Print Article for : Make The Best Coffee

Your Online Guide » Guide to Health » Drink Coffee

[M138]Make The Best Coffee

by Johnathan Bakers, Joh

There is no need to settle for inferior coffee, whether you are at home or away. It takes a little extra care, but you have to do more than just expect the water to drip through the ground coffee. If you take just a few extra steps, you will make the best tasting and freshest coffee you have ever had.

The first step is to have fresh, cold water in the coffee machine. Do not use warm water or water that has been boiled. Truly fussy coffee drinkers will even use filtered or bottled water, to assure even more purity. If you have hard water or old pipes, or chlorinated water in your home, you may want to consider that as well.

It is important to have the right temperature for the water as it comes out when you are brewing your coffee. Ideally, it should be between 195 and 205 degrees. If the water is hotter than that, the coffee may become too bitter, and if it is too cold, the water will not be able to absorb all of the flavor from the ground coffee, and after the first ounces, the coffee will be weak and distilled tasting.

If you are one of the few people today who still press brew their coffee, make sure you let the water sit for a moment or two in order to reach this optimal temperature.

It is always a good idea to use a hot coffee carafe in your coffee machine. You can do this simply by putting hot water into it and let it stand a while before you put the carafe back in the coffee machine.

Picking the proper coffee grind for your coffee will be one of the most important steps toward a perfect cup of brew.
Even though it may say it on the label, there is really no such thing as an all purpose brew. If you are using a press pot, you will need a completely different kind of brew than you will if you are using an electric coffee maker. For optimum results from a press pot, buy coffee beans and grind them just before brewing. You can obtain an inexpensive grinder that will work just fine to get the medium to coarse grind (grinding for 10 seconds) that works better with this type of coffee brewing. If you are grinding for an electric coffee pot, you will have to grind a little longer to get a finer grind (15 to 20 seconds) that works better in an electric pot.

OK, so K&N now has a commercial with a mechanic who puts a paper air filter in its place: inside the coffee machine. Apparently, K&N hasn't heard of idiots who go and do exactly what your far-fetched commercial shows. Do they care about the children? Anyway, it's not a very well-done commercial (not to get all Siskel and Eggbert on you guys), but it did get us thinking about, well, being those idiots who do what the far-fetched commercial says. This should be very fun, but in very poor taste?literally.

First up, the paper air filter, which we pulled out of my buddy's Dodge just for fun. It's been about, oh, 20,000 miles since it was last changed, during which time there were two gnat swarms and one huge wildfire?like snowing ashes and hard to breathe wildfire. The dingy paper was hard to tear out of the urethane frame, but we got it stuffed into place with even a couple of bee carcasses. We fired up the machine, scooped a couple of Yuban clumps in, and let ?er rip. The results: terrible. Let's just move on. We can't tell if the solid bits are poorly filtered grounds or fire leavings.

K&N is next. We figured that if they're going to brag about being a better air filter than a paper air filter when actually installed on a car, then it's fair to compare the two in the coffee machine test. Cutting an acceptable piece out of a fresh K&N is a little tough, given the wire mesh and all. But, some tin snips helped us get the right shape filter. Of course, we had quite a bit of trouble getting coffee out of the machine. Since it's pre-oiled, the filter tended to repel the coffee that should have been seeping down into the pot. Once we finally got a cupful, it was terrible. I spat it all over the guys and gagged, then threw up in my mouth a little bit.

The last one for the test is an AFE Pro-Guard 7 air filter. That's 7 full layers of filter to stop little bits of coffee grinds from getting into the carafe. But, will the coffee even get past the thick cotton-gauze with the slick oiled coating? It did?through the top of the filter container. Sure, a few drops came out through the nozzle, but much more spilled out the top. It was a complete mess. But, it did make the best coffee of the three, given that it tasted like French roast with three pumps of Torani WD40 syrup. Yuck.

In other words, we've figured out that mimicking bad commercials due to summer boredom leads to puking, and to bad coffee. And some pissed-off parents when their morning brew reeks of automotive oil. But, we now know why K&N didn't show their filters as the supreme coffee filter, though they tout themselves as the peak in filtration technology. Their coffee lost, and so did the paper filter's. The AFE filter won, but, if it wouldn't let coffee past, how's it going to let more air past than a paper filter or K&N? We don't really know'we?re not into testing things in their actual use.

Article Source : Pg. 15

About Author

Both Johnathan Bakers & David S. Brooks are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Johnathan Bakers has sinced written about articles on various topics from Home Management, Car Rental and Food and Drink. Focusing on news and information about coffee, Johnathan Bakers writes mainly for http://www.coffee-espresso-maker-tips.com . You can find his contributions on. Johnathan Bakers's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.

David S. Brooks has sinced written about articles on various topics from Cars, Brakes and Trucks. like . David S. Brooks's top article generates over 12100 views. to your Favourites.