Brew with Plunger or French Press

 Coffee character: A rich, medium bodied brew 

Good for: Its simplicity—it’s easy to use and can make up to six cups at a time, so it’s great for when you have people over 

Grind: Coarse 

Brew time: Let it steep for around 4 minutes

People across the country are digging into the back of their abandoned-gadget cupboards and dusting off their plungers. They’re back in vogue, only now we like to refer to them as French presses—it sounds more cosmopolitan, oui? 

Loved for its simple, and forgiving, nature, plunger coffee virtually makes itself. It’s a form of steeping, where water and coffee are in contact throughout brewing, which means all you need to do is bring the two ingredients together. Mix hot water with coffee grounds and leave the pot to sit while you think about whether it’s time to let go of the waffle-maker you also found in the cupboard. After 4 minutes, separate the rich brown brew from the grounds by pressing down the plunger (fitted with mesh). Voila! 

Depending on the size of your pot, you can make many cups at a time. Coupled with the fact that it’s low maintenance to make, it’s a good one to serve to a crowd. 119 The Hario coffee press has two thick glass walls for extra insulation and protection from heat. The removable, olivewood collar aids grip.

To use: 

- Pre-heat coffee press by rinsing it out with hot water. 

- Grind coffee—a coarse grind is best suited. Add around 10–12g (about 2 tablespoons) of coffee to every 100–120g (3.5–4 oz) of water. 

 - Pour 200°F (92°C) water over grounds, providing an even coverage. 

-  After 4 minutes, stir lightly. 

 - Gently plunge.

Brew Style - Ibrik

Coffee character: Rich, dark and intense, since this coffee isn’t filtered, its texture is a bit on the, well, muddy side 

Good for: Going back to the roots of coffee brewing Grind: Very fine and powder-like 

 Brew time: Can take around 10 minutes total

An ibrik (known in Turkey as a cezve) is an ornate little coffee pot with a long handle, the type that you might have been given by your sister that time she went to Istanbul. The coffee is boiled over a flame before being poured straight into a drinking cup. This isn’t exactly specialty coffee territory, but it makes a very distinctive brew with a history as old as coffee itself. And don’t think for a second that ibrik connoisseurs aren’t as serious as espresso or siphon coffee devotees: the World Cezve/Ibrik Championships are held annually in Europe and competition is fierce.

Traditionally, this coffee is drunk on special occasions unsweetened for sad times, such as funerals, and with sugar for happier occasions, such as weddings. It’s also common for brewers to add a pinch of cardamom for a spicy, woody aroma. For ibrik coffee, the beans need to be pulverized until they’re superfine and powdery. Most grinders aren’t capable of that, so get your coffee as fine as possible then grind it further with a mortar and pestle.

To use: 

Pour 90g (3 oz) of cold water into the ibrik. 

 Add 10g (about 2 tablespoons) of superfine coffee. 

 If you’re adding sugar or cardamom, do so now and stir (don’t fill the ibrik more than halfway). 

 Put the ibrik over medium heat. 

 When the coffee starts to boil, lower the heat and let it sit for 1 to 2 minutes. Once the coffee has settled, turn the heat back up and repeat the previous step twice more, turning the heat down as soon as the coffee boils. 

 On the third and final boil, take the ibrik off the heat. Slowly and gently pour the coffee into pre-warmed cups 

Ibrik Coffee

Coffee character: Rich, dark and intense, since this coffee isn’t filtered, its texture is a bit on the, well, muddy side 

 Good for: Going back to the roots of coffee brewing 

Grind: Very fine and powder-like 

Brew time: Can take around 10 minutes total

An ibrik (known in Turkey as a cezve) is an ornate little coffee pot with a long handle, the type that you might have been given by your sister that time she went to Istanbul. The coffee is boiled over a flame before being poured straight into a drinking cup. This isn’t exactly specialty coffee territory, but it makes a very distinctive brew with a history as old as coffee itself. And don’t think for a second that ibrik connoisseurs aren’t as serious as espresso or siphon coffee devotees: the World Cezve/Ibrik Championships are held annually in Europe and competition is fierce.

Traditionally, this coffee is drunk on special occasions—unsweetened for sad times, such as funerals, and with sugar for happier occasions, such as weddings. It’s also common for brewers to add a pinch of cardamom for a spicy, woody aroma. For ibrik coffee, the beans need to be pulverized until they’re superfine and powdery. Most grinders aren’t capable of that, so get your coffee as fine as possible then grind it further with a mortar and pestle

To use: 

 - Pour 90g (3 oz) of cold water into the ibrik. 

- Add 10g (about 2 tablespoons) of superfine coffee. 

- If you’re adding sugar or cardamom, do so now and stir (don’t fill the ibrik more than halfway). 

- Put the ibrik over medium heat. 

- When the coffee starts to boil, lower the heat and let it sit for 1 to 2 minutes. 

- Once the coffee has settled, turn the heat back up and repeat the previous step twice more, turning the heat down as soon as the coffee boils. 

- On the third and final boil, take the ibrik off the heat. 

- Slowly and gently pour the coffee into pre-warmed cups. 

Arabic, Turkish, Cypriot, Greek: for the uninitiated these styles of ibrik coffee may seem exactly the same, but keep that opinion to yourself. Follow the cues your hosts give you, and no matter what you do, never ever call a Greek’s brew “Turkish coffee.”

All in the Timing (and Weight)

 

Coffee brewing is all about the coffee to water ratio. Too much water and the coffee will be weak and flavorless, too little and you get bitterness. You can play around with the ratio until you get the result you want, particularly if you’re using filter or steeping methods of brewing, but if you want to replicate a coffee, you’ll want to be measuring your ratios. 

Just how finicky you are when it comes to your coffee will inform just how careful you should be with your measurements. “Two tablespoons of coffee, with the water poured up to around here” may be all the measurement you need, but if you want more control, weighing your coffee and your water is the best option. Scales are an important tool for specialty coffee baristas, and to ensure accuracy, they tend to measure out both the coffee and water in weight instead of volume. You can get a trendy, programmable, coffee specific digital scale if you want, but your run-of-the-mill kitchen scale should be enough to ensure you get a consistent brew. 

Similarly, whether or not you feel the need to time your coffee brewing down to the second is totally up to you. There are some great smartphone apps, a lot of them free, which can help you with timing and with planning your ratios for various brewing methods. Embrace technology! 

There’s Something in the Water . .

If you don’t like the taste of your tap water, it’s worth investing in a water filter. This is also important if you live in a hard water area, which is high in alkalinity and can neutralize the acids that give coffee its bright and subtle flavors. Also, don’t forget that water can be too hot and scorch the coffee. Most brewing methods are most successful when the water is about 194 to 200°F (90 to 92°C). If you’re fastidious, use a thermometer, but if you can’t be bothered just wait a minute or two after the kettle boils before you start pourin 

The Daily Grind

It takes two machines to make a great coffee: the coffeemaker and the grinder. Despite what the name suggests, the daily grind of coffee is anything but laborious; it’s here that all those special aromas bust out of each bean, leading you by the nose to get some of that good stuff into you. We know that different brewing methods need different grinds, and that all the alchemical elements of coffee beans start to dissipate as soon as they’re ground, so to get the best from the beans (and the best possible cup of coffee) grind them just before brewing. Think of it as part of the coffee-making process. 

Grinders are distinguished by:

- Consistency: The same size particle, every time 

- Granularity: Ranges from fine to coarse 

- Low temperature: Heat alters the flavor and character of coffee. Speed generates heat, so preference low-speed (hand-cranked) grinders or a motorized grinder with reduction gears 

- Low-noise operation: Because if it sounds like there’s a plane landing in your kitchen every time you grind, that just ain’t right

There are two types of grinders: a blade and a burr. 

A blade grinder looks and works like a propeller. It’s fine for all brewing methods, except espresso. Because its characteristic chopping action can lead to inconsistency (which makes it harder to achieve a smooth brew), the bump-and-grind is recommended when using these grinders: interspersing one-second bursts with little bumps to mix through any beans at the top. Repeat for anywhere from eight to twenty seconds—depending on the coarseness of the grind you want to achieve. 

A burr grinder crushes beans between two burrs (often disc-shaped) that are preset by you. They consistently deliver a precise particle size, and can be used for any coffee brewing method, from plunger to espresso. Most serious coffee drinkers swear by the burr. Recommended for medium to coarse grinds, the Hario Skerton Hand Grinder is cheap and portable. The hand-crank means it’s lowspeed (and doesn’t create heat), it has longlasting ceramic burrs, is completely quiet and has a no-slip rubber base 

TOOL UP

 

Automated Roasters 

There are basically two types of automated home roasters around: air roasters and drum roasters. If you want to generalize about flavor, air roasters tend to develop the brightness of a coffee, while drum roasters tend to develop the body. Some brewing methods, such as espresso, might be better suited to coffees with more body than brightness, but feel free to throw the rules out the window and play around. The roaster you choose will depend very much on your budget, space and what’s available where you are

Air 

Air roasters, such as Nesco and FreshRoast machines, work much like popcorn makers (see page 98 on how to repurpose an actual popcorn maker for coffee roasting), blowing hot air onto the beans to cook them. They’re generally quite small, can finish a roast in around ten minutes and are relatively cheap, with low-end models retailing for around $100 to $200. Air roasters tend to be more “set and forget,” so if you want to experiment with temperature adjustments these may not be your best option. Also, keep in mind that an air roaster can be affected by line voltage—if it’s sharing an electrical outlet with other appliances, it may lose power and slow down your roast. They might also roast slower, or faster, depending on the ambient temperature

Drum 

Drum roasters tend to be bigger, can roast larger batches of coffee, and allow for a lot more control than air roasters. Behmor, Hottop and Gene Café are some examples of home drum roasters, but there are a lot out there. They’re generally slower than air roasters, taking around fourteen to twenty minutes, which is a bit closer to the commercial beasts you’ll see at cafés and artisan roasters. This means you have more chances to adjust the temperature and roasting profile. Machines start at around a few hundred dollars and go right up to the thousands. Generally, the higher the price, the more control you’ll have. Drum roasters are also known to be more durable than air roasters

Manual (and DIY) roasting 

There are plenty of good home roasters around, but you don’t want to invest in a top-of-the-line roaster only to find out that you find roasting dull and frustrating. Luckily, hobby roasters have established all sorts of creative ways to roast their coffee without resorting to bulky or pricey roasting machines. You might want to try these methods out first to see if roasting does it for you. Manual roasting can take anywhere between ten and twenty minutes, and tends to result in a more full-bodied flavor, though you’re more likely to be left with an uneven roast, where some beans are darker than others

Oven 

This is perhaps the most accessible of all roasting methods: all you need is a flat, perforated pan—the kind you might use to bake pizza or bread—and a conventional oven with reasonably reliable temperatures. If you don’t have a perforated pan you can always just punch some small holes in a regular baking tray. It’s then just a matter of spreading the beans evenly on the tray and popping them in the oven to go through their six roasting stages.

Pan Roast 

This is old-school roasting. The beans are put into a light skillet, which is covered with a lid or some aluminum foil. Then the work starts: you have to shake the pan constantly without taking it off the heat, tossing the beans and listening out for the first and second cracks. Another option is to use a wok (or even a heavy cast-iron pot) and stir the beans constantly with a wooden spoon. You should use an oven thermometer to keep track of the temperature. These methods are harder than the oven method, but if you can master them you’ll most likely get better results. It’s also a good skill to have in case you’re ever stranded in the forest with just a fire, a skillet and some green coffee beans (with your only alternative an ancient can of instant)

Stovetop Coffee 

Roaster or Popcorn Maker You can get your hands on either of these for as little as $30 or less, and it makes for a much more even roast than the oven or skillet method. Just throw in the beans, put it on the stove and turn the handle as the beans roast. This is much like the wok or skillet method, except that the crank makes for an easier and more thorough stirring of the beans. If you use a thermometer to keep an eye on the heat (just drill a small hole in the top where you can place the thermometer) then you should be able to get a good result. These pots often have flip-up lids so you can peek in and judge the color of your beans. Plus, if you don’t like it as a coffee roaster, it still makes darn good popcorn

Hot-Air Popcorn Maker 

The old popcorn maker strikes again, this time in electric form: it’s basically an imitation air roaster. It takes the same amount of coffee beans as it would popcorn kernels, so you’re looking at very small batches. You should only use models where the hot air goes into the chamber through diagonal slots in the chamber wall. If the hot air comes from the bottom of the chamber then it’s a no-go. As with the stovetop version, if you’re a bit handy you can install a thermometer in your popcorn maker by drilling a hole in the top. The hot air even gets rid of a lot of the chaff, which should come floating out of the chute—though you will still need a colander for cooling. 

Heat Gun 

Also known as the “dog bowl” method, this involves aiming a heat gun at a metal bowl of coffee beans while stirring them with a wooden or metal spoon. A heat gun is essentially a hard-core hairdryer (but don’t use it on your hair, trust us), and is available for less than $100 at a hardware store. This process imitates a drum roast, and the heat of the gun can be adjusted at any time, giving you more control over the temperature. If you want to take this method a step further, you can actually use an old bread maker instead of a metal bowl, which spins the beans around for you: there are lots of online guides on how to do this, but be aware that this kind of repurposing can be a hazardous game, so always put safety first. 

How to Become a Genuine, Certified Roaster!

A GOOD ROASTING 

You don’t have to be a roaster to be a great barista, but knowing a bit about how your coffee is roasted can give you a new understanding of the power of the bean. You’ve probably been to a café where a huge coffee roaster is on display, churning away to its precise instructions (if you haven’t, you should—it’s pretty impressive). 

Like much of the coffee industry, this process was hidden for a long time but is now opening up to professionals and amateurs alike. Raw, green coffee beans, as you’ve probably figured out, aren’t much use (fad diets aside). 

They have to be roasted to make them consumable and to unlock all those delicious coffee flavors. As the roasting temperature increases, raw coffee is transformed (chemically and physiologically) and each tiny adjustment affects the final brew’s flavor. When it comes to specialty coffee, roasters meticulously control the process to tease out a spectrum of flavors— it’s about getting the most you can out of a bean.

Technically, you can become a specialty roaster by just roasting specialty coffee and selling it (a little like being a DJ—it’s impressive and all the cool kids are doing it, but there’s no certification process to go through before you can call yourself one). 

 There’s really no way to know a great roaster from a so-so roaster except by trying some of their coffee and seeing if you like it. That’s not to undermine those really talented roasters—it takes a great palate, a lot of practice, some bang-on intuition and a fair number of scorched batches of coffee to get the knack. 

The Roasters Guild, an official trade guild of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, has established a certification for roasters—both experienced and just starting out. Roasting is considered an art, rather than just an industrial process

The Roasting Process

It’s easier to monitor quality when you’re producing something in smaller batches, and small-scale “artisan” roasters are becoming more and more common, experimenting away in backyards and café storage rooms. 

Rob Forsyth, president of the Australian Specialty Coffee Association, has been in the business for around forty years and says he’s seen the number of cafés roasting their own beans—and offering them for retail sale—at least triple in the past five years, so there must be something in it. The roaster controls the transfer of heat to the beans by adjusting airflow, gas levels, drum speed, charge weight and the biggie, time. 

Each tiny adjustment can make a huge difference to the final flavor. Roasters use sight, sound and smell to judge how the coffee is coming along, watching it change color, listening out for the loud “cracks” (the sound the beans make as the heat causes them to release gases) and inhaling all that lovely (cough) coffee smoke

There are many ways to describe the roasting process, but it goes roughly along these lines: 

Drying: The beans steam, changing from green to a brownish yellow, and might start smelling a bit grassy, or like burlap or bread. 

First development: Beans start to give off that familiar coffee smell, turn light brown and begin to smoke. 

First crack: Beans make a loud crackling sound, the sign that the beans’ fibers are splitting and they’ve started to roast. 

Second development: From here, the beans start to expand and darken as they caramelize. Depending on taste, the roast can be stopped at any time after the first crack reaches its crescendo, and most single-origin roasts are best stopped between this stage and the first few rustles of the second crack. 

Second crack: The second crack is like a last warning, where timing becomes essential. It’s quieter than the first crack, more like the sound of crinkling paper. As the second crack gets louder and smoke fills the air, the beans become very dark. 

No! Stop! Too far!: The beans are burnt. Any coffee made from these will taste a bit like rubbery charcoal.

Pick a Bean, Any Bean

If you’re feeling a bit lost as to where to find your beans, the best place to start is at your favorite café. Ask for advice from your local barista or roaster: 

    they’ll have spent enough time with their beans to be able to give you a few hints, and might even supply you with some for tasting. You can also source your beans, whether roasted or green, from a variety of online stores. 

        Don’t Follow Price While specialty coffee is generally more expensive, and better quality, than commercial coffee, keep in mind that within the category of specialty coffee the pricier doesn’t always mean the better. 

        Island coffees, such as those from Jamaica and Hawaii, are generally more expensive, not because they taste better, but because production costs are higher and there are fewer of these beans available.

ask for advice from your local barista or roaster: they’ll have spent enough time with their beans to be able to give you a few hints

Know What You Want Specialty coffee tends to be sold either as an “espresso” or “filter” roast, so you should know how you’re going to brew your coffee before you pick the beans. Filter roasts are lighter and allow more complex flavors to shine through, perfect for the gentle process of filter brewing. 

Espresso roasts tend to be darker and richer, meaning flavors can survive the highpressure brewing process of an espresso machine. Remember, milk is not a friend of specialty single origins. It can drown out the more subtle flavors in a coffee, so for lattes and cappuccinos you’re better off with a robust blend, or at least a stronger, fuller single origin such as a Brazilian. Keep an Eye on Freshness When buying coffee, look for a roast date on the bag. 

There’s a lot of debate around when coffee is at its best, but the general consensus is that it needs to rest after roasting for anywhere between one and four days, that it reaches its flavor peak between five and ten days after roasting, and that it is okay for up to three weeks from the roast date. But as always, the only way to really know is to try—some coffees might peak earlier or later, so it’s more about the bean and the roast and the way you intend to brew it. 62 Buy Whole Beans Grinding your beans is like putting them into hyper flavor-release mode, which means they will peak and start to go stale extremely quickly— we’re talking a few hours. 

Within a day of grinding, the coffee will have lost much of its complexity; within a week you’ll have a pretty dull flavor. You’re most definitely better off buying a grinder and grinding as much coffee as you need for each cup. Still, if you really, really don’t want to bother with a grinder, just make sure you’re getting the freshest ground coffee possible. 

LOVE YOUR BEANS After going to such lengths to choose the right coffee beans, you really want to take care of them properly. Of course you can buy specialized coffee storage canisters, but it’s not essential, as long as the coffee is protected from air, heat and moisture. Buy only what you’ll use in one to two weeks and, ideally, store in an airtight glass or ceramic container in a dark and cool spot. 

Don’t keep coffee in the fridge or freezer, no matter what anyone says; the beans will absorb the moisture and smells of the fridge, ruining the flavor, and making your double ristretto taste just a bit like last Thursday’s pizza