How to Make Coffee with Coffee Beans at Home | Brewing Coffee Guide

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When you sit down at your computer, don't you feel like you need a delicious cup of coffee by your side? The coffee slowly enters your mouth, slightly bitter at first, then gradually revealing a subtle sweetness. So below is the content on how to make coffee beans taste better, compiled by FrontStreet Coffee.

How to Brew Delicious Coffee Beans

Coffee Machines

You can purchase a fully automatic coffee machine. Imported fully automatic coffee machines cost over 3,000 yuan, which is quite good for home use. The quality produced is decent, and you can also create milk foam for making cappuccinos, lattes, and other milk-based coffees.

If you want to get more experimental, you can buy a home semi-automatic coffee machine for 1,000-2,000 yuan. You can play around with it a bit, try some latte art, and so on.

Brewing Equipment

Pour-over, Drip

Using filter cups with filter paper or mesh screens is extremely convenient. Generally speaking, American-style coffee pots use the pour-over concept to brew coffee. There are various types of pour-over filter cups available on the market, such as T-type, cone-shaped, V60, clever dripper, etc. For pour-over brewing, medium-fine grinding is recommended, with the Fuji ghost grinder set to 3~3.5.

French Press, Tea Infuser

Many people use the French Press method to brew coffee because it's very simple and you don't need to pay too much attention to details. It's most suitable for the lazy French people, who often forget to time their brews, leading to extraction times over 5 minutes. Therefore, French press is suitable for coarse grinding, with the Fuji ghost grinder set to 7.5~8.

Siphon, AeroPress

People who typically use siphon brewers can be considered experts in home coffee brewing. The AeroPress is a relatively new coffee brewing tool in recent years. It looks a bit like a large syringe and can use force to shorten the coffee extraction time. It usually uses medium grinding, with the Fuji ghost grinder set to 3.5~4.

Key Points in Coffee Brewing

Water Quality and Temperature

The temperature of the water affects the amount of substances dissolved from the coffee. Simply put, higher temperatures dissolve more aromatic substances from the coffee. Using good filtered water quality will make your coffee taste better.

Weight of Coffee Beans Each Time

How much coffee beans to pair with how much water to get a consistent ratio of delicious coffee. Using a precise electronic scale can greatly increase your chances of successful brewing.

Brewing Time

The longer the brewing time, the longer the coffee is steeped in hot water, and the stronger the flavor will be. More substances will dissolve from the coffee, so the tasty ones become even tastier, while the less tasty ones become even less so.

Grind Size

The grind setting must be determined based on the brewing method and equipment you're using. Choosing brewing equipment that suits you can greatly enhance the enjoyment of drinking coffee. Below are introductions to several common brewing methods and their appropriate grind settings.

Methods for Storing Coffee

Summer climate is relatively humid and hot, so you must strictly prevent coffee beans from being exposed to heat or moisture. The best way is to store them in sealed containers in cabinets that are cool and not exposed to sunlight. The best way to store coffee is to brew it and drink it as soon as possible. When purchasing coffee beans, choose fresh-roasted beans from cafes. Small purchases can ensure freshness. Home-roasting shops on the market often boast extremely fresh roasting, emphasizing freshly roasted and freshly consumed coffee. In fact, the freshest coffee beans are not necessarily the best-tasting. The optimal drinking time is usually 7 to 15 days after coffee roasting.

The bean bags that stores use to package coffee beans are best if they are sealed bags with one-way degassing valves. If you store them properly, you'll be surprised to find that coffee beans last longer than you expected. Once opened, they should be consumed as soon as possible. Of course, you can also drink them slowly, gradually experiencing the rise and fall of coffee flavors as they decline, which is also a kind of enjoyment.

How to Choose Coffee Beans

The first point is to pay attention to the natural characteristics of coffee beans. Coffee beans cannot be exposed to strong sunlight and cannot be stored together with volatile substances. These two points indicate that coffee beans are best sealed in boxes or jars that are not exposed to light.

The second point is to distinguish the beans you need based on their color. Whether you're a beginner or have been in the coffee circle for a long time, you need to be thoroughly familiar with these basic knowledge points. Coffee beans show different colors depending on their degree of roasting. The flavor of the coffee itself also changes accordingly. Lighter-colored coffee beans have a strong acidic taste. As the degree of roasting increases, the acidity in coffee beans gradually disappears, while bitterness increases step by step. Generally speaking, we divide the degree of coffee roasting into three main categories: light roast, medium roast, and dark roast. These three main categories can be further divided into eight sub-categories. From lightest to darkest, they are: light roast, cinnamon roast, medium roast, dark roast, city roast, full city roast, French roast, and Italian roast, with Italian roast being the darkest.

The third point is to learn to check the expiration date of coffee beans. Coffee beans begin to oxidize after roasting, similar to aluminum powder, although not as quickly. Coffee beans also have the characteristics of absorbing moisture and odors. Therefore, try to choose fresh coffee beans. However, for this characteristic of coffee beans, don't throw away spoiled coffee beans; using them as a desiccant and deodorizer for refrigerators or closets is a good choice - environmentally friendly and pollution-free.

The fourth point is how to distinguish whether coffee beans can still be used or whether they have spoiled and must be discarded. Besides looking at the color, here you should trust your nose the most. Fresh coffee beans smell rich with the original fragrance of coffee. The aroma of stale or over-oxidized coffee beans will be poor or basically have no smell. In serious cases, there may be musty, earthy, and iodine smells, and even fermented smells.

The fifth point, and the most practical one, is to directly press with your hand or taste them. Because when you squeeze coffee beans with your hand, good coffee beans not only release an overflowing fragrance when they crack but also make a crisp cracking sound. You can further put the coffee beans in your mouth and bite them open. If the cracking sound is crisp and short, it indicates that the coffee beans have not absorbed moisture. Another purpose of doing this is to see if the internal color of the coffee beans is consistent with or close to the exterior appearance. Coffee that is consistent inside and out is naturally roasted to a good degree and belongs to high-quality beans. If the inside and outside of the coffee beans are inconsistent, it indicates that the fire was too rushed during roasting or the heat was not well controlled. The taste of coffee made from such beans will be greatly affected.

How to Brew Coffee Beans

1. Grinding Beans

First, grind the coffee beans with a grinder (to the finest grind setting).

If you have a crusher or a soy milk machine with crushing function at home, you can also use it, but the effect is not ideal, and the particles produced are relatively coarse. If you don't have these tools, you can achieve it with just a rolling pin and a board. Use a combination of rolling and crushing methods, but in any case, make the particles as small as possible.

2. Making Coffee

If the coffee powder is ground fine enough, then use the brewing method. Place a filter paper inside the funnel, put a cup's worth (8-10g) of coffee powder into the filter paper bag, making sure to avoid coffee powder leakage. First, wet the coffee powder with warm water, and pre-warm the cup with boiling water, then place it under the funnel. Add an appropriate amount of coffee powder according to your taste preference for strength.

3. Brewing

Use pure water at about 96 degrees Celsius (must be pure water, otherwise it will affect the taste of the coffee), pour evenly and in small amounts clockwise over the coffee powder. After the coffee powder is completely submerged, wait a moment. After the first pour of water filters into the cup, continue to pour evenly and in small amounts clockwise. When you see the coffee liquid in the cup reach the desired amount, you can stop. To stop, use the counterclockwise pouring method. (The amount of water added should be determined based on the amount of coffee powder and personal taste.)

4. Boiling

If the ground particles are still relatively large, then you need to boil them on the stove. Use a clay pot or stainless steel pot, heat it with an appropriate amount of cold water. Be sure to control the heat well. Boil for 2 minutes until the oil foam overflows, then turn to low heat and cook for another half minute. Stop the heat and let it settle for half a minute, then pour it out, filtering with filter paper when pouring.

5. Seasoning

You can add appropriate amounts of sugar and milk according to personal taste, or drink it directly.

This method is simple and doesn't affect the taste of coffee, but you must pay attention to the temperature of the brewing water and the temperature of the coffee liquid, otherwise it will affect the taste. The coffee beans here are best chosen from freshly roasted ones, and ground fresh when drinking to ensure the aroma and taste of the coffee.

How to Classify Coffee Bean Grades

Production Method

Washed

After removing pulp and pectin by friction with water flow and tools in a water tank, then drying, this is called washed coffee beans, which have uniform quality.

Unwashed

After natural drying in the sun, the pulp and peel are removed with a hulling machine. The quality is unstable.

Bean Shape

Generally speaking, coffee fruits consist of two oval-shaped seeds opposite each other. The side where they connect is a flat joint surface, hence called flat beans. However, there are also fruits composed of a single round seed, whose taste is no different.

Growing Altitude

According to the altitude of the cultivation site, they can be divided into three, four, seven and other grades. Generally speaking, high-altitude beans are better quality than low-altitude beans, and due to increased shipping costs, the price is also higher.

Grade Name Altitude (meters)

Premium Beans 1500 and above

Superior Beans 1200 to 1500

Medium Beans 1000 to 1200

Premium Washed Beans 900 to 1000

Superior Washed Beans 760 to 900

Excellent Washed Beans 610 to 760

Fine Washed Beans Below 610

Quality

Using statistical methods, the types and quantities of impurities contained in a certain amount of samples are converted into percentages (i.e., defect counts), which determine the quality category. The smaller the defect count, the higher the quality.

Flavor

The most famous is the unique "Blue Mountain Coffee." Other places like Brazil, Haiti, Kenya, Zaire, Colombia, and the United States also have their own unique flavor testing methods, and can only be exported after passing flavor tests.

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