Better coffee. One cup at a time.

Tag: manual brewing (Page 2 of 6)

Brewing Coffee Manually College Edition – 6 Tips to Get You Started

The summer days are starting to dwindle and for a large selection of the population the “endless summer” is starting to be numbered. The number of days are rapidly turning from double to single digits. Start saying goodbye to your friends, It’s almost time for college to start back up again.

In your excitement, checklists and packing guides, don’t forget about coffee. You will be leaving the shelter of the carefully (or maybe haphazardly) curated coffee selection of your parent’s house and striking out on your own. Are you prepared to navigate the oft turbulent waters of the college coffee environment?

If you don’t want to be stuck with the mediocre-at-best dorm coffee or shell out two bucks each morning at the trendy cafe for their drip coffee, it helps to have a plan. Manual brewing is a great way to ensure you will have great coffee at an affordable price. Here are six tips for getting the most out of your college (coffee) experience.

If you are new to the blog or manual brewing there are basically four items you will need in order to brew a great cup of coffee in your dorm or apartment: Fresh roasted coffee, a coffee grinder, a manual brewer and an electric kettle or hot water source. Feel free to check out my Start Here page for more links and resources on brewing coffee.

Buy Good Coffee

It should come as no surprise that a quality fresh-roasted coffee is at the top of the list. I recommend finding a business that roasts locally and trying out their offerings. It is fun to get involved in the local community and a local roaster or coffee shop can be a great resource for a lot of coffee related things.

A great bag of coffee could run upwards of 15 dollars for a twelve ounce package but don’t let this deter you. That twelve ounce bag of coffee contains roughly 24 single cups of coffee (.5 ounces per 8 fluid ounces). A quality cup of coffee at 63 cents a cup is a bargain. What does the coffee at your dorm or coffee stand cost? What about a can of Coke from the vending machines?

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Coffee Brewing Dosage- How Much Coffee Should I Use?

While I have talked some about dosage (the amount of coffee you use) it is an important topic that deserves it’s own post. It’s one of the most common questions that comes up when people begin brewing coffee at home. How much coffee should I use to brew a cup of coffee? Here are my thoughts on finding a good coffee to water ratio.

The Strong Coffee Misconception

First we need to talk about strong coffee, weak coffee and roast levels. It has become fairly common to refer to a dark roasted coffee as a strong coffee. This is simply incorrect.

When people make the mistake of using “strong” to describe the flavor of a coffee, they are usually trying to describe the smokey, roasty notes of a dark roasted coffee. There is no correlation between how strong or weak a particular cup of coffee is and the roast level of the coffee. Learn more about coffee roast levels here.

The strength of a cup of coffee is based on the ratio of extracted chemical compounds from the grounds to the amount of water in the brew. It is a term that should be used to describe concentration not the flavor.

Assuming even extraction of the coffee grounds, your dosage is the largest factor that impacts coffee strength. A strong cup of coffee is full of the flavor characteristics that the coffee and roast profile contain. It is the brewer who has the power to make a cup of coffee weak or strong not the roaster.

How Much Coffee Per Cup?

If you are standing at your coffee maker right now wondering how much coffee to make a full pot of coffee, the answer is 1 cup of ground coffee. I use one cup of ground coffee for a 12 cup automatic coffee maker. (One cup is equal to 16 tablespoons).

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Using a Gooseneck Kettle For Manual Coffee Brewing

The gooseneck kettle is perhaps the most iconic symbol of contemporary manual coffee brewing. Their elegant swan necks, ergonomic handles and tapered spouts make them ideal for precision brewing. Their eye-catching and modern designs make them the perfect representatives for the third wave manual coffee movement. They are stylish and highly functional, a deadly combination in today’s coffee culture.

Anyone who has spent more than a few minutes watching YouTube videos or reading about manual brewing will invariably ask the same question. “Do I need a gooseneck kettle to brew coffee manually?”

A Gooseneck Kettle is a Luxury Item

The short answer is “No.”

Please do not let the fact that your do not have a gooseneck kettle keep you from brewing coffee manually or trying a brewing method that you are curious about. A gooseneck kettle is a specialized tool that helps with consistency and ease in the manual brewing process. It is not essential to manual brewing. It is a luxury item.

You can make a great cup of coffee without a gooseneck kettle.

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