"Boy we sure had a great time, even though the coffee stunk."
"I enjoy a boring cup of coffee every morning. I really like it when my days start in such an unmemorable way."
Said no one ever.
A great cup of coffee can enhance every great moment of life or every normal day. It can help create perfect moments instead of unmemorable ones.
Here are four of the most essential tips I could think of to get the most out of your daily coffee experience. If you implement these four things, you're coffee at home is going to improve tremendously!
1. Grind Your Beans Right Before You Use Them.
If you're planning to eat an apple, you don't cut it up a few weeks before because it will go bad. Coffee is the same way!
Grinding your coffee beans ahead of time or buying pre-ground coffee dramatically reduces the flavor and life of your coffee.
Coffee beans release carbon dioxide after they are roasted and once the beans are ground, it expedites the release of those gases, causing the coffee to get stale faster - much like bread.
For the best results on your favorite coffee, we suggest that you grind your coffee right before you brew!
(We recommend the Baratza Encore.)
2. Before Grinding, Weigh Your Beans Instead of Using a Scoop.
Having trouble with consistency?
You make one pot of coffee that's great and the next bag of coffee is too weak or too strong?
Chances are, if you're using a scoop to measure out your coffee beans, you may not actually be putting the same amount of coffee in your brewer every time. Bean sizes vary between roast levels and countries of origin.
A good way to remedy that is to measure out your coffee beans with a simple kitchen scale before you grind them.
Start with your normal amount of scoops and measure how many grams that weighs. If you like the way it tastes, that's great! If you don't, add or subtract a few grams the next day.
Once you get it where you like it, make a note of how much it weighed so you can measure out that much every time. You'll always be ensured of a good brew!
If you want to take it up another notch, measure the water you use as well.
I recommend a ratio of 1 gram of coffee per 16 grams of water. Example: for 25 grams of coffee, I use 400 grams of water.
3. Water Matters.
Your coffee is 98% water, so it just makes sense that the water you use to brew coffee matters. What if there was a way that, just by changing the water you use, you could make better coffee?
There are chemicals and metals in our tap water and believe it or not, that stuff really affects the taste of your coffee.
With that in mind, we recommend using filtered water for all of your brewing. If you're using tap water now, changing to filtered water can very quickly provide a significant upgrade in the taste of your coffee.
(Note: do NOT use distilled water. There are no minerals in distilled water and your coffee will taste flat.)
(Another note: If you want REALLY great tasting coffee, check out Third Wave Water.)
4. Buy Great Coffee.
Simply put! If you put good in, you get good out.
If you're grilling a steak, you don't go buy a cheap cut and expect a five star experience, do you?
Don't skimp on your coffee, either. Buy great coffee. (Shop here.)
You have tons of important things to do today, and that's why it's so important to get your coffee right. Great coffee can make mundane moments special, but mundane coffee can also make great moments unmemorable.