Have you ever wondered how restaurants get their coffee to taste so good?
First of all, restaurants are in the business of pampering you so they devote much more time to the perfection of a good cup of coffee. Sometimes I'll remember a restaurant just because of their excellent coffee.
So what are their secrets and how can you duplicate this recipe at home? It may surprise you to find out that the French Press brewing method could be the secret in achieving that restaurant quality taste.
Most fine restaurants use a press pot, also known as the French Press, which produces an extremely rich cup of coffee.
Press pot coffee is coffee steeped for 3-4 minutes between 195 to 205 degrees F. It produces a thicker and much richer taste than an auto-drip machine can produce.
A disadvantage of the French Press is it may leave trace amounts of coffee sediment. But the rich taste more than makes up for the small amount of sediment at the bottom of your cup.
So first, start off with a quality medium roast coffee, which is what most restaurants use. I can give you a couple of good recommendations.
Seattle's Best Breakfast Blend, Starbucks Breakfast Blend or Starbucks Sulawesi Coffee is 3 excellent choices. These are full-bodied coffees yet very smooth tasting. They are some of our best sellers at PerfectCoffees.com and work well for French Press brewing.
You want to grind the coffee slightly larger than you would for drip coffee. Too fine of a grind will produce a bitter cup of coffee. If your grind is too coarse, the coffee will taste weak. A quality grinder is the best thing you can do to improve the taste of French press coffee.
Remove the plunger from the press pot and put 1 rounded tablespoon of coarse ground coffee per each 6oz. of water into the pot. You can adjust this to your own taste.
Coffee is 99% water so use clean filtered or bottled water free from chlorine and other minerals that affect the taste of coffee.
Boil the water and remove it from the heat for five minutes before you pour it. This will give you the 195 to 205 degree water that is ideal to brew with. Now pour the 195 to 205 degree water over the ground coffee.
Stir the coffee to get total saturation of the grounds then place the plunger on top of the pot and let the coffee steep for 3 to 4 minutes.
Depress the plunger slowly to push the grounds to the bottom of the pot.
Serve all the coffee in the pot after the 3 to 4 minutes of steeping. Otherwise the coffee will keep getting stronger.
If you have any left, you can always transfer it to a clean, preheated air pot or a stainless steel Thermos. This will keep the coffee hot about an hour without hurting the flavor.
The French press brewing method definitely takes more time but gives us the result we are looking for. Restaurant quality coffee in the comfort of your own home.
Gary Gresham is the webmaster for www.perfectcoffees.com where you can purchase quality coffee, tea, cups & mugs, coffee gifts and delicious desserts online. He offers a free monthly coffee newsletter at www.perfectcoffees.com/newsletter.html.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
How to Buy, Store, and Grind it for the Perfect Cup
In the early days of the coffee craze, before the first Starbucks arrived in my town, I owned a tea and coffee house for several years. At the time, espresso was something new for most people, and a lot of my customers had questions. I decided to teach a class on coffee at the shop, and learned in the process that there are several misunderstandings about buying, storing, and grinding coffee that when corrected can lead to a much more enjoyable cup of coffee.
True coffee connoisseurs know that buying coffee beans in small amounts that allow you to brew your coffee within a day or two of being roasted will result in the closest to a perfect cup of java. If you keep the beans in an air-tight container the flavor will remain strong for seven to ten days. Contrary to popular belief, storing beans in your refrigerator or freezer will actually diminish the flavor. There are two reasons for this. First, the beans will soak up the flavors of other stored items. Secondly, moisture affects the oils in the roast. Better to store that container on the counter (in a dark, cool place, if possible). If you can't smell an aroma or it's unpleasant, the beans are past their prime.
Soapy water can leave a residue, so when cleaning your coffee storage, use a dry cloth or paper towel to soak up the oil. Clean the container regularly because oil can get rancid over time. Also, frequently clean the equipment you use for brewing. Again, don't use soap because of the residue. Instead use vinegar and salt and rinse thoroughly.
Always grind only the amount you will use immediately. Once exposed, the oils in the beans disperse, affecting the coffee flavor. If you grind your beans the night before you brew your morning cup, you will be losing flavor. Switch to grinding in the morning, unless you don't want to wake your sweetheart with the noise from the grinder. How fine or coarse the grind should be depends on how long the hot water will be in contact with the coffee grinds. The shorter the length of time, the finer the grind so that the surface area is maximized. Here are the consistencies you will want for the different methods of brewing:
Drip Brew: Grind to a character similar to table sugar if the drip cycles range from four to six minutes. Grind to a finer consistency if less.
French Press: Use an extremely coarse grind.
Espresso: Very fine, powder-like. The extraction time of espresso should be between 25 and 30 seconds. If a one ounce extraction takes longer, use a coarser grind; if it takes less time, grind finer.
How much coffee do you grind? For brewed (and French Press) coffee, three tablespoons for eight ounces of water. For espresso, an ounce (7 grams) for a single shot. Double that for a double shot.
Time and again I heard from my customers that they had no idea what a good cup of coffee really tasted like until after they had followed these easy guidelines. Try it. It's the small things that will make your coffee drinking experience sublime.
Professional writing coach Marilyn J. Schwader writes on a range of topics. Her articles about coffee are published in The News at QY Coffee the single on-line resource for a world of news about coffee. Be sure to refer to all Marilyn's articles at http://www.qycoffee.com/
True coffee connoisseurs know that buying coffee beans in small amounts that allow you to brew your coffee within a day or two of being roasted will result in the closest to a perfect cup of java. If you keep the beans in an air-tight container the flavor will remain strong for seven to ten days. Contrary to popular belief, storing beans in your refrigerator or freezer will actually diminish the flavor. There are two reasons for this. First, the beans will soak up the flavors of other stored items. Secondly, moisture affects the oils in the roast. Better to store that container on the counter (in a dark, cool place, if possible). If you can't smell an aroma or it's unpleasant, the beans are past their prime.
Soapy water can leave a residue, so when cleaning your coffee storage, use a dry cloth or paper towel to soak up the oil. Clean the container regularly because oil can get rancid over time. Also, frequently clean the equipment you use for brewing. Again, don't use soap because of the residue. Instead use vinegar and salt and rinse thoroughly.
Always grind only the amount you will use immediately. Once exposed, the oils in the beans disperse, affecting the coffee flavor. If you grind your beans the night before you brew your morning cup, you will be losing flavor. Switch to grinding in the morning, unless you don't want to wake your sweetheart with the noise from the grinder. How fine or coarse the grind should be depends on how long the hot water will be in contact with the coffee grinds. The shorter the length of time, the finer the grind so that the surface area is maximized. Here are the consistencies you will want for the different methods of brewing:
Drip Brew: Grind to a character similar to table sugar if the drip cycles range from four to six minutes. Grind to a finer consistency if less.
French Press: Use an extremely coarse grind.
Espresso: Very fine, powder-like. The extraction time of espresso should be between 25 and 30 seconds. If a one ounce extraction takes longer, use a coarser grind; if it takes less time, grind finer.
How much coffee do you grind? For brewed (and French Press) coffee, three tablespoons for eight ounces of water. For espresso, an ounce (7 grams) for a single shot. Double that for a double shot.
Time and again I heard from my customers that they had no idea what a good cup of coffee really tasted like until after they had followed these easy guidelines. Try it. It's the small things that will make your coffee drinking experience sublime.
Professional writing coach Marilyn J. Schwader writes on a range of topics. Her articles about coffee are published in The News at QY Coffee the single on-line resource for a world of news about coffee. Be sure to refer to all Marilyn's articles at http://www.qycoffee.com/
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