Seek out and find locally fresh roasted coffee. Grinding and brewing stale coffee doesn't make stale coffee fresh. If you are working with fresh roasted coffee the coffee oils should still be inside the bean for lighter roasts or on the surface of the bean for darker roasts. The beans should also have plenty of co2 gasses, a by product of caramelizing the sugars in the roast process. The goal will be to get the gasses and oils to mix with the water and extract all of the flavor into your cup. If the coffee is stale, the gasses are gone and most likely the oils have evaporated. The only thing that will be left is the cellulose (wood) bean. That stale bean will essentially make a woodsy tea with a hint of coffee flavor.
If you have fresh roasted coffee then you want to grind just before brewing. If you aren't grinding just before brewing and you are using pre-ground, then you are opening up the bean and allowing the gasses to escape (that's the part that smells good when you grind) and the open surfaces will allow the oils to evaporate.
As far as brewing methods. That is a matter of preference and taste. The only thing to remember is to not overbrew or overextract. If you are using a drip brewer try to get one that doesn't have one of those hotplates underneath the carafe. The coffee is already cooked. Once is enough. Continuing to heat it will burn the coffee and allow the evaporation of the gasses and aromas. Get a separate thermos or carafe and pour the coffee into it when done brewing. If you use a french press, after extracting for the 4 or 5 mins, pour the coffee into a separate container (carafe, thermos) in order to prevent overextraction and allowing negative flavors to take over the taste.
Some other thoughts to consider..
1. Use enough coffee. Don't overextract by using too small of an amount of coffee. If its too strong for your taste, try diluting with water after brewing to your taste preference instead of using less coffee
2. A burr grinder is better than a mill (spice mill style or blade) grinder. This will allow you to have a consistent size cut on the coffee and in turn you will get a more even brew extraction. Mill / blade grinders usually give you powder and rocks. The powder gets overextracted and the rocks get underextracted. If i gave you 10lbs of chicken breasts to cook on the grill and you cut some into tiny pieces and some into large chunks and cook all to one one point...you are sure to have burnt and raw chicken. Same goes for the coffee in terms of flavor extraction.
3. Stay far away from flavored (really its scented with chemicals) coffees. If you want a flavored coffee, Add the flavoring after brewing.
4. Raw coffee prices have risen in the last few years and especially in the last year to a 12 year high and the costs are expected to continue to rise to an all time high. In addition, so have the transportation costs of getting the raw coffees from farms to importers, importer/ brokers to roasters, and roasters to market. Now more than ever be careful of coffees that are just branded by a trade mark name and not the name of the country or region. Brand name coffee blends that don't distinguish what is in their coffee have been and will continue to try to cut costs with subpar coffees and smaller packaging. Remember when a pound of coffee was a pound. Now days it's a bag of coffee...maybe 14oz, 12oz, 10oz, etc.
I could go on and on but will stop here. This is not an end all be all post on coffee but a path for better enjoyment. If you are fine with your coffee now then enjoy it as it is. If you seeking better, hopefully this will help. Warning: Once you go this route you will not go back. It's like someone giving you a mcdonalds burger patty your whole life and telling you it's steak and then one day you have filet mignon and are told this is how steak is supposed to be. It will be hard to go back.
If you have fresh roasted coffee then you want to grind just before brewing. If you aren't grinding just before brewing and you are using pre-ground, then you are opening up the bean and allowing the gasses to escape (that's the part that smells good when you grind) and the open surfaces will allow the oils to evaporate.
As far as brewing methods. That is a matter of preference and taste. The only thing to remember is to not overbrew or overextract. If you are using a drip brewer try to get one that doesn't have one of those hotplates underneath the carafe. The coffee is already cooked. Once is enough. Continuing to heat it will burn the coffee and allow the evaporation of the gasses and aromas. Get a separate thermos or carafe and pour the coffee into it when done brewing. If you use a french press, after extracting for the 4 or 5 mins, pour the coffee into a separate container (carafe, thermos) in order to prevent overextraction and allowing negative flavors to take over the taste.
Some other thoughts to consider..
1. Use enough coffee. Don't overextract by using too small of an amount of coffee. If its too strong for your taste, try diluting with water after brewing to your taste preference instead of using less coffee
2. A burr grinder is better than a mill (spice mill style or blade) grinder. This will allow you to have a consistent size cut on the coffee and in turn you will get a more even brew extraction. Mill / blade grinders usually give you powder and rocks. The powder gets overextracted and the rocks get underextracted. If i gave you 10lbs of chicken breasts to cook on the grill and you cut some into tiny pieces and some into large chunks and cook all to one one point...you are sure to have burnt and raw chicken. Same goes for the coffee in terms of flavor extraction.
3. Stay far away from flavored (really its scented with chemicals) coffees. If you want a flavored coffee, Add the flavoring after brewing.
4. Raw coffee prices have risen in the last few years and especially in the last year to a 12 year high and the costs are expected to continue to rise to an all time high. In addition, so have the transportation costs of getting the raw coffees from farms to importers, importer/ brokers to roasters, and roasters to market. Now more than ever be careful of coffees that are just branded by a trade mark name and not the name of the country or region. Brand name coffee blends that don't distinguish what is in their coffee have been and will continue to try to cut costs with subpar coffees and smaller packaging. Remember when a pound of coffee was a pound. Now days it's a bag of coffee...maybe 14oz, 12oz, 10oz, etc.
I could go on and on but will stop here. This is not an end all be all post on coffee but a path for better enjoyment. If you are fine with your coffee now then enjoy it as it is. If you seeking better, hopefully this will help. Warning: Once you go this route you will not go back. It's like someone giving you a mcdonalds burger patty your whole life and telling you it's steak and then one day you have filet mignon and are told this is how steak is supposed to be. It will be hard to go back.
Last edited:
