I started writing this expressly for datahawk, but I figured I may as well post it here.
A caveat: This is what makes the perfect cup of coffee for me. You may like a cup of instant coffee with eight packets of sugar and a hint of non-dairy creamer. While I may weep for you, you are welcome to that and free to skip to the next entry on your friends page.
Step one. Buying the coffee. Beans only – never pre-ground! I prefer a dark roast – anything else tastes like dirty dishwater. I strongly recommend against Millstone, having found more than one rock mixed in with my beans from them in the past. Whole Foods Market is an excellent source if you have one nearby (I like the Allegro brand they carry), though I’ll bet Trader Joe’s has some good stuff too. Don’t buy coffee that you can’t smell before buying; if the beans don’t smell good, your coffee won’t taste much better. Find a variety or blend that you like – in the Raleigh-Durham area, Whole Foods carries Bull City Blend (Durham = The Bull City) that I’m fond of, though each area is going to have their own blends. As for varieties, I’m partial to dark Sumatran. When buying coffee, don’t buy more than about a pound at a time – number one, this stuff is expensive, number two, coffee has a short shelf life. The sooner you run out, the sooner you’re forced to buy more instead of leaving the poor beans dwindling in flavor on your shelf.
Step two. Storage. You’ve just brought the beans home – get them out of that paper bag! The best place to store beans is on the counter, at room temperature, in an opaque, airtight container (I use a ceramic crock). I used to store my beans in the freezer, but I’ve read of concerns about condensation as the beans come to room temperature, and a possible deleterious effect of water in with the beans. Not sure how much credence I give that, but best to avoid the possibility of problems completely. For best possible results, use the coffee beans within a month of purchase. They’re usable after that, but hey – this is how to make the best possible cup of coffee, not the most tolerable cup of coffee.
Step three. Grinding. I have a Bodum French Press in two sizes – 24 ounces and 48 ounces. That translates into three mugs and five mugs of coffee, respectively (unless you go nuts). For these, I use three scoops or six scoops of beans (using the scoop that comes with the press – it’s equivalent to one heaping tablespoon). There’s some damn-near religious debates on the best kind of grinder to use (burr vs. blade). I prefer a blade grinder because they’re cheap, efficient, and easily cleaned. I grind three scoops of beans for 15 seconds, six scoops for 20 seconds. These are approximate times, but I like a relatively finer grind.
Step four. Starting the Brewing. French press. A requirement, of course, though I hear some of the new vacuum presses do a good job, too. I add the ground coffee to the pot, then pour boiling water on top of it up to the top of the metal band, almost full (oh, if you’re impatient, I highly recommend an electric kettle – nice to have). Stir – this is important! Otherwise your coffee is going to be weak and nasty because all of the coffee is floating on top. Brew for seven minutes. A minute more or less isn’t too big of a problem, but after about ten minutes you’re going to start extracting some nasty-tasting stuff from the coffee, so don’t do that!
Step five. Ending the Brewing. Press the plunger down slowly and gently. Now, when you’re done, get it out of the pot! Remember that even after plunging the coffee is still in contact with the grounds, so it is, in effect, still brewing. In addition, the coffee pot just isn’t made to keep the coffee hot. The best thing to do is to pour it out into a thermal carafe – this will keep the coffee hot for hours and keep it from getting nasty.
Step six. Condiment (optional). Sugar, of course. Milk, half and half, or {shudder} powdered creamer have no place in decent coffee. The best, and only, choice is heavy whipping cream. Add sugar and cream to taste. Enjoy.
now I have this song in my mind all day…
O/~ All I want is a proper cup of coffee, made in a proper cup of coffee pot!
An excellent blend is half Sumatra, half Peaberry. Delicious!
Oooh. Now do one for tea! :9
May I PLEASE (feck!) steal your icon? *snrk*
My good sir, of course you may borrow this glorious visage. ARSE!
😉
(And I wish I remembered the site I originally got it from, had all kinds of great pics from the show)
Yes indeed! Write one for tea!
Mummmm teavana.com, I want one in Gurnee mills, come to me my prescious!
Well, not being a tea-drinker, I’ll defer to a wiser man than I for that. Rollie has also posted a version for a perfect cup of tea, as well.
“W” is for WEASEL !
My personal taste is more for industrial-strength Espresso rather than using what you call a “french Press” but which is known as a Cafétiere in the rest of the world.
Here in Dog Towers we wholeheartedly commend your refusal to acknowledge milk as a legitimate component in any caffeinated beverage.
Of course, the choice of coffee-bean is important. Have you tried Weasel Coffee?
Re: “W” is for WEASEL !
Uhhh…I think I’ll pass on the Weasel Coffee. The mere notion leaves me a bit queasy. If my food must be processed, I prefer it to be in a somewhat less organic fashion.
*presses nose to the glass, sadly sipping instant Ralphs coffee*
A Topic After My Own Heart
I’ll start this off by saying that I’m not really supposed to have caffeine at all due to my heart already beating a bit too fast. That leaves either drinking decaff or allowing myself a limitted amount of decent tasting coffee. I choose the latter option.
My ideal cup would be a double short espresso made with beans roasted within the week, ground just before use, on a machine set properly for that particular blend, and made by a barista who has the skill to know if something didn’t work before serving me the coffee. When done right, it’s actually naturally sweet enough that nothing needs to be added.
At present, that limits me to making it myself or going to one or two places (Inteligencia in Chicago being one) in the state. With my own equipment on a good day I can pull a pretty good shot. I’d dearly love to upgrade my machine and grinder, but for now the budget doesn’t allow it.
Other than espresso, I like French Press or Vaccuum pot made coffee the best. Percolated after that. At the bottom of the heap is filter drip. It always tastes thin to me. This is fine because I seem to have a curse of not being able to make an autodrip coffee maker produce anything resembling a good cup of coffee even by filter drip standards.
I follow most of those steps when I make coffee. The only thing I do differently is I store the beans in a jar in the frige. My dad always stored the coffee in the frige, which is where I got that from (not the freezer).
Yum
Champaign Blend from Continental Coffee in Vancouver – best coffee evar!!11!
I used to make the trek into town every time I ran out of coffee, braving traffic and lousy parking in order to procure this particular in-house blend. If you got there at the right time of day you could sometimes get beans that were still slightly warm from the roasting oven. If you were feeling adventurous they would also sell you the raw beans to roast yourself. I kept meaning to try that except that I heard horror stories of houses full of acrid-smelling smoke.
As to burr vs blade — burr, you Philistine. ’nuff said on that subject.
French press? Is that a regional thing, or have I fallen out of touch since I moved to the prairies? I always just knew it as a Bodum. I’m told that if you want the ultimate coffee experience you have to get one of these:
I want one!
Starbucks used to carry them, but they dropped the product shortly before I stopped in to buy one. Bastards.
I’m not a big fan of whipping cream in my coffee. I’ve done it when we ran out of regular cream, but I find that it makes the coffee taste a bit too… buttery for my liking. Powdered whitener (or jet fuel as my brother used to call it) is an abomination. If the only choices are jet fuel or milk then I’ll drink my coffee black. Given the choice I’ll usually use the 10% cream.
Teach me not to read my LJ, I didn’t even see you posted this. 🙂
All I’m missing is the carafe. 🙂
http://www.coffee-mugs.us/cafe-bistro-mugs.html#g is the PERFECT size 😀
You can get a nice thermal carafe for about $15 at Bed Bath and Beyond. It’s nice to have hot coffee available all morning long (like now – my third cup will be as hot as when I first poured it in there, three hours ago).
Hooray, another coffee fiend! Now you just have to take the next step and roast your own beans! It’s addicting! 😀
I’ve wanted to try roasting my own beans, but I’ve noticed that whenever I go by a coffee place that roasts their own the smell is, well, horrendous. I think I’d drive my wuff out of the house with that smell, even moreso than when I brew beer 🙂 Still, it might make for a fun experiment sometime.