Work-from-home coffee lovers don’t need any excuse to celebrate the delicious caffeinated beverage.
But since it is International Coffee Day, Starbucks has put together some tips for creating a professional brew at home.
Good coffee making is an art form, or more specifically a fine science. How hot the water is, how long you brew coffee grounds, and even the way you pour water all make a difference.
Master baristas train for years to hone their craft, so don’t get too disheartened if you don’t get the hang of it straight away.
Thankfully, with practice and the right tools, you’ll be creating delicious brews in no time.
If you end up with burnt-tasting coffee or settle for instant granules to keep it simple, here’s how to make a cup that could be straight out of the cafe.
Top tips for traditional coffee connoisseurs
First, when grinding your coffee at home, the Starbucks experts say it is all in balancing the proportion of water and coffee. The general rule is 10g of ground coffee for every 180 ml of water and using a traditional coffee press. The more you know.
Choose coarse ground coffee ‘that resembles sea salt’ for maximum flavour. Fill the press with hot water that is just off the boil, making sure to saturate all the grounds. Plunge after four minutes and enjoy within the next 20 minutes.
Short on time? This pour-over technique takes just two-three minutes to brew a single cup of filtered coffee.
- Using your normal kettle ‘lightly pre-moisten’ the paper filter with hot water to give the coffee its ‘purest flavour possible’.
- Next, measure out the coffee and start a process called ‘blooming’. Pour just enough near-boiling water into the filter to saturate all the grounds, and leave it alone for 10-30 seconds.
- Then pour the rest of the hot water into the cone in a ‘slow, circular motion’.
To make ‘drip coffee’ (coffee made by letting boiling water drip slowly through finely-ground coffee) using an at-home coffee machine, pay attention to the coffee grind. For example, if you have a flat-bottom filter, use a medium grind that resembles sea salt. Cone filters use a finer grind similar to granulated sugar.
The water you use makes all the difference
Did you know that coffee is 98 per cent water? It is, so filtered water is going to elevate your cup. Water heated just off the boil to 90-96ºC does the best job of extracting the coffee’s full flavour and aroma, according to Starbucks. Pouring boiling water straight onto coffee brewing in a cafeteria AKA french press will give it a bitter taste.
Tips for iced coffee lovers
For the hard-core iced coffee drinkers who enjoy cold beverages all year round, Starbucks has some pretty detailed tips for adding syrup to it.
If you like it sweet, this is for you.
For more general tips on iced coffee, head over to our piece where we explore the perfect chilled beverage.
We found that it worked best to make the coffee as normal (before adding the milk), then pop it in the fridge for about half an hour before adding the frothed milk, adding ice once it was already cool.
If you’re pressed for time, it’s ok to use ice to cool it.
For the sweet-toothed coffee lover
Starbucks is known for its array of syrups and additions, so to celebrate International Coffee Day they’ve provided us with their top tips for an expertly sweetened cuppa.
For the sweet tooth, honey, caramel sauce or chocolate or hazelnut syrup all work well with coffee.
- Start off by making sure the milk is frothy enough. If the froth is too thin, the syrup will sink through.
- Starbucks recommends using a squeezy bottle, or the pouring tip used for a salad dressing bottle to control the stream and direction of the sauce. Start off with less, so you can add more. As once it is in there, there’s no going back.
- Once you start pouring, keep the pouring tip close to the foam so that it doesn’t have a long way to fall. That makes it easier for it to stay on top of the froth.
- To get a lattice, move the tip into a gentle zig-zag pattern from one side to the other until you’ve covered the surface. Turn the cup 90º and repeat the zig-zag pattern.
- It’s important to add the syrup when the coffee is still warm, or it won’t dissolve properly. Then you can cool it down with ice or milk.
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