Coffee doesn’t always make work better, but you can definitely work to get better coffee. From four-cup hotel machines to French presses, from home-roasted beans to decorative foam—we’ve got a wealth of tips for enjoying a better cup.
- Buy good coffee beans. Preferably whole beans, sustainably farmed, and roasted within the past few weeks.
- Grind your coffee just before brewing. They say, “it’s the number one thing you can do to improve your coffee at home.”
- Store your coffee properly. Keep the coffee in an airtight container, away from sunlight. Try to avoid freezing the beans, unless they’re going to linger for more than two weeks.
- Use a good amount of coffee, and the right proportion of coffee to water. The ideal is what they call “The Golden Ratio,” 17.42 units of water to 1 unit of coffee.
- Find the right grind size for your coffee beans and aim for a uniform grind.
- Control the temperature of your water. Keep it somewhere between 195 and 202 degrees. Boiling water can sour the coffee.
- If you get really skilled, you can agitate the coffee during the brewing to control the taste.
- Focus on technique. And once you learn the right technique, make sure you’re precise and consistent.
- Use quality tools. Buy the right bean grinder and coffee maker. Make a good investment in your coffee drinking future.
- When experimenting with the brewing process, adjust only one variable at a time so you can accurately track results.
