The Grind and Grinders

When you talk about grind you have to talk about grinders. Not all grinders are created equal. There are blade, hand mills and conical burr grinders, Blade grinders cost about $20/$ 30 and are a waste of money. You can never get a consistent grind no matter how hard you try. The blade heats the coffee as it is grinding and chopping so it is possible to burn the beans. Hand Mills are OK if you are trying to impress someone with a big brass mill (I save mine for spices) but like a blade you will never get a proper consistent grind. So the answer is a conical burr grinder. It is the type used in every coffee shop (except one and this franchise ships the coffee to their franchisees ground) can you believe?

Burr grinders come in all sizes and price ranges. I use a Bunn and a Baratza Virtuoso. There are lots of very good burr grinders on the market in a price range between $50 & $225. A good conical burr grinder is perfect for all sorts of grinding from almost powder for Turkish coffee, to espresso, press pot and filter brewing. Use the web and Google "Conical burr coffee grinders". You are bound to find one in your price range.

How you grind your coffee determines the end product. If you are grinding for filter brewing, 90% of all brewed coffee is filter brewed, a grind that is too coarse will produce a weak cup. The coarse grind allows the water to run too quickly through the grounds and you will get almost no flavor extraction. A grind that is too fine will not allow the water to run through at the proper rate and you'll get an over extracted bitter cup. Press pot brewing requires a coarse grind so that the grinds will not come through the metal filter.

Personally I use a fine grind for filter brewing. The grind feels like granulated sugar when you rub it between your fingers. The standard American filter brewer uses 5 ounces to a cup as the measurement. A 10 cup brewer holds 50 ounces of water. You should use about 3 plus ounces of ground coffee to get a full body cup and it should brew in about 6 minutes at 200 degrees. If your cup is too strong you can always dilute with hot water.

So what is the so what of it all? Fresh properly ground "Specialty" coffee in a washed paper filter, good water, and a coffee maker that brews at 200 degrees is all that it takes to make GREAT coffee. If your morning cup is as important to you as it is to me all of this is worth the pleasure of drinking not only good but GREAT coffee.

As always I welcome your comments.

Arnold

arnold@arnoldscoffee.com
www.arnoldscoffee.com

Coffeemaker Filters

So far we have covered 2 elements of coffee brewing, water & automatic drip coffeemakers. Most people don't think much about filters but they are an important factor in brewing great coffee.

There are several types; paper, both white(bleached) and brown (natural), metal, sometimes called "Goldtone", cloth (vacuum pots) , and we could include the wire mesh in french press brewing & the metal porta filter used in espresso brewing. The vast majority of brewing is done with some form of automatic drip brewer. That method uses 2 types of filters; flat bottom or V shape. I prefer the V shape natural filter because I think you get the best extraction. Here is a tip no matter what kind of filter you use. About half way through the brewing stir the coffee in the filter to ensure all the grounds are being evenly saturated. Stirring will improve the extraction and give you a better more full body cup. Try it and let me know what you think.

No matter which type of paper filter you use rinse it with warm water before you put the ground coffee into it. Rinsing removes the sizing that all paper filters have and the slight paper taste. If you think that rinsing does not make a difference brew a pot of plain water using both methods and you will be able to see the difference in the clarity of the water. Metal flat or V shape filters trap coffee oils that are important to cup body so I never recommend a metal filter of any type for drip brewing.

One more tip; Give the brewed coffee a quick stir before serving. The first half of the brewed coffee is weaker than the last half and stirring evens the mix. If you are using a thermal carafe to brew into put the cap on and swirl the carafe to mix the coffee and then pour a little of the coffee into the sink clearing the pour spout of old coffee and water.

I started this Blog series by saying brewing coffee is part art and part science and as you can see it is a little both. If coffee is as important to you as it is to me the little extra effort put into brewing is well worth the end result.

The next Blog will be on grinding, a very important element in the process of brewing a great cup.

Well it is time for me to brew our morning pot. Have a great coffee day!!

Arnold

All About Coffeemakers, (well almost all)

Books have been written on this subject; (Kevin Sinnott wrote "Great Coffee"). If you want to buy a copy, $9.95 + shipping; email me at arnold@arnoldscoffee.com It may be the best coffee book around. Or Google Ken Davis who is one of the great coffee guys of the world. Consumers Reports, January 2009, had a report on coffeemakers.

Here is my take on the subject.

A coffeemaker must be able to brew consistently at 195 to 205 degrees,end period. That is the starting point. The Specialty Coffee Association of America has endorsed only two such coffeemakers. The Bunn pod brewer & the Technivorm Moccamaster KBT-741. Technivorm makes many other models and they are all good but this one is my preference. I have owned one for about 7 years and it works like a charm. It is not cheap, about $200+, search the web.

That said you'll have to decide what your needs are. There are a number of brewing methods; French Press, vacuum method, manual drip, automatic drip is the method most of us use, and of course espresso. Espresso is a subject for another Blog. Several coffeemakers will let you set them up the night before to brew in the am so that when you wake up you have hot coffee. If you don't mind drinking stale coffee made with stale water they are convenient. Several have built-in grinders, but the grinder must be kept clean. All your brewing equipment must be clean. All coffee has oil and all oil turns rancid.

So what is the so what of all of this? There are a number of elements to brewing a GREAT cup of coffee. Brew at 195 to 205 degrees, good water, fresh ground Specialty coffee, brew into or pour into a warm carafe so that coffee does not stand on the warming plate of your coffeemaker. Coffeemakers retail from $25 to $300. The $25 to $100 brewers are "disposable", you buy a new one every couple of years and for the most part they brew mediocre coffee. But you are reading the Blog of a real coffee snob. The routine I go through to brew a morning cup of coffee would drive most people crazy. I however brew GREAT coffee, just ask my family.

Arnold

http://www.arnoldscoffee.com

Water, Water Everywhere & Not a Drop Good Enough to Make Coffee.

The most important ingredient in brewing coffee is WATER.

Coffee is 98% to 99% water. Start out with crappy water and you will have crappy coffee no matter how much you paid for your beans. Most municipal water companies like to tell you how pure their drinking water is. What makes pure drinking water? Chlorine! We sure don’t want chlorine in our coffee water (I don’t want it in my drinking water). So if that is the case what do we do? Either filter your coffee & cooking water or buy Spring Water. Please note; if you have a water softener the calcium that is exchanged for sodium is good for doing laundry, bathing and dishwashing, not good for making coffee.

There are lots of faucet type filters on the market. I use a Pur I bought at Lowes. I have also owned a GE reverse osmoses system that I thought was the best filtering system. A disclaimer, I am a retired GE guy. Any system that removes impurities from the water is better than none. Good quality water will make a marked difference in the taste of your coffee.

You can compare costs at; http://www.waterfiltercomparisons.com/water_filter_comparison.php

The next Blog will be on coffee filters. Don’t miss it.

Arnold@arnoldscoffee.com

All About Coffee

I am about to start a new Blog that is all about coffee. Hundreds of books have been written on the subject of coffee. I would also guess that there are a least a 100 coffee blogs.

My blog will focus on the consuming coffee or espresso drinker. The Gal or Guy who stands in line at the local coffee shop waiting for their drink or who is trying to make a decent cup at home.

I promise only the facts. All of which can be verified. Here in one place you will learn "The Art of Coffee". Coffee is part art and part science and we'll talk about both.

I would would appreciate your feedback, positive or negative. We'll just start talking

For now here are a few things to think about; Grind, Water, Brewing Temperature filter type. We'll discuss all of those and more.

Arnold