Coffee Tips

When grinding coffee beans, never grind more beans than what you intend to use for the coffee. Once beans are ground, the oils in the beans are exposed to air, causing an almost immediate loss of flavor. You will also want to make sure that the coffee is ground to the proper consistency for your style of coffee maker.

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Despite what labels on various brands of coffee beans say, it is NOT best to put unused coffee in the refrigerator! Coffee beans stored in the refrigerator will absorb the aromas and flavors from other foods already in there. Instead, store unused beans in a clean, dry, and airtight container that is located in a cool, dark location. It is also best to use any unused coffee beans within 7 to 10 days of their original purchase to ensure the strongest and most robust flavor.

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Once you have ground your coffee beans, you will want to use between 2 and 2 1/2 level tablespoons of coffee for every six ounces of water in your coffee maker.

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Use only purified or filtered water in your coffee maker's reservoir, as this type of water will better release the flavor of the coffee. Try to fill your coffee maker's reservoir with cold water instead of hot, as cold water is generally more purified than hot water.

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Make sure that you are using the right size and style of filter in your coffee maker's basket before brewing your coffee.

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Once your coffee is fully brewed, stir it, to help provide a uniform flavor throughout the pot.

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Do not leave coffee standing in the coffee pot with the burner on underneath for long periods of time. Much of the flavor of the coffee will be quickly lost this way. If you need to keep the coffee for a longer period of time (more than about 20 minutes or so), consider purchasing a thermal server, which will help maintain both the flavor and the warmth of the coffee.

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There are many different roasts of beans and blends to choose from out there - experiment to find which you like best. Do you like your coffee bold and strong? Consider a French or Spanish Roast coffee. Do you like your coffee milder or sweeter? Try an American or Viennese Roast coffee.

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If you like flavored coffees, such as mocha or vanilla-infused coffee, try to avoid the flavored beans and opt for flavored syrup inside the brewed coffee, instead. The flavored beans are sprayed with flavoring substances, and the oils in these substances are very hard to thoroughly remove from a coffee grinder, and subsequent beans ground after the flavored beans may now contain a lingering trace of the original flavor.

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If you do not drink coffee because you think its flavor is too strong, try brewing a full pot at full strength, and then mixing some hot water into the coffee pot. You may find you now have a smoother coffee that has lost a great deal of its bitterness!

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The perfect cup of coffee is brewed at 96° C / 205° F for four minutes. Some coffee machines maintain this temperature while brewing so your coffee comes out just right.

Afraid that the caffeine in the coffee will leave you nervous and jumpy? Consider trying a darker roast of coffee. Because the beans are roasted longer, while the flavor of the coffee itself will be bolder, there will also be less caffeine then you would find in a milder-roast coffee.

If your coffee maker has a "pause and serve" feature that allows you to remove the pot while the coffee is brewing, try to avoid using this. Since the coffee will not be fully brewed by the point you remove the pot, the brew may be considerably stronger or weaker than it otherwise would have been had you left the pot until the brewing was complete.

To get rid of bad refrigerator smells, place a small open bowl with 1/2 cup of ground coffee on the shelf.

Try making coffee ice cubes when making iced coffee so that your coffee doesn't get watered down with ice cubes.

Another factor to consider: When you fill your coffee maker's reservoir with hot water, it "tricks" the heating element into running for a shorter time (it doesn't have to heat the water as long), thus producing weaker and less flavorful coffee than when you start with cold water!

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