Every time you visit a coffee shop or visit a friend and have a delicious cup of coffee, do you wonder why it’s rich in flavor and aroma? Do you know how to go about brewing perfect coffee? What about the water temperature for making coffee? Do you use hot or boiled?
Behind every delicious cup of coffee are some secrets. The coffee beans must be of high quality; thus, you must follow the tips for checking if coffee beans are stale. Also, you must know how to roast, grind, and brew coffee to extract as much flavor and aroma. In the next part of this article, we’ll discuss some of the secrets every coffee lover should know. Read on.
1. Grind Right Before Brewing
Brewing your coffee hours after grinding means you’ll never experience coffee’s authentic taste and aroma. After grinding the coffee and brewing it immediately, you get the most flavor and aroma. Once the coffee is ground, its robust flavors and scent starts to diminish. If you boil coffee ten minutes after grinding, it is more likely to be tasteless, similarly, if you grind your coffee a day before brewing it.
2. Good Water Equals Good Coffee
To make a good cup of coffee, you need high-quality coffee beans and a better brewing method. However, this is not sufficient to produce good coffee. Water is also a part of it. Is there a specific water that must be used to create decent coffee?
Most coffee enthusiasts claim that coffee from various regions has distinct flavors and fragrances. Unfortunately, they fail to mention the significance of water in boosting the flavor and aroma of coffee. While most people think purified water is more suitable for making the perfect coffee, studies suggest that hard water containing minerals such as magnesium and calcium effectively extracts flavors from coffee beans while enhancing taste in several ways.
Since coffee is 98% water, it’s a good idea to use non-distilled mineral water. Minerals in water are comparable to salt in food; they enhance the flavor and make you desire more. With good water, coffee beans, and an understanding of roasting, grinding, and brewing, you’ll have a delicious cup of coffee anytime, any day.
3. Coffee Should Be Measured In Weight, Not Scoop
Coffee differs in volume depending on how they’re roasted and ground. Therefore, measuring your coffee in weight rather than in scoops is best. It may seem challenging to measure coffee without a scoop, but in reality, all you need to know is how much coffee you need for a brew, which is information that scoops cannot provide.
But how do you weigh your coffee? A better way to accurately weigh your coffee is using a food scale. One part of coffee is suitable for sixteen parts of water in grams, which equals to 22 grams of coffee for every 350ml of water.
4. Always Pre-Rinse The Paper Filter
A successful coffee brewing procedure doesn’t compromise the coffee’s flavor or aroma in any way. On the other hand, if you aren’t careful, especially when using paper filters, your coffee may taste like chlorine and paper.
If you’re a coffee lover and frequently visit high-end coffee shops, you probably have seen baristas rinsing their paper filters before using them. Have you ever wondered why? Most paper filters are white, and they might have gotten the color from bleaching. If you fail to rinse the paper filters, the bleaching aftertaste might interfere with your coffee’s natural taste. To avoid this, follow what experts do and rinse the paper before using it.
5. The Water Should be 170-195 Degrees Warm, Not Boiled
While coffee is commonly served hot, water shouldn’t be boiling. This is because boiling water will cause over-extraction of flavors, resulting in a bitter brew. Nevertheless, most coffee lovers use boiling water, but until they taste coffee made with hot but not boiled water, they might not understand why boiling water is a no-no when brewing coffee.
Though coffee water shouldn’t be boiling, it shouldn’t be cold. Making coffee with cold water won’t efficiently extract all flavors and aroma from the beans, resulting in bland coffee. In short, consistently brew your coffee with 170-195 degrees warm water for perfect flavors.
6. Don’t Brew Excess Coffee
What’s the meaning of excess? In this case, making excess coffee means brewing more than needed. If you brew three cups of coffee but can only take two, it means you’ll store the extra cup for later consumption. While it might sound convenient, making more coffee than you can take will affect the quality since coffee loses a significant quantity of fragrance and flavor ten minutes after brewing. Since taste and aroma are qualities that coffee enthusiasts look for in a perfect coffee, you do not want to compromise them by brewing too much coffee.
Conclusion
Most coffee lovers can’t survive a day without a cup. But what makes a perfect cup of coffee? Whether you brew your coffee or purchase it from leading coffee shops, there are coffee-related secrets you may not know. Fortunately, the information above will help you understand what makes a perfect coffee, particularly if you brew your own. Consider incorporating these tips while preparing your next cup of coffee; you might wish you had done this sooner.