In my 22 plus years in the business of selling gourmet coffee's, I have always been taught to brew coffee at a tempurature of 200º F (+ or Minus
5º). If the tempurature falls below 195º, you will not extract all of the desirable oils from the grounds and end up with a very underdeveloped cup of coffee. If the temp is too high, it will start to extract the undesireable & bitter oils from the beans. (hence the lousy flavor of perked coffee).
First, I weigh the coffee (which I store in a pressurized cryogenic liquid-nitrogen freezer at 4.65 atmospheres of pressure to preserve the aromatic esters, etc.) on an analytical balance, which is accurate to
+/- 200 micrograms. I usually use between 3.075125 grams and 3.075250 grams per cup. It's not really critical if you keep it between those numbers.
Now for the water. I use distilled water which I buy at the grocery store for 69¢/gallon. To make sure they're not cheating me by selling me well-water, I run the water through two ion-exchange resin columns, one anionic and one cationic. I then check it for conductivity to ensure all dissolved salts have been removed. Then, since distilled water often has an "off" taste, I bubble oxygen through it until it has a dissolved-oxygen level of 17.475 mg/L @ 10°Celsius. Again, the analytical balance comes in real handy here.
I then heat the water in a large pressure vessel I purchased specifically for this purpose to a temperature of 96.0575°C with a tolerance of +/-0.0025°C. Again, it's not really critical if you stick to the proper tolerances ? after all, we're just trying to make a cup of java!
Once the water has reached the proper temperature, I put the coffee beans (which have been milled to a particle size of between 200 and 500 micrometers with a standard deviation of no more than 0.0025%) into the water and brew at 96.0575°C for 250 to 270 seconds (brewing time varies depending on how "wild and reckless" I feel that day).
I then decant the coffee through a paper filter, but not just ANY paper filter; I use these pH-balanced hemp-fiber filters which are initially created on a fourdrinier paper machine and then run through calendar rolls by naked Tibetan monks only on months that contain an "R" in their names (it really makes a difference!).
Then, once I have my cup of java, I add sugar and (again, depending on whether I have a "wild hair" that day) pour in approximately 10 ml of either hazelnut, mocha or bubblegum-flavored creamer that I buy at Giant.
Once you get the routine down pat, you can brew a cup of coffee in less than 3 hours!
To each his own. I make a carafe full at a time, and let it cool quickly. (It lasts for days in the fridge.) I microwave a cup at a time as I want it. That works well if you make the best you can at brew time.
In a microwave I heated a cup of water to a rolling boil. After I carried the cup eight feet to the counter, my probe measured 217, the same as in a pan of boiling water on a burner. It surprised me that it hadn't cooled a couple of degrees, but it was still boiling.
That would have been 211 F. I put in a tablespoon of coffee, stirred, and measured. 204 F. I let it steep four minutes with a plastic cover to conserve heat. By then the temperature was 189 F. Hmmmm... maybe a foil cover...
A day or two ago, when I steeped coffee in a pan on a warm burner, I probably kept the temperature above 205. I didn't taste bitter oils, but I might have called it underdeveloped. I haven't figured it out unless that metal served as a catalyst.
When I was five or so, I liked to carry fresh coffee grounds >
Blt of a low-grade coffee snob myself. Previous posts make good points. I think good coffee can be made many ways- I've had some from old percolators I thought was very good. I don't care for french press for this reason: people tend to leave the coffee in there, where it will pick up bitter flavor from grounds; unless you are drinking it all right away you need to decant into carafe. Modern drip pots are ok by me as long as you turn off once coffee is brewed- heat destroys flavor fast. Some pots use carafe- good design, though cleaning some can be a chore. As for espresso- I've had some pretty good from $15 stove top pots- helps if you put paper filters in grounds compartment.
wow so many opinions as to how to make a cup of coffee. I use a simple Melita one cup cone...with paper filter......2 tbsps per cup of coffee. Brands of coffee vary greatly. My tastes prefer Torrefazzione Brand.
I must concede that instant coffee is a beverage, but it isn't what I call coffee. When offered coffee in stranger's houses where I can't politely ask what kind, I opt for tea.
My way to do it exactly, but I like Starbucks Breakfast Blend or House Blend. The little Melita is handy, and since I drink only one strong mug, and no one else drinks coffee at my house, an efficient way to do it.
Same as I have heard. Never use boiling hot water (212) keep at 200 above that the bitter oils break down, but some like that bitter flavor, our McDonald's make coffee that has a bitter burnt taste and curls your lips.
What kind of pan do you use? I'll have to experiment more, but it seems to me my stainless pan took something very enjoyable from the flavor.
A microwave is a fairly quick way to boil a cup, and it's on a timer in case something interrupts me. There is a problem. Yesterday my water blew up in the oven. Now I know why experts recommend keeping the oven door closed.
How can I prevent it in the future? They say superheating can occur in a glass container that has never been scrubbed, but this cup has been scrubbed many times in the last twenty years. Should I use a plastic cup scuffed with sandpaper?
I think I'll need to raise the boiling point well above brewing temperature. I could pressurize the kitchen, but that would be a nuisance if the phone rang in the next room. How about adding a tablespoon of salt for to each cup of water? Would antifreeze work better? I suppose the MSDS would tell how much can safely be drunk in coffee.
"Well..." he typed hesitantly, even fresh instant decaf is awful, even cafinated instant coffee is all but undrinkable.
I never liked using a plastic filter cone or the paper filters either. I am arrogant enough to think they can be tasted in the finished coffee, alter its flavour in a bad way. Which is why i had pretty much settled on the french press. In Berkeley one can get a glazed ceramic filter holder made in quantity by local crafts people and sold at the Telegraph avenue venors market.
The French press make a decent cup of coffee but i kept breaking them. I remember as a child me Mater using a clear pyrex type glass 'percolator'. I have had as little luck finding an aluminium or steel 'percolator' as i have a glass one. But it was made with much thicker glass and its size & shape makes it more stable than a French press, i would like to get one as i am not against the concept of 'percolators' but feel they must be carefully monitored to insure the best results.
However a 4 cup steel sauce pan works just fine. I have also been lucky enough to stumble upon a 2 dollar a pound ($2.00 U.S. per pound) ground coffee. 8 - 15 dollars per pound makes the individual cup un - enjoyable for me. I only use between 2 ? 2 1/2 lbws. per month.
This particular coffee is a Mexican commercial product, but contains coffee mostly from South America and Vietnam.
Called "Montecito" it is labelled "alimento de calidad" and is "Cafe Molido - espresso de tostado oscuro" i never paid any attention to the idea that it is labelled "espresso", in big letters it says "Ground Coffee" and in smaller letters beneath "dark roast espresso".
But here i get confused, i thought a cup of espresso coffee could be made with any type of coffee, that it was the process by which the cup is made rather than what it is made of that defines it. Though i am aware of coffee ground specifically to be used with an espresso maker, ground extra fine iirc, which the Cafe Molido is not, rather it is an ordinary drip grind. Its even got a 'money back' guarantee printed on the package
"Garantia Incondicional de Montecito;
Si or alguna razon usted no esta completamente satisfecho, devuelva este producto para reemplazo o reembolso completo."
I think it is a excellent product but i am easily pleased.
Maybe I'm getting a bit elitist, but I can't stand instant coffee in any incarnation. And factory ground leaves me flat. Give me whole bean, that's the way to go, and put it through a "gold" permanent type filter. Why the filter you ask? To me, every paper filter leaves an ugly chemical taste to the coffee. And did you know that formaldehyde is used to bleach the paper? Thanks, but I will pass on the paper filters.
As for the coffee, well, here things can get interesting. Sumatra Mendhaling is about the finest, IMHO, but Kenya AA is about equal, or maybe a true Kona, and even a good organic Columbian is acceptable.
Keep the beans in an air-tight container, and grind just enough for that day. This adds to the morning ritual, and brings a bit of pleasure as well.
As for water, I use tap water that has been sitting in the fridge in a covered container at least overnight. This allows the water to off-gas, thereby removing any chlorine bitterness or other overtones. And even if I couldn't tell the difference, my dog knows the difference, and she doesn't like to drink the water out of the tap, preferring the fridge water, and their noses are far more sensitive than ours.
In my first apartment in married life (1957), we had a hopper-type coffee mill mounted on the kitchen wall. The neighbor's kitchen was on the other side of that wall. Ann invited the neighbor in for coffee as we were moving out two years later. When she started to grind the beans, the neighbor exclaimed, "OH! I wondered why you sharpened pencils every morning!"
The quickest way to degas water is to boil it. I keep drinking water in the fridge, but I just let it boil an extra half minute for coffee.
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