The Art Of Brewing Coffee
You have your fresh roasted Planet Bean coffee, now what do you do?
WATER
98% of coffee is water. The water you use should ideally be filtered. Chlorine is added to tap water and other odors can be present depending on the source of the water. Making sure your key raw material is free of flavour contaminants is the first step in coffee excellence.
TEMPERATURE
You want you water to be just off the boil, 195-205 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature should be kept constant through the brew.
GRIND
The grind of the coffee should be appropriate for the brewing technology. For example a French press requires a coarser grind than an auto drip machine. Refer to the instructions for your brewing technology for grind size, then experiment a little. It may take a few tries to get it right. The key point to consider is that the finer the grind, the more surface area of the coffee is exposed. More surface area means that when water is added the coffee will begin brewing more quickly. Generally speaking, the smaller the particle the faster the brew time. If coffee is brewed for too long it will become over extracted – bitter.
There are two basic kinds of grinders. A blade grinder chops up the coffee with a blade. This results in inconsistent particle size which hampers excellent brewing. A burr grinder ensures consistent particle size. We recommend burr grinders.
TIME
This is dependent upon the brewing technology and will involve some experimentation. If the coffee is weak tasting, then it has not had enough time to brew, or perhaps there is not enough coffee in the brew (see the next bit on ratio). Bitterness is a sign of too much time – over extraction.
RATIO
Once again this can be adjusted to suit your taste buds. Generally, use a ratio of 55 grams of ground coffee per litre of filtered water or 2.5 tablespoons of coffee per 6 ounces of water.
Once brewed your coffee should be kept in a sealed container. Although we all love the smell of coffee, that smell is a sign of the degradation of the coffee as the tasty compounds blow away, so put a lid on it! Microwaving your coffee to heat it up actually changes its chemical composition.
We recommend drinking our coffee black so that all the flavour of each coffee is available for you senses to enjoy, and it is not masked by other things like milk or sugar.