Achieving a Great Coffee Experience

You know a great cup of joe when you taste it, but how do you ensure an amazing coffee experience every time? Getting what you want is both an art and a science.

Mastering Roasting Degree and Time

Whether you’re roasting at home or frequenting a commercial establishment with a trade coffee roaster, great roasting depends on the roaster having mastered degree and time. Different types of coffee beans rely on specific roasting parameters to enhance their best flavors. If you’re not doing your own roasting, look into the experience level of the roasting specialists at your chosen establishment.

Knowing Your Beans

Coffee beans are grown all around the world, and bean origin heavily influences taste. A good rule of thumb for bean selection is that beans grown in higher altitudes generally produce better-tasting coffee.

Selecting a Brewing Method

Even properly roasted coffee can be ruined if you use the incorrect brewing method for the bean type.  Selecting the correct method requires you to know the bean origin and type of taste you want such as crisp, strong or subtle. You can then look up the correct pairings and choose the best method.

Picking the Correct Roast Type

Roast type is generally divided into 4 ranges: light, medium, medium-dark and dark. Because the color of unroasted coffee beans varies greatly, roast type describes much more than the shade of the roasted bean. Lighter roasts are higher in caffeine and more acidic but preserve more of the original flavor of the unroasted bean. Darker roasts taste more bitter but not burnt.

 Achieving the perfect cup of coffee is complex and requires high levels of knowledge and experience as well as a bit of luck. Knowing these basics, though, will help you make the best choices in your pursuit of coffee perfection.