Brewing Coffee

When it comes to making good coffee, the method of brewing it is second only to buying coffee in terms of importance. There are four different ways that coffee can be brewed, and suggestions on how to make sure that the coffee is brewed for the best results. Below are the most common methods of brewing great coffee:

• Drip Brewing (North American)
• French Press (or Bodum Press or Coffee Plunger)
• Espresso Coffee (Italian)
• Turkish (or Greek) Coffee

Drip Brew (North American) Coffee

Most popular in North America, quite simply, this method heats the water to an optimal temperature, and then drips it onto a filter holding ground coffee. The hot water absorbs flavor from the coffee, passing through the filter and into a carafe. As discussed in the Grinding Coffee section, the type of grind to use depends on how long the water will be in contact with the coffee. Of the four main brewing methods discussed here, drip brewing has the water and coffee in contact for a shorter period (than a French Press, for instance), so a medium grind of coffee is used.

When it comes to your drip brew coffee maker, the ideal temperature for how much the water is heated is approximately 200 degrees Farenheit or 90-95 degrees Celsius. The manual that comes with your brewer should give this information. If it doesn't, assume it's not heating water adequately, or it would boast this in its manual. Wattage is another very important characteristic of your brewer because a coffee maker without as much power will take longer to brew your coffee, causing the water to extract more than the optimal amount of solids from the ground coffee -called "overextraction". The ideal rating of your coffee maker is 1,000 watts. Most home coffee makers will have a rating around 850 watts, which is certainly acceptable but remember the closer to 1,000, the better the coffee in your cup.

Heat on the coffee

Like anything that has been 'mixed' with water, coffee can burn after it is heated either at too high a temperature or for too prolonged a period. Once coffee has burned, the effect on its flavor is worse to some than stale coffee. Personally, I would sooner dump an entire pot of burnt coffee than drink it. An important factor in the time it takes coffee to burn is certainly the amount of coffee in the pot. A smaller amount of coffee will burn faster than a larger amount.

Some coffee makers have a setting for the heat of the burner. My suggestion would be to favor the lower or medium heat setting for the burner. The lower the setting, the less likely you'll burn your coffee, but if you find that the coffee you serve is not hot enough, go with the medium setting. I would not use the high temperature too frequently if at all, as it will tend to burn your coffee unless the entire pot of coffee is emptied and served very quickly. If that's the case and you like hot coffee, then you would use the high temperature setting. Otherwise, consider setting it to low and leaving it on that setting.

Thermal Carafe

One of the biggest improvements in drip brewing has been the thermal carafe. Instead of a glass 'coffee pot' sitting on a heating element, the brewed coffee drips from the filter into a thermal carafe. The thermal carafe is insulated as to keep the coffee as hot as it was brewed without relying on a heating element that could potentially burn the coffee if left on the element for too long. The only real disadvantage is not being able to see the coffee as well since there isn't thermal glass. Otherwise, this is certainly better than letting coffee heat until it is burnt.

Given these guidelines, how long does it take for coffee to burn? Canadian coffee giant Tim Horton's will not serve coffee that was made over 20 minutes prior. While you don't need to be so stringent in your own home, you should assume that coffee that's been sitting on the burner past 20 minutes has started the process of becoming burnt. An hour is a good maximum, beyond which the coffee might still be drinkable, but only at great sacrifice to the flavor.

The Filter

The type of filter you use is also important. Your choices are a paper filter sold in any grocery store in the coffee aisle, or a metal filter that is re-usable but needs to be cleaned between each brewing. The benefit of the paper filter is easy cleanup. After the brewing, you pull out the paper filter containing all of the ground coffee and throw it in the garbage. What you lose with a paper filter however is that it absorbs many of the colloids that would otherwise give you a more full-bodied coffee were it allowed to pass through.

A colloid is brewed coffee that is not fully dissolved but adds body to your cup of coffee. A colloid will get trapped in a paper filter, but passes through a metal filter. For this reason, coffee brewed through a metal filter will result in a sediment at the bottom of your cup which is a minor inconvenience compared to the full body of the brewed coffee. In fact, if you swirl your cup before the last couple sits, that sediment will get absorbed into the coffee and you won't even see it. Remember that sediment is not a bad thing, it's coffee solids (and flavor) extracted from the ground coffee that wouldn't have been able to pass through a paper filter.

In Conclusion

Potentially burning the coffee and hurting its flavor also raises the question of re-heating coffee that has been allowed to cool inside the pot. Rather than waste cold coffee, some re-heat it to enjoy it later. Enjoy it? Let's take a look at everything that's wrong with re-heating coffee. 1) The coffee beans have been ground and brewed, but even brewed, the coffee is going stale even after only a couple hours of sitting. 2) Sitting too long in the coffee pot, and we've already violated the second Golden Rule of Good Coffee by not cleaning our coffee pot before every use. 3) The effect of the heating process that the cold coffee has already endured when it was originally brewed does not go away. When you re-heat the coffee, you are adding further heating effect to this coffee. Far better to get in the habit of only grinding what you will brew and consume then and there.

Remember once your coffee is brewed, swirl the pot in your hand to stir the coffee together. It's a little known fact that the first of coffee that drips through the filter and into the carafe is stronger than at the end of the brewing cycle. This is what makes the interrupt-brew feature of most drip brewers such a controversial one. Most brewers and carafes are designed so that you can pull the pot out at any time during the brewing cycle, and it will stop the dripping until you return the pot to the burner. If you do this early in the brewing and pour a cup, it will be an overly strong cup of coffee compared to what will be poured after it.

French Press

While a little more work than flipping a switch and drip brewing, the French Press is considered by many as the best brewing method that extracts the optimal amount of flavor from coffee.

This goes by many names, including the Coffee Plunger or the Bodum Press, named after the manufacturer Bodum that has made this coffee maker popular. In short, the French Press involves a glass container that holds both the ground coffee and hot water. The two sit together for a period while the water extracts solids (and flavor) from the ground coffee.

In order to pour the brewed coffee from the container and into a mug without also pouring the ground coffee at the same time, the container's lid is designed with a plunger. The plunger is connected to a mesh filter that when pushed down, pushes all of the ground coffee to the bottom of the container. The mesh filter ensures the ground coffee is unable to pass through the mesh and remains pressed at the bottom of the container. Above the filter is nothing but brewed coffee without any ground coffee in it. Once the plunger is pushed all the way to the bottom, the brewed coffee is simply poured from the container and the mesh filter keeps any ground coffee from ending up in your mug.

Instructions

1. Start heating water on the stove.
2. Grind your coffee to a coarse grind. Coarse grind, for two reasons. One, to ensure you do not overextract solids from the coffee (see Disadvantages below), and two, to ensure the coffee is not ground so fine that it passes through the mesh filter.
3. Empty the ground coffee into the French Press coffee maker - which is simply a clear glass container.
4. Once the water is heated, let it sit for a second so that it is hot but not boiling. Pour as much heated water into the container with the ground coffee as you would like brewed coffee. For example, if you making two mugs of coffee, pour two mugs of heated water into the coffee maker.
5. Cover the French Press with the lid and the plunger pulled all the way to the top.
6. Let it sit for four minutes - adjust this to personal taste after trying it a couple times.
7. Slowly push the plunger down until it is pushed all the way to the bottom. This will push the ground coffee down and press it to the bottom of the container.
8. Pour brewed coffee from the container. Voila! The filter has separated the coffee grinds and brewed coffee so you pour only brewed coffee.
9. For clean-up, remove the lid and plunger. Empty the ground coffee into the garbage. Rinse the lid and plunger. Clean the glass container with soap and water.

Advantages

Proper brewing: According to some experts, this is the single best way to prepare coffee because it allows prolonged contact between the water and coffee without boiling the coffee and without resulting in any ground coffee at the bottom of your mug (as you do in both cases with Turkish Coffee).

Disadvantages

Overextraction: Not everybody is aware that there is such a thing as extracting too much coffee solids into the water, resulting in an overly bitter and syrupy coffee. There is an optimal extraction of solids from the coffee, and because the French Press keeps the ground coffee in water, there is a chance it is left too long and the water overextracts from the coffee. You will know when this happens by the taste of the coffee and by the residue that the coffee will leave on the inside of your mug as you drink it. This is one reason why you are advised to use a coarse grind of coffee with the French Press. A regular grind will result in overextraction because of its prolonged contact with water, and a fine grind may pass right through the mesh filter and into the coffee that you pour into your mug.

Inconvenience: This is a matter of personal taste, but many people like the 'flip-a-switch' convenience of using a drip brewer. With the French Press, you will need to heat the water yourself, pour it once heated, and set your own timer to know when the coffee is ready. Clean-up with the French Press is no better or worse than with a drip brewer.

Espresso (or Italian) Coffee

Italian Coffee is another method of preparing coffee. It involves a unique "Italian coffee-maker" design which was invented in the mid 20th century and uses pressure forced through finely ground coffee. It is a common kitchen appliance in Italy as well as throughout Europe. While the more common "drip brew" method of preparing coffee is popular in North America, the more European standard is coffee prepared by pressure.

Pressure-Brewing

Pressure brewing is popular in making Espressos, and involves a multi-chamber coffee-maker, sometimes called a moka pot. One chamber collects the water and boils it. The boiling water -in the 90s in degrees Celsius or around 200 in degrees Fareinheit- is forced through the finely-ground coffee contained in a second chamber. The third chamber catches the brewed coffee, or the coffee-maker will be designed to hold the cups that act as the third chamber in catching the brewed coffee.

Some connaisseurs argue that pressure brewing and the heat that it forces through the coffee burns aromas in the coffee and therefore, cannot make as good a cup of coffee.

Turkish Coffee

Perhaps the oldest, and for many, the strongest method of brewing coffee, this method steeps the coffee like tea for a strength you taste in the cup.

While Turkey plays a role in the history of coffee, Turkish Coffee has less to do with beans imported from that country. Rather, it is a manner of preparing coffee, regardless of where the beans are from. Turkish Coffee -or depending on the geography, variant names include Oriental, Moorish, Arab, or Greek Coffee- involves boiling the coffee in water.

The Turkish Method Defined

By this method, the coffee is very finely ground, boiled sometimes with sugar. The water and ground coffee is brought to a boil, often up to three times before enough flavor is steeped from the ground coffee. It is poured with the ground coffee in it, which is given time to settle at the bottom of the cup. A coffee drinker unaware that the coffee was prepared in this manner might get a mouthful of grinds towards the end of the drink. You leave the grinds in the cup, but drink as much as you can without swallowing any.