Archive for November, 2001

The Essentials of Brewing Great Coffee, Chapter 5

TimeIdeally our coffee brew cycle will take 4 to 6 minutes. That’s the amount of time required to extract the good flavors from our coffee. Less than 4 minutes and our coffee will be underextracted. More than 6 minutes and - you guessed it - our …

The Essentials of Brewing Great Coffee, Chapter 4

The ProportionNow that we’ve established that our brewing equipment is sparkling clean, and we’re using good, hot water and coffee that’s been freshly roasted and ground, we need to look at the proportion of coffee to water. About 30% of the coffee you use is …

The Essentials of Brewing Great Coffee, Chapter 3

The Coffee How fresh is your coffee? When was it roasted? If you roasted it yourself, you almost certainly know. [If you don’t roast your coffee and think you might like to, be sure to see our coffee roasting series.] If you purchased your whole bean coffee …

The Essentials of Brewing Great Coffee, Chapter 2

The WaterDoes your tap water taste good? Do you drink it every day? Without making faces? Are there any little floaty things in it? Does it smell? It’s quite possible that your tap water passes every quality standard that’s ever been written, and still tastes or smells… …

The Essentials of Brewing Great Coffee, Chapter 1

If you’re like most people [and if you’re reading this there’s the very real chance that you’re not, but bear with me anyway] you may have noticed a pronounced difference between the brewed coffee you can buy at your local specialty coffee house, and the coffee that you brew …