6 Tips for Brewing Better Coffee
April 26, 2012
•Le Cordon Bleu
•Sacramento
• 0 Comments
6 Tips for Brewing Better Coffee
Many people love coffee, but don’t understand why the coffee at many coffee shops tastes better than the coffee they brew at home. Are coffee companies and cooking classes doing something mysterious and unknowable to us simple, common-folk or can we learn how to make world-class coffee right at home?
The reality is that some of the coffee houses we go to are often using special blends and flavorings, but that is only a part of the puzzle. The missing part consists of a few simple steps that anyone can perform. Check out these six tips for brewing not only better coffee, but coffee that will rival even that biggest coffee house!
- Clean pot – Perhaps the simplest, yet most overlooked part of ensuring that your coffee is tasty and delicious every time is a clean pot. It may sound silly to even mention this, but it really is true that a good cup of Joe starts with a clean pot. If the pot contains any residue from previous batches, the thin layer remaining in the bottom of the pot before making this fresh pot will scorch slightly and this will negatively impact your coffee. The number one rule when making coffee is: Fresh is best. Remember that. In fact, this goes for nearly everything in the kitchen. Every culinary school in California teaches students to use not only the right tools, but clean ones.!
- Filter – Speaking of fresh, the filter should always be new. It sounds gross, but some people actually like to leave the old grounds in the filter and just put new atop this and brew. The idea is that they can somehow squeeze extra coffee from the used grounds, but all that actually happens is the second pot tastes somehow stale. It is.
- Grounds – The grounds for good coffee are good grounds. The better and fresher the grounds, the better and fresher the coffee these produce. This is why the big coffee houses buy beans and keep them in airtight containers. Then, when ready to make a pot, these are freshly ground on the spot. Of course, if you do not want to purchase a grinder, you can still have beans ground for you in most grocery stores and of course, keep them in an airtight container for maximum freshness. In addition, there are numerous varieties of coffee bean from which to choose. Don’t be afraid to ask your local coffee house what blend they use. Most often, they will tell you because they know you still will not likely make coffee as good as theirs (of course, they do not know you are reading this).
- Water – “Soft” versus “hard” – Hard water contains minerals that will affect the flavor of your coffee. In fact, it’s not only the flavor of your coffee that is impacted by this. Depending on the minerals, the coffee can come out tasting sometimes pretty good and at other times terrible. The idea here is that if you are uncertain about the water you are using or you know the water in your home is hard, purchase water from your local grocer or get a hard-water filter. Experiment with different waters until you find one that tastes just right to you.
- Chicory – This is something many people are just beginning to discover. Chicory is an herb that was first used during the Civil War by troops from Louisiana to extend their coffee rations. A strong stimulant, chicory in the right quantities add a distinctive flavor that is often found in some of the more popular coffee blends. Herb and history of food an important part of understanding it. Students in cooking classes learn about the origins of food; which helps them become stronger at what they do.
- Measure – Perhaps the most overlooked element to making great coffee is the measure used for the pot. Most people just put the water in the pot and guesstimate by putting this much or that into the filter. This is wrong. Find out exactly how much grounds you require per X amount of water and stick to that. Then, and only then, will you find yourself brewing the perfect cup of coffee every time.
Try these simple tricks for brewing the perfect cup of coffee. If you love learning about different things like this, perhaps taking a class at a culinary school in California would be a good decision. Just a little something to ponder while you are sipping on that perfect cup of Joe!
This article is presented by Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Sacramento. Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Sacramento offers culinary arts and pâtisserie and baking training programs in Sacramento, California. To learn more about the class offerings, please visit Chefs.edu/Sacramento for more information.
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