I'm a Coffee Roaster: Here's What You're Doing Wrong That's Ruining Your Coffee
hudsonroastingcompany.comThe article says this about Baratza grinders:
> I prefer the Baratza line of grinders which can be easily maintained over time. An entry level model will set you back about $150 and you may be able to find it cheaper used.
Which I think undersells the best part of Baratza, as a part relevant to HN: the company actively supports maintenance, sells all parts and refurbished models, and has very helpful customer support. I love that they don't need to be forced into right-to-repair. I'm a very happy customer.
I'm very happy that this seems to applied to the majority of coffee equipment manufacturer ( or at least for manual brewing equipment ) . Even big brand like Hario will happily sell you a set of replacement burr at a reasonable price if yours ever get damaged. I hope the coffee community keep it this way for eternity.
I have a Baratza Sette 270 which I'm also quite happy with. I like this because the beans drop straight through, not shunted out a chute to the side. Amount of remains left in the grinder are quite minimal.
I've studiously avoided gaining the ability to discriminate good from bad coffee. I don't see any upsides, and the coffee snobs are insufferable.
I was the same for years until I had a pourover at a coffee shop in NYC that knocked my socks off. I still enjoy bad coffee but the pleasure I’ve gotten from making better coffee over the years has been worth it IMO.
Incidentally, it’s entirely possible to enjoy good coffee without becoming a total snob, just like it’s possible to use vim without being a dick about it :)
NY is interesting because, in a similar way that there was literally not one single edible vegetable in Manhattan before Whole Foods came to Chelsea, there wasn't a drop of decent coffee anywhere in a city of 8 million people before Zibetto opened about 15 years ago, and then Stumptown opened in the Ace Hotel, and after that it was like a revolution all over the city. But definitely late to the good coffee scene.
I love how your brought vim into this conversation. Smooth. Real smooth.
It’s an enjoyable part of the day and a fun skill to practice.
Snobbery exists, but I think most people are just excited about the subject and perhaps overly eager to share their learnings. To some it seems snobbish, but from the coffee lover’s point of view each thing they’ve learned has made a big difference in their experience and they’d like to share that with others.
Just like any skill, there will be gatekeepers and elitists who think they are better than others. They’re the vocal minority.
Your implication is that you don't want to enjoy anything because you might turn into a snob... Some sort of meta-snobbish anti-hedonistic hero?
Eh, I just see them as "different" coffee. I have a decent burr grinder, buy fresh roasted beans, and brew with a Moka pot. I also have a drip machine when I plan to drink a lot of coffee over a period of time, i.e. a lazy morning reading. I've got an aeropress when I'm feeling like something a little different (or when I'm making coffee at the office). And I keep good ol' freeze dried coffee in the cupboard when I'm feeling lazy or want a quick caffeine buzz.
They're all different and I love em all for different reasons.
Though I will say I absolutely refuse to drink Keurig coffee. It's an environmental disaster and it has the strength and flavour of coffee brewed with used beans...
I left a few comments below and consider myself a "snob" basically when it comes to coffee. I don't think that it does have to mean that you're exclusively only drinking expensive and well done coffee.
I still drink preground basic grocery store coffee every day and it's fine. Co. paring the two is like saying you want to taste fine and expensive wines and you'll never drink wine just to get drunk.
I'm actually not that often even in a mindset where I can make the most of my more expensive coffee and I drink the cheap stuff then.
I think fully actualized adults have the capability to be a coffee snob, without being insufferable clods.
I willingly share my coffee knowledge to anyone who asks and never denigrate someone for liking Folgers.
It’s fine. There are basically infinite niche interests you could dive into and become completely fascinated by. Coffee is one of them and I’m glad people enjoy it. Personally, I love different niches and don’t care about coffee. But it’s all the same thing.
Why is being a coffee snob worse than being any other type of snob?
It's not, it's just that I encounter the coffee snobs more than I'd like
I've spent a decent amount of time and effort getting better coffee, and I can still enjoy a cup of instant from time to time.
You do you, though.
As someone who drank Navy coffee for 6 years, who cares what it tastes like? The question is, does it wake you up?
Is that where if the pot gets cold they pour the coffee back into the tank and brew it over? Because I can tell you they do that in the US Coast Guard.
I don't remember that. I only remember a lot of black, bitter brew.
If you're just into caffeine, there are pills to be had on the cheap. They are arguably more effective at waking you up, as well.
They don't hand them out when underway and don't enhance that morning cigarette. I guess you could stock up before leaving port or just drink the coffee.
As a coffee enthusiast, I can wholeheartedly vouch each and every one of the points raised in the article, except maybe the tap water and temperature.
The biggest upgrade you can do on your setup is getting a proper coffee grinder with burrs and not blades. There's little sense in buying any fancier beans if you're grinding them in store and drinking it over a period of several weeks. In a matter of hours after grinding, the coffee will be almost as stale as it'll be in two weeks' time.
Hand grinders like Hario Skerton go for like 50 USD and something like Wilfa Svart Aroma for around 100. If you don't need espresso-level fine, then it's more than great.
Great coffee doesn't have to be expensive. If you have a local roaster and they offer single origin coffee at a sane price point, you'll make your money back in a few months time if you're an avid fan of take out coffee.
An Aeropress and electric mill will cost about 140 dollars and for example approx 20 cups of Intelligentsia coffee will cost roughly a dollar per cup. That's top shelf coffee, compared with mediocre Starbucks black coffee which will cost you double that.
I'd much rather pay for some 15 year old single malt whiskey and pay less per portion than buying Jack Daniel's from the local drinkhole.
Source: I'm a hobbyist reviewer of coffee, done some roasting and working on the judgment panel selecting Findland's best coffees.
Why I don't necessarily agree about tap water: many countries have excellent tap water and it's perfectly fine to use. If you have an automatic machine you might have to descale it a few times a year but it's perfectly fine for brewing coffee. Bottled water can often have more impurities than Finnish tap water.
Why I don't necessarily agree about temperature: coffee beans are already roasted at temperatures far hotter than 100 celcius. Any oils that would get lost due to temperature, have already evaporated at that point. If the water is too cold (like 90C or less), you risk under extracting the coffee. I think boiling is a perfectly acceptable temperature and don't notice any difference between that and 96C.
In Britain the quality of tap water varies a lot from place to place. I live in Cambridge where the water comes from a chalk aquifer; it is very hard and has a distinctly unpleasant flavour. We got a water softener installed, including a separate filter for drinking water, and that made it a lot more palatable.
Last weekend we were visiting family in Sheffield, which is on the edge of the Peak District, and their water comes from hard sandstone hills, beautifully soft.
I have a manual grinder (Hario) and I really don't like how long it takes to grind the damn things with it. IMNSHO it adds to much friction to the process /rimshot/ and makes it that much less enjoyable. Caveat emptor, basically.
What kind of burrs? If it's the usual cheap hand grinder (hario slim) it got a ceramic burrset which is not only slow (3 times as slow as my favourite the 1zpresso), but has a bad distribution.
If you don't need espresso fine grounds buy a timemore c2, normcore or 1zpresso jx.
If you want to brew espresso take the 1zpresso jx pro.
Edit: all those recommendations are best band for the buck. For an equal electric grinder you will pay a hefty extra. For the same quality the cheapest electric grinder I could find was more than double the price. I don't want to pay 150€ for a motor
A little bit related: I've got a latest Hario Slim (https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/aw/d/B01GPMH590), and it has a hexagonal post for the handle. Using a 7mm hex wrench in a cordless screwdriver makes it an automatic grinder (not pleasant, but very cheap for how it performs)
Yeah, if you have to grind more than one cup each time, it can get a bit tiresome. I got my first electric grinder after a few months of cranking it by hand.
But for many, it's also just a part of the ritual and charm. I mean, if you really go at it, it shouldn't take more than 20 seconds per cup.
I must've been doing it wrong, but it was in a minutes range for a single cup fo me and it was more annoying than anything else.
Apply more force and vigor!
I enjoy the daily morning routine of grinding 25gr filter roast with a Commandante. Takes about 2-3 minutes.
The same amount takes roughly 10 seconds with my Baratza grinder :) I don't really care for hand grinding myself anylonger but if I had to choose between a hand grinder and store ground, I'd always pick the grinder.
I think the rule of thumb regarding water is to not use water you wouldn't enjoy drinking straight. If you drink your water straight from the tap then go ahead and use it for brewing.
I have an under the sink in-line water filter and that's what I use to fill up the kettle.
Yeah, some people have the idea that the coffee will mask the flavor of bad-tasting water, but actually it just produces bad-tasting coffee. "Don't use tap water" is an inaccurate rebuttal to that belief.
As a counter (and I watch James Hoffmann's output religiously, which is potentially up a notch even from this):
If you enjoy your coffee the way it is, don't get pressured into making it 'better'.
Grinding the beans before brewing instead of buying pre-ground gets you 80% of the way there. If you're lazy and/or don't want to become a coffee snob, just get a grinder, grind whole beans, and call it a day.
I buy good beans and have good equipment to make good coffee. Because a good cup of coffee is good.
And then I let it go cold and drink a cup cold too. Because even cold coffee is coffee and coffee has caffeine.
And then I microwave the third cup, usually for too long, so it largely evaporates and develops an interesting aftertaste (and also becomes an excellent laxative). Because the headache doesn’t care how it tastes and who can be bothered to make fancy new coffee several times per day.
I'm surprised the article doesn't go as far as to mention about avoiding dark roast, and only going for light/medium roast.
It's my understanding the real coffee snobs avoid dark roast because it burns off a lot of the flavor and natural sweetness of coffee.
Does tap water really make that much of a difference? Anyone tried side by side?
That’s the only comment there I’m unsure about - bottled water is pretty much filtered tap water in most places. There’s direct spring water and rain water you can use - but they have varying minerals again, and then are you distilling water for pure H2O? I actually don’t know what the author means here.
I do concur with consistency and then changing only one variable at a time - beans, temps, ground amount & size, water type(?), extraction time / length / size. It’s probably something I haven’t paid any attention to and have my favourite spots to get coffee from.
Maybe it does, but personally, I get the most enjoyment out of coffee (or anything else) if I don't try to over-optimize. Good coffee in a french press with good enough water? Delicious!
And lets add delicious is very subjective and different folks have different standards and that is ok. But sometimes it’s good to try a different taste as we might like it more, one never knows... I personally am not interested into being a coffee purist because I cannot make much difference anyway, maybe its my taste buds, I don’t know but and find no reason to bother improving something I like good enough..
That really varies. Tap water in new york. yea I'd prolly go with that. Down in central Florida, the tap water tastes like a donkey's butthole (high sulfer content). I have to use bottled water down here to make a coffee thats remotely drinkable.
Yes! Water is the main ingredient, with that said tap water might be fine if you like the taste of your tap water. If the tap water tastes bad your coffee will not be as good as it could be.
Probably highly depends on where you are.
Tap water could also improve the taste the way NY tap water supposedly makes the pizza taste good.
The ny tap water story is just a story. You can get a water report on the tap water, and then distill water and add the minerals that will match. Beer brewers are more familiar with this, but it's not a super secret dark art.
It's key in Long Island bagels too
Perhaps the author lives in a place with bad tap water, like where you don’t drink it if you can avoid it. I’ve visited a few places like that. If the tap water is good to drink it will be good to make coffee with. Period.
Really depends on the tap water and might be mostly due to chlorine. As someone who drinks distilled water almost exclusively, it's surprising how apparent the chlorine is when I occasionally have to the drink tap water in my area. Chlorine is basic while coffee is acidic, and chlorine is just pretty reactive in general, so it would be surprising if chlorine didn't affect the flavor of and in a negative way.
I thought that distilled water is bad because there are no more micro elements?
Yes, we need minerals. Also, Chlorine will dissipate in a few hours or so. Put in a pitcher in the fridge for a cool drink any time.
You should already be getting your minerals from your diet, and food is an all around better way to get micronutrients in general. The mineral that's in the highest abundance in tap water is calcium, but there's better calcium to be found in broccoli. Same with things like magnesium... if one's health hinges on what's in their ingested water, their diet is terrible. There's nothing in water you can't get in greater quality and abundance in food.
There's this urban myth that distilled water pulls minerals out of your bones. Go find some high quality studies that demonstrate this incredibly flawed idea and get back to me. ;) Things like calcium in your bones aren't in a form that distilled water could dissolve away even if it wanted to (that's just not how things are working in the body though). The other theory is that the body would cannibalize calcium from the bones if there's no other calcium available; if you're getting even a modest amount of calcium from diet, which is easy to do with even the most unhealthy diets, this is never going to happen. If you are osteoporotic or are at risk of it, no amount of water is going to save you, and the evidence that mineral-free water would make it worse is nonexistent.
If it was dangerous to be consuming water devoid of minerals, the FDA would pull things like reverse-osmosis and ZeroWater filters off the shelves. But people keep repeating the evils of distilled water as if it's concluded fact when it's anything but.
Meanwhile, distillation and reverse-osmosis guarantee that heavy metals, microplastics, and many pharmaceuticals never make it into your drinking water in any meaningful amount. For some people it improves the flavor, as in my case, but others don't like it. But to anyone reading this, try drinking distilled exclusively for a few weeks and then drink tap water again. For me there's an obvious difference in smell and flavor that is tolerable but still off-putting.
They sell something called (no joke) third wave water, which are packets you add to distilled water
"Profiles" product menu: Classic | Dark | Espresso
Here's some of their copy:
«Life is Too Short to Ruin Your Coffee with Bad Water» • Bad water destroys great coffee • Don't drink boring, flat coffee anymore • Starting your day right shouldn't be this difficult
«Protect Your Coffee Maker» • Stop ruining your coffee maker by causing lime scale buildup! • Do you have an espresso machine? • Third Wave Water has a water profile just for your needs
«Find Full Flavor» • Achieve Optimum Extraction and taste your coffee like the Roaster intended • Reduce Bitterness with all natural minerals • Balanced Water Chemistry to compliment your coffee (pH and kH)
«Brew Consistently» • Stop Chasing the Perfect Cup • Brew the same amazing cup of coffee every morning
Over 3 million gallons of coffee brewed.
"This coffee tasted 10X better with Third Wave Water! This stuff is the real deal! If you love coffee you'll love Third Wave Water!"
Also curious to know the answer to this. That's one I hadn't seen before. I'm guessing the author would recommend distilled?
Definitely not distilled. Most of the best coffee cities around the world have tap water with dissolved solids around 150ppm. If you’re in a place like mine in Phoenix, the tap water is like 500+ppm, so we use RO and demineralize with something like Third Wave Water (or you can make your own for cheap). It’s super fussy, but the taste difference is real.
I'm a novice coffee enthusiast, and I was blown away by the difference appropriate water made to the coffee. I am now "making" my own water by adding optimal mineral mixture to distilled water. The results are superior to those with tap water ("raw" and filtered) or pretty much any bottled water brand that I've tested.
Drink the coffee the way you like it.
If you like to experiment, try different methods of brewing - French Press or pour over are easiest. You can try single origin beans, or blends, ground or whole bean that you grind with a propeller grinder gasp.
I consider myself a coffee snob and even I buy pre ground beans sometimes because I'm a lazy old codger. Frankly I sometimes don't want to go through my coffee ritual in the morning and just want a simple, quiet, pour over to get me going.
Absolutely nobody should be knocking the way you take your coffee.
Author didn't say that everyone needs to fix their habits or anything. It wasn't pretentious at all. It gave some solid tips on where it most often goes wrong if you want to go from mediocre coffee to great.
I don't measure my own coffee on a scale from "terrible" to "enjoyable" because they're all for a different purpose and mindset. The main point is that people enjoy their coffee. If they're often finding the experience lacking, then they should try to fix the process.
All good advice, but the delivery could maybe have been a bit nicer. I imagine that this article might be a bit off-putting to people who are not into coffee as a hobby, so to speak.
Fine enough advice, except for the tap water comment, which I would think might lead some to distilled water (so it’s not “saturated with impurities”) - that’s not the way water and coffee work, and indeed, in a water-sensing machine (which likely depends on minerals in the water), not the way equipment works either. If one takes that comment to its logical conclusion, you’re going to have a (poorly flavoured) bad time.
Agreed. I don't bother filtering my water, the tap water where I live is pretty great though. I imagine that might not be true everywhere. Some mention about the mineral content of the water would have been appropriate, ad you mentioned.
I pour about 1500 ml water over about 50 grams of coffee. It’s fine. It tastes good for some time.
What makes coffee taste especially bad is just sitting out. It gets sour and real bitter.
That's really strong coffee unless your steep time is very slow or the grind is coarse. I think your guests will most likely not go for a second serving :p
That’s a ratio of near twice what the article recommends, it’s really weak.
And I don’t make it like this for guests because it’s too weak. Well, maybe okay for Americans.
oops I misread that as 500ml of water, not 1500ml.
my experience with coffee: Filter your tap water for coffee or tea, you will definitely feel the difference. Dont use a paper filter, I noticed my coffee tastes burned when I do. Buy a roast that you enjoy, I got several bags and tested at same time to determine which I enjoyed more. I keep getting the same since. But I did not see any difference if I grind the beans for 10 seconds or 2 min. So not sure I can feel the difference in grind in my palate!
Most higher end grocery stores in the US now carry locally roasted beans. As long as you check the roast date you will be fine.
But to expand on that point, pay attention to origin and roast style. Mass produced coffee is like any other fungible commodity, but craft coffee is much more varied. Coffee may not be as diverse as teas but it’s definitely more than dark roast arabica beans.
Supermarkets generally refuse to stock coffee with a listed roast date. If you live near one which does allow that, that's the exception.
The post says don't use tap water, but what are the alternatives? Brita or Pur filter? Bottled water (that is most likely just tap water itself)? spring water? Distilled water? I suspect the only one without solutes would be distilled, but distilled makes for awful drinking water.
I think the rule of thumb regarding water is to not use water you wouldn't enjoy drinking straight. If you drink your water straight from the tap then go ahead and use it for brewing.
I have an under the sink in-line water filter and that's what I use to fill up the kettle.
I've tried fresh beans. Roasted and fast couriered to door to be consumed within the week. I'm not sure I care that much about the difference in taste. If you enjoy this sort of thing great, but I'm pretty happy with my stale beans and cheap espresso machine.
I don’t know, weighing my coffee three times a day doesn’t seem too appealing. Using scoopes is fine as long you tune in your taste with the scoop, but you have to try to scoop consistently.
Different coffee types and roasts differ in volume. Darker roasts tend to be lighter which translate to more volume in the beans and less in the actual grinded coffee.
If you buy only one type of coffee and it's consistently the same roast level, then there shouldn't be a huge difference if you measure accurately.
But for me, I buy a different coffee bag every time and one scoop of a light roasted Ethiopian coffee will definitely not be equivalent of some darker Guatemalan coffee for example.
You don't need to measure it thrice though. Just measure the beans before grinding them and then calculate how much water you'll need. I also use the 60 grams of coffee per liter of water, ie 16:1 water/coffee ratio as a starting point. Then just measure the water with a scale or by volume.
> If you buy only one type of coffee and it's consistently the same roast level, then there shouldn't be a huge difference if you measure accurately.
It’s basically what I do, and also sometimes it isn’t perfect but I don’t expect it to always be either .
IMO beans make the biggest difference
If you just get some fresh locally roasted beans and make French press you’re already mostly there
It’s diminishing returns after that point
Highly doubt anyone’s going to notice a difference with tap water
My best advice, put just a small pinch of kosher salt in the carafe before brewing. It will help tamp down some of the bitterness, if you don't like that
Pretty sensible, but it kinda implies there’s exactly one way to enjoy coffee, which I think might not be true. Starting with that ratio, I’ve found that as time goes on from the date is roasting I need to up the dose to get a good cup. Then eventually I switch over to a French press because it becomes impossible to get a good pour-over, maybe 7-10 days after roasting. At that point you’re making a different thing. Also the French press is pretty indifferent to ratio; you’re just deciding how wired you want to get.
Or buy a Bialetti moka and that's it.
I have never understood the love for these.
They're small, hot as hell, you don't prepare much coffee out of it, the coffee is burning hot, it's easy to fail your coffee, and the taste is most of the time very (too?) bitter.
But at least... digestion will indeed be facilitated ^^
Source: my family in Italy became Bialetti cultists, I have to bear it to avoid boring comments on "real" coffee.
The cast-aluminium little guys are devilish to get right, and they only make 3 shots of coffee. Once you get the knack they’re fine, and as they get bigger I find it’s much easier to get a consistent brew. Better still, get a steel one which will go in the dishwasher too!
I usually make coffee in a cafetière (french press), but in hot weather i like an iced latte. At home I make them with a moka pot; I have a small pot which can make a double espresso, which I needed to run twice to get my daily fix.
So I bought a “12 cup” Bialetti, which makes about a pint each time, which is enough to keep me going for a day or two.
And yes it took me a while to get the hang of getting it to siphon all the water through the coffee properly without over-cooking.
I like the idea of using it to make an iced latte. I might reuse mine with that goal, good tip!
Normal filter grinded store bought coffee is too coarse so you'll need a grinder for that anyways.
The more beans you put in the spinning grinder the wider the size distribution.
That's not entirely true. Blade grinders are simply breaking the beans unevenly. There's even scientific studies on how bean temperature affects how much fines they produce when grinding.
I mean, it gets worse the more you fill it.
Or, drink the cheapest, quickest coffee you can make/get for caffeine and tea for taste. No equipment needed, less of your life wasted.
Yeah. I skip coffee altogether most of the time, and drink large amounts of black tea from yunnan instead. I get awake, but don't get an elevated pulse and tense stomach like I get from coffee.
Chinese tea is, imo, much better than Indian. So much less bitter and more fragrant. There's quite a large difference between different teas, also from the same region, so try a few different ones. I live in Copenhagen but go to a specific tea store in malmö for my tea.
If you are just after the caffeine, you can get it in tablets in a drugstore. They kick in almost instantly and way more forcefully than a comparable amount in a coffee drink.