Everyone loves a freshly brewed cup of coffee at your local coffee shop, but do you ever wonder why your own homemade coffee doesn’t taste quite as good. Well this is a problem that many people face but if you read on, you can learn how to make cafe style coffee right in the comfort of your own home.
Consider trying a French press when brewing your coffee for a richer more robust flavor. Flavor is compromised by the paper coffee filters used in drip-style coffee brewers. French presses brew coffee by forcing beans downward, essentially “pressing” the flavor from the beans. The oils say in the brew, providing a flavor that is richer.
When you get a new coffee maker, try a test run. Run the coffee maker using only water. This will remove any dirt or odors that may be present in the machine.
Make sure you use the right proportion of water to coffee when brewing at home. If you skimp on the water, your coffee may be too strong for you. On the other hand, if you put too much water in it, your coffee will be watered down. Know how much water your coffee supplier recommends for your preferred brew.
If regular coffee no longer provides you enough caffeine, consider brewing espresso. This does mean you will need a different piece of equipment, as your regular coffee maker likely cannot do it. Espresso machines are typically expensive though, and the intensity of the caffeine levels is too much for some. Try espresso a few times somewhere else before making this commitment for your home.
In order to store coffee, you don’t need to use a freezer. By doing this, your coffee can actually absorb flavors from the foods around it. You should store your coffee at room temperature in an opaque airtight container. Also, you can opt to put your coffee in a freezer bag if you really want to freeze it.
To ensure that your coffee stays fresh as long as possible, avoid grinding all your beans at once. Once ground, heat and humidity will rob your coffee of the fragrant oils that provide much of its flavor. Instead, only grind the amount of coffee you will use for a day or two. Doing so will help you maximize the flavor of your beans.
Do not buy purchase coffee that has packaged beans and is pre-flavored. These coffees are made using oil that is hard to clean out of a coffee pot. They will also affect future pots of coffee that you make, giving each subsequent cup a funny taste. Furthermore, the flavors these coffees are made with tend not to taste good anyway.
Never drink coffee in the eight hours prior to going to bed. The half-life of caffeine can range from 30 minutes to 8 hours, so this is the only sure fire way of having it out of your system when it is time to rest. Otherwise, you are going to need even more caffeine the next day. A coffee habit can be a little healthy, but caffeine dependency is bad news.
If visiting a coffeehouse for a cup of coffee is your usual idea of breakfast, take a moment during your next visit to take a look at their food offerings. You might still be able to get a balanced and nutritious breakfast on the go with the sandwiches and croissants that they have available.
When adding syrup to your coffee, add it to hot coffee before you add anything else. After pouring a cup of hot coffee, add the syrup before adding other items like cream or milk. The heat from the coffee helps the syrup dissolve quicker. This helps boost the overall flavor and smell of your coffee.
For a summertime treat, create coffee ice cubes. Fill up a tray with a bit of leftover coffee and freeze them for that special occasion. When you are creating the perfect iced coffee, you now be ready with the perfect ice cube too! These ice cubes won’t water down your coffee which will keep the flavors going for much longer.
Buy new coffee beans every two weeks. Once you open coffee beans, they usually don’t have a set expiration date. You can seal them in airtight containers to keep them fresh longer. You will, however, likely find that the quality of the taste starts to fade a bit after two weeks.
Salt may be useful if you find your coffee is too acidic. Be careful not to go overboard on it though. This simple trick only works if you go easy on the salt. Sea salt is more natural-tasting and you may want to use it instead.
You can change your coffee’s flavor without switching to different beans by utilizing various additives. Milk and creamer make your coffee vary in taste, for instance. If you’re after something a bit more interesting, soy milk or flavored milk could be just what you are looking for. Syrups can also give you a new delicious tasting cup of coffee.
The ratio of coffee to water is very important. If you enjoy coffee from your regular coffee shop, you probably enjoy coffee with a more intense flavor. This means you will likely want two tablespoons of coffee for every six ounces of water you are using to brew it with.
Never get caught up in a coffee shop debate about whether or not baristas are tipped enough or should get tipped at all. Both sides are passionate about their arguments, and when everyone has a cup of coffee in their hands, a tense conversation can get anxious pretty quickly and out of hand.
As was mentioned earlier in the article, making your own coffee doesn’t always turn out as well as it does when you order from a coffee shop. However, if you implement the tips and tricks given in this article, you are well on your way to creating wonderful tasting coffee time and time again.