In the specialty coffee business, we have found that most of our customers don’t just have a cup of coffee to wake up and jump-start their day. Instead, they are looking for the finest, most flavorful cup of coffee available based on taste, not its caffeinated properties. They are willing to take classes in all aspects of coffee growing, tasting, and brewing. They are willing to pay the premium price required for seasonality, Direct Trade, and expeditious roasting and delivery. All of this translates to their home brew, as we find the sale of whole beans and grinding and brewing equipment to be rapidly growing. Some consumers now even buy green beans that they can roast at home, a process that, unbelievably, was once commonplace in the home kitchen. But that is now considered the height of coffee geekdom.
At joe all of our beans are packed in one-way valve bags printed with the roast date to ensure freshness for the home brew. Sealed, freshly roasted beans emit carbon dioxide that must escape to keep the beans’ natural flavor intact; the valve allows this to occur. Once opened, we recommend that the bag be tightly sealed and stored, preferably in an airtight container in a cool, dark spot, for no more than two weeks. Although we can grind a bag of beans to order, we think it best if the consumer grinds just enough for each cup to be made right before brewing. Ground beans, even properly sealed, only have a few hours before losing their fresh flavor.
Dedicated coffee lovers are willing to spend large sums of money to acquire the best home brewing equipment, including fine espresso machines, grinders, and brewers. At the opposite end of the spectrum, we can recommend one of the oldest and simplest brewing methods, using hot water poured over ground coffee. This method will easily produce an excellent cup of coffee in the home kitchen.
For all intents and purposes, there are two procedures used to brew coffee—the immersion method and the drip method. With the immersion method, ground coffee is totally covered with water (usually hot) and allowed to steep, while with the drip method, ground coffee is placed in a filter and hot water is poured over it, allowing the water to slowly drip down into a pot. Other interesting methods include the Japanese cold drip and, of course, the old-fashioned and now rarely used percolator.
With today’s growing interest in specialty coffees, the Internet has been a great resource for a coffee enthusiast to explore the world of home brewing, particularly espresso making. A great many websites and blogs are devoted exclusively to the art of coffee, featuring reports and conversations about beans, brewing methods, and equipment. They are great places to gather information if you are new to the world of specialty coffee and are excellent sources for reviews and user endorsements as you prepare to purchase what can be an expensive home espresso machine.
In this chapter, you will find all of the requirements and equipment we suggest for successful home brewing. All of the methods that we discuss will require freshly roasted beans, a fine quality grinder, a scale, a kettle, filtered water, a timer, and simple cups that have been preheated from which you can enjoy your home brew. Of course, it should go without saying that all of the equipment should be absolutely clean with no soap or old coffee residue.
If you have, like we do in New York City, superb tap water that will infuse no undesirable taste or odor into your coffee, you can use it to make your brew. Just remember that if you can taste the water in your brewed coffee, you will need to change to bottled spring or filtered water.
For superb home-brewed coffee, just as in a specialty coffee bar, the most important elements are the quality of the coffee and the water. The other elements are also important, with the quality of the grinder being a significant contributor to excellent home-brewed coffee. A number of grinders can be found on the market, but we can only recommend a burr grinder. You don’t want to use a small, inexpensive (around twenty dollars) blade-style or propeller grinder, which chops the beans and produces an inconsistent grind as well as heats the beans through the speed of the rapidly turning blades. Instead, get a burr grinder, which uses two revolving metal wheels or conical grinding elements that shear the beans. The result is small particles of coffee with a larger amount of surface area allowing maximum extraction of flavor. Burr grinders can be either mechanical or manual, although mechanical is more efficient. Most burr grinders that we endorse, such as the Baratza, Rancilio Rocky, or Solis Maestro Plus, cost in the hundreds of dollars, but you can find quality burr grinders for less than two hundred dollars.
Each type of brewed coffee will require a specific type of grind. For instance, a French press demands a coarse grind, about the size of large sea salt crystals. Drip machines and Chemex will use a medium grind, about the size of kosher salt crystals. Single cup drippers like Hario V60 will use a slighty finer grind, and finally espresso machines require a very fine, almost powdery grind. It is a basic rule that the longer the coffee is going to be in contact with the water, the coarser the grind. At joe we recommend about two tablespoons of ground coffee for every six ounces of water. However, we have found that weighing the coffee and the water results in a more accurate and precise cup. In that case, for a 12-ounce cup of coffee we use about 21–24 grams of coffee per 340 grams of water.
All of the recommended home brewing methods require that the hot drink be consumed immediately—or, at most, within ten to fifteen minutes—after being brewed. With some methods, there is no way to keep the liquid hot and fresh in the brewing container, and with other methods, the coffee will be overextracted and bitter when the coffee and water are left to commingle for more than fifteen to twenty minutes.
Following is a brief explanation of the various methods available to brew a perfect cup of coffee at home.
BREWING METHODS
CHEMEX
One of the simplest and best-known home brewing methods is done through the use of an hourglass-shaped Chemex coffee carafe. A beautifully designed, laboratory-like vessel, the Chemex was invented in the 1930s by a German scientist who was clearly interested in creating a kitchen classic that echoed the modernist creed of beauty combined with straightforward functionality. It is inexpensive and very easy to use. The original Chemex has a wooden collar around the mid-section, but there is now a version that features a simple glass handle. It comes in a variety of sizes ranging from three to ten cups.
In addition to the standard requirements listed on page 108, you will only need the carafe and authorized Chemex filters to use the Chemex.
1. Fill a kettle with cold water and place over high heat. While the water is coming to a boil (this should take about five minutes), prepare your coffee.
2. Weigh the coffee following the above recommendation. A good starting point is 52 grams of coffee for 740 grams (or 26 ounces) of water.
3. Grind the coffee to a medium grind, about the size of kosher salt.
4. By now, your water should have come to a boil. Remove the kettle from the heat and let stand for about ten seconds, noting that you want to use water that is 195°F to 205°F to prepare your coffee.
5. Place the Chemex filter into position in the top half of the carafe, pulling the filter apart and lightly pressing three sides against the pour spout and the remaining side against the opposing side. (The instructions are on the Chemex filter box.)
6. Carefully pour a small amount of hot water around and through the filter to eliminate any contaminant tastes it might hold and to preheat the Chemex carafe.
7. Pour out and discard the water used to dampen the filter. The filter will not fall out of position.
8. Place the ground coffee into the filter.
9. Place the carafe on the scale, making sure that the scale has been tared to zero.
10. Pouring in concentric circles, slowly pour one hundred grams of water over the grounds to saturate.
11. Allow the coffee to “bloom” (you will see the grinds puff up and air escape through small holes) for about one minute. The bloom allows the fresh coffee to degas just a bit and evenly saturate all of the grounds before you add the rest of the water.
12. Immediately and carefully begin pouring the prescribed amount of water in concentric circles over the dampened grounds, pausing your pour when the height of the coffee reaches about an inch from the top of the filter.
13. When the coffee finishes dripping through, which should take about four minutes, remove the filter (which, including the wet coffee grounds, is a great addition to the compost heap) and enjoy!
CAFE SOLO
This total immersion coffee brewer is made by a Danish company, Eva Denmark, that has won many awards for its design sensibility. With this particular coffeemaker, not only does the design sing, but the coffee brewed is spectacular. Introduced in 2003, Cafe Solo has not yet received wide home use, but we can recommend it without reservation.
The brewing pack (which, by the way, comes in an equally well-designed box) is composed of a forty-ounce glass carafe, a neoprene cover, a filter, a no-drip lid, and a stirring spoon. The zipped-up, jacket-like cover ensures that the brewed coffee remains hot for up to thirty minutes (even though we recommend it being held no more than fifteen minutes); the filter keeps the grounds from leeching into the poured coffee; the layered lid opens automatically and allows a drip-free pour; and the spoon is used both to mix the grounds into the water and aerate them, allowing any air trapped in the ground coffee to rise to the top.
With the immersion method, one of the oldest techniques to brew clean-tasting coffee, it is imperative that you begin with boiling water and a preheated carafe. This is because when the boiling water is poured over the grounds, the temperature immediately drops to about 200°F, the ideal condition for perfect coffee brewing. This temperature extracts about 80 percent of the flavor within the first couple of minutes of brewing. You can brew either the full (thirty-two-ounce) or a half (sixteen-ounce) carafe. Less is not recommended.
1. Boil a kettle of cold water over high heat, and prepare your coffee.
2. Place the jacket onto the Cafe Solo carafe, zipping it about halfway up.
3. Weigh the coffee. For this method, we recommend a starting ratio of 33 grams of coffee for every 525 grams of water.
4. Grind the beans to a coarse grind, about the consistency of coarse sea salt.
5. Pour boiling water into the Cafe Solo carafe to thoroughly heat.
6. Pour out and discard heating water.
7. Pour the freshly ground coffee into the carafe.
8. Set the carafe on the scale, making sure the scale has been tared to zero.
9. Set the timer for four minutes.
10. Immediately begin adding 525 grams of boiling water to the carafe. It should come up to the beginning of the neck of the carafe. The grounds will rise to about an inch from the beginning of the neck, and “bloom” will be observed.
11. After coffee has bloomed for one minute, stir until the ground coffee and water have blended thoroughly, about ten seconds to no more than twenty seconds.
12. Quickly insert the filter funnel into the carafe and immediately place the lid on the filter top.
13. Completely zip up the neoprene jacket.
14. When your timer goes off, begin gently pouring into preheated cups by tilting the carafe upward to about forty-five degrees and turning your wrist slowly as you pour. This will allow the coffee to be evenly extracted. To create the perfect cup of coffee, the entire carafe should be decanted in one pour so that the brew is not overly agitated or overextracted.
FRENCH PRESS
ALSO KNOWN AS A “PLUNGER POT” OR “COFFEE PRESS”
First developed in the late 1800s, the French press is a very simple method of steeping coffee grounds in water for a few minutes and then pushing a fine mesh plunger down into the water, separating the grounds from the now brewed coffee. Because the coffee does not pass through a paper or other filter, the resultant brew is generally a bit larger in body and lends itself well to full-bodied, earthy coffees. Tea is often brewed in a French press, also.
The device has undergone many modifications since its invention. Contemporary French presses are usually composed of a cylindrical pot made of clear glass (although often now plastic) that is fitted with a lid and metal plunger. The plunger fits snuggly into the cylinder. The lid is centered around a rod on which the fine mesh (either metal or nylon) plunger is also centered.
When using a French press, it is imperative that you begin with boiling water. Coffee brewed with a French press has more body and is more strongly flavored than coffee prepared through the drip method; therefore it should be poured as soon as it is brewed to prevent overextraction and bitterness.
1. Boil a kettle of cold water, and prepare your coffee.
2. Weigh the coffee. For this method, we recommend a starting ratio of 33 grams of coffee for every 525 grams of water.
3. Grind the desired amount of beans to a coarse grind (a bit larger than a grain of kosher salt). Coffee that has been too finely ground will clog the mesh and cause extreme pressure to build when you push the plunger.
4. By now, your water should have come to a boil. Remove the kettle from the heat and let stand for about ten seconds; you want to use water that is 195°F to 205°F.
5. Place the French press cylinder on a dry, flat, heatproof surface and carefully remove the plunger.
6. Place the weighed ground coffee into the pot.
7. Carefully pour the hot water into the pot, leaving an inch of space at the top. On a typical French press this will be just to the top of the metal band.
8. Gently stir the grounds into the water. This step allows the grounds to mingle and settle into the bottom of the pot.
9. Return the plunger unit to the pot, placing it carefully on top of the cylinder. The mesh sieve should be at the top of the pot and the rod should be sticking completely up through the lid.
10. Allow the coffee to brew for four minutes.
11. Holding onto the pot handle and using gentle weight, carefully apply pressure to the top of the rod to begin pushing the plunger down into the hot liquid. It is important that you do not put excess pressure on the plunger or wiggle it around. It should slowly and evenly depress downward because if the rod is crooked, grounds will leak into the liquid. This gentle approach will produce the most flavorful coffee. In addition, excessive force can cause the hot liquid to spurt out of the pot, possibly burning you.
12. If your pot has a pour spout, turn the lid to open.
13. Slowly pour the coffee into heated cups.
14. Do not let the brewed coffee stay in the pot after pressing as it will continue to brew. If not serving immediately, pour the coffee into a heated thermos.
POUR OVER
For this method you need little equipment. At its simplest, all that is required is a ceramic cone lined with a paper filter placed over a heated coffee cup. It can, of course, be used to make coffee in a carafe. At joe we use the Hario V60 cone for speed of service and ease of use, but there are other ceramic drippers, such as the beehive or the Bonmac, which are also very good. The Hario V60 is a single-cup coffee dripper with a large open base that allows for even flow.
1. Prepare your coffee while boiling a kettle of cold water.
2. Grind the desired amount of beans to a medium-fine drip grind (about the size of a grain of kosher salt).
3. Weigh the ground coffee. For a 12-ounce cup, we usually begin with a ratio of 21 to 24 grams of coffee for 340 grams of water.
4. By now, your water should have come to a boil. Remove the kettle from the heat and let stand for about ten seconds; the water should be 195°F to 205°F.
5. Gently place the filter in the cone and put the cone on top of the cup.
6. Carefully pour a small amount of hot water around and through the filter to eliminate any contaminant tastes it might hold and to preheat the container.
7. Pour out and discard the water used to dampen the filter.
8. Place the ground coffee into the filter.
9. Place the carafe or cup on the scale, making sure that the scale has been tared to zero.
10. Carefully and slowly pour about fifty grams of water (that is ten seconds off the boil) over the grounds to saturate. The weight of water should be about twice your weight in coffee, so about forty-five to fifty grams of water.
11. Allow the coffee to bloom for thirty seconds to one minute, depending upon the freshness of the coffee.
12. After the bloom, continue carefully pouring water in 100-gram intervals in small concentric circles, never allowing the coffee to reach about an inch below the top of the filter.
13. Once you have added the desired weight of water, let the brew finish, discard the grounds and enjoy.
OTHER HOME BREWERS
AeroPress is, in theory, similar to a French press in that water and coffee are mixed together for a brief period and then a filter and plunger system is used to create the brew. A simple plastic pump that sits directly on a single cup, AeroPress is primarily used to brew a single cup of espresso; however, you can brew up to four cups. To make “American” coffee, you simply add a half cup of hot water to the espresso. Many feel that it is the simplest and best device for making a quick, smooth, rich espresso at home.
Yama Tabletop Syphon Brewer is a Japanese glass coffeemaker that is a modern version of an older siphon system of brewing. From its name, you will note that it is not brewed on a stovetop. The bottom receptacle is placed on a counter or tabletop and filled with hot water, which is further heated by an alcohol burner that sits underneath it. The coffee grounds are placed in the top receptacle, and the pressure of the heat causes the water to rise and steep the coffee grounds. Once all of the water has risen to the top, the burner is removed, and the brewed coffee then drips back into the bottom receptacle. Many people feel that this system gives the brewer more control over the outcome and creates a brewed coffee that is extremely clean with defined flavor and aroma.
ABOUT MAKING ESPRESSO AT HOME
HOME ESPRESSO MACHINES
Espresso is essentially coffee brewed under high pressure, and making it is simply another method of brewing coffee. There are many types of espresso machines made for home use; some are quite simple, while others can compete almost one on one with commercial machines. Although many small appliance manufacturers make a steam-run home espresso machine, most of them do not have the pressure capacity or temperature stability to create great espresso.
When purchasing a home espresso machine, you will want to look at its consistency in preparing the cup you desire. The machine should also hold the same temperature and pressure, never compromising the quality of the shot. In addition, it is helpful if the machine can be programmed to adjust the extraction pressure and water temperature should you wish to change these parameters. The machine should be user-friendly and compatible with your kitchen space. While barista technique stays relatively the same regardless of equipment, each manufacturer has its own instructions to use its particular machine and those should be followed.
An espresso machine is a comparatively simple device used to easily heat water to a desired temperature and push it through a specified amount of tamped-down ground coffee (a puck) to create a rich cup of coffee. The method by which this occurs defines the type of machine. There are essentially two types of machines made for home use: manual or automatic with each type having subcategories. Manual machines are either spring piston lever or direct lever, and automatic machines are semi-automatic, automatic, or super-automatic. In addition, the semi-automatic and automatic machines also have subcategories. A brief description of each type follows.
Manual
The power on these machines, also known as lever espresso machines, comes via hand pressure on a lever, either a spring piston lever or a direct lever. They were the first home machines (although they are used in many Italian coffee bars) to produce quality espresso through pressure rather than with steam. Spring piston machines have an internal spring device that has been calibrated to force water through ground coffee at a defined pressure. The brewer manually presses the lever to initiate the spring’s action, while letting go of the lever allows the spring to begin the process of forcing the water through the grounds. With a direct lever machine, it is the brewer who does the actual pressing of the lever with no help from any internal device. Although they are both capable of creating a delicious espresso, it is the hands-on skill that produces either a great cup or a barely drinkable one.
Automatic Machines
There are three major categories of semi- and fully automated machines. These are 1) the single boiler, dual-use, which has two separate thermometers for heating water and for heating milk but cannot brew coffee and steam milk at the same time; 2) single boiler, heat exchange, which has a large boiler capable of maintaining the desired steam-creating 240°F water temperature and can brew and steam milk simultaneously; and 3) the dual boiler, which has two separate boilers, one to maintain the appropriate temperature for brewing water and one for steam, and can also brew and steam milk at the same time. The first category can cost under one thousand dollars while the other two range from one thousand dollars to well over that price. For example, La Marzocco, whose commercial machines are used at all joe coffee bars, makes a home espresso machine that retails for about $6,500. You will pay a premium for a high-quality, long-lasting machine, but if you are a serious coffee drinker, the investment is well worth making.
Semi-Automatic Machines
With a semi-automatic machine, much of the process is automated, including the activation; however, it is the brewer’s decision when to manually switch the pump on and off.
Automatic Machines
With a fully automated machine, all systems are automated, either through presetting or programming; all the brewer has to do is push a button to activate the process and then the machine turns off automatically.
Super-Automatic Machines
A super-automatic machine does everything from grinding to ejecting the used grounds (the puck) with the press of a button. Specialty coffee brewers do not recommend them, as the barista has little control over the quality of the grinding, the degree of tamping, and so forth.
MOKA POT OR STOVETOP ESPRESSO COFFEEMAKER:
This device was invented in Italy in the mid-1900s by Alfonso Bialetti to bring the familiar coffee bar espresso into the home. The moka pot, a three-chambered, steam-based stovetop espresso maker, was the foundation for the growth of the Bialetti company, now one of Italy’s largest coffee machine and kitchen-ware companies. The classic three-chamber design has won many international awards, influenced many industrial designers, and remained constant for decades. A number of fine moka pots are available on the market, ranging in price from twenty dollars to more than two hundred dollars.
MYPRESSI TWIST
This is a small handheld espresso maker that uses innovative pneumatic technology to allow the home brewer to create an excellent espresso without an expensive machine. The apparatus can create either two single espressos or one double. It requires gas cartridges and will work with either coffee pods or your own ground beans. It can be used anywhere as long as you have the cartridges and coffee.
