Coffee

The Java Jive
Blue Heron Kitchen

I love to drink coffee (and tea); and the method you use to make your coffee makes a difference. I have pretty basic, but good quality equipment for brewing coffee. I don't vacuum, but I do plunge. Some mornings are for dripping.

Here’s a comprehensive coffee brewing reference guide from sweetmarias.com

Below, are links to Clive Coffee, a company I've bought my brewing and grinding equipment from. If you're in the U.S., I recommend you give them a call.

You can get nuts with coffee, but for those of us who love coffee, the first cup of the day is one of the perks of getting out of bed.

The Technivorm is the Ferrari of drip brewers. If you have a few hundred dollars, American, to spend, this is rated highest in the land. Coffee geeks, on a tighter budget (or who fundamentally object to spending this amount for a drip tool), there’s hope! At coffeegeek.com, Rated as good, if not superior to Technivorm is the Bonavita drip machine, producing results that coffee geeks claim are comparable or superior to the Technivorm. I have the one with a thermal carafe. There's one with a glass carafe that's less expensive. This machine has no bells or whistles. You won't find a timer, options for slow or fast brewing, nor is there (another) clock to turn forward or back or reprogram when the power fails. Two switches: "on" and "off".

The Bonavita machine brews a fantastic pot of coffee in a couple of minutes. 

Call the very helpful people at Clive Coffee. This is important: they’ll match prices you find elsewhere, so do your homework and get the best price you can find online. (They also throw in pound of their own great coffee!) 

A note of caution: if you’re still ‘whirring’ your beans in that single bladed grinder, you may want to retire it from coffee duty (it’s a perfect spice grinder!) Consider buying a burr grinder (Link is to a Baratza Virtuoso burr grinder. This grinder is mid-priced. It’s the one I've owned for years and the only downside is it's knob that sometimes falls off (why?) Maybe by now they've come up with a solution to this silly situation. These are mini commercial-style grinders designed for home use. Talk to your person at Clive. Whatever you do, don’t buy a burr grinder for its good looks. What I like about the people at Clive Coffee is that they find you the best machines for where you land on the coffee geek-o-meter, your lifestyle and most important, your budget.

peace and love,
jane

From Sweet Marias:
Some ideal coffee/water/time ratios for different brewing methods:

				Amt of Coffee
	Amt of water			by weight					Infusion Time
#1 drip filter cone	5 oz (150ml)			8 grams					2:30
#2 drip filter cone	10 oz (300ml)			16 gr					2:30
Clever Coffee Dripper	12 oz (360mL)			22 gr					4:00
#4 filter	20 oz (590 ml)			32 gr					2:30
Chemex 6 cup	30 oz (890 ml)			48.5 gr					2:30
Chemex 8 cup	40 oz (1180 ml)			64.5 gr					2:30
Chemex 13 cup	50 oz (1480 ml)			80.7 gr					2:30
*Tip: For drip cone methods, wet the grounds and let them "bloom" for 30 seconds, then pour slowly for 2 minutes
French Press:
4T	16 oz (470 ml)			25.8 gr			4 to 6  min
8T	32 oz (950 ml)			51.7 gr			4 to 6  min
12T	48 oz (1420 ml)			77.5 gr			4 to 6  min
*Tip: Plunge after infusion time, then wait four minutes and pour slowly
Vacuum pot:
5 c Yama	20 oz (590 ml)			32 gr			45 seconds
Cona C	25 oz (740 ml)			40.3 gr			45 seconds
8c Yama/Cona D	32 oz (950 ml)			51.7 gr			45 seconds
*Tip: Infusion time measured once water is up in the coffee. There is a range of techniques - from adding hot water to the bottom bowl to letting the water rise to the top and then adding the coffee.  So you may want to check out a variety of techniques and find the one that works for you.
(See note)
1/2 pot 8 cup	17 oz (503 mL)			26 gr			3 min
1/2 pot 10 cup	21 oz (621 mL)			38 gr			3 min
8 cup	34 oz (1000 ml)			57 gr			5 min
10 cup	42 oz (1240ml)			75 gr			5 min
*Tip: We close the drip stop switch on the brew basket, wait for the brew basket to fill, stir and then let it flow.
Water temperature for all brewing is 195 to 205 degrees. Typically this means water just off the boil.
On weighing ground coffee: It is much more accurate to measure roasted coffee by weight, since dark roasted coffee takes up more room than light roast.  A "standard coffee scoop" (which in reality can vary widely) ought to be equal to two level Tbsp. Which would be 8 to 9 grams of dark roast, or 10 to 11 grams of light roast coffee. The ideal brewing practice is: Grind immediately before you brew. Adjust grind to brewing method and use a good grinder. Use good clean water. If your water does not taste good, neither will your coffee. Pre-Rinse your paper filter. This reduces paper taste, which can be more of an issue when brewing small amounts of coffee. Make more. For a somewhat mysterious reason, filter-brewed coffee tastes better the more you make. Coffee is fresh for 10 minutes or less. Try to make the right amount of coffee so you are drinking fresh brewed coffee more often.