If any drink deserved or required an entire month to do it justice, surely coffee is that drink. It starts the day, finishes up a meal, can wake you up or calm you down. It can be served hot or cold, plain or “enhanced” and while tea has it’s rituals, coffee has a culture.
But at heart is the drink itself and after many years of close study and enjoyment, I’ve reached a few conclusions and found the following things to be helpful:
Water. Use with COLD water. I don’t care whether it’s bottled or tap but it should be cold. It makes the resulting coffee much less bitter.
Keep It Clean. Any coffee maker, regardless of type or brand will work better and produce a better product if it is clean. So clean it.
Bothered by bitterness? Using the cold water to start will help a bit but try adding a pinch of salt to the coffee in the filter. A pinch, people. Not a lot. I know it sounds bizarre but it does work. I did it before stumbling across my current coffee which doesn’t need any such additive and believe me, no one is going to notice or get freaked out.
I know it looks hearty and hale but coffee does have a shelf life. To ensure a decent level of freshness, try getting it from a coffee purveyor and not a grocery store (who knows how old that grocery store stuff is?) and don’t keep more than a 2 months’ worth on hand. It will go stale at some point and you don’t want that point to be on the day you REALLY need a good, solid, happy cup to start your day.
Keep the coffee in an air-tight container and out of the sun. I know some people keep it in the freezer. I happen to keep mine in an opaque container in a cabinet. Either way, it’s out of the sun and that is the key. If I have any issue with the freezer/fridge thing – it is simply that the daily taking out and putting back in messes with the moisture content of the coffee and that can mess with the taste. But then, my father keeps his coffee in the freezer and still produces a very good cup-o-joe every day. So maybe I’m over thinking. I admit to sometimes doing that.
Getting the Right Grind. Listen, I know it sound even more obvious than using decent water but a lot of people get this wrong. Not all coffee makers and coffee making processes need the same grind level. Broadly speaking, if you are using a percolator then you want a coarse grind. Do you have an electric drip/manual drip or do you use a French press? You want a medium grind. Are you using an espresso machine? Get extra fine grind.