The basics
- Weigh your coffee and water. A kitchen scale costs less than a bag of beans and fixes most problems.
- Grind just before you brew. Ground coffee loses its aroma within an hour or so.
- Use water that tastes good. We wrote about it in the journal.
- Keep it clean. Rinse equipment after every use. Old oils make coffee taste stale.
Recipes
V60 or other cone dripper
15 g coffee, 250 g water at 94 °C, medium-fine grind. Wet the filter, bloom with 40 g for 40 seconds, then pour in slow circles up to 250 g by 1:30. Finish around 3:00.
AeroPress
15 g coffee, 230 g water at 90 °C, medium grind. Stir, steep for 2 minutes, press gently over 30 seconds. Dilute with a splash of hot water if it is too strong.
French press
30 g coffee, 500 g water at 96 °C, coarse grind. Pour, wait 4 minutes, break the crust and skim the foam, wait one more minute, then pour carefully.
Moka pot
Fill the base with hot water just below the valve, add coffee without tamping, medium-fine grind. Low flame, lid open. Take it off when the stream turns pale and cool the base under the tap.
Espresso
18 g in, 36 to 40 g out, 27 to 32 seconds, water at 93 °C. If it runs fast and tastes sour, grind finer. If it crawls and tastes bitter, grind coarser.
About grinders
If you can only upgrade one thing, make it the grinder. A burr grinder gives you particles of even size, so the water extracts them at the same rate. Blade grinders chop beans into powder and boulders, and you cannot fix that by changing the recipe.
A decent hand grinder costs around eighty euros and does very well for filter. For espresso you will want something with finer adjustment.
The moka pot
The moka pot has a bad reputation among coffee people, mostly from burnt, bitter cups. It does not have to be that way. Start with hot water, not cold, so the grounds do not cook while the base heats up. Keep the flame low and listen: when the pot starts to gurgle, it is done.
