Coffee Brewing – How-to

coffee cup

One important key to making great coffee is to choose coffee you love. Using this process, the scent and the flavor of your beans will shine as will any unbalance or flaws. Experiment with the best quality beans you can find. Pay attention to the characteristics you like best and to which varieties satisfy your palate. Ignore any coffee experts who try to tell you what you should or shouldn’t like. Coffee is highly personal.

The second key to making great coffee is to pay attention to your brew. This means bringing your water to a boil, then letting it stand for a few moments to bring the temperature down to about 204 degrees Fahrenheit. Let it steep for four minutes rather than considerably longer or shorter. Pour it with care as you strain to ensure you don’t accidentally spill grounds into the finished brew. All in all, it takes about ten minutes or so to make a truly good cup of coffee.

This procedure is written to make four six-ounce cups of coffee, which results in enough to fill two standard mugs. The important proportion you’ll need to keep in mind when you’re adjusting this procedure for a different volume is one heaping tablespoon of ground coffee for each six ounces of water.

Equipment for Brewing the Perfect cup of Coffee:

  • 1 half-gallon canning jars or other heat-resistant, glass vessels
  • 1 coffee pot or similar carafe large enough to hold at least 24 ounces of brewed coffee.
  • 1 drip-style filter with the appropriate filters
  • measuring cup (if your canning jars aren’t marked with volume)
  • tablespoon-sized measuring spoon
  • Kettle or pot for boiling water
  • coffee grinder
  • 24 ounces or more water
  • four heaping tablespoons freshly ground coffee or whole beans

Procedure for Brewing the Perfect cup of Coffee:

1. Set a kettle on the stove to boil. Ensure it contains at least 24 ounces of freshwater.

2. When the water has come to a boil, take it off the stove and let it cool while you grind and measure your beans.

3. Grind your beans at a course to medium setting. A very fine grind will clog your filter, making straining your coffee a troublesome task.

4. Measure four heaping tablespoons of ground coffee into the half-gallon canning jar.

5. Add 24 ounces of hot water from your kettle to the canning jar. As you pour the water in, pour in a clockwise manner to ensure all the grounds are dampened. If necessary, use a chop stick or the handle-end of a long spoon to stir the brew enough to ensure all grounds are wet when you’re done pouring.

6. Let the brew stand for four minutes. As it stands, set the coffee filter in your drip-style filter holder on top of your carafe.

7. When your brew has stood for four minutes, begin pouring it into the coffee filter. Pour as much into the filter as you can without reaching the top edge of the filter paper. As the coffee strains through, add more of your brew, giving the canning jar a good stir before you do so. You want to ensure all of the grounds and liquid go though the coffee filter rather than remain in the canning jar.

8. When all of the coffee has been poured through the filter, let the filter stand for a moment or so to ensure all liquid has strained through. Set the filter aside and serve your perfectly brewed coffee.

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