MAKING COFFEE GREAT AGAIN

We'll keep this short and sweet. You know how when you're in college and have no money or care in the world and so you'll go get some cvs wine for a night of drinking i.e. Franzia, Yellowtail, Cupcake, Gallo jug wines? Yeah, most people grow out of that and discover theres higher-quality, good tasting, sophisticated wine and spirits to be had. For some reason we find it acceptable to never grow out of the coffee equivalent of cvs wine i.e. Cafe Bustello, Folgers, Maxwell house, etc. If you feel personally attacked by this—just know that it is personal. I personally want you to enjoy your coffee and to discover the world that you're missing out on.

This is a quick guide on how to make coffee that doesn't taste like dirt—from a guy who has spent far too many hours roasting, brewing, and drinking coffee. 

Step 1: Buy higher quality coffee beans

You need good beans. Though you will pay more for your coffee, it doesn't have to be the most expensive bag of coffee you can find on the internet (like this one from onyx: https://onyxcoffeelab.com/products/panama-el-burro-gesha-natural)—if you don't want to click the link, it's a $150 bag of coffee (8oz). As far as quality goes, it's more than just price. There are a couple things that you should be aware of, namely:

1. Roast Date
2. Ground vs whole bean

Roast date. The roast date is a super important indicator of quality as coffee is like produce. In fact, it's considered a grocery product by the FDA and USDA. Coffee goes bad. When I say bad, I mean, like bread, it gets stale. The bioactive compounds begin to breakdown and lose their function. Since many of these bioactive compounds are responsible for flavor, effect, and all the other good things about coffee, we want to make sure we're not buying it stale. Sadly, the majority of it is stale. So, next time you're shopping for coffee, check the roast date. Don't get anything that hasn't been roasted within the current month of purchasing. You are likely going to have to look outside of your local grocery store unless they have a specialty coffee selection. I suggest finding a local roaster, just going online, or Whole Foods who has an impressive coffee selection of local roasters, always.

Ground vs Whole Bean. If it's not whole bean when you buy it, it's stale. If you get it freshly ground when you purchase it, it will very soon become stale. Let's imagine you place an apple on a table. If you left your house for the day and came back in the evening, that apple would look exactly the same, right? Of course. Now, let's take that same apple and cut it into 8 slices and then place the slices onto the table. If you left your house for the day and came back in the evening, that apple would look all brown and gross, right? Exposing food items to oxygen causes a complete change to the enzymatic processes that takes place. Oxygen is essential for many things, when it comes to coffee, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) is a big one. Just like this enzyme causes the browning of fruit by oxidizing phenols, PPO oxidizes the phenolic compounds in coffee into quinone which is a bitter tasting acidic compound. Do you ever find coffee to be bitter? That's likely because it's stale/has been exposed to oxygen and sped up the oxidation process of phenols. It doesn't have to be that way. Don't know what oxidizing means? Or what phenols are? That's fine. JUST BUY WHOLE BEAN. 

Step 2: Manually brew your coffee

Manually brewing your coffee gives you full control of the quality and flavor. This is good once we figure out how to properly brew. That's done through trial and error which unfortunately means you'll have some subpar cups of coffee. The first thing we need to decide is how you like your coffee so we can decide what type of brewing device you will use to learn on and master. Let's briefly address the most common ones and the flavor profile they will yield:

1. French Press - this one is the most simple. Put the coffee in, put the water in, wait 4-5 minutes. Done. The french press typically provides a heavier bodied coffee. This means that it will feel like a "thicker" cup of coffee. The best example would be hot chocolate vs. a cup of tea. Tea is very light, hot chocolate is very heavy. The french press will yield a coffee that "feels" more like hot chocolate.
2. Pour Over - My personal favorite. This one takes a bit more practice. The coffee goes into the pour over, you then use a goose neck kettle to slowly pour the water over the coffee in increments. While doing this you have to be track where you pour the water and how much water you pour at a time. This style of brewing, though it can vary, typically yields a light-medium bodied coffee and provides the most control. This one takes the most practice.

There are a number of different devices that you can use to brew your coffee. It's completely up to you which you like best. Experiment with this so you can know for sure what you like best. Manual brewing is such a relaxing way to wake up in the morning. Brewing your own coffee will become a ritual.

So let's recap: we need to find fresh, whole bean coffee that we brew manually using the method of our choice. Sweet, almost done.

Step 3: Know the ratios

Coffee is completely subjective. What one person thinks is the best cup of coffee ever, another might want to throw in the trash can. However, there are some objective parameters for making good coffee. The ratio of coffee to water is one that's pretty universal amongst even the best of the best: 1:16. This means that for every 1g of coffee, you want to use 16g of water. Let's look at an example:

I want to make myself a Starbucks "tall" sized cup of coffee (12oz). We first need to get this in grams: 

12oz*28 = 336g of water *1 oz is equal to 28 grams

Now we need to get grams of coffee, 1:16:

336g of water/16 = 21g of coffee

This very simple math will lead to significantly better coffee. The ratio will extract the right amount of what we want without taking with it the things we don't. Too much water and you will over extract. Not only does this dilute your coffee, but it pulls out some of the not-so-tasty compounds that live in coffee like quinic acid (bitter). Too little water and we will under-extract which means more dense coffee but it will lack flavor. Heavy mouth feel with lack luster flavor makes it "strong" but watery all at the same time. So know your ratio.

To tie this back to our brewing methods, if brewing in a french press, we could grind our 21g of coffee, pour in 336 grams of water, and let it sit for 4 mins. Sounds so simple right? It is, and this would provide you with much better coffee than your typical k-cup or automatic brewer making stale coffee. 

Final thoughts

So, gone should be the days of cvs wine. Similarly, gone should be the days of stale coffee. These are a few small things you can implement into your coffee routine for a more pleasurable coffee experience.

1. Higher quality (recent roast date, whole bean)
2. Manual brewer
3. Proper ratio (1:16)

You might be somebody who uses an electric coffee maker and that's fine too. Start with the higher quality coffee and the proper ratios. Coffee is all about the individual and what they like, that's what is so unique about it. I dove into the world of specialty coffee and ended up selling my own to restaurants and grocery stores. You never know what exploring a new world will lead to. Life's about the little things. Cheers.