By Carolyn Malcoun, contributing food editor for EatingWell Magazine
I really love the whole experience of making coffee: the aroma of a freshly brewed pot wafting through my house, the smell of it as I raise a cup to my lips, the warmth of it filling my body and the flavor—oh, the flavor!
But if you’re a coffee drinker, you know how much a bad cup of coffee can ruin the experience. Here are 7 coffee-making myths to watch out for to ensure you brew a perfect cuppa joe.
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Myth #1: Bulk coffee at the grocery store is the best product to buy.
Oxygen and bright light are the worst flavor busters for roasted beans. Unless the store is conscientious about selling fresh coffee, the storage tubes can get coated with coffee oils, which turn rancid, so be wary of bulk coffee from supermarket display bins. Your best bet to get the absolute freshest beans is to buy from a local roaster (or roast your own). At the grocery store, opt for coffee beans packaged by quality-conscious roasters and sold in sturdy, vacuum-sealed bags.
Myth #2: The best place to store your coffee is in the freezer or refrigerator.
Roasted beans are porous and readily take up moisture and food odors, so the refrigerator is one of the worst places to store coffee. Flavor experts strongly advise against ever freezing coffee, especially dark roasts. Optimally, buy a 5- to 7-day supply of fresh beans at a time and keep at room temperature in an airtight container.
Myth #3: Pre-ground beans taste just as good as if you ground your own coffee.
Coffee starts losing quality almost immediately upon grinding. The best-tasting brews are made from beans ground just before brewing.
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Myth #4: Distilled water is the best water for brewing coffee.
Softened or distilled water makes terrible coffee—the minerals in good water are essential. Also bad? Tap water with chlorine or off flavors. Serious coffee lovers use bottled spring water or activated-charcoal/carbon filters on their taps.
Myth #5: The type of coffee filter you use doesn’t matter.
Bargain-priced paper coffee filters yield inferior coffee, according to the experts. Look for “oxygen-bleached” or “dioxin-free” paper filters. Alternatively, you may wish to invest in a long-lived gold-plated filter.
Myth #6: Boiling water is the perfect temperature for brewing coffee.
Beware the heat. Water that is too hot will extract compounds in the coffee that are bitter rather than pleasant. The proper brewing temperature is 200°F, or about 45 seconds off a full boil. (Most good coffeemakers regulate this automatically.)
Myth #7: A French press is a better way to brew coffee than drip coffee makers.
Not if you’re concerned about your health. Boiled or unfiltered coffee (such as that made with a French press, or Turkish-style coffee) contains higher levels of cafestol, a compound that can increase blood levels of LDL ("bad") cholesterol. Choose filtered methods instead, such as a drip coffee maker.
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By Carolyn Malcoun
Carolyn Malcoun combines her love of food and writing in her position as contributing food editor at EatingWell. Carolyn has a culinary arts degree from New England Culinary Institute and a degree in journalism from University of Wisconsin--Madison. Carolyn lives in Portland, Maine, and enjoys cooking, gardening, hiking and running in her free time.
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Freezing coffee is fine, and actually will keep it fresh. While some of the things she says about the 'fridger are correct, you want to freeze whole beans, in and *absolutely* airtight container, and fill it to the brim. Any space not occupied by beans will be occupied by air, and will continue oxygenation. Degassing (fresh roasted coffee puts off CO2) will continue, but remarkably slowed.
Babbie's Rule of Fifteens addresses purchasing beans;
Green beans will last fifteen months
Roasted beans will last fifteen days
Ground coffee will last fifteen minutes
Extracted coffee will last fifteen seconds
(before they start to change and not for the better. All of these figures are generalizations, and will be different for each bean, roast, and prep method. But they won't be off my too much...)
Grinders make coffee, Everything else after roasting and grinding simply makes water hot and pushes it through the grounds. Start with great water, follow with great coffee, grind with a *good* grinder whirly-blades aren't going to cut it) right before you prepare it, and get the water temperature right. If that doesn't produce the best cuppa you ever had, you're not a coffee person.
Yes, paper filters will absorb cafestol, and cafestol will contribute to a higher cholesterol level, to a small degree. Not as much as whole milk or red meat, but everything has it's price.
It is a lot about the water, if you have good tap water, use it, we use a Britta, and I always grind right before brewing. Much of the taste is about where the bean is grown and how it is roasted. Coffee and wine enthusiasts talk in the same language, about nose, body, feel, taste, aroma, woodsy, earthy, about notes and after bites. It is a wonderful drink and now I need to go and make a press, today is a Guatamalen dark roast I just got, yummy!
O wait, that one's true.
Your first 6 myths are spot on. Thank you for spreading the word.
A latte is typically served in a larger vessel (bowl or mug) and is espresso, steamed milk and a small amount of foam. A (real) cappuccino is served in a 6 oz. container and is 1/3 espresso, 1/3 steamed milk and 1/3 foam. It's much softer in texture, releases different flavours and is a tad stronger.
> Also when I steam my milk, do you put the end of the steamer at the top of the milk or the bottom (Ive heard this makes the difference in what you are making)?
The wand should travel throughout the depth of the milk while steaming it. Begin with it at the bottom of the milk steaming jug and bring it to the top relatively quickly. Hold it at the top at the point where it's making a slight "sucking" noise. You'll see a pressure differential form and the milk start to spin. You'll have to keep moving the steam wand so it rests at that point. Depending on what you're making, you'll want to gauge amount of foam you make. At the point where you think you have enough (after it's expanded to be 1.5 - 2x its original volume), drop the steam wand to about 1/3 of the way off the bottom of the steaming vessel. [1/2]
> Sometimes I get real bubbly milk, other times I get that nice thick creamy milk, how do you perfect that, I cant figure it out. Maybe its a combo of things, the temp of the container/milk and where you put the steam. Any help is appreciated.
Bubbly milk is gross. What you're aiming for is the latter, known as "microfoam". It takes a lot of practice, a steam wand with adequate pressure, and a cold pitcher of cold milk. The starting temperature of the milk is important because it allows you to stretch it further. Steamed milk undergoes several chemical reactions, and there's a point roughly when it's too hot to touch, that the milk is very sweet and perfect for espresso.
A good coffee brewer is something that properly heats the water to temperature and they can be any price, from a cheap Black & Decker unit all the way up to a thousand dollar unit, as long as it properly and consistently heats the water. All a drip machine does is heat the water and place it into the filter with the grounds. I've been to posh baristas that hand pour the water.
With regards to the grinder, fine ground coffee is fine ground coffee. Chop grinders are a little more uneven with the final product, but if 90-95% of the grind is fine, there will be no difference in the final product, you just might need a smidgen more grounds, but unless you're using a medical scale to weigh the grounds and measure the water to exact ranges, the final product will vary on each batch.