April 19, 2009

Gourmet coffee makers are only as good as the water you use. You need good quality water, so pay close attention to any unusual smell or taste of water from your tap. In addition, coffee needs to be brewed at the right temperature, not too hot and not too cold.

April 11, 2009

Gourmet coffee beans - how to get started choosing the coffee you'll like

Everyone knows that picking the perfect coffee beans is the first key to making great coffee.

With about 50 coffee-producing countries worldwide, deciding where to start can seem complicated. Here is some basic information to get started. With some over-generalization to simplify this, you can narrow this decision down into three primary coffee choices, with these general tastes.

April 7, 2009

Starbucks cofounder Jerry Baldwin extols the virtues of the French press, or press pots, over drip coffee machines, at this blog entry at Coffee Culture. Jerry Baldwin was a co-founder of Starbucks as the first roaster and coffee buyer. He sold his interest in the company in 1987, when Starbucks had eight stores.

The Press Pot Makes Coffee  "Worth the Effort"

The class press pot or french press is simple: a glass or metal cylinder, with a metal screen filter, and a lid. To make the coffee, first you preheat the cylinder with hot water (preferably from the kettle). Measure the ground coffee as two tablespoons for each six fluid ounces of water. Then you pour in hot water, just off boil. The brewing process leaves some will allow some sediment in your coffee cup, but it gives tremendously rich taste.

April 7, 2009

Coffee filters affect the flavor of your coffee more than you might realize.

Most coffee drinkers in the United States prefer filtered coffee. But how many people do you know, who spend a lot of time choosing the best gourmet coffee, grind it to perfection, and then brew their coffee in whatever paper coffee filter was on sale at the grocery store?

I have a batch of disposable paper, Melitta filters in my cupboard and go through them one at a time. I wondered how the coffee filters work, and more about why we use them.