Tips to help you brew better coffee at home
Making the perfect cup of coffee may sound like an easy task, or something that depends on individual taste.
However, there are some not very well-known tricks, courtesy of Reader’s Digest that can actually help you brew a better cup than ever before.
1. Freeze your beans
A new study conducted by the University of Bath in the United Kingdom revealed that temperature had quite an effect on coffee beans — the colder the temperature, the more uniform particles each individual bean produced, which means tastier coffee, according to the New York Times.
2. Weigh before brewing
According to a list by Reader’s Digest, the Specialty Coffee Association of America measures the proper amount of coffee for brewing to be 55 grams of beans for every liter of water. One of the most important aspects of achieving the right taste is the coffee-to-water ratio.
Read also: Cold brew coffee not that different from hot coffee: Study
3. Mind your water
Does your water taste like the bottle it came in, or rather bland? Depending on the quality of the water that you use, your coffee may taste either strange, wrong, or just plain bland. However, Mental Floss recommends not using distilled water, despite its purity. Without minerals in your water, it won’t be able to hold the flavor very well.
4. Wait to grind
The act of buying ready-ground coffee may sound like you are doing yourself a favor and saving time, however, it does lose its flavor over time as a result of air exposure. When it is brewed, it has less and less taste as time passes. The same can be said for beans that are not stored in an airtight container. Having the right kind of grinder can also ensure a fine grind or a coarse grind, depending on your tastes. Reader’s Digest suggests a Burr grinder, but any grinder with a high-quality blade will do.
5. Get a drip
Automatic coffee machines take the effort out of brewing your own coffee, but the manual brewing process allows you to really customize your coffee. By changing up little aspects of the process, you can achieve different flavors and different strengths of caffeine. Automatic brewers tend to soak coffee grounds with several small streams of water, which interrupts the extraction process. The advantage of a pour-over method is that it reduces temperature loss — hotter water also makes for a faster brew.
All in all, taking extra care with how you brew your fuel for the day could lead to a better-tasting cup. (acr/kes)
Originally published at www.thejakartapost.com on December 9, 2018.
