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How
to Brew the Best Cup of
Coffee
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The
best temperature for drip coffee:
According to chemical studies, the
optimal water temperature for drip coffee
is 95-98 degrees. Cold water doesn't
extract enough caffeine or essential oils
from the beans, and above such temperature
the acidity increases wildly.
Quality of coffee:
The quality of a brew depend on the
following factors (in no particular
order):
- Time
since grinding the beans.
- Time
since roasting.
- Cleanliness
with brewing equipment.
- Bean
quality (what crop etc).
- Water
quality.
Many
times "inferior beans" are due to
adultered beans, either with the skin of
the coffee bean or with peanut derivatives
or old grounds and roast.
Why you should never use
percolators:
Percolators violate most of the
natural laws about brewing coffee.
- Don't
over-extract the oils and flavor.
Percolators work by taking coffee and
re-heating it and throwing it over the
grounds over and over and over
again.
- Never
reheat or boil coffee. This destroys
the flavor. For best flavor, boil the
water, pass it over the grounds and
retain the heat. Don't reheat
it.
Violating
these rules may not sound like much, but
these are about the only rules there are.
The effect of a percolator is to keep
passing boiling water/coffee over the
grounds until there no flavor left and the
flavor in the coffee is so dead that it's
a worthless waste.
Proper care of coffee makers:
It is very important that you wash
your coffee maker pot and filter container
thoroughly at least once a week. Bitter
oils stick to the glass container and
plastic filter holder.
I used to wash the plastic filter
container and rinse the glass pot. Coffee
started to taste bad. When I was told to
wash both thoroughly with plenty of soap
the flavor improved instantly.
Note:
To the naked eye rinsed and soap washed
pots look the same (clean that is).
Some drip coffee makers require periodic
cleansing with a solution of water and
vinegar.
If you have a coffee/teapot, the inside of
which is stained with oily brown residues
- also plastic/metal coffee filters, tea
strainers, and stainless steel sinks in
caffeine-o-phile houses - they can be
restored to a shining, brand-spanking-new
state by washing in hot detergent.
Get a large plastic jug, add 2 - 3 heaped
tablespoons of laubdry detergent, and
about a pint of hot water - just off the
boil is the best.
Swill the jug around until the detergent
is dissolved, and then pour into
tea/coffeepot, and let it stand for 5
minutes, swilling the pot around
occasionally, just to keep the detergent
moving. Put the lid on and shake it a few
times (care: slippery + hot)
Repeat as necessary. Keep it hot with a
little boiling water if needed. If you
have a cafeteriere, dissemble it, and soak
the parts in the mixture for a few
minutes, agitating occasionally.
In both cases, the residue just falls off
with almost no scrubbing. It does great
things with over-used filter machine
filters, too.
Important: Rinse off all detergent
afterwards, use lots of fresh water.
How to store coffee?
One should always store coffee beans
in a glass, airtight container. Air is
coffee's principle enemy. Glass is best
because it doesn't retain the odors of the
beans or the oils, which could contaminate
future beans stored in the same
container.
For consumption within:
1 week - room temperature is fine
2 weeks to a month - refrigerate or freeze
them
This prevents the chemical reactions that
produce stale beans and lifeless
coffee.
Coffee and Other Beverages:
Espresso
Get
good dark roasted espresso beans, imported
Italian brand if you can find it.
Pack your strainer real full. Pack it
hard. Your instructions will say NOT to
pack it, but don't listen.
Don't use too much water. Espresso in
Italy is as thick as syrup. Very thick!
Add two spoons of sugar, it's a sweet,
thick liquid in Italy.
Drink fast. Enjoy.
If using a stove top espresso machine,
clean after each use, paying attention to
the seal and strainer.
- For
best results, get Arabica beans that
have been roasted dark ("Italian Roast"
is darkest) and are oily-looking. Other
roasts are for other types of brewing:
espresso machines won't draw the earthy
flavor of Sumatran out, for example. A
small amount of other beans might add a
nice note to the flavor, though (I've
had surprising success adding a few of
Thanksgiving Coffee's "High-Caffeine
Pony Express" beans, which are actually
Robusta beans from
Thailand).
- Grind
those beans until they're very fine,
but not quite a powder. Put them into
the appropriate piece of your machine
and tamp it down (but don't pack all
the grounds in tight).
- Watch
the espresso as it drips down. Does a
nice layer of foam form on the top? If
it does, all is well; that foam is made
from the flavorful oils, and it is
called crema. If not, go to the coffee
roaster and demand quadruple your money
back.
- Never
make more than 2oz at a time. If you're
making two cups of espresso, make two
separate shots. This is important. The
idea is that the water rushes through
and draws out only the most flavorful
part of the grounds. More than 2oz and
you're drawing out less flavorful stuff
and diluting your espresso. If you're
really hardcore, make only 1oz at a
time; this is called caffe
ristretto.
Cappuccino
Disclaimer:
People prepare cappuccino in many
different ways, and in their very own way
each one of them is correct. The following
recipe, which is commonly used in Latin
countries, has been tasted by several of
my North-American friends and they
unanimously agreed that cappuccino
prepared using this recipe tastes much
better than the standard fare in
USA/Canada.
- Start
with cold milk (it doesn't really need
to be ice-cold), use whole milk or 2%.
Skim is just not thick
enough.
- Place
the milk on a special cappuccino glass
with a cappuccino basket. (Cappuccino
glasses have a thinner
bottom).
- Aerate
the milk near the top, within 1 in. of
the top. Move the glass down as the
milk aerates. It is a good idea to have
an oscillating motion while aerating
the milk.
- Stop
when the milk starts boiling or have it
boil, let it cool down for a second or
so (literally), and aerate again (it is
harder to get a nice froth after the
milk has boiled).
- Aerating
the milk in another container, then
pouring in a glass and adding the foam
with a spoon is sacrilege.
- If
you need to aerate the milk on a
separate container, aerate exactly the
amount of milk required for one cup, so
no need to add foam with a
spoon.
- Once
the milk has been aerated, promptly
clean the aerator with a wet rag.
Failure to do so will quickly result in
rotten milk flavor coming from the
aerator.
Another
warning on similar lines applies to
restaurant type coffee machines: leave the
aerator valve open when powering the
machine up and down. When the machine is
off a partial vacuum is formed in the
boiler that will suck milk residue into
the boiler. This then coats the inside of
the boiler and can cause bad smelling
steam until the boiler is flushed. Some
machines have a vacuum bleed valve to
prevent this problem but many don't. Wait
for the steam pressure to build up again
(for some cappuccino makers wait time is
near zero, for others it maybe as long as
60 seconds are).
Prepare the espresso coffee, you may add
it directly on to the glass if possible or
use a cup and then pour it from the cup on
the milk.
The milk should be added TO the espresso,
not the other way around, that way the
milk is floating; on top, where you then
add the sugar, and stir it up.
Cappuccino tastes better when is really
hot, and has two coffee teaspoons of
sugar.
Source: Unknown
Related Articles:
Gifts
for Coffee
Lovers
by Kim Tilley
Related Recipes:
Coffee
Recipes
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