| What is “specialty coffee”?
What is the difference between espresso and regular ol’ joe?
What are the different roasts?
What is cupping?
What kind of water should I use when I am making coffee?
How should I grind my beans if I am making coffee in a _____?
How should I store my coffee?
What is the best way to make iced coffee?
How do you guys make coffee at home?
What is “specialty coffee”?
Specialty coffee is more than just a catchphrase—it’s a philosophy. It starts with the highest-quality coffee plants that are raised in the most ideal climates. They are cultivated with the utmost care by dedicated farmers, sourced for absolute quality, roasted by master roasters and prepared by expert baristas. For more information about what specialty coffee means to the BIY team and other professionals, check out the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s website, or the websites of dedicated roasters like Barrington Coffee Roasting Company, Intelligentsia Coffee and Counter Culture Coffee. Or read this recent article in The New York Times!
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What is the difference between espresso and regular ol’ joe?
Espresso is actually a preparation, not a type of bean. The exact same beans could be used to make a press pot, a pot of Mr. Coffee coffee and a shot of espresso! “Espresso” actually refers to the brewing process: The flavor is extracted using water that is forced through the grounds at an increased pressure. The technique was developed in early-20th-century Italy, but the more “modern” espresso machine prototypes we are familiar with originated in the 1940s. The pressurized extraction process creates a thick and flavorful sort of concentrated coffee with a crema, not unlike the head on a good stout (the best part!).
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What are the different roasts?
Well, first let’s start out with the basics: coffee plants develop a kind of “cherry,” at the center of which is what we know as the coffee “bean.” It’s not actually a bean, but rather a seed. These seeds are removed from the fleshy fruit that encases them and, depending on the coffee, are prepared for roasting in a variety of ways. (You can read more about the intermittent process on any number of good roasters’ websites.) The green (preroasted) beans can be roasted to a range of degrees along a spectrum. A (rather) simplified classification of these roasts follows, from light to dark:
Cinnamon: A very light roast, with little body and distinct breadlike flavors.
City: Identified by its milk-chocolate-brown hue, this lighter roast emphasizes a coffee’s natural characteristics.
Full City: A medium brown, beans at this roast begin to show oil on the surface.
Vienna: The lightest of the dark roasts, this is a rich, almost patent-leather brown. Some roast flavor is noticeable.
French: At this level, the roast begins to be the dominant flavor on the coffee. The darker beans show more oil.
Italian: One of the darkest roasts commercially available, this coffee tastes almost exclusively of the roast.
Here is an interesting visual of beans throughout the process, courtesy of the home-roasting-enthusiast’s website Sweet Maria’s.
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What is cupping?
Cupping is a tasting technique that coffee professionals use to determine the quality of a crop or lot of beans and/or to analyze the success of a roast. It involves brewing a kind of concentrate and, through a specific (but easy to learn) process, assessing the natural flavors and characteristics of a certain coffee. In layman’s terms, it’s the wine-tasting of the coffee world, and just as fun and suprising! Like wine, coffee is vibrant, dynamic, delicate and incredibly varied; to taste it at its purest through a cupping can be an exciting and mind-boggling experience. Here, care of our friends at Coffee Geek, is a beginner’s guide to the process. If you’d like to learn more about cupping and tasting coffees, contact us!
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What kind of water should I use when I am making coffee?
The quality of the water used to make coffee can have a profound impact on the quality of the finished brew. You should start with fresh, clean, and room-temperature or cool water (hot water will compromise the integrity of the cup and, in some cases, your machine). Avoid distilled water, especially in espresso machines, which are designed to detect certain minerals that are present in most forms of water but absent in distilled varieties; using water that lacks these minerals could destroy your boiler! Even filtered water can sometimes result in a subpar cup; those natural minerals enhance the coffee’s natural flavors. If you feel comfortable drinking your tap water, you can use it in your coffee.
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How should I grind my beans if I am making coffee in a _____?
If you own your own burr grinder (and we highly recommend them!), read the instructions to find out how to adjust the coarseness or fineness of the grounds. Coarser grounds are better for coffee preparations that have a longer “dwell time” (the time that coffee and water are in contact during the brewing process), while espresso coffee takes a much finer grind. Drip coffee (à la Mr. Coffee) falls somewhere in the middle, but of course it also depends on your taste. If you don’t own a grinder yourself (it’s okay, who has the space for one anyway?!), find a coffeeshop that you respect and ask them to grind your coffee for you. It’s better to do this than to grind your own at, say, a grocery store, because some markets use the same grinders for flavored and nonflavored coffees. Back to top
How should I store my coffee?
Contrary to somewhat-popular belief, coffee shouldn’t be stored in a refrigerator or freezer, as the beans will become dried out and absorb the flavors of whatever else is in there (nobody wants coffee that tastes like hot dogs and frozen peas). The best storage for your coffee is in an air-tight container placed in a cool, dark place, like a kitchen cabinet. Be sure you check your roast date, too—some coffees start to dramatically lose their flavor after two weeks or so. If possible, store your coffee as whole beans and grind them only as needed.
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What is the best way to make iced coffee?
Cold-brewed coffee is really taking off, and with pretty good reason. The coffee that a cold-brew or Toddy process results in is flavor-rich and often lacks the bitterness that can occur in hot-brewed coffee that is chilled. That said, naturally the easiest and most common way to make iced coffee is to simply brew as normal and cool it for a few hours in a refrigerator. If you’re afraid of ice diluting the flavor when you fix yourself a glass, you could always pour some coffee into an ice-cube tray and freeze it overnight—coffee-flavored ice cubes will prevent your iced brew from getting watered down as they melt!
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How do you guys make coffee at home?
Meister loves her Chemex (or Chemexes—she has one at work and one at home), and Amanda has a press pot but lately has been swearing by her vacuum pot. They both wish their apartments had room for a mini Marzocco.…
Have a question you’d like answered on Brew U? Just give us a holler!
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