There are countless ways to brew coffee, each method offering a unique experience in terms of taste, strength, and texture. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most popular brewing techniques:
Drip Coffee Maker
The classic drip coffee maker is perhaps the most common method used in households. It’s simple, efficient, and produces a consistent cup of coffee. All you need to do is add ground coffee to a filter, pour water into the machine, and let it do the rest.
Now, I’m going to teach you a quick recipe on how to make your favorite coffee at home with this drip coffee maker. So let’s begin. What is a drip coffee maker? Drip coffee is a brewing method where hot water drips onto a bed of coffee grounds and then filters down into the cup or pot. First, I’m going to demonstrate how you can actually use this drip coffee maker.
For this recipe, you will need your favorite coffee mug. I’m using medium roast coffee and about a cup of milk. The product comes with cup measurements on the pot, which helps you add the right amount of water. So first, I’m going to pour the water into the container. Ideally, you should use water at room temperature, and then the next step is to add the coffee grounds.
Depending on how dark and rich you want your coffee, you can adjust the amount of coffee. I’m going to use a 2:2 ratio of coffee to water, which will make about two cups of coffee. Now, I’ve added my coffee to the filter, and within two minutes, the decoction will start dripping. As you can see here, the coffee is dropping steadily. I wish you could smell the aroma right now.
It’s delicious. I can’t wait! And the decoction is done. Now, for those of you who like black coffee, this is where you stop the process. Just pour yourself a steaming hot cup of coffee.
A lot of people don’t like their coffee bitter. What you can do is add your cup of milk to it. If you want sugar, you can add that as well. Otherwise, this is where you stop. I hope you really liked it.
Pro Tip: Use freshly ground coffee beans and filtered water to elevate the quality of your drip coffee. Also, pay attention to the coffee-to-water ratio, as this will significantly impact the strength of your brew.
French Press
This is how to get incredible results with a French press. I’m looking for a really delicious cup of coffee with none of the salty, sludgy stuff at the bottom. If you’re in a hurry, this really isn’t going to work for you. This is a great way to make coffee, but it’s not very quick. You need a little patience, but it will be rewarded.
You need to get some delicious coffee. Delicious means fresh—freshly roasted—and you’re going to grind it fresh if you want the best possible experience. This will work with pre-ground coffee, but it won’t taste as good as it could. So grind fresh. I would recommend starting with 60-70 grams per liter.
How you like it is up to you. Get some digital weighing scales. This may seem insane, but I promise you, it’s incredibly useful. There are two reasons to use it. First, you’ll brew coffee that tastes really good. Second, you’ll want consistency in your brew every single time, and therefore, knowing what you did will help you achieve that.
Fresh, clean, soft water is essential. Don’t brew with hard or unfiltered water. If the water doesn’t taste delicious on its own, it’s not going to make great coffee.
So here’s how it works. Grind your coffee, put it in the French press. Ignore what most people say—don’t grind super coarse. Grind it to something like a medium texture. Boil your water (don’t worry too much as long as it’s boiled). Then pour the right amount of water on top.
I might brew 30 grams of coffee with 500 grams of water. Let it sit for 4 minutes. Just hang out. Wait. Be patient.
I’m going to grab a couple of tablespoons. With one of them, I’m going to stir the crust that forms on top of the coffee. A lot of it will start to fall away, and you’ll be left with some bits on top, some foam, and some floating bits. You want to scoop those off. Just throw them down the sink.
I want you to do nothing at all for at least 5 minutes. Now, this is a little frustrating because you feel like you’ve brewed the coffee, but even if you poured it into a cup, it’s too hot to drink right now anyway. The longer you leave it, the better it’s going to taste.
As you wait, all those floating bits will fall to the bottom of the press and settle in that bed of coffee. This is exactly what I want. I don’t want those in the cup; we want them stuck at the bottom of the French press. After 5, maybe 7 or 8 minutes, it’s ready.
When you put the plunger in, do not plunge all the way. All you’re going to do is stir up all the sediment again. Just press it until it’s sitting on the surface of the coffee. We can use it as a strainer to catch any big pieces still floating around, but we shouldn’t need it. Then gently pour the coffee into the cup. This will be the most delicious, sludge-free cup of coffee you’ll get from a French press. Enjoy.
Pour-Over
I’m going to walk you through a few simple steps to brew a tasty cup of coffee with a V60 brewer. I’m starting with a 1:16 brew ratio, which means about 20 grams of coffee to 320 grams of water, resulting in one tasty cup of coffee.
Let’s get started by heating our water to boiling. Grab your filter, place it in the brewer, and preheat and rinse the water filter to remove any papery taste. As that continues to drip out, prepare your coffee. Remember 20 grams. Grind your coffee to a roughly medium to coarse grind size.
Now that I have my coffee ground, don’t forget to dump out any extra liquid. You don’t want that in your cup. Make sure it’s 20 grams, then settle the bed a little, tear it again, and you’re ready to brew. I’ll start with pouring 50 grams of water and wait for about 30 seconds. This allows the gasses to escape, resulting in a much tastier cup of coffee.
When it’s close to 30 seconds, prepare for your pulse. Pour until you reach 200 grams on your scale.
Once you hit 200, swirl it, set it down, and wait roughly 10-15 seconds for it to draw down. Then pour until you hit 320 grams. Nice and easy circles.
Once you hit 320, give it another swirl. Our target time for brewing is roughly 3:15 to drip out. If it happens faster, your grind size is too coarse; if it’s too slow, your grind size is too fine.
Once it’s finished brewing, take off the brewer, swirl it a little, and it’s ready to serve and enjoy.
It’s tasty! You can evaluate your cup now. If it tastes a little sour, your grind was probably too coarse. If it tastes bitter and dries out your mouth, your grind was too fine, and your time was probably too long. For the most part, those are your simple adjustments to get a very tasty cup of coffee.
Espresso Machine
You know that feeling when you walk into a coffee shop and smell the aroma wafting through the air? You know what love feels like. I think it’s time we bring that love home. To make espresso, obviously, you need an espresso machine, but if you don’t have one, don’t worry.
It’s the first thing I think about when I wake up. I use it as an excuse to meet up with old friends, and that’s why I decided to team up with Trade Coffee. This is our first time together, and they feel the same way I do about properly sourced coffee. With 50 of the nation’s best roasters and over 400 ethically sourced coffees to choose from, being indecisive like me is a blessing, as they have a system that matches you with the perfect coffee for you.
So, like I said, you’ll need an espresso machine. There are many on the market, but I’m using a Breville Barista Express. There’ll be a link in the description if you want to read about it, and I’ll also link to a less expensive option.
I know this one is a bit pricey, but to me, it’s the perfect beginner machine because it comes with everything you need in one package, and it brews pretty good espresso. And no, I’m not being paid by Breville (although I wish I were). Anyway, once you’ve got your machine, make sure it’s topped off with water and that your portafilter is fitted with the appropriate basket to pull a double shot. Let’s do this.
Now, let’s quickly talk about types of beans. Some people don’t know this, but you can use any roast or origin you want for espresso. It’s a misconception that it must be the darkest roast. I’ve found that some of my favorite espresso pulls were actually made with medium roasted beans. Roasting and origin simply affect the flavor profile.
Cold Brew
Let’s just go ahead and face it. If you’re making cold brew at home from scratch, you’re addicted to coffee and maybe, well, probably just caffeine as a whole. But that’s okay. Let me be of assistance. Why cold brew?
Cold brew versus iced coffee. Cold brew extracts the coffee very slowly over a long period of time which limits the amount of acidity and bitterness that is already involved in coffee making. Because with the heat in coffee, that tends to extract a little bit of bitterness and much more acidic whereas with cold brew, you get a lower acidity, lower bitterness and an overall smoother flavor and more importantly.
That was a lot of saliva. My mouth is obviously getting excited for cold brew. Plus, not to mention much higher caffeine content. So, you’re welcome. Now, with good cold brew come good beans.
Obviously, that’s kind of a given, but you know, use your favorite or ideally use a locally sourced, maybe, freshly roasted coffee. Some sites say that older coffee is better, but you know, that is up to you. Now, we’re going to be doing 2 different methods here, but they both use the same grind consistency in the same ratio of coffee to water. Now, we’re going to start by grinding 1 and a half cups or 80 grams of coffee beans. Now, when you’re grinding the coffee, keep in mind that you want the grind consistency to be relatively coarse, something like coarse cornmeal.
Then simply add that coffee to a half gallon container. In this case, I used a half gallon mason jar. They’re really great and they’re cheap. Now, for method number 1, which is the immersion cold brew method. So to these beans, you’re going to add 6 cups or 1400 grams of cold or room temperature water, either or, you just don’t want it to be hot.
Ideally, Give it a good stir to make sure that you’ve hydrated all the grounds, put a lid on it, and place it in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours. 24 hours will make a much stronger brew, and 12 hours will make a pretty light brew. Now, for method number 2, which is the hot blue method. This is essentially the same thing, but this time you’re only going to add a third of your water which has been heated up until it’s steamy and hot, not quite boiling, but pretty hot. And if you want to be specific, probably somewhere around 205 degrees Fahrenheit.
Get that a little stir to hydrate the beans and let it sit for 1 minute, no more no less. Then immediately after that minute, add the remaining 4 cups of your water and make sure that that water is cold because you want to cool this mixture right back down. Yet again, give it a little stir, put a lid on it, place it in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours. Now, once that 12 to 24 hours is up, remove it from the fridge, and now we have to strain it. Now, since I’m giving you 2 different methods to brew the cold brew, it only seems right to give you 2 different methods to strain it.
Now, the first one would be through a fine mesh strainer with cheesecloth laid over it. The downside and drawback of this method is that if you strain it through this and your grinder doesn’t get a super consistent grind, then it’s going to be a little bit gritty. You’re going to get a little bit of grittiness through there, so, you know, this may not be a good choice for everybody. Now the other method that I’ve sort of figured out is pouring it through a pour over type coffee situation. So I’m basically just pouring it through the filter of my pour over, AKA my Chemex, and this actually filters out all the grounds.
I am Sabiq Rasel is an Entrepreneur and broadcaster. I believe that every sip of coffee holds the potential for a moment of inspiration, creativity, and every cup tells a story.
