A perfect cup of coffee (this ones for you Mike)
info courtesy of Alton Brown
Good eats is my favorite cooking show. Not for actually cooking stuff, but setting up the history, chemical make up and proper technique for one aspect or medium of food. He's very informative in a playful way and IMHO second only to the "Manic Organic" host in terms of craziness. But here are some things to tell you about coffee.
- Lighter roasted beans have more caffiene, but less body. It however does have more flavour as darker roasts. As you roast it more, the more body appears, but also more flavour is lost.
- Right off the bat, after a roast...coffee is on it's merry way to being stale. Main culprit is air. However another problem is storage since a roasted bean gives off "tons" of CO2, therefore conventional containers merely bursted because of the coffee's CO2 expansion. So this points out two things....be cautios of buying bulk storage bins full of coffee beans. Whole does not = fresh, because stale trumps it all. The second point? Good coffee bags have a small "one way valve" in order to allow CO2 out but prevents Oxygen getting in...so therefore feel around your coffee bag and see if there is that valve...this would result in a fresher bag of beans/coffee.
- If you choose to go to a coffee bean shop...go to a place where it's busy. Because since coffee beans are a proverbial ticking-time-bomb for satleness, the sooner, the better. So business = higher coffe turnover = fresher beans.
- Problem is when you either open a bag of coffee or coffee beans...the stale time bomb starts over again. You will then have to put it in a "opaque" air-tight jar in order to preserve freshness. Why opaque? Light also contributes to coffee being stale, so getting a clear/glass container would quicken the process.
- Coffee is a gamble often. What people don't know is that only 30% of the flavour could be wrout out from a bean. And of that 30% only 2/3s of it is actually good...the last 1/3 is bitterness. So this explains that why adding more water...or less coffee grinds could end up in bitterness, since the water is extracting "all" of the flavour....if there is less water but more coffee grinds, you get only that 2/3s flavour. Alton Brown mentioned that people don't like strong coffee which in reality it's really "bitter" coffee. The ratio for water to coffee is 6 ounces to 2 tablespoons of coffee grinds per cup of coffee.
-of course you could actually take charge of making the perfect cup of coffee if you control 4 things. Temperature, the coffee grind, water:coffee ratio and time it takes to boil the coffee.
Next time...actual procedure.
info courtesy of Alton Brown
Good eats is my favorite cooking show. Not for actually cooking stuff, but setting up the history, chemical make up and proper technique for one aspect or medium of food. He's very informative in a playful way and IMHO second only to the "Manic Organic" host in terms of craziness. But here are some things to tell you about coffee.
- Lighter roasted beans have more caffiene, but less body. It however does have more flavour as darker roasts. As you roast it more, the more body appears, but also more flavour is lost.
- Right off the bat, after a roast...coffee is on it's merry way to being stale. Main culprit is air. However another problem is storage since a roasted bean gives off "tons" of CO2, therefore conventional containers merely bursted because of the coffee's CO2 expansion. So this points out two things....be cautios of buying bulk storage bins full of coffee beans. Whole does not = fresh, because stale trumps it all. The second point? Good coffee bags have a small "one way valve" in order to allow CO2 out but prevents Oxygen getting in...so therefore feel around your coffee bag and see if there is that valve...this would result in a fresher bag of beans/coffee.
- If you choose to go to a coffee bean shop...go to a place where it's busy. Because since coffee beans are a proverbial ticking-time-bomb for satleness, the sooner, the better. So business = higher coffe turnover = fresher beans.
- Problem is when you either open a bag of coffee or coffee beans...the stale time bomb starts over again. You will then have to put it in a "opaque" air-tight jar in order to preserve freshness. Why opaque? Light also contributes to coffee being stale, so getting a clear/glass container would quicken the process.
- Coffee is a gamble often. What people don't know is that only 30% of the flavour could be wrout out from a bean. And of that 30% only 2/3s of it is actually good...the last 1/3 is bitterness. So this explains that why adding more water...or less coffee grinds could end up in bitterness, since the water is extracting "all" of the flavour....if there is less water but more coffee grinds, you get only that 2/3s flavour. Alton Brown mentioned that people don't like strong coffee which in reality it's really "bitter" coffee. The ratio for water to coffee is 6 ounces to 2 tablespoons of coffee grinds per cup of coffee.
-of course you could actually take charge of making the perfect cup of coffee if you control 4 things. Temperature, the coffee grind, water:coffee ratio and time it takes to boil the coffee.
Next time...actual procedure.
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