How Do I Brew Coffee

October 10, 2021

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Rule : Buy Fresh Beans

How to Brew Coffee Using a Bodum French Press, Instructions

Without question, coffee is best when used within days of being roasted. Buying from a local roaster is the surest way to get the absolute freshest beans. Be wary of buying bulk coffee from supermarket display bins. Oxygen and bright light are the worst flavor busters for roasted beans, so unless the store is conscientious about selling fresh coffee, the storage tubes get coated with coffee oils, which turn rancid. Coffee beans packaged by quality-conscious roasters and sold in sturdy, vacuum-sealed bags are often a better bet.

How To Make Coffee In A Saucepan

Fire up the stovetop, were going old school on our morning cup. I actually first tried this method when I was a young caffeine-dependent renting my very first apartment. I bought a huge canister of ground coffee. I forgot to buy a coffee maker. First things first.

Heres what youll need to make one cup:

One small saucepan

Modify amounts as needed if you need to prepare multiple cups.

The Way to Brew It:

Fill your saucepan with the desired amount of water. We recommend using a little more than what will fill your cup as youll lose a little of it in the boiling process.

Next, stir in your coffee grounds.

Put your saucepan over medium-high heat and allow it to come to a boil. Keep an eye on it and stir occasionally to prevent grounds from sticking on the bottom of the pan.

Boil, uncovered, for at least two minutes.

Turn off your stove. Remove the saucepan from heat and allow it to sit for up to four minutes. This will give the grounds plenty of time to settle on the bottom.

If youre using a ladle, scoop coffee out and into your mug. Otherwise, pour very slowly to ensure the heavy grounds stay at the bottom and out of your cup!

Thats it! Pretty painless, right? I mean its no pushing a button or setting an automatic brew. But this way youll always be prepared, even if youre out visiting your in-laws who dont drink coffeegasp!

How To Make Coffee With A Strainer

This method is basically revisiting the saucepan way, but with an added convenience. If you have a mesh strainerone with very small holesyou can get a cup of coffee minus the risk of those pesky grounds. Or if you like a little added texture to your morning mug of joeskip this method and check out the next one!

You will need:

The Way of the Brew:

Add water to your kettle or saucepan .

Measure in your coffee grounds .

Bring water to a boil and keep it there for two minutes.

Take your saucepan off the burner.

Since you dont have to wait for the grounds to settle, you can set your strainer over the mug and begin pouring right away.

Add cream and sugar if you like, sip and smile.

I like this method because its quick and efficient and you get a strong cup of coffeehold the grounds. However, I dont love cleaning my mesh strainer, so thats one reason this is more of a just in case method than a daily one for me.

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How To Make Cold Brew Coffee With Ground Coffee

Learn how to make cold brew coffee with ground coffee. This takes a while, but it will give you delicious coffee to make iced coffee drinks.

For many, cold brew coffee is a wonderful alternative to traditional coffee. It is perfect for enjoyment in the morning, or at any time of day. Plus, it is especially pleasant during the hot summer as a refreshing and energizing drink.

When you learn how to make cold brew coffee with ground coffee, it opens up a whole new world of coffee for you. Learning the recipe for cold brew coffee is pretty simple and it does not take too long to prepare.

I use my homemade cold brew coffee to make coffee popsicles and iced coffee drinks. If you love iced coffee drinks from the coffee shop, you’ll be shocked at how easy they are to make at home!

Rule 6 Avoid Cheap Filters

Bargain-priced paper coffee filters yield inferior coffee, according to the experts. Look for “oxygen-bleached” or “dioxin-free” paper filters . Alternatively, you may wish to invest in a long-lived gold-plated filter . These are reputed to deliver maximum flavor, but may let sediment through if the coffee is ground too finely.

Remember To Dilute The Cold Brew Concentrate

One thing to keep in mind is that youre actually making cold brew concentrate. And this is pretty potent stuff. Only drink this straight up if you want to feel jittery and buzzy for the rest of the day .

Instead, what I recommend is serving this up over ice or diluting 50/50 with water. I also recommend adding your favorite milk, like almond milk, cashew milk or oat milk, for a deliciously creamy, and definitely thirst-quenching beverage.

Use Them As A Fertilizer For Plants And Flowers

Coffee grounds are high in Nitrogen so adding them to your garden soil will give your plants all the nutrients they need. Theyre perfect for growing flowers especially roses. If you dont have any leftover coffee grounds throw them out after brewing because they contain caffeine which could harm your plant.

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How To Serve Cold Brewed Coffee

Cold brewed coffee can be served iced or piping hot, dealer’s choice. You follow the same method for making the coffee either way, and then either serve it over ice or warm it up in the microwave for a hot cup. When warming it for hot coffee, I often add a splash of water to dilute the coffee before warming. But this, again, is a matter of personal taste.

Too strong for your taste? Iced coffee does make a particularly strong cuppa joe! If you’re serving it iced, the ice is meant to melt and dilute the coffee a little. If it’s still a bit too much for you, just dilute your glass with some water or milk to taste.

Ready to give cold brew coffee a try? Below is everything you need to know to make your own batch at home.

Why Does A Dedicated Cold Brew Coffee Maker Make A Better Batch Of Cold Brew Coffee

How to Make / Brew Tea using a Coffee Maker

A cold brew coffee maker is necessary for two simple reasons. It helps you properly:

1) disperse the water into the grounds, and
2) filter out the coffee grounds.

The cold brew coffee maker we use at home is this OXO Cold Brew Coffee Maker, and it makes an incredibly clean and strong batch of cold brew coffee.

A cold brew coffee concentrate maker will help you disperse the water over the coffee in a more even manner

I’ll explain how to make cold brew coffee without a cold brew coffee maker later, but I’ll touch on a couple of key points now.

First, you want to disperse the water over your coffee grounds so that they get wet in an even manner to help with the “bloom” . The OXO cold brew coffee concentrate maker, for example, has a “rain cap” that helps you pour water evenly over the coffee grounds.

You can better drain/filter your cold brew coffee concentrate from the used coffee grounds with a dedicated cold brew coffee concentrate maker

Second, when you are draining your cold brew coffee concentrate through a filter, you want to avoid agitating the coffee grounds by moving around too much. Doing so will release bitter compounds into the coffee concentrate.

Thus, most cold brew coffee makers account for this by allowing you to transfer the concentrate with minimal movement.

With the OXO cold brew coffee maker, you literally put the coffee container on top of the stand and flip a switch. The cold brew coffee concentrate drains right into the serving/storage pot.

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How To Brew The Perfect Cup Of Coffee

Tips for getting coffee-shop results at home

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The days of picking up a latte or cold brew on your way to work are now on hold for many because of the coronavirus pandemic, but Americans havent given up their thirst for coffee theyre just making it themselves. Coffee consumption, already up 5 percent in the past five years, has taken a bigger leap in the past month or so. Sales of whole bean and ground coffee in mid-March were 61 percent higher than at the same time last year, according to data analytics company IRI.

If you arent used to brewing your own, you may not know how to get the complexity and flavor of a good java-shop coffee at home. Or with some extra time on your hands, instead of relying on your coffee maker you may want to try a different brew method, but feel intimidated.

Well, getting a superior cup at home is easier than you think. We enlisted two expert coffee testers to help us do a small test to break down the steps to the perfect cup of coffee using five techniques: Aeropress, Chemex, French press, pour-over, and auto drip. No matter which one you choose, these tips will help you take your home brew from so-so to pro.

What Can You Do With Coffee Beans 19+ Amazing Uses For Coffee

Other than the plain old obvious of making your fave cuppa Joe just what can you do with coffee beans? It is a viable and great question those cool exotic coffee beans can be expensive and my old adage of being thrifty is waste not, want not.

In this article I will show you what to do with old coffee beans, what to do with unused coffee grounds, how to refresh old beans and a lot more.

Stay tuned to learn some pretty neat alternative uses, like making a coffee face and body scrub, a hair treatment and how to use coffee to remove those bags and dark rings around your eyes!

There are a lot more we can do other than just beauty treatments. Keep reading to find out 20+ great uses for coffee beans.

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Using A Mug And Coffee Dripper

1Place a coffee dripper on top of your mug and insert a paper filter. A coffee dripper looks like an upside down cone set atop a saucer. Place the coffee dripper on top of the mug with the saucer part touching the rim, and the cone part sticking up. Insert a coffee filter into the cone.

You can use this same method to prepare coffee using a Chemex brewer. Simply insert a coffee filter into the top part, then proceed with the method.

Use the same type of filter you would use inside a coffee machine. You can use either the envelope type or the cup type.

Consider running hot water through your filter, then discarding the water. This will take the paper flavor out of the filter.

2Add 1 tablespoon of ground coffee into the filter. For a stronger brew, use 2 tablespoons instead. You can use pre-ground coffee, but your brew will tast much better if you use freshly-ground coffee beans instead.

3Pour enough boiled water into the filter to saturate the ground coffee. Bring some water to a complete boil, take it off the heat, then let it cool for about 10 seconds. Pour enough of the water over the ground coffee to saturate it.XResearch source

Don’t add all of the water just yet. You want the coffee to “bloom” first, which will take about 30 seconds. This is when it soaks up the water and turns a little bubbly.

If you pour all 6 ounces of water into the coffee dripper, it may not drain fast enough. As a result, it may overflow.

Pick Your Brew Method

How To Make Coffee Without A Coffee Maker

Theres no one right way to brew coffee. In fact, youll probably end up tweaking each of these methods to find the right one for your taste. But if you follow the steps belowwhich were developed by our expert tasters using Colombian coffeesyoull find yourself with a flavorful, quality cup every time. Note that each method can produce a different-tasting brew, so use the tasting notes from our test to pick the one that suits your flavor preferences best.

AeropressTasting Notes: Fairly complex coffee with good body and aroma.Pros and Cons: Perfect for when you want a quick, single-serving cup without sacrificing flavor. Its easy to use and clean, and produces coffee that is more complex than drip but just a touch less so than the other methods below. 1. Grind coffee beans to fine. 2. Wet the rubber piston and insert it into the brewing cylinder about ¼ inch. Flip the brewer upside down and place on gram scale. Zero the scale. 3. Add 17 grams of coffee to the cylinder. Zero the scale. 4. Slowly add 250 grams of hot filtered water . 5. Steep for 1 minute, 15 seconds. 6. Place paper filter into filter holder, moisten filter with hot water, and lock holder in place. 7. Flip brewer over and stand on a cup. Gently press down on the brewing cylinder with steady pressure until there is no more water to push through the device.

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Pour Over/drip: Coffee Cone

One of the oldest, simplest, fastest and cheapest ways to brew coffee is the drip method using a coffee cone and paper filter. Hot water is poured evenly over coffee grounds in a paper filter. With gravity, the brewed coffee drips slowly and directly into a cup or pot. Coffee cones are made of plastic, glass, stainless steel or ceramic. The shape of the cone and their filters will influence the flavours. Popular brands include Melitta, Hario V60, Kalita Wave and Bee House.

Grind of Beans: medium-fine to coarse
Quantity of Coffee: 3 tablespoons of coffee
Brewing Time: 1-3 minutes
Flavour Profile: Smooth, round body
Cost: $8-$71
Produces a single cup of coffee
Easy to clean

Requires Chemex paper filters

Making Coffee Without A Coffee Maker

1Drape a tea towel to the top of a mug. Use your hand to tuck the handkerchief into the mug, creating a 3 to 4-inch deep pocket. You can also use a bandana, handkerchief, cotton fabric, or muslin fabric as long as they are clean.XResearch source

Make larger servings by placing the tea towel over a mason jar. You will need to increase the amount of coffee grounds and water later on, however.

If the fabric has a loose weave, fold it into a square first.XResearch source

2Secure the tea towel to the rim of your mug. You can use binder clips, paper clips, or clothespins. You will need at least two clips, one for each side, but four would be more secure.

Alternatively, wrap a rubber band around the top of the mug, cinching the tea towel to it.

3Add medium-ground coffee into the tea towel. Freshly-ground coffee would work the best, but you can use pre-ground if you have nothing else. You will need 1 to 2 tablespoons of coffee for each serving. The more coffee you add, the stronger the brew will be.

Don’t use finely-ground coffee, or the grounds will filter through the tea towel and get into the brewed coffee.

Don’t use coarsely-ground coffee. They will get clogged between the fine weave of the tea towel.

4Heat some water. It would be best if you heat the water to somewhere between 195 to 205Â°F . If this is not possible, simply boil some water, then let it sit off-heat for about 30 seconds.XResearch source

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Whats The Best Cold Brew Brewing Time

We recommend letting your cold brew steep for 12 to 18 hours. This is a big range, but keep in mind that its a slow process, so the flavor wont be drastically different at either end of the range. The biggest thing to avoid is brewing for longer than 24 hours, after which your cold brew may be undrinkable and very over-extracted. Try brewing for 12 or 14 hours to start and see what you think! If the flavor isnt strong enough, let your next batch brew for longer.

So What’s The Deal With Cold Brew Concentrate

How To Brew Coffee, How to brew a great pot of Coffee

Although they’re both used to make a glass of cold brew, there’s a big difference between cold brew coffee and cold brew concentrate. ” is simply a very strong solution of coffee solubles and water. It’s too strong to enjoy as-is, so when it’s time to drink it, you dilute the concentrate with fresh water to taste,” explains Easto. Most of the cold brew options that you’ll find in the grocery store are concentrate, such as Grady’s New Orleans-Style .

If you want to make cold brew concentrate, Easto recommends using a ratio of one part coffee to six parts water.

What Is Cold Brew Coffee

Its easy to confuse cold brew with iced coffee. Even though both are served cold, theyre actually made in entirely different ways. Iced coffee is brewed using hot water its simply regular drip coffee thats been allowed to cool and poured over ice. Not surprisingly, cold brew is brewed using cold or room temperature water. It takes longer to make , but the flavor is less bitter.

You Dont Have To Worry About An Uneven Grind

Most blade grinders chop the beans imperfectly, which means all those bean fragments are a different size and they are going to brew at different rates. Some will be under-extracted , some will be over-extracted . You kind of get the worst of both worlds, and it can actually cause the cup of coffee to taste worse than if you just brew it with whole coffee beans.

So if you accidentally bought whole coffee beans, you dont have to try to grind your coffee beans without a grinder. You might be better off brewing them whole.

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