How To Make Good Coffee
Baristas strive to create the perfect cup for every customer, here are some tips on how to create a good cup of espresso coffee by frothing good milk.
How much money to we spend a week…or a year…buying coffee at specialty shops or cafes? Why is “their” coffee so much better than “ours?” It’s not as if we don’t spend a fortune on our beans—in fact, we probably buy better beans than they do. We consulted with the experts and here’s their advice:
1. Freshly-Ground Beans. Fresh-ground beans have aromatic oils—that’s why everyone loves the smell of fresh-ground coffee. When specialty coffee shops brew their coffee, if they don’t freshly grind the beans, they open vacuum-packed bags or cans and use the entire package at once.Ground coffee will begin to go stale within 24 hours after the beans are ground (or after a bag of vacuum-packed ground coffee is opened).
2. A Coffee Grinder. Coffee purists advocate burr grinders because a burr grinding wheel delivers consistent, uniform grounds, cutting the beans consistently rather than crushing them as blade grinders do. This will have some impact on how the water comes into contact with the grounds, and thus has an effect on the taste of the coffee. (It’s not an issue, as is often reported, of the heat of the blade altering the flavor of the coffee.) Those who take their coffee seriously say they notice the difference as soon as they upgrade to a burr grinder. However, an October 2006 test by the Wall Street Journal, in which the reporter worked with a coffee roasting professional to test 5 new burr grinders versus an old blade model, found that while the coffee was ground more consistently by the burr models, no difference could be tasted in the brews versus the blade grinder!
3. Well-Stored Beans. Don’t buy more coffee—whether in bean form or ground—than you’ll use in a week’s period. Be sure to keep it in an airtight container that protects it from kitchen and refrigerator aromas, and contains the good coffee aromas. Store it in a cool, dark place. Direct light and heat will begin to cook the coffee oils, and will affect the flavor and aroma properties. A canister next the stove is not a good location!
4. The Best Coffee Maker. There are volumes written on this topic, with many coffee lovers claiming the best coffee is brewed from a press pot. Others claim equally good coffee can be brewed from a standard coffee machine, but only with a gold filter basket (photo at right), which doesn’t impart a paper flavor or absorb the aromatic oils from the coffee beans.
5. The Right Proportions. The next trick is to get the proportions right: two tablespoons of ground beans per “cup” if water. Note that in the coffeepot business, a cup is not 8 ounces. The portions are based on a 6-ounce cup, the size of old-fashioned tea cups. The amount of liquid to fill it (and allow for milk) is 4.4 ounces. Thus, a ten cup coffee maker will yield just 40 to 44 ounces of coffee—not exactly ten of today’s larger mugs.
6. Drink Coffee Fresh. Brewed coffee is a fragile beverage—because of the tannins, it doesn’t take to heat contact and re-heating the way other beverages do. When a glass pot sits on the warming plate, the coffee continues to heat. In 15 to 20 minutes, any pot of coffee on a hotplate is scorched or “burnt,” with a bitter taste. If you haven’t finished the contents before the 15-minute point, take it off the heat and turn it into iced coffee.
7. Scrub The Pot. The coffee pot needs more than a quick rinse: the oil and mineral residue are invisible but they build up and can make coffee taste bitter and stale. Take a scrubbie and scrub the pot clean with soap, then rinse it thoroughly. Some people hesitate to add soap because they fear it will leave a soapy taste in their coffee. A double or triple rinse should quell all fears.
8. Clean The Water Tank. Follow the manufacturer’s directions and clean the machine monthly, or as indicated, to remove lime, scale and mineral deposit build-up from the water tank.
Remember to always purge your steam wand before and after you steam millk
Insert the steam wand into the middle of the milk about 1cm below the surface
Create a whirlpool effect whole steaming and only aerate the milk by drawing the wand up to slightly break the surface until it is skin temperature. Aerating after this point wil normally result in creating bubbles and not delivering smooth, velvety milk
Remove any bubbles off the top of the milk by tapping your jug on the bench or removing with spoon
Blend milk by swirling steel jug that is cool to the touch, we recommend a straight sided or bell shaped sided jug
Straight sided jugs are good for creating milk patterns as they have a good pouring spout.
Bell shaped sided jugs are the easiest to use as their shape encourages a whirlpool
It is important to use the appropriate size jug to the number of coffee’s you are making
To create great milk you do need a minimum amount of millk in your jug (about 1/3 full)
Never reheat or re-steam milk
Milk foaming properties are related to the fat, protein and mineral content of the milk. The chemical compounds of milk are affected by grass conditions as they reflect changes in the chemical composition of what the cows feed on.
We recommend a standard blue top millk. The fat content in standart milk helps deliver a creamier texture, and therefore flavour to your coffee. Non fat milk tends to seperate easily, produce drier foam and is easily scalded. Lower fat milks can also have a cooked protein note that can change the flavour of your coffee.
Tags: airtight container, burr grinders, coffee grinder, coffee shops, espresso coffee, ground beans, refrigerator, specialty coffee, wall street journal