Are you ready to complete the story of this coffee?
Happy endings are in sight!
Once you receive your beans, the final step is brewing them. Using the utmost care in brewing will ensure that you get the best, richest flavors out of your coffee. Brewing great coffee is a science and an art. I believe in keeping things simple, but there are small adjustments you can make that will help you enjoy your coffee more! And if you want to go deeper with it there is always more to learn and experiment with.
Here are a few basic tips to help you get started. If this seems overwhelming, maybe pick one to focus on each time you brew and work your way through the list. Even making a change in one of these areas can drastically improve the quality in your cup.
- Use filtered water if possible. If your water tastes bad, it will taint the flavor of your coffee.
- Make sure your water is getting hot enough. Ideal temperature is 195-205 degrees F, or just off the boil. Most automatic machines do not get the water hot enough to extract the full flavor from the beans. That’s one reason why we recommend the the full immersion method, in which you control the temperature of the water and the amount of time that the grounds are immersed. (see #4).
- Grind immediately before brewing! Once coffee has been ground, the best flavors disappear within 24 hours. Make sure the grind of your coffee is right for the brewing method you choose.
- There are so many ways to brew a great cup of coffee at home. We encourage you to experiment with different methods to find out what works best for you, and which delivers the cups of coffee that your unique palette loves! We’ve tried a lot of different methods with different coffees and here is what we’ve found: While we are huge fans of the pour over method (especially with our light roasts) and the French press for darker roasts, our absolute favorite way to brew at home is with the Clever Dripper. The Clever Dripper is so easy to use, containing the very best features of the manual pour over and French press, yet eliminating the drawbacks of each. You won’t get the gritty sludge in your coffee as you will with the French press. And, because it uses the immersion method in which all of the water has contact with all of the grounds for the entire brewing time (as opposed to the pour over in which the water “washes” over the grounds), the resulting cup has a fuller body and richer, deeper flavor–which works awesome with our medium and darker roasts. The Clever Dripper is versatile and can also be used for drip coffee: leave the bottom valve open and it becomes a manual pour over, which we recommend for lighter roasts when you want to pull out those delicate, fruity undertones. Check out the Clever Dripper here!
- Espresso fans: our coffees make delightful espresso shots! We prefer medium or dark roast for espresso.