When is the last time you had a cup of joe? Did you make it yourself or buy it from a restaurant or cafe? What’s the best cup of coffee you’ve ever had? It’s time to enjoy that fresh taste in the morning again. Consider the following helpful tips regarding your options with coffee.
For a quick and affordable brew of espresso, try using a Moka stovetop coffee pot. Mokas generally produce one or two cups of coffee in the amount of time it takes to boil that amount of water. The coffee is brewed by pressurized steam rising through a funnel of coffee grinds and then rising again into the top chamber where it is ready to be poured into a cup.
After purchasing coffee beans, wait until you’re ready to brew a pot of coffee before you grind them. Coffee immediately begins to lose some of its flavor after being ground. Don’t grind your beans before you brew if you want to drink good coffee.
It is a bad idea to let coffee sit on a hot burner after brewing. Keeping the heat on will cause your coffee to “cook,” and will ruin its freshly-brewed flavor. Instead, unplug your coffee-maker or other appliance, or transfer the coffee to an insulated pot to keep it hot.
Keep your automatic coffee maker clean with white vinegar. Run a brewing cycle with one part water to one part white vinegar. After allowing the carafe to soak in the vinegar for a while, run a cycle with plain water to rinse the machine. Clean your coffee maker once every week or two to remove rancid coffee oils, mold and other contaminants.
If your coffee machine is a bit outdated, this trick will more than make up for it. Before you start to brew coffee, simply brew a whole pot of water. After you have a pot of water at a sufficiently hot temperature, put it back into the coffee machine. This method guarantees that the coffee you serve will be piping hot and taste great.
Cold brew your coffee using grounds, water, a filter, and milk before going to bed. Trying to quickly cool a hot cup of coffee in the morning by putting it in the refrigerator or freezer can lead to a watered-down beverage. The best coffee is one that is created slowly. Therefore, preparing the night before is important.
For the perfect cup of coffee use fresh roasted coffee beans. Buyers of whole coffee beans should find out when the beans were roasted by checking their expiration date. The best place to buy beans is a specialty store, rather than a common grocery store.
Avoid using pre-flavored and packaged coffee beans. These beans are sprayed with extra oils that are very difficult to clean out of grinders and coffee machines. That oil stays in the machines and mixes with later batches causing strange-tasting coffee. They also tend to make the coffee smell better than it tastes.
If you notice that you are buying the same type of coffee, try buying in bulk. This will help to maximize your investment, especially if you stick with a particular brand. Check online to see if you can buy a large bag or bucket of coffee beans, which will help reduce your expenses during the year.
When adding syrup to your coffee, add it to hot coffee before you add anything else. After pouring a cup of hot coffee, add the syrup before adding other items like cream or milk. The heat from the coffee helps the syrup dissolve quicker. This helps boost the overall flavor and smell of your coffee.
After cleaning your coffee grinder, grind a bit of coffee and then dump it. Since it is difficult to completely clean a coffee grinder, you can do this to get rid of any remaining old, stale grinds. Doing this should not be a substitute for a proper cleaning, however.
To get the cleanest taste and the least negative effects from your coffee habit, consider trying organic coffee. Because coffee beans absorb the flavor of virtually everything, they are exposed to, those that are processed with chemicals tend to have a muted or distorted flavor. On the other hand, organic coffee beans offer a very clean and pure brew.
Use a French press for your coffee rather than a standard drip. The reason for this is because a greater amount of the coffee oils will get in your cup rather than in the machine filter. As a result, your cup of coffee will taste a lot better. Give it a try!
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.
Proper measuring of the coffee grounds is necessary to produce the perfect cup of coffee. Measure two-level tablespoons of ground coffee for each cup of coffee you are brewing. A “cup” of coffee contains six ounces of water. If your coffee maker came with a scoop, check to see that it holds two tablespoons before using it.
Coffee can be addictive as many hard drugs. If you are drinking more than five or six cups a day, you may have a problem. It might be hard to quit cold turkey, but try to avoid withdraw symptoms by tapering off gradually. Reduce your daily intake by one cup a day every week until you are down to a reasonable coffee consumption level.
Take the time out of your day to enjoy that refreshing cup of coffee in the morning. It is a pick me up that you don’t want to miss. So many flavors, so many choices, and you are free to explore your options. Next time you’re in the store, make out like a kid at a candy shop.
