Our quest for the perfect cup of coffee doesn't end when we roast and ship your beans...
...and neither should yours! You may already know that the coffeess we source and roast are of exceptional quality, each one possessing its own unique flavors inherent in the bean. That you're even looking at our site tells us that you've already begun joining the movement toward specialty single origin coffees. We want you to enjoy our coffee as enthusiastically as we do. This section will help lead you even further down the path toward the perfect cup of coffee
Think, for a moment, that coffee is similar to tea
Stretching our imaginations a bit, we can see that coffee and tea are brewed essentially the same way. When coffee is brewed, water is contacting or passing through the grounds and pulling soluble solids from the grounds to the final cup, much like when teas steeps. To get a good cup, you need to get the right amount of soluble coffee from the grounds and into the brew. This process is called "extraction."
How much do I want to extract?
Roughly 30% of what's in ground coffee can possibly make it into your brew. The perfect extraction will pull about 20-22% of that. Any more than that and your coffee will be what is eloquently known in official circles as "over-extracted." You know this result as coffee that is too strong, bitter, thick and generally unpleasant. Too little and your under-extracted coffee will be weak, thin, watery, flavorless and completely unsatisfying.
Don't worry, you won't need any fancy instruments to measure the extraction percentage or level of solids in your coffee cup. Just follow a few simple guidelines and trust your tastebuds to tell you what to adjust!
So, you want to brew great coffee all the time?
We want you to brew great coffee too, so let's go over some basic guidelines, or "brew parameters." These are a few major variables that can seriously effect how your coffee tastes:
Grind
How fine or coarse are the particles in your ground coffee?
So we've determined that you want to pull a certain amount of stuff from the grounds into the brew. How can you begin to affect that extraction level? A good start is to play with the coarseness of the grind.
If the grind is more coarse, with larger particles, there will be less surface area of the grounds and so the extraction will be lighter. If the grind is more fine, with smaller particles, there will be more surface area in contact with the water and the extraction will be stronger. There is a happy medium that you should reach by experimenting. Generally, brew methods that require consistent contact and total immersion of the grounds (such as french press or the eva solo) take a coarser grind while drip methods (such as the melitta filter or auto drip machines) take a finer grind. See the link at the bottom of the page for excellent information on grind level. Too fine a grind will lead to overextracted coffee! If you prefer stronger coffee, adjust the proportions, not the grind.
What is the ratio of coffee to water?
The general rule that you'll hear referenced time and time again is two tablespoons of ground coffee for six ounces of liquid brew. We encourage you to adjust this proportion to taste. At the Mocha Joe's Roasting Co. when we brew coffee to drink in the morning, we typically use three coffee scoops (two Tbsp. each) for 16 ounces of brewed coffee - two Tbsp. of grounds for 5.33 (repeating, of course) ounces of coffee. This should illustrate that there is no hard and fast rule dictating proportions and that finer nuances of coffee strength are largely a matter of personal preference (although coffee that is too strong or weak will lack the desirable flavor characteristics that make our coffee so special!)
Water Quality and Temperature
What kind of water are you using?...
Remember that water makes up around 98% of your cup of coffee, so if the water has any off flavors, then so will your cup! Tap water often has chlorine or other off flavors. We recommend using filtered or spring water. Never use distilled water, there needs to be some minerals and dissolved solids in the water or else the coffee will have nothing to bond to.
...And how hot is it when it contacts the grounds?
Water temperature is exceptionally important to the quality of your coffee. If the water is too hot, it will overextract or even scorch the grounds. If it's too cold, it won't extract fully and the coffee will be underextracted. You may hear coffee people citing a temperature range as wide as from around 190 to 206 degrees F. We find that the best temperature for water to contact the coffee is at 198 degrees F. If you don't have a kitchen thermometer that works well for this, then bring your water to a boil and the let it sit for around three minutes before starting your brew.
This is one of the major reasons that we do not recommend using auto-drip coffeemakers. Auto drip coffee makers rarely heat the water adequately and give you no control over many of the parameters. Additionally, most auto-drip coffee makers brew into a glass carafe on a hot plate - one of the biggest no-no's that is possible to commit. Brew your coffee into a thermal carafe to keep it hot or enjoy the changing flavor as it cools. Hot plates will cook your coffee and create burnt off flavors within minutes.
Dwell time
How long is the water in contact with the coffee as it's brewing?
The ideal duration of an entire brew cycle is exactly four minutes. Much shorter than that and you'll find a weak, underextracted cup. Much longer and it will likely be a little harsh and bitter. In a french press this is easier to manipulate by timing four minutes before plunging the filter. In drip methods, proportion and grind level will effect how long the cycle takes but the proper levels of both should allow the proper amount of water to pass through the grounds in about four minutes.
Now go to it!
Get your coffee here
Click here to email us stories of your brewing trials or any other tips or observations you've found
Click here for a .pdf file our good friends at Terroir Coffee Co. put together. Print the image at 100% for the ideal coarseness of a grind for a drip brew.
