The coffee you make at home is not tasty? It’s not the skills you lack, but the details!

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I believe many people have had this experience: you drink delicious coffee in a coffee shop, but when you buy the same beans at home, you still can't make the same quality coffee as you did in the coffee shop. You may think that your skills are not good enough, after all, you are not a professional barista... In fact, it is not as difficult as you think to reach the level of a coffee shop, and the gap between your skills and those of a professional coffee shop is not as big as you think! Coffee shops just pay more attention to a few details than ordinary people, and they can make a better cup of coffee.

So today I’m going to tell you some details on how to brew more professional coffee.

First, let me tell you a few "iron rules" that apply to any brewing equipment! Take a note and write them down.

1. Buy quality coffee beans and choose the right roasting degree

Although coffee beans are sold in many places such as shopping malls and Taobao, and they are cheap and in large bags, the quality of the big shopping malls is still a long way from the boutique coffee. Moreover, the quality and flavor of the same bean produced by different roasters will definitely be very different. Don't think that you can drink the same product in the coffee shop by searching for "the same type" beans on Taobao. If you like a single-origin bean in the store, it is best to buy it directly in the store or ask for a link.

If you accidentally buy beans that someone else has used for "practice", then no matter how expensive your brewing equipment is or how good your skills are, the taste of the brew will always be unsatisfactory.

During the roasting process, the original flavor of the beans will be lost, replaced by the roasted charcoal flavor. Although some people like the bitterness of coffee, if you want to drink a coffee with rich sour and sweet taste today, it is not recommended to choose medium-dark roasting. Coffee can be sweet or strong. As long as it is roasted properly, it can give coffee beans different flavors.

So another very important point is to choose beans with a roasting degree that suits your preference. If you don’t like sourness, try to avoid lightly roasted coffee. If you are afraid of bitterness, you can choose lightly roasted or medium roasted beans. It is best to simply understand the impact of different roasting degrees on the flavor of coffee.

2. The most important equipment: a suitable grinder

When you enter a coffee shop, how can you quickly judge whether it is professional? Look at the grinder.

Have you ever thought: "Ground coffee powder is so convenient, I don't even need to buy a grinder, I can make coffee at home"? No! This is a wrong idea. Choosing coffee powder for convenience is a big mistake in brewing coffee!

After the coffee beans are ground, the contact area between the coffee powder and the air is larger, which makes the oxidation speed faster, greatly shortens the shelf life, and the aroma of the coffee begins to dissipate from the moment it is ground. If you use the coffee powder that has been ground long ago, it is easy to have no aroma when brewing and the beans will not expand, which greatly affects the extracted flavor. This is why you must use freshly ground coffee powder to brew a good cup of coffee. It is very important to buy a coffee grinder!

In addition, a grinder that grinds evenly is definitely a key to improving your brewing experience. You can buy a grinder, whether it is a manual or electric one, but a chopper is not recommended (the grinding state is too unstable).

3. Measure the brewing water temperature

When brewing coffee, different temperatures will produce different flavors, so to make a good cup of coffee, temperature is also a link that must be paid attention to. A thermometer is indispensable in any professional coffee shop.

Many people brew coffee at home by directly brewing it with freshly boiled hot water, or by letting it cool down for a few minutes based on experience. However, this experience is often unreliable because the room temperature and water volume are usually constantly changing. The brewing temperature is unstable each time. How can you make a good cup of coffee? Moreover, hot water over 95 degrees C will dissolve a large amount of coffee bean fibers, resulting in a rough and unsmooth taste. Similarly, too low a water temperature may also cause insufficient extraction. Generally speaking, the recommended brewing temperature is between 85 and 93 degrees.

It is recommended that novices purchase a digital thermometer, because ordinary mercury thermometers run too slowly and cannot accurately measure the current water temperature. Therefore, it is recommended to use a digital thermometer, which can measure the current water temperature more instantly.

4. Pay attention to the ratio of powder to water

There is usually an electronic scale on the bar counter of a coffee shop. Even if there is a measuring spoon, it will not be used to measure the amount of coffee beans. This is because moisture will be lost during the coffee roasting process. Dark roasted beans are lighter than light roasted beans. Therefore, the weight difference between a light roasted spoon and a dark roasted spoon may be nearly 3-5 grams. The ratio may instantly change from 1:10 to 1:15. Of course, the taste will also be quite different.

Some people may encounter a situation: Why is it that even with expensive beans, the coffee they brew is often either tasteless or very bitter? The above problems may be caused by the wrong brewing ratio! Only when the coffee powder and water are properly proportioned can you have a balanced taste and taste the best flavor.

The key to brewing ratio is "quantification", and a simple electronic scale can solve many problems.

Therefore, please change your concept of coffee powder to water ratio from now on: "how many spoons of coffee beans are matched with how many cups of water" to "how many grams of coffee beans are matched with how many grams of water"! Remember to use an electronic scale to measure the coffee powder to water ratio when brewing, so that it will be accurate.

5. Use fresh coffee beans

Coffee beans are consumed in large quantities in coffee shops, so it is relatively easy to keep them fresh, but this is not necessarily the case when brewing coffee at home. Sometimes when there are discounts or promotions, people stock up on a lot of coffee, and it is difficult to finish them within the best flavor period.

Whether coffee beans are fresh or not is not just a health consideration. Stale coffee beans are not easy to expand when brewing, which will affect the extraction of coffee. If you use an espresso machine or hand brewing, you can clearly see the impact of whether the coffee beans expand or not on brewing.

If it is darker roasted Italian coffee beans, it is recommended to drink it within one month.

But I want to point out that the freshness of coffee beans cannot be completely determined by the oil on the surface! Some people may think that coffee beans will produce oil only after they have been stored for a long time, but this is not entirely true. Beans that have entered the second crack may also produce oil even if they are freshly roasted (this is normal!)

Therefore, it is recommended to buy coffee beans with roasting date marked on them.

As for lightly roasted beans, they can be kept for a longer time if properly stored, but it is still recommended to consume them within one to two months!

6. Try different brewing methods and taste the original coffee flavor

Each type of brewing equipment has its own characteristics. Finding equipment that suits your preferences can help you brew better coffee. For example, coffee brewed by a French press or a moka pot usually has a thick taste, while hand brewing is cleaner and brighter. A more advanced way is to choose brewing equipment based on the characteristics of different beans to bring out the characteristics of the beans to the extreme.

Finally, please try the original coffee flavor

A good cup of coffee does not need sugar or other flavors. It can have multiple flavors. So the first step to getting into specialty coffee is to put down the sugar and milk and savor the original flavor of black coffee.