Coffee Brewing FAQs

1. What is the best temperature for drip coffee?

According to chemical studies, the optimal water temperature for drip coffee is 95-98C. According to my notes, colder water doesn't extract enough caffeine/essential oils from the beans, and above such temperature the acidity increases wildly.

2. How much coffee should I use, and what quality of coffee is best?

A general rule of thumb is to use 1/2 cup of freshly ground coffee per 10 cup pot. Try this first, then adjust the amount of coffee or the amount of water to suit your preference.

The quality of a brew depend on the following factors (in no particular order):

• Time since grinding the beans.
• Time since roasting.
• Cleanliness with brewing equipment.
• Bean quality (what crop etc).
• Water quality.

Fact: Since brewed coffee is mostly water, the taste and quality of your water will have a pronounced effect on the taste and quality of your coffee. Using filtered water can make a dramatic improvement in the taste of your coffee.

Fact: The flavor oils in roasted coffee beans begin oxidizing as soon as they come in contact with light and air. This oxidation leads to a loss of flavor and an increase in bitterness. Grind your coffee beans freshly for each pot you brew. Burr grinders create a more even grind than blade grinders.

Fact: Roasted coffee beans can become stale very quickly if not stored properly. If you can find unroasted coffee beans and roast them yourself just before grinding and brewing, you may find that your coffee experience will never be the same.

Fact: Unless you are buying some major debris, bean quality is not initially very important, as compared to the other factors.

Fact: A coffee can in the supermarket often contains major debris, so be careful when you choose. (See note below).

Fact: Once you have freshly roasted and ground coffee, filtered water and equipment free of oil residues from the last brew, quality of beans makes a huge difference.

NOTE: A coffee can in the supermarket often contains a blend of Arabica and robusta beans while most coffee houses sell only arabica beans. Arabica beans are usually flavour rich, while robusta beans have more caffeine, less flavour and are cheaper to produce.

When you buy coffee, whether in a coffee house or in a supermarket,you want to get 100% arabica, except for espresso blends, which are a combination of both.

For freshness, in a coffee house it is better to buy popular blends that move fast, while in a supermarket vacuum packaged containers with expiry date are your best bet.

3. Why you should never use percolators.

Percolators make great smelling coffee while brewing, but otherwise violate most of the natural laws about brewing coffee.

• Don't overextract the oils and flavour. Percolators work by taking coffee and reheating it and throwing it over the grounds over and over and over again.

• Never reheat/boil coffee. This destroys the flavour. For best flavour, boil the water, pass it over the grounds and retain the heat. Don't reheat it.

Violating these rules may not sound like much, but these are about the only rules there are. The effect of a percolator is to keep passing boiling water/coffee over the grounds until there is no flavour left and the flavour in the coffee is so dead and overextracted that it's a worthless waste.