The secret to making really excellent, smooth coffee

Making good coffee depends on a number of factors. Nowadays drip coffee is enjoying a boom as people like the full-bodied, rich taste of coffee in which water is slowly poured over grounds and allowed to drip.

Its easy to make your own at home. All you need is a little plastic drip funnel and some filters. For a vessel I prefer just a glass jar like the kind that salsa comes in. Those are my favorite jars for beverages – tea, coffee, etc. They hold more volume than most tea or coffee cups do. They have nice thermal properties. They don’t tip over easily. And though they are basic I think they kind of look good, kind of that never-out-of style basic look. Anyhow that’s just my preference.

For heating water I use an electric kettle. Because this is America electric kettles are not that popular. In other countries they are commonplace and it would be odd to not find one in a kitchen.

For grounds there’s usually an abundant choice of coffee at stores. Especially where I live there seems to be quite a rich profusion of coffee types available at markets in a wide variety of bean types and roasts. My present favorite is called Ubuntu decaff although there are many, many others to choose from and enjoy.

For grinding the beans I use the “drip” setting although lately I’ve been dialing the setting on the machine to one notch over from drip into the “auto” section. Basically this is one notch coarser (not finer) of grind. This will change the flavor and intensity to be a little less rich and sharp.

This has been an ongoing issue with coffees I make. They tend to have sublime flavor, but they’ve generally been too rich and can be taxing on my stomach to drink.

I’ve tried variations in the routine, different grinds, bean types, etc. but never could get my coffee to be really as smooth as I wanted it. Until I found the secret!

Grind of the bean is important. But what I’ve found is essential to making really good, smooth coffee that will not tear up your stomach is: temperature. Temperature it seems is the secret to making really excellent, smooth coffee.

Using the water kettle, basically when the water reaches boiling point is when one would pour it over the grinds. But now I’ve modified this process. After the water has boiled I now add a little bit of room-temperature water to the kettle to bring the temp down a bit before pouring it over the grinds.

How much to add? This I guess is the art, unless you have a thermometer. Basically I add enough to bring the temperature down some but not too much. If its cooled down too much there won’t be much flavor. But if not enough is added it won’t really cool the water down. Just the right amount has to be added to take the water down from the boiling point.

The result will be coffee that has a nice, rich flavor but not overwhelming. It will taste great but also be more gentle on the body.