Talking to a colleague the other day, I realized that I have been taking making my own coffee for granted. I have always thought that it was a simple, brainless thing. I guess it’s because I have been brewing my own joe for the longest time. This friend of mine, however, has only recently started to get her act together in making her coffee. Her reason? Going to Starbucks on a regular basis is just too expensive. I think that this is a trend – gone are the days when a Starbucks a day was affordable.
So anyway, I thought I’d share the same things I told my friend about brewing your own pot of coffee. Here are some of the most important points.
Get it right from the outset – start with excellent beans.
The beans make up the essence of your drink. Get sucky beans and you’ll get sucky coffee. I do not like buying beans from the supermarket because there is no telling how long they have been there. Experts say that beans that are roasted 2 to 10 days before brewing are the best. I have to be practical, though. I cannot go get beans every 10 days so I have to make do with several weeks’ worth of whole beans.
Next up – get a grinder.
I know, it is a pain in the butt. Who the heck wants to measure out whole coffee beans into the grinder, press the button, and then transfer the grounds into the coffee machine – all within 5 minutes of waking up? But hey, you can really taste the difference.
Last, find out the grounds-water proportion that suits you best.
I have to be honest and say that I do not know the exact measurements that I use but it should be roundabouts 2 or 3 tablespoons of grounds for every cup.
That’s it – that’s all I do for my daily cup of joe made from the basic drip coffee machine.
Originally posted on January 18, 2009 @ 12:50 pm