In the KitchenwithBella

Coffee is one of those American staples, consumed by the gallons, and I’m no different. I love a good cup of coffee. Unfortunately, it always seemed that this good cup was either hard to find or required a trip to the very expensive coffee shop. But no more.

With some sound advice from several quarters, I’ve found a repeatable formula for a good cup of homemade java.

First you must start with good beans. And I mean beans, not grounds. This isn’t just a coffee-snob conceit; it really makes a difference, because freshness is key. From the moment when the bean has finished roasting, it’s on a downward slide, losing essential flavor compounds to heat or light or air. Grind them up and the slope becomes even steeper. What you don’t need is expensive boutique beans. In fact, a good supermarket-brand bean is just fine.

I used to buy Starbucks’ medium-roast beans at my supermarket for about $8 per pound, but I’v since found that the very economical Eight O’Clock Coffee beans, at $4 per pound, taste nearly as good without the cost.

Whichever bean you buy, stay away from the open containers of beans that you pour yourself. (You certainly don’t want to grind them in the store either—see point above.) Who knows how long those beans have been sitting out in the open air, losing flavor and picking up funky scents? You also want to make sure that it’s in a vacuum-sealed bag, not just a rolled-up seal or twist tie—again, away from air. Also look for the freshest beans possible. I once bought a pound of beans at a Dunkin Donuts. I figured that since I like their coffee, their beans would be good. Wrong! The beans had to have been sitting around for a long time. They had completely lost the oily dark sheen of freshly roasted coffee and were a dull, lifeless brown.

When you open the bag, keep an eye out for “quakers.“ These are beans that will have an “off” lighter color than the rest. These are underdeveloped, immature beans that make it through the roasting process and they will impart a spoiled, stale taste to the coffee, like gas station coffee kept on the burner all day.

When you get the beans home, keep them stored in an airtight light-opaque container away from heat. I haven’t found an airtight container I like, so I keep mine in a Bell jar in a dark cabinet, air removed from the jar using a home vacuum-sealing system. Whatever you do, don’t store them in the freezer or refrigerator. It doesn’t do any better at preserving the beans and it creates an opportunity for condensation to form on the beans when you take them out—again, water is the enemy of beans.

The daily grind

Okay, so you’re finally ready to make your coffee. Get out your handy coffee grinder. I prefer the Braun Black Electric Blades Grinder - KSM 2; in fact, we have two—I use one exclusively as a spice grinder.

Now here’s the big secret to the best coffee you’ll make: Two tablespoons of ground coffee per 6 oz. of water. That’s it. No more, no less. Trust me. Here’s the problem. Many people think they don’t like strong coffee, and so they use fewer grounds. That’s the exact opposite thing to do. The way coffee works is that as the hot water passes through, it extracts the flavor compounds. But if you pass too much water through the grounds, it begins to extract the bitter flavor compounds that people perceive as strong coffee. So rather than watering down the coffee by using fewer grounds (or more water), you’re just making a bitter, thin brew. (Of course, this is for regular coffee, not lattes or espresso or any specialty drinks.)

The size of the grounds makes a difference too. The smaller the individual grains, the more flavor that is extracted. Espresso grounds are like a fine powder, which makes it very strong. In my Braun grinder, I grind them up for 15 seconds. After grinding, clean out the grinder fairly well. If you leave grounds in it, they will grow stale and mix with your next batch, tainting it.

Water, water, everywhere

Next comes the water. The ideal temperature for brewing coffee is just off the boil, about 190-205 degrees. Now, when I started my quest for the perfect cup of coffee, I used a manual drip filter and thermal carafe. I would heat up water in the electric kettle, and after it reached the boil, I’d wait about 5 to 10 seconds for it drop into the temperature sweet spot, and pour it over the grounds. Ideally you want total brew time in two minute range or so and the Mellita filter I was using did just that. Unfortunately, over time the filter wore out and stopped pouring water through as well, and when I went to get a replacement, found that they didn’t sell it anymore.

So, I broke down and bought an automatic drip. Still, I wanted one that would approximate my manual system, and I found it in the Cuisinart DCC-1200 12-Cup Brew Central Coffeemaker. It has a lot of very good features, including a built-in water filter and a special setting when you’re making 1-4 cups that brews it hotter. The only downside is that my pot only reaches about 175 degrees, a bit short of the optimum range. Still, it makes a very good cup.

As soon as the brewing is done, either immediately pour your coffee into your mug or into a thermal carafe/Thermos. Don’t leave it on the hot plate, because all that will do is continue to cook the coffee. Nothing tastes like stale and burnt coffee than coffee left on the hotplate burner for too long.

Iced coffee

If you want iced coffee, you have a few options. You could pour the coffee into a container and stash it in the fridge to cool off, but that takes forever. You could put ice cubes in it to cool it down, but then you’re left with thin, watered-down coffee. I think the third option is best.

After brewing a pot of hot coffee, fill an ice cube tray with the coffee and stash it in the freezer. After it hardens, take them out of the tray and put in zip-top bag (to avoid any funky flavors). The next time you brew your coffee, fill up your cup with coffee cubes and pour the hot coffee right over them. Instantly icy! Put the rest of the hot coffee in a tray to re-stock your cubes. Mmmm. A summertime caffeinated treat.

Okay, that looks like a lot of steps, but in practice it’s really very simple. Once you’ve done it a few times, it will become second nature and you’ll be pleased with results. And just think of how much money you’ll save making great coffee at home every morning rather than stopping at the local coffee drive-thru every morning. You can pay $4 for a whole pound of coffee that makes dozens of cups of coffee or $4 for one coffee in a styrofoam container that could be freshly brewed or from the dregs of the pot. There’s no contest from my point of view.