5 things to help you make better coffee

Making coffee is easy. Making great coffee requires a bit more skill. Here are some items every homebrewer should have handy at their coffee bar to get more out of their daily brew.

Photo by Lukas

1.Burr grinder

Coffee is best when ground fresh, immediately before use. Often, people will spend their budget on brewing devices and not put that much thought into a grinder. But the grinder does all the hard work. We’ll discuss grinders at length in a future post. But for now, what you should know is grinding fresh is essential. Once you've grinded your coffee, it loses everything that makes it special within 5 to 6 minutes.

Photo by Viktoria Alipatova

2.Scale

A scale is essential. You want to be able to weigh out how much coffee you need for your recipe. A lot of people brew coffee based on scoops. The problem is that Not all scoops are equal. That is to mean one scoop might be 11 gram, the next might be 14 and that leads to inconsistent brews. If you managed to get the scoops similar you also face another problem. Not all coffees are equal so one origin might be denser than another, or roasted differently so have a different weight per bean. I always recommend experimenting with your brew recipes, but keep track of ratios as well. This is so that if you brew something extraordinary, you can repeat it.

Photo by Marta Dzedyshko

3.Temperature control Kettle

The temperature of your water is a great way to experiment with your coffee and knowing the exact temperature makes brewing easier. The ideal temperature for brewing coffee is between 90 and 94 degrees celsius, although we have brewed great coffee at temperatures as low as 86 degrees Celsius. I wouldn't recommend going any higher than 96 degrees as it may lead to over extracted flavours.

4. Coffee Storage

Coffee starts losing flavour once it’s roasted, and two of coffee’s biggest enemies is oxygen and light. Using an airtight container to store your coffee is an effective way to protect it. Always remember to keep it in a cool, dry place away from any strong odours or smells. Don't keep your coffee in the fridge

Photo by Jessica Lewis

5. Fresh, wholebean, coffee

When buying coffee the single most important thing on the bag is the roast date. Knowing when your coffee has been roasted helps you to plan how to use it. For slow brew methods like Chemex or Aeropress you can start using the coffee one day after the roast day. 5 to 7 days after the roast date the coffee has had a chance to degas and stabilize. So that’s when it’ll be good to start using it for espresso. We always recommend to buy only as much coffee as you can use in 2 weeks. Anything older than 30 days will be lacking in flavour and aroma. If your bag of coffee doesn’t have a roast date then it’s better not to buy it.

 We hope this was helpful and informative. We’re always happy to talk about coffee so if you have any questions feel free to contact us!