Coffee is undoubtedly one of the world’s best-loved beverages and something that can be the subject of serious debate and disagreement. In order to determine what constitutes your perfect cup of coffee, a bit of knowledge and education is key. Apply the tips and information contained below, and you will have what it takes to become a coffee aficionado.
To make a good coffee, always start with fresh beans. They should look kind of oily, and they should be potent. Try to avoid very dry beans, any grocery store beans, and any beans that have been exposed to air for a long time. Your best bet is to either roast beans yourself or buy them from a local roaster.
Do you have any guests that are drinking your coffee? You can make it interesting by decorating homemade lattes. You just need a little time to start achieving floral and heart designs that will delight guests. Mix milk with melted chocolate, then practice when you make coffee.
If you have a hard time finding fresh, roasted beans in your area, then consider roasting fresh beans yourself. The easiest and most fool-proof method is to place green coffee beans on a baking tray and roast them in the oven. Preheat the oven at the highest temperature and roast the beans until you hear them start to crack.
To keep your coffee beans fresh, put them in the freezer. While many people refrigerate their coffee, doing so allows the beans to absorb odors from foods inside your fridge. A better solution is to freeze the beans. One easy approach is to divide the beans into several smaller packages so you can simply remove a package as needed.
To get the ideal flavor from your coffee beans, the water needs to be just the right temperature. Boiling water is too hot and as a result will sap the more bitter oils from your beans. Alternately, water that is not hot enough will not brew all the flavor from your beans leaving you with a very bland coffee.
Avoid reheating your coffee at all costs. When you reheat your coffee, it tends to lose a lot of its natural flavors. If you do not plan on drinking your coffee right away, but you want to make sure it stays hot, your best bet is to pour it into an insulated mug.
The best way to brew coffee is to brew it strong. If you do not like the taste of strong coffee, add milk or water after it is brewed. You want your coffee to be at its peak of flavor. If it is brewed strong and according to the proper water to coffee ratios, it should be strong and aromatic.
Keep your coffee in the refrigerator. The best coffee is fresh tasting coffee and keeping it cold is a great way to preserve the freshness of it. Simply store the coffee in the container you buy it in and put it in the fridge. This will ensure the freshest coffee.
For a summertime treat, create coffee ice cubes. Fill up a tray with a bit of leftover coffee and freeze them for that special occasion. When you are creating the perfect iced coffee, you now be ready with the perfect ice cube too! These ice cubes won’t water down your coffee which will keep the flavors going for much longer.
The longer your coffee sits in a pot on the warmer, the worse it will taste. Fresh brewed coffee always tastes best. The longer it sits, the more bitter it becomes. This is one of the key reasons why many of the larger coffee makers will throw out coffee if it sits longer than 20 minutes.
Adapt your coffee to water ratio in function of the technique you are using to brew your coffee. A Technivorm or a vacuum pot will require you to use more coffee grounds than a French press or a drip machine. Drip machines are actually the cheapest way to make coffee but you will get a better flavor with other techniques.
If you want to retain the fresh flavor of coffee you just brewed, remove it from the burner in less than ten minutes. If you leave the coffee on the burner longer than that, you risk burning the coffee, which makes it taste bitter. The best way to keep coffee warm for an extended period of time is to place it in a container that traps heat, such as a thermos.
Even if you cannot afford designer coffee beans, you can get a more flavorful brew by choosing coffee beans or freshly ground coffee over packaged ground coffee. Because grinding the beans instantly releases their flavor, you want to brew ground beans as quickly as possible. Coffee that is already ground when you buy it is probably past its flavor prime.
If you want to keep your coffee hot in the pot, warm up the pot beforehand by putting hot water into it. Insulated carafes work best, as you should never let coffee spend time on top of a warming plate. This will just burn it. Prewarming hot water is very convenient to use to rinse out your sink.
Even though avid coffee drinkers prefer fresh brewed coffee, some people use instant coffee granules to make a quick cup rather than a whole pot. The flavor of the instant coffee is different than brewed coffee, and most people think it is inferior. It is quite convenient though, and some consider that convenience worthwhile.
The taste of your coffee is affected by the amount of time it’s brewed. Full-bodied coffee should brew somewhere between four and five minutes. Brewing under and over that time can make the coffee too weak or too strong.
People all over the globe have loved coffee in all of its variations for centuries. However, not everyone possesses a great deal of knowledge about different varieties, brewing techniques and other relevant subjects. By applying the guidance found above, it is possible to develop into a true coffee expert.
