Coffee

There is an obstacle course involved with brewing a great cup of coffee. When you wake up for work at 6:00 AM and you have 30-45 minutes to hit the road, how are you going to get a good, hot cup of brew in your hand when you do? The chances are, you could be brewing in a way that delivers flavor far superior to what you are getting now, and in the same amount of time, or even less.

To help you decide what brewing method, or methods, will best match your needs, start by asking these questions:

1) What are the occasions do you normally drink coffee, and what is the relative importance of taste and convenience?
2) How much money are you willing to spend on coffee, a coffee maker, or various brewing equipment?
3)Can this particular brewing equipment produce great coffee?

For most coffee lovers, the biggest hurdle to overcome as you begin to get serious about coffee is the fact that you own an electric drip coffeemaker, and the vast majority of the electric drip brewers sacrifice some of the taste for convenience. If good taste is your ultimate goal, you may want to think of an investment of time rather than dollars. Grinding fresh coffee beans, and measuring coffee precisely, will become second nature after about a week. If you will be going to the trouble of buying fresh, perfectly-roasted coffee beans, then you should brew coffee to get every precious bit of flavor and aroma you are paying for.

A great drip maker combines the essential brewing elements in a specific way. You need a filter that contains a large amount of fresh grounds for each 6 ounces of coffee brewing. The water should be heated to 195-205 degrees F. The water should be allowed to saturate the grounds gently and thoroughly. The total brew cycle, from start to finish, must take from 4 to 6 minutes. If it takes longer than 8 minutes, the coffee will be over-extracted and bitter.

It is almost impossible to brew drip coffee that meets the above criteria using your typical home electric brewer. This is what leads to the frustration so many coffee lovers come across when they try to duplicate good coffee-bar coffee at home. Brewing manually, where you can control the brewing process, is still the absolute best way to get a great cup of coffee. Since almost no coffee maker under $150 can produce great coffee, you will have to sacrifice some flavor when using one. Spend some money on a coffee maker that gets the best reviews, regardless of price, always use quality coffee, and you will come closest to the best cup of coffee possible in an automatic coffee maker.

Greg has been writing articles for over 4 years. Please visit his latest website about coffee at http://www.bestdripcoffeemaker.com with information on finding the best drip coffee maker and other coffee products and discussions that any coffee lover would be interested in.

Author: Greg Parsons
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Coffee Brewing Methods range from popular Espresso or French Press methods to lesser used methods like Turkish. Here we explore the four most popular Coffee Brewing Methods.

Let’s start with the Drip Filtration style.

Drip Filtration is probably the most popular method of all. The Drip Filtration machine works by spraying hot water across ground coffee that is held in a conical shaped filter. The hot water then slowly moves through the ground coffee. Once the water reaches the bottom of the conical filter, it drips into a container beneath it.

The most widely used conical filters are made of paper, while expensive stainless steel or gold conical filters are also available. Yes I did say gold. When buying paper filters, be sure to use oxygen bleached paper. Chemically treated papers may affect the taste of your coffee. Another point to be aware of with paper filters is that you may also have some of the flavorful coffee oils trapped by the paper filter. It is the oils that produce the rich crema when you make an espresso.

The grind is also important with Drip Filtration. If the grind is too fine, you may clog the pores of your filter. You can avoid this by using a course grind (read about grinding here).

Finally, if you do not expect to drink the full pot of coffee, either by yourself (all that caffeine….) or with friends, beware the constantly heated coffee. It loses its flavor and may even become bitter. And the golden rule….never reheat coffee.

One of the simplest of all Coffee Brewing Methods is the French Press or Plunger. This is probably the easiest way to make great coffee!

The French Press works by directly mixing ground coffee with near boiling water. The coffee flavors get drawn out into the water and then the press or plunger is depressed, separating the exhausted coffee grind from the brew. While the process has a similar taste to the Drip Filtration style, the French Press can extract more flavor from the coffee grind by extending the brewing time. But be careful. Manual infusion requires you to get your timing right. If you let the brewing process run too long you may end up with a bitter coffee. Conversely, if you brew too quickly you will have a weak tasting coffee.

One more point, use a course grind. You don’t want fine ground coffee escaping through the metal filter and into the brew. A dusty cup of coffee is not an experience worth having.

Probably the most popular of the Coffee Brewing Methods in recent times is making an Espresso using a machine.

So how does an Espresso machine make a great cup of coffee? Super hot, pressurized water is forced through fine ground, tightly packed coffee. The pressurized infusion process ensures that the water stays in contact with the coffee grounds long enough to draw out much of the coffee ground flavor. The water then finds a path through the coffee grounds. And the coffee commences to pour into your cup. When the water finds a path through the coffee grind it is referred to as the ‘shot being pulled’ through the group.

The sign of a good espresso, using fresh coffee beans, is the richness of the crema. Crema is the hazelnut foam that sits on the surface of the coffee. This is produced by the pressurizing process and the oils of the coffee bean. Oils break down with time, and so a rich crema will be produced using fresh beans.

And if you didn’t catch it when I started talking about Espresso, use a fine grind. Using a course grind allows the water to ‘brush past’ the grind rather than infuse with it. Using a course grind will still produce a good coffee, but it will taste more like a coffee produced using a Drip Filter coffee brewing method rather than true Espresso coffee.

The most Italian of all the Coffee Brewing Methods would have to be making Espresso coffee using a Moka Pot.

The Moka Pot style is also known as a Stovetop coffee pot. Moka pot’s come in several sizes including 2, 4 or 6 cup capacities. The Moka Pot a simple 3 piece pot. The water reservoir is at the base, with a coffee basket in the middle and the brewed coffee ends up in the top.

The coffee brewing method is very simple. The pot is placed on a stove top which heats the water in the lower reservoir. As the water reaches boiling point, the steam rises and the water starts to push upward through the coffee grounds. This continues to travel up the central funnel and seeps into the top chamber where it comes to rest. The process finishes when the coffee stops moving into the top chamber. This should only take a few minutes to brew depending on the cup size of the Moka pot.

The grind should be a fine grind, similar or finer to that used in an Espresso machine. If you want to fill the coffee basket the way traditional Italian drinkers do, then heap the coffee grounds high in the coffee basket and screw the two pieces together. Don’t worry about compacting the coffee. When the top half of the pot is screwed on, the grounds will be compacted by the filter screen. You should end up with a dry, compacted puck of coffee grounds at the end of brewing.

So there you have it. The four most popular Coffee Brewing Methods.

[http://www.the-java-cafe.com/Coffee-Brewing-Methods.html]

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Author: Craig Barista
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera Times