How To Make The Perfect Cup Of Coffee

Programming language, Java.

It’s a ritual. It’s a flavor. It’s addictive and compulsive. It’s a morning eye-opener, it’s creative rocket fuel, and it’s occasionally what you need to keep sleep at bay when you absolutely, positively have to meet an impossible deadline and rule all.

But what’s the perfect cup of coffee?

If you’ve ever worked in any kind of coffee house, you’ll know that there’s no single perfect cup of coffee. Everybody in a coffee house has their own. Probably, everybody in the world, given options, would have their own perfect cup of coffee.

Half-caff, full-caff, double-caff, even-a-whiff-of-caff-and-I’ll-fall-down-frothing. 2%, milk, cream, half-and-half, almond, oat, yak. Full-foam, no-foam, flat white, espresso, double espresso, latte, cappuccino… and on it goes.

The joy of coffee is that it is practically infinite in its variety – one drink, to please us all.

The perfect coffee is even more complicated than that, because each of us probably has more than one perfect cup of coffee.

First thing in the morning, maybe we need a hit of freshly ground Robusta espresso to jerk our systems online and get us ready for the day. Midday, maybe a smoother Arabica Americano to get through the afternoon.

Arriving home, maybe there’s no time to play around with steam pressure and tampers, and you just want to grab a really good cup of instant.

And maybe after dinner, a creamy light roast Arabica latte with (look away now, coffee purists!), a shot of caramel syrup to ease you towards sleep. Maybe even go decaf for the last coffee hit of the night?

But are there any fundamentals, any rules and precepts to always getting the aroma, the taste, the texture, and the effect you want from your coffee?

Oh, absolutely.

Even if you choose two different beans, three different roasts, four different preparations, and any number of different adornments, from stark naked espresso to flavored creamy latte, there are ways to make sure you get the perfect cup of coffee you want – every time.

What Makes A Good Cup Of Coffee?

Again, your mileage will beyond any shadow of doubt vary on this. Like what makes a good glass of wine, or a good lasagna, what makes a ‘good’ cup of coffee will usually depend on how you define ‘good.’

That will undoubtedly have as much to do with associative memory as it will with bean roast or perfect steam pressure.

Say your grandma made the instant coffee equivalent of sawdust, and you liked your grandma and she gave you your first introduction to coffee. The chances are that, while nobody else in the world might think it’s ‘a good cup of coffee,’ for you,

recreating that experience will be priceless. You’ll get the eye-closed, steam-breathing, bittersweet taste of Grandma’s House when you make it that way.

You might, absolutely, enjoy the cup of coffee you get when you push rich roasted, expensive beans through a grinder and feed them into a thousand dollars of shiny, barista-ready machinery.

But you won’t get the Grandma’s House memory when you breathe it in, sip it, and swallow it.

So it’s always worth bearing in mind that whenever and however you make a cup of coffee, the perfect cup will probably have associative sense memories attached that are unique to you.

But that being said, there are things you can do to get the best cup of coffee possible at any given moment.

1. Know your beans

There are two main types of coffee bean in mainstream circulation – Arabica and Robusta. Arabica beans tend to a sweeter, less acidic flavor, making them a great-tasting coffee all day long.

Robusta – as the name suggests – is what you might call a hardcore coffee bean. It’s stronger in flavor, more acidic and bitter, and significantly higher in caffeine. Heavy night the night before?

You’re going to need some Robusta to add some rocket fuel to your day.

It’s also worth noting that Robusta beans are often used in supermarket instant coffees, so it’s a mistake to simply discount those less expensive coffees if what you need most is a powerful zing.

The difference is akin to that between a measure of fine aged cognac and a shot of Tennessee moonshine. Each will take you in the same direction, and each has its committed, hardcore fans.

But if you want to sip for flavor, go Arabica. If you need to dance like a clear-headed puppet on a string, Robusta is your friend. Want the best of both worlds? You’re looking at a blend.

Three parts Arabica for flavor with one part Robusta for punch will give you a cup of coffee that wakes you up, perks you up, but doesn’t make your face pull that “Oh Lord, don’t hurt me” expression and turn itself inside out.

2. Know your region

Beans are one thing. They’re the ‘nature’ side of the equation. But beans of the same type, maturing in different soils and atmospheres around the world will give you different flavor profiles.

What’s more, different ‘grades’ of coffee from the same region will also give you differences and subtleties of flavor difference.

Colombia produces around 15% of all the world’s commercially used coffee beans, most of them Arabica, and it breaks its coffee beans down into Supremo, Extra, and Excelso varieties.

Supremo has a rich, velvety flavor and aroma, so it’s great for that life-enhancing perk-up when you have time to really savor a coffee. Extra gives you a lot of Arabica zing for your bean-buck, bordering on a Robusta buzz.

And Excelso – guess what? It’s a mixture of the two. That whole ratio of a lot of Column A, a little of Column B is familiar to Colombian coffee growers.

It probably won’t surprise you that pure Supremo coffee is both surprisingly difficult to get hold of and is going to cost you top dollar.

Guatemala, on the other hand, has made a name for itself in the coffee world because its beans, mostly Arabica, grow in mountainous regions that give them a tart intensity that people tend to either love or hate in their cup.

Antigua Volcanic, a popular Guatemalan variety, will give you a heavier, almost earthier vibe. Have a cup of Antigua Volcanic and you know you just had a cup of coffee.

With sophisticated, and even smoky notes, Guatemalan Arabica gives you a good after-dinner coffee (mostly assuming you’re still going full-caff that late in the day), because it makes a definite statement on your palate.

Costa Rican coffee beans want to be your friend. They’re beans that would give you a neck massage if you needed one and listen to all your problems.

Grown in volcanic regions, they have a rounded, smoooooth flavor that even has some nutty notes. At no point will Costa Rican Arabica beans make your face pull that “I just got punched and I don’t know how to feel about it” expression.

They’ll give you the support you’re looking for from a great cup of coffee, without necessarily the caffeine-addled thrill ride that will get you from the alarm clock to lunch.

Looking for a bag of Costa Rican friendship beans? Keep an eye out for Margarita, Cashier, and Costa Rica varieties.

And so on. There are Ethiopian coffee beans (generally with a more acidic fruity note), Jamaican coffee beans (smooth, premium, pretty classy – the coffee of James Bond.

No really, it’s in the books), Hawaiian Kona coffee (lighter, delicate, the kind of coffee to spend a lazy Sunday morning with, reading newspapers rather than websites), and many others.

The point is, the region where the beans are grown has an enormous impact on their overall flavor profile.

Are we saying you have to learn all these and become a coffee connoisseur?

Yes, and no. You don’t need to have tried everything to know what you like best. But by all means, experiment, so that you know what you like best so far.

Keep your mind and your palate open to new coffee experiences, always, but if you narrow down your bean of choice and your preferred region, you’ll have taken two of the big mysteries out of making the perfect cup of coffee for you.

3.Know your roast

If the type of bean, and to some extent the region of growth is the ‘nature’ aspect of a coffee’s flavor, the roast is all about the ‘nurture.’

Wait, we’re doing what-now?

Raw coffee beans are actually seeds from the cherry of the coffee plant. When they’re freshly picked, and even when they’re dried to make the ‘beans’ we think of, they’re green, not black or brown.

They also don’t smell, or taste, like coffee as you know it.

All of that goodness happens during the roasting process. Yes, absolutely, everything we’ve said about the flavors of the beans from different regions is true.

But the roasting process develops between 800-1000 different aroma compounds. And what do aroma compounds add up to?

Flavor, friend. Flavor.

There are four main stages of roasting, and within each of them, the roast can be halted or tweaked to produce different varieties of aroma compounds – each of which will change depending on the bean and its region of origin.

It more or less breaks down like this:

Degrees of Roasting
Light RoastLight roasts will give you milder coffees. The beans are roasted for a relatively short time, and no oils are released from them, meaning they give you less bitterness when prepared, but retain more of their acidic core flavors. If you see terms like Light City, Half City, or Cinnamon, they’re light roasts.
Medium RoastMedium roasts are known as America’s favorite roasts. Medium brown in bean color, these give a stronger kick of coffee flavor when prepared, but do not produce the bitter oils of darker roasts. City, American, and Breakfast coffee varieties are all medium roasts, and they’re the backbone of the American diner coffee experience.
Medium Dark RoastThese are beans that have been roasted to a richer, darker color, and have a bittersweet tang when prepared and drunk. That’s because they’ve been roasted long enough to release some of the coffee bean’s oils, which add that bitter note of relatively wake-up coffee.
Dark RoastDark roasts, as the name suggests, are beans roasted till they’re dark brown or almost black. They will release a lot of their oil and will have that pungent, bitter coffee aroma you can smell across a room. More favored in Europe, these are the beans that will get you Italian Roast, French Roast, or Classic Espresso coffees.

Again, you don’t need to become an aficionado of all the various aroma compounds and flavor potentials of all the roasts.

But because coffee has such a broad spectrum of taste potential, it offers you an invitation to experiment and note the types of roast you like, the ones you’d avoid, and so on.

All of which will help you know what your perfect cup of coffee smells and tastes like.

4. Know your process

By this point, you’d almost be disappointed if coffee preparation was straightforward, wouldn’t you? If there was just the one way to do it that met everybody’s needs, including your own.

There of course isn’t just the one way. There are so many ways to make coffee at home, it can seem as bewildering as all the various regional bean flavor profiles and roast variants.

We’ll deal in detail with some of the most popular ways to turn coffee beans into life-enhancing wake-up juice a little later on. But let’s take a quick run-down of some of the processes you can use for different effects in your coffee.

Immersion

The simplest way of getting a quick coffee shot. Coffee grounds, hot water, stir. Not by any means the best cup of coffee in the world, but quick, easy, and sometimes the difference between a grizzly bear and a teddy bear.

Also, relatively new in the world of the instant coffee kick are coffee bags. Like tea bags. Only…with coffee.

Drip Filters

There are any number of drip filter coffee makers, including the Chemex and the Hario V60. They’ll give you more mellow and rounded coffee flavors than espresso makers, because they’re filtered largely by gravity rather than at pressure.

The French Press

A long-established favorite, the French Press adds a touch of sophistication and a subtlety of flavor to your coffee, and is cheap to pick up.

Stovetop Espresso

Not as complicated as a full-on espresso maker with its 9 bar pressure, milk frother, and the like, but adding a touch of design class and keeping the pressurized espresso vibe going, a stovetop espresso maker has a distinctive style and will give you a shot that’s stronger than anything a French Press or filter system will deliver.

Espresso Machine

For when you absolutely, positively need the fully-pressurized espresso base for the coffee of your dreams, accept no substitutes. The coffee maker of coffee shops, it will get you as close to coffee shop perfection as you can get at home.

If you experiment, you’ll be able to narrow down your favorites in terms of bean selection, region, roast, and process.

While you won’t always have everything you need to make the perfect cup of coffee, narrowing down these factors will at least let you understand what the perfect cup of coffee is, at least for you.

Everything You Need To Make Coffee At Home

What do you need to make coffee at home?

That depends.

If you’re just making a cup of instant, then all you need are a cup, some instant coffee, a water supply, and a way of heating the water.

We’d suggest warming the cup ahead of time by filling it with hot water, leaving it for 1 minute, then dumping the water, so the cup is preheated when you add your coffee. That way, you’ll have hotter coffee for longer.

Another innovation that is popular in Europe but less so in the US is a plug-in water kettle. That will give you boiling hot water in just minutes, which is useful both for instant and for drip filter coffee making.

If you’re doing anything more fancy and indulgent than making a cup of instant, then what you need are:

  •     Either beans or ground coffee of your choice
  •     A grinder, if you’re using whole, pre-roasted beans
  •     A roaster, if you’re from green, unroasted beans
  •     The apparatus of your choice – be it a drip filter, a French Press, an espresso machine the size of Kentucky, or a home-made coffee still
  •     All the necessary parts to make your apparatus work – eg paper filters for a drip filter, an efficient tamper for an espresso machine (more in a moment on the joy of tamping)
  •     A clean, fresh source of water
  •     A reliable source of heat and/or power, whether it is household electricity, a gas hob, or a convenient backyard bonfire
  •     Your favorite cup or mug. If you’re going to do this coffee-drinking thing, then you might as well go all the way and make it memorable. Wax paper cups are for to-go moments.
  •     Your adulterants/add-ins/flavorings of choice. We promise, we’re not judging, but if you want a double-froth caramel latte, make sure you have your milk of choice and the caramel syrup to hand. Otherwise, you’ll miss out on that perfect coffee by a hair’s breadth – and it’ll be mostly your own fault.
  •     Enough time both to make the coffee you want, the way you want it, and to savor the experience of drinking it. This might sound frivolous, but it’s necessary for perfection. Take. The. Tiiiiiime to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
  •     A wax paper cup with a lid or travel mug, just in case it turns out you don’t have as much savoring time as you thought you did.

Gather these things together, add the nebulous idea of knowing how to get from ingredients and machinery to the perfect cup of coffee for you, and you’re ready to go.

What Are The Different Ways Of Making Coffee?

As we touched on earlier, there are many different ways of making great coffee at home. But how do you make the perfect cup of coffee in each of the ways we mentioned?

Let’s take a look.

Drip Filter

There are plenty of different models of drip filter coffee maker on the market. The trick to which is that each one will have its own recommendations of quite how you use them.

The essentials remain the same across the board though.

  •   Add your paper filter to the cone or receptacle at the top of the coffee maker.
  •   Add several tablespoons of medium fine-coarse ground coffee (the number of tablespoons varies by factors of up to 100% – 3 for a Coffee Cone, 6 for a Chemex). Follow any instructions provided on amounts of coffee for the first few times, then adjust to your own taste.
  •   Heat water to just below boiling.
  •   Where the filter section and the coffee pot are separate, make sure the pot is placed underneath the filter. Yes, that might sound obvious. No, we won’t tell you how many times we’ve forgotten to do it. In fact, we won’t tell anyone how many times. Ever. Because shame is real.
  •   Pour the water over the ground coffee.
  •   Wait. Watch if you like, it’s more fascinating than a lava lamp and the smell is to die for. Again, brewing times differ by make and model. While waiting, pre-warm your cup or mug with hot water. If it’s taking longer than 5 minutes, something’s gone inexplicably wrong in the process somewhere.
  •   Filter maintenance. Some people choose to re-use commercially-available paper filters. We won’t exactly judge you if you do that, but we’d advise against it. If nothing else, any coffee oils left in the filter might start to go rancid, adding a bitter (not to mention, plain eww) taste to any second filtering you do. Fresh filters for each pot, please, for preference.

French Press

It’s been widely said that of the non-pressurized ways of making coffee at home, the classic French Press is the ‘best.’

There’s some logic to that – the steeping process in a French Press means you get more coffee oils, more caffeine, and more antioxidants out of your coffee, which makes for a coffee which both tastes better and is technically more effective in your body than some other methods.

But if a Drip Filter is a test of patience as the hot water works its way slowly through the ground coffee to produce liquid heaven, a French Press is a masterclass in self-control.

You decide when you press the plunger, end the steeping and serve the coffee.

  •   Add 2-2.5 tablespoons of coarse ground coffee to the bottom of the press per cup you intend to serve.
  •   Boil water.
  •   Add hot water to coffee.
  •   Put the plunger lid on the pot.
  •   Make sure the plunger in your press is at the top of the pot, to allow the coffee the maximum amount of room to steep and circulate.
  •   Resist the urge to press the plunger like a coyote trying to blow up a roadrunner.
  •   No, really, resist.
  •   We’ve told you twice – step away from the plunger. Ideally, you’re looking for a steeping time of 4 minutes, at least initially. Adjust to taste eventually, but start out following this guideline. Go do something useful – pour hot water into your cup or mug to pre-warm it, ready for your coffee.
  •   Waited 4 minutes? OK, fine, now you can press the plunger. That road runner never stood a chance.
  • Pour out through the spout on your press, while the plunger is depressed. It’s all that’s keeping the grounds from flowing back into your perfect cup of coffee.

Stovetop Espresso

An old-fashioned way of getting a great cup of pressure, the Stovetop Espresso maker uses water under pressure to give you a more classic, potentially punchy flavor.

  •   First, catch your gas stove. Sorry, electric-fans, this stovetop coffee master only works on gas.
  •   Add water to the lower section of the espresso maker.
  •   Add 2.5-3 tablespoons of fine-medium-coarse ground coffee to the middle section.
  •   Turn on the stovetop. Apply espresso maker to heat.
  •   Wait for around 5 minutes. Ideally, use this time to preheat your cup or mug with hot water.
  •   Pour out your cup and enjoy.

Espresso Machine

This is the biggie. It’s a whole other league to most other forms of coffee-making. It’s a sort of midway point between a steam organ and a pinball machine, a midpoint between the science of coffee-making and the art of flavor-craft.

There are whole academies that teach baristas how to get the best, most consistent results out of their espresso machines. Before we explore how to get the perfect coffee, every time, we need to do a certain amount of naming of parts.

All espresso machines are very definitely not the same, but most – at least, most of the ones of a decent size worth taking out of the store – will have a bunch of features in common. Let’s do a quick walk-through.

Portafilter

The giant ‘spoon’ you fill with ground coffee and attach to the front of the machine. It’s actually more complex than a spoon – it combines a brew basket, a handle, and a spigot.

It’s still the place where you put your coffee though, so ‘giant spoon’ is as good a way of thinking about it as any.

Grouphead

The large circular area, to which you attach the Portafilter. Depending what you’ve spent on your machine, you may have multiple groupheads.

You will then level up to becoming a god or goddess of coffee, and all your friends will come round more regularly.

Shot Buttons

Buttons that shoot water through the system and into the Portafilter. Your mileage may vary, but usually, you’ll have buttons for single shot, single long, double shot, double long.

You may also have a ‘free-pour’ option and a hot water button to trigger the hot water spigot.

Hot Water Spigot

It’s a spigot…that pours out hot water. Useful for tea, for straightforward Americanos, or for any other beverage that could do with a hot dash to take the edge off.

Steam Wand

You’re a steam wizard, Harry. A moveable wand that bursts out in steam – useful for frothing milk. Usually comes with a dial to control the intensity of the steam.

Some high quality, high price machines come with multiple steam wands. But always remember – it’s not how many steam wands you have that matters; it’s how you use them.

You may also have dials for temperature and pressure, but their function for you is equivalent to the ‘Check Engine’ light on your car, and if you’ve spent almost professional money, you may also have a machine with a warming rack – which would save you doing all the watery pre-warming we keep talking about.

These are the main features of a domestic espresso machine.

You may also want to find one that includes a bean grinder if you’re going full-on bean to cup.

Ready to make some coffee?

Let’s go.

  • Switch on your espresso machine. It will probably need to pre-heat. Depending on the size and complexity of the machine, this might take up to 25 minutes, so get it started ahead of time.
  • If you’re grinding your own beans, set your grinder to fine, and get your grind on.
  • Assemble your Portafilter. This is easier than Lego. There are three parts – the handle, which you hold, the brew basket, which holds the ground coffee, and the spigot, which is where the brewed coffee escapes into your cup. There’s really very little you can get wrong about this construction process.
  • Think baking. There’s an adage that in cooking, you can wing it, but in baking, you have to treat it as science. Get your scientific head on, and weigh your constructed Portafilter. Why? So you can maintain consistency when it comes to adding the perfect amount of ground coffee, time after time.
  • Add around 20 grams of finely ground coffee to your Portafilter. Weigh it again, and – just for convenience and science geekery, note down the weight.
  • Tap the Portafilter to make sure the coffee lies flat and even. Wipe off any stray grounds that are on the lip of the Portafilter.
  • Get tamping. You will have been sold a tamper with the machine, though you can buy additional tampers if you like. The trick here is to press down straight on the coffee with the tamper. Resist the urge to finish with a twist. Press down fairly hard – you’re aiming to get a tightly compacted basketful of coffee. Brush off any stray grounds on the lip of the Portafilter again.
  • Attach your Portafilter to your Grouphead. This can be tricky, and take a few tries to get it. Relax, let the metal guide you, twist, and feel it grip to join the two.
  • Place your ideally pre-warmed cup underneath the spigot of the Portafilter. You’re about to make coffee. Great and powerful mysteries are afoot. It would be a shame if there was nothing there to catch them.
  • At least at first, try a free pour, to get a sense of what each pour should look like. A single shot should take roughly 15-20 seconds, a double from 20-25, and a triple from 25-30. When you get confident, try out your various shot buttons, timing them for their consistency.
  • Once the shot is poured out, immediately dump out the spent grounds. Rinse out any leftover grounds in the sink. Leaving grounds in the Portafilter can be unhygienic and can also ‘cook’ grounds into the basket.
  • Any frothed milk fans? Your time is now.  First, turn the nozzle on the steam wand to blow through any pooled water in the end.
  • Put just as much milk as you need in a jug and insert the steam wand.
  • Steam as you like. Look for a vortex in the milk, as this is what will heat the jugful.
  • If you want max foam, hover the wand just beneath the surface of the milk. If you think about it, that way, the steam encounters less resistance and gives you more foam. If you’re a foamophobe, dip the wand in deeper and give it more resistance. Result – hot milk, minimum foam.
  • The reason for only using as much milk as you need is that once you’ve broken down the proteins in it once – creating the foam, they won’t reform. If you froth milk a second time, it will scald, and if that happens, you just blew perfection in coffee.
  • Immediately after you’re done steaming, wipe down the steam wand. Why? Because it’s covered in hot milk, which will stick to it and pool inside the steam vents. Where, unless you’re careful, it will go quickly rancid and stinky. And you never want to dip a rancid wand into fresh milk, right?
  • You now have your hot espresso, your steamy milk, and any additions you want to hand. Construct your own perfect cup of coffee. Breathe in the scent. Sip. Swallow. And know that, whatever else is going on in the world, life in your little bubble of caffeine is pretty damn good.

Difference Between Instant And Ground Coffee

The difference between instant coffee and ground coffee depends to some extent on who you ask.

Coffee snobs will frequently tell you that instant coffee is not ‘real’ coffee – and will also probably tell you it’s Satan’s pond-scum and a slur on the name of coffee, to boot.

They’re wrong on at least some of those points. Firstly, instant coffee is absolutely real coffee.

It’s real coffee, from real – and frequently carefully-chosen – beans, possibly blended for a pleasing combination of flavor and kick, and then steeped into a concentrate.

Then it’s quick-dried or freeze-dried, packaged, and sent to stores. When you add hot water, what you’re doing is rehydrating the coffee, so that it becomes liquid coffee again.

To argue that it’s not real coffee is like saying packet soup is not real soup just because you didn’t spend three hours slaving over a stockpot. Instant coffee is convenience coffee, just as packet soup is convenience soup.

It’s perfectly fine to drink, and as we mentioned at the start, if you grew up with instant coffee, and it links into memories of people you liked and loved, then instant coffee can be the best coffee in the world. It can be the perfect cup of coffee.

That said, the difference can also be made between fresh vegetables and frozen vegetables. Both are recognizably vegetables, but a lot of the pleasurable experience is enhanced by the freshness.

The sense of keeping all their beneficial compounds intact, of having a connection to them in the cooking process, of serving and eating them just as you choose to have them, is something that applies to coffee too.

Ground coffee has been through two stages of processing, certainly – it’s been roasted, and it’s been ground – but it still gives you a more intense feeling of sensual pleasure when you make it.

The difference between instant coffee and ground coffee comes down to time, convenience, and the potential intensity of pleasure that comes with a more fresh-made taste.

Tips For Making The Best Coffee

If you want to make ‘the best’ coffee at home, there are a handful of tips to follow.

  • Know what ‘the best’ means to you – as we said, find out your favorite beans, blends, roasts, etc, and go with them
  • If you have the wherewithal and the grinder, go whole bean. Grind your own. If nothing else, that keeps all the oils inside until they’re needed, meaning a more vibrant, zingy flavor.
  • Get your science on. If possible, buy a scale. Make notes when you brew. This is a process – if you get it right once, but you have no notes and measurements, you could spend years and fortunes trying to get it just right again.
  • Grind only what you need, when you need it. Again, keep those oils and aroma compounds intact as long as you can. From the moment they’re ground, those compounds are leaking out into the world. Freshness is your friend
  • Similarly, invest in a ceramic bean jar. It’ll help keep the aroma compounds where you want them – in your beans.
  • Watch your water – wherever possible and affordable, use filtered water for a cleaner, clearer, less muddy coffee taste.
  • Similarly, only froth the milk you need, because if you froth it twice, you’re scalding it, and that’s good for no-one.
  • Master your tamping technique. There’s a knack to the seemingly simple business of pressing down hard. Learn it, practice it, understand the difference it makes – it’ll take your coffee-making to a whole new level.
  • Maintain your coffee-maker regularly. Cleanliness is next to caffeine-scented godliness.
  • Embrace your preferences – want nutmeg on your foam? Grate it. Want vanilla syrup in your top dollar Arabica cappuccino? Do it. Coffee appreciation is one thing, but never let coffee-snobbery keep you from the brew that’s perfect for you.

A Touch of Class: Gourmet Coffee At Home

Gourmet coffee is not about coffee snobbery.

It can become coffee snobbery, but at its heart, it’s about going the extra mile to grind, and drip, and squeeeeeze every last drop of pleasure out of an experience that has the potential to make bad times bearable and good times great.

Budgets are real things, but to make gourmet coffee at home, you only need a few investments. A really good coffee-maker, of whichever kind speaks to your inner caffeine-fiend.

Ideally, some whole beans. A grinder. A scale. And the time to put into delivering a moment of pleasure.

Life is about making time for those moments of pleasure in between all the other rushed, demanding, potentially absurd things you have to do.

A good cup of coffee – the perfect cup of coffee – can remind you who you are, and what you can do, and why it matters. It can give you a breathing space, it can let you carry on, and it can get your feet moving in the morning, or dancing at night.

So invest. Invest in you. Find out which beans, and regions, and roasts, give you that sigh and smile of pure, perfect pleasure. Find out which method of preparation gives you that buzz.

Buy the right machine. Learn it. Make it a miniature hobby, being able to prepare a moment of relaxation and release for yourself. Make your life better. Invest in the equipment, the beans, and the you-time to make a really good cup of coffee.

Sure, we all need to grab an instant on the go sometimes. Sure, we need to visit a coffee shop and do the wax paper cup thing. That’s fine too.

But by having the tools, and having the talent, when you get home, you can feel like you’re home with the perfect cup of coffee for you – and for anyone else who makes your home a home too.

Conclusion: Let’s Brew

We’ve shown you the variety that’s out there. The beans. The regions. The roasts. The coffee-makers and milk-frothers. Now it’s up to you. Go out there and find the taste that speaks to you.

Bring it home. And learn what it means to have your very own perfect cup of coffee. You can do it – you just have to find out what ‘it’ really is.

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