5 key elements to making great coffee at home

Before I opened a coffee shop, I made coffee at home every single day for over 15 years. I’ve been where you are and drank A LOT coffee, great, good, bad, and weird. For years I was chasing the perfect cup and event went so far as to keep a “brew journal” where I logged every single cup I made for 6 months and exactly what changes I made to my brew method each time.

What has 15 years of making coffee at home and opening a coffee shop taught me? There is no perfect cup! BUT you can make GREAT coffee every day if you get 5 things right from the start.

If you’re in a rush, here is the TLDR (Too Long, Didn’t Read):

Get good beans, grind them with a quality grinder, use filtered water, use a ratio of ~16:1 water:coffee, and use a simple and repeatable brew process. The entire process, it’s all time + temperature. You want to extract each little piece of ground coffee as uniformly as possible.

Okay, heres the longer read:

1. Quality of Beans

Your coffee beans are like super important in determining how tasty your coffee is. Freshly roasted beans? Yes, that's where the magic happens. You want use the beans within, 2-6 weeks of their roast date to get the tasting notes that the roaster had in mind.

Always buy fresh, whole bean coffee and grind it just before you brew. That way, you keep all the delicate flavors locked in until you brew. Pre-ground coffee? Nope, it’s a flavor killer once it hits the air.

If you're looking to nerd out on the tasting notes (like a wine or whiskey!), think about giving Single Origin Coffee a shot. This means the beans come from one place - could be a single farm or a specific region in a country. They've got these unique flavors that let you explore all sorts of tasting notes. Check out the SCAA's Flavor wheel!

2. Grind Size & Using the Right Type of Grinder

This is the one of the biggest factors that is going to change your cups at home (besides the water quality!). There are two major types of coffee grinders; Blade and Burr.

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Blade grinders are inexpensive to buy and grind super quickly! The downside? The coffee isn’t actually ground, it’s smashed, pulverized, and even powdered!

Burr grinders have two burrs that are a set distance a part, ensuring that the grounds are generally all the same size, generating less super-fines and less giant boulders. No smashing here, just quality grinding!

To underline this again, you want the most consistent coffee grind size across all of the grounds. Making sure this is as uniform as possible will give you the best, cleanest, and most delicious coffee possible! This does generally mean that the more money you spend on the grinder, the better the tolerance and grind consistency will be (to a point of course.)

3. Water Quality

This part is going to go deep, but don't worry there is a very simple solution to make perfect water at home…

The water you use to brew your coffee plays an integral part in the overall taste. Ideally, the water should have a total dissolved solids (TDS) content of between 75-250 parts per million (ppm). This level of TDS ensures that the water can properly extract the coffee from the grounds, resulting in a flavorful cup. If the TDS level is too high, the water may under-extract the coffee, leading to a weak or sour taste. Conversely, if the TDS level is too low, the water may over-extract the coffee, resulting in a bitter taste.

Picture water already being “full” of other minerals, and theres less room for the coffee to infuse with the water.

If you want to test out some “idea water” you can actually make your own “Coffee Water”! Check out Third Wave Water here for more info

4. Brew Ratio

The fourth key element to making great coffee is getting the right coffee to water ratio. This is often referred to as the "brew ratio". Generally, a good starting point is using 16 parts water to every 1 part coffee. This ratio can be adjusted according to your taste preference. Remember, the strength of your coffee can be modified by changing the brew ratio.

Basic Ratios:

For pour-over/V60 16:1

For french press: 10:1 up to 15:1 (to your taste)

For Aeropress: 12:1–16:1

5. Proper Brewing Technique

Finally, the way you brew your coffee can make all the difference. A French press, for example, will produce a different taste than a drip coffee maker. Experiment to find what you like best.

I’ll be writing a guide for each brew method soon and will update this article as they are linked here. For now, here are some great methods to try out!

• V60
• Kalita Wave
• French Press
• Aeropress

Each of these can be had for under $50 (some even a few dollars at yard sale!). The most important thing is picking a method that is simple and repeatable for your process every morning. Picking something that is hard or complicated to remember is just going to frustrate you, especially before you've had your morning caffeine.

Wrap up  

That’s it! While all 5 of these are important, improving any one of these will make your coffee that much better. Start with one and experiment, you don't have to perfect all five at once!

It really is simple to make great coffee if you keep these 5 elements in mind. The best part? You have 365 chances a year to make a great cup.

Let me know how you’re making coffee now and if this helped you! Connect with me on instgram at @CoffeeAndKindnessNH to say hi, share your progress, or to ask for help!

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