Coffee - How To Make A Great Tasting Cup Of Coffee

How To Make A Great Tasting Cup Of Coffee - Its Not Rocket Science

There is good coffee and absolutely abysmal coffee. Both may start with the same elements, but one cup can taste completely different to another. Freshness is the key to great tasting coffee. Here is the play by play smackdown of how to create a fantastic tasting cup of coffee.

1. Use good beans. Go to a local coffee roaster and buy only enough coffee beans to last you a week. Buying fresh beans is one key to good taste. When you buy beans make sure the beans are all relatively the same size and same color for even grinding and flavor. If you buy beans from the supermarket at minimum, check to see if the beans are Arabica.

2. Use filtered water. Even if your coffee maker has a charcoal filter it is best to start off with filtered water to ensure there are no impurities like chlorine or minerals to alter the real taste. Use cold water.

3. For the best tasting coffee ensure you have a coffee maker which can brew up to 95 to 98 degrees Celsius, just off the boil. This temperature is the optimal temperature to get the best flavor out of the bean.

4. The grind. Only grind as much coffee as you are going to need for that moment. The finer you grind, the more flavor you will receive. The grind has to be even to ensure even taste. If you are using a cheap coffee maker you should only use a medium grind to avoid the over-extraction. However, grind to your equipment's recommendations.

5. Use two level tablespoons of coffee per cup. If you are making more than 10-cups of coffee you should use the strength meter on its highest position possible to allow more water to penetrate the grounds evenly.

6. Use unbleached coffee filters or ensure your permanent filter is free from all coffee sludge. When it comes to coffee, cleanliness is next to Godliness.

7. Stir the pot. Once the coffee is brewed, stir the pot to infuse the taste.

At bare minimum, these steps should always be used when making coffee. Think about the farmer's in the field, if you skip a step are you doing their hard work justice? On a selfish note, missing one of those steps will affect the taste of your coffee, even slightly. Other things to make a great cup of coffee are:

1. Always ensure your equipment is clean. Old coffee sludge can really change the taste of coffee. Polident can clean your equipment to almost new.

2. NEVER reuse coffee grinds.

3. NEVER grind beans just taken out of the freezer. Let them thaw first.

4. Always store coffee in air-tight containers away from direct sunlight.

5. NEVER leave the coffee on a heater for longer than ½ an hour. It gets a burnt taste and smell.

6. Always warm your cup and never reheat coffee.

The best coffee starts with fresh beans, clean equipment and clean water. Adhering to at least those three guidelines will give you great tasting coffee. Everything else is just gravy.

Kate Simpson is a freelance writer who contributes for the Coffee Bean Queen - http://www.coffeebeanqueen.com/ ? a website offering information on everything from coffee to coffee making, capresso coffee and more.

Car Insurance Rates | Dental Insurance | Health Insurance | Home Owner Insurance | Life Insurance Quote

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

La Minita Coffee ? It?s In The Green Beans
La Minita; Spanish for "The Little Gold Mine" says it all. La Minita is arguably the best coffee in the world and is sipped by the who's who in the specialty coffee industry as well as by those of us who have access to it in our businesses. Similar to the wine industry, the best coffees are ...(related: Coffee)

Does Coffee Make You Fat Or Help With Diabetes?
Who the heck knows?According to two studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association the opposite is true and it states if you have diabetes you should get rid of caffeine.Duke University Medical Centre in a 2004 study proved that caffeine ingestion significantly impairs the control of blood sugar and insulin after a meal.According to one study, if you're under 60 years of age it can actually help you lose weight and over 60, well then you're on your own. A recent study provided by the International Journal of Obesity shows that with a study group of 7006 people, aged 32-88, there were significant interactions between age and caffeine and ground coffee. The study proved fu...(related: Coffee)

Coffee And Alzheimers Disease
With the American population aging rapidly, diseases that affect the health of the elderly are becoming increasingly important. The prevalence of these conditions is increasing and is costing both insurers and taxpayers billions of dollars each year. One of the most widely-known such conditions is Alzheimers disease, which is a...(related: Coffee)

Cappuccino Secrets: Creating The Perfect Foam
Here is an article that tells the secret of creating the perfect foam with steamed milk for making a wonderful cappuccino. As you'll see creating the perfect foam isn't as easy as it may seem ...Most places that serve cappuccinos in the United States have not trained their baristas in the art of properly frothing milk. The foam that they create is usually a dry, tasteless, large celled collection of bubbles that sit on top o...(related: Coffee)

Caffeine & Low Birth Weight Babies
These studies begin to point the way to the more permanentdamage that coffee drinking can inflict on the unborn. The use of caffeine during pregnancy has been widely studied. There is much evidence to suggest that caffeine is associated with low-birth weight and related problems.For example, one recent (1997) study of about 1,000 women inYugoslavia showed that, among nonsmoking mothers, a "significantreduction" in birth weight was observed in babies whose mothersdrank just 71 mg of...(related: Coffee)

Choosing A Coffee Maker - Tips On Finding The Right Features
Choosing a good coffee maker is not a decision to be taken for granted. If you are going to spend money on your favorite coffee, you will want to make sure the coffee maker you choose is of good quality and has the features you want. The majority of coffee makers are generally quite good and you will notice no difference in the taste of your coffee from one brand to another. There are some basic featur...(related: Coffee)

Caffeine - I Bet You Didnt Know This! Health And Nutrition!
What exactly is caffeine? It is a colorless, somewhat bitter substance that is found in coffee, tea, chocolate and cola. It is also in many over- the-counter medicines and in many diet/weight loss supplements. It is a stimulant and it is considered a psychoactive drug. It is the most widely consumed drug in this country. Drugmakers are required by law to list the amount of caffeine in their product, however, food and beverage companies do not have to. The caffeine that is taken out of coffee beans to produce decaffeinated coffee is then sold to drug ...(related: Coffee)

Coffee - Is It The Most Popular Beverage Of All Time?
Around 850 A.D it is thought that a lone shepherd and his sheep happened upon a strange and mysterious plant growing upon a secluded and forgotten hil...(related: Coffee)

Portrait Of A Barista
The barista is the Italian word for the skilled person who prepares coffee (ultimately espresso) in a coffee house.What would you want your barista to be like?This is not a trick question. The more I think of it, the more I believe it, that the world of coffee making must be laying on the shoulders of a barista.I believe that because the coffee I am beeing served in a coffee house, I expect it to be good. On the other hand, the manager of the bar expects me to be pleased with the service and come again. If the coffee is not g...(related: Coffee)

The Coffee Culture In The Usa
It wasn't until I moved to the US that I started drinking coffee regularly and became what they call in the Netherlands a 'koffieleut', which translates literally into 'coffee socialite.' Although the average European drinks more coffee per year than the average American, the cultural importance and its effects on the average European seems to me ...(related: Coffee)

Specialty Gourmet Coffee
Specialty gourmet coffee is a very hot commodity in today's market. The consumption of gourmet coffee has steadily grown with consumers enjoying the more sophisticated tastes of gourmet coffee beans.Specialty gourmet coffee, sometimes called premium coffee, is exceptional coffee beans grown only in ideal coffee-producin...(related: Coffee)

Are Coffee Enemas The Real Thing?
Coffee enemas detoxify the liver, as well as cleans the colon. Some people claim that they provide immediate relief to toxicity symptoms, such as congestion, indigestion, pain and headaches.There are even some small studies that suggest that coffee colonics can aid in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.At the very end of the colon, before reaching the rectum, is an "S" shaped segments called the sigmoid colon. There is a special circulatory system between this portion of the colon and the liver.This is because stool at this point in the colon contains putr...(related: Coffee)

Coffee For Your Health
Many of us rely on coffee to get us going in the mornings, wake us up in the afternoons, and prepare us for that special business meeting. Go ahead, have a cup of coffee. It's much healthier than you may be thinking right now.Coffee is the most consumed beverage in the world. No matter where you go, coffee is usually available. Yet, until recently there's been very little research on the effects of coffee on our health. The researcher...(related: Coffee)