The coffee you make tastes bad? That’s because you don’t know these five tips to improve coffee quality!

Many people start their day with a cup of coffee. Only after drinking coffee can we start a normal work and life. But the significance of coffee is not only to wake up our brains, everyone longs to taste a cup of truly high-quality coffee. Today, let me bring you five tips to improve the quality of coffee!

Preheating coffee cups

If you love pour-over coffee like me, then you must remember that temperature is the key to coffee quality! The temperature I'm talking about is not just the water temperature. If the freshly brewed hot coffee meets a cold coffee cup, all your previous efforts will be in vain! Before you start brewing, remember to preheat the coffee cup with hot water. This will not only keep the coffee warm, but also make the aroma and taste of the coffee last longer. This is like drying your socks before wearing them in the winter morning.

Do not use boiling water

Remember, the water must not be boiled when brewing hand-brewed coffee. The best temperature should be around 200℉ (93℃). If you pour boiling water directly into a Chemex or French press, the water will burn the coffee powder and give the coffee an unpleasant odor, so be sure to let the water sit for 20-40 seconds after boiling to allow the water to cool slightly.

Don't be merciful to the coffee beans

You must drink freshly roasted coffee beans as soon as possible. Don't be lenient. Once they go bad, the flavor of the coffee will be greatly reduced. I once drank coffee that had been forgotten in the closet for 2 weeks. The taste was really hard to swallow, with a strong smell of cardboard. Remember not to buy too many coffee beans at a time. Fresh ones are the best!

Remember the Golden Ratio

1:16, this is the golden ratio for brewing hand-brewed coffee (unless the independent roaster who sells you coffee beans has special requirements for the brewing ratio), which means that every 22g of coffee powder should be matched with 352g of hot water, roughly speaking, 3 spoons of coffee with 12 ounces of hot water (or 1/4 cup of coffee with 4 cups of water). On this basis, you can make slight adjustments according to your personal preferences.

Don't forget to wet the filter paper

Whether you use a hand-brewed coffee pot or a drip coffee machine, be sure to wet the filter paper or filter with hot water before pouring the coffee powder in. You should know that the filter paper itself has a taste, which will affect the final taste of the coffee, so you must first remove the taste of the filter paper and keep the filter paper close to the coffee pot to make the coffee extraction more even and full.

Don’t forget the espresso!

// Release water in advance

Great, you have a home espresso machine, and your friends are very jealous of you! But before you show off to your friends, you must first understand the correct way to use an espresso machine. The first step is to add water before brewing coffee. Adding water will make the water flow more uniform, make the extraction more complete, and make the quality more stable.

// Understanding Grease

The thick layer of brown oil on the surface of coffee is the hallmark of espresso, which is professionally called "Crema". Coffee oil contains a lot of aromatic substances. Before tasting, you can use a spoon to gently spread the oil to fully release the aroma, so that you can better understand the true flavor of coffee.

// Try making iced coffee!

Many people like iced espresso. Its preparation method is actually very simple. Just mix the prepared espresso with ice milk and pour it over ice cubes. Why pour ice milk in advance? Because if the coffee temperature is too high, the coffee will quickly melt the ice cubes and dilute the taste quickly. If you lower the coffee temperature in advance, the ice cubes will melt more slowly, so that the coffee taste will be more complete.

author:

Alex Delany

English original address:

www.bonappetit.com/story/5-tips-for-better-coffee