Brewing The Best Cup Of Coffee
Would you like to be able to brew your own coffee? For many, there is one thing that is stopping them from enjoying their own freshly brewed coffee in the mornings: not enough time. The typical American wakes up for work at around 6AM. He only has 30 to 45 minutes to get ready and be on his way to the office. Some people are lucky to have 5 or 10 minutes to sit and eat their breakfast; others aren’t so lucky. So how can there be any more time to brew and enjoy coffee?
It is still possible, however, to brew your own great tasting coffee in a very short time. You just have to find out what brewing method best matches your needs and overall situation. To figure out what coffee brewing method is right for you, first answer these questions:
1. Are you a regular coffee drinker or do you drink coffee only on occasion?
2. How important is taste and convenience to you?
3. What is the amount you can afford to spend on a coffee maker, coffee, and other coffee brewing equipment?
The biggest problem that most coffee lovers need to overcome when it comes to brewing their own coffee is that majority of electric drip brewers don’t produce great tasting coffee. In exchange for the convenience of making coffee, the taste of the coffee is sacrificed. If you put high priority on coffee that tastes good, you need to change your view in terms of time invested instead of dollars invested. For instance, you’ll need to learn how to grind your own fresh coffee beans and measure coffee precisely. After a week or so, however, doing these things will be second nature and they won’t take up much time. If you go to great lengths to buy fresh, perfectly-roasted coffee beans, you should brew your coffee with purpose of getting every bit of flavor and aroma you’ve paid for.
A good drip coffee maker combines the different brewing elements in a specific manner. There is the filter that holds fresh coffee grounds. The water should be between 195F and 205F and saturate the coffee grounds in a thorough but gentle manner. It should take a good drip coffee maker between 4 and 6 minutes to brew coffee from beginning to end. If the total brew cycle goes for more than 8 minutes, the resulting brew will have a bitter taste since the coffee grounds are over-extracted.
It’s next to impossible to brew drip coffee as illustrated in the previous paragraph using just your regular home electric coffee maker. This is exactly the reason why many coffee lovers get so frustrated whenever they attempt to duplicate a good coffee drink they paid for because their coffee maker fails to produce coffee that tastes just as good.
If you want to have a great cup of coffee each time at home, the best way is simply to brew the coffee manually since you can have control over the brewing process. Take note that you’ll have a hard time finding a coffee maker that costs less than $150 and produce great tasting coffee. In general, these coffee makers sacrifice flavor over convenience. There are high-end coffee makers that will produce excellent cups of coffee, but they don’t come cheap. If you’re willing to spend money on a more expensive coffee maker, make sure you read user reviews and familiarize yourself first with all the features of every coffee maker that makes it on your shortlist.
For myself, I enjoy the convenience of a Nespresso machine that uses Nespresso capsules to make my morning coffee. After it is brewed, I put the coffee in a Contigo travel mug which keeps it hot and the twist-on lid is spill-proof.