There are various ways to make coffee at home. You may choose the simple and handy option of instant coffee that goes straight into your cup, or invest in a lavish, high-end espresso machine. The final decision is entirely up to you.
Luckily, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune to create the perfect brew at home and it’s not a requirement to have a huge coffee maker taking up half of your kitchen either. If you are only making one or two cups at a time, there are some simple options available.
When it comes to creating the perfect coffee at home, you need to give yourself a head start by making sure you are using high-quality coffee in the first place. The best way to get the freshest tasting coffee is to grind your own beans.
So, if you start out by buying high-quality coffee beans and then invest in a good-quality coffee bean grinder, you will be halfway there to being able to create great coffee at home. You also need to have good quality water.
If you are using tap water, then be sure to filter it first to avoid the chalky flavor which can come with hard water areas. You can also use bottled water to make your ideal coffee at home as well. So, let’s look at two easy ways to make coffee at home – pour-over and French Press.
French Press
The French Press is a simple and cheap way to make quality ground coffee at home and you can pick one up at most supermarkets. They are also very portable so handy to have if you are going traveling, camping, or on holiday.
They don’t require any kind of power or heat source, but you do need to be able to heat up your water first, so a kettle or pan with a heat source is needed to be able to use a French Press.
It is essentially a glass coffee pot with a built-in metal filter and a plunger and is used throughout Europe and America and is often found in people’s homes and in cafes as a very quick and easy way to make a quality brew.
When using a French Press, because of the size of the filter, you generally need to use coarsely ground coffee as anything finer will simply slip through the filter and you will end up with a mouthful of coffee mud at the bottom of your drink.
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It’s extremely easy to use, you simply add the amount of coffee required, then fill with hot water and mix the two together. You can leave it to brew for around three to four minutes, to get the full coffee flavor.
After it has brewed, you push the plunger through the coffee and it filters out the drink while pushing all the coffee grounds down to the bottom and trapping them at the bottom of the pot, so when you pour your coffee it is grounds-free.
It is a great method for producing strong flavored coffee and it gives you a lot of control over the result. You can choose and vary the amount of coffee and water you use, the type of coffee you choose, and the length of time you leave it to brew.
These options give you a lot more control over what kind of coffee you want to make and means this cheap coffee maker can provide a great deal of variety when it comes to making your caffeine fix at home.
While you do have all the variety and choices through using a French press, you are slightly limited by the fact that the filters are only really designed for coarse grounds so you might end up with coffee mud or grit in your drink.
A way out of this would be to pour your coffee through a paper filter into your coffee mug, catching any grit or debris that might have escaped the French Press metal filter and made its way into the glass coffee pot section.
You will also need to take it apart and give it a thorough clean after every use, to avoid any buildup of coffee debris within the filter and the pot but it’s a simple coffee pot to clean and can be immersed in hot and soapy water.
Pour Over Coffee
Again, this is a quite simple method to use at home to create the perfect fresh coffee and it requires minimal equipment and cost. It is similar to the way the French Press method works but one advantage is that you don’t end up with any grit at the end of the process.
So, for a pour-over coffee, you again need to be able to heat up your water separately, so in a kettle or in a pan on the stove, first. You then use your pour-over cone to create your coffee. The cone contains a filter and you simply sit it on top of your coffee mug or pot.
Once your cone is in place, you put the required amount of coffee grounds directly into the cone. It’s a good idea to just wet the grounds to start with, to help them settle and start the release of the flavors, by just adding a small amount of hot water.
Once you have done this, you then add more water gradually, allowing it to filter through the coffee and the cone, and out into your cup. And it’s incredibly simple. Once you have finished, you have your coffee ready to drink.
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Most pour-over cones have a built-in filter so there is no need to faff around with paper filters and all you need to do after you have used it is empty out the coffee grounds and give it a wash with warm soapy water. There are no elements to take apart with this system.
One of the big advantages of this system is that you can use finer ground coffee and you won’t end up with any mud or grit in the bottom of your cup. It also gives you the option to choose your coffee type and cup size as well.
