Perfect Cup of Coffee

Coffee is not just coffee. I've talked to people, probably some of you, who pretty much lump coffee into a single flavor, maybe two flavors, good coffee and bad coffee. This is the black and white TV view of coffee. Coffee, from beans to brew, is art. There are a variety of flavors, and I don't mean the creamer you add, of this beverage. So, for just a moment, I thought I would brew a pot with you.

Beans is the first choice in making a pot of coffee. The some from all over the world and the soils in those parts of the world in part flavor to the beans. You get earthy flavors with beans like Jamaican Blue Mountain and Sumatran, a hint of citrus type flavors in an Ethiopian or Kenyan, They have beans that are floral, or nutty or chocolate like. I have two favorites right now, Sumatran and Bali. Additionally, these regions can be subdivided by reserves, which usually have slightly different flavors one from another. The Bali I like is from the Bluemoon reserve, it is a complex, rich bean, that is almost like dark chocolate.

The next question is how are the beans handled. This is different than the beans, although this is often confused because most beans have an ideal way they are roasted. French Roast is a handling, not a bean. You can French Roast any bean, although this is usually a method done to an Middle East or Central American Beans. In the world of roasting, from lightest to darkest, there is Cinnamon, New England, American, City, Vienna, French and Italian. Light roasts give the beans a grain or light complex flavor, while darker roasts give you caramel or even rich burnt flavors. The Bali is a medium roast, the doesn't burn away any of the various flavors in the bean and maintains some of the gentle flavors you associate with a lighter roast. This makes for a perfect, interesting, not overwhelming coffee you can drink all day.

Now that you have beans in hand, it is important to leave them whole until you are ready to use them. Do not freeze them unless you are not going to use them for more than a month and if you are not going to use them for more than a month, you are ordering them too early. On my counter is a bag do whole beans no more the two weeks old all the time. To brew this perfect cup of Bali, I suggest beans roasted three days ago, so that none of the oils are lost. Ground beans loss their flavor very fast because of the amount of surface area exposed to the air while they are not being used, I'll note that this process doesn't start in vacuum sealed containers, which is why you can still get a decent cup from a K-cup, but that's a different topic.

Now that I've got my fresh, whole Bali beans, it is time to grind them. I now this seems so basic, but grinding should also be done with thought. You can mindlessly pulse the beans in your grinder and get a decent brew out of them, but you may be missing out. Remember, you are trying to produce the maximum surface area for the hot water to extract the flavor oils from your beans. This is countered by the fact that if your grind is too fine it can clog your filter, which should be paper not reusable as the holes are finer. So you need to grind as much as you can without creating a clog, and you need to equally grind all of the beans. The method I use is grinding in three, three second pulses, while I move the grinder at various angles, to prevent and beans or ground from not getting fully ground. This results in a powder roughly one forth the size of industrial ground coffee. As an added note, this needs to be made larger if I'm using a French press for brewing.

I will tell you that the best coffee I have had comes from a French press. This method extracts the flavor by immersing the grounds in the hot water for five minutes, then using a filter to catch and hold the grounds at the bottom of the pot. The amount of flavor you can get from the method is amazing. My most common method, though, is a drip brewing; what you might call normal. In both cases, the most important factor is water temperature. The ideal temperature to brew coffee is just below boiling. This allows for maximum flavor extraction. If you are using a French press, boil the water you plan to use, turn off the pot, wait just a few seconds, then pour. For a drip put, try to get one that keeps a pot or two of hot water within it and that water is kept pretty hot. The Bunn I brew the Bali with is perfect for this. I could probably get better results if the water was a little hotter, but it will do.

Last thing, and really this is more of a foot note, don't sneak a cup before the brewing has completed. The flavor you get from the beans is not consistent throughout the brewing. You get much stronger coffee during the beginning of the brew then you get at the end. So, if you take the first cup without letting it mispx with the rest of the pot, while you may get a great cup of coffee, the rest of the pot will be weaker for it. Who wants to make a pot of coffee for only one good cup? So, patience and enjoy.