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When people decide they want to start making good coffee, they often go and spend the best part of $500, or more, on an expensive espresso machine. I did, anywa

When people decide they want to start making good coffee, they often go and spend the best part of $500, or more, on an expensive espresso machine. I did, anyway. I've found though that the two biggest ways to improve your coffee are really simple and really cheap. Anything else above this - an expensive grinder or coffee machine - may help, but nowhere near as much as these two things: 1. Get a pair of digital scales (learn to use the tare button) and spend half an hour making coffee of different strengths. Decide which you prefer and then always use that coffee to water ratio when you make it. 2. Get some decent coffee. You can get a grinder if you want, but it won't make as much of a difference as just getting it from a good source. It can be freshly roasted, freshly ground, whatever - just get it from a good place, not from a supermarket. Personally, I buy a kilogram of coffee beans from http://liminicoffee.co.uk/ http://liminicoffee.co.uk/ once a month. I used to buy it weekly from http://pactcoffee.com/ http://pactcoffee.com/ but I found it's more convenient and just as tasty to get it delivered monthly. Optional third improvement: 3. Get an Aeropress or a Chemex (my preference is a Chemex - even easier to clean up than an Aeropress, can make multiple cups and can be kept warm if you have a hotplate, although I wouldn't recommend that). This is a good step but won't make as much of a difference as picking good coffee and measuring the amounts you're using. There are so many optimisations you can do. Most of them won't have too much of an effect. I do them anyway - I have all of the equipment, have a fairly expensive grinder, spend time letting the coffee bloom (I swear that's rubbish) and am planning to roast my own beans soon - but they're by no means necessary. Do those two things first and then stop to see if you're satisfied.

xsace 11y ago
Is the water choice important, what do you recommend?
- kaolinite 11y ago
  Do you mean the amount of water you use? It's important to measure both the amount of water and the amount of coffee so it's consistent. I personally use 22 grams of coffee per 300ml. It's a personal choice though and it depends on the coffee and method of brewing too: for you that might be too bitter, too strong, too weak, etc. Here's what I do with a Chemex. I put the Chemex on the scales, add the filter and hit tare (so it's now weighing 0g). I add the 22g coffee and hit tare. Then I add 300g of hot water (same as 300ml). It produces the same cup of coffee every time - exactly how I like it. Obviously, if I ever change the coffee I get (or the coffee I get now - currently an espresso blend which is blended for consistency - changes significantly), then I might need to experiment a bit and see whether 24 grams of coffee is now my preference, for example.
  - xsace 11y ago
    Oh I was speaking about the water itself. Do you filter or use bottle one?
    - josteink 11y ago
      Tap works for me and I'm picky, but I recognize that not everyone in the world lives somewhere where the tap-water is usually better than the bottled water bought in stores.
      - amelius 11y ago
        Mineral content in tap-water can vary, even between places where tap-water is very well potable. Minerals can affect taste, according to [1] (I didn't check myself). [1] http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2014/06/06/the-secret-to-awesome-coffee-is-in-the-water/ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2014/06/06/the-sec...
    - pconner 11y ago
      You should use filtered (but not distilled) water to make coffee. This slows down scale buildup in the machine.
    - kaolinite 11y ago
      Oh right, I've not actually tried altering the water - I really should give it a go sometime. I just use tap water - the water in my area is ok. That's another one of those things that may make a bit of a difference, but nowhere near the difference that getting good coffee and measuring properly will make. Of course, if you're already doing both of those then there's no reason to give it a go. Thanks for the idea.
    - jimbobimbo 11y ago
      I buy bottled. The taste is better and consistent. If you go this route, make sure to try different brands (they use different water sources, so the taste will vary).
mrestko 11y ago
I think one scale is enough...
- kaolinite 11y ago
  Heh, you're right. That is a weird expression when applied to digital scales: a pair of scales makes sense for the old style[1], but doesn't really apply with digital. [1] https://mundabor.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/scales.gif https://mundabor.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/scales.gif
peter_l_downs 11y ago
This is all right. In my experience the biggest thing really is the coffee. I've been buying from http://www.coffeebeandirect.com/ http://www.coffeebeandirect.com/, you should check it out – their beans are really good and somehow extremely cheap ($53 for a 5 pound bag of Kenyan AA).
- peapicker 11y ago
  I would never by more than 1 lb roasted at a time. Top-level coffee from every local roaster I've tried really starts to taste more oxidized and old after 21 days out of the roast, and I can't do more than a pound in that time frame. My current local roaster roasts often enough that I usually get my bean 2-3 days after roast, which is my preference for the end of post-roast out-gassing.
mikekchar 11y ago
I think you will rethink many of these ideas once you start roasting your own beans. Many optimisations are highly dependent upon the bean itself, the roast level, the quality of the roast (for example how well you controlled the temperature as you get to first crack). A quick word about bloom: if you are doing pour overs with beans that are not too old, how long you let the coffee bloom can have a dramatic effect on flavour. The problem you are running into is the coffee you are using, I think. I really like Pact, but I never once received coffee that was less than 4 days old. Often it was 7-8 days old. Looking at the web site for Limini seems to indicate the same. They are optimising for people who want a fire and forget method of coffee making and don't know how to control the acidity of the coffee they are making. Once you start roasting your own you will probably discover (as I did) that the most interesting time for a coffee bean is between 2 and 8 days. The most consistently good is probably 6-10 days. Once you get over 10 days, there is very little you can do with brewing skill and it's just an inevitable decline in flavour over time. All of those optimisations that you think don't have an effect are very important, but you are using old coffee beans and therefore haven't realised it yet. But as the topic of the article says, all of this is only important if you are interested in having a new hobby. You can make consistently decent coffee with moderately old beans and using a consistent approach such as you describe. But since you are interested in roasting, I hope you take the next step! It really is an eye opener.
Stratoscope 11y ago
Agree about the digital scale. For anyone looking for a good cheap scale, here's my favorite for kitchen use at $6.99: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BVXU3E8/ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BVXU3E8/ Weighs tenths of a gram (something you definitely want for coffee) and is quite rugged - have dropped it on the floor more than once, and our housecleaners for some reason decided to wash it out twice. The inside was filled with water, the display went to all 8's, and I thought it was a goner. I shook out the water, put it in the sun to dry, and it worked like new, each time. (And as clean as new too!)
- Bud 11y ago
  I've had great luck with this scale: http://www.amazon.com/American-Weigh-Scales-AMW-SC-2KG-Digital/dp/B001RF3XJ2/ref=sr_1_2?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1432353675&sr=1-2&keywords=aws+scale http://www.amazon.com/American-Weigh-Scales-AMW-SC-2KG-Digit... A little more expensive, but it has a nice, large, level, stainless steel surface.
Kluny 11y ago
I won't say you're wrong, because I haven't tried the things that you've suggested. But I use the same coffee beans at home as they buy at work - Ethical Bean from Costco, and these three factors improve the taste by about 10,000%: 1) Use a French press instead of a drip pot. 2) Grind the beans coarsely with a burr instead of pulverizing with a electric chopper. 3) Clean all the equipment thoroughly after every use. I'm certain that could improve it further with your suggestions, but these three easy steps already make a huge improvement for me.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
keslag 11y ago
I get my own bean, and I use a burr mill grinder, really nice one, and I use a Keurig, EZCup reusable filter holder, and ecobrew filters. Because it makes a pretty descent cup of coffee, in about a minute with no cleanup required. I've tried percolators, french press, open drip, and aeropress, and they all have uniqueness's, but to my pallet, they aren't so good that their worth the convenience. Cleaning an aeropress 7 times a day starts eating into your productivity faster than reddit.
- pangram 11y ago
  Why do you find the Aeropress inconvenient to clean? I just dump the "hockey puck" of grounds into the trash. IMHO it's easier than a french press by a long shot.
  - keslag 11y ago
    Easier, than a french press certainly. In the office, I have to take the whole setup to the kitchen to rinse and wash it it off, and dry it before the next use. With the Keurig, and the setup mentioned above, I just drop the filter in the trash, as there are no stray grounds. It's not as good as the aeropress, but it's way better than having a classic drip coffee machine. It's all about what compromises are more important.
Bud 11y ago
This is all great advice, but it's completely non-responsive to the point of this article, which isn't about coffee. It's about espresso, and the fact that great stuff like the Aeropress and Chemex do absolutely nothing to help those who prefer espresso. And neither does any other solution under $2000 or so. Which is precisely the reason why Nespresso has won customers. I tried a Moka pot, and liked it, but Nespresso is better. I tried Aeropress, but that just verified my preference for espresso over admittedly very very good strong coffee that isn't espresso.
tripzilch 11y ago
> and can be kept warm if you have a hotplate, although I wouldn't recommend that I find (but my personal taste may differ to some) that in general, if you've made more coffee than you want to drink, it's better to just cover it and let it go cold, then heat it up with a microwave when you want to drink it. Of course it's not as good as a fresh cup, but I find that a microwave does little else than gently heat up the liquid for 30-60 seconds or so, while keeping it heated constantly will degrade the flavour into something burned. I'm also a big fan of simple brewing methods. My personal method is to grind beans (from the supermarket) and use a simple €2,50 plastic filter-holder, a filter, and pour just-off-boiling water from a waterboiler on it. Straight into a (rather large) cup. I know that doesn't make an espresso, but it does make for delicious coffee.

xsace 11y ago

Is the water choice important, what do you recommend?

kaolinite 11y ago
Do you mean the amount of water you use? It's important to measure both the amount of water and the amount of coffee so it's consistent. I personally use 22 grams of coffee per 300ml. It's a personal choice though and it depends on the coffee and method of brewing too: for you that might be too bitter, too strong, too weak, etc. Here's what I do with a Chemex. I put the Chemex on the scales, add the filter and hit tare (so it's now weighing 0g). I add the 22g coffee and hit tare. Then I add 300g of hot water (same as 300ml). It produces the same cup of coffee every time - exactly how I like it. Obviously, if I ever change the coffee I get (or the coffee I get now - currently an espresso blend which is blended for consistency - changes significantly), then I might need to experiment a bit and see whether 24 grams of coffee is now my preference, for example.
- xsace 11y ago
  Oh I was speaking about the water itself. Do you filter or use bottle one?
  - josteink 11y ago
    Tap works for me and I'm picky, but I recognize that not everyone in the world lives somewhere where the tap-water is usually better than the bottled water bought in stores.
    - amelius 11y ago
      Mineral content in tap-water can vary, even between places where tap-water is very well potable. Minerals can affect taste, according to [1] (I didn't check myself). [1] http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2014/06/06/the-secret-to-awesome-coffee-is-in-the-water/ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2014/06/06/the-sec...
  - pconner 11y ago
    You should use filtered (but not distilled) water to make coffee. This slows down scale buildup in the machine.
  - kaolinite 11y ago
    Oh right, I've not actually tried altering the water - I really should give it a go sometime. I just use tap water - the water in my area is ok. That's another one of those things that may make a bit of a difference, but nowhere near the difference that getting good coffee and measuring properly will make. Of course, if you're already doing both of those then there's no reason to give it a go. Thanks for the idea.
  - jimbobimbo 11y ago
    I buy bottled. The taste is better and consistent. If you go this route, make sure to try different brands (they use different water sources, so the taste will vary).

mrestko 11y ago

I think one scale is enough...

kaolinite 11y ago
Heh, you're right. That is a weird expression when applied to digital scales: a pair of scales makes sense for the old style[1], but doesn't really apply with digital. [1] https://mundabor.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/scales.gif https://mundabor.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/scales.gif

peter_l_downs 11y ago

This is all right. In my experience the biggest thing really is the coffee. I've been buying from http://www.coffeebeandirect.com/ http://www.coffeebeandirect.com/, you should check it out – their beans are really good and somehow extremely cheap ($53 for a 5 pound bag of Kenyan AA).

peapicker 11y ago
I would never by more than 1 lb roasted at a time. Top-level coffee from every local roaster I've tried really starts to taste more oxidized and old after 21 days out of the roast, and I can't do more than a pound in that time frame. My current local roaster roasts often enough that I usually get my bean 2-3 days after roast, which is my preference for the end of post-roast out-gassing.

mikekchar 11y ago

I think you will rethink many of these ideas once you start roasting your own beans. Many optimisations are highly dependent upon the bean itself, the roast level, the quality of the roast (for example how well you controlled the temperature as you get to first crack). A quick word about bloom: if you are doing pour overs with beans that are not too old, how long you let the coffee bloom can have a dramatic effect on flavour. The problem you are running into is the coffee you are using, I think. I really like Pact, but I never once received coffee that was less than 4 days old. Often it was 7-8 days old. Looking at the web site for Limini seems to indicate the same. They are optimising for people who want a fire and forget method of coffee making and don't know how to control the acidity of the coffee they are making. Once you start roasting your own you will probably discover (as I did) that the most interesting time for a coffee bean is between 2 and 8 days. The most consistently good is probably 6-10 days. Once you get over 10 days, there is very little you can do with brewing skill and it's just an inevitable decline in flavour over time. All of those optimisations that you think don't have an effect are very important, but you are using old coffee beans and therefore haven't realised it yet. But as the topic of the article says, all of this is only important if you are interested in having a new hobby. You can make consistently decent coffee with moderately old beans and using a consistent approach such as you describe. But since you are interested in roasting, I hope you take the next step! It really is an eye opener.

Stratoscope 11y ago

Agree about the digital scale. For anyone looking for a good cheap scale, here's my favorite for kitchen use at $6.99: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BVXU3E8/ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BVXU3E8/ Weighs tenths of a gram (something you definitely want for coffee) and is quite rugged - have dropped it on the floor more than once, and our housecleaners for some reason decided to wash it out twice. The inside was filled with water, the display went to all 8's, and I thought it was a goner. I shook out the water, put it in the sun to dry, and it worked like new, each time. (And as clean as new too!)

Bud 11y ago
I've had great luck with this scale: http://www.amazon.com/American-Weigh-Scales-AMW-SC-2KG-Digital/dp/B001RF3XJ2/ref=sr_1_2?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1432353675&sr=1-2&keywords=aws+scale http://www.amazon.com/American-Weigh-Scales-AMW-SC-2KG-Digit... A little more expensive, but it has a nice, large, level, stainless steel surface.

Kluny 11y ago

I won't say you're wrong, because I haven't tried the things that you've suggested. But I use the same coffee beans at home as they buy at work - Ethical Bean from Costco, and these three factors improve the taste by about 10,000%: 1) Use a French press instead of a drip pot. 2) Grind the beans coarsely with a burr instead of pulverizing with a electric chopper. 3) Clean all the equipment thoroughly after every use. I'm certain that could improve it further with your suggestions, but these three easy steps already make a huge improvement for me.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

keslag 11y ago

I get my own bean, and I use a burr mill grinder, really nice one, and I use a Keurig, EZCup reusable filter holder, and ecobrew filters. Because it makes a pretty descent cup of coffee, in about a minute with no cleanup required. I've tried percolators, french press, open drip, and aeropress, and they all have uniqueness's, but to my pallet, they aren't so good that their worth the convenience. Cleaning an aeropress 7 times a day starts eating into your productivity faster than reddit.

pangram 11y ago
Why do you find the Aeropress inconvenient to clean? I just dump the "hockey puck" of grounds into the trash. IMHO it's easier than a french press by a long shot.
- keslag 11y ago
  Easier, than a french press certainly. In the office, I have to take the whole setup to the kitchen to rinse and wash it it off, and dry it before the next use. With the Keurig, and the setup mentioned above, I just drop the filter in the trash, as there are no stray grounds. It's not as good as the aeropress, but it's way better than having a classic drip coffee machine. It's all about what compromises are more important.

Bud 11y ago

This is all great advice, but it's completely non-responsive to the point of this article, which isn't about coffee. It's about espresso, and the fact that great stuff like the Aeropress and Chemex do absolutely nothing to help those who prefer espresso. And neither does any other solution under $2000 or so. Which is precisely the reason why Nespresso has won customers. I tried a Moka pot, and liked it, but Nespresso is better. I tried Aeropress, but that just verified my preference for espresso over admittedly very very good strong coffee that isn't espresso.

tripzilch 11y ago

> and can be kept warm if you have a hotplate, although I wouldn't recommend that I find (but my personal taste may differ to some) that in general, if you've made more coffee than you want to drink, it's better to just cover it and let it go cold, then heat it up with a microwave when you want to drink it. Of course it's not as good as a fresh cup, but I find that a microwave does little else than gently heat up the liquid for 30-60 seconds or so, while keeping it heated constantly will degrade the flavour into something burned. I'm also a big fan of simple brewing methods. My personal method is to grind beans (from the supermarket) and use a simple €2,50 plastic filter-holder, a filter, and pour just-off-boiling water from a waterboiler on it. Straight into a (rather large) cup. I know that doesn't make an espresso, but it does make for delicious coffee.