How to Make a Decent Cup of Coffee For the One You Love

Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans… (Wikipedia).

Today, I’m gonna take you through the steps of making an ‘ok’ cup of coffee. It all starts with the beans. Today we are using Brewed Awakening’s Blow-Me-Down Blend. It is a medium roast, and is locally roasted on site. You can ask them to grind it for you, and they will kindly oblige, but the key to a good cup is controlling your own grind. To grind my beans I use the object in the top right of the photo. That’s a simple ceramic grinder I ordered off Amazon.ca (relatively cheap) and will grind roughly 2 cups worth of coffee. Per cup, I prefer using a ceramic coffee dripper (Top Centre) with a # 2 bamboo filtre (Bottom Centre). On to the process.

This may be silly, but choose your mug. If this is the first cup of the morning it should send a special message to the one you are brewing it for. In this case, H and I have our own mugs adorned with our initials. It’s a cutesy little thing we do to start our day off right.

Secondly, fill the kettle. I fill it half way because it takes less time to boil. This is a cheap kettle, but a key feature is that you can control your temperature.

The jury is still out on what temperature you should brew your coffee at, but I find anywhere between 90- 95 degrees Celsius to be suitable. You never want to use 100 degrees celsius because it actually burns the coffee.

While the kettle is boiling, fill your grinder, and begin grinding your beans. For a coffee dripper you are going for a fine grind, and this particular grinder has adjustable settings to make it just right.

When your water has reached the desired temperature it is important to warm your mug. A lot of heat can be dispersed into your mug, and when you are brewing the coffee at the temperature we are brewing it at the coffee has a tendency to cool quickly. To prevent this, simply pour hot water into your mug and that way none of the heat from your precious coffee is used to heat the mug.

Run the filtre under the tap to slightly moisten it. It will remove the taste of the filtre from your brew. Try not to over saturate it. The filtre has a tendency to tear, and you are in for a mess.

Mount the coffee dripper on top of your warm mug, and insert the filtre.

Add the coffee grounds. The desired grind may be different, but it should look similar to this.

Begin your pour. Remember to pour slowly.

Circle the grounds and make sure all of them are receiving water. The grounds should be completely saturated.

Bubbles are always a good sign because it means proper chemistry is taking place. You may need to add more water as it filtres into the cup.

And here is the finished product. A totally ‘OK’ cup of coffee.

Best,

K.