A couple of months ago I figured out the best way to make coffee at home. Well the best way in our home. We only really drink coffee at home on the weekend, and we tend not to be feeling too fresh in the morning.
So presuming that we have freshly roasted coffee, we have to overcome a couple of problems. The first is the grinder. For ages we used hand grinders. We've gone through a couple of Hario plastic hand grinders which were a pain to use. Then we started using a cast iron Spong & Co. bench grinder when we were living in Cambridge (UK). When we moved back to NZ we eventually splashed out on a Baritza electric grinder, which not only improved the taste of the coffee, but also meant that making coffee hungover wasn’t such a chore. So now we grind off however much coffee we need with a flick of a dial, and that's that.
The second hurdle was the brewing method. I've played around with an Aeropress, V60, French Press, Clever Dripper, Syphon, Swiss Gold, Chemex and a Kalita Wave, all with the intention of seeing what would work best on a busy coffee bar. They can all be used to make delicious coffee. Aeropresses are easy to use (with a simple recipe) and give you a couple of minutes with your hands free to do other things while the coffee’s brewing. But immersion brewing doesn’t always show coffees at their best: I seem to find a better clarity of flavour by using a pour-over. Most pour-overs are cone shaped (which can cause blockage near the end), but our preference is to use a Kalita Wave, which is flat bedded, like a commercial bulk brewer. As the water is poured from the top, it passes evenly through the coffee grounds - so it evenly extracts the good coffee flavours.
At home we tend to use the Kalita and brew into a Stanley flask.
The actual routine is as follows:
Fill and heat the jug to 96°C.
Grind off necessary amount of coffee (15g/250ml - one mug / 30g/500ml - two mugs).
Rinse the filter with a good amount of hot water, which also heats the mug or flask that you’re brewing into.
Dump the coffee in the filter, and shake a little to settle.
Pour on about double the weight of the coffee in water (this allows some gas to escape from the coffee and not mess things up too much later).
Then just keep adding either 50g of water per 30 secs till 250g is reached or 100g per 30 secs till 500g is reached
NB: I know I’ve used grams and milliliters of water interchangeably even though they’re not when the water is that hot, but the difference is pretty negligible on a Saturday morning.
And if the coffee tastes watery, thin or slightly sour, I make the grind a little finer. If it tastes too bitter with no sweetness, I coarsen the grind a little, and hope it tastes better the next time.
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