Making a perfect cup of coffee is a real art. This demands a right balance of ingredients to an exact measure, and attention to detail.
Master the basic elements, and surely any amateur or serious coffee enthusiast will be jealous of your elevated coffee experience. This article is for all coffee lovers. From brewing to instant one, learn how to make coffee.
Coffee is indeed a reliever for many of us. All we need to do is collect some required ingredients to make a cup of it. So, take a look and gather the ingredients:
Fresh Coffee Beans: A major base for a good cup of coffee is its quality. Choose freshly roasted beans for brewing coffee. Opt for coffee powder if instant coffee is what you planned for.
Water: Water quality is crucial as it makes up the majority of the coffee. Use filtered water to avoid impurities as it elevates the taste.
Milk: If the plan is to make milk coffee, use some milk. As for black coffee, there is no need to include milk.
Coffee Sweetener: Sweetener brings the sweet flavor to coffee. Use sweeteners like sugar or honey.
Tools Needed
Grinder
Coffee Maker
Scale
Kettle
Timer
How To Make Coffee
A cup can be prepared mainly in two ways: brewing it or instant one. Brewing coffee takes slightly longer. As coffee beans have to go through the grinder. Each method has its own significance. So. Let's get into each method one by one.
Brew Coffee
Here, we’ll learn how to brew coffee:
1. Choose Coffee Beans
Getting a pack of fresh roasted coffee beans is like a dream for a coffeeholic. As the taste of coffee depends solely on beans, one has to pick a good quality. Here’s how to choose coffee beans:
Look for beans with uniform size and shape. An uneven structure may indicate beans with lower quality.
All coffee beans come in three distinct roastings (light, medium, and dark roasted). And the color is consistent in all so avoid any beans with uneven color.
Fresh beans give a strong coffee aroma. Beans with less coffee smell might be stale ones.
Only buy beans with recently roasted dates. This shows a fresh one with good quality.
In case of any cracks or breaks leave the beans right away and move to other stores.
Before moving to grind the beans, which size to grind is an important thing to consider. So, have a look at the sizes and prepare accordingly.
Coffee Grind Size
The grind size of coffee beans should match the brewing method to ensure proper extraction:
Coarse: Ideal for French press.
Medium-Coarse: Suitable for Chemex.
Medium: Perfect for drip coffee makers.
Fine: Best for AeroPress.
Extra Fine: Necessary for espresso machines.
Now proceeding to the grinding. Here’s a thing for grinding coffee beans and that is its consistent grind size.
An ideal grinder would be a burr grinder but use one that is accessible. It grinds the beans in a consistent size. And that is what we need for getting most flavors from beans. So, measure the amount of coffee beans before grinding. As it is important for consistency.
Feel free to modify the amount of coffee based on personal preference. As for 6 ounces of water, typically demands around 1 to 2 tablespoons.
It is a fact that water used has a big influence on the taste of the coffee. The water should be filtered enough to avoid additional taste coming out of tap water. Water impurities will surely change the taste of the coffee; thus, make sure the beginning water is clean and pure.
Water temperature is the ultimate decider for the coffee. Heat the water to between 195°F and 205°F, from 90°C to 96°C. If the water becomes too hot, over-extraction will occur and make the coffee bitter; water too cool will under-extract the coffee and make the cup weak and sour.
4. Choose a Brewing Method and Brew
French Press Method
Measurements of Coffee: Take a 1:15 ratio: coffee to water. For example: for 450 grams of water, you will be using 30 grams of coffee.
Grind coffee: Use a coarse grind.
Boil Water: Boil water to 200°F (93°C).
Bloom: Run a little water over the grounds; allow blooming for 30 seconds.
Pour Water: Add the remaining water and stir gently.
Allow the coffee to steep for 4 minutes.
Plunge: Press the plunger down slowly and evenly.
Serve: Pour the coffee immediately to avoid over-extraction.
A quick way to make coffee. Prepare a cup of hot or cold coffee to light up the mood. Indeed it gives the energy to deal with hundreds of things. So, let’s learn how to make instant coffee in a cup:
1. Add Instant Coffee in a Cup
The first thing to do is bring a clean cup or a glass. Proceed to add 1 teaspoon of coffee powder to the cup. Here, adjust the amount of coffee as per the liking. Usually, 1 teaspoon is enough but for the ones who prefer to have hard coffee, increase the coffee amount.
2. Add Water or Milk
First, decide which coffee to make: black or milk. If black is the one, add 6 ounces of water or adjust the amount accordingly. As for the milk coffee, pour around 6 ounces of milk. One more thing, heat the water or milk for hot coffee. Otherwise, use cold or normal ones as you can add ice to turn the coffee cold later.
Stirring the coffee and water or milk mixer allows them to blend in at the same level. So, use a mixing spoon to stir the coffee well. Do this until the coffee melts nicely with water or milk. And don’t rush while stirring, it will only spill the mixture out of the cup.
Many people enjoy coffee without sugar. But Some of us like coffee when it tastes sweet. So, proceed to add sugar or honey to the coffee. Adjust the amount based on the preferences.
A standard amount for 1-2 teaspoons of coffee would be 2-3 teaspoons of sugar or honey. Now whisk the coffee until the sweetener blends. Test the coffee and adjust the ingredients based on that.
Add some cubes of ice if the intent is to make cold coffee. Adding topping on the cold coffee is optional but still want it to taste even better, pop out some creamers over it. Now enjoy the sweet beverage with a straw. In case of hot coffee, sprinkle some coffee powder on top. And then enjoy a warm cup of coffee in cold weather.
Costly coffee beans can not be left out just like that. A proper storage is a must. Refrigerators are not a good fit for coffee beans. This degrades the quality of coffee due to the moisture and diverse temperature.
Then where to store it? A cool and dark place is an ideal spot for the beans. So, Pour all the beans into an airtight container and place the container in a cool dark space. This helps to protect beans from light, heat, and moisture. As a result, the quality and freshness stay the same.
