I have begun a quest for better-tasting coffee. My current coffeemaker is over 15 years old and has served me valiantly through my undergrad days, becoming a web monkey, and the birth of my two kids. All activities which strongly benefit from regular caffeine infusion.
But I’ve come to realize that, as much as I value its years of service, the darn thing just doesn’t make very good coffee. This realization is the culmination of many years of evolution in my attitudes towards coffee. As you can probably infer from the above, those attitudes have evolved from “gimme hot stimulant quick-like” to “I wish to enjoy the nuanced flavors of this interesting Guatemalan organic roast.”
As anyone who knows me can attest, I’m far from being an aficionado or connoisseur of anything food-related. However, despite having what I’m sure will always be a rather coarse and undiscerning palate, I am definitely able to tell the difference between “tastes good” and “tastes like stale, sour cardboard.”
Ergo my latest consumer product research assignment, figure out how to make “tastes good” coffee at home. From what I gather reading information on sites like CoffeeGeek.com, the coffee maker is only one part of the equation. You’ve got to have good water (knew that), good coffee (duh, the Foldgers has been banned from my kitchen for more than a decade), and perhaps most importantly (and a surprise to me, as a newb to fancy-pants levels of sophistication concerning coffee), you need to have a good grinder.
Actually, strike that last bit. You don’t just need to have a good grinder, you need to have an awesome grinder. Specifically, an awesome burr grinder.
Of course I thought I was “doing it right” by having my handy little Bunn blade grinder. It ground the whole beans I so proudly purchased (“Why no, I will not need those beans ground, thank you very much”) and I thought it was all good. Sure, when removing the filter I noticed that there were some rather large chunks of beans along with the other stuff, but I figured it all kinda balanced out.
Not. Even. Close.
Turns out that what you really want for consistent, “tastes good” coffee is for all the coffee beans to be ground to the same size. This way the extraction will take place properly, and you aren’t left guessing whether the weakness in your cup is caused by all the big chunks that didn’t extract enough, or whether the bitterness is from the pixie-fine dust that over-extracted.
Of course, a proper grind is only part of the equation. Next up, you need a coffee maker that actually brews the coffee at the correct temperature, between 195*-205*F. Turns out most coffee makers (and almost certainly my trusty old Mr. Coffee Accel) do not get the temperature high enough, meaning the coffee is under-extracted and the wonderful aromatics (you know, the stuff that plays a big part in the whole “tastes good” thing) don’t come out. You’re left with not-hot-enough sour coffee. Which accurately describes my morning cup o’ joe, and why I’m such a big fan of the daily coffee run at work.
So anyways, the bottom line is that you need to invest in a good burr grinder and a good coffee maker for this all to happen. I’m currently looking at the Technivorm KBG 741 coffee maker and the Baratza Maestro Plus burr grinder. These both have awesome reviews and should definitely get me a hell of a lot closer to “tastes good” coffee than I’ve ever been at home.
And one other thing I’ve learned – thank god I’m happy with drip coffee, because those Espresso geeks have serious problems… 🙂