5 Ways To Up Your Coffee Game At Home
25 years ago, instant coffee was the go-to for Brits, with the only commonly available alternative being filter. Fast forward to 2020, and we drink an average of 95 million cups of coffee a day between us, so finding a flat white or a speciality blend couldn’t be easier when even your local pub or fast food chain offers a sophisticated format of coffee.
For millions of us, good coffee is a part of our daily working rituals, which is why with the sudden shift to working from home for the nation, there is no better time than now for everyone to step up their home coffee game.
Belle spoke to Chris Tough, marketing manager at Lincoln and York and asked for his advice on becoming a home trained expert.
1. Fresher is better
Coffee tastes best within the first three months of being roasted. More and more products are displaying roast dates or best before dates, so it is becoming easier for consumers to brew up their favourite coffee at optimum freshness. That’s not to say fresh coffee will go off or turn bad, it will simply lose some of its flavour and taste bland and flat instead.
2. Change up your brewing method
A great way to start your quest to making better coffee is to try a new piece of brewing equipment. Some great and very accessible examples to try are the Aeropress and the Clever Dripper – both a big upgrade on your regular Cafetiere/French Press. The addition of a paper filter creates a much more evenly extracted, less bitter coffee. Many other new-fangled gadgets exist, try each to see which you prefer the most!
3. Grind Fresh
Beans are best! Domestic coffee grinders are becoming cheaper and more available, making it much easier to freshly grind your own coffee beans at home. If the smell alone of freshly ground coffee in the morning isn’t enough then this step will create the most noticeable change in the flavour of your coffee.
4. Filter your water
Probably the best kept secret to a better brew. Filter jugs such as those made by Brita or Aqua are easy to use and available in most supermarkets. They strip away unwanted hardness from the water and leave behind the essential minerals needed to enhance flavour. If keeping your kettle free from limescale isn’t enough to persuade you, then the brighter, cleaner coffee flavour might.
5. Measure up!
A seemingly faffy step but a great way to ensure precision and consistency in your brew. Invest in an inexpensive set of gram scales to weigh out your coffee and you’ll be able to replicate the same recipe over and over. This is when the real coffee geekery starts and you can work out the best ratio of coffee to water for you.
Now, it’s up to you to put your new skills to the test and up your home coffee game! We all have our own unique preferences when it comes to coffee, no matter how unusual some may seem, but the truth is, the ‘perfect coffee’ is different for everyone. So be true to yourself and experiment with your daily pick-me-up.
Finding your favourite flavour is a result of exploring all of the incredible varieties available to us and working out for yourself which one you like the taste of most.
