I enjoy a good cup of coffee. Its a great drink and easy to prepare. Here's a simple step by step advice on how to make a good cup of coffee.This will take about 5 minutes. So if you can't be bothered with the hassle and don't care about taste - then this article is not for you.
1. Buy Good Quality Coffee Beans.
Every person's taste is different. But most people prefer coffee that is less acidic and mellow like chocolate. Go for Columbian style or Papua New Guinea coffee. Robert Timms is a good brand.
Mix and Match
What I like is to mix Hazelnut blended coffee with French Vanilla blended coffee beans produced by Brown Brothers. They are in open containers in supermarkets however only the Maxi supermarket carries this type now.
2. Grind it fresh - just before you want it.
You need to grind the coffee beans fresh to get that fresh taste. I use a small Braun kitchen grinder. Its cheap - only cost $30. And its easy to clean with a kitchen paper towel. (memo- unplug it before you clean it!)
3. Grind properly - Coffee Grains
For plunger coffee. The grind has to be coarse - not like fine sand or castor sugar. The smaller the grains or particles - the more coffee grains will get through the plunger wire mesh and wreck the smoothness.
Let me backtrack a bit here. Coffee is essentially bitter. Take a coffee bean. Smell it - it smell great! Now bite it and chew it for awhile. Its bitter. Now what we are trying to do is to extract the aroma and sweet flavor of the coffee - and minimize the bitterness.
That's why its important to grind the coffee beans to an appropriate size.
Too fine a grain- and the coffee will become very bitter.
Too coarse grains - and the coffee will not be so tasty.
This might sound quite complicated. But what I'm trying to do is to tell you how coffee works. Most people don't know how things in life work or come about. When I was a kid I thought that char-siew pao (pork buns) came from trees. But if you start wondering how things work - it creates in yourself a spirit of self-awareness. You learn not to accept things as they are. You don't just go on plowing through life blindly. And its life-changing.
4. Get a good plunger. Like Bodum. Other generic brands like Pyrex work just as good. For some bizarre reason, coffee plungers in Singapore are extremely expensive. Some things in Singapore are really at ridiculous rip off prices. A good size plunger that can serve 3 - 5 cups of coffee should cost about $50 in Melbourne. I bought mine in 1998 and its still going strong.
Some common sense - the plunger glass has to be of good material - solid glass - strong enough to withstand the heavy plunger top. The first plunger I bought, a Braun, was paper thin. It smashed when the plunger top was placed down on it.
Watch for the wire mesh - don't buy it if does not form a nice fit - otherwise the coffee grains will seep through.
5. Boil the water.
Don't pour the boiled water into the coffee plunger straight away. If the water is too hot - it will make the coffee too bitter. I suggest you pour the water into another separate container, a flask, before immediately pouring it into the coffee plunger. One idea is to pour the water into the coffee cups to warm them up - then pour the water into the plunger. Great idea in Winter time. I think the process also adds extra air into the water - improving the taste.
6. Put an appropriate amount of the grounded coffee into the plunger.
This is up to you. But a rule of thumb is two or four table spoons of coffee grains to one cup of water. If you like your coffee weak, use less. If you want to drink black coffee straight, without sugar or milk - use less coffee grains.
I have found that over a period of time, if you drink strong coffee - you are going to wreck your stomach and suffer reflux. I was drinking 10 cups a day at one stage. If so - stop - reconsider your dietary habits and try and have more healthy food and cut out the processed stuff, including cookies and sugar. Then drink something else, ie light tea. Try drinking weaker coffee to give your stomach some time to recover. Don't use sugar and milk - that way you can ascertain the true level of coffee which you can make which is just right for you. If the coffee taste too bitter for you - use less coffee beans - don't add more sugar!
7. Brew it for a few minutes
Stir it - Use a wooden or plastic spoon. Be careful using a metal spoon as it may scratch the plunger glass. As you stir - you can see a lovely layer of foam - called the cream - forming at the top. You can also see plenty of the coffee grains floating at the top. That's why you need the plunger wire mesh to separate that.
8. Wait and Plunge
Two to four minutes, longer = stronger. This depends on how you like it. But its also ok to plunge the coffee after you gave it a good stir. Do it slowly and carefully with both hands - sometimes in poorly made plunger - the pressure causes the hot coffee to shoot through the top and scalds people - badly.
9. Pour and Serve
Hurray. Drink! Add milk, sugar or just have it black.
10. Taste!
To me - coffee should taste flavorsome, with a hint of oak, slightly bitter, smell and taste very aromatic. It should not taste sour, tasteless or extremely bitter that it becomes undrinkable.
If you are unable to finish the coffee in the plunger, pour it into a cup and keep it later to be microwaved for a 2nd round. The longer you keep the water in the plunger - the more bitter the coffee will get.
It may seem complicated. But like most things in life it gets easier after you've done it a few times. Good coffee is one of God's small blessings.
Update: Opps, the glass plunger just cracked after I left it to dry in the sun. I think a metal bowl may have been resting on top of it. Crap!!!! Memo to self - dry plunger with towel and keep it after you washed it.
11. Instant Coffee Tip. If you just want to make a cup of instant coffee: here's a good tip - Microwave your cup of water (without coffee powder) for 1 minute 30 seconds (depending on the temperature of your microwave). Then add the coffee powder - I like Robert Timms but Nescafe will do - and stir for 30 seconds. Don't microwave it again. You'll get a very lovely coffee cream at the top and the coffee will taste just right!
12. Roasting your coffee beans
There's a simple way to roast your own. Get un-roasted coffee beans - they look a pale green lime color. Then roast them in a popcorn popper machine. It takes about 5 - 10 minutes - and you have to stir it around a little. The beans will pop and crack inside. Apparently, you are suppose to get them to pop twice - because coffee beans have double kernels, a husk within a husk. It takes some practice to get it right. And it can get messy.
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