Let’s talk about brewing the perfect cup of coffee. Here are my top six tips for preparing quality coffee…The water:
- Filter it!
- The temperature should be between 195 and 205 degrees.
- Start with a brew ratio of 17:1 water to coffee by weight. For instance, one liter of water calls for 59 grams of coffee
- Ensure the coffee is uniformly saturated with the water for the best extraction.
The coffee:
- Keep your coffee as fresh as possible by using airtight containers stored away from heat and light.
- Match your grind to the brew style. The longer the coffee will be in contact with water during the brewing process, the coarser the grind should be. Familiarize yourself with the feel of ground coffee - from powder to pebbles!
At True Coffee Roasters, by the time we roast the beans, a lot of the work is already finished. We’ve built relationships with growers and cooperatives, sample-roasted the coffee, made the purchase, and determined the best roast level. We’ve also ensured that the coffee is good for the environment and the growers. If possible, we like to visit the coffee-growing regions and make real commitments to buy year after year, giving the growers business they can rely on. When the beans are in-house, we go back to the sample roaster to play with the coffee and figure out how best to coax out the aromatics and flavor components. At the core of our roasting philosophy is the idea that we don’t put our stamp on the coffee but wait to better understand the tradeoffs in the character of the cup at every point along the beautiful spectrum from light to dark. Great coffees make it difficult to choose a roast profile, giving little hints of beauty at every stage. Coffee will display one set of aromas and flavors at 390 degrees and reveal very different aromatics at, say, the second crack around 425 degrees or so. Light citrus notes can morph into deeper fruit, and bright acidity gives way to a fuller body as sugars begin to caramelize. Roasting only 20 pounds at a time gives us a lot of control over the quality of each roast for several reasons. We can make small changes throughout the roast cycle as conditions change, and of course, a small amount of coffee in the cooling tray loses heat very quickly, which means we can pinpoint a roast level without soaring past it.by Steve Yeazel