How to Brew Delicious Coffee at Home

There is nothing quite like coffee in the morning. But coffee at home can be tricky, especially if you are not a coffee expert. For those of us who want to create delicious coffee at home without breaking out into a sweat, we have compiled this list of tips and tricks for brewing coffee that will make your mornings better than ever!

The Coffee You Use

Do not go for the cheapest coffee on the shelf! Using poor-quality beans will result in a terrible home brew. 

1) Good advice for home brewers: freshness is very important! If you are getting pre-ground coffee that has been on the shelf from months before, do yourself a favour and get it freshly grounded. The flavour of coffee degrades rapidly after grinding, so if you grind your beans and then don't use them for weeks, the flavour will start to wane! Getting freshly ground coffee from your local cafe also supports the little guys and you should feel good about it.

2) Grinding your home-brewed coffee right before brewing is also important. Coffee loses its optimal freshness after about 10 minutes of exposure to air. One trick for home-brewers to do when using home coffee grinders is to pre-grind a whole bunch of beans and store them in an airtight jar ready for use and then only grind when you are preparing your home-brew. 

3) The roast you use will determine the taste of your coffee, it is important to know what kind of roast you like so you can buy the correct coffee beans. If you don't know what kind of roast you like it's time to start testing! Orrr we can give you an overview of what kind of tastes you can expect from different roasts. 

The Gear You Use

The type of coffee you are after will determine what kind of gear you should be using. For example if you are wanting a french press style coffee you should be using a french press for making your coffee! 

It is important to know that the expensive gear you see online doesn't always mean it will make better coffee than cheaper gear...We recommend reading the reviews of whatever product you are looking to purchase!

So how do you like you coffee? Below we have listed some types of coffee you may like and want to brew at home. 

1) French press

Use a medium fine grind and of course a french press

2) Pour over 

Use a medium coarse grind and a pour over dripper/filter

3) Latte

Use a medium fine grind, milk frother and an espresso shot

4) Flat white

Use a medium fine grind, milk frother and an espresso shot

5) Cappuccino 

Use a medium fine grind, milk frother, chocolate powder and an espresso shot

The Fundamentals For Great Coffee

Okay, lets not forget the fundamentals of making a great coffee! We can we get consumed by all the speciality coffee blogs/info out there and think we need the latest gear to brew the "best" tasting coffee at home.

This isn't necessarily the case, it's important to remember the fundamentals of what makes a coffee taste great and make your decisions on how you'll brew at home from there. 

The fundamentals of a great tasting coffee are, making sure you are making coffee with the kind of roast you like to drink and making sure the coffee beans you are using are roasted well (ie are not burnt or old) 

Ensuring the ratios of coffee to water are how you like it, again this is a personalised issue but getting the ratios correct will be the make of brake of how your coffee tastes.

Where are you brewing? Do you live in an extremely hot place? If so you'll probably want to be brewing cold brew or iced coffee. In contrast if you're brewing in the Swiss Alpines you'll probably want something a little more warming...

The different contexts in which you make coffee are important to think about too as the way the different styles of coffee is made is unique to each type of caffeine drink you make.