Brewing for beginners*

As a barista, nothing is more satisfying than serving a person a good cup of coffee for the first time. Particularly in my last year or so of public coffee service, I saw many great reactions. One customer stands out in particular in my mind. When I served him, he came and got his coffee, and then went to sit at a table on the opposite end of the room from the bar. With no more drinks to prepare, I went about my business cleaning. I kneeled down to clean the fridge and when I stood back up, this gentleman was at the bar staring at me, coffee in hand. Afraid that I must have made some error, I cautiously asked, "Is something wrong, sir?" He looked at his cup, and then looked back at me and said with great surprise, "This... is good."

This same gentleman proceeded to ask me many questions about the coffee, its origin, and why it tasted so different from coffee he had consumed before. I told him about the same things I have been talking about on this blog recently, mostly hitting on the points of freshness and grinding before brewing. Quite enthused about this new world of culinary coffee before him, the customer bought a pound of coffee and left the shop with a little bit of bounce in his step. I thought I had quite possibly made his day.

Fast forward to a few days later, when the gentleman re-entered the store, noticeably less enthusiastic. He sat at the bar this time, which is usually an invitation for conversation. As I brewed his coffee I asked the man how the coffee I had sold him was working out for him. Much to my surprise he said, in an exasperated tone, "Not well. I don't know what you guys do, but I just can't make it taste like you do here."

Whoops.

You see in my fervor of trying to push quality coffee into every home, I made a mis-step. I tried to oversimplify the process of brewing coffee. I told this man that if he switched what coffee he was using in the morning, he too could experience coffee as a culinary experience every morning without giving any consideration to what sort of brewing device he had, how much coffee he was using, or how it was ground.

You see there are a lot of ways to make coffee, and even amongst industry professionals, we don't always agree on what method yields the best cup. Thankfully, a very smart person has summarized a great deal of knowledge from many great minds in the coffee community on how to brew coffee in numerous ways in one convenient location, which spares me the trouble of writing out a guide on exact brewing methods. However, I do feel like there is a little guidance I should give before sending you off and washing my hands of the situation.

-Mr. Coffee is NOT your friend.

And he is not alone. There are tons of automatic drip brewers on the market today that have more bells and whistles than you can imagine, cost hundreds of dollars, and they brew terrible coffee.** Many of these brewers can brew consistently too hot, brew consistently too cold, suffer from inconsistent temperatures, not saturate grounds properly, etc. There are a number of issues that they can have, and at the end of the day it just simply isn't worth the trouble. Putting good coffee in these machines is a waste of money. Simply buy a manual brewer and put your extra cash into a good grinder.

-You NEED a good grinder.

That is right, the flat-blade propellor devices affectionately labeled by some coffee people as "whirly-blade" grinders will not cut it when it comes to brewing quality coffee. There is "science" as to why if you really want to know, but the bottom line is that you need a burr grinder. Quality burr grinders can be had quite cheaply nowadays if you know where to look. You can even save a little more cash if you don't mind doing things the old fashioned way.

-You NEED good water.

The general fact I always hear thrown about is that coffee is 98% water. Whether that is true or not, I'll leave you to discover on your own, but the fact of the matter is that water greatly affects the taste of your coffee. If you haven't been brewing with filtered water, it is about time that you start.

-Avoid the hype.

It seems like every week now some barista somewhere floods their Twitter feed with news of how a certain brew method is totally awesome and how everyone should try it. It then ends up on web communities such as Home-Barista where people dissect it and make graphs and charts detailing its merits and flaws that would be glaringly obvious to anyone with a Master's degree in both Mechanical and Chemical Engineering.***

Please don't think it is necessary to spend a ton of cash on gear to drink good coffee. Even with all of the coffee equipment that I have in my home, 90% of the time I end up drinking a brew from a french press simply because it is easy to use, clean, and the results are very consistent day to day.

In conclusion, I hope that you are now more enlightened on necessary considerations for good coffee. As always, feedback and comments are appreciated!

*If you read the post prior to this one, you might be slightly confused. Upon further thought, "Getting the most out of your coffee" seemed to be quite a broad idea that would take some great considerations, and more importantly, a great deal of text to fully cover. As I've said from the start this blog aims to give simple information for people who want good coffee. Perhaps once these ideas have been exhausted, the scope of the writing may change, but for now, I think this is probably for the best.

**Of course, there are always exceptions, but the simple fact of the matter is they cost several hundreds of dollars, and if you are going to get the most out of them, you still need to wake up and grind the beans you're putting in there. What's another minute of your involvement in the brew process?

***I love everyone at Home-Barista and spend a ton of time frequenting their boards. Thank you for making the graphs and charts that I am not well-educated enough to design on my own.