6 ms·

Higher ground: the expert guide to making the perfect cup of coffee at home

29 points by edward 6y ago

anm89 6y ago
Funny, I just clicked on this after the piece revealing the Guardian's disgustingly biased coverage of the assange case. Its hard to enjoy fluff like this when you know they are doing truly evil things.
janekm 6y ago
For anyone who doesn’t know what Pret is, they’re a British sandwich & coffee chain (coffee that’s a tad above McDonald’s quality). The article should have been marked as an ad; Pret have recently been running promotions to entice customers back into their stores with cheap coffee (first 20 cups for £20, now £20/month unlimited subscription).
- mywittyname 6y ago
  McDonald's has really good coffee! The biggest issue is getting it fresh, but if you go in the morning, that's typically not an issue. Just be sure to ditch the plastic lid so it doesn't impact the taste.
  - janekm 6y ago
    It’s not the style of coffee I prefer but it will do in a pinch! I’m one of those obnoxious snobs who get freshly roasted coffee delivered weekly and grind each morning, so I’m admittedly not the easiest to please ;)
  - juniper_strong 6y ago
    Best coffee you can get for $1.
  - MrDresden 6y ago
    Each to their own, but having done a few roadtrips around Canada fueled by coffee stops at McDonalds and Tim Hortons I can reliably say I am not a fan. Then again I also find Starbucks coffee to be sludge.
- criddell 6y ago
  In the US at least, McDonald's coffee is pretty good. It might just be because nobody goes into McDonald's with high expectations. Panera also does a coffee subscription. $9 / month for unlimited coffee.
- Thaliana 6y ago
  I was initially annoyed thinking the same but each part had a quote from somebody from ab different business so it's not nearly so bad.
- firloop 6y ago
  Pret is also in the US, have been before and didn’t notice anything that remarkable
AdmiralAsshat 6y ago
Burr grinders are a big help as far as making the coffee taste better. The other large change I made as far as "leveling up" my morning coffee was using the 15:1 water ratio, which is alot more coffee bean per ounce of water than the normal back-of-the-box "Use 1 tbsp of coffee per 6oz of water". Actually measuring your coffee and your water precisely yields a big difference. Buy a small scale for measuring the bean weight, and either use a precise measuring cup for water volume, or just weigh the water as well. I make my morning coffee for my girlfriend and myself via French Press, and so I also tweaked the measurements a few time to account for the fact that 8oz of water + ground beans will not actually yield 8oz of coffee, due to the loss of liquid that is retained by the ground beans even after pressing. If anyone wants to use my ratios, I've listed them below: 15:1 water to coffee ratio 1g == 1 ml 12 oz coffee: 340 ml water: 22.66~g beans 17 oz coffee: 482 ml water: 32g beans 20 oz coffee: 591.471 ml water: 39.43g beans 25oz coffee: 740 ml water: 49g beans Again, my own tests suggest you lose about 2oz of water to absorption, so my 12oz measure above is when I want to make a single cup for myself (yields about 10oz of drinkable coffee), and I use the 20oz marker above in the morning when I'm making a French Press for myself and my girlfriend. Strictly my own preferences. Others might have different ratios, particularly since this is geared at French Press where there may be more water loss than a pourover.
- criddell 6y ago
  Lots of people, including those that stop at Pret in the morning, are probably selecting for convenience rather than any other measure of quality. They would probably be best served by something like a Nespresso machine.
  - subpixel 6y ago
    I've tried a number of different approaches and have found that my sweet spot is coffee made from really great beans in a drip machine that turns on at a set time. I use a burr grinder but it's not a real game-changer. The beans make the biggest impact. The convenience matters the most. Everything else is just a waste of mental cycles to me.
- dkarl 6y ago
Thaliana 6y ago
I have to shout out James Hoffman, he won a barrista championship and his YouTube channel goes into the minutia of coffee making for those who care to know. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ
thelazydogsback 6y ago
Not even mentioned in the article -- IMHO cold brew just seems so much easier (make a big batch at once) and tastes so much better.
- briankelly 6y ago
  I love cold brew and pretty much only drink regular coffee when I don't have any. Coffee heads really seem to look down on it though - I suppose because less of the bean comes through in the flavor, but I'll take the lower acidity/bitterness and the higher caffeination, please.
jasonpeacock 6y ago
I'm lazy, but I also have many coffee friends who are not lazy. The best low-effort upgrades I've learned to improve your coffee are: 1. Use a burr grinder to grind your beans just before brewing. 2. Use filtered water (a Brita pitcher works fine). 3. Use the right grounds/water ratio (another commenter went into depth about this). 4. Use tasty beans. This is personal preference, try a bunch of different roasters & levels of roast until you are happy. It's perfectly OK to enjoy the store brand or even Starbucks, it's your coffee. The next level of "fancy" is using the correct water temperature. If you're going to use a drip machine, do some research on which machines actually get to temperature and maintain it during brewing. Off the top of my head, both the Bonavita Connoisseur and Technivorm Mokccamaster are good. If you're doing french press/pour over/aeropress, get an electric hot water pot with accurate temperature control (these usually have a cute gooseneck for precise pouring of water over the grounds).
SippinLean 6y ago
I've owned all the brewing contraptions and a home roaster. Using fresh beans, and (burr) grinding them fresh is 95% of the equation.
ncmncm 6y ago
"The perfect cup" is a mirage. Get a tolerable cup, and get on with things. Humanity is facing several existential crises, involving global climate disruption, deforestation, collapsing wildlife populations, acidifying oceans, government by self-serving billionaires, and (not coincidentally) rising Fascism, and their worry is "the perfect cup". Bloody first-worlders, anyway.
gabrielsroka 6y ago
James Hoffman just reviewed a few burr grinders: https://youtu.be/AVYGxext8XI https://youtu.be/AVYGxext8XI

29 points by edward 6y ago

Funny, I just clicked on this after the piece revealing the Guardian's disgustingly biased coverage of the assange case. Its hard to enjoy fluff like this when you know they are doing truly evil things.

janekm 6y ago

For anyone who doesn’t know what Pret is, they’re a British sandwich & coffee chain (coffee that’s a tad above McDonald’s quality). The article should have been marked as an ad; Pret have recently been running promotions to entice customers back into their stores with cheap coffee (first 20 cups for £20, now £20/month unlimited subscription).

mywittyname 6y ago
McDonald's has really good coffee! The biggest issue is getting it fresh, but if you go in the morning, that's typically not an issue. Just be sure to ditch the plastic lid so it doesn't impact the taste.
- janekm 6y ago
  It’s not the style of coffee I prefer but it will do in a pinch! I’m one of those obnoxious snobs who get freshly roasted coffee delivered weekly and grind each morning, so I’m admittedly not the easiest to please ;)
- juniper_strong 6y ago
  Best coffee you can get for $1.
- MrDresden 6y ago
  Each to their own, but having done a few roadtrips around Canada fueled by coffee stops at McDonalds and Tim Hortons I can reliably say I am not a fan. Then again I also find Starbucks coffee to be sludge.
criddell 6y ago
In the US at least, McDonald's coffee is pretty good. It might just be because nobody goes into McDonald's with high expectations. Panera also does a coffee subscription. $9 / month for unlimited coffee.
Thaliana 6y ago
I was initially annoyed thinking the same but each part had a quote from somebody from ab different business so it's not nearly so bad.
firloop 6y ago
Pret is also in the US, have been before and didn’t notice anything that remarkable

AdmiralAsshat 6y ago

Burr grinders are a big help as far as making the coffee taste better. The other large change I made as far as "leveling up" my morning coffee was using the 15:1 water ratio, which is alot more coffee bean per ounce of water than the normal back-of-the-box "Use 1 tbsp of coffee per 6oz of water". Actually measuring your coffee and your water precisely yields a big difference. Buy a small scale for measuring the bean weight, and either use a precise measuring cup for water volume, or just weigh the water as well. I make my morning coffee for my girlfriend and myself via French Press, and so I also tweaked the measurements a few time to account for the fact that 8oz of water + ground beans will not actually yield 8oz of coffee, due to the loss of liquid that is retained by the ground beans even after pressing. If anyone wants to use my ratios, I've listed them below: 15:1 water to coffee ratio 1g == 1 ml 12 oz coffee: 340 ml water: 22.66~g beans 17 oz coffee: 482 ml water: 32g beans 20 oz coffee: 591.471 ml water: 39.43g beans 25oz coffee: 740 ml water: 49g beans Again, my own tests suggest you lose about 2oz of water to absorption, so my 12oz measure above is when I want to make a single cup for myself (yields about 10oz of drinkable coffee), and I use the 20oz marker above in the morning when I'm making a French Press for myself and my girlfriend. Strictly my own preferences. Others might have different ratios, particularly since this is geared at French Press where there may be more water loss than a pourover.

criddell 6y ago
Lots of people, including those that stop at Pret in the morning, are probably selecting for convenience rather than any other measure of quality. They would probably be best served by something like a Nespresso machine.
- subpixel 6y ago
  I've tried a number of different approaches and have found that my sweet spot is coffee made from really great beans in a drip machine that turns on at a set time. I use a burr grinder but it's not a real game-changer. The beans make the biggest impact. The convenience matters the most. Everything else is just a waste of mental cycles to me.
dkarl 6y ago

Thaliana 6y ago

I have to shout out James Hoffman, he won a barrista championship and his YouTube channel goes into the minutia of coffee making for those who care to know. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ

thelazydogsback 6y ago

Not even mentioned in the article -- IMHO cold brew just seems so much easier (make a big batch at once) and tastes so much better.

briankelly 6y ago
I love cold brew and pretty much only drink regular coffee when I don't have any. Coffee heads really seem to look down on it though - I suppose because less of the bean comes through in the flavor, but I'll take the lower acidity/bitterness and the higher caffeination, please.

jasonpeacock 6y ago

I'm lazy, but I also have many coffee friends who are not lazy. The best low-effort upgrades I've learned to improve your coffee are: 1. Use a burr grinder to grind your beans just before brewing. 2. Use filtered water (a Brita pitcher works fine). 3. Use the right grounds/water ratio (another commenter went into depth about this). 4. Use tasty beans. This is personal preference, try a bunch of different roasters & levels of roast until you are happy. It's perfectly OK to enjoy the store brand or even Starbucks, it's your coffee. The next level of "fancy" is using the correct water temperature. If you're going to use a drip machine, do some research on which machines actually get to temperature and maintain it during brewing. Off the top of my head, both the Bonavita Connoisseur and Technivorm Mokccamaster are good. If you're doing french press/pour over/aeropress, get an electric hot water pot with accurate temperature control (these usually have a cute gooseneck for precise pouring of water over the grounds).

SippinLean 6y ago

I've owned all the brewing contraptions and a home roaster. Using fresh beans, and (burr) grinding them fresh is 95% of the equation.

ncmncm 6y ago

"The perfect cup" is a mirage. Get a tolerable cup, and get on with things. Humanity is facing several existential crises, involving global climate disruption, deforestation, collapsing wildlife populations, acidifying oceans, government by self-serving billionaires, and (not coincidentally) rising Fascism, and their worry is "the perfect cup". Bloody first-worlders, anyway.

gabrielsroka 6y ago

James Hoffman just reviewed a few burr grinders: https://youtu.be/AVYGxext8XI https://youtu.be/AVYGxext8XI