Coffee Information and Tips

If you only read one page in this coffee section, I hope it’s this one. The coffee information and tips I give you on this page will not necessarily make you a coffee snob, but it will significantly improve the taste of your coffee if you did not know this information already.

If this is new to you, try some of these suggestions. My guess is, once you’ve had a truly magnificent cup of coffee, you’ll want to know more. So here is your cheat sheet or quick course in coffee 101.

Freshness is Key

It’s sad really, the amount of stale, bitter coffee sitting on retailer’s shelves. Most people just don’t realize the difference in the taste of fresh roasted coffee.

It is important to note that the freshness of coffee has to do with when it was roasted not when it was harvested.

After roasted coffee has been exposed to air, the flavor will begin to deteriorate extremely fast. In fact, a huge portion of the flavor is lost in just 7 to 10 days!

Vacuum and nitrogen injection packaging will slow down the deterioration process, but it will still become stale and even rancid after a fairly short period of time.

In most retail stores and gift shops it is almost impossible to buy fresh coffee. They just don’t do enough volume to keep the fresh inventory flowing.

Freshness Tip #1

Buy directly from the roaster’s website. Many places will roast the beans and ship directly to you within 1 or 2 days after roasting. This is fresh, gourmet coffee! I've searched the internet for you and found a great place to buy coffee.

Roasted coffee beans get their best flavor and aromatic properties from the oils in the beans. After roasting, these oils will come to the surface and evaporate taking the flavor and aroma with it. The less surface area exposed to air, the longer it takes for the flavor to deteriorate.

Freshness Tip #2
Buy whole bean coffee and only grind as much coffee as you plan on using that day.

Heat, light, humidity, and oxygen are accelerants to deterioration of flavor and aroma by damaging these delicate coffee oils.

Freshness Tip #3
Store your coffee in a cool, dark, air tight container or better yet, one of those vacuum containers by VacuVin. (These are nice because you can buy extra stoppers and use the pump to store opened wine bottles as well).

Don’t store in the refrigerator because it will absorb odors which will affect the taste. If you don’t plan on drinking your coffee within a couple of weeks, you could try storing in the freezer, but condensation will affect the beans once they warm so don’t take them in and out very often. Although I have not fully tested for myself, some believe the extreme temperatures of a freezer will damage the oils and produce less crema. My advice, drink what you buy and you wont have to worry about extended storage.

Grinding Information

The grind of the coffee is very important to the taste and aroma of the brewed drink.

First of all, the coarseness of the grind will determine how fast the water passes through during brewing. The finer the grind, the more time it takes the water to be forced through the grounds. Think of water flowing through a layer of sand as opposed to rocks.

This brew cycle time makes can make drastic differences in the taste of your coffee. It’s just like cooking and the brew cycle is the baking. You wouldn’t under or over cook a cake and expect it to taste the same.

Grinding Tip #1
Use a medium grind (similar to the consistency of granulated sugar) for drip brewed coffee and time the entire brew cycle. If it takes longer than 6 minutes, the coffee will become over-extracted and release bitter tastes. Adjust the grind to be more coarse to speed up the brew cycle. If it takes less than 4 minutes, adjust the grind to be more fine.

A good coffee grinder will grind the beans very consistently and efficiently. You want consistency for even extraction. You want the grinder to be efficient so that very little heat is generated which will alter the taste of the coffee.

Grinding Tip #2
If you are shopping for a grinder, buy one that uses conical, or flat grinding burrs. The blade type grinders are extremely inconsistent and generate so much heat that they literally burn the beans.

Since coffee goes stale, if you do not regularly use your grinder, keep it clean.

Grinding Tip #3
Grind a little bit of fresh coffee and then discard. This will hopefully get any old, stale coffee you could not reach after cleaning.

Brewing Information

Brewed coffee is almost completely made up of water, so it goes without saying to use good tasting or filtered water. But don’t use a filter that softens the water, very soft water does not extract the oils properly.

Brewing Tip #1
Never pour hot water in a drip brewer, always use cold, preferably charcoal filtered water. Many coffee makers have built-in filters.

Coffee in its pot, sitting on the burner, will scald the coffee really quickly. In fact, the taste changes so much that most reputable coffee houses will pour the coffee out after it has been on the burner for only 20 minutes!

Brewing Tip #2
If you are the type who takes a while to drink your coffee in the morning, get a coffee maker that will brew into a thermal pot or carafe. Since constant heat is not applied, the coffee will not cook and will taste good for an hour or more.

A given amount of coffee only contains so much of the flavorful and aromatic oils. After those oils have all been extracted, the water will extract acids and other bitter tasting elements. This is called over-extraction.

Brewing Tip #3
If you think that black coffee tastes bitter, or you just like weaker coffee. Make the coffee full strength (2 level tablespoons per 6 ounces of water or 2.5 - 3 level tablespoons per 8 ounces) and mix hot water into the strong coffee. The result will be a smoother coffee without the bitterness. Try it, you may not need cream and sugar anymore!

Drip coffee machines brew the coffee to the proper strength a little at a time because they rarely get up to the proper temperature quickly enough. Therefore the coffee at the beginning of the cycle is weak and it gets more full flavored toward the end.

Brewing Tip #4
Wait until the full pot has brewed before pouring your cup. In other words, avoid the Pause and Serve feature on your machine. Some machines have a 1-4 cups button for when you only want to brew a few cups instead of a whole pot. This will cause the machine to wait until the water is the correct temperature before starting the brew cycle.

The water jets on your coffee machine can blast holes in the grounds, causing the water to follow the path of least resistance. This will over-extract the grounds surrounding the holes and under-extract the rest of the coffee. For best results, the water should flow evenly through all of the grounds.

Brewing Tip #5
If you’re shopping for a coffee machine, buy one that uses a cone shaped filter. This helps with this problem.

Flavoring Information

If you like flavored coffee, avoid the pre-flavored and packaged beans. These beans are sprayed with oils that are almost impossible to completely clean from your grinder and coffee machine. After several different flavors have mixed in your equipment, your coffee will have some weird tastes to it. Besides, although the sprays that they use smell good, they are not good at flavoring.

Flavoring Tip #1
Buy coffee syrups. They are made from high quality ingredients. They are easy to use. They taste and smell great. They are consistent and you can control the amount of flavoring and sweetness. Last, but not least, they won’t cause all of your coffee equipment to be tainted with an assortment of flavors.

You can also use the powdered, flavored creamers to skip the extra step of adding syrups and then milk.

Flavoring Tip #2
If you do use syrups, add the syrup directly to the hot coffee and stir, before adding milk. The hot coffee will help the syrup dissolve and will amplify the taste and aroma of the syrup.

Misc. Tips