How to make a perfect cup of coffee
- Buy fresh roasted coffee. If it doesn't have a roasted on date, it stale. Should be within 3 weeks of the roasting date.
- Measure 55 grams of whole bean coffee for a 1 liter French press
- Grind as course as possible using a burr or conical grinder. No whirlybird choppers.
- Water just off the boil. Tip: Get the water boiling, then take it off the heat. When the bubbles stop rising it is the perfect temperature to brew coffee
- Place grinds in the French press and add water. Stir to release the CO2 (if your not getting a lot of foam your using stale coffee).
- Wait 4 minutes and slowly press the plunger down
- Serve in a preheated ceramic mug and enjoy with your favorit pipe
Commentary
Fresh Coffee
Grocery stores are all stale. Roasted coffee has a shelf life the same as bananas, about 3 weeks and then it exhibits off flavors as degrades. Recommend ordering online that roast to order such as Counter Culture Coffee, Intelligensia Coffee, Barefoot Coffee, Zoka. Sorry, Starbucks blows and will sell you a bag that was roasted up to a year ago. Not to mention they roast it so it all tastes like charcoal brickets.
Coffee comes in many varietals. I went to several organic farms in Nicaragua. Most folks have never tasted the coffee cherry. I will tell you it is like a cross between jasmine and honeydew. The more stressed the plant is such as shade grown and higher the elevation the more flavorful the coffee. Bourbon varietals produce less fruit and therefore more energy goes into the coffee. Finca Mauritania, Aida Batlle farm in El Salvador, produces a coffee bean that is close to what the coffee cherry tastes like. Fantastic coffee.
Pre-ground Coffee vs Whole Bean
Coffee will expel CO2 for the first 13 1/2 days after roasting. The CO2 helps keep the coffee from interacting with oxygen. When the coffee is pre-ground it has more surface area to interact with oxygen and speeds up the staling process. Whole bean fresh roasted coffee has a shelf life of about 3 weeks without exhibiting off flavors from staling. Ground coffee has a shelf life of about 2 days. Fine espresso ground coffee has a shelf life of about 2 minutes.
Whirlybird Grinders vs Burr vs Conical Grinders
It is all about consistency of brewing. Whirlybird will create grinds of different sizes and shapes. In a nutshell, don't use it.
Burr and conicals will give you a consistent grind. The advantage of conical is they don't spin as fast so there is not popcorn effect on the beans jumping around and chipping before grinding. Conicals also won't put a lot of static charge on the grinds that causes them to clump. I recommend the conical grinder from Bodum with the glass collection jar.
French Press
Get a plastic or steel press. Glass will break and you will break it, trust me. Bodum is the way to go.
Cholesterol
There have been reports that unfiltered coffee will raise your cholesterol. French press falls in that category as well as espresso and Greek coffee. If you have high cholesterol then don't do this.
More info
Recommend CoffeeGeek.com and for espresso folks Home-Barista.com. Both are non-commercial and can offer great advice and reviews of other equipment