get it right from the outset – start with excellent beans.

The beans make up the essence of your drink. Get sucky beans and you’ll get sucky coffee. I do not like buying beans from the supermarket because there is no telling how long they have been there.

Experts say that beans that are roasted 2 to 10 days before brewing are the best. I have to be practical, though. I cannot go get beans every 10 days so I have to make do with several weeks’ worth of whole beans.

Next up – get a grinder. I know, it is a pain in the butt. Who the heck wants to measure out whole coffee beans into the grinder, press the button, and then transfer the grounds into the coffee machine – all within 5 minutes of waking up? But hey, you can really taste the difference.

Find out the grounds-water proportion that suits you best. I have to be honest and say that I do not know the exact measurements that I use but it should be roundabouts 2 or 3 tablespoons of grounds for every cup.

Purchase only fresh coffee in small amounts, and only the amount you can use in 1-2 weeks. Freshly roasted coffee is the key ingredient to a great cup of coffee, so coffee should be purchased closest to the time it has been roasted and will be brewed.

Don’t skimp, use a proper amount of coffee for brewing. Depending on the coffee, a good measure is 1 to 2 tablespoons for each six ounces of fresh water. Make adjustments to suit individual tastes.

Water is obviously and important part of brewing quality coffee. Always try to use filtered or bottled water. If you do use tap water, let it sit overnight refrigerated. Cold water brews a better cup of coffee.

Do not reheat coffee. Fresh coffee does not last long, and should be enjoyed when it is first brewed. Brewing perfect coffee is an art, and it should be enjoyed immediately!

Six Methods of Brewing Coffee

1. Middle Eastern Style Coffee – “Turkish” or “Greek” brewing involves boiling coffee in water. Coffee beans that are ground into a very fine dust. The traditional coffee is often brewed with large amounts of sugar and often spices like cardamom.  This coffee is not filtered from the liquor and is a thick brew.
2. Concentrate Brewing – Concentrate brewing, is popular in Latin America. Concentrate brewing involves large amounts of coffee with very little water to brew a concentrate, The concentrate is then mixed with some hot water. Concentrate can either be brewed hot or cold, and produces a light-bodied coffee. Some people refer to this as fast brew coffee or no brew coffee.
3. Percolating – Percolating involves the continuous brewing of coffee grounds with hot water at high temperatures. This method of brewing is discredited by many coffee aficionados, as the coffee beans are continuously being over extracted. Many people find percolated coffee to be bitter and tasteless.
4. Vacuum Coffee Brewing – Vacuum brewed coffee uses a device that consists of two glass globes. The globes are then vacuum fitted together, and the lower globe with the water is heated. The water in the lower globe begins to heat and forces the water into the upper globe containing the grounds. Once cooled back down, the decreasing pressure in the lower globe siphons the brewed coffee back down into the lower globe.
5. Autodrip –  Auto drip, or drip coffee, is the most popular way to brew coffee in North America. Drip brewing is simply pouring hot water over grounds in a filter and letting the brew drip out the bottom. Drip brewing is a good way to brew that results in an excellent cup of coffee, if you use a decent drip brew coffee machine.
6. French Press/Press Coffee – In this brewing method, when brewing is complete, a plunger is pressed down on the grounds. This allows for a more complete and controllable extraction of the coffee. This coffee is noticeably full-bodied with more flavor. It sometimes also will have a tell-tale sediment at the bottom of the cup.

Coffee continues to be a popular beverage around the world, and many people are enjoying new custom roasted coffee, gourmet coffee roasting, along with more traditional dark roasted coffee.

If you have any questions or comments – just type one out in the comment box on any page.