Which Brewer Is Best?
When you’re into something, is there anything more fun than looking at all the gadgets you can buy for it? It seems to be an integral part of the enthusiast experience. Into bikes? These aero wheels might make you a little faster, and they look so cool… Into computers? You could probably use a RAM upgrade. Into baking? How about a mini mill to mill your own grains into flour? And on and on. Coffee is no different, of course.
So you’ve got ABC brewer. Should you buy XYZ brewer? Will it make your coffee better?
The short answer to “which brewer is best” is simply the one that you are the most comfortable with, which really boils down to the one that you’ve used the most.
There are some differences between brewers of course, but there are really only two things that matter…
Cupping Coffee: How and Why
Cupping is the industry-wide standard for tasting and evaluating coffees. It is the standard because it is the quickest, easiest, and most consistent way to brew lots of coffees to an even, high extraction. It is not necessarily the way to make a coffee taste the best. Read on to find out how to do it and why it is so useful in some circumstances.
Grinders and Extraction
Extraction is the process of water removing the soluble material from the coffee grounds to give you your finished beverage. If you don’t extract enough soluble material, your coffee will be weak, watery, sour, vegetal, and/or underwhelming. This kind of brew is commonly referred to as “underextracted.” If you extract “too much” (this is in parenthesis for a reason - keep reading) soluble material, your coffee will be harsh, bitter, and/or astringent (mouth-drying). This kind of brew is commonly referred to as “overextracted.” If you extract the right amount of soluble material, your brew will be balanced, sweet, smooth, and full of origin character (perhaps fruity, perhaps floral, perhaps savory, etc).
Coffee Processing Methods
What is coffee processing? And why should you care about it? “Processing” is a term that refers to everything that happens to a coffee cherry and bean in between the moment it is picked from the tree and the moment that it is ready for roasting. You should care about it because it has an enormous impact on flavor in the cup, possibly even more of an impact than where the coffee was grown and what variety it is…
Coffee Freshness & Storage
As soon as coffee drops out of the roaster into the cooling tray, the staling process has begun. Coffee has a huge number of volatile, aromatic compounds that simply disappear over time. A huge number of other compounds oxidize, which has a negative impact on flavor. If this was the only factor to consider, then coffee would taste best if we ground and brewed it the second it came out of the roaster.
How Water Affects Your Coffee Brew
Let’s start with some basics. The water that you use to brew your coffee makes a big difference in what the coffee ends up tasting like. There has been some amazing work done by several experts in the field including Jonathan Gagné (Coffee Ad Astra blog), Alex Levitt (A Waste of Coffee blog), Matt Perger (Barista Hustle blog), Scott Rao (blog) and of course, Maxwell Colonna Dashwood & Christopher Hendon (the original Water for Coffee book). We highly recommend reading through as many of these as you can if you want a very thorough understanding of water for coffee.
Espresso 201
It only took us four years, but we’re finally sharing the second part of our espresso-making blog! In our Espresso 101 post, we mentioned that when making modern espresso with lightly roasted coffee, it’s best to have outrageously long shot times (40, 50, 60 seconds or even longer) in order to get shots that are sweet, fruity, and full of character and complexity. Now, we’re focusing on pressure and flow rate to actually make that happen.
Espresso 101
It is perhaps the most difficult and most misunderstood method of turning ground coffee into a delicious liquid. Historically, a single espresso shot was 7 grams of ground coffee producing 25 milliliters of liquid espresso in 25 seconds with very darkly roasted, low quality coffee beans. At best, this would give a rich, chocolatey flavor, but generally just tasted very bitter and smoky. Most espresso drinkers added sugar and/or milk to cut down on the bitterness.
National Coffee Day & New French Press Methodology!
Saturday, September 29 is National Coffee Day and to celebrate we've added brewing guides to the website; that's right, we're dropping some knowledge.
For today, let's start with a brewing method everyone has probably seen or used, the French Press.
