It's remarkable that a simple seed can contain such depth and breadth of flavor. Like the coffee bean, Jessica Easto’s book "Craft Coffee: A Manual" (Agate Publishing, $19.95) dives deep and reaches wide as it teaches consumers how to improve their daily cup.
Coffee, the drink, is made up of but two ingredients: water and beans. But there's much to learn about choosing equipment, buying beans and heating water. Even the way you pour water over grounds affects your cup of joe.
Today, thanks to farmers, importers, roasters and baristas, coffee quality is high. It’s realizing that quality in your home-brewed cup that can seem out of reach. But with a bit more time and money, better is possible, Easto says.
Easto, herself, came to coffee enlightenment via "a circuitous road paved with ignorance." In high school, she ordered her first cup of coffee black because she didn't realize people expect plain coffee to be bad and dump in sugar and cream to make it palatable. In graduate school, she bought a pour-over device, only because a machine seemed extravagant for her single morning cup.
Enter her friend Andres, who noticed her manual coffeemaker. A barista, himself, he showed her a couple of ways to improve her brew. She learned that coffee, when brewed manually, can be manipulated for best results. Revelation! She married Andreas and was on her way to coffee nirvana.
Easto writes as a home coffee brewer living with a professional. (Andreas is now a technical specialist for an espresso machine company.) Her book offers comprehensive knowledge, some of which the casual home brewer may want to skip, such as "Rwandan flavor notes include raisin and other dried fruits." Instead, latch on to her practical advice.
The equipment
Start with equipment, since your brewing method affects everything else. The first question is manual devices versus automatic coffee makers. Easto focuses on manual because decent automatic machines are so pricey. "Manual methods allow anyone to make cafe quality coffee at home," she writes.
Manual devices fall into two categories: immersion and pour-over. Prices don’t include disposable filters. The former includes:
French press. Good for beginners. Versatile, since you can also make cold brew or cafe au lait in it. $17 to $70, depending on design and material.
Aeropress Coffee and Espresso Maker. "There isn't a faster brewing time with such tasty results," Easto says. Works well with various grind sizes, brewing times and water temperatures. Finer grinds produce less acidic coffee. About $30.
Abid Clever Coffee Dripper. User-friendly. Uses a paper filter, which produces a cleaner taste. About $22.
Pour-over manual devices require a steady hand with the hot water. (The amount of time that water is in contact with grounds affects how flavor molecules dissolve.) A slow, controlled pour produces better results. Pour-over devices include:
Melitta: Good for beginners. Affordable. "The first that allowed me to taste different flavors in coffee," Easto says. $4 to $30.
Bee House Coffee Dripper: Affordable. Compatible with grocery-store filters. Fits most coffee cups, allowing you to pour-over right into your cup. $19 to $33.
Walkure: This Dutch device, which Easto says is “easy on the eyes and easy to use,” is pricier than most pour-overs or drippers. Doesn't require a paper filter but produces a cleaner brew than other paperless devices. $89.
The method
Choose one device, and learn to use it, so you can focus on other variables, such as grind, water and beans. Grinding whole beans just before you brew is best, but ditch the blade-style grinders. That spinning blade results in uneven grind sizes, which means uneven flavor extraction. A burr grinder, electric or manual, is more even and lets you control the size.
If you don’t want to buy a burr grinder, ask your coffee shop to grind a week’s worth of beans for you. This results in a trade-off in freshness, but beans ground to the optimum size for your device beats fresher beans mangled by a blade grinder, Easto says.
Your tap water is likely fine; a simple carbon-filter water pitcher may improve it. Don't use distilled water or mineral water, which makes coffee acidic or dull. And reverse-osmosis water filter system? Unnecessary, in Easto's opinion.
Use water that's just off the boil, not boiling. Boiling water dissolves too many compounds too fast, resulting in bitter coffee.
The most important variable is beans. "No matter how carefully you make coffee, you can't create quality," Easto says. "It must be there to begin with."
Do
Skip the grocery store. Most have a limited selection of quality beans. Find a roaster in town or online.
Ask questions. Where did the coffee come from? What's it taste like? Staff should be able to steer you to a coffee you'll like.
Buy fresh, buy often. Look for a roast date on the bag. Coffee goes stale quickly. Buy only what you'll use in a week.
Don't
Buy in cans. Craft coffee is sold in bags, usually with a valve in front that helps keep it fresh. That one-way valve allows air to go out without letting air in. In bags, you can squeeze air out to reduce oxidation. “You can’t squeeze air out of a can,” Easto says.
Buy flavored coffee. Craft coffee has inherent flavors. It doesn't have flavor added to it.
Also, beware of words like bold, full-bodied, dark, or French or Italian roasts. Craft coffee producers are unlikely to use those terms.
Once you've scored a bag of quality beans, store it as you would a spice, in an airtight container in a cool, dark, dry space. Keeping it in the original bag is fine (squeeze that air out between uses). Keep the bag away from water and steam. Don't put it in the fridge, where it can absorb odors. Experts debate whether storing in the freezer helps, but it likely won't negatively impact your beans.
Buy quality beans, and handle them right, Easto urges, and you’re well on your way to a better cup at home. "Coffee is a fickle beast. It's swayed by external factors, from the weather to the water to your eager hand."
Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy is a freelance writer.
Making cold-press coffee can be as simple as putting freshly ground coffee beans into a jar and adding cold water, then letting the mixture steep for 12 hours. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune; Shannon Kinsella / food styling)
Cold brew in a jar
Prep: 5 minutes
Steep: 12 hours
Adapted from "Craft Coffee: A Manual" by Jessica Easto.
1 cup fresh whole coffee beans
1 quart-size glass jar with lid, plus another larger jar with lid
Paper or cloth coffee filter, or cheesecloth
1 Grind coffee to a medium-coarse size using a manual or electric burr grinder.
2 Place ground coffee in jar, gently shake to level. Add 20 ounces cold water. If some grounds float, stir until they sink. You want all the grounds submerged. Cover and refrigerate, 12 hours.
3 Remove from refrigerator.
3 Gently pour coffee through a filter into a second, larger jar, leaving grounds behind. To the strained coffee in the second jar, add an equal amount of cold water. Taste and add more cold water if necessary. The resulting cold brew will keep, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for two weeks. Serve over ice, if you like.
Other uses for cold brew
Freeze in ice cube trays for ice that won't dilute your drink.
When making chocolate cake, replace the water called for with cold brew, to punch up the chocolate flavor.
Make a coffee tonic with 1 part cold brew to 1 part tonic water, serve over ice, and garnish with a strip of lemon or orange peel.
Try a coffee Manhattan: combine 2 ounces cold brew, 2 ounces bourbon, ½ ounce simple syrup and 3 dashes orange bitters in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well, and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Goes great with that chocolate cake!
