Have you struggled with getting that great brew that was so memorable at your favorite café?  Fear not, get those great brews are within your grasp.  With these tips, you’re sure to be the go-to expert amongst your family and friends for any type of brew.  These tips are agnostic to brew method.  Each are simple to follow and build upon each other.

Tip #1:  Great Tasting water makes for great tasting coffee 

Municipal water often tastes like swimming pool water and distilled/deionized water has no flavor at all (which also doesn't make for great tasting coffee either).  Great tasting water is chlorine free and has a slightly basic or alkaline PH that is above 7.00. Remineralized reverse osmosis (RO) water tastes great and is easy to get in the grocery store – there’s no need to go overboard here, just look for filtered water that has minerals added for taste.  If you don’t want all of the plastic bottles floating around you can opt to install an RO/remineralization system under your sink for a few hundred dollars.  The RO membranes last many years, and the only ongoing maintenance is the replacement of the carbon and mineralization filters every 500-1000 gallons of water (they last a long time).  If both of those options are beyond your budget, invest in a Carbon Filter dispenser (e.g., Brita), just make sure you replace the filters once a month (old filters make the water taste worse than tap water).   

Here are few options to consider:

Pre-Filtered and Remineralized Water:  Icelandic Alkaline Water

Point of Use System:  6 Stage Alkaline Reverse Osmosis System

Point of use Filter Dispenser:  ZeroWater

Tip #2:  Invest in a good quality burr grinder

A burr grinder will help to unlock and reveal the most desirable flavors in coffee.  A great grinder actually has a much larger impact on flavor than almost anything else. That is, if you're investing in new equipment, spend at least 1/3 of your investment on your grinder.   There are two types of burr grinders, flat, and conical.  Generally speaking, flat burrs aid with unlocking coffee flavor complexity, helping you to experience and identify specific flavors in coffee.  Conical grinders help with producing more full-bodied coffee but with less complexity and clarity.  No matter which burr type you choose, the more you invest in your grinder the happier you will be with the resulting brew.  Use your grinder to tune the flavor of your brews.  Coarse grinds reduce contact time between coffee and water, finer grinds increase contact time.  Tune out sourness by going finer (by extending the contact time), tune out bitter flavors by going coarser (by reducing the contact time). 

You can spend as little as $30 for a manual conical burr grind that gets you great result – unbelievably, the amount you spend on a grinder is directly proportional to improved flavor.  While a $1000 flat burr grinder will get you coffee brews that are noticeably improved over a $500 conical grinder, you don’t have to spend that much to see huge improvements in your brews.  No matter your budget, I assure you that you will not be disappointed and will immediately notice improved brews with an upgraded grinder.  So, If you’re currently drinking pre-ground coffee, the least expensive burr grinder will significantly improve your brews.

Here are a few options for you to consider:

Low-Cost Manual Grinder:  Hario Mini Slim

Great Value Electric Conical:  Baratza Encore

Great Pro-sumer Flat Burr:  Mahlkönig X54

Tip #3:  Brew by weight not by volume 

Brewing by volume is a highly inaccurate and ever-varying way to brew coffee.  Lighter roast coffees are more dense than darker roasted coffees - and counter intuitively, the darker the roast, a larger volume of grounds is needed to get the right strength.  Dosing your coffee grounds by weight eliminates the differences across coffees and roast levels, better positioning you to tune your brews.   For automatics to pour over brews, start with dosing 10 grams / 150 ml ( ~6 oz).  For espresso, start with 18g for double shots.  Then adjust upward and downward to determine your preferred strength.  From there, you can adjust your grind setting to get to your desired balance of sweetness, bitterness. Gram scales are very inexpensive and easy way for you to transform your brews to a new level.

Low-Cost Gram Scale:  American Weigh Scales (AWS) Precision Pocket Scale

Medium Cost Brew Scale:  Hario V60 Brew Scale

Premium Espresso Scale:  Acaia Lunar

Tip #4:  Brew Fresh Coffee

Roasted coffee stores CO2, which is a vehicle for promoting its inherent great flavors.  As the coffee ages, the CO2 dissipates, as it dissipates so does the flavor.  Specialty Grade Coffee will always have a "roasted on" date.  Fresher is better, but you'll still get good results for upwards of 8 weeks.  SteffenMarkkus coffees are always roasted to order, so you will usually receive coffee within days of the "roasted on" date.  To extend the life of your coffee beans, you can store them in the freezer (in whole bean form) and defrost only the amount you need.  If your only option is pre-ground coffee, purchase it in small amounts and use it quickly.  Once coffee is ground, its freshness degrades very quickly - if you can, brew the coffee within minutes of grinding.

Here are a few of Roasted-to-Order Coffees to Consider:

Great Single-Origin Coffees:   SteffenMarkkus Single Origin Coffees

Selected Blends for every Brew type:  SteffenMarkkus Blends