The starter pack is not that obvious
I drink a lot of coffee. It may sound stereotypical but it’s quite true. As a programmer I drink ~3 to 6 cups of coffee a day. Black (like my metal) and no sugar. Sometimes with milk, but mostly without. So at some point -after so many cups- it’s common to want to take the next step.
My first step was to buy some nice coffee that’s already ground for you. We are talking about some quality coffee here. This was probably the best first step I could take. And it was not a bad start, although the coffee will lose its aroma quite fast this way because of the oxidation.
So, once we know this the first idea that comes to mind is ‘let’s buy the pack of whole grain coffee and grind it up’, right? And what do we usually end up doing? Just buying a cheap grinder that’s most likely very difficult to clean and even get the coffee out after the grind.
For me, the biggest difference was that the very nice aroma after the grind didn’t make it to the cup. I can say it probably made it worse, but why? The plot thickens!
I also bought a simple frother to make that milk foam we all like in our coffee. And it did it quite decently, though it still didn’t fulfill my expectations. Why the hell can’t I make at home that nice cup of coffee I can easily buy at my favorite coffee place? I’m not talking about the heart shape latte art but the actual flavor is simply not even close, whether it’s with or without milk.
Bottom line is that all these steps are not bad. It’s a learning process and they will help you make a better cup of coffee but it’s just not that simple. The depth behind making a great cup has been a shock to me. It’s impressive how much effort is put into it, a whole world -I admit- I didn’t know it ever existed and I’m just scrapping the surface.
So that being said, let’s start with the most shocking facts I found once I started my investigation on ‘how can I get that perfect cup?’.
The water
This is quite obvious once you give it a thought. The water you use will be of huge impact on the brewed cup, the recommendations go from mineral water to filtered the water. For tap water it will greatly depend on where you live, I’m currently living in Madrid and I don’t worry about it much since water here (soft water) is great overall. But if you live somewhere with hard water, meaning it gets you that white chalky residue everywhere, don’t expect your cup not to have that strong taste in it.
In those cases something must be done. I would invite you to try it out by brewing 2 cups: one with tap water and another with mineral water. No need to be an expert here, the difference should be night and day.
Coffee freshness
When was it roasted? The aroma is quite important, if your ground coffee doesn’t smell great or doesn’t have any aroma at all, it won’t have a great flavor.
It’s recommended to have it roasted ~2 weeks prior. Sadly, this is difficult to find on your local super market. Most likely you’ll end up in a specialty coffee shop if you want some recent and quality roast.
In the end, I tend to follow my nose. If the beans smell great, then it’s good enough for me.
The Grinder
Believe or not, the grinder is the most important piece on the road to make a great cup. It’s the core and it’s more important than the method you use to make your coffee.
When your ground is uneven with bigger and smaller pieces all over, the extracted flavor will also be uneven. Even worse, the water may find a path to go through (depending on how you do coffee) and there may be some coffee that didn’t even touch water during the brewing process.
This creates a few problems:
- Not being able to replicate the same cup, since the grind will always be different.
- There will be over and under extraction at the same time!
If there are bigger and smaller pieces of coffee, the water will extract less flavor from bigger pieces and more flavor from smaller ones. When we extract too much the coffee turns quite bitter and that’s what we call over extraction. When we don’t we are simply wasting coffee ending up with under extraction.
This unevenness in the grind is impossible to avoid when using blade grinders. They just bash and cut the bean so it’s impossible to create a consistent ground.
The recommended way is to use blur grinders. With it it’s possible to manage the size of the grind (which may vary depending on what method of brewing is wanted). But most importantly the grind should be even, making it possible to:
- Replicate the same cup.
- Find the formula to avoid under/over extraction and make that perfect cup.
Even if you have the best of the best machine/method to make your coffee great, a good grinder lies on the base of it. Just by making this change the resulting brew will be enhanced greatly!
I wouldn’t say we are there yet, ready to make that amazing cup at home, but I believe these steps would make a great starter pack.
