5 easy guidelines for better coffee

Did you know that coffee beans have a broader spectrum of flavours than wine grapes? It’s no wonder there are so many things that affect the delicate flavour of coffee. So, if your cuppa is currently getting you down, here are some simple coffee making tips to transform it from everyday to extra special.

1. Heat your cups before you make your coffee. Cold cups make coffee colder faster and lukewarm coffee is just not on.

2. Never brew using boiling water, it will make your coffee taste harsh and the heat will mask the flavours. The ideal temperature for brewing is between 95 and 98°C.

3. Get the dose, or amount of coffee, correct. Using too much coffee will result in a bitter brew. Adjusting your dose of coffee reveals an entire spectrum of flavour for you to discover.

4. Adjust your grind. Grinding coffee too finely results in over extraction, because the surface area of coffee exposed to water is greatly increased. On the flip side, coffee ground to coarsely will taste sour and weak. A slight adjustment in your grinder setting will yield notable changes in the flavour.

If you don’t have a grinder or would prefer not to dabble in perfecting that element of home made coffee just yet, you can buy the right type of ground coffee for your preferred method of brewing, in either the Legado Guatemala El Morito or the Legado Espresso Blend.

5. Time. Whether you are pulling an espresso or steeping your grounds in a French press, the amount of time the coffee is exposed to water will also affect the flavour. Coffee tasting too bitter? Decrease your extraction time. Too sour? Let the grounds extract for a little longer, until you are happy with the result.

When it comes to figuring out how to make your perfect cup of coffee, experimentation is the order of the day; adjust each factor until you have discovered a flavour that makes you happiest.

To end with a quote from Clive Coffee’s The Craft of Espresso’: ‘Coffee is either nothing – a brackish fuel, a necessary accomplice – or it is something: an education in taste, a way to be playful, a daily sacrament’.

We hope these coffee making tips and tricks will help.