How to make a delicious cup of coffee at home?

Sometimes when you want to make a delicious cup of coffee at home, you find that something is not right. You have followed the steps described on the Internet, but the taste of the coffee you make seems to be a little worse... Maybe you haven't noticed some small details. Today, I will talk to you about what details will affect your chances of getting a good cup of coffee!

| Coffee beans

1. Fresh! Fresh coffee

Whether it is raw beans or roasted beans, coffee beans have a life span. When we buy coffee beans, we can ask the store for the roasting date, but some stores will write it directly on the packaging of the beans. Generally speaking, the coffee beans will enter the best tasting period about 5-7 days after they are roasted. At this time, the flavor can be said to have reached its peak, and then the flavor will slowly dissipate. So if you want to get a cup of delicious coffee, fresh coffee beans are the key.

2. When to drink and when to grind

Perhaps for the sake of convenience, many people choose to buy coffee powder directly, or ask the store to grind it into powder, but in any case, it is not recommended to store coffee in the form of powder. If conditions permit, it is recommended to buy a grinder and grind it when you want to drink it.

After all, when coffee is ground into powder, it greatly increases the surface area, exposing the coffee to more air. Coffee exposed to oxygen will outgas, which means that the coffee will release the gases produced during the roasting process, and outgassing is very important to avoid under-extraction and bubbles. Grinding accelerates outgassing. The longer you grind the coffee and leave the powder exposed to the air, the more flavor and aroma you lose. When the coffee powder has exhausted all the gases, the brewed coffee will be bland. In addition, coffee powder is more susceptible to moisture, and when the coffee beans are damp, it affects the oils and flavor of the coffee.

| Precise parameters

Sometimes fans tell me that they don’t need a scale when they make their own coffee, and they don’t need a thermometer either. But in fact, both of these are very important!

First, let's take a look at the scale. Don't think that it's just a piece of stuff, so what else can it do except weigh it? Especially for novices, we can only know the coffee bean and water ratio accurately by measuring the beans and water. Yes, brewing coffee is not just about turning the pot around a few times, but also needs to calculate the coffee bean to water ratio.

What is the powder to water ratio?

Simply put, it is the ratio of coffee powder to hot water, which will affect the strength and taste of a cup of coffee.

Because different people have different tastes, they have different requirements for strength, but we can refer to the Golden Cup extraction theory. The concentration range of Golden Cup extraction is 1.15%-1.35%, and the water ratio is about 1:13 to 15. But! Basically, the powder-water ratio suitable for Asians is 1:13-1:18! Some people use very little water simply to pursue a strong flavor, but it doesn't taste good. On the contrary, some people expect to use more water to extract more substances, but they don't know that the extraction becomes lighter and lighter, and the final concentration is insufficient. When you get a new bean, you can start with 1:15, and then adjust it according to your favorite taste~

After talking about the role of the scale, let's take a look at the thermometer. When brewing coffee, you don't use the water that has just boiled or the warm water that has been left for a while! Generally speaking, the water temperature we use to brew coffee is between 85-94 degrees, which can be adjusted according to the condition of the beans.

Different water temperatures have different effects on coffee extraction. The higher the water temperature, the more substances are extracted, which can easily bring out some bad flavors; the lower the water temperature, the less substances are extracted, which can easily lead to insufficient extraction. (Only for hand brewing! Low water temperature can also be used to extract by extending the soaking time of water and coffee powder!) Generally speaking, we use 89-92 degrees water temperature when brewing light roasted beans, and 85-88 degrees water temperature for deep roasted beans .

| Steaming

When making hand-brewed coffee, we first soak the coffee powder with some water, a process we call steaming. This is mainly to discharge the carbon dioxide in the coffee powder as quickly as possible to prepare for the subsequent extraction.

Why do we need to steam?

Since the coffee beans are too fresh, there will be carbon dioxide in the coffee powder, and these carbon dioxide will prevent water molecules from entering the coffee powder to bring out the coffee flavor substances, so we need to use some water to promote the emission of carbon dioxide in the coffee powder, so that the flavor substances in the coffee powder will be more easily brought out during the subsequent extraction! Generally, we will use 2-3 times the amount of water for steaming. If there is too little water, the steaming will be uneven, and if there is too much water, it will flow away directly, and the steaming effect will not be achieved.