What Are the Best Flavored Coffees?
Research into coffee drinking habits tells us that only eighteen percent of coffee drinkers take their java black without sweeteners, cream or milk, or other flavoring. Assuming that you would like something a bit more than a sweetener, milk or cream with your coffee, what are the best flavored coffees? Another issue is this. Does adding a flavor to your coffee overpower coffee’s natural flavor and aroma? Or are there flavorings that enhance the natural flavor and aroma of your coffee?
Most Common Coffee Flavors
The most commonly used coffee flavorings include amaretto, French vanilla, hazelnut, caramel, mocha, peppermint, cinnamon, maple, butterscotch, and pumpkin spice. Some flavorings and coffee drinks are seasonal like eggnog coffee or Irish coffee. As noted in a recent article in The New York Times, an article about complicated coffee orders explained how often times less is more and better in the coffee world.
Thomas Edison and the Flavor of Your Coffee
When the inventor of the electric lightbulb, movie camera, and phonograph hired a new young scientist he always invited them to eat dinner at his home. One promising young scientist with impeccable credentials was not offered a job. When asked why Edison said that the young person lacked curiosity. They salted their steak before tasting it. In regard to coffee flavorings and your coffee, we suggest that you taste your coffee before adding hazelnut, mocha, or pumpkin spice. Maybe you will decide that you don’t need so much, or any flavoring, after all.
Making the Best of Average Coffee
Not everyone can afford to buy gourmet coffee, whole beans, imported directly from Colombia. Even though you can find excellent coffee at great prices in Colombia, the cost of shipping small quantities may be prohibitive for someone living on a budget. Thus, one may find themself looking for ways to improve flavor or mask bitterness of the coffee they are buying at the store. Here is where adding a tasty flavoring like hazelnut, mocha, or cinnamon may be a good idea. As a rule you do not need to use excessive amounts of flavorings to accomplish this task.
Cloves, Nutmeg, or Cardamon to Augment the Flavor of Your Coffee
Flavors not commonly used with coffee are clove, cardamon, or nutmeg. However, each of these can be used in moderation to enhance the natural flavor of your coffee. Clove is very aromatic. When used with a wood-toned coffee like one from Colombia it can enhance the normal flavor of a great coffee. Nutmeg can be used with stronger and spicier coffees to add more depth to natural spicy and nutty flavors. When used with an earthy Indonesian coffee, cardamon adds more of a hint of spice and earthy tones.
Taste Test Before Deciding on a Coffee Flavor for Your Life
We humans are creatures of habit. When we get into the habit of drinking a given flavored coffee, we may end up missing out on a whole world of coffee flavorings or excellent coffee without added flavoring. We strongly suggest that coffee lovers who crave something extra try out several different flavoring and even follow the advice of Mr. Edison to taste their coffee (steak) before adding flavoring (salt)! You may find that the high quality Colombian coffee you are drinking has more than enough flavor and aroma without adding anything else.
Who Grows High Altitude Coffee?
Coffee only grows in the tropics, in the so-called coffee belt. That is because coffee is a perennial that does survive a frost. Although disease resistance can be high with strains like robusta, high quality coffee like arabica does not do well at extremely low altitudes because of excessive heat, humidity, and presence of fungi and other coffee pests. Thus coffee is generally grown at around three thousand feet but can also be grown at much higher altitudes such as in Ethiopia, Colombia, Bolivia, or Honduras, where coffee is grown as high as 7,000 feet above sea level and occasionally even higher.
How Does Altitude Affect Coffee?
As a rule, high quality coffee grown in the 3,000 foot range has nutty and chocolate flavors while coffee grown closer to 7,000 feet has more floral and fruity aromas and flavors. The best coffee grows slowly and ripens slowly. This is what happens at higher altitudes in countries like Colombia, Ethiopia, Honduras, and Bolivia at the highest altitudes. A problem today that plagues coffee production is coffee leaf rust which kills entire coffee crops. This fungal coffee plague is more prevalent at lower to medium altitudes and less of a problem at altitudes above 6,000 or 7,000 feet. As earth’s temperatures and humidity steadily increase there will be a need to plant coffee at higher and higher altitudes to stay ahead of leaf rust infestations. Meanwhile, coffee growers are trying to cross breed arabica strains with resistant East Indian strains to increase disease resistance while retaining arabica flavor and aroma.
Science, Altitude, and Coffee Characteristics
Higher altitude coffee means slower growth in cooler temperatures. Slower growth results in higher sugar content which, in turn, results in more complex flavors. Coffee at lower altitudes grows faster and produces more coffee but of noticeably lower quality. Higher altitudes tend to have better drainage for coffee with reduces water saturation of coffee beans and further increases sugar concentration and flavor complexity.
Coffee Quality By Altitude
As a general rule, here are the coffee qualities that relate to altitude of production. Above 5,000 feet like in Colombia or Ethiopia coffee has greater complexity, is fruitier, spicier and has aromas that are more floral.
Coffee grown in the 4,000 feet range like in Mexico, Costa Rica and lower elevations in Colombia tends to be more earthy with notes of nut, chocolate, citrus, and vanilla.
Coffee that grows around 3,000 feet such as the lowest Colombian production areas or in Brazil tends to be sweet and smooth.
And coffee grown as low as the 2,500 foot range such as in Hawaii tends to be mild, not very complex, and not acidic.
Altitude Requirements for Arabica Versus Robusta
Robusta is a hardier coffee plant than arabica. Thus it can be grown at lower altitudes where temperatures are higher. Arabica requires not only higher altitude with lower temperatures but also more shade, stable temperatures, and plentiful rainfall. We have written about how both in Colombia and other countries of Latin America and in the East Indies coffee growers are attempting to cross breed robusta and arabica with the hope of obtaining a coffee with the best features of both, namely a hardy coffee with high production that retains arabica’s exceptional qualities. Until that ideal is obtained, we can expect to see the best coffees grown at the highest altitudes in places like the departments of Caldas, Quindío, and Risaralda in Colombia.
Growing Coffee in Your Greenhouse
Coffee plants grow naturally in the tropics in what is referred to as the coffee belt. If you are fortunate enough to live in a place like the Colombian Eje Cafetero you can grow your own coffee. Of course you will need land for growing your coffee crop but the environmental conditions will be ideal for producing great coffee. If you live outside of the coffee belt you will not be able to grow coffee out of doors. However, growing coffee in your greenhouse is a possibility. What you need to do is to create an indoor, year round environment similar to where coffee grows naturally.
Coffee Growing Environment
Coffee plants are perennial but do not survive a frost. Thus anyone living outside of the tropics needs a protected environment for coffee plants to survive winter. The average temperature where the bulk of coffee is grown in Colombia ranges from a nighttime low of 57 degrees Fahrenheit to a daytime high of 73 degrees Fahrenheit or 13 to 22 degrees Celsius. Days are generally overcast with some rain most days. Coffee grows on slopes where it never stands in water and grows in naturally fertile volcanic soil. For growing coffee in your greenhouse you will need to mimic these conditions.
Growing Coffee in a Greenhouse
Although folks in places like Colombia, Brazil, or Vietnam are experts at growing coffee they do not necessarily know much about growing coffee in a greenhouse. However, folks in the far north, like at the University of North Dakota have experience doing just that. Courtesy of NDSU in Fargo, ND, here is some useful information about growing coffee in greenhouses. Start by choosing the right coffee to grow, using the right nutrients, and then maintaining the right indoor environment for growing coffee.
Growing High Quality Coffee in a Greenhouse
You have two basic choices for greenhouse coffee. Robusta coffee is hardy, produces well, and has a high caffeine content. It also does not have the best flavor or aroma. Arabica coffee, on the other hand, can be more fragile and prone to plant diseases, has a lower yield than robusta, and a lower caffeine content. However, the excellent flavor and aroma of arabica makes the effort of growing it worthwhile. As a rule we would suggest that if you are going to the trouble of growing coffee in your greenhouse that you grow a superior coffee variety.
Nutrients for Greenhouse Coffee
Coffee grows best in loamy soil that is well drained so that is what you will want to recreate in your greenhouse. Plan to provide extra phosphorus to younger plants up to the third year. For mature plants use a 10-5-20 fertilizer mix at one thousand five hundred pounds per acre per year. A mix of magnesium, zinc, and iron is also necessary. All of these are natural ingredients of volcanic soil.
Greenhouse Conditions for Growing Coffee
For best results greenhouse conditions for growing coffee should mimic those in the premier growing areas. Air for nighttime lows of sixty degrees and daytime highs of seventy degrees. Rainfall (misting) should be six inches a month on average with a yearly high and low. Plants grow in the peak wet season but require a dry season for cherries to ripen before the harvest. Your greenhouse should have adequate airflow and plants should be spaced sufficiently that the leaves and stems remain reasonably dry. Try to recreate a mountain mist, diffuse lighting and little direct sunlight.
Where Can You Get Coffee Plants for Your Greenhouse?
Fortunately, you do not need to send to Colombia, Brazil, or Vietnam to get seedlings for your greenhouse coffee plants. Many commercial nurseries either have them in stock or can refer you to someone who does. If you have access to fresh coffee cherries or seeds you can plant your own coffee. The cherry is ready when you can rub away the flesh. Set the seeds aside for a few weeks on a plate lined with a paper towel. Then soak the beans in water for a day before planting in four inch pots filled with a commercial potting soil. Plant the seeds just a quarter of an inch deep. Keep in a warm location without direct sunlight. Seeds will germinate in about a month and a half to two months. As plants grow you can replant into larger containers.
How Long Do Coffee Taste and Aroma Last?
Some folks just drink coffee for the caffeine, to wake up in the morning, keep going in the afternoon, or work all night. However, most of us choose coffee that has the aroma and taste that we like. Unfortunately, taste and aroma of coffee to not last forever in the face of oxidation, namely exposure to oxygen in the air. How long do coffee taste and aroma last? It depends on if you are talking about green coffee beans, roasted whole bean coffee, or roasted and ground coffee. And it depends on the time since the coffee was packaged and also the time since the container was opened.
How Does Coffee Lose Its Freshness?
Over time and with exposure to oxygen in the air the natural compounds and oils in coffee break down. This results in loss of antioxidant properties as well as aroma and flavor. Coffee does not come with an expiration date as even stale, old coffee is safe to consume and retains its caffeine content. When coffee remains in the original package it is not exposed to air and thus does not undergo oxidation. When the container is opened that all changes. As a general rule, once you open a container of roasted and ground coffee you will want to brew all of that coffee within two weeks unless you do not mind drinking stale coffee.
How Long Does Roasted Coffee Retain Its Freshness?
Because most folks buy roasted coffee instead of roasting their own, we will start with how long roasted coffee retains its flavor and aroma. The roasted coffee that you purchase at the grocery store will retain the greatest majority of its freshness for up to a year after it was roasted and packaged. But it is totally possible that the bag of coffee you bought at the grocery store was on the shelf for a year before you bought it. That means you are buying stale coffee. But when your store has a fast turnover of its coffee, you can generally expect at least a few months of freshness left in the bag when you buy it.
Whole Bean Versus Ground Coffee and Retention of Freshness
Many people buy ground coffee because it is more convenient than having to grind beans every morning. Unfortunately, the air gets into every grain of ground coffee and the process of becoming state is immediate. When you have whole coffee beans only the outer surface of the coffee beans starts to oxidize and lose flavor and aroma. The interior of the coffee bean will keep its properties for weeks or even months. Think of this as preserving half of your coffee freshness for months instead of days when you buy whole bean roasted coffee and not ground roasted coffee beans.
How Long Do Green Coffee Beans Retain Freshness
If you want optimal freshness for your coffee, consider buying green coffee beans and roasting just enough each day for the coffee you plan to drink. Green coffee beans that are properly stored in a cool, dry location out of the sun can retain their freshness for up to three years! Once you roast your coffee beans and grind them the same rules apply as to coffee that you buy at your local grocery store. A problem with green coffee is that is may be older than you think it is. We wrote an article years ago about how the government of Brazil was paying coffee farmers to store their coffee and not flood the market and drive down prices during a bumper crop year. Some of that coffee did not go onto the market for as long as eight years! As we noted in our article, that ended up being motel and airplane coffee devoid of flavor and aroma but retaining its caffeine content.
Fresh Coffee from Colombia
If you want to avoid buying coffee that has been on the shelf in the grocery store for months or years or green coffee that was part of a government program to support prices, consider buying your green or roasted coffee from Colombia. Contact us at admin@buyorganiccoffee.org for help.
Tricks for Baking With Coffee
We recently published an article about adding coffee to enhance the flavor of baked beans. This brought to mind the whole issue of which herbs, spices, and other ingredients to add to recipes to get optimal results. In regard to using our favorite beverage when preparing dishes in the kitchen, there are a few tricks to baking with coffee that are useful to know. It turns out that it does make a difference which method you use to brew coffee and what kind of coffee you use based on what dishes you are going to add it to.
What Kinds of Coffee Can You Bake With?
In our baked beans recipe we used brewed coffee. However, you can use brewed coffee from a French press for optimal fats and oils, a cold brew coffee, or a percolator with a paper filter to reduce fats and oils. When you cook with brewed coffee you are commonly using coffee to replace water, milk or other wet ingredients as well as using its flavor. When adding coffee to bread recipes it is usually wise to use a dark roast as it goes well with a well-baked crust. No matter whether you use a light or dark roast for your coffee when adding to bread dough for doughnuts, bread, or cinnamon rolls, the acid in the coffee commonly makes the dough easier to work with and results in better rising and bitter notes to a nicely browned crust. For recipes for brownies replace a forth or half of the water with brewed coffee and your coffee with enhance the chocolate while the chocolate and sweetness with bring out subtle coffee flavors.
Using Instant Coffee When You Bake
When you want the taste, aroma, and subtle notes of coffee but not any moisture, try using instant coffee. Espresso powder, instant coffee, or very finely ground roasted coffee beans all work for adding coffee flavor without extra water to a recipe. Rather than adding a dusting of coffee, add your espresso powder or instant coffee to a liqueur or vanilla extract. Use this trick for frostings or for adding to dough. As an example, shortbreads get their moisture from butter and do not need extra water. Adding coffee via a liqueur route is an ideal solution.
Coffee Flavor in Your Banking Without the Beans
A way to get coffee flavor without adding to your recipe is to steep the beans in your liquid of choice along with sugar and other flavorings. This works well for flan, ice cream, or panna cotta. Add roasted beans to cold milk or cream and allow to set in the refrigerator overnight. Your cream or milk to have a coffee flavor but no coffee color. Do this with a thick sugar solution for a coffee-flavored glaze for your favorite cake.
What Flavor to Pair Coffee With
Folks are generally familiar with how red wine goes best with meats while white wines go best with poultry or sea food. The same principles of food pairing work with coffee as well. The bitterness and floral aromas of coffee go well with chocolate, savory herb rubs, crust treatments for baked bread, warming spices, and sugary treats. As a note of caution, coffee can also overpower other flavors so there are times when coffee is best used in moderation when baking. Coffee is commonly added to chocolate but you can use it to enhance caraway, cumin, fennel, cardamon or something citrus like an orange zest.
Coffee Baked Beans Recipe
For most folks the first thing that comes to mind when you mention a coffee recipe is coffee cake. What is funny is that coffee cake is something that you have when drinking coffee but does not contain any coffee. There are, however, recipes for things that actually contain coffee. The point of adding coffee to other foods is to increase flavor more so than add caffeine to your food. As such we offer our readers a coffee baked beans recipe.
Why Do We Add Spices to Our Food?
Back in the Middle Ages the European nobility paid princely sums for spices like peppercorns imported from the orient. They did this as much to disguise the fact that food was often spoiled as to improve the flavor. But today we add spices to our food to enhance the flavor and aroma. In the case of coffee, adding a bit of brewed coffee to your cooking provides an earthy, deep, and rich flavor.
Adding Coffee to Baked Beans
You can make this recipe with canned baking beans or with dry beans that you need to soak first. If you are soaking the beans add just a fourth cup of brewed coffee, preferably arabica and ideally from Colombia. If you are using a can of beans add your coffee and allow to sit for an hour before proceeding with the rest of the recipe. A good recipe is as follows:
- Four slices of bacon, diced
- One sweet onion chopped up
- 28 ounce can or dry bean equivalent of baked beans
- One fourth cup of bar-b-que sauce
- One tablespoonful of brown sugar
- One tablespoonful of apple cider vinegar
- One teaspoonful of Dijon mustard
- One fourth cup of brewed coffee
Brew your coffee and use to soak the dry beans or simply set aside for mixing with everything before cooking.
Fry the bacon and save the grease
Fry the onions in the bacon grease until caramelized
Mix the ingredients well and add to a baking dish. Bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 175 degrees Celsius. Bake of an hour and a half and then check every 15 minutes. The beans will be done at around two hours. Make sure to remove if they start to burn on the edges.
Allow the dish to set five to ten minutes outside of the oven before serving.
This dish serves six to eight people.
Image Courtesy of Just a Pinch
Baking With Coffee
Coffee is a good flavor enhancer to use when baking numerous foods. Recipes including chocolate are almost always improved with the addition of coffee. Coffee and citrus go well together when making ice cream. Coffee can also be added when making rye bread! If you like beef, try a coffee-rubbed steak of coffee mixed into your beef stew. For a great dessert try coffee crème caramel.
For Coffee Baking Success Use Coffee With Great Flavor
The point of adding coffee when baking is not to provide coffee’s wake-me-up effect. It is a lot easier to get that simply by brewing a cup of coffee. Rather you are looking to enhance the flavor of your dish. So, make sure you use coffee that has the best flavor and aroma which means you should use arabica coffee, fresh, and ideally gourmet quality. Fortunately, you do not need to pay exorbitant prices for high quality coffee if you buy coffee from Colombia. For help getting great Colombian coffee, contact us at admin@buyorganiccoffee.org.
Organic Coffee Scams
Organic coffee is great coffee. It is almost always arabica and free of more than a hundred potential contaminants that can be found in non-organic coffees. As a rule the best way to know that your coffee is organic is to look for the USDA Organic label on the package. However, there are organic coffee scams and other false representations in the organic food and beverage world. The USDA has a long list of fraudulent organic certificates that it regularly updates. The image accompanying this article is one of them from a few years ago.
What Is USDA Certification?
In order to be certified as organic coffee by the USDA, a coffee farm or production facility needs to be inspected and then routinely reinspected in order to obtain and maintain certification. Crop standard for USDA certification include the following:
- Three years of having no prohibited substances applied to it.
- Maintenance of soil fertility and crop nutrition via crop rotations, cultivation practices, tillage, cover crop and crop or animal waste materials with only allowed synthetic materials.
- Management of diseases, pests, and weed via biological, mechanical, and physical controls instead of chemicals whenever possible. When necessary synthetic, botanical, and biological methods are allowed but only from a list provided by the USDA.
- Planting stock must be organic and any use of ionizing radiation, genetic engineering, or sewage sludge is prohibited.
Why Is Honest Organic Coffee Certification Important?
There are three issues here. If you want organic coffee you not only want great coffee taste and aroma but you want it without a long list of potential impurities that can be found in regular coffee. And organic coffee drinkers typically want the coffee they drink to have been produced without damaging the environment, water table, bird life, or the lives and safety of those working on coffee farms. Thus the two first issues are coffee quality and environmental concerns. The third is the cost of the coffee. Organic coffee is more expensive than other coffee. It costs more to produce all the way from the coffee farm through processing, storage, and shipping. Organic coffee is similar to gourmet coffee in this regard. Because of the cost and trouble of growing and processing organic coffee nobody bothers with low quality coffee. Thus, organic coffee drinkers are getting better coffee that is environmentally friendly and ultra-pure. Nobody wants to be paying organic prices and then getting an inferior product that ends up hurting the environment.
Fraudulent Organic Certifications
Despite all of the effort put into certifying organic foods and beverages, including organic coffee, there are fraudulent organic certifications that amount to organic coffee scams. The image below of a fraudulent certificate from a few years ago is just one example published by the USDA.
If you wonder about whether the USDA certification of your organic coffee is valid you can check with the USDA. You can also rely on established coffee suppliers such as those who have sold coffee from Colombia with the Juan Valdez trademark as well. For quality coffee from Colombia, organic or not, contact us at admin@buyorganiccoffee.org today.
Is Robusta or Stenophylla the Future of Coffee?
A while back we posed the question, will climate change lead to worse coffee at higher prices? Arabica coffee production is threatened by hotter temperatures and extreme climate fluctuations. Arabica is superior to robusta, the other commercially dominant coffee, but robusta is a hardier coffee and more tolerant to higher temperatures. One of the potential paths forward in the world of coffee will be to cross breed robusta with arabica varieties in an attempt to produce a hardier coffee with arabica’s great taste and aroma. Another route will be to look at coffee varieties that are not now commercially dominant but have flavor and aroma characteristics of arabica along with robusta’s hardiness. One of these is Stenophylla. So, is robusta or Stenophylla the future of coffee?
Robusta Coffee
Robusta is the second most produced coffee in the world, only slightly behind arabica. It has a higher caffeine content. Robusta produces more coffee per plant, comes to maturity quicker, and is much more resistant to coffee plant diseases like coffee leaf rust. Compared to arabica, robusta does better in hot climates and when rainfall is irregular. It can be grown at both high and low altitudes. The main drawback is that robusta does not have the same flavor and aroma qualities as arabica. This issue may be resolved as growers in Asia but also places like Colombia are trying to cross breed arabica and robusta varieties to obtain robusta hardiness with arabica flavor and aroma in a single coffee.
Stenophylla Coffee
All coffee originally grew wild in Africa. There are many coffee varieties that are not grown commercially to the extent that robusta and arabica are. Nevertheless, there are some great, essentially wild, coffees. One of these is Stenophylla. It grows in West Africa, is extremely tolerant to high temperatures, and has a flavor profile similar to arabica! Prior to the last couple of years you have to go back a century to find reports about this coffee variety. This virtually forgotten variety has been rediscovered growing wild in north West Africa.
Information and Image Courtesy of Springer Nature
Not trusting century old reports of a coffee once cultivated in commercial quantities in West Africa this coffee was sent for blind taste testing to eighteen judges across the world. This coffee came from two sources. One was the Coffea Biological Resources Center on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean and the other was from Sierra Leone in West Africa. The results were that this coffee is very similar to a fine arabica in taste and aroma. The coffee was said to have fruitiness, good body, natural sweetness, and a complex flavor profile. Notes of mandarin, peach, honey, jasmine, spice, chocolate, honey, nuts, caramel, and elderflower syrup will be reported in this taste testing.
How Heat Tolerant Is Stenophylla Coffee?
The issue here is preserving good tasting coffee as the world heats up. Stenophylla appears to be a great tasting coffee of a quality similar but not identical to arabica. In other words, judges in the taste testing typically thought this was great coffee but something different from arabica. Stenophylla coffee fruit is black instead of the red color of robusta or arabica. This coffee in indigenous to the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. It grows at low altitudes and significantly higher temperatures than robusta or arabica. The mean annual temperature when Stenophylla grows well is 24.9 degrees Celsius or 76 degrees Fahrenheit compared to 23 degrees Celsius or 73.4 degrees Fahrenheit for Robusta and 18.1 degrees Celsius or 64.5 degrees Fahrenheit for Arabica!
Average Temperatures in Colombian Coffee Growing Region
How does all of this apply to a place like Colombia that currently only grows arabica coffee? The average annual temperature for the city of Pereira at 1,411 meters is 21 degrees Celsius or 69 degrees Fahrenheit. The average annual temperature for Manizales at 2,160 meters is 17.7 degrees Celsius or 64 degrees Fahrenheit. The old standard arabica strains of coffee are only grown at the higher altitudes around Manizales and higher up in the Western Andes. In lower regions like around Pereira they only grow modified arabica strains that are currently tolerant to the heat currently experienced at these lower altitudes. As temperatures climb over the years there will be a need for heat tolerant strains at lower Colombian altitudes. Thus, they may end up using modified robusta strains or introducing a new variety such as Stenophylla.
How to Filter Your Coffee
You can buy great coffee, store it correctly, roast to perfection and still end up with a cup of coffee that is not to your liking. How is that? It has to do with the quality of the water that you use and how you filter your coffee. Using bottled or filtered water will generally take care of the water quality issue. But how to filter your coffee can be a more involved issue. What kind of filter you use determines if you remove oils that provide flavor but also may create health issues.
Optimal Coffee Brewing Temperature
To get the best aroma and flavor you should be buying arabica coffee from places like Colombia. Store correctly and only grind enough coffee for what you will brew. Water temperature is important as water that is too cool will not extract the flavors of your coffee. Water that is too hot will destroy some of those flavors. The ideal brewing temperature is between eighty-two and ninety-two degree Celsius which is one hundred eighty degrees to one hundred ninety-seven degrees Fahrenheit. For pour over coffee boil the water and let stand until the temperature falls sufficiently.
Why Filter Your Coffee?
Brewing coffee is based on pour over, immersion, pressure, or a combination of these. A good reason to filter your coffee is that you then remove both cafestol and kahweol coffee oils. These are diterpene compounds that can raise your cholesterol. Filtered coffee generally contains about one part in thirty of these compounds compared to unfiltered coffee. Using a simple cloth filter for pour over coffee eliminates any hit of paper taste from that kind of filter and lets more oils through for more flavor. More complicated metal and plastic filters are generally designed to get the coffee away from the grounds quickly to avoid over brewing. Paper filters are handy because they can be easily disposed of along with the used grounds. They are also the most effective for screening out all of the grounds as well as a majority of oils.
Filtering Coffee With a French Press
If you want more of the taste and aroma that comes with not removing so much of the oils and grounds from your coffee you probably want to use a French press. With this method make sure that you only use a coarse grind and a pot that exactly fits the amount of coffee that you are going to brew. Ideally preheat your pot and add only about a sixth of the water and your ground coffee. Stir for about fifteen seconds and then add the rest of your water. The wait four minutes as the coffee extracts into the water before pushing down on the plunger of the French press. To avoid over extraction pour your coffee immediately and enjoy.
Paper Coffee Filters
This is the idea way to avoid having too much oil with your coffee as well as unwanted grounds. Coffee filters are convenient but make sure you use the right size for your brewing method. Ideally soak your filter in boiling water and discard excess liquid before using it to filter your coffee. For the pour over method use two tsp of grounds and place in the filter before pouring the water. Do so slowly, for thirty seconds. For coffee percolators follow the direction on the packaging for amount of coffee grounds and water.
How to Make Gourmet Coffee
If you like great coffee you probably buy gourmet coffee. Gourmet coffee is that which has been grown under exacting conditions, picked at the peak of perfection. Gourmet coffee starts with the highest quality coffee beans such as arabica coffee from Colombia. Gourmet coffee is processed in small batches in order to preserve its excellence. All of this having been said, it is important to know how to make gourmet coffee when you make coffee at home. In other words, don’t spoil all of that effort that went into creating high quality coffee by messing up your storage, roasting, grinding, or brewing!
Taking Care of Your Gourmet Coffee
The flavor and aroma of great coffee does not last forever. Over time oxidation (exposure to air) degrades the chemicals that create the best aroma and flavor. If you buy green coffee beans they will retain their freshness for up to three years providing that it is stored properly. Green coffee beans need to be stored in a dark, cool, and dry location. That means no direct sunlight, on shelves and not on the ground, away from strong smells, and away from sources of humidity. It may be convenient to put your coffee in the cupboard right above your stove but that is a really bad idea!
If you buy roasted whole bean gourmet coffee the beans will retain their freshness for up to six months when properly stored. The same “rules” apply to storing roasted coffee beans as to green coffee beans.
Ideally you should store your coffee in a ceramic or dark glass canister and never freeze it. The problem with freezing is that when the coffee thaws it tends to absorb moisture. Each time you take coffee out of the freezer to brew you will degrade your gourmet coffee a bit more.
When to Grind Gourmet Coffee Beans
No matter whether you roast your own coffee at home or purchase roasted gourmet coffee beans, only grind enough coffee to use for one preparation or at least only enough for the day. Oxidation happens much faster when air is in contact with all of the interior of your coffee beans than when air has to penetrate the intact beans. Basically, you start to lose flavor and aroma as soon as you grind your coffee. You also start to lose the valuable antioxidants that confer so many health benefits as well!
Brewing Gourmet Coffee
After you have expended the effort to get, preserve, and grind your gourmet coffee don’t mess it up by using water that is impure, heavily chlorinated, or otherwise likely to impart unwelcome flavors to the final brew. Use filtered water and heat it to at least 195 degrees Fahrenheit but not more than 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Ideally you should purchase a scale for accurate measurement of how much coffee to use with each brewing. As a starting point measure out 90 grams of coffee for a standard coffee maker and then adjust the amount for taste in subsequent efforts.
Choose Your Method For Brewing Gourmet Coffee
We have written about making coffee with a French press versus pour over coffee versus using a percolator. Assuming the same ingredients, a percolator will give you milder coffee while a French press results in a darker, stronger flavor. The pour over route tends to end up with something in between. No matter which method you choose, it is important to clean your equipment after each use. Oil collects in a coffee pot if it is not washed. Mold and bacteria can accumulate in a percolator that is not routinely cleaned. Do not go to the expense and trouble to make great gourmet coffee and then ruin it by neglecting to clean your equipment routinely!